Whenever I get together with my pastor friends someone always brings up how different church life is since Covid. Attendance is down. Many rely on live-streams rather than worshiping in person. 

That year or so of  Covid lockdown shaped the habitus of far too many believers!

We started this newsletter back in the early days of Covid to keep us connected. We couldn’t meet in person for worship or for Bible studies, so we had FaceBook live for worship, and I wrote the Pastor’s Note on Wednesday as a substitute for a mid-week study. 

I’ve had a couple of complaints recently that my Pastor’s Notes are too long. So, I’m going to make an effort to make these shorter and maybe more to the point. 

Love God. Love others.

I’ve asked Kim Elliott to write the Pastor’s Note this week about her health journey. I’m certain you’ll be blessed - Pastor Terry

Psalm 46:1: "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble."

Psalm 34:18: "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."

APOLOGIST /uh-POL-uh-jist/ noun - a person who writes or speaks in defense of a specific belief, cause, or institution, especially one that is controversial, unpopular, or subject to criticism. 

While visiting a craftsman colony on Saturday, I spoke with a really sweet church musician who ran a jewelry shop. She shared that a cousin had recently been fired from her decades-long church position at a  church after the congregation voted to become Southern Baptist. This cousin had worked in various capacities as a minister within that congregation, but despite her effectiveness, her ministry was no longer valid. 

“Be patient, be patient, don’t be in such a hurry,” was a song we taught the preschoolers at the first church I served. I can still hear their little voices singing, “Remember, remember, that God has patience, too . . .”

And, boy! Are we thankful for that! I hope those little ones (now in their 40s) remember that.

We are a nation of do-ers. We prize industry and busy-ness with instant, measurable results . . . 

But does God? 

What’s in a name? 

For the people of the Old Testament, a person’s name indicated a person’s character. In Exploring Exodus, Nahum Sarna explained it as “the totality of the intricate, interwoven, manifold forces that make up the whole personality of the bearer of that name.”  So, when God tells Moses His name, “I AM WHO I AM” or “I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE,” God is expressing the quality of His being. He is revealing Himself to humankind. 

And so the irony kills me. 

One of my very favorite movies is Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 classic The Ten Commandments. Is it a perfect movie? By no means.  Is it faithful to the Biblical account? By no means.  Is some of the acting over the top? Oh, very much so. Does it capture the spirit of biblical account? I believe it does. 

BUT. Does it have the GREATEST single special effect in all of cinema? Oh, most definitely. 

prayer  /prɛər/noun   An act of communication by humans with the sacred or holy.

symphony  /ˈsɪmfəni/ noun
A long piece of music that is usually in four large, separate movements, that is performed by an orchestra

A Symphony of Prayer. A service in several movements, interweaving scripture, and music, offered by God’s people as a prayer. 

When it comes to the Bible, Colossians is one of those books that once I’ve finished reading it, I want to turn right around and read it again! It’s hard for me to turn loose of something that hasn’t turned loose of me! I’ve enjoyed preaching through it this summer, and I’m sad that after this Sunday, I’ll be done. I hope you feel the same. 

Christianity is about relationship: we were estranged from God; we have been reconciled to God. We were estranged from one another; we are reconciled to one another. 

When we were estranged, we lived like it! But now, since we’re reconciled to God and one another, we live differently. 

Well, it is finally here! Those verses that we have been memorizing since the spring – remember them? They are my text for Sunday:

12Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 13Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.  Colossians 3:12-15

Last Sunday we sang one of my favorite hymns, a verse of which I’ve often used in my daily quiet time since I was in grad school:

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
till all our strivings cease;
take from our souls the strain and stress,
and let our ordered lives confess
the beauty of Thy peace. 

Much of unhealthy Christianity centers around power - but not the power of the Holy Spirit! Unhealthy power is centered in leadership that determines who is in and who is out, and the sign of belonging is often expressed in “boundary markers.” Boundary makers are those things that create a clear division between “us” and “them.” They can be as diverse as dictating the way women wear their hair to forbidding any criticism of a “pastor’s authority.”  Those who violate the human-made (and often literally “man made") boundaries are no longer welcome. 

I had a conversation with a young atheist a while back that reminded me of our need to be able to understand and to clearly express what we believe. He gave me his reasons for not believing and mostly I said, “You haven’t really read the Bible. You’re just repeating what you heard someone else say.” (He’s a lazy atheist – he won’t do the work himself). 

Deep inside the prison vaults in Edinburgh castle you’ll find scratched into the door one of the oldest depictions of the American flag outside of the states. Among the pirates and soldiers from all over the world that were held as prisoners in those dungeons was an American prisoner of war in 1780. Nothing is known about him, but his mark remains some 250 years later.

When the Bible says that Jesus turned water into wine and Paul told Timothy to drink a little wine for his stomach’s sake, I hear a lot of preachers twisting themselves into pretzels trying to explain the context of these passages and turn wine into Welch’s. But these same preachers will read phrases like “women should stay silent in church” and “I do not allow a woman to teach” and declare they are the clear, plain and obvious word of the Lord – no context needed. 

Many of you may not know that for the last 4 years or so I’ve been co-leading a weekly men’s group that meets on either Monday afternoons or Tuesday mornings. All of these fellows have had difficult pasts – sometimes because of their own choices, but sometimes as a result of others’ choices. Self-esteem is a serious issue with many of them. A few weeks ago I was teaching from the early chapters of Genesis and a question jumped out at us that I hadn’t really considered before. And, honestly, I haven’t been able to turn it loose since then. 

Someone recently asked me what my vision was for Christ Church.

It’s a good question. 

And there are a variety of ways to answer a question about vision. The usual way I’ve heard vision expressed is in terms of, to be a little crass, “butts, bills, and baptisms” (in other words, attendance, income, and conversions).