Why Choose a Church?

Why Choose a Church?

Why should you choose a church to regularly attend?  Many people question the value of the institutional church today. I regularly hear people say, “I believe in God and pray, but I don’t feel the need to go to church.” Why should you bother to commit to a church? Let me list a few reasons.

Without Commitment It’s Hard to Grow. If you want to become really good at a sport you need a coach: someone on the outside to hold you accountable to your goals, to see things you cannot see, and to give corrective feedback. When you don’t feel like getting up early to practice, knowing you have a coach waiting for you motivates you. When you are shifting your weight in a way that you can’t notice, a coach can quickly notice the problem. Our spiritual growth is similar. Paul tells us that the way we grow in Christ is by “speaking the truth in love” to one another (Eph 4:15-16). For someone to speak the truth in love to you they need to know you. Committing to one church means you can be known by others who can help you grow. 

You Have Something to Offer. Ultimately, it is selfish to withhold your God-given spiritual gifts from fellow believers. Each person has something to offer for the blessing of others. While you can volunteer here or there outside of church, there is no other place where you can regularly use those gifts to bless others. The church is a community, and a community is healthy when everyone is helping one another.

God Loves the Church. If we love Jesus, we will love what Jesus loves, and Jesus loves the Church. He loves the Church so much he died for it (Eph 4:25). Sometimes we are hurt by churches, or they disappoint us. The Church has also hurt Jesus, yet he lay down his life for it. For someone to say, “I’m a Christian, but not part of a church,” is to ultimately say, “I’m a Christian, but I don’t follow Christ.” How so? Because Christ is the head of his Church. Christ is found in his Church. 

The Church Is a Picture of Heaven. In Revelation 7 we see a picture of heaven. A great multitude of people from all over the world join together in worship. When we gather with others for worship, we are actually gathering with all the angels before God’s heavenly throne (Heb 12:18-24). This means that when we are gathered together for worship we are the closest to heaven we will be on this earth. 

No church is perfect. No church lives up to these ideals. There are an unfortunate number of people who have been deeply hurt by the church. But we cannot let these things keep us from understanding God’s design for the Church. When the Church is being faithful to God, it is an awesome place to be! 

In Christ,

Pastor Jon

This is an excerpt from Jon Stoddard’s new book, Choosing a Church: a Biblical and Practical Guide. Get a copy of the book on our church book table or at amazon.com

New Year, New Beginnings, Same God

This Sunday marks the first Sunday of Jordan Valley Church. Overall, I've been encouraged by the number of people who are excited about this new phase in the life of our church. People have talked much more about the various changes we are making than anything else. In one sense this is unsurprising; change is hard. But on the other hand, the changes we are making seem rather periphery. Why? Because much more important is our love for God. Love for God is reflected in the first part of our vision (the destination, route and landmarks). Interestingly this is the part of the vision I rarely hear people talk about. And yet, it’s the area where we (I) need the most work. This year, with all the changes we are making, the one I long for most is to see us love God more. 

This reflects what Jesus said was the greatest commandment, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. This is the greatest commandment, and yet in the prayers we offer, the things we talk about, so little of it reflects a desire to love God with all our heart, soul and mind.

I’m slowly reading through John Owen’s Communion with the Triune God. One of his main points is that, while our union with Christ does not change, our communion with him does. Our consistency in corporate worship, prayer, and biblical study do not make God love us more or less, but they do affect the wonderful experience of communion with him. 

One of my goals this next year is to love God more than I do now. As my love for God grows, I hope that it will show in my preaching and conversations and prayers. Will you help keep me accountable? I hope that you will make a goal to love God more this year too. Here are some evidences that we are growing in our love for God. 

We will care less about how others have sinned against us than how we have sinned against God. It’s easy to hold on to past offenses. We have all been sinned against. But when we love God more, we start to be more affected by how we have sinned against him. 

We will fight to kill sin in our lives. When we become comfortable with sin in our lives, it affects our intimacy with God. His love doesn’t change because we sin, but it does make us feel distant from God and less eager to seek him. 

We will find more joy in spending time with God. Reading Scripture, praying, and worshiping will seem less a chore or burden and instead become a delight. 

We will love others more. So often our relationships with others are based on wanting something in return from that other person, like love, or acceptance, or assistance. But when we love God more, we also see how much he loves us. This allows us to love others with no strings attached, because we are secure in the love we have from God. 

How do you grow in love for God? It really centers around spending time with him. I once read about a study where they tried to make two people fall in love. Two strangers sat together and  answered a series of personal questions and then stared into each other's eyes for four minutes. Six months later the couple was married. 

In one sense falling in love is not rocket science; time, trust, and intimacy are pretty good ingredients for love. It’s the same with God. If we are not spending time in worship, prayer and Scripture, how can we expect our love for God to grow? 

We have the privilege of living in a world where there is so much to love. God has created a world of beauty. What saddens me is how few of us think, how much more beautiful must the God who created all this be! If this world is just a dim reflection of his beauty, I cannot even fathom of how great God must be. Some people understood this. The Sons of Korah did in Psalm 84, “I long, yes, I faint with longing, to enter the courts of the Lord.” Asaph understood in Psalm 73, “ I desire you [God] more than anything on earth.” Can you say that? I can’t, but I hope to be able to. This year will you join me in seeking to love God more? 

In Christ,
Pastor Jon

The Church as the Future

Over the last few months we’ve looked at different metaphors for the church. Today, let’s look at the church as the future. In his book The Kingdom of God and the Church, Geerhardus Vos wrote, “The church actually has within herself the powers of the world to come... She forms an intermediate link between the present life and the life of eternity.” This is exciting! The powers of the world to come! An intermediate link between the present life and the life of eternity! This sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but it’s not; it’s God’s plan to unite all things in Christ.

For all those whom I have already lost, let me rephrase: the heaven we long for has broken into this present age and it has happened through the church. This means those who are part of the church have front row seats to God’s grand plan to unite all things in Christ! 

One of God’s promises in the Old Testament was that this current world, broken by sin, would be replaced by the New Creation. God would do a second work of creation (or recreation), making a world that is better than his first creation. It would be better because it would be a world where there is no mark of sin or even the possibility of sin entering again (Isa 34:4, 51:6, 56:5, 65:17).

When Jesus begins his ministry in Luke 4 he reads from the scroll of Isaiah. He reads a passage (Isa 61) that describes the New Creation, ushered in by the Messiah. It’s a place where the poor are encouraged, the blind see, the captives are set free. There will be no more tears or pain in this new world (Rev 21:4). Jesus then tells his listeners something unbelievable: this promise of the New Creation was fulfilled when Jesus read those words from Isaiah! 

How do we make sense of Jesus’s words regarding the fulfillment of the promised New Creation? Jesus’s words make sense when we consider them in light of his whole life. Jesus, though fully God, was fully human. His life mirrored ours in every way, even in dying. In one sense Jesus’s life looked very ordinary. But three days after his death something remarkable happened; Jesus was raised from the dead. If we are thinking of the church as the future, we cannot miss the significance of this.

Paul explains it in 1 Corinthians 15. He states that Jesus’s resurrection was the firstfruits of the resurrection (1 Cor 15:20); when he returns, all those who belong to Christ will be raised from the dead. This means that the end-times resurrection started with Christ. If Christ still lay in the grave we would still be waiting for God to begin making all things new. But we aren’t still waiting; three days later God resurrected Christ. And that moment was the turning point; a new work was afoot, a work of recreation, the work of making all things new. It was the beginning of the end. The resurrection of Christ was the spark that started the fire that will one day fill all the world with its light. 

Christ is living the resurrection life that we also will live. To put it another way, Christ, in his resurrection body, is the first person to experience New Creation. This New Creation, that place described in Revelation 21 & 22, is not something fully in the future. The heavenly New Creation broke into our Old Creation world when Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. 

Now, here is where it gets exciting. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Paul teaches that those who have faith in Christ are united to Christ. A function of that union with Christ is that, just as Christ was made new in the resurrection, so also are Christians made new in Christ’s image. Paul teaches us that when you become a Christian, you are spiritually resurrected. You take on a New Creation spirit, a spirit that is part of the new heavens and new earth that God is creating. Think of it as a spark. The New Creation spirit in your life may be just a spark, but Jesus will not “crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle” (Isa 42:3). The source of this flicker is a fire that originates not in this world, but has come (time traveled!?) from the future New Creation into your present life. The future has broken into the present. 

The church is the future because it is the gathering of people who have within them the light of the New Creation.

Congratulations if you’ve stuck with me this far! We needed to understand this teaching before we understand the radical implications for what this means for you right now. One of the things I love most about Scripture is that is that some of the deepest theology–and we’ve looked at deep theology–is the most practical!

You will make it home

It’s easy to be discouraged; it’s easy to doubt that God really loves us; it’s easy to wonder if we will make it home to be with God. But you can be confident because God has already begun the work of New Creation in you! God’s shown his love for you with his actions. He has put within you a spark of the world to come. It’s his down payment guaranteeing he will finish the work of transforming you. 

You are beautiful

One of our deepest desires is to be seen as beautiful, to be desired. We spend lots of money with all kinds of things to get the look and body we want. We pursue a certain career because it comes with money or prestige. We want to be worthy of desire. God sees you as beautiful because he is making you truly beautiful in his sight. You may hate certain things about you, but God looks on the inside, and on the inside he has put the beautiful light of New Creation within you. You may think the baggage of your past keeps you from being desirable, but God doesn’t need to change your past because there is resurrection. He is transforming you into something better, and that work has started now. You may not see it, but God does, and he is pleased with what he sees. 

You have power to fight sin

The power of sin in our life sometimes feels overwhelming. It causes us to doubt if we'll ever change. Sin has influence over us, but it doesn’t have control over us. Because we have been created new in Christ, we have everything we need for godliness (2 Peter 1:3). The next time you are tempted, remember that you have been made new. It may just be a spark of new life but God will not let it go out. He will fan that spark until it’s a fire of holiness in your life. Part of faith is believing what God has said about us is true , despite our feelings at the present. 

You are part of the main effort

Before a military operation, one unit is designated as the “main effort.” This usually goes to the unit with the strongest commander. This unit is tasked with the crucial part of the mission, and they have the support of the surrounding units. The church (God’s people) is the “unit” God has designated as the main effort. Christ has bought the church with his blood, and God has equipped the church with his Spirit. We have been given spiritual gifts in order to accomplish our mission of making disciples. The church is where the action is. Your service to God, no matter how big or small, is of infinite value, because you are helping to build something that will last forever.

In Christ,

Pastor Jon

Beautifully Ordinary

I was in Starbucks the other day and noticed how hard it is to find plain coffee on the menu. There was a sign for the return of the “Frappula Frappuccino” and another sign inviting people to try a “Caramelized Honey Latte.” Starbucks popularized coffee, yet it’s remarkably hard to find just coffee in their stores. The coffee they were promoting was not “ordinary” coffee but the Starbucks Reserve Coffees, which are “our rarest coffees, small-batch roasted in Seattle.” No one wants to be ordinary. Ordinary coffee doesn’t even sell very well these days. 

This desire to be anything but ordinary also influences churches. Church gurus tell us that ordinary churches won’t reach people. Some of the fastest growing churches are always doing something bigger and better in order to keep people coming back. Churches feel this pressure because the statistics are not encouraging: For every new church planted, four existing churches close. People attend church less frequently. These statistics put pressure on churches to be anything but ordinary. 

We are excited about the new vision at our church. You can read more about it here. Part of our vision is a commitment to the ordinary. We’ve described four landmarks that every Christian should be committed to. These landmarks keep us on the right track in our journey to know Christ. They are:

1. Am I worshipping?

2. Am I praying?

3. Am I sharing?

4. Am I discipling?

We’ve described these landmarks in greater detail here. Our commitment to these landmarks is a commitment to being an ordinary church. In Reformed Theology we call these the ordinary means of grace. Historically, the ordinary means include the Word of God preached and read, the sacraments (baptism & the Lord’s Supper), and prayer. The pastor Ligon Duncan explained, “So, when we say ordinary means of grace-based ministry, we mean a radical commitment to following the direction of God’s Word as to both the message and the means of gathering and perfecting the saints. Ordinary means ministry has a high view of the Bible, preaching, the church, the ordinances or sacraments, and prayer.” 

Ordinary doesn't mean boring. Ordinary means accessible. It means that anyone is able to participate in life of the church. You don’t need special knowledge or abilities to have abundant life in Christ. No,we all have  access to life in Christ through ordinary means. We believe being an ordinary church is the best thing we can do in a world that is continually fascinated with the extraordinary. Why? Because God uses the ordinary things to bring about extraordinary change (1 Cor 1:18-31). The Gospel is a radical message that calls people from spiritual death to life. No amount of extraordinary can bring a dead person back to life. Only the miraculous Word of God can do such a thing. (Rom 10:17) The key to a strong church in these changing times is by committing to the ordinary because we believe that is how God works extraordinary change. 

One of the most beautiful pictures of this is Jesus in a manger. The angels announce to the shepherds, “And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12). We’ve become so familiar with this story that we miss how radical this statement is. When a politician announces that he is going to run for president of the United States, this announcement is always accompanied by pomp and circumstance. He wants the announcement to be anything but ordinary. Jesus’ entrance into the world was the exact opposite. In an ordinary town, with an ordinary family, and in an ordinary manger. Some would look at such an ordinary scene, and dismiss it saying, “There is no way this child will save us. There’s nothing special about him.” And yet those shepherds, after seeing Jesus, return home praising God (Luke 2:20). They saw a savior who looked like them. This beautifully ordinary child would change the course of human history. 

Part of Christian faith is faith in the ordinary, seeing the ordinary as beautiful. God works through the ordinary. We want to be the very best at being ordinary. We might not have all the fancy programs or latest worship styles. But that’s okay, because we believe there is far more power in being ordinary. What God has called us to do is impossible for us. How can we bring spiritually dead people back to life? How can we bring lasting change in people's life? We can’t. No human can. But God can. And God works extraordinary through our beautifully ordinary actions!

In Christ, 
Pastor Jon

The Church as ONE Body

We are looking at different metaphors to help us understand what the Church is. Last month we looked at the Church as an embassy. Why are we talking so much about the Church? It’s because Christ loves the Church. In Acts 9:1 Peter writes that Paul is “breathing out murderous threats” against the Lord’s disciples. A few verses later, when Jesus appears before Paul, he says, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Jesus so identifies with his Church that when his people are hurt, he is hurt. Jesus loves the Church; if we love Jesus, we must also love the Church.

This month let’s look at the Church as one body. Paul uses this language in 1 Corinthians 12:12-14:

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

Part of the difficulty in talking about the Church is the different ways the word “church” is used. Jesus says he will build his Church (singular) in Matt 16:18. Here, he seems to have in mind what we call the universal Church, which is all those across time and space who believe in him. But elsewhere, the Bible mentions  the churches (plural) in particular regions (Rom 16:4, 1 Cor 16:1; Gal 1:2, etc.). The same Greek word for “church” is used both ways.

So when Paul describes the Church as a body in 1 Corinthians 12, in what way is he using that word? Is a particular church in one location a body? Or is the universal Church one body? If we look at the context it becomes clear. In verse twelve, Paul says the body of Christ is one, but made of up various parts. In verse thirteen, he says all kinds of different people--Jews, Gentiles, slaves, free--are baptized into one Spirit to form one body. This means that there isn’t a Presbyterian baptism, or a Baptist baptism, or a Lutheran baptism. No, there is simply Christian baptism. When we baptize here we don’t say, “I baptize you in the name of the Presbyterian Church.” No. We say, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Every Christian is baptized into the one body of Christ. This means there is one true Church; however, the lines of that true Church include all those churches and denominations that adhere to the basics of the faith. Jesus doesn't split his

time acting as head of the Catholic Church on Mondays and the Methodist Church on Tuesdays. No, Jesus is head of his one Church, and all Christian churches from around the globe are part of that. 

What then is the purpose of various denominations or associations? Ideally they act like good fences to make good neighbors. In less important things Christians differ, yet we are all still Christian; denominations allow us to participate in a particular church that matches our convictions about these lesser matters. 

The problem is that sometimes our fences turn into walls. We disconnect from other churches around us. Go back to the body image. If you wrap a rubber band tightly around your finger it starts to turn purple, and if you leave it there for too long it will cause damage. When we cut ourselves off from other churches it hurts us; we must be connected to the one body of Christ. A connected church is a healthy church. 
 

What this means for us

Different churches have different roles to play
It’s easy to get into the business of comparing churches, or being jealous of what another church has or is doing. But remember, all these local churches are part of the same body. A body has different parts. Some parts of the body are prominent, and they get lots of use. Other parts of a body are less known, are hidden, or are rarely thought of. Jesus doesn’t want every local church to try to act like a strong hand or keen eye. No, Paul says each part plays its role and should do the best it can in line with how God made it. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:15-20,

Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop beng part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

This means we need to be faithful to what God is calling us to be, not what he is calling another church to be. How do we know what God is calling us to be? Well, we should find out where the needs of our location overlap with our particular gifts and resources. We serve the body of Christ best when we pay attention to where God has placed us and what he has given us. In fact, if we try to be something we are not, we will hurt the body by neglecting the role that contributes to the whole. 

Often people think that the size of a particular church indicates its level of success. Certainly, if we looked at things from the world’s perspective, this would be true. But we should look at things from the viewpoint of the one body of Christ. From that perspective, size has little to do with success. Is a hand more successful than a toe because it gets more attention? No, a small church can be just as pleasing to God as a large church. What matters is whether or not they are using all the resources God has given them for his glory. But conversely, both a small and big church could be squandering what God has given them by trying to be something they are not supposed to be. We need to be the best at what God has called us to be. 

We celebrate success and mourn loss
When your big toe hurts, it affects everything. No part of the body is isolated from another. It’s the same with the church. Remember when Paul was persecuting the disciples, but Jesus said he was persecuting Jesus himself? When churches are hurting, it should affect us. We need to pray for those who face much greater persecution than we do. We need to care about the churches in our community. It also works the other way. When another church sees great success, we should rejoice. That can be hard, but if a revival happens at the church down the street we should celebrate as much as if it were happening in our church. We are all part of the same body. 

We need to speak and learn from one another.
In marriage, God says the man and woman become one flesh. Notice the similarity to the church as a body? Consider being married, but never talking to your spouse, having separate bank accounts, and sleeping in separate bedrooms. You would essentially have separate lives even though you were legally married. It may technically be a marriage, but it wouldn't be a good one. It certainly wouldn’t be a biblical one. 

It’s the same in the church. If the various parts of the church never talk to one another, if they set up walls to keep each other at a distance, if there is never any fellowship, how can individual churches help each other grow like we are supposed to? We are one body. This means we need to be learning from other Christians; we need to fellowship with them and study Scripture with them. It’s through speaking the truth in love to one another that we grow into the fullness of Christ. 

I’m particularly excited for our missions conference this year. We have in invited Pastor Samuel Oluoch as our guest. He is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Kisumu, Kenya. We invited him because the leadership of the church was talking about how we show our unity with other believers. How do we show that the Church is one? We thought inviting a Pastor from another culture and denomination would be a great way to show that we are all part of one body.  He will be with us for ten days, and during that time he will be learning about our church and the culture here. But we will also be learning from him. He will speak for Sunday school on November 6th and be our missions speaker over missions weekend on November 12th & 13th. I believe we will all be blessed as he opens God’s word for us. 

In Christ,

Jon

The Church as an Embassy

When it comes to the future of Christianity in America, are you optimistic? You may read this is as a political question, so your answer depends on who is elected next. You may read this is a social question, and you feel dismayed at the rapid morality shift in our culture. I would argue that how you answer this question reveals your beliefs about the church. Over the next several newsletters we are going to look at the church: what it is, why it matters, and how it relates to the culture and government. Each month I will pick a dominant metaphor for the church to give us a better understanding. In the end I hope you will see that we have every reason to be optimistic about the future of Christianity.

This month let’s consider the church as an embassy. Part of the difficulty in talking about the church is simply that it’s hard to define the word. The word “church” is used in many different ways, both in our Bibles and in everyday speech. For the sake of simplicity I’m going to use one part of the definition that we find in the Westminster Confession of Faith. It says, “[The church] is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God” (WCF 25.2). While there are other parts of the definition, this one is helpful as we look at the church as an embassy. 

An embassy serves as an outpost in a foreign nation. The embassy itself is not considered territory of the nation it resides in, but territory of the nation the embassy represents. If a fire broke out in the U.S. Embassy in Brazil, the Brazilian fire department would not be allowed to enter the embassy to put out the fire without permission of the U.S. Ambassador. When an embassy is attacked, it is considered an attack on the nation itself. 

Within an embassy is an ambassador. He resides in the foreign land and often depends upon its services for food, utilities and so forth. But as much as he might like that land, his citizenship and allegiance are to his home country. 

With this in mind, consider some of the ways the church is described in Scripture: 

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  Matt. 16:18-19

From this passage we could say church serves as the embassy, and its leaders issue the travel visas to the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” John 18:36

The church, which is located in this world, is not of this world. The church could be compared to the gateway or portal to the kingdom of God. It not only provides the travel documents, but also has the pathway to a kingdom of God within its gates.
 
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Phil 3:20

Here Christians are reminded that the land we live in is not our true home; it does not merit our highest allegiances. We are like embassy workers waiting for our tour of duty to be over so we can go home. 
 
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 2 Cor 5:20

What is our role as part of the embassy of God’s kingdom on this earth? To be ambassadors. Paul’s language couldn’t be any clearer: God makes his appeal through us. We are God’s spokespeople on this earth. What is God’s message? Be reconciled to God. The message God is speaking through us is the message of the gospel. 

Now that we have looked at Scripture, let’s look at some of the applications of thinking of the church as an embassy. 

The success of the Church doesn’t depend upon the friendless of the culture. 

It’s wrong to think that the strength of the church depends upon the friendliness of the surrounding culture or nation. While in the military, I was deployed to Iraq, and I can tell you there were many people not particularly friendly to Americans there. Yet the American Embassy was at one point the largest and best funded embassy in the world. Why? Not because the host nation was so friendly to it, but because the embassy had the resources of the U.S. government behind it. It’s the same with the church. Behind the church are all the resources of the God who made heaven and earth. The strength of the church does not depend upon where it’s located, but upon the God who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Eph 1:3).

Our success is in our faithfulness to the message, not in how it’s received. 

Imagine if the U.S. ambassador to Russia had to pass on a message he knew would not go over well. So he decides to change the message to make it less offensive to the Russians. He leaves out several crucial demands of the U.S Government and offers to give the Russians top secret military technologies. The Russians are ecstatic at the ambassador’s offer and accept it immediately. Is the U.S. Ambassador a hero for getting the Russians to agree to his terms? No! He is a traitor. The ambassador is successful only when he is faithful to the true message. It’s the same with us. We are ambassadors for Christ. We are successful when we are faithful in relaying Christ’s message to others. Sometimes the message is well received, and other times it’s not. 

Another important point in this analogy is that successful ambassadors know both their home country and the country where they serve. The ambassador to Russia would never consider himself a Russian citizen, but he probably knows a lot about Russian culture. He may speak Russian fluently, and he may enjoy Russian food and music. This allows him to better deliver the message from the U.S Government in a way that appeals to the Russians. As ambassadors for Christ we must understand the culture we find ourselves in. We must work to know how best to take God’s unchanging message and present it to an ever changing world. Unfortunately, we as Christians often veer too far to one extreme or the other: Either we are so cut off from the world that we don’t know how to even speak with others, or we are so fully part of the world that we have forgotten our true home. 

The Church is a home away from home.

When you step into a U.S. Embassy you will feel closer to home. You will hear English, and you will see the U.S. Flag. There are little reminders of home all around. It’s the same with the church. The church is our home away from our true home with God. It’s a place where we find refuge and rest, yet it reminds us that we are not home yet, and there is still work to be done. 

Conclusion

In a couple of weeks, we are kicking off our adult Sunday School with a study called “Onward: Engaging the Culture Without Losing the Gospel.” I’m excited for this study because it develops some of these themes we’ve talked about here. We are purposely doing this study before the presidential election in order to help all of us think more biblically about how we approach politics and our surrounding culture. I hope you’ll join us as we seek to grow together!

In Christ,

Jon

THE HEART OF THE MATTER

What is the central problem with humanity? Many people agree that there is a problem with our world. Many people also agree that there is a problem with people in general. But when it comes to what that problem is, opinions vary across the board. In my experience, though, most people are quick to point the finger at others: “They are the problem.” Rarely have I seen someone say, “I am part of the problem.”

The Bible answers this question about the central problem of humanity, and it is much more pessimistic than we tend to be. The Bible says that the central problem is us. We all are naturally dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1-4). Some people believe the central message of Christianity is a set of rules. Christians sometimes look at the world and say the problem is that people aren’t following the commands of the Bible anymore. If people would just get back to following the Ten Commandments, then our society would be much better. But is this really what the Bible says? 

I’ve been reading through the book of Ephesians, and one section in chapter four jumped out at me because of what it teaches about this very topic. Eph 4:17-24 (ESV) reads,

17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!—21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Paul calls the Ephesian believers to not walk as the Gentiles do. Back in Eph 2:10, Paul says that believers should walk in the good works God has prepared for us to do. So our actions do matter. If we are to call ourselves believers, we must walk in a way that reflects the commands of Scripture. 

But Paul doesn’t stop at the surface level of actions. He drills deeper to show us why we do the things we do. Verse 18 says those who don’t know Christ are “darkened in their understanding.” Paul is saying that if you don’t have faith in Christ, you don’t--you can’t!--think correctly. And why is that? Because of the “hardness of [your] heart.” That is the core problem with humanity: hard hearts. And what comes out of a hard heart? All the stuff listed in verse 19: callousness, sensuality, greed, every kind of impurity. 

But notice that Paul doesn’t say the root of the problem is those sins. That’s not the main problem. Those actions are the fruit of a deeper root problem. And the root of the problem is hardness of heart. That means that simply trying to make the world a better place by changing our behaviors will never work. Because we are cutting off the rotten fruit, but never getting to the root. And so more rotten fruit will grow back. 

What is the solution? We need new hearts. Only life-transformation from the inside out will do. And while the Bible is far more pessimistic about the problem (we were all dead in sin) it’s also far more optimistic about the outcome. We will be created new after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. What an amazing vision! All those who put their faith in Christ will be created anew, after God’s likeness, in true righteousness and holiness. 

Christianity is about the total transformation of people from darkness in to light. From brokenness to beauty. From death to life. This is an amazing process that we are taking part in! 

When we understand this basic message of Christianity it should impact every corner of our lives:
 

• We should not settle for seeing Christianity as good advice. At its core Christianity is not about how to make your life better on this earth. When we see Christianity as primarily about this we are short-changing ourselves of the vision that God himself has for us. God doesn’t want us to simply have a better life now; he wants us to have a perfect life for all of eternity. 
• We need to pray more because what the church is called it do is miraculous. We are calling people from death to life. God has asked us to do the impossible–bring dead things back to life. What would a doctor give to have the power to bring his dead patients back to life? The church is called to do just this! We are to call spiritually dead people into resurrection life. This is impossible for us to do; that is one reason prayer is so important. Without God we cannot accomplish what we are called to do. We as a church need to be dedicated to prayer. Prayer for ourselves, that the resurrection power within us right now would take hold of more and more of our lives. And prayer for those in our communities and those who visit our church, that God would work through us to bring life where there is death. 
• We must trust in the miraculous power of God’s word. How does God bring life out of death? One of the most vivid examples is in Ezekiel 37. The prophet Ezekiel was placed in a valley where he was surrounded by dry bones. The vultures had gotten their fill. Maggots and worms finished the job. And now the desert sun had bleached the remaining bones until they started to crack. God then asked Ezekiel if these bones could live. Ezekiel responds by saying, “O Lord God, you know.” God tells Ezekiel to speak to the bones, “O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.” And in that moment the bones started coming together, flesh appeared, oxygen filled their lungs, and suddenly from the dry bones sprang up an army of living people! That is a picture of the power of God’s word. It brings life. And so, we as a church must be focused on the life-giving power of God’s word in our lives as we read and meditate on it. We must also trust in its power to bring others life. God’s word is living and active. I pray we would believe that more and more. 

In Christ,

Pastor Jon

It's Still Spring at JPC

You know summer has arrived when the cold splash of a water balloon feels refreshing. This year I knew summer had started when my daughter thought it would be good to continually throw water balloons at me. Most bounced right off, but she threw one hard enough to break it. And that cold water felt amazing against the scorching sun. I love summer for so many reasons, but at Jordan Presbyterian it’s still spring. Yes, we’ve had to turn on the A/C in the sanctuary on Sunday Mornings. More people are out camping on weekends. Vacation Bible School is fast approaching. But the feel at JPC reminds me of spring. Spring is a time of new life. It’s when we eagerly anticipate the earth turning from brown to green. A few months ago I wrote a newsletter called “Spring at JPC.” I outlined some of the reasons why I believe our best days are ahead of us. And as I write this newsletter I believe even more that our best days are ahead of us. In fact, the past couple months have been some of the most exciting for me in terms of seeing God at work in our church. 

Let me share with you some of what has happened since that earlier newsletter came out:

•    The decorating committee has put together a proposal for updating the look of our church building and worship space. What has encouraged me is to hear the excitement of the people on this committee as they share their ideas. They have many recommendations that will help make our building a more warm and welcoming space. 
•    We are working on a series of videos in which people shared stories of why they love this church. Young and old, longtime members and newcomers all shared their stories. As I listened to them I was reminded of the incredible ways in which God has used our church. People have come to know Christ here. People have developed a personal relationship with Christ here. People have found a home away from home. People have seen their lives transformed by the work of God’s grace. I can’t wait for you to hear these stories! 
•    We held a three-week Sunday school class to discuss the vision of the church. Specifically, we asked, “What is our church uniquely equipped to do as one part of the body of Christ?” We then looked where our strengths as a church overlapped with needs we observed in our community. It was encouraging to see people's eyes light up as we envisioned how our church could really use our strengths to bless others. 
•    God is using our church as a safe place for people to find hope in the Gospel. We’ve got a number of new faces in our church. (Make sure you introduce yourself to some of them during our greeting time!) What encourages me is how hungry so many of these people are to know Christ. Some days my schedule is filled meeting with people just to read Scripture or some other Christian book and then pray together. It’s been such an honor to be able to see people’s eyes open up to the message of grace through Christ Jesus. One new person recently told me that at our church he has found hope and strength in God. Please continue to pray for God to use us for his purposes! 

It’s spring at JPC because I see signs of new life all around us. I believe we are just getting started. I’m eager to see how God uses this church in the next two, five and ten years. 

Summer is busy, and our normal routines are often disturbed, but I encourage you to make an effort to pray for our church this summer. Before coming out to Utah (exactly three years ago), I read these verses in Colossians. It became something of a theme passage for me. Paul writes,
    
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. -Colossians 4:2-6

Would you join me in devoting yourself to prayer for our church? Will you pray for us all to to know Christ more? Will you pray for God to open doors for our message of Christ? I’m excited for the future, and I hope you are too! 

In Christ,

Pastor Jon

Heaven is for Real?

The Heaven tourism industry is booming. Books chronicling near-death experiences and subsequent visions of heaven top the bestseller lists. Big hollywood studios buy film rights and made tens of millions of dollars on movies adaptations. People want to know what Heaven is like. Anyone who has lost a loved one understands this desire. We take comfort in saying, “they are in a better place now.” We want flesh and blood people whom we can see on T.V., sharing their experiences of heaven.

As Christians who hold the Bible as our authority, what should we make of these accounts? What is their value? What does our fascination with these stories tell us about our culture and ourselves? 

One thing that has struck me on our study through the book of Acts is how word-centered it is. The book of Acts is basically the Apostles sharing God’s word in a bunch of different places. Last week we looked at the first part of Acts 17. Verses 2 and 3 read, “[Paul] reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead.” In verse 11 it says of the Bereans, “they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” What we see over and over again in Acts is that Scripture is sufficient in itself. It contains everything we need for our life. Paul doesn’t need to go outside of Scripture for his message.  And when the Bereans  challenge and test Scripture it doesn’t break. Jesus himself said in John 10 that Scripture cannot be broken. 

And this leads to where we need to be careful with these accounts of Heaven. While Scripture cannot be broken, these accounts can. It’s certainly embarrassing when we learned that “The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven” actually didn’t. Alex Malarkey recanted his testimony about the afterlife saying, “I did not die. I did not go to Heaven.” Now this doesn’t mean others books about heavenly experiences are based on lies. It’s hard to argue with someone's experience. But there is a danger in pinning our hopes or trust on someone else's experience of heaven. What if it also turns out to be a lie? What is your faith resting on then? In his letter where he recants his story, Alex says, 
 
I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention. When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough. The Bible is the only source of truth. Anything written by man cannot be infallible.

A danger with these accounts of Heaven is that they can undermine the sufficiency of Scripture. They can take the place of Scripture in our understanding of Heaven. It’s as if we are saying, “God didn’t finish giving us everything we needed, so here’s a little extra for you.” But when we do that we are ultimately saying that we know better than God regarding Heaven. But shouldn’t we trust that the one who made us and loves us enough to die for us would give us exactly what we need to know? While these accounts may help confirm what we already know through Scripture, it’s dangerous when they add to it or when we trust in them. 

Our fascination with heaven is partly borne out of a dissatisfaction with earth. We lose our loved ones, and we wonder if we will see or even recognize them again. Our bodies are falling apart, and we long for something better. We long to be free from the pain. And thus we should talk about heaven. We should long for heaven! 

But we want to know specifics, and this is where we can feel the Bible is lacking. And where we do have details, they seem odd or unhelpful. Streets of gold are certainly cool, but don’t seem practical! But Scripture is sufficient, and perhaps we need to do a better job of understanding what Scripture says about heaven. Because when we do that, we get something that is far better than anything we can read elsewhere. It is helpful to remember that our emotions are a gift from God. We might abuse our emotions, so that we seek pleasure and joy from things that are contrary to God’s purposes, but pleasure and joy themselves are not contrary to God’s purposes. They are in fact gifts from God, and he wants us to enjoy them; when we are seeking those things in Christ, we will experience the greatest pleasure and joy and so much more. 

We might not know the details of Heaven, but we do know it holds the greatest joy we’ve ever known. Remember the greatest happiness of your life. Recall the greatest sense of pleasure you’ve ever had. Now realize those experiences will seem small and fleeting compared to the joy and pleasure of Heaven. Tears are wiped away. Pain is gone. Mourning ceases. Heaven is for real, and it’s greater than we can ever imagine. 

If you are interested in learning more about what the Bible has to say about Heaven, you can listen to this sermon from Isaiah 60:18-22. Scot McKnight also has a helpful book, 
called The Heaven Promise: Engaging the Bible's Truth About Life to Come.

Five Thoughts on Worship

Last week your elders and deacons traveled up to Park City for our officer’s retreat. We had a great time of fellowship with each other. Our theme on the retreat was worship. We looked at various aspects of worship and why it matters. The time together reminded me of why worship is so important for the church! I want to share with you five insights from our time together.

1. Everyone worships

When we think of worship we tend to think of something religious people do. Christians worship on Sundays. Jews observe the Sabbath on Saturday. Muslims gather for worship on Friday. But does that mean worship is restricted to only religious people? Not at all. In fact, everyone worships. Webster’s Dictionary says that worship is “extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to an object of esteem.” Using that definition we can certainly see how worship takes place at a sports event, but even at concerts, movies, and more. Scripture teaches this same thing in Roman 1:25. It says that  instead of worshiping God, “we worship and serve created things rather than the Creator.” The question for us as Christians is: “Why do I find it so easy to get excited about _______ (a movie, sports game, video game, etc.), yet find it so hard to worship God?

2. We worship what captures our attention

Though we may find ourselves discouraged with our imperfect worship on this earth, one day we will see Jesus, and then we will worship in perfection. In Revelation 7 we see worship in heaven. We all agreed this was ideal worship. In verse 11 it says, “They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God.” This is where the citizens of heaven behold God and almost reflexively fall on their faces and worship. Pastor Bryan asked, “If this is ideal worship, why don’t we do this now?” My initial reaction was, “Because we're Presbyterian and we do everything decently and in order!” More seriously though, there are reasons why our worship doesn’t look like this. We might be hindered because we are self-conscious about what others might think of us. We might feel like it’s forced and not truly heartfelt. We might be at a worship service, but we don’t feel worshipful. The common denominator in all these is that our eyes are not fixed upon Christ. We have not beheld our God in his glory. When the elders and saints see Christ in Revelation, falling down and worshiping is an impulse. If we are reluctant to worship now, it is often because we don’t see God as that glorious. Our eyes aren’t fixed upon him; we are looking at other things that have captured our attention. Worship is a reflex. When we encounter God, we worship. Have you encountered God?

3. God cares how we worship

If we need to behold our God in order to worship, how can we do this? How do we encounter God in a way that leads to genuine worship? If God has created us, and created us as people who naturally worship, wouldn’t God know best how to do this? Scripture is full of people trying to worship God in various ways, but God makes clear he wants to be worshiped in accordance with how he states. Why? Because if God is like the master engineer, his instructions for how we worship are the wiring schematics for how to plug in and encounter God. The theological term for this is the regulative principle of worship. It simply means that we should worship by only doing what God has told us to do. A helpful summary based on the book Gather God’s People is that we should read the word, preach the word, sing the word, pray the word, and see the word (sacraments). These are God’s schematics for how we can encounter God now. We don’t need new ideas or ways to worship; we simply need to trust and seek what God has already given us.
 
4. True worship is both horizontal and vertical

Worship is directional. God should be the object of our worship, but Scripture also teaches that gathering for worship serves another purpose: we encourage one another. Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” God wants to hear all our voices! While you might not think you are good at singing, our voices blend into a beautiful harmony before God. But also, when we sing, we sing not only to God, but as Colossians 3:16 says, we are admonishing one another. Hebrews 10:25 says we should encourage each other in love and good works, “not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” This means when we miss public worship we actually hurt those who are present because we cannot be there to encourage them. We all need each other in worship.

5. Worship gives us a taste of heaven

Read the incredible description of worship in Hebrews 12:18-29. Hebrews is like a written sermon to a Christian congregation. It says that when we gather for worship, we might physically be in a particular location, but spiritually we are present with God. The passage says that when we worship we are joined with the angels, all the perfected saints, God, and Jesus as our redeemer. As simple or small as a worship service may seem, this passage says that in our worship, a portal is formed between us and heaven. In our worship we are specially united with all God’s people before God’s throne. We are in the heavenly realms, right now, in our worship! Perhaps we don’t feel this; perhaps we come to worship distracted. But that does not change the reality of what happens. When God sees us worship he sees us with all his heavenly hosts. Why wouldn’t we want to participate in such a glorious scene?  

In Christ,
Pastor Jon

Spring at JPC

I believe our best days are ahead of us at Jordan Presbyterian Church. Over the past couple years we’ve had to face a number of difficult situations, and we’ve felt the burden of that. But God has been faithful and he has carried us through these times. Now we stand at a junction. What kind of church will JPC be going forward? Will we let fear and disappointment define us? Or will we step forward believing God is not finished with us yet? I believe our best days are ahead of us. Over the past year I’ve seen God working in subtle, yet significant ways.

•  I’ve see an excitement and unity among our elders and deacons that is greater than I’ve ever seen at JPC.
• I see more and more people praying for the church and our ministry.
• God is bringing people to our church. Over the past year we’ve seen a handful of new people come. Many of these people are new to Christianity or returning after a long time away. They’ve come to Jordan because it has been a safe place for them to learn about Christ and grow in him.
• We have more people stepping up to help serve the church. New people are helping with music, cleaning the church, and teaching and in other places.
• I’ve seen people growing in Christ. I’ve had conversations with members who tell me that for the first time they have a strong urge to start reading their Bible on their own. Others have told me how they are finding a new identity in Christ because of the ministries of this church. People are coming to know Christ as their redeemer.

We cannot let the shadows of our disappointments overtake what God is doing among us right now.

Last year closed one chapter in the history of our church. But what will our next chapter look like? We don’t know how God will use us. But to simply think the best is behind us would be wrong for several reasons.

First, we want to honor the work of all those who have been part of JPC. We’ve seen many people come and go. Many of them put blood, sweat, and tears into the planting and growth of this church. We want to honor what they did by continuing their work. Those people want to hear about how JPC is thriving even after they left. If we do not do the work of renewal we dishonor those who have come before us.  

Second, we want to have a church where the next generation grows to know Christ. We want a church that our kids and grandkids love to attend, and more importantly where they put their faith in Christ. If we only focus on the church reaching our individual needs, we will never be a church that reaches the next generation. We want to see our faith passed down to our kids and grandkids.

Third, there are so many people in our community who are searching for truth. The faith they grew up in suddenly doesn't seem to make as much sense as it once did. Others believe there has to be more to life than what they are currently experiencing, but are not sure where to find it. Our communities are full of people struggling with these questions. I believe Jordan Presbyterian Church is a good place for people to take that next step in their journey towards truth. I believe we are uniquely equipped to help people who are searching. Why? Because that is the story of so many of you. Our church is full of people who transitioned out of a religion that couldn’t answer their deepest questions. Our church is full of those who were searching for something more and found Christ here. We are a church that knows what it is like to be on a journey to know Christ.

What will the next chapter in the life of our church look like? The answer to that is up to all of us. The church is a community. When any one of us holds back we all suffer. This is the time for us to come together and start writing that next chapter. It’s the time for us to remember what JPC has meant to us. It’s time to remind yourself why you love your church.

Central to all this is our mission: that we are inviting everyone on our journey to know Christ above all else. The verb in our mission is inviting. We want to be an inviting church. We want to be inviting to those who are questioning their faith, we want to be inviting to those who are struggling, we want to be inviting to those looking for something more.

Next Steps

This process of renewing our vision will take place over the next year or so. In May we will have a short Sunday School series to have conversations about this. Here’s what I want you to do right now. Remind yourself why you love your church. What attracted you in the beginning? What kept you coming back? Why do you love your church? In a marriage, as time goes on, we get used to our spouses, and we can forget what attracted us to them in the first place. It’s the same with a church. I want you to take some time to remember why you love JPC. After doing that, I’d ask you make an extra effort reflect those things that first attracted you to JPC, because we want others to experience that as well.

I was recently talking with some of our long-time members and one of them said that it was time for spring at JPC. We’ve had a tough winter, but it’s spring now. We are seeing signs of new life. Spring is an exciting and beautiful time of year. Will you come out and celebrate spring at JPC with us?  

In Christ,
Pastor Jon

Ten Reasons You Can Trust the Bible - Part 2

Last month we looked at five reasons you can trust your Bible. The first five reasons had more of a theological bent, looking at what Scripture said about itself. In this second set of reasons, we will focus more on technical reasons for why the Bible you read today is the same Bible that was originally written.

6. While there are thousands of variations, they are not significant.

Many Christians are not aware that there are thousands of variations in the New Testament text. We get clues to this when we compare 1 John 5:7 in the NIV and KJV or when many translations do not include Acts 8:37. Initially this can be concerning. If there are so many variations how do we know which is correct? We will deal with that in the next points, but first you should know that of the thousands of variations, none of them offer a significant challenge to Christian doctrine. Why are there so many variations? It’s because the New Testament is a victim of its own success. With so many different people making copies of the Bible, certain variations arose. Let’s look at a breakdown of the types of variations in the text.

●     Spelling Variations: About 70% of the variations are spelling differences. So one text may leave out a vowel, while the other includes it. We still have this type of thing today, take color and colour. Some people copying the New Testament couldn’t read themselves, so if they made a mistake in copying the text they didn’t necessarily know what they were writing and couldn’t check it by actually reading what they wrote. While some scribes were meticulous in copying, others seemed to pay less attention to detail.

●     Variations that do not affect the translation: About 22% of the variations fall into this category. An example of this is where Luke 2:16 (ESV) reads, “And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph...” Some Greek manuscripts include the word “the” before Mary and Joseph. This doesn’t affect the translation or meaning of the text, but is likely a stylistic change.

●     Variations that are not feasible. About 7% of variations would fall into this category. One example is where Luke 6:22 (ESV) reads, “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!”  One manuscript from around the 10th century doesn’t include “on account of the Son of Man.” This changes the meaning of the verse because it teaches that any persecution is a sign of blessing, not just persecution for the sake of Christ. But this variation is easily ignored because it only occurs in one manuscript and comes almost 1000 years after the original text was written.

●     Variations without a clear choice. These are variations where there is not a clear correct choice, but these account for less than 1% of the variations in the New Testament. Even more, they don’t challenge any core doctrines. Many of these variations are actually rather boring. In seminary I did a project on one of these variations. In John 19:39 (ESV) it reads, “Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes...” Now there are several manuscripts with a different word for what is translated here as mixture. In addition to the Greek word for mixture, some manuscripts have a Greek word for package, another has a Greek word for ointment and other manuscripts have a spelling variation of one of the Greek words. In the end it is difficult to definitively say which Greek word used there was original. But you know what, none of them change the meaning of the verse.

7. The manuscripts are geographically separated.

            The New Testament texts we have are geographically separated. This is helpful because if there is a variation in the text in the manuscripts coming from Western Europe, but those variations show up no where else in manuscripts from Egypt or the Middle East or Eastern Europe, then we can say that the variation was likely not original because all the variations are kept to a single geographical location. This makes the argument that the Bible was changed to fit certain theological positions untenable. Yes, there were changes made for this reason, but because the text was geographically separated, we can isolate those changes and see they were not part of the original text. No single group of people controlled the whole text of the New Testament.

8. There are objective methods used to figure out the original text

A lot of the work in figuring out the original New Testament text is done by scholars who are not necessarily believing Christians. This is actually a good thing! Because it means that they are seeking to put together the text without the same bias as, say, a Christian who may want to see things harmonize perfectly. Because this work is often done by scholars, they have less interest in getting everything to fit theologically and are more interested in figuring out the original text. These scholars have developed several principles when picking textual variants. Here are some of them:

●     Lectio Difficilior – the more difficult reading is to be preferred because scribes would generally want to smooth things out or make it theological simpler

●     Lectio Brevior – the shorter reading is the preferred reading. The scribe wants to make an idea more complete or clear.

●     Lectio Potior– the longer reading is to be preferred. In manuscripts before the 4th century it was more common to shorten things to save space.

●     The reading that best explains the rest of the others is preferred. Of the variations, which one would scribes be most tempted to change somehow.

9. The manuscripts are very old.

Some people criticise the New Testament because they say we don’t have the original copies of the books. Even worse, the earliest texts we have date to many years after the originals were written! For us, in this day-in-age, that seems to cast doubt on the reliability of the New Testament. But if we were to hold every ancient document to this standard we would be left with very few, if any ancient documents that we could trust. We have fragments of the Gospels that date to within a century of the original writings. While this may not sound like a lot for us where we keep preserved archives of all kinds of documents, the ancient world did not have this luxury. For a historical document that is almost 2000 years old it is quite remarkable to have such early manuscripts.

10. The Books of the New Testament were settled early on.

Many people are familiar with other gospels that existed around the time of the early church like the Gospel of Thomas. Why were these books not included in the Bibles we have? Here are several reasons for why we can be confident we have the right books in our Bibles.

●     Many of these other Gospels are clearly different. The Gospel of Thomas includes 114 sayings of Jesus. One of these contains these words attributed to Jesus, “For every woman who makes herself male will enter into the kingdom of heaven.” It’s hard to believe Jesus actually said those words. Another example is from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, where a boy messes up a mud puddle that a young Jesus is playing in. Jesus gets mad at the other boy and causes him to be withered up like a tree. While such a story is amusing it does not fit with the image we have of Jesus in the other Gospels.

●     The Gospels we have are the oldest ones. While there are other “Gospels” they mostly date to the second century. The oldest Gospels we have are the four that are in our Bibles.

●     Certain books were seen as Scripture early on. In 2 Peter 3:15-6, Peter writes “ Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.” What is pertinent for this discussion is that by the time 2 Peter was written, Paul’s writings were seen as Scripture.

●     The early church quickly moved to the use of books. A scroll doesn’t have a clearly defined end, because you can just start writing on a new scroll. But when you make a book you have to decide what is included and what is left out. This plays into the discussion of books of the Bible because we see the early church was quick to start copying scriptures in a book format instead of a scroll. This indicates that early on they had a sense of what books were part of Scripture.

In conclusion, there are many reasons for why we can trust our Bibles. While these reasons may not convince the hardened doubter, they should provide confidence to the Christian as he or she reads, Scripture and seeks to conform his or her life to it.

Again, I’d love to talk with you more about this if you have questions.

In Christ,

Pastor Jon 

For further reading:

Good online resource: http://michaeljkruger.com/

A good entry-level book: The Heresy of Orthodoxy: How Contemporary Culture's Fascination with Diversity Has Reshaped Our Understanding of Early Christianity, http://amzn.com/1433501430

A technical book on the manuscripts of the New Testament: The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, http://amzn.com/019516122X

Ten Reasons You Can Trust the Bible - Part 1

I was encouraged because a handful of you asked questions after the sermon a few weeks ago when I talked about why we can trust our Bibles. I thought it would be helpful to go into a bit more detail for why we can trust the Bibles we have. So, I am taking the next two months to give you ten reasons why you can trust your Bible.
 
1. God Uses Language
 
We live in a time when many are skeptical of language. Academics question where language come from, is it simply a human invention? Philosophers ask where the meaning of a word lies.  Can we trust language? All these questions are relevant to Christians because the fundamental way we know anything about God is through words. Scripture is God’s word to us. So can we trust the message?
 
If words are simply a human invention, then perhaps words would not be a reliable way to understand God. Words would just be descriptions of what God said, but not what God actually said. But as Christians we can have confidence in the words of Scripture, because language finds its origin in God himself. How did God create the world? By speaking. (Gen 1). How is Jesus described? As the word of God made flesh (John 1). We can trust language to be a reliable way for God to communicate to us because language was created by God himself.
 
But you may ask, what about the fact that we read our Bibles in English while the Scriptures were written mostly in Hebrew and Greek? Can we trust our English Bibles? Yes, we can. Consider Isaiah 55:11 where God says:

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

This passage describes God’s words in a remarkable way–that they always accomplish their purposes. Now combine this thought with Jesus’s command to take the Gospel to all nations (Acts 1:8). The command presupposes that Scripture must be translated. With these two ideas, we can conclude that God will work through translations of Scripture to accomplish the purposes of his word. Even though we read our Bibles in a language much different that the language Jesus spoke, we can have confidence that God’s word will accomplish his purposes in our lives.
 
2. God Says The Bible is Trustworthy
 
Does God believe our Bibles are trustworthy? Yes, because he shows that all of Scripture, even though written by humans, are still God’s words. It is not just the red letters that we should say came from God, but every word in our Bible is God’s word.  Consider the following passages:
 
2 Tim 3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness”
 
This verse equates Scripture (the written Old and New Testaments) with God’s very own breath. When we speak, we breathe out. Scripture is the breathed-out word from God’s own mouth. This means that the words we have in Scripture are not just someone's individual interpretation of what God said, but the words of Scripture are actually God’s very words.
 
Matt 19:4-5, “[Jesus] answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?”
 
Note that in this passage, Jesus says that God (the one who created Adam and Eve) said, “Therefore a man shall leave....” Now if you look up this passage in Genesis 2:24 you will find that God did not actually say these things, but they were the words of the human author of Genesis. Now, was Jesus mistaken? Certainly not! Even though a human wrote these words, he was inspired by God (just as he observed in 2 Tim 3:16) and that means that Jesus believed what Scripture says is what God says, even if the words are not in quotes.
 
3. Jesus Trusted It
 
Some Bibles have red letters, to indicate the words Jesus spoke. People seem to intrinsically be interested in these words of Jesus. So then, if we are interested in Jesus’s words, a helpful question about the reliability of Scripture is what did Jesus say about Scripture itself?
 
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said that he came not to abolish the law or prophets, but to fulfill them. The law and prophets were general categories to describe many of the Old Testament books. In Matt 6:18 Jesus says, “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” While Jesus only mentions the law, he likely still has in view most, if not all of the Old Testament and he is saying that the smallest little details of the written word of God are important. He references an iota, which is the smallest greek letter (it looked something like a comma) and a dot, which probably referred to a small marking in Hebrew, something similar to the dot of an ‘i’. Jesus shows that even the smallest details of Scripture are reliable and to be trusted.
 
4. The New Testament Is Built Upon The Apostles’ Foundation
 
In Acts we learn the job of the Apostles was to be witness to Jesus to “Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) The question arises, “how were the apostles to be witnesses to the ends of the earth?” For they never made it to North or South America. But in one sense haven’t they? Their records were written down in the books of the New Testament and so they continue to be witnesses to Christ today. Jesus intended for Scripture to be written down, so it could actually make it to the ends of the earth after the apostles had died. This is what Paul means when he says the church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets” (Eph 2:20). If we want to know the true Christian message, we need to look back to the teaching of the apostles. Where in the teaching of the apostles? In the twenty-seven books of the New Testament.
 
After looking at some theological reason, let’s now move to some practical and technical reasons for why we can we trust our Bibles.
 
5. There are thousands.... or millions of manuscripts
 
There are by far more manuscripts of the New Testament than any other historical document. Because we have so many manuscripts we can be confident that we have the original text of the New Testament. People often have a double standard when it comes to historical documents, tending to trust other historical documents more than Scripture. Yet just by looking at the number of manuscripts we have, it would be logical to put more trust in the reliability of the New Testament simply because of how many copies we have of it. 

  Document                                   Number of Known Manuscripts
  Livy’s History of Rome                                   27
  Thucydides’s History                                      20
  Herodotus’s History                                        75
  Plato’s Tetralogies                                         200
  Homer’s Illiad                                               2000
  New Testament             5,700 greek, 10,000 latin, more than a million quotations of Scripture     from the early church fathers

Next Month we will look at the next five reasons we can trust our Bibles. They are:
1.While there are thousands of variations, they are not significant.
2.The manuscripts are geographically separated.
3.There are scientific principles used to figure out the original text
4.The manuscripts are very old.
5.The Books of the Bible were settled early on.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss this further, I’d love to meet up you. Just contact me and we can arrange something.
 
In Christ,
 
Pastor Jon

New Year's Resolutions

We set New Year’s resolutions because we have some picture of a better future that we hope to get closer to. We set a fitness goal because we hope to see our health improve. We set a financial goal, because perhaps we took on too much debt this past year, or didn’t have enough saved for an unexpected expense. We set a goal to simplify our life because we’ve felt to distracted lately. So we set goals based on what we want our future to look like. We picture the joy of living without credit card debt. We imagine ourselves wearing clothes that we haven’t been able to fit into for years. We love the idea of a simpler life. And so we set goals to help us get there. 

But let me ask you this question, “Are you setting goals with eternity in mind?” We often don’t put much thought into why we accept certain things as good. Common sense tells us it’s good to be financially secure, in good shape, and good at our work. Certainly there are biblical precedents for doing such things. But these goals can also be taken to extremes. The man who pursues personal fitness at the expense of everything else, turns what is good into an unhealthy obsession. His religion becomes fitness. The woman who is so concerned with being financially secure, may find she is so concerned with money that she never enjoys her financial freedom. She has turned money into an unrelenting god. 

Underlying these goals is what we could call an ultimate goal. Many of the goals we make serve this ultimate goal. For most it is some picture of a “good life.” But as Christians we have more to hope for. We have the picture of us as the Church reaching the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Eph 4:13) I don’t fully understand what that means, but I know it will be pretty awesome!

As you think over your goals for this next year, are you keeping eternity in mind? I mean, do you see how your goals fit into that ultimate goal–attaining the measure of the fullness of Christ? Certainly this means some of our goals should be tied to our own holiness. But other goals, say fitness should relate to this as well. For me, I find when I spend time on my bicycle I have more energy and clearer thinking. Exercise is a gift from God to help me serve him better in other areas of life. It’s the same with other goals. Are your goals an end in themselves? If so, perhaps you aren’t thinking Christianly about these goals, for we should take every thought captive to Christ. (2 Cor 10:5)

When we make goals with eternity in mind, we may be surprised at the progress we make in keeping them. Why? Because then our goals will be in line with Jesus’s goal for us. His goal is to present us before God without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish. (Eph 5:27) And when we put our goals in line with Jesus’s goals, we may end up in places we never expected, but it will be so much better than we imagined. 

In Christ,

Pastor Jon

There's No Place Like Home

One of the highlights of 2014 was moving into the home that Lisa and I had built in Daybreak. We loved the house design and location, but more than that, this house was the first place that we would call home. Since getting married, Lisa and I have moved around from Hawaii, to Colorado, Pennsylvania and now to Utah. Finally, we were settling down in a place where we had no plans to leave. We had dreams of raising our girls in this home and growing old together here. We were excited for a place to call home.
 
The theme of “home” is appropriate to talk about during the advent season. Our longing for home is stronger during the holidays. When introducing us to Jesus, John 1:18 says that Jesus Christ became flesh and dwelled among us. We could even translate this as Jesus became human and made his home us with. The first Christmas is a story of God making his home among humans.
 
Such an act is incredible! God left his heavenly home to live with humans. It would be like a monarch leaving the palace to go live among the poor. On earth, kings and rulers build homes that separate themselves from the common people. Walls, guards and gates are all used to keep that separation between the king and everyone else. But Jesus is unlike any earthly king. He tears down the barriers between heaven and earth. He rips the temple curtain open. He removes the separation between God and his people. Jesus makes his home with us!
 
When we look at Scripture we see that the theme of home runs from the beginning to the end. Eden was the first home that God made for humans. In Revelation 21-22 we read of a New Jerusalem where God lives in the midst of his people. We could even summarize Scripture by saying it is the story of God’s quest to make a forever home for his people.
 
I’m excited for you to join us as we look at this theme of home during our advent series. It’s a message of hope for everyone. It’s a message of hope for those who have broken homes–Jesus is making you a new home in heaven. It frees us from the pressures to make our homes look perfect–these homes are only a shadow of our eternal home. It reminds us of God’s incredible love–that the king would want to make his home with us.
 
I’d encourage you to be praying for people in your life who need to hear this message about God’s love and then take the opportunity to invite them to one of our services. See what we will be studying each week at http://www.jordanpresbyterian.org/christmas-services
 
In Christ,
 
Pastor Jon

Daily Provision

God miraculously provided food for Israel when they were traveling through the desert on their way to the promised land. The Israelites had never seen something like this before, so they called the food “manna”, which could literally be translated as, “What is it?” 

We all long for God provision. We have those thoughts, those desires and prayers. We long for God’s provision in our lives. But sometimes when God responds, his answer looks different than what we were expecting. And like those Israelites, we also want to ask God, “what is it?” 

When manna came, people were told to only take what they needed for that one day, no more. That meant you must trust God for the next day’s food. Some Israelites decided it was much easier to trust their ability to take a little extra manna today than trust God’s provision tomorrow. But Exodus 16:20 says, “some of them didn’t listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell.”

God wants us to trust him day-by-day, step-by-step. But instead we believe that no one is looking out for us, so we had better look out for ourselves. And, perhaps, no one on this earth is looking out for you, but don’t forget you have a loving father in heaven. And a loving father never forgets his children. He just wishes we wouldn't forget him so often. 

This is true for you as an individual, but also as a church. The church is God’s forever family. We are Christ’s bride. God is our father. This means we don’t need to fear the future, but we trust God day-by-day, because he is taking us on this journey. 

In a couple of weeks we are holding our missions conference, and I’m really excited for it. We’ve arranged to get some great food. We will hear about how God is providing for our missionaries. We’ll also hear from a guest speaker who will teach us about our unity that we have in Christ.

We don’t call our missions giving “faith promise,” for nothing. We pledge this money in faith, because we trust God will provide. And God has provided! One encouraging thing that I’ve seen happen in the two-plus years I’ve been here is that God has blessed us financially. Even though we’ve given away so much, God has blessed us with more. Even though our monthly giving fluctuates, the average internal giving at this church has been at some of the highest levels in the past two years. 

As you consider your faith promise giving, do so in faith. God is our father, he provides. He doesn’t want us to hoard, but to trust him day-by-day and step-by-step. God never forgets us. Just like manna, God’s mercies are new every morning.

In Christ, 
Pastor Jon

One Body, Many Parts

When we first moved out to Utah, people would often ask why we moved. “Work,” I would say. This usually led to them asking what I did for work. “I’m a pastor at a church in West Jordan,” I responded. About 99% of the time this would lead to more questions. This alone made Utah unique, because elsewhere in the U.S. most people will run for the exits if they find out they are talking to a pastor!
 
In these conversations people would often speak of the “Presbyterian Religion” or the “Baptist Religion,” or some other religion. Other than thinking it was an odd way to speak, I didn’t catch the significance of this. But I later realized that many people saw all these denominations as equally separate, so that the distance between the Baptist faith and the Presbyterian faith was about the same distance as the distance between the Presbyterian Faith and the LDS Faith.
 
While most Bible-believing Christians would agree that we are all one in Christ. We also, in our actions and thoughts, can ignore this unity God has given us. We can be jealous of other churches when they succeed. We can hold onto what we have instead of giving it to others. We can fail to partner with other churches because we are not sure how it would help us out. We can act like we are alone out here.
 
But notice how the Apostle Paul speaks about the church:
●1 Corinthians 12:13: “ For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body–whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free–and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.”
●1 Corinthians 12:26: “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”
●Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
●Ephesians 4:3-6: “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
 
Paul is clear that we are all one. Why? Because there is only one Jesus, and therefore one body.
 
Have you ever wondered why the baptismal formula is very simple? “I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” It doesn’t get into much doctrine, but is a simple statement. These words given by Jesus almost seem to anticipate that there would be various interpretations of Scripture that would arise throughout history. That is one reason we see various denominations today. It was almost like by giving us the baptismal formula that expresses the absolute basics of the Christian faith, Jesus is reminding us that though some non-essential doctrines may differ, we are united in our belief of Father, Son and Spirit. We were baptized into one body. Though we may not agree about every little detail, it doesn’t mean we are not united to one another. The unity we have comes from God, through Jesus, and is applied by the Spirit.
 
How can we better show the unity we have with other believers? I’d encourage you to be thinking about this. To help us, our missions team decided that the theme for our missions conference this year will be about our unity in Christ. Our speaker will talk about this theme and get us thinking about how we can show our unity in Christ. We will also hear from the missionaries we support. We do this because we are all part of the same body. Their successes are our successes, and their struggles are our struggles. We are united in Christ.
 
What ideas do you have for showing our unity? I’ve often thought it would be really cool to invite all the other PCA churches, or even various other churches in the valley for a combined worship service. There is something very powerful about when God’s people gather and pack out a room while praising him! What are your thoughts and ideas? I’d love to hear from you!
 
 
In Christ,
 
Pastor Jon

Our Journey to Know Christ

This spring the church leadership met for our semi-annual officers retreat (it sounds nicer that it is: we met in a conference room in a West Jordan hotel). At that meeting we started a discussion where we asked, “What is the mission of our church?” Jesus gave his church a mission, to be his witness (Acts 1:8) and to make disciples (Matt 1:28). So, that is our mission. But we also recognized that we are not the only gospel-centered church in our community. Paul speaks of the diversity of the church, that each individual believer, and even churches, have gift sets, but no one person, or even one particular church has all the gifts that Christ has given his church. JPC is a part of the Body of Christ.

So, considering the gifts, interests, people and location of JPC, how do we do our part to further the mission that Christ has given his church? After a lot of prayer and discussion, we decided that the mission of our church was: “We are inviting everyone on our journey to know Christ above all else.”

Let me explain a few things about this mission statement:

- We wanted our mission to be something we could actually do. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul speaks about how he planted seeds of the gospel, Apollos watered them, but God gave the growth in people. We can’t make people become Christians, we can’t make people grow in Christ, only God can do this. But we can invite people to know him and grow in him.

- We are inviting people on a journey. This journey metaphor is found throughout Scripture. A journey means that we have not arrived. That means we are not inviting others as people who have finished, but we are inviting people to walk with us. Journeys are full of rough patches, hills, dark valleys, sometimes it seems like you aren’t making progress. The Christian life is a journey. On a journey some people are further along, some are slower, but we still have further to go.

- We are inviting people on our journey.  None of us makes the journey alone, but with others. We carry each other's burdens, we pray for each other. We are in this together.

- We are inviting people on our journey to know Christ above all else. A journey has a destination. For us it is knowing Christ above all else. Everything that we do must be Christ-centered. We are introducing people to Christ. As Pastor Tim has often said, “introduce them to Jesus and let him change what he wants with them.”

There are all kinds of ways we can invite people. We can invite them to church. But we can also invite them into our lives. We invite neighbors over for dinner to develop relationships. We invite each other to take the next step in our journey to know Christ.

Is this a new direction for the church?

No, this is re-emphasising and refocusing on the core values this church was founded on. Perhaps some of you remember a triangle diagram Pastor Tim used to draw, with “making disciples” at the top and on the left and right sides of the triangle were evangelism and discipleship. In many ways we see this mission as simply putting into words that diagram Pastor Tim established.

One thing we did note in our discussions was that the leaders had different ideas about what our mission statement was. We realized that we didn’t have a clear mission statement. We had a motto, “knowing Christ above all else,” but didn’t have a mission statement. So, we asked how do we take our motto, which we all know and love, and turn it into a mission?

What will change now that we’ve got a mission statement?     

None of the leadership is under the impression that having a mission statement will magically change everything. In fact, much will look the same. But let me share a story that illustrates the benefit of having our mission always before us.

This summer when VBS was approaching there would often be a group of children playing near the church. I would think, “I should invite them to VBS.” But I would then turn back to my to-do list and, be reminded of all the stuff I needed to get done today. Tomorrow I could invite them to VBS. Then I put the mission statement on the wall. And those words, “we are inviting everyone on our journey to know Christ above all else” started nagging me day after day. Yes, each day I had a list of things to do. But that statement on the wall reminded me what was most important. It gave clarity amid the busyness of day-to-day life. Unless I’m inviting people on this journey, all this other stuff doesn’t really matter. So the next time I saw those kids I walked outside and talked to them and their mom. Then I invited them to VBS. Did they come? No, but like the mission statement says, all we can do is invite people.

In Christ, 
       Pastor Jon

Friend Day!

Join us this Sunday August 30th! 

Thinking about going back to church? Perhaps you've never been, but are interesting in learning more. Perhaps you're just looking for some new friends. This is a great Sunday to come and check things out! 

Join us this Sunday for a worship service that lasts just over an hour. We guarantee you'll find a group of people that will welcome you with open arms. Dress is casual. 

The theme for this friend day is "someone worth waiting for." We all wait for things, but are they worth it? Is anything worth waiting your whole life for? How do we wait well? Jesus has an answer for us, and he is worth waiting for. Come this Sunday to learn why. 

Lunch follows!

Stick around afterwards for lunch! We've got some great cooks in the church and we would love to share our food with you! See you Sunday at 9:45am!

 

Who Defines You?

We’ve wrapped up our summer sermon series looking at our Union with Christ. I really enjoyed preparing each sermon as it reminded me of these fundamental truths that I often forget. I hope you also were blessed as we looked at eight things that are ours because we are united to Christ. As I reflected on this series, I realized that ultimately our union with Christ is about our identity. When we become Christian, we take on a new name, that of Christ. The gospel is about taking a new identity, that of the risen King. I think that is pretty awesome!

The message of a gospel-shaped identity is also relevant to the questions so many are asking in our world right now. Who/what defines one's identity? One interesting bit of recent news involved a woman who led an NAACP chapter in Washington. She said that she identified as black, even though she was born to white parents. When it came out she was not biologically black, many decried her as a fraud. But it seems to me there is an inconsistency here. If our culture says that one can choose their sexual identity why can one not choose their racial identity? (As a Christian I do not believe we ultimately get to chose our identity.) Underlying all this is the question of what defines us and who gets to decide that.

Many today believe that humans are basically good. That within each one of us is good and we need to let that out. This is a powerful and attractive cultural narrative. But we should also note that it stands in contradiction to Scriptures teaching that we are sinful from birth (Psalm 51:5). One implication of this cultural narrative is that we can then trust what feels right to us, because inside us we are good. And so we must do what feels right in order to achieve our full potential. Thus we see so many looking inward to find their identity.

But there is an unintended side effect of this. If my true identity is found wholly within, and not through some human ideal which unites us, a natural segregation of people occurs. This leads to a breaking of community and instead a creation of isolated, homogeneous groups. Diverse communities ultimately disappear because there is nothing to bring unity in diversity. These groups are not true communities. A true community has something in common. I think this is why so many people struggle with loneliness today.

One aspect of the gospel is that Christ is building a new community in him. And this brings us back to our union with Christ. This community is based off the ideal human, Christ. He is the supreme example of what it means to be human. The church is this new community. It’s a community that is welcoming to all who would take on Christ’s identity. It’s a true community because we all share something in common, our identity in Christ. It’s a community that can celebrate diversity because we see diversity in the one, triune God: father, son and spirit. It’s a community with a united purpose and mission, to invite everyone on our journey to know Christ above all else.

In Christ,
Pastor Jon