Sterling Griggs

Man, is it ever raining at my house today. In fact, it's been coming down pretty often the past two days but his morning is what I would call a deluge. You may not be able to find it on any maps, but there is a river in my back yard - we call it the Griggs River. My family was heading to the beach this morning but we are going to wait until this afternoon for the rains to let up. Earlier this year the meteorologists on the TV were bemoaning our dry conditions and the word drought was thrown around a lot. I wonder how this old drought is doing now? Isn't it funny that the news thrives on pessimism? First, they were almost gleeful of the dry conditions and now that we've been soaked they are almost giddy of the flooding that it's caused. That kind of reminds me of how Jesus and His conversations with the religious leaders regarding His ministry. The Pharisees got real mad at Jesus for healing people on the Sabbath (see Luke 13:10-17 & 14:1-6). Their point was...

This past Thursday June 15 at 8:04 p.m. my wife Kellie gave birth to a son Deacon Sindler Griggs. Mom is doing very well and after a precautionary stay in the NICU little Deacon is doing great too and is home with us now. Deacon's two older sisters are delighted to have a little brother and have already proven very helpful around the house. Just in case you're wondering where the name came from, Deacon means "servant" in the Greek language and Sindler is a family name on Kellie's side.

I just returned from the annual Southern Baptist Convention in Greensboro, NC. This was my first time attending one of the national conventions and I have to admit that I went into it with a little bit of skepticism and hesitancy. The reason for my feelings is that I'm not always convinced that this convention - to which I have served and been a member almost my entire life - is leading us in the right direction for the future. This has nothing to do with theology but everything to do with methodology. It helped that I was able to attend some of the Pastor's Conference at the beginning of the convention because it allowed me to hear from some guys that I really admire. Erwin McManus from the Mosaic in California challenged churches to look like the church to the rest of the world. He said that people should be able to tell that we are a body of believers in Christ without having to first read it on our church signs. Nelson Searcy of the Journey in New York City encourag...

I am a big soccer fan and have been waiting for this year's World Cup for some time now. Other than the fact that our US team got waxed yesterday, I have enjoyed every moment of every game that I have been able to watch. This morning I was looking forward to watching the 8:55 a.m. game on ESPN2 so when the time rolled around clicked on the remote. Imagine my surprise when I saw nothing but fuzz on my TV. I tried every TV in the house and the cable was out on all of them. The funny thing about this was that I have a cable modem on my computer and it was working just fine. So, I did what any disgruntled cable subscriber does - I called the cable company's customer support number and got a busy signal. Finally after about 27 tries I got through to an automated system that said there was no cable outage reported in my area. I did not let that litte bit of misinformation deter me. Having been on hold in the past for similar circumstances I pressed the zero on my keypad and ...

Last night after a Wednesday night church meeting a friend of mine approached me in the church parking lot. He told me that earlier in the day a woman whom he did not know called him and asked if he could offer her and her husband some financial assistance. My friend told me that this caught him off guard since he wasn't sure how the woman got his name or why she called him. He agreed to go to her house and when he arrived he saw a sight that moved his soul. The woman who had called him was disabled with severe back problems and her husband was wheelchair-bound with an amputated leg. They were existing on only $600 a month and just recently the power company had shut off their power because they could not pay their bill. When my friend arrived he found them sitting outside because it was too hot in their trailer. This family asked my friend if there was any way that he or anyone else could help them to get their power turned back on. The woman had been calling around all day...

For those precious few that read my blogs, first let me apologize for being such a slacker with my posts. It's not you - it's me. With summer upon us I wanted to start fresh with my blogging and thought that a newer, more readable format would be good to use. I apologize that my links aren't updated yet, but they will be soon. Thanks for hanging with me and as alway I really appreciate any feedback that you can give.