“Your kingdom come, your will be done. On Earth, as it is in heaven.” You know these words. You are familiar with these words. If you grew up in the church, you learned them…in fact, you were probably required to memorize them. And if you’ve been to worship at Trinity more than once, you may have noticed that here, … More Mind the Gap
One of my favorite TV shows when I was growing up was “The Twilight Zone.” Remember that show? I loved all the stories. But there was this one episode that I’ll always remember. This episode was set in the future. It centers on a man, who was sentenced to a year of punishment for committing a crime. … More Seeing What Can’t Be Seen
One of the books on my sabbatical reading list is “Not In It to Win it” by Andy Stanley. Stanley is the pastor of NorthPoint Church in Atlanta Georgia, a large mega-church with multiple campuses around the southeastern United States. Stanley is an author and hosts “The Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast.” I am planning on … More “Not In It To Win It”
Miss Lucille was a woman who lived in what was basically a plywood shack, in the small community of Morehead City, North Carolina. The youth group I was leading was there as volunteers with Habitat for Humanity, to work on her new home. Living with Miss Lucille was her daughter, who was herself a single … More #ForOwatonna Part III: Treasure
We are just one week away from the 2nd anniversary of the tornado that came through Owatonna, September 20th, 2018. Remember that one? For a couple of days, the power was out through most of the town, including here at church. We had to shout our way through the Saturday night worship service, and the … More Today We Start With Why
A sermon by Pastor Cindy, Deacon Kris, Pastor Todd and Pastor Amanda (in abstentia) In his book, UnChristian, researcher David Kinnaman studied the attitudes and perspectives of those who choose not to participate in a church, or a faith community. These are not necessarily people who don’t believe in God, or don’t have faith, but … More We are #ForOwatonna
Simon Sinek, in his book Start With Why, argues that organizations that are successful and grow do so because they know, understand and live their “why.” (It’s a fantastic book, by the way. You can watch him doing an overview of the book on his TEDx talk on YouTube here) Trinity is preparing to launch … More We are Starting with Why
The CAT survey (Congregational Assessment Tool) that Trinity undertook in late winter/early spring reports on the health and vitality of the congregation. As I’ve reported in my first blog post on the subject, as well as the second, I think we can feel pretty good about how our congregation is doing and the trajectory that … More CAT Results Part 3: Direction
Test Driving Theology 