News Blog

Please tell me what to preach

Posted by on Saturday, November 3rd, 2012 in Minister

This coming January I would like you – that’s right you! – to decide the topic of the sermons I will preach. During the month of November, I will be collecting your suggestions of sermon topics.

You may post your suggestion right here as a response to this post. Phrase it as a suggestion (“You should preach about ________”) or as a question. If you would rather remain anonymous, you can message me or give it to me at church in an envelope.

I am going to ask, however, that you only make a suggestion if you are likely to attend a worship service this January. This is only for people who will participate.

During the month of December all of the suggestions will be put to a vote by the congregation (more details on that later) and the top four suggestions will form the sermons in January.

Scott McAndless
Continue reading »

Poinsettia orders

Posted by on Thursday, October 25th, 2012 in News

 Poinsettia orders need to be in by Tuesday, October 30th.  Pick up will be on Saturday, November 24th, just in time for Advent and Christmas decorating!  Proceeds from the poinsettia sales will help with our Summer Program.  Order forms are available at the church.  If you want a copy of the order form e-mailed to you, please contact the office, 519-659-2652.  Thank you for your support.
Continue reading »

TURKEY PIES … TURKEY PIES … TURKEY PIES

Posted by on Thursday, October 25th, 2012 in News

 It is Turkey Pie time.  All turkey or turkey and vegetable are available.  Orders MUST be in by November 1st.  Pies will be ready for pick up on Wednesday, November 14th and Thursday, November 15th.  You will receive a phone call when your pies are ready to pick up.  Brought to you by our Beth McIntosh group.
Continue reading »

Ordination Service for Richard Warne

Posted by on Wednesday, October 24th, 2012 in News

We are very pleased to invite you to attend the Ordination Service of our brother in Christ, Mr. Richard Warne. Rick's ordination is this Sunday, October 28th, 3:00 pm, with light refreshments to follow. The Rev. Penny Garrison will be preaching. Rev. Mark Gaskin will read the charge. If you are unable to attend please lift Rick up in prayer so that his ministry at Knox, Jarvis/Chalmers, Walpole will be a blessing for Rick & his family and both of these congregations.
Continue reading »

Is it time to “do” advent?

Posted by on Thursday, October 11th, 2012 in Minister



When asked about how I choose the passages that I preach on, I often say that I gave up on the Lectionary years ago.
The lectionary is a three year cycle of Bible passages for reading during Sunday worship. Preachers who use the lectionary generally confine their preaching to one or more of the passages listed for the day.
There are a number of reasons why I gave up. I grew tired of the it. After the first couple of times through the cycle, I certainly found it repetitive. I also have a rather perverse liking for Bible passages that are obscure and often forgotten and would not want to be denied the opportunity to preach on them just because they weren't in the lectionary.
But, in many ways, my biggest beef was Advent. The season of Advent is the season immediately before Christmas – starting 4 Sundays before the big day.  My problem with Advent is that the themes of the season in Christian tradition and in the lectionary are all about the end of the world. All of the readings have to do with the second coming of Christ and apocalyptic visions of the end times.
Now, I don’t have any problems with preaching about such things. They are very important Christian themes and I believe that they still have much to teach us in these modern and often troubling times.  I am just not sure that the month of December is the best time to talk about these things.  During that season, our society is often in an orgy of overconsumption and spending and cultural clashes often come to the fore. I believe that these issues need to be addressed in the church. I don’t want to miss them because I’m busy talking about the end of the world. So, for several years now, I have not really preached advent and have used the time of the year to talk about other pressing issues.
But I’m wondering if this is the year to finally preach advent during advent. Why? Well because this year the end of the world might just be on everyone’s mind because it has apparently been scheduled yet again. As you’ve probably heard, the Mayan Calendar runs out this year on the winter solstice – December 21. Some have interpreted this to mean that the Mayans predicted the end of the world at that time and have gone on to make connections to other “signs of the times.”
Surely this will be all over the media and thus on everyone’s minds this December. Well Christians can talk about the end of the world as well as any Mayans so surely this is as good a time as any to present our perspective. So, yes, I am tempted to actually preach Advent this year. Whether I use the lectionary passages to do so, I have not decided, but it is definitely time to dust of these important themes in our tradition.
Continue reading »