By Alex Anderson – Senior Associate Pastor at Bayside Community Church- It’s 6:43 am and the sun is almost crested above the mountain just to the east of the Red Berry Bed and Breakfast here in Mbabane, Swaziland. The sun’s rays are beginning to bounce off the mountain ridges north and east of me. When the sun reaches where I’m …

By Alex Anderson, Senior Associate Pastor at Bayside Community Church – At a recent men’s gathering, I was asked to share some of my journey in ministry – specifically on sacrifice. At first I thought about the decades of long hours and little sleep, extending a helping hand to the helpless, working with bread crumbs for resources, but then it …

By Alex Anderson Senior Associate Pastor at Bayside Community Church Not long ago I asked my wife a drilling question, “What would be the most important advice you could give to another person who ‘just found out’ that they had cancer?”  She went completely silent for a few moments, then looked straight into my eyes and without a hint of …

By Alex Anderson – Senior Associate Pastor at Bayside Community Church – Not long ago I was having a meal with a friend of mine who happens to be a very well educated and respected mental health therapist in another city. Since he is a Christ-follower I asked him, as we were finishing up our lunch, “How may I pray …

By Alex Anderson – Senior Associate Pastor at Bayside Community Church – For years every time I would hear or read the story of the Prodigal Son it would bother me. I understood the facts of the story. It was clear that one son, the younger, asked his father (in an untimely manner) to give him his share of the …

By Alex Anderson – Senior Associate Pastor at Bayside Community Church- Recently I was in Scottsdale, Arizona for a class and while there I decided to stay over a few days for a short personal retreat; time spent resting, reading and praying. The classes were long, 12-hour days, and by the last day I was exhausted to say the least. …

By Alex Anderson – Senior Associate Pastor at Bayside Community Church – Henry killed people…for a living. Oh, it was perfectly legal. He worked for the government. His specially trained unit could get in and out almost without a sound. No weapons fired and no sensational acrobatics or choreographed Kung Fu moves, just the silent taking of another human being’s …

By Alex Anderson Senior Associate Pastor at Bayside Community Church – I must admit that sometimes, for fun, I enjoy reading the “Artemis Fowl” book series by Eoin Colfer which was in fact written for children. Mr. Colfer has done a masterful job at developing his characters. In my opinion he has done an especially good job with the sordid …

By Alex Anderson – Senior Associate Pastor at Bayside Community Church I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, but my mom is an incredible Monopoly player. I mean she is phenomenal. And one of the things I enjoyed growing up was sitting at the kitchen table. I’m not just talking about Mom’s amazing cooking. I loved the kitchen table because …

By Alex Anderson Senior Associate Pastor at Bayside Community Church – John and Martha were small town, Kansas farmers. John, the only son of an only son didn’t have any children. They were very successful and had about a dozen people working for them. Both were very involved in their church. They loved God. When they weren’t working on the …