church
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monday gratitude.
20. my kids played for 2 hours with their friends after CC this afternoon 21. John is ordained and was officially installed as associate pastor yesterday 22. my in-laws are now members of our church! 23. seeing healing and joy on the face of a friend who was broken and despairing a year ago 24. money to buy groceries 25. the relief of dinners planned out for the week 26. a meeting with a group of women I love in a home I love tonight 27. Bleak House tv series 28. ideas for positive ways to discipline from Boundaries With Kids 29. the comfort of having my husband home after…
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day 13: church noise.
photo source I want to talk about one more layer of noise that keeps us from a life of purposeful simplicity, and it’s church noise. Christians have come to live lives that look very similar to that of everyone else, caught up in this vortex of busyness: we work, we go to school or home school, we do extra-curricular activities, we do outreach, we go to church events. We go, go, go and do, do do, our lives are filled-to-bursting with all this racing around. We’re so scared of missing out on something that we say “yes” to everything. We put our kids in all kinds of activities so they’ll…
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one year old.
This weekend Columbia Presbyterian Church turns one year old. David and I have a joke that there’s going to be a big age gap between our kids because the church plant is our third child. It sounds like a stretch, but there are many aspects of planting a church that are similar to carrying and giving birth to a human child. Trying. After South Asia, some friends approached us and asked us to consider planting a church in Columbia with them. This idea became a dream in our hearts. It felt so vulnerable at first, almost like we didn’t want to get our hopes up or tell too many people.…
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low country boil and life groups.
Our friend from Life group, Weston, hosted a low country boil at his house in Chapin yesterday. The weather was perfect — warm and breezy — and the food and drinks delicious. I haven’t tried boiled peanuts since high school, and wasn’t impressed back then, but yesterday I couldn’t stop eating them. Judah’s response when he cracked one open, “There’s something wrong with these peanuts!!!” The main way we foster community and discipleship at CPC is through small groups, which we call Life groups. We have six Life groups meeting right now, and it’s been very much a learning process for the church as we’ve figured out leadership and curriculum…
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our church.
In December our friend Lucas Brown of Kickstand Studio came and took photos of a worship service for the Columbia Pres website. We love they way they turned out and I’m excited to give you a glimpse into a Sunday morning at our church . . .
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01.25.14.
Regular, leisurely phone meetings with my PCA church planting wife mentor have made all the difference.
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01.16.14.
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01.04.14.
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christmas eve.
Last night Columbia Presbyterian Church hosted a Christmas Eve service with two other churches in town. The whole evening felt like a blessing, and here’s why. David and John and Jonathan and Kenny worked hard all month to plan the service. David spent his Christmas Eve at Tapp’s, sweeping and scrubbing and restocking bathrooms after a big party the night before. Justin and Beth showed up early to run sound. Jonathan set up chairs and made coffee and screwed light bulbs and took care of the logistical details. Chris led worship. My Dad and Mom and Sarah and I organized the nursery and played with a roomful of infant-to-two-year-olds. The blessing…
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whole hog weekend.
This may sound funny but it’s been one of my husband’s dreams to roast a pig. He’s been talking about it for at least a year — tried to plan it a couple times, but it never quiet came together. You need a whole bunch of people to eat a whole hog. You also need either a large hole in the ground or a pig cooker. And a good long Saturday to cook the thing and then shred it. So it’s kind of a big event. But now we have a church. We have a whole bunch of people. We planned our first communion service for this Sunday and what…