I want to thank everybody who has made a commitment to support Woodmont for another church year. It’s still not too late to do that. Click here to make your pledge online. This Sunday, we will begin a new sermon series based on Ephesians titled “Family Dynamics: Navigating Life’s Important Relationships.” In this series, we will talk about love, marriage, parenting, values, boundaries, in-laws, drama, resentment, and how our faith should impact family life. When it comes to living with emotional and spiritual vitality, men and women face unique challenges. For example,......

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This Sunday, April 25, is Commitment Sunday. We are asking for our members to make a financial commitment to support the mission and ministries of the church for another year. These commitments are simply “estimates of giving” for our next church year (July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2022). We set the operating budget based on the results of this campaign. The Bible talks about the tithe, or 10% of what we earn should be given back to God. Not everybody has achieved that but it’s a worthy goal for all Christians.......

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Many Christians and spiritual seekers severely underestimate the importance of mindset and the key role it plays in the spiritual life.  Mindset and attitude are always a choice.  Victor Frankl clearly argued that although we may not choose our circumstances, we can always choose how to respond. Moving beyond Easter, I see three different mindsets from which we can now choose.  The first is what I call the “Good Friday Mindset.”  With this approach, we are always afraid, always disappointed, disillusioned, and never satisfied.  Nothing is ever good enough.  Life is unfair......

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I hope everybody had a wonderful Easter. It was certainly a special day at Woodmont with services held both inside and outside. I enjoyed getting to see many faces for the first time in quite a while. This Sunday, April 11th, we look forward to baptizing 25 members of our Disciples Class who have made their confessions of faith and are now joining the church. Some of them will be baptized at 9:15 and the others at 10:45 service. Please keep these young people and their families in your prayers as they......

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I hope you will plan to join us during Holy Week and for one of our FOUR services on Easter Sunday. Two are outside (7 am Sunrise & 9:30 Bridge) and two are inside the sanctuary with overflow in the Chapel (9:15 & 11:00). We continue to observe CDC safety protocols. Palm Sunday begins the greatest week of the year for Christians – Holy Week. Jesus’ decision to enter Jerusalem riding on a donkey fulfilled Zechariah’s prophecy and was an emphatic statement of who he was – the messiah. But his kingdom......

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Life is difficult and full of storms. To be human is to experience the existential reality of this statement. On Sunday, I said that over the past year, we have been living in a perfect storm with multiple waves. The first wave was the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the lives it has claimed, the fear it has brought, and the drastic way it has altered our routines. Second, we experienced the wave of heightened racial tension following the unnecessary death of George Floyd which led to protests, riots, anger, and significant......

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During Lent, we are journeying through the Gospel of Mark in a sermon series called “The Life of Jesus.” Mark is the oldest gospel, written by John Mark around 65-70 CE. Scholars believe that Matthew and Luke receive much of their material from Mark. Mark is basing his gospel account on the teachings and perspective of the Apostle Peter. Since Peter was always with Jesus, many think this gospel is the closest thing we have to an eyewitness account of the life and ministry of Jesus. Mark has a strong emphasis on......

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Rev. Michael Curry serves as the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and recently published a timely book called “Love Is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times.” We are certainly living in troubled times. Curry rose to fame in 2018 when he was asked to preside over the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in London at Westminster Abbey. Billions watched from around the world. On that day, Curry discovered that his core message resonated across the globe, in every nation, with all people. Curry says, “Beyond......

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I teach a class at Vanderbilt on faith, politics, and rapid polarization in American culture and how the digital age has now ushered in unprecedented anger, incivility, and a crisis of truth. The research in this field is grounded in moral psychology and the basic foundations of liberal, conservative, and moderate ideologies. NYU professor Jonathan Haidt is a prominent figure whose work is highly respected. In his book The Happiness Hypothesis he says: “My research confirms the common perception that liberals are experts in thinking about issues of victimization, equality, autonomy, and......

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