Here at Grace, and in many other local congregations, these words are uttered often by those on stage. Who controls those mics? That’s where myself and a few others in our congregation come in. We are the AV Crew officially but I’d like to give you a look into what the “Sound Guys” do and what serving in this role has taught me.I started serving on the sound team in 2013 as a young 15-year-old boy...  Read More

In most modern translations of the Bible there is some sort of note after Mark 16:8 which explains that the verses coming after v.8 were not part of the earliest manuscripts used to preserve the God-inspired words of the original authors of the New Testament (a similar passage like this is also found in John 7:53-8:11). So, what is going on with these kinds of passages and should they be a concern...  Read More

I have always struggled with guilt in my life. Either with my parents as a kid, with friends I have possibly offended, or with my heavenly Father. The guilt would keep me from confronting the root of my sin and seeing the forgiveness I had with my Father through Christ.It became a “back and forth” relationship with Christ. I would avoid him until I finally became desperate enough to crawl back. Th...  Read More

If we wanted a nickname for Mark’s gospel, we might call it “The Hurried Gospel.” One of Mark’s favorite words, which he uses over 30 different times, is the word “immediately.” Throughout story after story, conversation after conversation, teaching after teaching, Jesus and everybody around him is always doing whatever the next thing is “immediately.” Clearly Mark has written his gospel this way,...  Read More

According to early documents, Mark received the source material for his gospel firsthand from Peter. In fact, many scholars believe it is possible to pick up on certain phrases throughout Mark’s work that seem to indicate colloquial, personalized reminiscences. In other words, Mark writes them down specifically in the way he heard Peter reminiscing about them. Three of these occur in the first cha...  Read More

Recently, Pastor Ben preached a sermon about community from the book of Jeremiah. God told Jeremiah to tell the children of Israel, who were physical exiles in Babylon, to put down roots. “Build houses, plant gardens . . .” in other words, live life…you are going to be here for a while. That place was their temporary new normal. This was not what they wanted to hear, but it was where they were.Thi...  Read More