how a Baggins says goodbye

by John Gjertsen on April 2, 2010
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You can grow into people, as Frodo did, or grow away from them, as Bilbo did. As we leave OGC, there is not a trace of staleness or coldness with the relationships we have.

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What it’s like to Goforth

by John Gjertsen on March 15, 2010
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Thirteen years and two months ago, before there was Valor, James, or even Abby Gjertsen, a recent single college graduate Gjertsen had just relocated from Memphis to Orlando, and visited Orlando Grace Church for the very first time (after finding it in the Yellow Pages—how times change!). I remember a lot of things from that [...]

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What an agnostic can teach us about giving

by John Gjertsen on February 10, 2010
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Someone asked last Sunday about the source of my quotation, which I’ll provide here. For those of you that weren’t there, I read an article from an author named A. J. Jacobs, an agnostic who wrote a book about an experiment he undertook to live one year “biblically.” What I found most fascinating about this [...]

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The Most Fun You’ll Ever Have on a “Mission Trip” Without Leaving Orlando

by John Gjertsen on January 28, 2010
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Four years ago, Abby and I made a decision that seemed courageous at the time, but in hindsight seems very easy. We opened up our home for three weeks to Motoi Tanaka, a student on the Mission to Japan Homestay program. Motoi’s English was not wonderful (though it improved dramatically over the month), but we [...]

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friends in adversity

by John Gjertsen on December 13, 2009
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Well, I realize I’m breaking the ice here. Don’t be alarmed. Our church’s blog was intended to have multiple authors. Considering Pastor Curt’s 41 posts so far, it looks like the rest of us are getting lapped! This week I ate lunch at a Chinese restaurant and cracked open my fortune cookie to find: Perhaps [...]

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