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Rambling from Retirement – Join the Flock By Retired Pastor Lee Hemen April 28, 2021 Today as I came home from our Men’s Prayer the birds in my front yard trees were singing so loudly you could hardly hear anything else. They seemed to be just full of the joy of being alive, free, and just being birds. Even though they were not all in sync or in harmony it was wonderful to hear and it got me to thinking about the Psalm we had just read and prayed about as a group of men. The Psalmist writes his listeners to “Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. (Psalms 95:1-3 NIV)” He invited others to join him in a cacophony of singing praises to God simply because He is God. The birds in my trees reminded me of the Psalmist’s words for us to join him in song. Like those birds who sing simply because they are birds ...

Ramblings from Retirement – Don’t follow the flock! By Retired Pastor Lee Hemen April 7, 2021 I was watching a small flock of sparrows in my backyard this morning as they hopped and fluttered around the feeders we have out there and how they would all move at once together. In fact when a raucous blue jay flew in, because it was much larger and scarier, the entire flock took off in a flash of feathers and tweeters. As soon as the blue jay left, they all came back at once. This made think of how a lot of people respond to the world around them; they only react as the rest of the crowd reacts. If it is in fear then they are fearful, if it is to follow some convoluted idea they willingly swallow it, and if the rest of the group does it then they will as well. My mother would ask us as kids when we ignorantly followed the crowd, “If your friends jumped off a bridge would you follow them?” Now I know that God created a natural instinct in those little sparrows to protect them from predators...

How we are to shepherd his flock! – 1 Peter 5:1-11 By Pastor Lee Hemen February 16, 2020 As look for a pastor to lead us it is vital that we find a man who can mentor and mature us as a church until Jesus returns. We live in a world where the church is dismissed, the gospel is seen as a truism, and Jesus as either a myth or at best a “good guy” who taught good stuff. Shepherding the church is tough task in today’s world and we need to look for a man who is up to the task. The title “elder” is used interchangeably for pastor in the New Testament and here in Peter’s letter we find him addressing the early church and its leadership. The church in Peter’s day faced troubling times due to Jewish leadership seeking to destroy the gospel and the Roman authorities who wanted to squash any dissent. The church stood out because its leadership and members were different because of their faith. Shepherding the flock properly was important let’s discover why… READ: 1 Peter 5:1-11 Michael Ray wrote ...