I will fully admit to being in denial that this Sunday is Rebecca Maze’s last one as Live Oak’s Director of Music. She has been such a part of Live Oak, here for 27 years! During that time, her role grew, as she served as … read more.
It’s kind of difficult to look too far in the future right now, when we don’t even know what life will be like in February. But sometimes, an event is so momentous, we need to give it its proper attention well in advance.
This October, Live … read more.
For those on Facebook, all of sudden, we were seeing colored squares everywhere.
Our friends, one by one, and then in a deluge, were suddenly all posting incomprehensible things that looked like this:
Wordle 206 3/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
The blocks of colors were usually different, but all in … read more.
A question that is often posed to churches to try and move them out of focusing only on their member-centered programs is “If your church closed down tomorrow, would anyone outside of the church even notice?”
We got a partial answer to this during our … read more.
On Saturday, Dec. 11, Santa Claus came to town, and specifically to Live Oak. And on Tuesday, Dec. 14, members gathered in the sanctuary for the Blue Christmas Vespers to give witness to the other side of the emotional coin.
Santa visited with children and … read more.
Reader, I will confess. I literally hugged the pulpit last week. It felt SO good to be back in the sanctuary!
Everything went well, and the joy in being together was enhanced even further with live music by Julianne Knott, Darja Tomanovic, Alyssa Goss, Elizabeth Maze, … read more.
This Sunday, per the Risk-Based Staging (see below grid) recommended by the Safety Team and adopted by the Board, and the current staging for Austin, we will be returning to indoor in-person worship services at Live Oak, with livestreaming of the 9:30 service.
We … read more.
We have moved from “Be patient, we’re almost there” to “Let’s make hay while the sun shines.”
There is no space for Monday morning quarterbacking in the pandemic. Every day is new. There are no experts in how to “do pandemic” outside of the scientific aspect. … read more.
Deadline: Sunday, Dec. 19
Religious historian and writer Diana Butler Bass has been talking about how after the 1918 pandemic, churches didn’t write anything about their experience. It’s like they just wanted to move on and forget about it.
I know we’re not at the end … read more.
I have spoken, preached actually, against making gratitude an empty, forced ritual. Because sometimes, we need to be able to admit that things are difficult or painful.
But I have begun making gratitude a daily practice and have discovered that it is helping me wake … read more.
