Skip to main content

Staff Trax

Gathered to See

A couple of months ago, Jill and I were out to dinner with our kids and grandkids. It was a weeknight and we were at a local bar and grill. The restaurant is very family friendly and one which our grand kids love because it has all kinds of activities do while you are there. Oversized games like “Connect the Dots” can keep them busy while the adults chat and relax. On this particular…

Strangers On The Road

Prior to Easter, Kari, Maren, and I joined my sister and her family to take our annual trip together. We started doing these trips about six years ago to spend quality time together with my sisters family and explore the USA and beyond. This year we headed to Vegas and then drove through the Mojave desert picking up Route 66 to Los Angeles. We then headed up the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco…

​Holy Week – not just for grown ups

We have something at Salem that is fairly unique in a church setting. In case you haven’t noticed, kids are not only involved in Sunday school and youth group, but they are an integral part of our worship services. On any given Sunday, kids are greeting, ushering, running screens, helping in the nursery and leading worship. Holy Week was a good example: kids of all ages paraded into the…

Life Renewed, Gathered to Love

I often try to imagine what it must have been like to witness that first Easter morning at the tomb. When I was in Jerusalem a couple of years ago and we sat in the area that many believe was the place of the tomb, I imagined what it might have been like to be sitting out of sight but watching what happened. Imagine it’s dark and the sun is just about to rise. You can see that red glow…

What Does Love Look Like?

Maundy Thursday is a day we come together to hear God tell us to do two things; remember and remember. In our story from Exodus, God was ready to free his people and he commanded them to prepare a feast to celebrate their freedom and then to do this every year, so that they would remember. Every time they had this feast they were to remember that it is God who offers them true freedom. To…

Do Not Be Afraid!

These past couple of weeks have been very difficult for me emotionally. As most of you know, I have a sister who was diagnosed with breast cancer 15 months ago (after being cancer-free for more than five years), and then just as she was finishing her treatments and recovering from surgery, two months ago, my mother was diagnosed with liver cancer. Just two weeks ago, my mother had 45% of…

The Other Side

Here we are, the final week of Lent. In the church we call this Holy Week and it begins today with Palm Sunday. What an odd day, though! We began our time of worship with a celebration, but then the story quickly changes to one of betrayal, pain, grief and sorrow as we read the story of Jesus final days before his crucifixion. Many look at this day and week and think of it as a depressing…

New Relationships

Dear Salem Family,

This past week, I had the pleasure of working with some friends that are a part of the Islamic community of Johnson County. We had 4 friends visit Salem last Sunday and they talked with us about the similarities between Christianity and Islam. 24 members of Salem joined together in conversation with the Islamic community. We listened to our friends talk about the…

New Life in God's Time

Well, here we are, the month of April has begun and we have only two weeks left in the season of Lent. As I have shared with you before, April is a month filled with mixed emotions for me. It is the month of my birthday. It's the month that I first asked my wife out 41 years ago. It is the month that my son and daughter-in-law were married 10 years ago. It is the month that my grandfather…

​After The Stone Is Rolled Away

38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the…

  • First
  • <<
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • >>
  • Last