October Youth Update

We have shifted into HIGH GEAR and are off to a flying start of a new church & school year. We are meeting EVERY Sunday evening @ 6:00 and we want you there! Come join us for fellowship, fun, games, food, prayer and the Word of GOD. We are presently discussing & learning about the “Circle of Prayer” and its application of our daily life. 6th & 7th grade boys meet after school on Tuesday every week. With a new year, it’s important that you complete the 2013-2014 permission slip, which covers activities, trips, and van riding for the whole year. They were sent to everyone, but let us know if you need one. Thanks!

Our quest to raise the funds for Winter Retreat in January and the International Youth Convention in Nashville next summer has begun. After a very successful Mum Sale, we are moving on to a “Baked Potato” supper on Wednesday, October 9th (next week) and a Gift Card sale in the latter half of October. Gift cards are easy and contribute a % of money for each one sold. They don’t have to be for gifts because you can purchase gas cards, grocery cards, haircut cards, restaurant cards, shopping cards and the list goes on. We all know items we will be purchasing – with the cards you just plan ahead and help the youth. Olive’s Yard is also going to need raking soon, plus we are tentatively selling Poinsettia’s & Wreaths for Christmas. Meanwhile, collect the pop cans & bottles; they bring in change to us in big ways.

We will be having a “Swimming Party” for all youth 6th grade – college on Sunday, October 13th @ 3:00 PM. The van will leave the church @ 2:30 PM. There will be food & games following the swimming @ church then regular Sunday night youth meeting. We will be going “Bowling” on November 16, packing “Community Thanksgiving” groceries on November 24 and a “Christmas Party” on December 15. There will be NO youth on Sunday, November 10th because Pastor Jerry & Connie will be attending their granddaughter’s baby dedication in Holland, MI.

We have two Big Events to register for in December. Winter Retreat is the weekend of January 10-12, 2014. A $50 registration is due to the state office by Wednesday, December 4th. To accommodate that due date, we will need your $50 and confirmation of attendance by Sunday, November 30. Registration can take place after that date, but it costs more and the registrations are limited this year. Tommee Profitt will be the band along with Michael Thigpen as the speaker.

The second registration is the Early Bird Bonus Registration for the International Youth Convention in Nashville, TN on July 5–8, 2014. The cost is $115 and must be postmarked by December 12, 2013. Registration will continue, but the cost increases at different due dates. The Speakers, Worship Leaders and Christian Bands haven’t been announced but they will be “Big Names.” There will be many discussions about raising the funds for food, lodging and transportation.

The Guatemalan Team has been registered and they will begin monthly meetings in October. We have a team of 16 from 4 churches (mostly Mt. Haley) and will be going February 8–15, 2014. Thank you for your support.

We are anticipating a great year in the history of the Mt. Haley Youth Ministry. We want everyone to know that our ultimate desire is for each youth of Mt. Haley to accept and develop a relationship with Jesus Christ and to grow spiritually every day of his or her life. We have adapted seven spiritual growth principles (adapted from Andy Stanley) that we will work to develop in our youth. They are:

Authentic Faith: Are our kids trusting God with the critical areas of their lives? (Proverbs 3:5-6)
Spiritual Disciplines: Are our kids developing a consistent devotional and prayer life? (Romans 12:2)
Moral Boundaries: Are our kids establishing and maintaining Godly moral boundaries? (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8)
Healthy Friendships: Are our kids establishing healthy friendships and avoiding unhealthy ones? (Proverbs 12:20)
Wise Choices: Are our kids making wise choices in every area of their lives? (Ephesians 5:15-17)
Ultimate Authority: Are our kids submitting to the authorities God has placed over them? (Romans 13:1-2)
Others First: Are our kids putting the needs of others ahead of their own? (Philippians 2:3-11)

With that in mind, parents and church, your prayers, support and encouragement are greatly appreciated, and we look forward every week to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with our students through interaction, study, fellowship and relationship. Thank you for sharing your son or daughter.

Love God, Love People!

Blessings,
Pastor Jerry

Changing Colors

It’s that time of year again – those few weeks, here in central Michigan, during which millions of leaves change color and fall to the ground. This could cause a number of reactions within you: anticipation of the winter months that lie ahead; excitement for the prospect of earning money by raking leaves; or simply amazement at the colorful beauty of the earth.

I have been struck by this beauty in the past week or two. Even on my short walk from home to the church, I can see many shades of red, yellow, orange, and purple – all signs of the changing seasons. Have you ever wondered about why leaves change color in the fall? It has been a while since I studied trees in elementary school, so I Googled the subject and found 38.7 million results. It’s a popular subject!

As you may remember, leaves are green because they contain chlorophyll, a pigment crucial to the process of photosynthesis. Chlorophyll helps plants create energy from sunlight; it absorbs light with wavelengths in the red and blue areas of the spectrum. But chlorophyll reflects green light, which is why living leaves look green.

The trouble is that chlorophyll constantly decays, so it must be constantly replaced by plants. All spring and summer long, chlorophyll helps plants store up energy so that they can survive the winter. But when the days grow shorter in the fall and sunlight becomes less readily available, plants stop producing chlorophyll. At that point, leaves begin to die, slowly lose their greenness, and change into colors that really have been there all along but were covered up by the green pigment.

If you are sensing that I might turn this into an analogy about our spiritual lives, you are figuring me out: there’s a sermon in everything! However, I don’t want to compare our lives as believers to the changing colors of leaves for two reasons:

Spiritual life is not cyclical. While trees go through this process year in and year out, we are not guaranteed regular, recurring periods of “spiritual dryness.” There may be seasons in which we wander in the wilderness, but the light of God does not take a winter-long vacation from us.
The sin nature is not always lurking, buried deep within us. If we think of “green” as “life in Christ” and “red/yellow/etc.” as “sinful living,” then we might reason that our sinfulness is always buried just beneath the surface; if the greenness ever fades away, our “true colors” will show. But this is not the case. Salvation is about the gift of a new identity; our sins, red as scarlet, have been washed away by the blood of the Lamb, making us white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). We may turn from Christ and return to sin, but it is not as if sin were lurking inside us, waiting for the right opportunity to take over.

Take a minute to read John 15:1-17, in which Jesus says he is the vine and we are the branches. One thing is for sure: leaves (branches) do not stand a chance of surviving if they are disconnected from the tree (vine). Let’s stay green (bear fruit); let’s remain connected to Christ and to each other. Let’s continue to find new ways to love each other during the changing seasons of our lives!

–Pastor David

Memorizing Scripture

If you were raised in church, like I was, you may have committed certain verses of the Bible to memory. When I was a child, my home church had various Wednesday evening programs. I remember one of them was called “Bible Mountaineers” – the different age groups of children had labels such as “Cliff Climbers” and “Summit Scalers” – and through the course of the year, we had specific verses and passages of scripture that we were encouraged to memorize. Those assignments ranged from simple verses (“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23 NIV) to entire chapters (I crammed all of 1 Corinthians 13 into my short-term memory one week!).

Even if you were not raised in church, or if you are not a believer, you probably know at least part of one Bible verse. All I have to say is “John 3:16” and some words might come to mind. (“For God so loved the world…”) Here’s an easy one to memorize right now: “Jesus wept,” John 11:35, the shortest verse in the Bible! That’s not a flippant idea, by the way; even that one verse reminds us, in its context, that Jesus feels the pain of the loss of loved ones. His friend Lazarus had died, and while the story ends with rejoicing in Lazarus’s resurrection, Jesus still wept when he was shown Lazarus’s tomb.

In any case, church-sponsored active memorization of scripture usually ends for us when we graduate high school – or even earlier. If you desire, as I do, that our children at Mt. Haley would be raised in the Christian faith and memorize important passages of scripture, then take this idea to heart: Our children will do what they see us doing.

This goes beyond memorizing scripture, of course. Our children will behave the way they observe adults behaving; they will worship how adults worship. They will resolve conflicts the way they see adults resolve conflicts. Our children are watching us, and if they do not see us taking discipleship, outreach, and community seriously, then they may not take those components of Christian life seriously when they are adults.

Why is it important for us to memorize scripture in particular? The Bible is the foundation for our journey of discipleship; it is God’s word for those who would follow him. The Bible contains everything necessary to describe, understand, and apply salvation in Christ to our lives. (By the way, this is as far as I go in approaching theological terms like “infallible” and “inerrant.” But that’s another conversation.)

Memorizing scripture keeps the word of God at the front of our thoughts. Memorizing scripture helps us recognize false teachings and ethically questionable practices. Memorizing scripture proves useful in our times of trouble, conflict, or sorrow. Memorizing scripture gives us words to say to others when they have such experiences. Memorizing scripture allows us more opportunities to meditate on the word of God on a daily basis. This is transformational!

So does your spiritual diet include this practice? Here are some passages that would be worthwhile to commit to memory. (Can you add to this list?)

Psalm 23
Psalm 46
Isaiah 53
Matthew 6:9-13
Matthew 11:25-30
Romans 8:28-39
Philippians 3:7-14
Colossians 1:15-20
Colossians 3:12-17

–Pastor David

Green Beans and Scripture

It’s that time of year again: the time when our garden’s green beans are in full swing. Those of you who grow (or have grown) green beans know that once they start producing, you are going to be swimming in beans for a little while. Tara and I are enjoying our second harvest season here at the church parsonage, and believe me, we love green beans. We love them so much that we planted twice as many as we did last year! “Swimming” in beans might not be the right term for what we are experiencing right now. It’s more like a green bean flood.

The amazing thing about picking green beans is that it seems there are always more to pick. Just when you think you have moved every leaf and branch, another few beans catch your eye as they dangle secretly behind another hidden branch. You can pick all the beans you can see, but if you move a foot away – or look at the plant from the opposite side – you will see many more beans to pick. And of course if you manage to find all the full-grown beans in one picking, just come back in another day or two and you’ll have that many more to harvest.

In much the same way, there is something to be said for continual Bible study. If we read a portion of scripture once, we cannot hope to have gleaned all of its meaning. It takes continual effort, time, and different life perspectives for us to benefit fully from the Word of God speaking into our lives. In fact, while I work on each week’s sermon, I read and re-read the sermon text several times – many times out loud – so I have many opportunities to see the passage from many different angles. Just like a cluster of green bean plants, there is always something more to find.

Psalm 119 is the longest psalm in scripture: at 176 verses in length, it is quite the work of poetry! The theme of this massive psalm is the love we have for scripture, for God’s word, for God’s law. Each of the psalm’s 22 sections (one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet) repeats the theme: scripture is worth our love and attention. Read the next-to-last section, verses 161-168:

Rulers persecute me without cause, but my heart trembles at your word. I rejoice in your promise like one who finds great spoil. I hate and abhor falsehood but I love your law. Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous laws. Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble. I wait for your salvation, O LORD, and I follow your commands. I obey your statutes, for I love them greatly. I obey your precepts and your statutes, for all my ways are known to you. (Psalm 119:161-168 NIV)

By the way, whatever you love you will spend a great deal of time studying, thinking about, remembering, practicing, and working toward. We find it easy to do these things for people whom we love. I find it easy to pick green beans, because I love the harvest. What is your attitude toward the Word of God?

Going to Town

Over the past few years, I have learned the art of “going to town” – that is, combining errands into one trip so that we don’t drive 40 minutes round-trip simply to get eggs and a gallon of milk. You see, life in Indianapolis was much different for us: we could get to a grocery store, the bank, or the post office in only five minutes. Living here in the country, in the neighborhood of the church, has changed our approach to life, at least in that regard.

“Going to town” is something we plan for, something we do intentionally, with wisdom, and with purpose. This attitude is heightened when it involves catching a plane in Flint or a show in Toledo.

How much more should we be careful, intentional, and excited about going the city of God!

By “the city of God,” I don’t just mean heaven. Yes, we should be careful about going there, of course. But I believe “the city of God” refers to the way God helps us settle in his presence – beginning even in this life, and continuing into eternity. Read these words, which we read in worship on separate weeks earlier this month:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say this– those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south. Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. … Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and consider the great love of the Lord. (Psalm 107:1-9, 43 NIV)

“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? … My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man– the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath. They will follow the Lord; he will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west. They will come trembling like birds from Egypt, like doves from Assyria. I will settle them in their homes,” declares the Lord. (Hosea 11:8-11 NIV)

Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. (Hebrews 11:16 NIV)

Be intentional about following God on the journey. Cry out to God when you are lost, and give thanks when the way is made clear for you. And remember: God is in the business of expressing his love for us by providing places, physical and spiritual, in which we can settle.

–Pastor David

September Youth Update

What a SUMMER! The Mt. Haley Youth Ministry has had a summer to remember! We just returned yesterday from a camping trip to Mio for camping, tubing, a cook-out with the Mio Youth, Sunday morning service with the Mio Church of God, fun, food and lots of conversation, teasing and bonding. It was a great weekend! Thank you Jo & Lawrence Adams and Darren Allen for helping to host the weekend. We shared this month in the Midland County Fair, Michigan Adventure, and the St. Louis Camp Meeting while Connie & I even sneaked in a trip to Atlanta, Georgia to visit our son & wife. As you are reading this, Labor Day Weekend is approaching or you have celebrated it already. We are excited because our kids are coming home for the weekend. We hope you have a great weekend!

School & the Mt. Haley Rally Day are coming up quickly. On Sunday, September 8 after the morning service we will be gathering at the parsonage for food, excitement, games, a softball game, volleyball and lots of fun together. WE INVITE EVERYONE TO COME! (It will be in the Fellowship Hall if raining.)

On Sunday, September 15, 2013, the new youth year begins with our first weekly 6:00pm meeting. We will be having youth for 6th & 7th grade boys every Tuesday with the same arrangements as last year. We will begin the year with a four-week study called “The Circle Makers.” Youth is EVERY Sunday evening unless otherwise noted. One week we will tentatively NOT have youth will be Sunday, November 10th because Connie & I will be attending the baptism of one of our granddaughters. We will continue our Bible Study every Sunday morning @ 10:00am with “The Parables of Jesus.” We always encourage you and our students to attend our Morning Worship Service @ 11:00am on Sundays. All families should have received the new 2013-2014 Permission Slip in the mail and we hope to have those turned in ASAP.

We are having a MUM sale on Saturday and Sunday, September 7th & 8th from 3:00 – 5:00pm (Saturday) and until 4:00pm on Sunday. There will be 75 plants of various colors delivered to Mt. Haley and on a first come, first served basis, plants may be purchased for $9 each, or 3 for $25. Students may take pre-orders for the mums and earn $4 per plant for their youth accounts, or you may designate purchases for individual students. We thank you in advance for your support of the youth. There will be other projects coming up such as doing yard work, sponsoring a meal at the church’s business meeting in October, plus working other fundraisers.

On Wednesday, September 25, 2013, the annual “See You At The Pole” event will be held at our local high schools & middle schools. SYATP is an opportunity for our students to gather around their school flagpole and pray for their school, their friends, their families and anything else that could be a matter of prayer. Watch for more details as the day becomes closer. Join in with the students and pray for them that early morning! Prayer Makes a Difference!

In the last week of September (day to be determined) there will be a parent & student meeting about attending the International Youth Convention in July of next summer in Nashville, TN. A $115 Early Bonus Bird Registration is due by December 12, 2013. We will need to discuss purpose, missions, fundraising and other important details. We hope you will come and hear about this wonderful opportunity for your kids.

We have had an information meeting about Guatemala and the $100 Registration for the mission trip is due by Sunday, September 8th. This is generally for adults but we have had older youth participate also. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

As the new school year begins, we know that the students are involved in many activities after school and on weekends. One of my favorite things to do is attending & providing encouragement and support for your son or daughter as well as joining you in the stands. If your student runs cross country, cheers, plays in the band, acts in a play, whatever it is, PLEASE let me know – I try to follow schedules, but it really helps when I am informed of events. Thanks for your help.

September brings the third year of serving Mt. Haley as your Youth Pastor and we are extremely excited for the opportunities, the challenges and the privileges of sharing Jesus Christ with the youth, the parents, the church and community. We have been abundantly blessed with the love, support and encouragement as the ministry has grown spiritually and in numbers. We anticipate further growth as the students spread the word and share with their friends the good news of Christ and the ministry happening at Mt. Haley. Please encourage your kids to share and bring their friends as we grow each Sunday, PLUS we want you to know you are always welcomed also. Special thanks also go to Lawrence and Jo Adams as they so generously share their lives, gifts and talents to help out with our teens. May we give all the glory to Christ our King!

Parents and Church, your prayers, support and encouragement are greatly appreciated and we look forward every week to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with our students through interaction, study, fellowship and relationship. Thank you for sharing your son or daughter.

Love God, Love People!
Blessings, Pastor Jerry

Good News

By now, you probably have heard the story of Antoinette Tuff, the Georgia school bookkeeper who this week helped to prevent a tragic school shooting by talking with the 20-year-old man who entered the school armed with an AK-47. Many people are talking about, writing about, and celebrating the heroic actions and bravery of this woman. Ms. Tuff kept the potential shooter talking while he decided what to do: whether to attack students and staff, injure himself, or surrender to the police. For half an hour, she kept calm and spoke wisdom to this young man until, ultimately, he laid down his gun without having injured or killed a single person.

This is a tremendous story of love and compassion in action. I want to highlight a few principles for us to consider:

This threat was met with the love of Christ. As I listened to the recording of Ms. Tuff’s 911 call, I was amazed by how she spoke kindly to him, treated him with compassion, and even told him that she loved him. She spoke openly of pain in her past that led her to consider suicide, but she reassured him that this was not the best answer. She told him that she was proud of him for giving up without hurting anyone. The love of Christ is powerful, because even in tense and dangerous situations, this love empowers us to treat other people as human beings with real needs. “So in everything, do to others as you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12 NIV).
This threat was met with nonviolence. This story should be a powerful reminder to us that dangerous situations can be handled appropriately with nonviolence. Historically, the Church of God is a peace-loving organization. We believe that the way of Jesus is one of peace, not violence; hope, not fear; love, not anger. Jesus instructed a disciple to sheathe his sword when the Lord was arrested (Matthew 26:50-52). Jesus himself, while being beaten and ridiculed, did not fight back against his assailants (Luke 22:63-66). Even when the end result was his own death, Jesus was never violent – and his disciples carried on that tradition at his instruction.
This threat was met with preparation. School employees undergo regular training on what to do in exactly this scenario. Ms. Tuff gave witness to that after the fact; the training helped her handle the situation with her instincts. Put differently, the training formed her into the kind of person that could appropriately handle this potential shooting. Jesus was tempted by the devil before beginning his ministry (Matthew 4:1-11). Jesus invested heavily in his disciples so they would know how to behave after his death, resurrection, and ascension. Later, Paul instructed young Timothy to persist in his spiritual practices so that his life would be transformed, along with the lives of those around him (1 Timothy 4:12-16).

What would our lives look like if we were to live by the love of Christ, an attitude of nonviolence, and daily spiritual preparation? How would we – and our culture – be transformed?

–Pastor David

Obscurity

A few weeks ago, our sermon text was Genesis 18:1-11, the story in which Abraham is visited by three mysterious guests. The text of Genesis is very clear: these were not simply ordinary guests, but in this encounter, God appeared to Abraham. This is very unusual, because throughout our scriptures, God does not make a habit of appearing to individuals. When God does show up, it is usually in the Old Testament, and even then the form used in Genesis 18 is unique. Only here does God reveal himself to someone in the form of three people.

"Abraham and the Three Visitors" by Tissot — “Abraham and the Three Angels” by Tissot

Early Christian theologians jumped on the number “three” and concluded that this was an appearance of the Trinity in the Old Testament. They suggested that the three men could easily be the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The History Channel’s recent miniseries The Bible even portrayed this story with three actors, one of whom – though his face was always hidden from the camera – played role of Jesus later on in the program. (Remember, our church has a DVD copy of this series which you may borrow any time!) However, finding the Trinity in Genesis 18 is an example of “reading into the text” – that is, making scripture say something that it doesn’t intend to communicate.

Genesis 18 is ambiguous and vague about the identity of Abraham’s three visitors. This certainly is God visiting Abraham, but the story is intentionally obscure. What is important to the story is not who the three men are, but rather what the three men are there to do. (In this case, they are there to make clear God’s promise that Abraham and Sarah would have a son, Isaac, within a year.)

One of my Bible commentaries contains this quote in reference to the Genesis 18 story:

“Obscurity is story’s way of telling us the truth about this God with whom we daily have to do, by reminding us of God’s hiddenness, of the concreteness of God’s revelation, and of the impossible possibilities that are open to all who believe.” (quoted in Victor P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis: Chapters 18-50, New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Eerdmans Publishing Co.: Grand Rapids, 1995), p. 8)

God is far beyond our comprehension, and yet he has revealed himself to us in scripture and in Jesus of Nazareth. God is constantly among us through the Holy Spirit, and yet we sometimes have difficulty in discerning God’s presence in times of difficulty. God has power to do all things, and yet we can ignore what we consider “impossible possibilities.”

I am not theologically thrilled that The Bible miniseries used the actor who played Jesus to be one of the three guests who visited Abraham in its portrayal of this story. However, I am thankful that, at the very least, he was obscured from our view during that scene.

Let us always remember that we do not have God figured out. God is a profound mystery, one who chooses to reveal himself to us in specific ways for specific reasons. Let us lean into the obscurity of the Bible’s stories, because through obscurity we are reminded of how great and mysterious God is.

–Pastor David

Old-Fashioned Hymn Sing

Last night, I had the privilege of leading a unique kind of experience to open this year’s 120th annual St. Louis Campmeeting: an “old-fashioned hymn sing.” Pastor Jim Sirks (from Battle Creek) and I played our guitars to accompany a crowd of over 100 that gathered in the old tabernacle on the St. Louis campgrounds. This event kicked off the campmeeting in stellar fashion, and I’d like to share a few reflections with you about the evening.

In the Church of God, we have a diverse collection of songs. For this event, I selected sixteen of our “heritage hymns,” songs written by some of the earliest people in our movement. I grouped these sixteen into four groups of four, each group revolving around a different theme: Songs of Praise, Songs of Gratitude, Songs of Testimony, and Songs of Commitment. There may be other types of songs in our heritage, but even these four groups reveal a wide variety of songs in our tradition that can be used for any occasion. (By the way, we sang all the verses of all sixteen songs, and the whole event lasted only an hour.)

In the Church of God, we have people who can sing four part harmony. The acoustics of the old tabernacle – a small, open-air, wooden building with lots of hard surfaces – added to the musical experience produced by two acoustic guitars and a hundred voices. These were songs that people knew and wanted to sing. And many sang the parts (alto, tenor, bass) they have learned and have known for many years. Singing in harmony is a gift from God, and it does something spiritually to connect people together in worship. Worship (including but not limited to singing) is a communal activity, something we do together and not alone. (Remember that electronic amplification is less than a century old – newer than many of the songs we sang last night!)

In the Church of God, we sing what we believe. In late 19th Century America, church music was an instructional tool that helped people learn the contours of our faith. So much of our early heritage music contains a tremendous amount of theology. While we did not reflect on the theology of all sixteen songs last night, I did highlight one hymn in particular: “The Bond of Perfectness” by D.S. Warner. One of my seminary professors, Dr. Gil Stafford (previously pastor of East Ashman Church of God in Midland), once said that this was the epitome of Church of God theology in lyrical form, because it blends together our understandings of holiness and unity so beautifully:

How sweet this bond of perfectness, the wondrous love of Jesus;
A pure foretaste of heaven’s bliss, oh, fellowship so precious!

Refrain:
Oh, brethren, how this perfect love unites us all in Jesus!
One heart, and soul, and mind we prove the union heaven gave us.

Oh, praise the Lord for love divine that binds us all together;
A thousand chords our hearts entwine, forever and forever.

“God over all and in us all,” and through each holy brother;
No pow’r of earth or hell, withal, can rend us from each other.

Oh, mystery of heaven’s peace! Oh, bond of heaven’s union!
Our souls in fellowship embrace, and live in sweet communion.

These reasons, and several more, are why I am committed to having us sing at least one of our heritage hymns in each of our Sunday morning worship services. Which are your favorites?

–Pastor David

Doing vs. Becoming

During today’s Wednesday evening small group meeting, I was reminded of a profound truth about the path of Christian discipleship. We are studying the devotional book “Extreme Love” which was the centerpiece of the Focus 40 (Lent) season earlier this year. In one of the daily devotional readings, we discussed the difference between “doing” and “becoming”: how we as disciples should be concerned more about who we are becoming rather than what we are doing.

Does that apply to your life at all? We all live incredibly busy lives; I have even heard many retirees wonder aloud how they ever managed to go to work in years gone by. Our society places a high premium on what you can do, accomplish, or achieve. But I think there is something meaningful in thinking carefully about who we are becoming instead. How is your character being shaped? What changes to your values do you notice? How does faith in Jesus Christ form you into a new kind of person – even if you have been a believer for years or decades?

And now: how does this apply to us as a congregation? It is easy for churches to be wrapped up in programs, ministries, and events – things that we do. Rather than expend all our energy (and use all our God-given talents) on “doing,” what if we focused on “becoming”? How is God shaping us as a church? How is the Holy Spirit moving among us, to create something new among us? What does our future look like as a congregation? What are we going to become?

Two reminders. First, we will have “Mission Conversations” throughout the fall season to address these very questions. And second, you may join in this small group discussion by meeting with us Wednesdays at 7pm. Take advantage of these opportunities for spiritual growth!

–Pastor David

Pastor’s Posts

October Youth Update

Changing Colors

Memorizing Scripture

Green Beans and Scripture

Going to Town

September Youth Update

Good News

Obscurity

Old-Fashioned Hymn Sing

Doing vs. Becoming

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