Recently, I had the privelage and opportunity to address the members of Clarity Church in Minnesota. I am super grateful. And I want to share that video with you. I have included the transcript below it.

Clarity Church in Brooklyn Park, MN – Following God’s Plan

Intro:  Good morning. I thank you for the privilege and honor of speaking today.

I have been up here a few times and I normally have a pattern I like to follow. I like spoilers, in this context, I like to give you a heads-up on what I will be talking about. I’ll do that quickly this morning.

We’ll start with a prayer, then I will summarize where we are so far with a … Click to Continue →

I was grateful to be given the opportunity to be the guest speak at Clarity Church for their “Written In Red” series last month. I have included it here with the transcript below it.

Clarity Church: Written In Red: Child Like Faith

Greeting

Good Morning everyone. If you haven’t met me or don’t know much about me, I am Gary Cartagena. If you are tongue challenged, and can’t roll your R’s, it can also be pronounced Car-Ta-Hay-Na. I am one of the co-leaders of the Plymouth Community group with my wife, Debbie.

Spoiler Alert

I think part of me does that because I like to understand where the journey is going to take me, but if I … Click to Continue →

I must confess, sometimes, I struggle with the call that people have to “stir up trouble” with different “social justice” issues.
It’s not that I don’t believe in equality, love, and equal justice for all… In fact in my younger days I experienced more than a few instances of prejudice to say the least, having grown up a military brat, and Hispanic.
But I think the pure stupidity of the overexcessive “Karen-isms” of what has become known as cancel culture and such, had left a bad taste in my mouth… And as older adults we ( or at least I ) tried to let things go and move on as we mature and grow “wiser”. Or maybe I’m just internally jaded.

But … Click to Continue →