Never an Original Thought

As the First Presbyterian Church of Norwalk, Ohio, launched the Road Ahead initiative, Kathleen Wheeler shared the following explanation. “The Road Ahead!” We’ve all heard this catchy phrase flying around the church lately, but what are we talking about? Is it the name of our newest small group, a map to get to the church, maybe a new ice cream flavor? Is it a catchy book about future technology written in 1995 by Bill Gates (well, yes, yes, it actually is)?! No, that’s not

Pastor James and Yarlín Yof, a youth leader in PR, in 2011 and 2024. In July 2024, twelve youth and adults from the First Presbyterian Church of Norwalk, Ohio, traveled to Puerto Rico to partner in fellowship, service, and devotion with the Iglesia Cristiana Discípulos de Cristo Espinosa. This was not my first time in Puerto Rico. I took a youth group eleven years ago from a previous church. I am so glad that I could share this experience with our youth. Inside this editi

Every morning, people arise ready to face a new day. They make the coffee, check the news, and make their morning jog before the darkness turns to light. Then, there are the rest of us. Morning comes as an unwelcome intrusion into our rest. When the alarm sounds, we amazingly complete complex mathematical calculations to determine if we have time for ten more minutes of sleep. Even the most chipper morning person I know occasionally reaches for the snooze bar. Simply pu

In 2024, Easter falls on March 31. Does that date seem early this year? Well, it is. At least it is earlier than in recent years. There’s something different about the Easter holiday. Christmas is always on December 25, but Easter, like the eponymous bunny, hops around. That has everything to do with the early Christian church. They wanted the celebration to occur around the Jewish Passover. In the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the Last Supper was a Passover mea

During the month of February, the First Presbyterian Church of Norwalk will be holding focus groups to discern better where God wants us to go. Please pray for the process and our congregation. In the meantime, I thought it might be nice to hear from some of our congregational partners. This is a message from Rev. Sara Hodsden, who serves at the Huron Presbyterian Church. They are also “at the crossroads,” and I appreciated her faithful words. “But blessed is the one who

In common parlance, an epiphany is a moment of revelation. It’s a time of “aha” when something confusing suddenly fits together. In the church calendar, we have the season of Epiphany. After Christmas Day, in the month of January, we will often reflect in worship on Scriptures that reveal Jesus’ true nature. The most important is January 6, when we celebrate the arrival of the Magi. Following a star, these travelers from the East arrive in Bethlehem to worship the young

Dear Youth and Parents, I wanted to write about an exciting opportunity in the summer of 2024. The First Presbyterian Church of Norwalk is going on a mission trip to Puerto Rico. The trip will be on July 1-8, 2024. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are a people on a mission. We are called to go into the world, whether in our neighborhood or across the globe. Too often, we view mission as simply a transaction, “I do something good for you.” What is special about this summer tri

Henry Van Dyke was a Presbyterian pastor, an author, an English professor, and even a diplomat. In 1895, he was the pastor of the Brick Church in New York City. There, he wrote The Story of the Other Wise Man , which is a favorite of many at Christmastime. In Matthew's gospel, we learn how Magi from the East follow a star to discover the new King of Israel born in Bethlehem. Van Dyke imagines another wise man named Artaban, who follows the same star. However, this wise m

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.” -- Psalm 136:1 “It’s like finding a needle in a haystack.” The idiom is used to describe an almost impossible task. The earliest known use of similar words comes from Cervantes in Don Quixote in 1605. Picking through a pile of straw to find something that resembles a piece of straw has apparently been challenging people since the 17th Century. My engineer father used to tell me that laziness is the mot

I once attended a wedding reception where the couple had a champagne tower. It was an amazing sight. Champagne glasses were stacked on each other. Moving upward from the bottom, each row had fewer glasses. At the top was a single glass. During the festivities, the young couple took a bottle of champagne and poured the alcohol into the glass at the top. After the glass had filled, the champagne spilled from that glass into the glasses below. When that row was filled, th

State of the Church 2023: At the Crossroads “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” - Jeremiah 29:11 Back in college, I knew a guy named Tom. He was a good guy, a little quirky, but a nice guy. Every time you asked him how he was doing, he would respond, “I’m at the crossroads.” The words themselves weren’t arresting. It was how he said them. He spoke as if he was pondering the

“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” - Jeremiah 29:11 The 2003 book Moneyball by Michael Lewis, and the subsequent movie starring Brad Pitt, tells the true story of how the Oakland Athletics built a successful baseball team on the cheap. How did they do it? They changed their focus. They discovered that a player’s ability to get on base predicted how many runs he would score b

Twenty years ago, I stood in the sanctuary of New Harrisburg Presbyterian Church in Carrollton, Ohio, to be ordained as a Minister of Word & Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church USA. On that occasion, a former pastor of mine preached about revolution. However, this revolution was more than political. The kingdoms of this world will cower before the coming Kingdom of God -- “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Frankly, I cannot remember exactly

“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” - Jeremiah 29:11 It started with a conversation. The pastor of Maumee Presbyterian Church, Clint Tolbert, reached out to me with an opportunity for our congregation here in Norwalk. In the months prior, I had gotten to know Clint. I appreciate his faith and his perspective. I am glad to call him a colleague in ministry. He told me about th

Easter poses a special challenge to preachers. For almost 2000 years, people have proclaimed that "Jesus Christ is risen. He is risen indeed." And in various venues, pastors have tried to show the relevance of that profound statement to their congregations. After countless sermons and devotions, what else should be said? Isn’t there a danger of repeating oneself? I heard a preacher once say, "I’ve preached multiple times on every character in the Easter story. If only God cou

Forty days before Easter, the Church celebrates the season of Lent. To the casual observer, Lent is about giving up something. Some hide from sugar or caffeine. Others avoid swear words or checking their Facebook page. At one time, the practice of giving up something was exclusive of the Roman Catholic Church, but now Protestants and even some outside the Christian faith take up Lent through self-denial. Whether it is brain chemistry or simply a God-shaped hole in our li

Irish or not, most of us know that we honor the Christian missionary, St. Patrick, on March 17. However, there is another Celtic saint whose celebration occurs on February 1. Her name is Brigid, and she is considered one of the greatest saints in the Celtic church. She was born in the Fifth Century. Her father was a local chieftain named Dubtach. Her mother was a slave named Brocseach. Shortly before she was born, dad sold mom to a druid priest. Her mother was a Chris

As the legend is told, a Japanese shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimasa, broke his favorite tea bowl. He did not want to discard it. So he sent it away to China for repairs. Upon its return, the shogun was very disappointed. The pieces were held together by metal staples which was a common method of repair at the time. The bowl was usable, but it did not retain the beauty of the original. Yoshimasa asked a local craftsman if he could find a solution that would repair the bowl and

Charles Dickens, the English author, has a thing about names. He was meticulous about the names of the characters in his stories. Often the name gives the reader insight into the character and the story. Probably one of the most well-known Dickens stories is A Christmas Carol . In it, Ebenezer Scrooge undergoes a transformation from a selfish miser to a man who knows how to “keep Christmas well.” The name Scrooge probably comes from the word “screw.” Dickens describes t

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.” -- Psalm 107:1 Despite the challenges that certainly exist, we live in an amazing world. Take for instance, how interconnected and complicated our economy is. To make that point, the economist Leonard Reed published an essay in 1958 entitled, “I, Pencil.” Reed considers the myriad of components that come together in the making of a simple pencil such as cedar, lacquer, graphite, ferrule,