Active Faith

We’re Gonna Need A Bigger Box

Stephan Tchividjian
10 Jan 2019
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box

Box of Mystery Years ago, when our children were younger, we used to schedule “mystery family vacations.” The idea was a brilliant one, I might add. The concept was simple. Lisa and I would devise a fun family vacation but keep it a secret. We would simply share with our children the date of departure, the date of return and provide them a packing list, inserted with a few decoys to throw them off. The first year our children complained that we were terrible parents trying our best to ruin their lives, (jury is still out on that one) but […]

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Church United: Fourth Year of Collaboration

Edwin Copeland
3 Jan 2019
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As a new year begins, the Church United story enters into year four of our mission to unite churches of our region for the purpose of seeing God’s kingdom descend upon South Florida. For the last three years pastors and ministry leaders have been connecting and collaborating together in their common desire to share faith, give hope and extend love. If 2018 taught us anything, it proved that we really are stronger together. As one local pastor put it at last year’s Love South Florida night of worship and celebration, “Church United is moving deeper into our hearts.” Looking towards […]

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Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

Dr. Tommy Boland
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mirror

“Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it — he will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:23-25). A kind of mirror The great Protestant reformer, John Calvin, who contributed so much to our present-day understanding of Scripture, undoubtedly had James […]

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A Christmas Post: Mary’s Message

Rob Hoskins
19 Dec 2018
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I love thinking about the Christmas story from Mary’s vantage point. Everyone remembers being a teenager… you’re figuring out your gifts and beginning to envision the future. Imagine teenage Mary and her prospects for the future as a poor, obscure Jew. Suddenly, she is visited by an angel and endowed with a mandate like no other in history! “In the Sixth Month God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her […]

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mary

The Reason for the Season

Dr. Tommy Boland
3 Dec 2018
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reason

It’s that most wonderful time of the year again! Throughout December it is likely you will see or hear the phrase, “The Reason for the Season.” There is only one true reason, of course, and His name is Jesus Christ. And that reason does not spring from an uninformed, blind leap of faith. To those who sneer that believing in the Babe in the manger is like believing in Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, you can calmly and kindly reply that the birth of Christ is an historical event that is beyond contestation, which took place just over 2000 years ago […]

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10 Biblical Truths Gen Z Needs Right Now

Rob Hoskins
5 Nov 2018
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It is sad to hear that we have lost a great hero of the faith in Eugene Peterson. [The beloved Presbyterian minister authored more than 30 books and devotionals, including “The Message,” a paraphrase of the Bible that sold more than 16 million copies worldwide.] We will miss him for now, but will still look to the words he left behind. As the next generation attempts to navigate a loud, chaotic, and increasingly post-truth world, where culture is both pervasive and persuasive, we’d do well to point them in the direction of timeless truth for wise counsel from a respected […]

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gen z

Communication – The Thermometer of Your Marriage

Lisa May
2 Nov 2018
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communication

Fall in South Florida is challenging for those of us who long for the splendor of the leaves while dreaming of a crackling fire and meaningful conversations. The temperature and humidity are often smothering, so we lower the degree on our AC and light a candle to set the mood. Our health is often measured by our body temperature. When it rises above 97.8 we begin to exhibit symptoms associated with an illness, go to a physician and often begin some type of medication to treat the symptoms and the disease. When it drops below 97.8 we begin to exhibit […]

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Congregations Invited to Love South Florida

Edwin Copeland
1 Nov 2018
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Every November, we encourage local congregations who participate in Church United to pray, give + serve together in benefit of their communities. LoveSFL is an outward, annual expression of an inward reality. It personifies what unity for the sake of mission is all about. However, it’s also just the beginning. LoveSFL is meant to be catalytic. Now in our third year, Love South Florida has seen great success. Last year, together we raised $337,000, collected over 100,000 pounds of food and logged over 40,000 volunteer hours! But what if we’re only just getting started? Owning the pain of South Florida is an essential and inescapable […]

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congregations

Bragging Rights

Elizabeth Mitchell
17 Oct 2018
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‘“Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.’ For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends” (2 Corinthians 10:17-18). They ooze out like sticky syrup, splotching conversation unnecessarily. Boastful words. Braggadocios challenges. Arrogant assumptions. Pride raises its puffed head and portrays pretentious imagery. Everyone discovers its nonsense, eventually. We are quick to speak of accomplishments, share where we’ve been and people we know, sort of. Photos depicting charmed lives elevate our status. We post and pose our perfect worlds as selfish pride points the camera on us; all […]

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Being Childlike in a Childish World

Dr. Gary Hewins
8 Oct 2018
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Imagine a humble, little first-century home existing within the New Testament era. Picture a dinner being prepared in a small, humble kitchen in first-century Palestine. A family is about to have a meal together. Out in the courtyard—outside the home—children are playing, running about and laughing. Just outside of the kitchen in the common area, there is a chair. In the chair is the head of the household, and he is sitting down after a long, hard day’s work, listening and peering out the window at his children as they play. His little girl in the front yard hears her […]

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