Posts by Kyle Lewis (Page 2)
Ask The Pastor: Why does Island Pond celebrate Satan’s holiday?
Ask The Pastor: Why does Island Pond celebrate Satan’s holiday? This past week I was stopped before the service and asked this question. The reason this person asked is because we do an outreach close to Halloween called Trunk or Treat. While we do not mention anything about Halloween at the event, any reasonable person can put “two and two” together when it is within a week of Halloween, people dress up, and candy is given out. But this begs…
Ask the pastor: What’s the difference between the United Methodists and Southern Baptists?
Ask the pastor: What’s the difference between the United Methodists and Southern Baptists? This is a timely question as a number of people have recently left United Methodist churches (UMC) and some are ending up at Southern Baptist churches (SBC). This begs the question… what are the differences between the two denominations? Before I got this question, I did not know a ton about the UMC so I had to do some research and below is what I found. But…
The Four Hardest Jobs In The World
I want to quote an article I read on the four hardest jobs in the world. You can read this article here. Mike O’Dell of the York Baptist Association writes: In his book, “By The Stream,” Monty Hale quotes leadership guru Peter Drucker, saying that the four toughest jobs in America are: president of the United States, a hospital administrator, a university president, and the pastor of a local church. Are you surprised by number four? I mean, just how difficult…
Ask The Pastor: Is it okay for a youth pastor to watch inappropriate movies with his sister?
Question: Is it okay for a youth pastor to watch movies of violence, sex, assault and anything of the like with his sister? Thanks for your question! Back in 2020 I answered the question, “Is it a sin to watch R rated movies?” and that answer has a lot of similarities to the answer I will give you. The short version of this previous Ask The Pastor question is this: The Bible doesn’t specify which ratings we should be watching…
Let’s Stay Focused
The olympics have been going on the past couple of weeks and as I have watched parts of them I can’t help but admire the ability of these athletes! Swimmers have sped through the water, gymnasts have performed all sorts of amazing jumps, twists, and moves, runners have sprinted across the track. All of it has been super impressive. The current olympics became even more impressive when I came across a video from one that took place about 100 years…
Our Adult Christmas Choir 2023
Today the adult choir sang and they did an amazing job! I wanted to share it for everyone to enjoy. Next week our children perform their Christmas play, so stay tuned!
Britney Spears on Abortion
Yesterday I finished reading Britney Spears’ biography, The Woman In Me. You may be wondering, “Why is a pastor reading Britney Spears’ biography?” My answer would be, “Because I love reading biographies!” I am about the same age as Britney so I was certainly aware of her growing up. Her type of music was not the type that I listened (or currently listen) to, so I am mainly reading out of interest about her life. I find famous people interesting!…
Island Pond was featured on the Baptist Press
The Baptist Press wrote a very nice article about Island Pond the other day! Here is one part of the article: Talking about spiritual things is especially difficult in Hampstead, a town 45 minutes north of Boston, because New Hampshire and neighboring Massachusetts are the least religiously-inclined states in the nation, the pastor said, citing a Pew Research Center study. “New Englanders are very independent, so the idea of attending a church is a challenge for a lot of people,”…
What’s on my desktops?
What exactly does a pastor do during the week? While no week is the same, I want to give you a look at my six desktops on my computer so you can see what I am up to. Keep in mind my job goes beyond a computer. I meet with people, attend meetings online and in-person, do projects at the church, lead staff and volunteers, and do many other “off-computer” activities. However, a look at the desktops will give you…
Ask The Pastor: Can people who actively pursue a sinful lifestyle become members of a church?
Ask The Pastor: Can people who actively pursue a sinful lifestyle become members of a church? In the last blog I talked about the balance between loving people while also protecting the purity of the church. In this blog, I’m going to look at this from a different perspective: church membership. Can a person who is actively, blatantly pursuing a sinful lifestyle still become a member of a church? Or what should be done about a current member who is…
Ask The Pastor: How can the church be loving to sinners while also protecting its purity?
How can the church be loving to sinners while also protecting its purity? This question came to me specifically in the context of someone that is in an active gay relationship that wants to be involved in the church. However, as we will see, the answer is the same for any person that is involved in intentional, public, unrepentant sin. So whether we are talking about a person that is actively involved in a relationship with someone of the same…