News & Updates

Miriam Webster just named “surreal” their word of the year for 2016. Makes sense, doesn’t it? A reality TV star became president. The Cubs won the world series. The Cleveland Cavaliers won their first ever NBA championship. Debbie Reynolds died just one day after her daughter, Carrie Fisher (aka Princess Leia) passed. The DOW is hovering around the 20,000 mark for the first time ever, and Brexit really happened. These facts are just the tip of an approaching iceberg making…

Dear CCC Friends, Thanks to you, the Gospel continues to pour out from our church. Thanks to your generosity, many messy people are being redeemed and restored. Jason came to us from California. Because of his own horrific meth addiction, Jason has been estranged from his wife and two kids. However, Jason is now 90 days clean. He is signed up for our Construction Ready class in February. Jason is interning at The Collective’s Independent Work Program. He just got…

    More than ever before, I really need Christmas. Yesterday I watched the shocking video of a young assassin shooting a Russian ambassador. The killer defiantly yelled terroristic threats while waving his gun. A truck barreled into hundreds of shoppers at a Berlin outdoor Christmas market. Twelve people were slaughtered. Another fifty were injured and traumatized. I keep seeing images of busloads of refugees being removed from Aleppo, Syria. Many are orphans whose parents were killed in the battle…

My two high school kids play in a top-notch orchestra called The Hillgrove Mastery Orchestra. They’re really good. The pieces they play are quite complicated and engaging. What a bunch of high schoolers can do is nothing short of amazing. At concerts, I like what their orchestra teacher, Mr. Doke, does before most songs. He explains what you’re about to hear. Some, perhaps, would complain about the need to explain a song before it’s played. If it needs some ‘esplainin’……

Nobody loves warm and fuzzy more than my wife, Sherry.  She has a high standard of soft.  Blankets and towels must be luxuriously fluffy, sheets must have high thread counts, and socks and sweaters must be silky smooth to meet her standards for tactile delight. She associates Christmas  with those warm and fuzzy sensations she loves.  Sipping hot cocoa indoors while watching snow falling outside is nirvana for Sherry.  A Christmas tree lovingly decorated with sentimental ornaments gives her a…

“We need to talk.”  Those can be ominous words, can’t they?  When a boss, a spouse, a fiancé, a teacher, a lawyer, or a pastor says, “We need to talk,” you’d rather go for a pumpkin spice latte instead. On Sunday, we’re back in our “God in the Shadows” series.  We’re making our way through the incredible book of Romans.  I have been excited to teach the particular passage slated for Sunday.  Romans 8 is a classic.  Some think the…

“Go big or go home” is fun to say but maybe a bit frustrating to live.  Scotty McCreery wrote a book with the same title.  The subtitle reads: “The journey towards the dream.”  GBOGH initially pumps me up but is a hard motivation to sustain. A mere 6% of high school seniors (1 in 16) will play football in college. Only 1.7% of senior football players in college (1 in 50) will get drafted by a National Football League team.  This…

God’s Will Is this God’s will?  I’m sure you’ve either asked or thought this universal question. I wonder if our daughter, Morgan, asked this when we said her Saturday night curfew was 10:00 p.m.  What if Morgan rebelled and cried, “How could a ten o’clock curfew be the will of God?  Show me where a ten o’clock curfew is in the Bible!”    What would you say as a parent? I would say, “Yep, this is the will of God.  By…

 ONE SUNDAY My office phone beeped from our front receptionist. “Alan, there’s a Mr. Derkens on the line. He says he’s speaking Sunday?” “Hmmm…” I thought to myself. “Derkens? I don’t know any Derkens. And besides, Dr. Perkins is speaking this Sunday. Waaaaiiiit! It’s Dr. Perkins!” We had put our very special guest speaker on hold for far too long. “Dr. Perkins!” I gushed. “It’s really good to talk with you…” An hour later I was more excited about ONE…