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I have bad luck with neighbors. The first apartment I ever rented was a basement in Bloomington, Indiana. I found out on the day I moved in that the 1st and 2nd floors were occupied by a brass …
Continue readingI have bad luck with neighbors. The first apartment I ever rented was a basement in Bloomington, Indiana. I found out on the day I moved in that the 1st and 2nd floors were occupied by a brass …
Continue readingToday is my friend John’s birthday. He was 83 when he died on September 7, the same day as Andy’s dad. John was the most unassuming person you would ever meet, though he had advanced degrees in many different subject …
Continue readingThree years ago, on Epiphany, I received a little wooden star. Shelly had created a whole basket of them as a reminder of the magi following the light to Jesus. On each star she had written a different word or …
Continue readingEvery year, around the world, people remember it. Palm Sunday. The day Jesus goes on a little ride into the city, a journey that changes everything. You may have had some of those–times of traveling a road or two that …
Continue readingDuring the weekend of March 11-13, UCG planned and hosted a community-wide symposium, “Understanding Racial Disparity in Alachua County.” Our guest preacher for the Sunday services was the Rev. Dr. Everett Mitchell, pastor of Christ the Solid Rock Baptist Church …
Continue readingAndy Bachmann reflects on a passage from J. Phillip Newell’s book, “Sounds of the Eternal,” which begins, “In the Gift of This New Day.” In his reflection, Andy answers the cliff-hanger question he posed in January of, “what are the …
Continue readingNote: The sermon references ‘desire paths,’ which I explained earlier in the service. They are the trails that mark frequent foot traffic. They usually represent the shortest route to a destination and often cut across or go around the designed …
Continue readingA highlight of this past fall was being invited to the courthouse to say a prayer at the ceremony that welcomed new citizens to the United States. I loved watching the hopeful, beautiful, colorful faces of the 60 plus people …
Continue readingOn February 14, Andy Bachmann preached “The Soundtrack of Our Lives” as we began our new theme, We Make The Road By Walking. …
Continue readingThis is a very simple sermon, which can be summed up in three words that we’ve already said maybe a dozen times this morning: let it shine. When I hear those words, there’s an image from my life that frequently …
Continue readingAndy Bachmann lifts up the challenge of “Being Somebody” in the face of a world of growing doubt and distress. “Rise up! The Matter is in Your Hands!” …
Continue readingThey name the realities, do these prophets, Amos and Hosea, Langston Hughes and Martin Luther King, the realities are called out, sobbed and spoken and shouted. It is not so much that they prophesy as in foretelling, though often the …
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