best. party. ever.
07/12 2010 Posted in Archive | 13 comments
So this is the last video in our small group series, “Jesus Throws the Best Parties.” (Click on the Read More at the bottom to see it in a large window). Since the beginning of this little project, our hope has been that this could be a series that could bless other churches, not only RHCC. Because the Richland Hills church has a lot of resources that other churches might not have (like a large video production center) we were hoping to share some of the resources with other churches. READ MORE
Reductionism
04/28 2010 Posted in Archive | 9 comments
The way that our modern world has made such huge leaps through the years has basically been by taking things apart, analyzing them, reducing them to their individual functions to see how they could be manipulated and progress could be made. If you ever dissected a frog in Jr. High, you already know this. And this has been the way we have been taught to see the world. We reduce. We prod. We explain.
I started reading Life of Pi this weekend. I rarely get to read fiction, but I had heard raving reviews about this book from several of my friends, and there’s something about having a newborn in the house that makes one want to go to another world occasionally. The book is written by a guy named Yann Martel, and he made the dangerous, but rewarding decision, to write himself into the story he was telling. READ MORE
The Sound of A Heavy Rain
11/9 2009 Posted in Archive | 0 comments
Idolatry sounds like something so primitive, so primal. But there is a reason that the Scriptures speak so much about the danger of making our own gods. The first commandment is for us to put no gods before the Lord. Martin Luther once said that if we could just keep this commandment, we would never break another one. Here’s what I think he means:
It Happens
So last night I went, for the first time, to Grace Fellowship, a community ministry of the Highland Church. Grace is in a lower socio-economic area of town, and it’s primary goal is to take church to the people. One of my favorite aspects of Grace, is that across the street there is a community garden, where the neighbors can go plant, harvest and eat their own fruit and vegetables.
But that got me thinking.
A Garden is a pretty loaded term in the Bible. It’s our beginning. It’s where everything is as God intended, God’s presence fills the land. But that’s not the story we live in anymore.
During the assembly at Grace, a guy named David was going through the Gospels with everyone. He did a great job of connecting the world of Scripture to the world that we live in.
And that got me thinking.
That’s really the task of preaching isn’t it? Really it’s the task of any kind of gospel story-telling. Trying to move this from past to present. From Word to Flesh. READ MORE
Believing is Seeing
Mark Batterson, in his book Primal, writes about a fascinating study that was done a few years ago. It involved a group of Mexican people who had never been to America and a group of Americans who had never been to Mexico. The researchers gave both groups basically a ViewFinder, it was a machine they could look through that had two different images.
One image was a Mexican Bull-Fighter, it was directed at the right eye. And the other image was an American Baseball game, it was directed at the left eye. And the results were fascinating.
Because both images were shows at the same time the test subjects had to focus in on one or the other. They couldn’t focus on both simultaneously. And the Americans saw the Baseball game, the Mexicans saw the Bullfighter.
They saw what they wanted to see.
Actually, I think you could argue that they saw what they had been preconditioned for, or had categories to see.
In his book, Faith and Doubt, John Ortberg says that everyone has both of these in them. That in reality, nobody is without faith. By the mere fact that we don’t know everything, faith is non-negotiable. But by the same token, so is doubt. READ MORE
Kenosis
When I was in college, I had a Bible professor bring this idea up to me over lunch one day. And I initially thought that he was a heretic. To be fair, I actually assumed that a lot my first two years at Harding. I didn’t understand the tradition that God had given us of being able to wrestle with and question Him. So my first couple of years in school, my major was Witch Hunting. READ MORE
You Are Not Alone
So yesterday was my first sermon to preach as the Highland Preaching minister. It was a day I’ll never forget as both exciting and terrifying,, On many levels, this was a moment that had been a long time in the making.
I remember growing up in my tiny church, Brother Foy used to take me to different churches that he was going to guest speak at. Then at the last moment, right after the last song before he got up, he’d stand up and announce to the congregation that he had brought someone else to speak that morning.
And that speaker was me. READ MORE
The gods in our Image
Last year, I heard a man talk who had done conflict resolution with hundreds of different groups. He had worked with Government officials for foreign nations, multi-million dollar corporations, and some churches. And he said that, by far, the hardest group to help unify in a conflict, was churches.
But what I thought was interesting is why. He said that churches tend to spiritualize their disagreements; they take a position, and then assume that God is on their side. READ MORE
Ordination
I once heard a scholar talk about the way Rabbi’s worked in the world of Jesus. It wasn’t just anyone who could become a Rabbi, you had to really know your stuff. You had to not only have huge chunks of the Hebrew Scriptures memorized, but also had to know how they related and interconnected to each other. But the Rabbi’s that people were really drawn to, were the ones with authority. READ MORE
My name is Jonathan Storment. I am the Preaching Minister at the Highland Church of Christ. I am married to the love of my life, Leslie, since 2003. We have a daughter named Eden, a son named Samuel and a Golden Retriever named Moses. We love reading, traveling, life-affirming movies, happy music, and long meals with good friends. We are passionate about bringing Heaven to Earth and want to follow Jesus while repainting discipleship for those around us. 
