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Mid-Week Missive |
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| Author: | Brad Miller | Created: | 10/30/2007 2:52 AM |  | | What is happening at BCC? |
| Slow Dance | |
| By Brad Miller on10/29/2008 1:28 PM | |
| Greetings on this beautiful fall day,
When I was a kid, I remember my mother saying, “the hurrieder I go, the behinder I get”. It seemed kind of silly to me, but, now I definitely know what she meant. We live in a world where everything is now, now, now, more, more, more…yet the more we work, the harder we try, we do not find peace, just frayed nerves and less time with our families and friends. And when we find ourselves caught in that trap of immersing ourselves more and more in work and acquisition, we too often find ourselves losing the foundation that sustains us: our faith, our families. We can get so distracted that we forget about what is really important. I’ve done it, and I bet you have, too.
This week, Chuck Daunch forwarded me an e-mail from a friend of his who is battling cancer, yet seeking ways to honor God through his struggle by sharing the light of hope that his relationship with God offers h ... |  | |
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| | Downtime | |
| By Brad Miller on10/22/2008 11:25 AM | |
| Greetings on this beautiful fall day,
If you are like me, you need to get away. Oh, I’m not talking about leaving town, or finding some deserted island beach, although, that does sound nice. No, I’m talking about getting away from all the noise of the news…the election, the economy, the endless drumbeat of somber pronouncements concerning so many things: health, crime, natural disasters. And while I truly believe that the news media in this country do us a great service in helping to keep us informed, there are times when I just need to get away from it all. And so, this week, I have tried to do just that. As a wise friend counseled, “Just turn it off, man!”
When I am alone in the car, I usually have the radio on. I try to find music and no talking, but that is almost impossible. So, this week, no radio, no i-pod plugged into my car stereo, no nuthin’. And you know what, it seems to work. I read the newspaper in the morning, but try to put aside the edit ... | | |
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| | Hope | |
| By Brad Miller on10/16/2008 8:28 AM | |
| Greetings on the GORGEOUS day!
It is weeks like this past week that really bring some things into focus for me. It helps me to keep the important things in perspective. It helps me to remember what is truly most important. And it helps me to realize just how important this thing we call church really is.
I don’t need to tell you what a roller coaster the last week has been. When the Dow Jones Industrials closed in such low territory last Friday, the fear was palpable. It wasn’t helped by the fact that every newscast, news update and talk show over the weekend told us what bad shape our retirement funds were in! I even heard one of the announcers on the baseball game on Sunday night talk about it. C’mon, ya knuckleheads, I watching this to escape from the real world! There was very little evidence of a precious commodity that we all were craving: hope. When I realized that Monday was a federal holiday I thought, “Well, at least the stock market will be clo ... | | |
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| | Staying the Course | |
| By Brad Miller on10/9/2008 9:20 AM | |
| Greetings on this gloomy fall morning,
It is easy to feel as gloomy as the skies these days…if we let ourselves. It is easy to let fear and worry overtake our lives…if we give in to it. But that is not who we are: we are the church, and we face things with the hopeful promise of brighter days. Now, this does not mean we can act foolishly or extravagantly in our personal lives, or as the church, especially when it comes to our finances. We must be realistic about who we are, and what God has put in front of us to accomplish. We discern that through prayer and discussion, looking at where we have been, assessing where we are, planning for where we want to go. We do it with our feet firmly on the ground, and our eyes on what God has called us to be. Not always an easy combination, but something that is very important, nonetheless.
All this is important as we sit around our kitchen tables and look at our home finances, and it is important as we sit around our ... | | |
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| | Hope | |
| By Brad Miller on9/24/2008 4:36 PM | |
| Greetings on this beautiful fall day!
Several of you have asked me when I was going to write about baseball again. Well, maybe not several of you. And maybe it wasn’t, “When are you going to write about baseball again?” But just a few people interested in how the Detroit Tigers are doing.
Okay, okay, I confess: it wasn’t several, and it wasn’t even “a few”. one person made a comment about how much they admired my loyalty to such a disappointing team. Or something like that. I know there was something in there about the Tigers being horrible. And me being disappointed.
Well, I am disappointed. And I’m sick of it.
I’m tired of getting my hopes up so high because Sports Illustrated and the Sporting News and ESPN and every clown with a teleprompter in front of them picked the Tigers to win the World Series this year. But where are they now? Are they fighting for a championship? Are they resting up, getting r ... | | |
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| | Do Not Fear | |
| By Brad Miller on9/17/2008 1:19 PM | |
| Greetings on this dreary morning,
As I look out my window at the grey, overcast sky, it strikes me that this morning’s weather is a good reflection of the somber mood that many people find themselves in this week. It has been an unprecedented week of financial upheaval in the United States, with major financial institutions declaring bankruptcies, offering themselves for sale at bargain basement prices, and seeking government help to weather the crisis. Economists hold their breath over the potential worldwide impact of such moves, and the government seeks to act in the best interest of the American economy as well as the world economy. A word that I have heard a lot in the last few days is “fear.”
It’s been used in many contexts: fear of the individual share holder of the effected companies; fear of loss of jobs by the employees of those companies; fear of the economists that we may be on the brink of the dreaded “r” word – recession – or worse; fear of the “p ... | | |
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| | Remembering | |
| By Brad Miller on9/15/2008 9:06 AM | |
| Greetings!
So, yesterday wasn’t such a great day…so what? Things didn’t go as I planned…big deal! The air conditioner quit working in the office…it’ll get fixed! Besides, as Scarlett O’Hara reminded us… “tomorrow is another day!” As trite as that line sounds these days, she was right. It is now tomorrow, and while I had planned on writing about my bad day and finding a life lesson in there somewhere…why bother? It’s over, today the sun is shining, the air conditioning man is at work on the problem and life is good. As God promises, new beginnings abound, and every day is a new beginning.
I have been thinking about a day 7 years ago that seemed like it would never end. A day that seemed like the sky had fallen in on. A day that felt like the earth had stopped turning. A day that I was sure would not get better. But, once again, I was wrong.
The day did end. The sky did not fall. The earth did not stop turning. And things did get ... | | |
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| | Because... | |
| By Brad Miller on8/27/2008 2:34 PM | |
| Greetings on this drizzly day,
This past Sunday the sermon was about baptism and it’s meaning in our individual lives and the life of the church. I looked at where our founders came down on the issue of baptism – believers baptism vs. infant baptism; sprinkling verses immersion; symbol vs. reality – and where the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) stand today. It is an important topic, and it can be a challenging topic. Many of us who were not raised in the Disciple tradition sometimes feel a tug between how we were raised, and what our church practices today. Many of us who were raised in the Disciples tradition can remember a time where what we accept today was not necessarily what was acceptable years ago. But all of us are here now, and it’s important that we share our experiences and our beliefs on the subject. Many of you have shared your experiences and your beliefs with me, and so I’d like to share my experience.
I am one of the “pious unimmersed ... | | |
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| | Singin' Like We Mean It! | |
| By Brad Miller on8/21/2008 11:54 AM | |
| Greetings on this wonderful day!
If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought we were going to a worship service. It was after all, Sunday night, and a time when lots of people go to church. There were plenty of people making their way from the parking lot to their seats. When we got inside, I noticed that the back of the pavilion was almost full, but people in the front were coming in a bit more slowly. There seemed to be lots of breaking of the bread and sharing of the cup going on, so it was almost like communion. And to top it all off, besides Carol and me, there were three members of BCC present that we knew about: An elder, a deacon and the chair of the board! They had much better seats than we did, but they spotted us and came up to say hello. Hugs and handshakes went all around and it was just like the “Community Greeting” time before our worship. Yep, if I didn’t know better, I would have thought we were about to worship.
But, of course, it ... | | |
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| | What A Gift! | |
| By Brad Miller on8/13/2008 2:19 PM | |
| Greetings on this gray day,
Last week we had a great “Promotion Sunday” gathering in the fellowship hall during the Sunday School hour. It was a wonderful time of fellowship, a chance to celebrate the importance of our Christian Education ministry at BCC, and an opportunity to let our kids know how much they mean to us. Under the leadership of our Director of Christian Education, Debbie Kinney, our Christian Education ministry has become one of our signature ministries. When you get a chance, give Debbie and the whole CE team a word of thanks.
At the Promotion gathering, we played a Bible Trivia game that resulted in 16 backpacks being loaded with school supplies. (Don’t ask me to explain how this worked, just trust that it did!) We had a great time displaying our Bible knowledge and doing something good for someone else. You see, these backpacks were being filled with supplies and then donated to the clients of the Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Servi ... | | |
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