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Brad's Blog |
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| Author: | Brad Miller | Created: | 10/30/2007 2:51 AM |  | | From the Desk of Brad Miller |
| Laughter: The Best Medicine | |
Mid-Week Missive | By Brad Miller on9/29/2010 2:45 PM | |
| Greetings on this lovely day,
Something really important hit me today: Lately, I just don’t laugh enough. Here’s how I figured this out:
I had to go over to the Child Development Center this morning to talk to one of the teachers. Valischka also serves as one of our nursery/child care workers on Sunday mornings and for special events. I was just going over to check in about some upcoming dates. I stopped in at the office and Mary Mallard told me that Valischka was with her kids on the playground so I headed that way. As I stepped into the hall, another teacher had just lined up a class of 3 year olds to go to the playground, so I just got at the end of their line and waited for them to head out. After a minute or so, the kids started turning around and finally one of them asked, “What are you doing?” I replied that I was in line to go play on the playground. You would have thought I had just uttered the funniest line in the history of comedy. They just a ... |  | |
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| | Worshiping Together | |
Mid-Week Missive | By Brad Miller on9/22/2010 1:56 PM | |
| Greetings on this steamy day,
One of the challenges of worship planning and preaching is making sure that the worship and the sermon is relevant and vital to those in attendance. Does it help prepare the worshippers for the next part of their faith walk? Does it illuminate God’s presence and bring comfort? Does it challenge the worshippers to step out in faith and be witnesses for Jesus Christ? These are all the kinds of questions that must be dealt with when worship is being planned. And it’s all the more important that those questions are asked within the rubrics of long lived and long loved traditional service. The reason it’s even more important in that instance is that when a formula works, the tendency is to simply repeat that formula, and sometimes, the whole service will suddenly seem, well, formulaic.
In order to keep that from happening, many different techniques are used. One is to follow the “Common Lectionary”, an agreed upon system of rotat ... | | |
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| | Sunday September 19, 2010 "Learning to be Forgiven" Psalm 51:1-12 | |
Brad's Sermons | By Brad Miller on9/22/2010 1:52 PM | |
| The story we just heard told, it’s pretty much an awful story, isn’t it? There is hardly anything in it that makes us feel good. Hardly anything. Most of it conjures up images of unchecked privilege, power run amok, selfishness of the highest order. In other words, a story of someone who is human.
If we doubted that the great King David was human, this story should change our mind. The stories we sometimes hang onto are the stories of valor and courage, while this is quite simply a story of depravity and sin, on so many levels.
What we don’t know about this story is probably as important as what we do know.
First, why was David at home in Jerusalem while his army was out fighting in the field? There is some reason to believe that David wanted to be with his men, but his generals thought it to risky for the King to be at the front lines. But battle was David’s strength. He understood war. He understood what it took to fight and ther ... | | |
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| | Sunday September 12, 2010 "Learning to be Merciful" 2 Samuel 9:1-13 | |
Brad's Sermons | By Brad Miller on9/13/2010 1:44 PM | |
| We live in a cynical world.
And I for one, am tired of it.
I’m tired of it because I don’t think it needs to be that way. I’m tired of it because it makes us look for motives behind the motives. I’m tired of it because our cynicism does not lead us to the light, but to the shadows of doubt and fear.
Let me start with the first reason I don’t like it. I don’t think it needs to be that way.
When we talk about cynicism today, it almost always has to do with politics. Just this past week I had a long discussion with a friend about her deep distrust of all things political, especially politicians. “It hasn’t always been that way,” I said, but my friend was having none of it. Politicians are not to be trusted, she said. Political promises are nothing but lies, she said. Politicians who say they want to help are only looking for votes, she said.
Try as I might, I could not convince her that I ha ... | | |
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| | Simple Things | |
Mid-Week Missive | By Brad Miller on9/8/2010 1:07 PM | |
| Greetings!
This past Sunday evening about 9:00, Carol and I had been out to dinner and were walking through Centennial Olympic Park. As we passed the fountain, loudspeakers in the area announced that in a few minutes, a synchronized music and water show would begin. Kids scrambled out of the fountain and headed off to their parents and sat on the benches and walls waiting for the show to begin. We also found a place to sit. For the next 15 minutes, the music played – from classical to old time rock n’ roll – and the fountains danced and sprayed in time and intensity to the music.
As I looked around the area, I saw families with kids of all ages, staring intently at the fountain and the movement of the water. As I looked at the faces of the people gathered I saw nothing but smiles. It was not a big thing, maybe not even something they knew was going to take place. But, it was something a little out of the ordinary, something pleasant, something that brightene ... | | |
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| | Sunday September 5, 2010 "Learning to be Worthy" Psalm 37 | |
Brad's Sermons | By Brad Miller on9/8/2010 1:02 PM | |
| It was a big day in my life. It was the day that I turned in my notice at the university. The day I went public with my plans to leave the security of tenure, of a department chairmanship, of a full professorship. And why was I doing all this? Because I was responding to a call to go to seminary in order to enter full time ministry.
But something funny happened that day: when it finally came time to act, I began to have doubts. Protocol said that I turned in my resignation letter to the provost, the chief academic officer of the university. He accepted the letter, he said, with sadness, but with an understanding of my response to a “higher call.” By the time I got back to my office, the President of the University was there to meet me, having heard the news from the provost. In our conversation, the phrase came up again as he said at least he was glad that I was leaving for a “higher calling.”
By the time the day was over, I had heard that phrase a dozen ... | | |
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| | Moving Forward | |
Mid-Week Missive | By Brad Miller on9/2/2010 11:45 AM | |
| Greetings on this beautiful morning,
The last couple of months have been exciting times at BCC, and the excitement continues into the Fall. In July the Executive Team and Elders, along with Rev. Jennifer and I, spent time in “cluster” meetings of the church seeking to gather information and feedback about where we are and where we need to be going. It is an exercise that should take place every few years, if only to make sure we are on track to be what God would have us be here at the corner of Peachtree and Lanier. There are other good reasons, too. This congregation has changed in the last few years: young marrieds are now starting families, young families are now seeing their kids off to college, empty nesters have become retirees, and that doesn’t even take into account the many new members that have joined us. In short, this was the time to take stock.
For those of you who participated in those meetings, I know you share my excitement at the enthusiasm a ... | | |
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| | God's Love Never Quits | |
Mid-Week Missive | By Brad Miller on8/26/2010 8:27 AM | |
| Greetings!
This week started with an afternoon of celebration with the International Christian Church as they installed their new pastor, Sokhom L. Chau. Any day I get to spend with my Cambodian friends is a good day, but this day was up near the top. With Sokhom’s installation, the church has taken another great step forward on their faith journey. New members have joined; their property looks better than ever; and the smiles on their faces tell the whole story: they are reveling in the blessings of God. But more than that, they are working hard to share those blessings with as many people as possible.
After the worship service, Phan Rhattanak and Phaly Huy sat with Charles Kinney and me and talked about what BCC had done for them. They talked of being inspired by the stewardship letter that went out a few years ago declaring, “Are We Crazy?” Phan said it made the folks of the ICC sit up and say, “Hey, we are crazy too!” Because of that letter, he said, ... | | |
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| | Sunday August 22, 2010 "Must We Suffer?" Romans 8:12-24 | |
Brad's Sermons | By Brad Miller on8/25/2010 8:11 AM | |
| Suffering is all around us. Each of us know what it means to suffer. Each of us has witnessed the pain of loved ones dealing with disease or heartbreak or misfortune. And each of us has probably wondered: must we suffer?
In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul addressed the issue of suffering, at least in passing.
As we hear the scripture, let’s put ourselves in the position of the congregation in Rome. We have gathered to worship and are told that there is a letter to be shared, a letter from a missionary in the field. The letter is from Paul, a missionary known to us, even if we have never met him.
Close your eyes and listen to Paul’s words. Remember, if you were in the church in Rome, you would most likely hear once and once only, so listen carefully. I have asked XXX to read part of Paul’s letter to us.
So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for ... | | |
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| | Planning Ahead | |
Mid-Week Missive | By Brad Miller on8/19/2010 9:54 AM | |
| Greetings!
As we move steadily toward Fall, activities in the church start to gear up. On September 12th, we will begin our “Super Sunday” program that will run for 6 Sunday evenings. On September 24th and 25th, the Garden Club will hold their Fall “Yard Sale” (which is highlighted by some very nice furniture donated to the club specifically for this sale). On October 10th the pumpkins will arrive…and on and on.
To kick off the Fall, beginning this Sunday, August 22nd, we are undertaking a new endeavor for Adult Christian Education. Each week, in addition to the “Lectionary Class” and the Senior Adult Class, we will offer a “Special Topics” class in the newly renovated classroom (in the old church office – ask on Sunday and someone will get you there!). The classes will all meet from 9:45 to 10:30 and are designed to address one of the streams of thought that came from our recent cluster meetings. That is, a desire for spiritual development through increas ... | | |
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