Recently, as my wife and I pulled out of a local mall onto the main thoroughfare, a small group of people was on the sidewalk exercising their civil rights by expressing their displeasure with a noted politician through signs and chants. While I sympathized with the group’s point of view and am grateful for the freedom of assembly and free speech afforded to us in the United States, I was dismayed by their attitude and approach.

Though I couldn’t hear the chants well over the traffic noise, the signs the group held made their agenda and attitude crystal clear. Rather than slogans like “Make love, not war.” or “Down with this and up with that.”, their message was simply “F so and so.” While I believe there is a time for what today is commonly called “Real Talk,” I also think the manner of our talk and action matters. As we turned toward the freeway, I couldn’t help but think that rather than persuading people to their point of view, the group’s approach was more likely to harden the posi...

Spring highlights nature’s generosity. Or, rather, God’s generosity through nature, as the harshness and hiddenness of winter give way to the abundance of spring's flora and fauna before the dryness of summer and the fall of autumn. Spring celebrates beauty, excess and liberality. If one poppy is beautiful, why not one hundred or one thousand? Spring is an annual reminder through nature of God’s abundant goodness and generosity toward all he has made, including and especially you and me – and even our neighbors, who we may or may not appreciate. As the scripture affirms, the rain falls “on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45).

The word "generous" shares the same root as "genesis," referring to "birth" and "beginnings." Its earliest usage dates to the 16th century, when it was used to describe someone of noble birth or high-born qualities. By the 17th century, however, to be generous came to refer not to one’s bloodline, but to the virtues of liberality and unselfishness tha...

In 1909, a small but growing group of congregational believers, after meeting for some time in various locations, including private homes and the Baldridge Opera House, (which in recent years was Por Favor Mexican Restaurant and is now Hacienda Cazadores on the corner of La Mesa Blvd. and Palm), broke ground for what would become La Mesa Central Congregational Church near the corner of Lemon and Third Street. The two-story building, comprising a large meeting room, kitchen, and storage room on the lower floor, and a small chapel and multipurpose room on the upper floor, opened its doors for regular Sunday services and other events in February of 1911. Rev. Charles Hill, who had been serving as a congregational missionary to the Hawaiian Islands, was called back to the mainland to be the first pastor of Central Congregational Church in their new building.

God blessed this original group of CCCers, and as they grew in number, plans were made for a new building; this time for a true sanctu...