Posts with the category “pastoral”

The disciples had been with Jesus for three exciting, challenging and life changing years. That had constantly asked Jesus when He was going to establish His kingdom. His responses to them often seeme...  Read More

Being picked last or losing out on being in a position we wanted to be in can be disappointing. I remember once when I was at Elim Bible Institute there was an election for senior class president. I d...  Read More

We live in a world with a lot of activity and in the Christian world one big one is often “going to church.” Church for many is an activity to do, a gathering to attend, or a checklist item to check o...  Read More

The popular notion is that Christmas is a time of celebration: bright lights, happy songs, and colorful wrapping paper! Here we go a wassailing once again.But for some of us, the Christmas season is j...  Read More

What brings us together and holds us there? Only Jesus. A couple thousand years ago, Paul (Romans 15) challenged the Jewish and Gentile believers to keep God’s greater plan in view and from that view ...  Read More

How can you be ready for something if you don’t know when it will happen? This Sunday begins the Advent season. It's all about expectation and preparation. It is about remembering that God visited thi...  Read More

If we are in Christ, we have a new self. It is not subject to our personality type, hurts, or experiences. Christ in us harnesses, heals, and re-interprets, which gives us freedom.  In Chapter 3 of Co...  Read More

It is hard not to be captured by religious practices. It is hard because sometimes they really can serve us spiritually, but they can also fill a subtle human desire to feel or look spiritually signif...  Read More

What does it mean to suffer as a follower of Christ in ways he left behind for us? In the last part of Colossians 1, Paul seems to see his own suffering for the Gospel as necessary for his own oneness...  Read More

After a great campout weekend and worship time that was focused on prayer and healing, we step back into our Colossians series this Sunday. In the middle of chapter 1, Paul lays out one of the most de...  Read More

This Sunday we will spend the normal sermon time in prayer. The elders will lead us in a time for confession, repentance, forgiveness, grieving, reconciliation, and healing. While it will be guided, t...  Read More

Join us on Sunday as we begin a new sermon series on Colossians! It's a letter from Paul (and Timothy) about how Jesus is the center of everything (everything in the universe) and, based on that truth...  Read More

This Sunday is the last in our series on the “I Am” statements of Jesus. In John 15 Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.” His focus here is overwhelmingly on Himself as t...  Read More