Pastor Craig Carter Today marks the beginning of Advent – the four Sundays leading up to Christmas. Our English word, Advent, comes from the Latin word meaning “coming.” So this is a time of the year in which we remember when God, through His Son Jesus, came into the world as a baby in a…
In our current sermon series we have explored the language of our faith that communicates what we believe as Christians. Today’s post will discuss one final big word, glorification, which is the end result of all the other words. We’ve quoted the founder of our denomination, John Wesley, a good bit during this series. For…
Pastor Craig Carter Throughout our current sermon series, we’ve pointed out that, as Methodists, most of our theological views are similar to other denominations, but in some areas we differ. Pastor Terry ended his recent message on ecclesiology by discussing how we, in the church, hold to one baptism. But he pointed out that as…
Pastor Craig Carter Earlier in our current series we identified a term that is somewhat distinctive to us as Methodists – prevenient grace. Today we’re going to explore another term that has traditionally caused our denomination to stand out from the crowd – sanctification. Whether we’re Methodists by upbringing or by choice, we hold tightly…
In our current sermon series, we’re looking at some Big Words that aren’t necessarily part of our common vocabulary and so they are sometimes difficult to understand. But these “big words” are the language of our faith that communicate what we believe as Christians. They form the doctrine, or teaching, of the Church. Throughout the…
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…