Come to his marvellous light: A Sermon For the Feast of the Epiphany

Having an Epiphany about Epiphany at Epiphany on Epiphany.

When Greg Lynn and I started meeting together to figure out how to start a church community in Peoria we inevitably started talking about names.

Should we pick something traditional, something that sounds old? Or something that sounds new, something that reaches out and grabs today's people?

And what do we want to say about ourselves, about this community that does not yet exist? What would we want to say about the kind of people we are?

Article Link: Mission: It Just Takes One Simple Question

I am an Anglican Christian within a group called the ACNA, the Anglican Church of North America. Anglicans divide themselves up (much like Roman Catholic Christians) into geographic regions known as dioceses. A diocese is headed by (or presided over by) a bishop, the elder of the region, the pastor to the pastors, shepherd to the shepherds. My congregation, Epiphany Anglican Mission (where I lead the music and teach from time to time), is part of the Diocese of Quincy, which consists of churches in central Illinois west of the Illinois river going up to the northwest part of the state where the quad cities is. In recent years the structure of Anglicanism has been changing, with some churches joining a diocese through affiliation rather than geography. This means that our diocese also has churches in Colorado, Florida, Texas, Wisconsin, and the Chicago area. Oh, and I should add I'm in the midst discerning my call to ordained ministry; it's a bit of a slow process at the moment.

Recently, my pastor, Rev. Canon Gregg Lynn, asked me and some other pastors and leaders within the diocese to write some articles for the website. I wrote about the local church's call to mission in its community and one simple way we can start being missionally minded as a people. To be honest, I'm not naturally a very missional or evangelistic or charismatic person. I kind of like to keep to myself. But over the years of working together Greg has really built some principles into me and those in our community, so that it just becomes a natural part of the way we think and act.

You can view my article here:
Mission: It Just Takes One Simple Question

And you can view the other articles on ministry, focusing on youth ministry, prayer, and being Kingdom Minded, here:
The Diocese of Quincy: Voices  
____________________________________
Related Articles:
Discerning My Call to Ministry: A Task List
Slowing Church Down in a McDonald's Culture: A Review of Slow Church
I've Been Thinking of Getting Into Politics: N.T. Wright's Understanding of the Kingdom of God
Why I Cringe Every Time I Hear Someone Say "I Hate Christian Music"

Supporting Local Artists (and a new song from me)

This Friday I will be playing some music at The Art Garage, a local art studio that also allows kids (and adults!) the opportunity to explore their artistic sides and give them some lessons at the same time. The Art Garage is owned by artist Jessica Ball and she was gracious enough to allow the people of my church to put on an art show as part of the monthly Peoria First Friday event organized by Ciao (the Central Illinois Artists' Organization). You can see our event page here. We'd love to have you stop by on Friday night. The great thing about the First Friday event is there are a ton of great local restaurants nearby (like Broken Tree which makes some killer pizza and has some great artisan sodas and beers on hand) and a number of the participating studios have snacks and refreshments on hand as well. In other words, make it a date night!