Volume 3 Issue 3

This has been an unusually short weekend for me. I normally work four ten-hour days each week, having Friday through Sunday off. Last week, however, I was training Monday through Friday for a new area of responsibility to which I’m being assigned. Add to this the joyful reunion of our family for Mary’s birthday yesterday, and I think I’ve come up with reasons enough to be a little late getting this edition out. Nonetheless, here it is…
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My current sermon is a continuation of my exploration of “hope.” I invite you to post to the Bulletin Board those things that make you feel hopeful. Such sharing among our readership will prove, I think, very meaningful in these times when the sources of genuine hope often seem to be obscured by current events.
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I am honored that you have chosen to spend some of your time here. I pray that during your stay you may find something that inspires you, something that proves to be meaningful to you, and something that will serve to connect you with the Peace that surpasses all understanding.
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Until next week…….Shalom!

Volume 3 Issue 2

“When I asked students to read what is actually on the page, most see what they have been taught to see. The story of Adam and Eve is the story of original sin. The snake is Satan, the apple is disobedience, and Eve is the seductress. If I send them back to locate sin, Satan and the apple in the Bible, some are genuinely astonished to find that the words are not there. Whether they know it or not, they are on the edge of a great decision. They are either going to hang on to their interpretations and make the text fit them, or else they are going to let the text lead them to expand their interpretations.” --Barbara Brown Taylor
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GiC GREEN REPORT: Following Dad’s example, we bought a 2003 Toyota Prius hybrid a year ago. The proximity to Earth Day was a genuine coincidence, but as that observance again draws near (April 22) I’m both pleased and proud to report the following: We last filled with gas (Las Vegas prices are among the highest in the nation – probably because of that outside chance of hitting the jackpot when you insert your credit card :-) on April 11 at which time we had driven 8,395 total miles. 209.9 gallons of fuel have been purchased for $368.00 (if my calculator is correct that comes out to an average of $1.75 per gallon). Bottom line: we’ve averaged 39.99 miles per gallon of gasoline this past year, and better yet have polluted the environment less with ultra-low emissions that are certifiably the lowest in the industry. Even though it’s a silly question one is still led to ask, “What would Jesus drive?”
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Just about this time every year Mary catches up with me in age. She’s going to do it again on April 24 (Harry S. Truman was President the year she was born :-) and you are invited to send your greetings to her at: Maryteach5@aol.com
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Some time last week the three-thousandth visit was made to this Growing in Christ website. That’s a humbling figure when compared to national averages, but I’m still encouraged that anyone at all even bothers. Thank you. You will find new postings on the Bulletin Board, and you are always welcome to post your own contributions. It is my prayer that your time spent here will in some way strengthen your relationship with God.
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Until next week…….Shalom!

Volume 3 Issue 1

The hour is late, and the most important day in Christendom is already following the dawn around the globe. Growing in Christ is both literally and figuratively a work in progress and on this Easter 2004 it enters the third year of experimenting with a cyber approach to theological formation and development. The 2,985 visits to the site bespeak of its limited appeal, but the quest continues for a meaningful way to involve interested souls in a meaningful dialogue about faith, spirituality and religion. Your comments and suggestions are always welcome.
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Having estranged myself from the institutionalized church and organized religion, I will experience Easter by taking my Gospel of Thomas into Red Rock Canyon to ponder the Truth contained therein in solitude and quiet. No theatrics. No sensationalism. Just the words of Jesus transmitted across language, culture and time as accurately as they can be. If there be Truth in those words, which I truly believe there is, I plan to encounter the resurrected Christ through them just as surely as did those early witnesses who heard them firsthand.
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There are new “first memories” posted on the Bulletin Board as well as a powerful essay by Joe Klein. I continue to hope that some of the meaningful thoughts that are shared with me personally will find their way onto the Bulletin Board. There is little question but what we are living in a time when the open and honest exchange of moral, spiritual and theological ideas and values is no longer an academic exercise but the very foundation upon which any semblance of a future as we know it will be built.
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Until next week…….Shalom!