On January 8, 1991 I went to Cedarville College to hear Jerry Falwell speak. He said, “There is not a pastor here who couldn’t double his attendance in a year if he just got out of his office and off the golf course and out of the coffee shops and began a house-to-house ministry.”
Jerry Falwell started in his home town in a church meeting at the Donald Duck Bottling Company and when he died the church was running over 25,000 in attendance. He left behind the largest Christian college in …

Mercer Chapel on Spring Road was a little white-frame community church. Like thousands of others, a fixture of the American countryside. Set in a cemetery, its patriarchs and matriarchs slept near by. It was a pleasant slow-paced congregation. Volleyball league and Ladies’ Aid. Strawberry suppers and ice-cream socials. Pot-luck dinners and Class parties. Christmas pageants and Easter bonnets. Good cooks and farm kids. American Traditional. Sort of a Norman Rockwell print.
The people were good to us. Elmer Brown introduced me to “punkin’ blossoms.” His wife Edith worked at the phone …

I was Ida Taylor’s pastor for a few years. She was not shy about what she liked and didn’t like. She let me know there were some things about me she liked and there were a few things I did or said she was pretty sure she didn’t like. She was real direct about what she thought about things. She wouldn’t talk behind your back. If she had a problem, she let you know to your face. If you’re going to disagree, I guess that’s …

I just got a call from a dear friend. He is a pastor. He needs to lose some weight. He read that I need to lose some weight. He challenged me to a weight-loss race. He has to lose 30 pounds. I need to lose 40 pounds. Here’s the deal: the first one to his goal is the winner (the big loser). The prize is this a hard-bound edition of Lectures to My Students by Charles Spurgeon published by Banner of Truth.

I have a copy but mine is an old …

On Saturday night I am using a stand-up desk in a quiet corner of the house to do my final preparations for my messages. It is simple, uncluttered, and uncomplicated. I have already done my library spade work earlier in the week. I have the books and sources on the ‘net, on my laptop and in my Bible in my quiet corner. I try to stay off the ‘net as much as possible so I can keep my “head in the game.”
It is on Saturday night and Sunday morning …

I’m in a really good mood today so I am going to give you some advice you will thank me for, for the absolute rest of your life. Get on iTunes and download all the Fernando Ortega you can afford as soon as you can. While you are at it surf over and check out the picture of his newborn daughter on his website. You can listen to one of his beautiful songs here. Now you owe me… Bigtwime.

Here is the title story from my book Sunset on Summer. Download and enjoy. Let me know what you think.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Sunset on Summer
Thanks to Daniel for producing the podcast.

photo by Lois Pierpont
I have often thought of things I like in a church building. I love a soaring white steeple glistening against the blue sky or lighted jutting up into the night. It would, of course, have a large pulpit in the very center, symbolic of the priority of the ministry of the Word. Maybe it would have the white colonial furniture, too.