Montreat, NC

Our Northminster group is busy, busy, busy and having a wonderful experience at the Music and Worship Conference.  &l ...

I am still in Collegeville, MN but I'm worshipping with you at Northminster this morning.  According to my clock it is 9:57 there and you are just beginning communion.  Ooops.

I thought Bob had a good sermon for us as we begin this building project and look toward our future together.  And isn't it great to have Judy and Don lead us.  Don is more formal than I and I suspect there are some of you who really appreciate the variety of style.  Judy is around during the week and it is great for all of you to get to know her like we do.

Know I pray with you and sing with you-even in my absence.

Blessings

Teri

While I am away trying to learn to be a better pastor I want to encourage you to spend some time trying to learn to be a better congregation.

Here is a link to an article I enjoyed.  I hope you will, too.

Blessings.

T

http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=4576

June 20, 2007

Dear Members and Friends:

Writing.  Today it is this l ...

Movies are really a way of relaxing for me.  With no effort I can be carried away into another world- into another person’s life- into a new experience.  I can do the same thing reading a book, but it takes more effort.

I saw a movie called “The Wind in the Barley”.  It is the story of two brothers and their friends in Ireland at the beginning of the IRA.  I had mixed reactions to the movie in general but there was one thing that really struck me.

It has been a while.  Life seems to have gone out of control.  With the building committee and the capital campaign my schedule is overwhelming and I haven't had enough time off.

So I did not hesitate a bit when Vic Mercer called and asked if the pastors and their spouses would like to go to a ball game and sit in the Chairman's suite.  Warm sun, free food and drink, good company- who could ask for more than that.

But there was more, there was a baseball game going on down on the field.  This game ended with the Indianapolis Indians winning 15 to 10.  There were 25 runs in this game and there were 35 hits.  This was like an entire season all in one game.

The game was so exciting you didn't want to take your eyes off the field.  But it was only so exciting and captivating because they were making mistakes.&am ...

This morning I walked into the kitchen to grab some breakfast before work.  Jack was sitting at the counter reading the paper.  He kindly slid the front page over for me.

There was the picture of the Virginia Tech shooter holding two guns and looking angry.  There was some headline about a child being abused.  There was awful news from the Supreme Court.  Three second glance and then I passed the paper back to Jack and walked away.  I just could not start my day with that.

My heart just breaks for all the parents.  The ones who struggled and saved to send their kid to college.  They helped them study for the SAT and then helped them decorate a dorm room.  This month they were probably talking about summer jobs- or maybe graduation.  And now it is over.  In an instant.  My heart just breaks.

M ...

The Lives of Others is a great movie.  I just sat in awe as it ended.

The story takes place in East Germany before the wall came down.

I am always looking for good movies, so when Jack and Marilyn Mart suggested I see the Peaceful Warrior I could not resist.

At first I thought it was going to be another feel-good sports movie but it turned out to be more.

A moving tale about the power of the human spirit, Peaceful Warrior is based on Dan Millman’s perennially best-selling autobiographical novel, Way of the Peaceful Warrior.  In the film, Scott Mechlowicz plays Dan, a talented-yet-arrogant college gymnast with Olympic dreams and a golden future.  The athlete thinks he has it all: bookcases of trophies, endless friends, fast rides and disposable relationships.  But all that is about to change. 
 
One day, Dan’s world is turned upside down after a chance meeting with a mysterious stranger he comes to know as Socrates (Nick Nolte)—a man who holds the power to tap into new worlds of strength and understa ...