What to Give – Catherine Stark-Corn

Lara Schopp 2020 Advent Devotions

This Advent season is like no other. Many of us have altered how we will celebrate Christmas. In our household there have been some discussion about how to handle gifts – our boys are at the age where experiences were more the standard gift than a thing. It has us …

Candles for Christmas – Mike Graves

Lara Schopp 2020 Advent Devotions

On three Monday nights in November, a bunch of us gathered online for a course called “Saints of Our Time.” The word saints conjures up halos in artwork and names like Saint Augustine or Saint Teresa, heroic people who achieved great things in the name of serving God and community. …

Finding Our Way – Carla Aday

Lara Schopp 2020 Advent Devotions

I had been to my Granny’s little house in the country (Frost, Texas to be exact)  hundreds of times but almost every time, I rode in the back seat of my parents’ sedan.  Now I was in my own car, driving home from college and it was my assignment to …

Staff Transitions, May 8, 2020

Lara Schopp Stay Informed

Reverend Corey Meyer has tendered his resignation effective June 30, 2020. Rev. Meyer was serving a three year position scheduled to conclude in December of 2020 but decided that this was a good time to make this professional transition. He writes: There is deep gratitude in my heart for the …

Love Was Born – Carla Aday

Lara Schopp 2019 Advent Devotions

Luke 2:15-20 “When the angels had left them . . . . . “ Sometimes in our romanticizing of Christmas we assume that we should be on a spiritual high throughout the month.  But we grow more and more tired and weary as the sacred day approaches.  We assume that …

Glory – Mike Graves

Lara Schopp 2019 Advent Devotions

Luke 2:8-12 It never fails when we take a group to Israel, we spot shepherds watching their sheep. Not by night, as Luke tells it, because we’re always in bed early, exhausted by the day’s activities. But every group we’ve taken has seen them. Usually it’s Bedouins, nomadic people of …

Angels – Lara Schopp

Lara Schopp 2019 Advent Devotions

Luke 2:13-14 At first, one of the baby angels hid behind her mother. Her older sisters were laughing and admiring one another’s wings, but this particular angel was nervous, brow furrowed; skeptical. A new angel family arrived, bringing more commotion and excitement, dancing and singing; waving of golden star wands …

Signs of Hope – Joe Walker

Lara Schopp 2019 Advent Devotions

John 3:16-19 True story: The other day I was driving down the street and there was a guy on the corner with a hand-lettered sign, “Jesus Loves You John 3:16.” As I drove past him, I realized there was a second guy standing about the middle of the block with …

Wilderness – Tyler Heston

Lara Schopp 2019 Advent Devotions

Mark 1:1-3 Did you know the traditional Christmas story is only found in two of the four Gospels in the New Testament? The elements that make up the common nativity scene come from Matthew and Luke; Mark and John cut to the chase and begin with Jesus’ ministry. However, Mark’s …

Time – Corey Meyer

Lara Schopp 2019 Advent Devotions

Romans 13:11-14 You know what time it is! Right now, as I write, my phone, watch, laptop, and clock on the office phone are displaying the time. At this very moment in Kansas City it is 2:13 p.m. At least, that is what the scientists, astronomers, and engineers of technology …