Pastor Terry Tatum We are in a series titled Big Words, where we hope to explain some of the difficult concepts that we often speak of in the church world, but not everyone understands. Two weeks ago Pastor Craig taught us about Prevenient Grace (the grace that precedes salvation), which led us to last week’s…
Pastor Terry Tatum Last week, Craig taught us about Prevenient Grace. I have heard it said before that “Prevenient grace is the first light of the soul,” and if accepted, it leads us to the brink of saving grace. Have you ever heard the term saving grace before? How about salvation, justification, or being saved?…
Pastor Craig Carter On most points we, as Methodists, have similar views to other denominations but, in some areas, we differ. I heard about a man who arrived at the gates of heaven and St. Peter asked, “What denomination?” “Methodist,” the man replied. “Go to Room 24, but be very quiet as you pass by…
Pastor Craig Carter Last week I introduced a new sermon series called “Big Words.” In it, we’re going to explore the language of our faith that helps us understand what we believe and enables us to live accordingly. In essence, this series is a course in basic Christian doctrine. As I mentioned last week, we’re…
Pastor Craig Carter I’ve discovered a lot of folks are reluctant to read their Bibles and dig deeply into what it means to be a Christian because of the “big words” associated with the faith that are hard to say and even harder to understand. I’m not talking about names and places like Nebuchadnezzar or…
On Sunday, September 12th we celebrated Comeback Sunday. If you weren’t with us in person or online, I encourage you to watch the service here. I think you’ll agree that we have quite a comeback story to tell. I wish I had kept a journal over the past three years because I think I could…
Pastor Craig Carter In the weeks leading up to our Comeback Sunday celebration on September 12 we’ve been exploring how we can complete our comeback as a congregation. The idea for this series of messages took shape this spring as I was looking ahead at our schedule. We had our Back to School Bash for…
Pastor Craig Carter Whenever a setback occurs, a normal response is a desire to return to the way things were. The baseball pitcher who suffers an arm injury just wants to return to the mound. A business that faces financial ruin longs to get back to operating in the black again. Do you remember how…
Pastor Craig Carter By definition, for a comeback to occur, some adverse circumstances must be experienced. It may be an athlete that suffers a career-threatening injury, a business that faces financial ruin, or a church like ours that loses its facilities in a Cat-5 hurricane. In each instance, a setback occurs that prevents the person…
Pastor Craig Carter Everyone loves a comeback story, don’t they? I was recently watching the Baseball All Star Game Homerun Derby and found myself rooting for Trey Mancini, even though I know little about him and am not a fan of the team he plays for – the Baltimore Orioles. But I do know a…