Pastor Craig’s Corner
Rev. Dr. Craig M. Watts was born in Detroit, Michigan. He attended college at the University of Michigan where he directed a campus ministry. Craig earned his Master’s of Divinity and his Master’s of Science in Human Development Counseling at Vanderbilt University. Craig earned his Doctorate of Ministry at Boston University. He was ordained as a Christian Church (DOC) minister in 1980. He served churches in Oklahoma, Illinois, and Kentucky prior to his move to Coral Springs, FL in 2000.
Preaching, teaching, and compassionate outreach are the cornerstones of Craig’s ministry. Of these, preaching is his central passion and purpose. He is dedicated to offering meaningful and useful sermons to teach and to witness. Several dozen of his sermons have been published in leading professional journals for ministers and in several resource books. Further he has had numerous essays published in religious magazines and academic journals, and he has had two books published, Disciples of Peace (Indianapolis: Doulous Christou Press, 2005) and Bowing Toward Babylon (WIPF and STOCK Publishers, 2017).
In addition to caring for the needs of his congregation, Craig endeavors to be involved in various community ministries including a number of ecumenical events throughout the year. He is a strong advocate for peace and justice. Most recently he has spent a great deal of time fighting against laws that detrimentally impact the homeless that have been put into effect in Ft Lauderdale and regularly participates in feedings that take place downtown. He has served on the board of the Disciples Peace Fellowship, the oldest denominationally related peace organization in America, for many years, and he regularly contributes to the Shalom Vision blog on their website.
“If we follow Jesus, then our voices should be the first raised for peace and the last to stop resisting war and all forms of violence.”
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What is at stake in this issue is, above all, not the Second Amendment but human life. And when human life is at stake that makes the issue a moral and spiritual matter, not primarily a political one.
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Without hope there is little reason to get out of bed. Hope keeps us moving. Life without hope is like staring at a blank wall. Without hope we won’t start a project, begin a relationship, or take on a cause. Hope is what moves us forward and inspires us to keep going even when we face disappointments and frustrations.
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This coming Sunday we begin the celebration of the last week of the earthly life of Jesus. As Christians we believe that no other week in human history is so important. Palm Sunday brings our minds back to the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem with the shouts of praise and acclaim from the crowds. From all appearances, Jesus was a success.
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There are a lot of ways to be struck. We can be struck in traffic. We can be stuck in relationships. We can be stuck in jobs. The list goes on. And when we are stuck we may begin to feel hopeless. We may choose to do pretty much nothing. Or we can do something. It might not be what you planned to do. But if we do nothing we can be certain that nothing will change. We’ll just continue being stuck.
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We want to think of ourselves as good persons and good Christians. But occasionally we have to give up some things we value in order for our goodness to be genuine.
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Sometimes small changes make a great deal of difference. For instance, we have about 90% of the same genes as cats and over 98% of the same genes as chimpanzees. But those little differences matter a lot…
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Growing a healthy faith takes some effort. It doesn’t happen automatically. Among the things needed for a healthy faith is a mind that is faithfully informed. Jesus said we are to love God with our mind (Luke 10:27). Of course that starts with being engaged in Bible study, above all in the study of the Gospels. But it is also important to read good Christian literature.
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Once a man had been called to be a witness during a trial. He was told to step forward and place his hand on the Bible. Then he was asked, “Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?” He replied, “If I could tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth I’d be God!”
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No Room at the Inn Often when the story of the birth of Jesus is told, the innkeeper is given a bad rap. He turned Mary and Joseph away because there was no room at the inn. But the scriptures do not say the Innkeeper himself was hard-hearted or insensitive…
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