Dear Friends,
Loud music, canoeing, volleyball & foursquare, swimming, boys & girls flirting, fun memories, lives changed forever. I’m glad to say, youth camp hasn’t changed much over the years. Paul and I were honored to be the evening preachers last week at the United Methodist Warren Willis Camp. [...]

Dear Friends,
On Sunday, we will be celebrating two occasions that remind us of sacrifice: Holy Communion and the Fourth of July. Indeed, this will be the theme of the next parable we read from Luke, The Good Samaritan. During the summertime, we’re usually just thinking of having fun, relaxing, beating [...]

Hello All!
Last week, I travelled to Lakeland for our Annual Conference of Florida United Methodist churches), and also take a day to visit Disney with the boys. This is why there was no E-Devo in your inbox…in case you wondered. Coming back tired, I worked late on a sermon [...]

Dear CRUMC family and friends,
As I shared on Sunday, one of our neighboring churches, Branches UMC (formerly Florida City UMC) suffered complete loss to their facility on Saturday night. I’ve included below some excerpts from notes of those close to the situation. I trust you will pray, [...]

Greetings,
I hope you enjoyed this recent series on “Christians in the City” as much as I have. Thanks for your positive feedback after this week’s message about the workplace. We talked about being a witness in 3 ways: our integrity (sincerity whether people are looking or not), our purpose [...]

Dear Friends,
Sunday mornings we sing to God, learn from scripture…folks are warm and kind. You receive hugs and caring questions like “How are you doing? How’s your family?” Or comments like, “We missed you,” or “Thanks for your help.” We pray for each other like we did for all [...]

Dear Friends,
“So, what is ‘young’?” a worshipper asked Sunday after my sermon on reaching the next generation. Great question! While there’s a lot to be said about being “young at heart,” I was primarily talking about those under the age of 30. In case you missed it, I [...]

Hello!
What a wonderful time we had on Children’s Sunday this last week! It was great to have families and staff from the preschool to join us. Thanks to the volunteers and parents for making it special. Our theme was Creation Care for Earth Day, but as one [...]

Dear Friends,
Has the city seemed different to you this week? No, I don’t think the city has changed much, but maybe your perspective is becoming different. I hope God is cultivating a deeper passion in you for the welfare of our city. On Sunday, we talked about having a sincere affinity for the people [...]

Greetings!
So, last night I stopped by Starbucks. No, not for a coffee or some quiet time out of the house (but either of those reasons will usually get me there.) I went to Starbucks to participate in the Tuesday night Bible study held by our church there. The store had [...]