God Empty Me, Fill Me With You

Devotional, Rev. John Wayne McMann

“A farmer is helpless to grow grain; all he can do is provide the right conditions for the growing of grain. He cultivates the ground, he plants the seed, he waters the plants, and then the natural forces of the earth take over and up comes the grain…This is the...

Prodigal, Broken, and Alone

Devotional, Rev. John Wayne McMann

The prodigal son is a parable that is well known to the Christian and probably to the non-Christian as well. I think this story, told by Jesus, is one of the more famous narratives of God’s love and grace—probably because of the radical love put on display by the...

Where God Teaches Us to Have Hope Beyond…

Rev. John Wayne McMann

By now, you might have heard someone at the church mention this new phase of hurricane relief that we are calling Hope Beyond Harvey. Leadership knew that 10 months (and counting) removed from the hurricane that there were still major ways that our congregation could...

Hawaiian Bread and Irreverent Messes

Rev. John Wayne McMann

The other day, my wife was preparing to leave the house with our son Luke. As she started to sit him into his car seat she found something odd hiding under the padding of the chair near the straps. What she found was a chunk of Hawaiian Bread that looked as if it was...

Our Watermark

Easter, Rev. John Wayne McMann

We just celebrated another Easter and it was once again full with Holy Week services, bouncy houses, and egg hunts. Though there was much familiarity, there was also a different urgency to worship and the triumph of an empty tomb. To say that the past year has been...

What If…

Devotional, Rev. John Wayne McMann, What if

By Rev. John Wayne McMann “What if…?” This phrase can drip with fear or doubt. What if I fail? What if I lose my job? What if I look stupid? What if no one likes me? However, this phrase can also be saturated in hope and optimism. It can be the first few words of a...