Pastor's Corner

Today is my first official Father’s Day. I say official because my first Father’s Day was last year. The shortly before Father’s Day, Megan and I found out we would be blessed with a baby. We have prayed for a very long time to be blessed with a child and our prayers were answered with the positive pregnancy test. As I write this post today, Megan is currently rocking our son to sleep while we both are wearing noise cancelling headphones. The four-month sleep regression is not for the weak. For the parents who would read this, I am sure you understand that raising an infant is both rewarding and difficult. Our son is only four months old and we have years to go, but we have learned and grown greatly. There will still be the toddler phase, the energetic child, the rebellious teen, and the independent adult. There were sleepless nights and I know there will be even more when he is grown. My parents have said they had many sleepless nights with me and my sisters after we had grown and mov...

One of my absolute favorite aspects of study are Bible Translations. I have preached from several translations during my tenure as a pastor and I certainly have a preference. When I first began to preach, I preached out of the NASB95 (New American Standard Bible 1995). This is still my preferred translation for a deep Bible Study and for most things. I enjoy the word-for-word (also called formal equivalence) aspect of the translation. Before I continue, most Bible translations can be placed in one of two categories. Formal Equivalence, which are word-for-word from the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. The second is Dynamic Equivalence, which is more thought-for-thought. The methodology can help you understand what is best for you, but for now that is the main difference between these two styles of Bible translation. I prefer the NASB95 but that is not the only translation I read. If you get anything out of this post, I pray it is comfort knowing that there is no “perfect” translat...

Welcome reader to the Pastor’s Corner! The intent of this blog is for me to speak to all of you and share some of the books I have been reading, theological concepts I have been studying, or just talk. For this inaugural blog post of the Pastor’s Corner, I wanted to share my own testimony. My walk with Christ has been a shaky one. From an early age, I have felt close to the idea of a “god”, but it was not until Jr. High that I was first introduced to Jesus by my uncle. He described to me the gift of salvation and it was not a concept I understood at the time. He did encourage me to read the Bible and I began reading Scripture as I would any other book, from the beginning. When I counsel new or younger believers, I recommend them to start in the Gospels, primarily in Luke. I do this because of my own experience and the confusion I had early on. I did not understand that the Old Testament focused heavily on the Jews, so I thought I had to perform the sacrifices mentioned in the Pentateu...