New Series – “Timeless Values for a Chaotic World”

New Series – "Timeless Values for a Chaotic World"
by
May 05, 2025

Our youth did an incredible job leading worship on Sunday. We are very proud of our graduating seniors and we wish them well as they prepare to head off to college and into their next chapter. Woodmont has helped shape, mold, and nurture them over the years and we are proud of all they have accomplished.

We have had a very strong response to our stewardship campaign. To date, we have received 451 pledges totaling $4,191,412. We are now in the follow-up phase but have not yet reached our participation goal. If you have not made a commitment, it is still not too late to do that at woodmontchristian.org/pledge. We are beginning to set our operating budget for the coming year. Thank you for your ongoing generosity and for continuing to support the mission and ministries of Woodmont.

This Sunday is Mother’s Day. We will honor and celebrate all of our mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers at each of the services. I will begin a new sermon series titled “Timeless Values for a Chaotic World” that will also coincide with the release of my new book, What the World Needs Now. That happens on Tuesday, May 13, at 6:00 p.m.

What would you say that our world needs right now? What troubles you the most? What frustrates you? What are you doing in your own life to provide the solution? These are very important questions to ask.

The struggles of our culture are well documented – anger, fear, division, political polarization, rapid secularization, anxiety, incivility, lack of meaning, loneliness, lack of kindness, addiction, depression. We all know the challenges. How does our Christian faith equip us to provide the answers? Harvard psychiatrist Armand Nicholi Jr. once wrote an article titled “Hope in a Secular Age.” He says: “The cause of despondency in many today is an awareness of a gap between what they think they ought to be and what they feel that they are. There is a discrepancy between an ideal they hold for themselves and an acute awareness of how far short they fall from the ideal.” I think Nicholi is correct. Many are not happy with their lives and remain restless and dissatisfied. Bad things do happen. Major setbacks occur. Pain and stress are real. We find distance in relationships, distractions at work, and many feel lost and unfulfilled. What seems to be lacking is the peace that passes understanding that comes from God through Christ. What the world needs now are peacemakers, those who build goodwill and friendship. What the world needs now is hope to counterbalance the negativity, fear, and cynicism. What the world needs now is more humility and less selfishness, more compassion and less narcissism, more grace and less judgment.

In the coming weeks, we will talk about important themes like faith, family, friendship, kindness, peace, compassion, empathy, love, joy, and resilience. We will explore some of Jesus’ timeless parables where he lifts up many of these themes. The challenge for all of us is to go and be the change we want to see in the world. Embody the hope that many are seeking. Spread love and joy into the dark places. Show mercy and compassion. Seek truth. Shine light. Hopefully this new series will remind us of what is most important and how we can do that day in and day out.

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