We have now turned the page on 2017 and what a year it has been! The New Year is an ideal time to reflect and to look ahead. What will we remember from last year? Trump’s Inauguration? The women’s march on Washington? Travel bans debated in the courts? Debates over the Dreamers? Political uprisings in Europe? The aggression of North Korea? The suicide bombing at a concert in Manchester? The removal of confederate monuments? The Charlottesville incident? The firing of James Comey? The ongoing FBI investigation? The surging stock market? The Las......

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As we begin the transition from Thanksgiving to the Christmas Season and all of the hustle and bustle that the holidays bring, it occurs to me that there are two basic ways to approach life (and shades of each). The first is the way of fear and it could be called an “ontologically disappointed life.” With this approach, life is a burden, people always let you down, nothing is ever good enough, and life is unfair. This approach is grounded in cynicism, negativity, pessimism, and disappointment. Fear becomes the dominating emotion and......

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At the end of December, Thom Schuyler will be retiring from his position here at Woodmont and moving to Jekyll Island, GA. It will be very hard to imagine Woodmont Christian Church without Thom around. He has been a leader in this congregation for many years, first as a lay leader and then as a dedicated member of our staff team. Thom was born and raised in Bethlehem, PA. He developed an affinity for music at a young age and clearly had a gift for writing songs. He says it was Old......

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I spent the majority of last week back in Princeton for a conference on polarization and the role the church should play. It was led by a guy named Allen Hilton, a Yale Ph.D. and a former New Testament professor at Yale. He has now formed an organization called “House United” with the sole purpose of bridging the theological and ideological divides within Christianity to honor Jesus’ final prayer in John 17 that “all would be one so that the world might believe.” The conference was fascinating and I will be sharing......

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On Sunday, we focused on spiritual growth and formation and we talked about “Five Basic Spiritual Moves” that all of us should try to make. First, from fear to love. Second, from sorrow to joy. Third, from turmoil to peace. Fourth, from coldness to kindness. And fifth, from resentment to gratitude. Nouwen describes spiritual formation this way: “Spiritual formation prepares us for a life in which we move away from our fears, compulsions, resentments, and sorrows, to serve with joy and courage in the world, even when this leads us to places......

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It’s happened again, only worse than the last time. Last Sunday night, 22,000 people were enjoying the final night of a country music festival on the Vegas strip excited to hear Jason Aldean when they became open targets for a sick, deranged man shooting from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay resort and casino. These were sons and daughters, husbands and wives, children and grandchildren, good people living their lives. Now many of those lives are over with their families grieving and picking up the broken pieces. Fifty-nine are dead, over......

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Recently, I sat around the table with about twenty seasoned men from our church who meet every Monday. Most of them are now retired and in their seventies or eighties. I was interested in picking their brains about life and what they have learned and experienced throughout the years. I am convinced that many in the younger generations do not take the time to soak up wisdom from those who now have the advantage of reflecting back upon their life. They have fought the battles, learned the lessons, and have the scars......

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