Archives For Family

We had a great morning at Shippensburg First Wesleyan. I delivered a message entitled, “Christian Wish List” and focused on 5 gifts we should be asking God to bless us with – not just around the Christmas Season, but at all times.

The text was from Paul’s letter to the church at Colosae: Colossians 1:3-14.

In my Sunday School class this morning, our DVD study discussed Jehovah’s Witnesses and we had some interesting dialog surrounding their beliefs and previous interactions some of us have had with them. I created a booklet-style handout for everyone in the class from some of the materials I had. I’m including that here in PDF format for anyone who may be interested.

After church we enjoyed a restful afternoon and then began decorating for Christmas early this evening here at home. We got our pre-lit tree in the beginning-stages of “together” before we realized it was a lost cause and had to put our 6-year-old tree out for the trash. A quick-run to Wal-Mart with Ella netted us a brand-new and better-looking tree that will hopefully last us at LEAST another 6-years if we take good care of it.

Our yearly tradition of recording our decorating process and family prayer via timelapse video was carried on again this year and it will be available here soon!

Today was our 18th Sunday at Shippensburg First Wesleyan! I don’t know why the number 18 is significant, but I was excited to celebrate 18 today!

I preached a sermon entitled “Life Rhythm” this morning based on God’s design for us to live in rhythm and command for us to take Sabbath.

I am learning again and again how quickly I can over work and overwhelm myself with busy-work, but that in order to be a healthy Christian, husband, father and pastor, I need to remember to take time for recovery just as Jesus practiced and taught!

The last thing my family or this church needs is a burned-out Stevan! The lesson is for all of us and we as Christians need to live lives of rhythm: not always on or always off!

I’m heading into a very busy week and will need to deliberately make time for rhythm this week. On Wednesday I’m leading the Bible Study at my dad’s church, Jess and I have pastoral-training on Thursday all day and on Friday I’m speaking at a youth rally in Hyde, PA. I’m looking forward to the heavy schedule and travel-miles, but need to make time to accomplish a list of other things AND stay refreshed and renewed for the sake of myself, family and church!

Had a wonderful, unique service this morning at Shippensburg First Wesleyan. Friends of ours, Scott Troyer and Katie Nelson were here and led us in a worship concert this morning. Their testimonies and singing/playing made today much more than a performance, but rather a worship-experience.

I am grateful for their friendship and their willingness to lead and play with their whole-hearts.

It was also a special surprise this morning as people were walking into the sanctuary to see familiar faces from out-of-state! Upon my double or triple-take I realized it was my Uncle David and Aunt Bea from Washington, DC! We enjoyed lunch with them in Chambersburg before they hit the road back home to DC.

After lunch we ventured back to King’s Gap State Park to show Scott & Katie some of our beautiful surroundings!

Some great pictures from this afternoon:



While I was in Indianapolis for FUEL 2010, one of my ministry-peers and friend – Heath Mullikin asked me for an interview about my first couple of months of ministry. He, too, had recently (within the last couple of months) transitioned from full-time youth ministry to leading his first church. The conversation was terrific and we captured it on ‘digital’ film.

Heath is also featuring this interview on his website: chaseyourlion.com

PART 1

PART 2:

Interesting…according to the screenshots of both of these video clips, I must use my hands when I communicate. Can anyone verify or deny my over-use of hand-signals while communicating?

Yesterday I started a new series, “The Real Church”. It was a challenging message to prepare and deliver, but seemed to be well-received. It is a series that I believe will begin to lay out what I think is God’s vision for First Wesleyan Church and where we being led by His Spirit.

It was a special treat to have my sister in law visiting from Indiana over the weekend and she was able to put together a special song to sing with Jess AND Ella for Sunday morning! It was a very special moment for our family!