by Andrew Beard | Dec 15, 2025 | Words from Pastor Andrew
The other day, my teen and preteen boys got into a scuffle… you know… like brothers often do. And one of them hit the other in the face.
The one who got hit winced and said,
“Ah! You hit me in the eye. I saw a glint of light.”
Now, obviously, I’m against violence. I hate when my kids scuffle. I do not think attacking one another is a helpful solution, whether in words or actions.
But do you know what I was proud of in that moment?
My son used the phrase “glint of light.”
When is the last time you used the word glint? Probably not recently… and definitely not as your first response to an injury.
But do you know why he said that word?
Because it’s one of his vocab words right now. He’s been studying it, so much so that it’s steeped into his life and flowed out of him naturally.
by Andrew Beard | Dec 9, 2025 | Words from Pastor Andrew
In the silly Christmas movie Spirited, starring Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell, we get a modern riff on the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. It’s a ridiculous and funny adaptation set to music and dancing. It’s PG-13, so I am by no means suggesting you sit down with the whole family to watch it, but there are some really clever and lovely moments.
by Andrew Beard | Dec 2, 2025 | Words from Pastor Andrew
This is the season of Advent. I know for most of us, we just think of it as Christmas, but Advent is a season of waiting, a season of preparation, where our hearts and minds lean into the need for our coming King. We anticipate His arrival just as our ancient brothers and sisters did 2,000 years ago.
And yes, this season means all the extra things: desserts, hot cocoa, calories, Christmas gatherings, presents, debt, Mariah Carey, and more… but also the onslaught of terrible Christmas movies.
I know some of you love these things… specifically my wife… but I cannot stand them. They are so bad.
by Andrew Beard | Nov 21, 2025 | Words from Pastor Andrew
I’ve only been pulled over by the police a handful of times, and almost all of them have been while traveling for Thanksgiving. I’ll spare you every detail…but once in college I got pulled over after I had already pulled over because there was no rest stop for many, many miles. Turns out you can’t use the side of the road as a “comfort station,” even in the middle of nowhere, Texas.
While they had us pulled over, they became suspicious that my brother and I had stolen our car…because we had driver’s licenses from one state and plates from another.
Listen, I’ve never stolen a car, but if I did, it definitely wouldn’t be a salmon-colored 1994 Ford Escort Station Wagon.
My friends called it the Salmon Wagon.
My dad called its color “Tucson Bronze.”
by Andrew Beard | Nov 10, 2025 | Words from Pastor Andrew
When I was a kid, I was super into David Copperfield. In case you don’t know who he is, he was the illusionist of the 80s and early 90s. My family would gather around the TV to watch him make the Statue of Liberty disappear, levitate over the Grand Canyon, escape Alcatraz, all with dramatic music and flowy 80s shirts.
He’s the reason my brothers and I got into magic when we were kids. We’d buy magic kits, learn card tricks, and even take illusion classes at the community college. But here’s what I discovered: once you pull back the curtain and see how the trick works, you realize it’s not actually “magic”, it’s just a series of thoughtful steps to achieve an outcome. Knowing how it works doesn’t ruin the wonder; it just deepens your appreciation.
That’s kind of how studying Scripture works.
by Andrew Beard | Oct 31, 2025 | Words from Pastor Andrew
When I was a kid, I remember putting on a pair of khaki pants and a green button-up, looking in the mirror, and thinking, I look like Jack Colton from Romancing the Stone.
Now, if you don’t remember that 1984 Rom-Com adventure classic with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner… that’s okay. You’ll be just fine.
I loved that movie, and others like it, Indiana Jones and The Goonies. Over the years, that love for adventure films has carried through to National Treasure, Uncharted, and Fountain of Youth.
There’s just something about the idea that ordinary people can get swept up into something extraordinary. One minute they’re doing normal life; the next, they’re exploring ancient mysteries, uncovering hidden truths. Don’t we all want to be swept up in something exciting? And by “swept up in something exciting,” of course I mean watching other people be swept up while we’re comfortably at home.
