December 2007 – Gregg Koskela

Rest

Christmas has been full of down time, which I’ve really been drinking in. My parents and brother and his wife, along with Elaine’s parents, joined us for Christmas Day. Since then, more time than usual to just “be”, and that’s been great. Elaine and I …

Celebrate

For our final Advent theme, we wanted to celebrate the coming of the Christ child! This was one of those weeks where praying and preparing what God wanted me to say was actually incredibly helpful to me, personally. The discipline of celebrating when I didn’t …

Stop

Steve Fawver has done a great job leading us through Advent at NFC. He’s coordinated efforts with lots of people, and helped with our themes for the year. I’m grateful. Yesterday’s theme was “Stop”, and here’s what I shared.

Give

Three words describe our themes for Advent this year, our way of preparing for Christmas at Newberg Friends: give, stop, celebrate. Today, we looked carefully at “give”, and I felt God’s leading as I prepared and as I shared this.

Painful

What a horrible situation. But I still can’t get over the fact that a church has armed security guards.

Shameless

http://youtube.com/v/DT5E0Qf5V1YI did this video last year, about a week before Christmas. Watching it again with a little distance from it, I think it’s good, worth sharing again. (So, like if Starla likes it she could point Bob to it, and if AJ the emergent powerhouse …

Pre-post-a……

Tonight was really good. Friends over for dinner, excellent conversation, and instead of a white elephant gift exchange, a book exchange. We started talking about eschatology, when Jesus returns. Does the whole earth burn up and we start over? Or does something stay? What does …

Weekly round up

We had a good trip up to my parents’ house for Thanksgiving last week. I’m grateful for the family I have, and for the fact that I always have known and still know that I am loved. Thanks, mom and dad! At Newberg Friends, the …

Living Out Love: Full Circle

It’s been a busy week! Sorry for neglecting the blog. I really am trying to get back in the swing of regular posting. Last week, we finished our look at our vision statement as a church. I’ll be honest: I never felt like I got …