Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ

Preached by Winton Boyd on September 23rd, 2007
Text: Matthew 6 (see end of sermon)

As a young parent with growing children we faced one of life’s daily dilemmas, and the source of many great family squabbles. “Who has to sit in the middle of the back seat of the car between their two siblings.” For reasons that children throughout the ages have known, our children quickly surmised that sitting by the door was far more fun. Sitting in the front was even more fun, but somewhat dependent on if both mom and dad were in the car, or on the even more rare occasion, might be venturing to the back seat themselves. I always took comfort when I saw, and heard, other families squabbling in parking lots at the grocery store, at church, at school, leaving friends’ homes, and at the doctor’s office. Continue Reading »

Preached by Winton Boyd on September 16th, 2007
Text: Acts 5

One of our pleasures and sorrows as parents has been taking our oldest son to college. As Tammy and I took him up for his second year, it was fun to think back to his first year. Like many students, he did not know his roommate prior to arriving on campus as a freshman – a roommate he didn’t share much in common with. As we were driving up for year two, I couldn’t help but remember the line that late night comedian Conan O’Brien shared at a commencement speech a year ago – “Be warned, everyone (at college) has a weird roommate. If you don’t have a weird roommate, then you’re the weird roommate.”

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Preached by Winton Boyd on September 9, 2007
Several years ago, I was visiting a retired pastor who was dying in the hospital. He was a sweet, generous, and caring man. For a number of years, we both had shared the struggle of Alzheimer’s – he with his wife, and me with my mother. In fact, his wife had died only a few months earlier.

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On September 9th, Sunday School for children through 6th grade resumes at 9:00 a.m.  These reflections are from our Interim Pastor for Children and Youth and Families, the Rev. Tammy Martens.

A Wonderful Discovery: The Way of the Child

“In helping the child’s religious life, far from imposing something that is foreign to him, we are responding to the child’s silent request: ‘Help me to come closer to God by myself.’”
–Sofia Cavelletti, The Religious Potential of the Child

“It always amazes me to think that even the tiniest acorn holds everything in it needed to develop into the grandest oak tree. However, the acorn will never become all that it was created to become if it lands on some cold, concrete sidewalk where it is crushed under someone’s boot. It must be planted in the kind of soil which will provide the nutrients to its becoming.”
–Killian Noe, Finding Our Way Home

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