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God’s Surprises

Allow me to play the provocateur, to scribble outside the lines, to upset (or at least bump) the apple cart. I was recently challenged to think again about what preaching and worship are for. My tendency has been to slide into a view of worship and preaching as things...

All Things Bright and Beautiful

“All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all.” – Cecil Frances Alexander Like many families these days, our crew enjoys sharing pictures and videos via a phone app called GroupMe. Many times...

The Psalms and ChatGPT

This week I was thinking about the various messages of the Psalms. They were first written and shared so long ago and yet they seem to be timeless. These ancient writings can still be relevant and strike us as so contemporary! As they lead us to consider the creation,...

Songs In The Key of Life

The Psalms are the songs that accompany the people of God on their journey through history. –B. W. Anderson For the better part of the past 3000 years, the book of Psalms has nurtured the faith, worship, and prayers of Jewish and Christian believers. While most of...

Fresh Perspective

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” Lamentations 3:22-24 I was reminded recently of how...

It’s Your Turn

Amazing things, these modern gadgets. Take, for instance, the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) enabled apps that come preloaded on most smartphones. You enter your destination address by voice or on the touch-screen, then simply follow the on-screen images and...

A Compass to Steer By

“… from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” —2 Timothy 3:15 What is the Bible good for? Judging by the last few centuries, the Bible seems to be good for proving one’s point in...

You Gotta Serve Somebody

“Failure to worship consigns us to a life of spasms and jerks, at the mercy of every advertisement, every seduction, every siren… If there is no center, there is no circumference. People who do not worship are swept into a vast restlessness, epidemic in the...

Sabbatical Plans

In 2004, the Conejo elders adopted a sabbatical policy for our ministers which understands the need to replenish ministry capacity and to refill the wells of inspiration and creativity through renewal. During this Sunday’s worship, we’ll be praying for Travis Moore...

Fig Leaves

“Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.” —Zora Neale Hurston You may recall that in the grand story of Scripture, a number of people tried to hide from God, to put distance between themselves and God, to obscure their sins from God, and to deny their...