Tristan Oren and I serve as the new Co-Interim Team as of November 1st.As Senior Pastor of the Team, I come to you with 48 years of full time ministry experience.My wife, LaVonne, and I make our home in Bargersville, Indiana.Our son, Kris, is married to Tammy and their daughter is Shelby.Our daughter, Yvette, is married to Ronn Oren and have three…
Pastor’s Remarks
Dear Flora First Christian Church, The word of the Lord spoken to the Prophet Isaiah keeps popping in my mind. mind.“My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.” (Isaiah 55.8). Being from Angus, Texas I had zero thoughts of ever being in Flora, Indiana. Truly His ways are not our ways. So as Christians we hold on to…
Dear Flora First Christian Church, Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I praise God for each of you. You are living up to your reputation of being a great body of believers. It is good to be here. I appreciate serving the Lordwith you. Of course, the search for a new pastor is on everyone’s mind. Please,…
To the Believers in Jesus Christ in Flora, Indiana, Almost 49 years ago, while in college at Texas Christian University, I had a job working on a bridge-building crew. That particular bridge was part of the I-20 connection between Dallas and Ft. Worth Texas. That experience taught me many lessons that became useful in my career as a minister. Lesson number one:…
Honest moment: I don’t want to write this article any more than most of you want to read it. I love you all. Knowing that following God is breaking your hearts (and mine) is absolutely one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do. You all are amazing. You love without reservation. You give your all to the Lord.…
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! We are heading back to the sanctuary! On May 10, 2020, we will be returning to the sanctuary for worship. What a treat for Mother’s Day! BUT we will be following some strict guidelines as we do. Below you will find the guidelines for returning to worship. For everyone’s safety, we ask everyone to follow the…
Well. How things have changed. I hope you all are doing well. I miss you! Over the past few weeks, our lives have changed drastically. In an instant – without warning – we suddenly were told to stay at home. We lost physical contact with others. We stopped going to school. We started limiting trips to the grocery and we stopped casual…
A few weeks ago, we studied the Parable of the Lost Sheep (Matthew 18:10-14). We learned that the reality of shepherding was that the sheep would wander off and get lost leading the shepherd to go looking for the ones who were missing. In other words, the result was the shepherd would have to leave the flock – the proverbial 99 –…
We had a visitor stop by the church office while we were working on the newsletter. While there, she made a comment that between the weather and all the gloomy news going around, it has been a tough time. And those of us in the office agreed with her.It seems that as of late, we have had bad news after bad news.…
Christmas 2019 is behind us. The decorations in the sanctuary are slowly coming down. Things will be “back to normal” within a few days. And the thought of Baby Jesus will be long gone. It’s time to look ahead and plan for upcoming events and services. The preschool will be back in full swing soon. And the snowbirds have all gone south.…