From the Pastors' Desks

So, I feel a little lost. How do you shepherd when you can’t be with your sheep? I remember feeling something like this a long time ago

These are certainly interesting times, aren’t they? So much is changing, and so fast. I think we are all starting to feel the loss of fellowship and communal worship. When it comes to being the church, the things that formed the foundations of our spiritual life are suddenly …. different. All the truths remain, but in a new context, with new rules, less organizational structure and less ‘official’ spiritual oversight. How do you “do” church when you can’t “do church”

Well, we certainly live in interesting times. The stock market is tumbling and major sports events are canceled for the foreseeable future as the ominous clouds of the coronavirus begin to fill our horizon. It is clear that people are afraid

Last night I was reading through Philippians 1 as part of my devotions. I began my approach to this chapter with a simple question: what in this passage causes me to want to worship God more? One of the things that I fixed on was the assertion

Last week in this space I mentioned that I hoped to pass along some helpful tools that Suzanne and I have discovered as we seek to teach our kids about Christ. This week I wanted to share several storybooks for young readers that we’ve enjoyed reading together and which are theological in nature.

God has given Suzanne and me the great privilege and duty of teaching two beautiful children who God is, how serious their sin is, and their need for a Savior. It’s a big deal! It’s a responsibility that is both delightful and daunting. My suspicion is that most parents of small children more readily sense the daunting part of the duty than the delight! Leading our family in the worship of God can be challenging!

John Calvin was offering a very biblical diagnosis when he described the human heart as a perpetual factory of idols. He was describing you and me. It’s for that very personal reason that I’m so excited to study 1 Kings 18 with you on Sunday morning. Besides being a story packed with drama and sprinkled with humor (just look up v. 27!), Elijah’s dramatic showdown with the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel help us to see more clearly God’s grace to people who find themselves being turned aside to love anyone or anything more than God.

The past few years I’ve become increasingly convinced that our young people not only need to know the outlines of classic systematic theology (The Doctrines of God, Man, Christ, Holy Spirit, Church, etc.), but they also need to know how to biblically discern the issues of our day. Our society is becoming increasingly aggressive in ‘catechizing’ young people in the new cultural religion of progressive thought and it is extremely important for our young people to be able to discern Biblical truth in the midst of the mass deceptions of our age.

Sex is something we don’t talk about much, as the church, and that’s a mistake. In our sex-obsessed world, we need to be casting a robustly, biblical vision of sex or we will inevitably adopt the vision of our surrounding culture. Parents, our children desperately need us to be able to explain a truly biblical conception of sexuality for them. Take up and read!

One of the things I love about Harvest folk is your enthusiasm for learning! I love hearing about all the small groups, Bible studies, men’s and women’s groups, book discussion groups, and day-to-day discussions about things that matter! It’s wonderful. In the interest of learning, I’d like to share some of my online resources where I commonly turn to in order to keep up with current issues in the church and world.