Church safety focus of event
Churches are known as a safe haven for many reasons, but what do people do when that haven becomes part of a crime scene?
Trio of markers set to go up around church
Three Cooper Creek community sites are set to receive state historical markers Sunday. With the markers, the Cooper Creek Baptist Church, Cooper Creek Cemetery and Cooper Creek School will be honored as pillars of the early community and protected because of their significance to the history of Denton County.
After being shot down, pilot relied on faith
Faith kept him alive after his fighter jet was shot down over Bosnia in 1995, Scott O’Grady told a Denton group last week.
Corinth pastor placed on leave after arrest
The Church of Corinth’s lead pastor has been placed on leave after his recent arrest, according to the church.
Pastor free on bail
An area pastor posted bail after spending hours behind bars on a sex-related charge Wednesday night.
Rev. Christy Thomas: The sky is falling
Periodically, I like to tease my Facebook friends with something new to worry about. Things like microscopic bugs in our eyebrows, the probability or possibility of a really large meteor hitting the Earth, and the rise of mosquito-borne dengue fever to rival West Nile and malaria as world health scourges periodically show up on my Facebook page. I would certainly hate for someone to have a worry- and anxiety-free day, after all.
Religion Calendar
To tell us about your event or meeting, visit www.DentonRC.com and click on “Let Us Know” for our online forms; e-mail to drc@dentonrc.com ; fax to 940-566-6888; or mail to Page 2 Calendar, Denton Record-Chronicle, 314 E. Hickory St., Denton, TX 76201.
Rev. Christy Thomas: Varied views of afterlife come with problems
Many of us hold beliefs in an afterlife of some sort. However, we have significant disagreement in how we think that afterlife will work as we hold mutually contradictory descriptions.
Rev. Christy Thomas: What some see as a ‘waste’ oftentimes is anything but
What a waste. Twice a year, a large team of people head to the Texas Youth Correctional facility in Corsicana. There they lose three days and spend a huge amount of money feeding, caring for, speaking with and offering grace and love to some of the incorrigible adolescent males incarcerated there.
Rev. Christy Thomas: True communication takes more than 140 characters
Nick Bilton, young “guru” on the digital age, offered a recent rant in The New York Times about excess text messages, especially ones that say things like “thank you.”Bilton hates wasting even one extra minute on any communication medium that does not serve his immediate purpose.
Argentine Jesuit elected to papacy
In a speedy conclave, Catholic cardinals on Wednesday elected Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina as the first Jesuit pope and the first from the Americas.
Rev. Christy Thomas: Corruption gets in the way of wisdom
Can the morally twisted still recognize and support that which is good? I ask that in light of the upcoming papal election. Now, the former archbishop of Edinburgh, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, has mercifully solved that dilemma for himself.
Rev. Christy Thomas: Hear it again for the first time
On Wednesday afternoons, I spend the 40 most enjoyable minutes and also the 40 most exhausting minutes of my week. That’s when I work with a group of teens who are interested in developing their worship leadership skills. I teach them to read Scripture with good understanding of the text, to lead the congregation in prayer, to handle themselves in front of a group, to breathe properly, and especially to recognize how important their presence and ministry is to the life of the congregation.
Rev. Lloyd Pullam retires after decades of service
After serving as pastor for 25 years at St. Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church in Denton, the Rev. Lloyd Pullam retired last month. Pullam, whose new title is pastor emeritus, has been declining in health since suffering a stroke three years ago.
Rev. Christy Thomas: A time to feast, a time to fast
If every day were Christmas, we’d all be miserable. We’d be stuffed, bored, broke and fractious. Irritations would win the day, and gloom and unfulfilled expectations would slather everyone with despondency.
Rev. Christy Thomas: Clearly wrong
With both horror and fascination, I just finished reading Lawrence Wright’s expose, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief.
Mary McAdams: Teenagers can be nudged to greatness
Beep, beep, beep. The dreaded alarm awakens high school senior Alex Martino at 5 in the morning. Alex has awakened before the crack of dawn to attend an early morning Scripture study. She does this five days a week at 6 a.m., along with about 160 other high school teens in Denton, Aubrey, Decatur, Gainesville and other surrounding areas.
Rev. Christy Thomas: The cleansing plunge
How do you address the suffering that seems to surround us? And especially, how would you address it to a group of people who are convinced that until they attain a certain state of righteousness, they are doomed to endless cycles of being born, suffering, dying and then being born again, dying, suffering, etc.?
Rev. Christy Thomas:Respect for the speck on a speck on a speck
Periodically I need to remind myself of just how unimportant I am. A phrase I’ve heard recently, “We’re just a speck on a speck on a speck,” helps me consider my own insignificance.
Rev. Christy Thomas: Deep therapy would do a world of good
We need therapy. We need deep, freedom-giving healing. Why? Well, let’s take a quick look at a few current situations.
Volunteer’s vision widens
Dreams really do come true. Just ask Denton resident Morgan Taylor, 21, who departed for Africa on Thursday to embark on a four-week journey to assist orphans in remote villages in Uganda. “Last April [2011] I had a dream I was a dance teacher in a Third World country,” Taylor said.
With grace and style
Mark Graham grew up in First Christian Church of Denton. He attended the University of North Texas College of Music, where he earned a degree in piano performance. After graduation, Graham followed his professional music career to New York City, where he was a piano accompanist on Broadway.
Rev. Christy Thomas: Friendly Christmas Advice Column, Part 2
Dear Friendly: Was Jesus really born on Dec. 25? All these songs about snow and cold and shepherds sleeping outside in the fields in icy winter don’t make sense to me.
Rev. Christy Thomas: Advice for Advent
Dear Christmas Advice-Giver: Why are some of the religious Christmas carols so sad when this is the season of happiness?
Honoring history
St. Andrew Presbyterian Church members sang in unison at the beginning of their morning worship services Sunday, sharing a harmony founded 150 years ago.
The Rev. Christy Thomas: Santa a fun fable, but God a whole other story
I love Christmas music. The great hymns and classical pieces fill my soul and some of the other lighter pieces add a nice touch of frivolity to the season. But I have one major gripe. A few days ago, I was idly listening to some Christmas music on TV while halfway engaged in another task.
Rev. Christy Thomas: Give smarter: Treat the cause, not just the symptoms
Above all, do no harm. The idea of “doing no harm” underlies many important service traditions. The Hippocratic Oath, often taken by students upon graduating from medical school, reads in part: “I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.”
Rev. Christy Thomas: We must choose to be part of healing, learning process
The word “normal” will be a long time returning to those in the path of Superstorm Sandy last week. Lives were lost, many made homeless, power is slow to be restored in multiple areas, schools disorganized and mud and debris cover formerly lovely neighborhoods.
Pair to get commissions during church services
Kevin and Sharon Scheible will be commissioned at the 8:45 and 11 a.m. services Sunday at Southmont Baptist Church, 2801 Pennsylvania Drive in Denton.
Rev. Christy Thomas: Good life requires connections
I recently read a compelling article about longevity in The New York Times Magazine, drawn into the beauty of the life of people on the Greek island of Ikaria. Dan Buettner, the writer of “The Island Where People Forget to Die,” has been seeking to find the key to their extraordinarily long lives.
Rev. Christy Thomas: Contentment offers freedom
It’s old news that Lance Armstrong did indeed dope his way to his multiple Tour de France victories. His titles have been stripped from him. Future generations will know him as yet one more infamous athlete who broke the rules to win and later was disgraced when the violations became known.
