I Can’t Believe It’s Been 3 Years!

April 29, 2015

Happy Easter everyone! Christ is risen and THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING! I hope you had a blessed Holy Week and Easter (regardless of when you celebrated it) and that you're now living in the light of His glorious resurrection and viewing all things in light of that truth. Last week was also special because it marked the FOUR YEAR ANNIVERSARY of STSA on April 28.

So in order not to let such a historic day pass, I am reposting some thoughts I put together last year as we celebrated the 3 year anniversary. Enjoy

Is the Orthodox Church for everyone?

April 2, 2015

I believe our Orthodox church is not for everyone.

I know that sounds arrogant, intolerant and insensitive of me, but just hear me out. Believe it or not, I am actually making that statement for the purpose of bringing people TO the Church, not to push people away.

The Orthodox Church is not for everyone. It isn’t for people who are just looking for entertainment. It isn’t for people who are lonely and just looking for some soothing words to make them feel good again. It isn’t for people who are looking for an emotional high to just make them feel close to God.

It just isn’t.

So who is it for then?

Orthodoxy & Mission in America by HG Bishop Youssef

March 6, 2015

What is the future of Orthodoxy in America? Specifically the Coptic Orthodox tradition?

According to His Grace Bishop Youssef of the Diocese of the Southern United States, the future is bright! In this 8 minute audio clip, Bishop Youssef speaks about his vision for the Church in the coming years. He speaks about the importance of communicating our Orthodox faith in a manner that is adapted for the American culture in which we live. He speaks of the need to develop "an American Orthodox spirituality" - one that is distinctly Orthodox in its doctrine, yet American in its culture.

MANY MEMBERS, ONE BODY - The BodyShop Part 2

March 3, 2015

We began our exploration of what does it mean to be a "healthy" member of God's Body on earth by delving into the topic of COMMUNITY. Community is one of those things that every church talks about but very few church members actually find. It's one of those church "buzz words" that just sounds good and looks nice on our websites.

But is that all community is? Just a buzz word? Or is it something that we can actually find in our church? And if so, what do I need to do to find it?

Those are the questions that we discussed this week in the 2nd message of The BodyShop. We talked about what community means and where it comes from and why you can't be a healthy member in the Body of Christ without it. Check out the video above and hopefully it'll open the door for you to deepen your relationships with the fellow members in the Body of Christ.

Made in Heaven

February 27, 2015

How many of us enter into marriage truly believing that marriages are “made in heaven”, as the idiom goes? We approach courting thinking we are prepared.

Education? Check. Career? Check. House? Check.

We then proudly oversell ourselves thinking we can independently fulfill another, and conversely, we also seek fulfillment in another. Once we believe we have found that fulfillment, we pledge our forever-love. Then come the wedding, the confetti, and the bouquet toss. But sooner or later, if God isn’t at the center of the marriage, the honeymoon is over.

Welcome to The BodyShop - Part 1

February 23, 2015

If rain, sleet and snow won't stop the US Postal service, then it certainly won't stop us either! We had a foot of snow in the DC on Saturday and that stopped us from being able to meet together in person; but it didn't stop us from Church!

Because as we saw in yesterday's message, the Church isn't a place we go... the Church is who we are! I am the Church and there is no greater honor than for me to say that and identify myself as a member of the "theanthropic" Body of Christ (big word explained in the message).

That's the point of our newest series, The BodyShop. We'll been given a great honor in being part of the Body and every week in this series, we'll look at a different aspect of what it means to be a HEALTHY member of that Body.

Welcome to The BodyShop!

Going Beyond the Motions

December 3, 2014

Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is officially here! Over the next few weeks I plan to blog/speak/think a lot about what God is giving us during this season (His Incarnation into the world) and then in response what we are going to give Him back.

But before we focus on WHAT we should give Him, we need to first understand HOW we should give it. As you'll see from the post below - originally written 2 years ago - HOW is more important than WHAT.

Home is Where the Heart Is

September 19, 2014

Ready for my answer? In my previous post, I posed the question “why does God care so much about having a home on earth?”

Whether it was the Garden of Eden, or the tabernacle of Moses, or the temple of Solomon… God placed a lot of emphasis on having a physical building/place where His people would gather and worship Him. Why is that? Why would a spiritual God care so much about a physical building?

Why? Because our God is an INCARNATIONAL GOD.

Does God Really Need a Home?

September 17, 2014

You’re trying to build a “home” for God by buying a church building? Are you serious? Does God really need a physical building to have a home? Isn’t the entire universe His home? Why does He need a building? And how does that building have anything to do with the Kingdom of God?

Those are some of the questions you might be asking as you hear about the BUILD YOUR KINGDOM campaign which kicked off last weekend at STSA.

And those are all fair questions. Does God really NEED a building? Does He even want one? Doesn’t God care about spiritual buildings more than physical ones? Who cares if there’s a building or not?

LIVING YOUR STRENGTHS Part 3 - My Strengths & Your Weakness

September 1, 2014

Every person (not just you) has unique and eternal value in God’s eyes and therefore should have the same value in yours.

That was the central message of yesterday's series finale in the Living Your Strengths series. After two weeks of talking about the importance of understanding and maximizing our own strengths, we looked at the flip side yesterday - dealing with the weaknesses of others.

It's easy to think highly of our own strengths and look down at others who don't share them. It's easy to think that because something is easy for me or comes natural to me, then it should be the same for others as well. But that's not the point.

Check out the message above and see why it's so important to not just ACCEPT the weaknesses of others, but to APPRECIATE them because those differences were designed by God for a specific reason.

Now it's your job to figure out what that reason is for the people in your life.

Celebrating One of My Heroes

May 14, 2014

Hero: ‘a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities’

I grew up loving action movies – but not the comic book, superhero kind of movies that are popular now. I grew up watching real heroes, guys without any superhuman powers but who fought with superhuman courage and bravery. Guys like Bruce Willis in Die Hard – who saved the world from terrorists without a weapon or even a pair of shoes. Or like Rambo who could take out an entire city alone and never had to call for backup. Or my personal favorite – this is really going to test your knowledge of the 80s – The Greatest American Hero (listen to the theme song and see if it rings a bell).

Today I want to celebrate one of my real-life heroes – not a fictional character but a real person who really did save the world from evil and without whom only God knows where we’d all be today. And in addition to all that, he’s got a really cool hero name too!

‘Tis The Season To Be “Leaning”

December 26, 2013

Life is lived in seasons. Seasons for weather, seasons for sports and seasons to one’s spiritual life too. Advent sets during the fall, while Easter rises during the spring (at least if you're north of the Equator). And much like the fall, the Advent season reminds us of our fallen man and how God’s Economy was thought out for our salvation.

During this season, we see our fallen leaves and fallen trees needing a Savior, and we are saved from eternal death. One would expect life to be all Spring after salvation, yet for all of us, the seasons still change in our spiritual lives, just as it does in the world outside. Like a tree fighting to stay upright, we still have to get through fall and winter with their storms and blizzards before spring comes again. Many of us can’t stand upright for that long because the storms of life get the best of us.

“A tree always falls where it leans; be careful which way you lean”said The Lorax to the Once-ler as he was about to let his desire for fame and money ruin the green earth and ultimately ruin himself. That’s some good advice for grownups, wrapped in a children’s movie.

A Note of Encouragement

December 13, 2013

No one wants to admit it. You don’t want to admit it. I don’t want to admit it. No one wants to admit. But it’s a fact of life and we all must face it. And that fact is this…WE ALL GET DISCOURAGED.

We feel guilty admitting it but we shouldn’t. It doesn't mean that we don’t love God or the service we’re doing. It just means that we’re human and that we sometimes get tired.

I know you are happy to serve God at church, at a non-profit, in your home, in your high-powered career, or in the line at Starbucks. I know that you don’t do it because it’s the cool thing to do or because a celebrity told you to. I know that you do it because you have experienced His “unfailing love… [and] great compassion” (Psalm 51:1) and want to demonstrate this love and compassion to others.

I know you do all these things for the glory of God, and that the opinion of others doesn't matter. But I also know that you – like me – are human and that sometimes you get discouraged. Our strength and abilities may come from God, but that doesn't mean we don’t at times need some simple encouragement from our fellow man.

“Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad.” (Proverbs 12:25)

So here is my good word. Listen carefully…WHAT YOU DO MAKES A DIFFERENCE!

Welcome to THE WELL

December 4, 2013

I’ll say a phrase and you say the first thing that comes to your mind. Ready? Here’s the phrase.....…THE WELL. What do you think of? What comes to your mind? Anything exciting or earth-shattering? My guess is that the answer is probably no, but there is one lady I know who is filled with emotion whenever she hears that phrase. To her, THE WELL is much more than a big hole in the ground filled with water. To her, THE WELL is the place that her life was changed forever.

Who is that lady? She is the lady written about in the New Testament, John 4, commonly known as the Samaritan Woman. To her, THE WELL is an ordinary place that took on extraordinary meaning and significance through her encounter there with a Man called Jesus.

She showed up at THE WELL one way, but she left a completely different way – completely transformed on the inside and the outside. Her life took on new meaning ever since that day at THE WELL and that’s why to her, THE WELL is the most important place on earth. It’s the place where she met Jesus and her life was changed forever.

Because of that, when we wanted to come up with a name for our post-Liturgy Sunday meeting at STSA - the weekly event that we use as a chance to invite our friends to come to church and hopefully meet Jesus there - we decided to name it THE WELL.

Liturgical Prayer - Extreme Makeover PRAYER Edition, Part 8

November 25, 2013

"Liturgical prayer is where we exchange our life for the life of Jesus Himself."

Wrapped up the Extreme Makeover: PRAYER Edition series yesterday and we finished with a bang! The highest room in the house - the place of most intimacy and oneness with God - LITURGICAL PRAYER.

Check out the video below to see what Liturgical prayer is all about, where it came from, and most importantly, what the result of that prayer is when done according to God's instructions.

And, as always, if anything stands out to you and you think it's worth sharing, be sure to use the hashtag #PrayerMakeover when you share it.

Building Community Part 2 - RELATIONSHIP BUILDERS

September 23, 2013

"He who runs alone runs fast; he who runs with others runs far."

Part 2 of the Building Community series and this week the focus was on RELATIONSHIP BUILDERS - things we need to work on if we're serious about transforming our superficial relationships into meaningful ones.

Check out the video below and as you're listening, try to discover ways to put these principles into practice today.

Spiritual Sweat Part 6 - WORSHIP

February 18, 2013

Worship - a word that means many different things to many different people. Yesterday I spoke about what the word means to God and what God is looking for when it comes to us worshiping Him. From the earliest days, who/what you worshiped determined whether or not you belonged to God's family or not. The people of God worshiped the One True God and they did so in the way in which He prescribed. We need to check our worship to make sure it's in line with what God is looking for today.

Take a look at yesterday's message, the 6th part in the Spiritual Sweat series, and let me know what you think.

The Power of a Plastic Straw

October 18, 2012

One day an investigator was walking through the storm ravaged streets of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Amidst the rubble and destruction, he found a plastic straw – a flimsy plastic drinking straw. But this flimsy plastic drinking straw caught his attention. It was unique in a way that he had never seen before. This straw had done something that probably very few straws in the world have ever accomplished.

It was embedded in a thick wooden telephone pole – probably about 2-3 inches deep – and was sticking straight like an arrow shot from a bow.

Can you imagine how much effort it would take you to do that?

Do I Really Need to Go to Church?

October 16, 2012

How important is it to go to church on Sundays? Give it a number, from 1 to 10 – with 10 being “vital, most important part of my week, can’t live without it” and 1 being “optional activity, not really a big deal, I’ll survive without it.” Where would you rank church attendance? How important is it to you?

Recently I read an article about the current state of Christianity and the Church in America. Granted the study was published back in 2007, but the results are still valid as they speak about a trend which has continued in our country. The main finding of the study was this:

The percentage of people that attend a Christian church each weekend is far below what pollsters report. On surveys, 40% of those polled say they go to church every Sunday; but in actuality, less than 20% actually make it to church on Sundays.

Greatness is Not Just an Individual Thing

July 20, 2012

I tricked you yesterday didn’t I? Admit it. I tricked you because I asked you what it means to be great and I intentionally led you down the wrong path for answers. I’ll bet that most people thought in terms of prayer, Bible reading or other such spiritual disciplines. Most of us equate our spiritual success with the amount of spiritual practices that we do.

BUT GOD DOESN’T LOOK AT IT THAT WAY. If God looked at it that way, then the Pharisees would have top dogs in His eyes. They did all the spiritual practices and disciplines; and they did it religiously (pun intended). But while those things are all very good, it takes more than that to be GREAT.

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become GREAT among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28)