The first church I was a member of as an adult was Family of Christ in Lakeville. We started out as not much more than a dozen families meeting at what is now Kenwood Trail Middle School off Highway 50. That would've been in the spring of 1988. The church grew over the next few years, and we eventually built on a piece of land in an undeveloped area south of 185th Street, just east of the freeway, where it remains today. As part of the organizational process for any new church, there were formalities we needed to follow, and one of them was officially calling our pastor to the position of Pastor at Family of Christ. Dell had been serving in that capacity for about 4 years, so I assumed this was a no-brainer. But it wasn't. To my surprise, one woman stood up and expressed her dissent with the nomination. I couldn't believe it. What was Kathleen thinking? I was totally oblivious to what had been happening behind the scenes there. It would take a couple more years to fully...
I was on a ride yesterday when I found myself waiting for the light at the intersection of France Avenue and Old Shakopee Road in Bloomington. I was only a mile away from where I grew up from 1966 to 1975. As I sat waiting for the light, I quickly surveyed the area and noticed that there was very little left from when these were my stomping grounds. I thought to myself that I should come back to take a slow walk around and do some reminiscing. I got up this morning and drove my truck back to the same intersection to have a closer look; my camera in hand. I pulled into McDonald's parking lot and went inside. I ordered my usual: Egg McMuffin, Cinnamon Melts, and a large decaf coffee. I recalled when this McDonald's first opened in the early '70s. Before then, the nearest McDonald's was off Nicollet and I-494. Maybe once a month a couple of us would go there and bring back dinner for our family of eight. I can still remember holding the warm bags of food on my lap fo...
Following up on my previous post. I exchanged a couple more emails with Bill Bohline (lead pastor at Hosanna) about Hosanna's stance toward same-sex marriage. The tone in each of his replies became progressively dismissive. Realizing that email was a poor vehicle for voicing my concerns, I emailed him to ask if I could have 30 minutes of his time to discuss the matter. What I wanted was to sit down with him and watch Greg Boyd's video together . My email to him: Pastor Bill, I would like 30 minutes of your time, please. I'm available Tuesday after 2:00 or anytime Friday. Thank you, Kevin Gilmore His response to me: Kevin, you have had more than 30 minutes of my time in this last week. And that was that. Not even a "sincerely, Pastor Bill" ...just his curt response. I was left with the overriding feeling that he has little time for anybody who dares to challenge him. I sensed absolutely none of Christ's love in his words in either his last emai...
Comments