I have written before about how I enjoy the time between seasons more than the actual seasons themselves. There is a mixture of both relief and anticipation in these ‘tweener’ times. Relief, for example, that winter is over and anticipation of the spring and summer ahead. A mixture...
Last Sunday, Palm Sunday, we concluded another session of our “learning to live the Jesus life” course which we call Core. Core is a month-long experience in the intensive practice of several spiritual disciplines. As is our practice, during that last session, we took some time to...
The last couple of weeks have brought significant gains and losses for our church family. We are excited to welcome David Smith and his wife, Ruth, into our community as our Worship Pastor. We will be ‘installing’ David in his new role this coming Sunday. I hope you can be with us to...
I hope most of you have heard by now that David Smith has enthusiastically accepted the position of Pastor of Worship and Global Partners at GPBC. David and Ruth will arrive in Portland late in the day on Sunday, March 6th, and will be with us in church the next Sunday. We are excited to...
The search for new pastoral staff is an arduous process for the search team, the elders, and the applicants. Most applicants don’t survive the process either because we see that they are not a fit for our church or they see that we are not a fit for them. I’m happy to report that one...
You are receiving this newsletter on Christmas Day. So, Merry Christmas! Here are two things that are more important for you to do today other than reading this blog. Do both of them if you can. Engage in a meaningful conversation with one or more of the family members or friends that you...
We are in the Advent season now, officially looking forward to Christmas. However I still find myself looking backward at my recent trip to visit our church’s families in Spain and the Middle East. I am very grateful to John Brunton and our Global Partners team along with a great team of...
As I mentioned in our worship time last Sunday, six of us from Greater Portland Bible Church will be leaving over the next week to visit and serve with Dan and Eva Anderson in Madrid Spain. This traveling team includes Ken and Judy Pinkerton, Sheila Michaelson, Tom Luther, Phil Muir, and myself...
What is prayer? When should we pray? Where should we pray? How should we pray? How you answer those questions depends of course, on what you believe about God and what you believe about his attitude toward us. Those of us who claim to be followers of Jesus and who know even a little bit of the...
Today, September 11, has been designated by the U.S. Congress as “Patriot Day.” When it was first established in October 2001, it was called the “National Day of Prayer and Remembrance for the Victims of the Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001.” It was to be a...