Happy New Year!
As we head into the new year I want to let the community of HRC know about some changes that are being made in our staffing structure for our future. We are praying and trusting that these things will work together for the good of the ministry of Christ at Hopewell and for the ministry in which each of these staff members is engaged. Read more »
In this season of greetings I send along the Holbrook family letter to all whom we are blessed to be in relationship with at HRC, Merry Christmas! Taylor
December 11, 2010
Merry Christmas!
Greetings from our family to yours. We are feeling like Noah in the flood with our torrential rainstorms, anxiously waiting for snow, and looking forward to our family being together for Christmas. Here’s what we’ve been up to…. Read more »
“For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you” (Luke 17:21)
This Advent we have been focusing our eyes on the kingdom of God breaking out amongst us. This past Sunday in Fusion I asked people to stand and share where they saw the kingdom of God breaking out in their midst. A high school youth group leader shared how she saw it on the Senior High retreat with high school boys asking deep questions of her about faith. Somebody else shared a story of reconciliation with her sister. Another person talked about a group of strangers working together and helping each other out on the post office line. One story was shared of a snowy road were everybody helped each other out so people could get unstuck safely. Read more »
“It could be curtains, or draperies, or a double boiler, or it could be something special just for me” (The Wells Fargo Wagon is A Coming)
This week I found out what a double boiler is. I wish I never learned that we had two boilers blow in one week and, in fact, we actually heat the church with three boilers. (The third had blown earlier this summer.) Three boilers in one year! Now that is a surprise, but the story gets worse. The reason three boilers blew, says our boiler man from Bottini, is because our system of circulation pumps was not set up right and the boilers don’t have the correct flow of water through them. Net it all out and we are looking at an around $15,500 year-end surprise that we need to fix in order to keep warm. Some of the work will be put off until next summer when we are off -line, but today Bottini is putting in one new boiler that will carry us through the winter with the other boiler that we already replaced. Read more »
May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. (Colossians 1:11-12)
I saw Bob Dylan on Tuesday night. I would like to say it was a dream come true and all my joy was complete, but to be honest it was disappointing. Read more »
Priceless
The knowledge that my emotional well being is too tied up in money and the freedom that the Gospel gives me to let go of that ……………………..$ Priceless. Read more »
This Sunday we will celebrate All Saints Sunday at Gatherings, Foundations (with liturgical dance) and Fusion (with a new youth band, CrossRock). We will light candles and remember the faithful who have died since last All Saints Sunday. I will read aloud the names of members of our congregation who have died. I will then ask any who would wish to share a name to come forward, light a candle and speak the name.
As I looked over the list of those who have gone on to greater glory this past year, I recognize people who have served the church and their Lord well. Read more »
This Sunday is Reformation Sunday: it falls on All Hallow’s Eve. In 1517, Martin Luther pounded his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle. Reformation was taking place before that time, but this is the date that history records as the start of the Protestant Reformation.
In the Reformed Church in America we trace our theological roots through a later reformer, John Calvin. Luther has not gotten much play in my studies, but recently I have been listening to some lectures by my brother-in-law, Dr. Robert Bast. A Luther scholar who was raised in the Reformed Church, he is a member of a Lutheran church in Tennessee. He teaches Medieval history at the University of Tennessee, and his lectures have cause me to give Luther another look. Read more »
Sarah, my daughter, is in Senegal. She is spending the first semester of her senior year at Hope College there. It warms my heart because I spent my junior year of Hope in Sierra Leone and visited Senegal during my Christmas break. A significant journey of my young life is being shared by my daughter. That is awesome. I hope that something of my story encouraged her to head to Africa. Read more »
Soccer Sunday Fusion
I had a couple of meetings with Pastors this week. At those meetings the lament of Soccer Sundays was shared. Travel soccer has replaced Sunday School as the can’t miss event of a Sunday morning and pastors talked about how challenging it was to have vibrant children’s ministry when kids come and go depending on the soccer schedule. Read more »
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 115:105)
I went down to help my mom following cataract surgery. As she came out of the anesthesia the first words she spoke to me were: “You have so much grey!” Thanks mom. The next words were: “Your eyes are such a deep blue today. I don’t think I have ever seen them so blue.” I liked that comment a bit better, but I don’t know that my mom realized how clouded her vision had become and thus, to see the reality of her son in a new light was good news and bad news. Read more »
“thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.” (1 Timothy 6:19)
Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the profit that accumulates to your account.
(Phil 4:17)
And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. (Luke 16:9)
This Sunday we look at one of the most practical applications of 167 Living; our relationship with our money. In Chapter 6 of 1 Timothy, Paul counsels his young disciple and mentee on his relationship with money and how he should guide others in their relationship to wealth. He starts by saying there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment and if we have food and clothing we have all we need. He then goes on to point out that some in the community will be very rich and they are commanded not to be haughty or set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but to be generous, rich in good works and ready to share. Read more »
Fusion: Where Life Comes Together
“In Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17)
Today I announce a new worship service for Hopewell. It is built upon the tradition of Connections, Common Ground and B.I.G. Worship. It is a youth driven service, but it will be for all people. We are calling this worship service Fusion because it is a service that will bring many things together: young and old, ancient and modern, multi-media, dance, drama, art and preaching. It will begin this Sunday at 6 PM followed with a pizza and hang out time for youth and for others. I am looking forward to this. I hope you will come and check it out. Read more »
“167 Living: It’s not about an hour, it’s about a life”
When I told my ChristCare group this morning that we would have a trifecta of preachers at Tymor on Sunday somebody said: “You better bring your lunch.” It was pointed out that lunch was already planned. Steve Dambra, Mark Mast and yours truly will all have a piece of the message on Sunday, but we have agreed to keep it within 15 minutes. You can time us. Because the point is not how long we are in a worship service, but how we carry our worship into the world that is the essence of 167. The three preachers highlight the three key core movements of growth into living into all that God intends for our lives. Let’s make sure it’s not about an hour, but it is about a life. Read more »
We have reason to celebrate. That is what we will do together at Tymor at ten on the twelfth. It will be our fourth church picnic at Tymor and it will be the third celebration of our movement towards one church in multi site with the goal of planting 15 new faith communities in 15 years. Read more »
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
I have had a C.S. Lewis summer. Carol O’Malley loaned me a copy of The Great Courses lectures that featured Lewis’ writings and his life. I had twelve hours of Lewis on my drive to Michigan. This past Wednesday a group from the church went down to the city to see Max Mclean in Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. Lewis is a theologian of pleasure and of longing. He sees in pleasure the hand of God’s touch upon humanity with everything that is beautiful. Our deepest joy points us to the even deeper joy that is at the center of creation and is “the serious business of heaven.” Our deepest longings point us to our deepest needs. We have a longing for eternity. It is planted in our hearts. For Lewis this speaks to us of the truth that we were made forever. Read more »
I have been welcomed back from vacation by hundreds of kids having a blast under the tent. It is VBS week at HRC. A truly awesome week as intergenerational ministry comes together to touch lives of kids in our church and in our community. I look at the future of our youth ministry as I see the eyes of these young children that very soon will be teenagers. Read more »
Every time I drive by the Flatbush Reformed Church in Saugerties I will check out how my corner of the kingdom work is holding up to the wind and weather of Northern Ulster County. Hopewell helped that struggling church put a face lift on its building. That small church inspired us to do the same thing. Starting next Saturday (July 31) you will have a chance to paint our corner of the kingdom on Clove Branch and Beekman Roads. Instead of spending a ton of money hiring somebody to paint our building, we are putting 167 into practice and asking people to use some of those hours to paint our church. Read more »
June 27 we were all together under the tent. We had overflow conditions as many of our young people were standing, and others were seated on the wooden parking barriers that line our lot. It was an awesome day. It was the first time I experienced the joy of Odyssey. There was excitement as prayers and songs, even preaching, was greeted with applause. Somebody said to me, this must be what heaven feels like. I agreed. June 27th ranked as one of the best worship experiences in my 24 years of ordained ministry, and beyond that Read more »
This Sunday we begin a series titled “Women Who Changed the World.” It will be launched by a woman who has changed my world, my mom. When Sherri Hondorp and I first talked about this series, we said it would be nice to launch it with a preacher who is a woman. We tossed out a couple of ideas and then I remembered that I had worked with my mom on a sermon about the woman at the tomb, and what a difference women had made in the proclamation of the gospel. I have gotten more and more excited about her coming to Hopewell and I have reflected more and more on the difference that she has made working with women in the Reformed Church in America. Read more »
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1)
This Sunday, June 27, at 10 AM under the tent at Hopewell all six of our worshipping communities will be introduced to our 167 Vision which states: We seek to be a 167 church, putting our faith into practice every hour of every day. Being a follower of Christ is not simply about an hour on Sunday, but a life lived every moment for the glory of God.
Mike Reynolds will begin the message and he is going to tell you: “167 Living was my idea.” Much like the Windows 7 commercial, you can picture Mike dreaming mid-sermon one Sunday: “How do I put this into practice, not just one hour on Sunday, but every hour of every day?” Read more »
Last Sunday I stood in front of the church and noticed how many people were not singing. I mean not opening a hymnbook or bluffing the words, just checked out for that moment of worship until we sat down. Do you sing? Does it matter? Read more »
The Gospel in the Gulf (of Oman)
This Sunday we will have a guest preacher. He is Doug Leonard. Doug is a pastor friend of mine whom I worked with as a coach for a couple of years. He is taking a new position with the Reformed Church in America as a missionary in Oman. He will be working in the area of Christian-Muslim relationships at the Al Amana Centre in Muscat Oman. God has already provided him with some amazing stories in his work. The RCA has had a presence in the Gulf of Oman well before 9/11. In fact, that presence goes back to 1893 when the RCA established Oman’s first hospital. Read more »
William Willimon, the former Dean of Duke’s chapel, tells a story of a young person coming back to Willimon’s former church in North Carolina and telling him that he was the greatest pastor he ever remembered. Willimon, flattered by the compliment, asked what made his ministry so effective for the lad. Willimon, hoping for a comment about his preaching, his care or his relevance was humbled when the young man responded: “you always remembered my name.” Read more »
We are coming to the end of our conversion series. It has been great for all of us to hear the stories of Jenna, Adam, Pat, Jon, and Tina. Shelley Keane will share her story on Sunday and I am hoping for a couple of stories by new members the next Sunday, as we receive a large group of people into membership at HRC. Tina Smith said something that was profound last Sunday. She said that at first she did not think that she has much of a story to share, but then she thought that it was arrogant to think that God’s story with her was not worth sharing. She then went on to tell an amazing story. Read more »
When I was asked to be a member of the Board of Trustees at Hope College I was looking forward to trips to Holland, Michigan three times a year to catch up with my girls as they went through college. I was not ready for significant controversy at board meetings in regard to the college’s stand on homosexuality. I leave tomorrow, ready to step into major protest by alumni and students regarding a stand taken by the administration on a controversial speaker coming to campus last fall. Read more »
“As the body of Christ, we are called to a Missional Life of Caring for Creation, Social Justice, Benevolence Care, Discipling Missions, Daily Missions, Servant Evangelism and Evangelism. The Missional Life is one that looks outward and seeks those places where we can bring the grace of Christ to a hurting world.” (Dr. Mark Mast)
The word came from Holland Michigan that Mark Mast’s doctoral dissertation was approved at Western Seminary on Tuesday. On Wednesday he presented his work to the seminary community. I spoke with a friend who said that the crowd that came out to hear the presentation was larger than usual. Read more »
Last Sunday I got in trouble with an atheist as I talked with her about people I call the “evangelical” atheists. She said that she took offense to my calling them evangelicals. I went on to explain my language, saying that anybody who has a world view they share with another, with any hope of that person living a better, more fulfilled life through that world view, is an evangelical. The root of the word evangelism, is good news. Whether you are sharing the benefits of a new diet, an exercise regime, a world view that advocates low carbon emissions, or the good news of Jesus Christ, you are an evangelist. Read more »
“Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.” (1 Cor 15:6-8)
Last week in a packed church we heard the good news that Christ is risen. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians and encouraged them to talk to people who had encountered the risen Christ. He includes himself on the list at the end. This week, probably in a less packed church, we will begin to hear the stories of how that event changed lives in scripture and continues to change lives of people we know. Read more »
Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Cor. 15:58)
Many of you know that I have been reading a number of the “evangelical atheists” this Lent. These are some authors (Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris) who have appeared on the scene aggressively arguing an atheist world view and trying to get many to convert . It may seem like a strange Lenten discipline for a pastor, but it has prepared me for Easter Sunday like never before. Especially in light of news I have received this week. Read more »
“I believe in the communion of saints”
This week I talked to a couple who were making plans for when they die. It was a hope-filled conversation. The wife’s request was that she would give $50,000 from her will, and any other money added by memorial gifts, into a fund that would pay for young people to go on mission trips. She has seen the difference mission trips make in the life of young people, so when she is gone from this earth she wants to make sure she is still giving for this important cause. Read more »
“Where there is no vision, the people perish” Proverbs 29:18 KJV
Next Saturday our consistory and ministry area leaders will be on retreat in the youth house. I write today to ask you to pray for us, speak with us and work with us, as we seek to develop our vision and plans for the next three to five years. Read more »
“O sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gotten him victory.” (Psalm 98:1)
Chalk it up to the latest evidence of God’s providence; we are hiring Wesley Joseph to be our organist and choir director. God has done marvelous things! Read more »
There will be a wardrobe in worship at Hopewell this Sunday. It will be symbolically crammed with all the crud that confuses our lives. We stuff our stuff in the closet and hope that it stays hidden, and then one day we open it up and it all comes tumbling out. It is time to clear some things up in our lives; to simplify and sort through what we need to see clearly. This Lent, for the next six weeks, that will be the image we work with; a clearing season. Read more »
“Belhar”
For these past three weeks we have been highlighting the Belhar Confession in our worship and my preaching. “The Dutch Reformed Mission Church formally adopted the Belhar Confession in 1986. It is now one of the “standards of unity” of the new Uniting Reformed Church of Southern Africa (URCSA). Belhar’s theological confrontation of the sin of racism has made possible reconciliation among Reformed churches in Southern Africa and has aided the process of reconciliation within the nation of South Africa.” Read more »
President Obama stood before a joint session of Congress and shared the bad news. Things are tough. Sunday at noon, I will stand before a joint session of our congregation and share the good news. God is good! Our congregational meetings have gotten better and better as we have shared stories of ministry at HRC rather than simply balance sheets and reports on the year that was. Read more »
One hundred years ago Addison Bird left his pastorate at The Hopewell Reformed Church and planted the Arlington Reformed Church in Poughkeepsie. A century later the consistories of Hopewell and Arlington have been working on a plan to have Randy Prentiss work with Arlington Reformed on a fresh start in ministry in Poughkeepsie. Read more »
The day after the earthquake in Haiti, Lia, a woman from Bright Beginnings was in the fellowship hall weeping because she did not know about her family’s well being in the tragedy that was unfolding. Lourdes and I prayed with her and we are hoping that she gets good news. I have not heard about Lia’s family yet, but most of the news from Haiti is not good. Read more »
Happy New Year Everyone! It is exciting to start a new decade, even if we haven’t figured out what to call it: twenty-ten, or two thousand and ten. That will work itself out, I guess. We begin the new year at Hopewell building on the ministry foundations that have brought us through the last decade: ChristCare, Missions and Healthy Leadership. Read more »
Dear Friends,
Since we have a lot of snow on the ground and the girls are getting ready to come home, it feels like the perfect time to send out Christmas cards. Here is what’s been going on in our family: Read more »
