A Guest Blog from my good friend, Pastor Aaron Kunce. 30% of people ask questions of the people around them and are persistently curious about others. They are Illuminators. The other 70% might be perfectly nice people, but they don’t ask questions. They are Diminishers.

The vast majority of us want to become better employees. Have you ever considered that one tactic toward that end is to pray for your co-workers?

Whether we like to wrestle with it or not, each of us will one day breathe our last. Our families will be left to craft a service order for our funeral and names will be assigned to speak about you.

What last word will be spoken about you?

There are a lot of great things to do and places to go that make for a great quality of life and a great place to raise a family. Our family has a number of things we love to do, places to go, and activities we make sure out-of-town guests don’t miss.

The public does not often get to hear the stories of men and women serving as ministers, exemplars of the Christian faith, who make their communities better.

I am not talking about spotless saints, but humble leaders faithfully living out their calling to serve their communities with God’s help.

Like most other US cities, York has complex challenges. Fixing York will require more than just talk. Another branding campaign will not solve the crisis. Public statements, banners, and flowery flourishes on our websites will not affect the kind of change we need.

Easter Sunday is still the ultimate reset for the followers of Jesus. Just as the Church was awakened to a bright new reality 2,000 years ago, so too, the modern Church needs to embrace again the life-giving power of the resurrection of Jesus.

There are six ways the Church can hit reset on Easter Sunday and chart a new trajectory for generations to come. This Easter in the year 2023, the Church should affirm the following pledges:

Jesus voiced His trust on Good Friday that God would not abandon Him to the grave. He had no other option when He was at the end of His rope than to trust God. Even for Jesus, God was silent on Saturday.

Sometimes God is silent on Saturday. We might even have to endure Saturday seasons.

Holy Saturday is never the final word. During these dark times, you have to remember that God has not abandoned you. He is at work in your life for your good.

On your most painful days, remember Holy Saturday. It is not God’s final word for your life.

Sunday is on the way.

2022 is going out with a bang in the Anderson household, or rather, with a thud and a crack! My sweet, 16-year-old daughter, Amelia, took a hard spill at the rollerskating rink that fractured her left wrist.

I had intended on writing a reflection piece about 2022. I never realized that a 10-hour stint in the ER would provide inspiration.

We are Safer Together. A sermon from Romans 12:9-16 about the strategy we employ to build a safer, more loving community.

From the People You Should Know podcast: If we are honest, getting to know complete strangers can be scary. In our debut episode, we had the honor of talking with the CEO of Logos Academy and Logos Works, Aaron Anderson. He talks about networking in this episode and how if he could give people one thing it would be the ability to network and get to know people.

Go ahead and cancel me for maintaining these friendships with my neighbors. These are people God has called me to love without exceptions or excuses.

Sorry. I'm not canceling my neighbor.

Most of us feel embarrassed or ashamed of being lonely because it feels like personal inadequacy or deficiency. What if there is a darkness behind what drives us to loneliness?

The world as we have known it for the last 18 months has been a challenge in which to find a rhythm. Our old ways of doing things have been flipped upside down.

Work, school, and church life were moved to different rhythms.

When I give thanks to God for giving Gail to me as a wife, there are massive implications. God’s providence is like a perfectly played orchestra, a masterpiece flawlessly executed by expert hands.

I am no mathematician, but the statistical probability of bringing two humans together is mind-boggling.

As leaders in our community, we were keenly aware that our city was on the brink of potential riots if even one police interaction went wrong.

Our little city of York, PA, has a history of violent riots dating to 1969. That year was violent and deadly as a young Black woman, Lillie Belle Allen, was shot by white men as she drove with her family. A white police officer, Henry Schaad, was killed in an armored truck by a Black sniper that same year.

York was boiling over with antagonism and rage, much like most of America in 2021.

The Old Testament book of Jonah is one of the clearest expressions of God’s love for humanity. While most of the Old Testament is focused on God’s special care for the nation of Israel, Jonah reminds us that God’s love for our neighbors is not a new idea that simply started with Jesus or the New Testament.

As a Dad invested in the future well-being of my six kids, I confess that I am struggling to keep up with the blistering pace of technological advancement.

Where do we turn in our grief to find comfort in the unexplainable losses we endure in life?

There are two titles by CS Lewis that I have commended frequently as a pastor to people journeying through the valley of the shadow of death: A Grief Observed and The Great Divorce.

There are likely good reasons why a departure may be justified. Before you say “I Quit,” perhaps you should ponder if you may need a season to renew your strength.