“You become what you behold, whether to restoration or to ruin.”

I shared that sentence a few weeks ago while reflecting on Paul’s call to gaze upon the glory of Christ. Something is shaping you—forming your values, your instincts, your vision of the world. The question is what.

One way to name this is worldview—the assumptions and beliefs about how life works that quietly shape everything else. As one author puts it, those who don’t consciously examine their worldview end up “catching” it “the same way they might catch a cold—they absorb it from the culture around them.”¹

And that culture is not neutral. The god of this world is present and active (2 Corinthians 4:4). There are forces—seen and unseen—working to pull us from the truth through false doctrine, human cunning, and deceitful schemes (Ephesians 4:14). If we are not actively beholding the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ through the reading, study, and meditation of Scripture (2 Corinthians 3:18), we will simply absorb the world’s vision of reality instead.

This is why we have the Colson Fellowship—one of the five fellowships of The Anselm Institute. It exists to help covenant members cultivate a robust biblical worldview, one particularly equipped to address the counter-worldview of our day. The fellowship runs August through May. You’ll engage curated resources throughout the week and gather monthly with other Westview members to process and wrestle with the material together. The curriculum follows a four-fold progression:

1. Truth — Seeing Reality as It Truly Is
2. Hope — Living Within God’s Redemptive Story
3. Identity — Becoming Who We Are in Christ
4. Calling — Living Faithfully in Every Sphere of Life

I won’t pretend this is easy. The Colson Fellowship is a significant commitment—ten months of redirected habits and priorities in your life and schedule. But we have been charged by King Jesus to make disciples. Your children, your neighbors, your colleagues—they are all being shaped by something too. Are you equipped to lead them with clarity, to commend Christ against bad ideas with lasting consequences?

If you want to learn more, visit our website—or better yet, come to the “Taste of the Colson Fellowship Brunch” at the Farlands' home on May 2.

¹ Making Sense of Your World, Phillips, Brown, and Stonestreet, p. 19.

Work is a good thing. Humanity is designed to reflect the Creator through productivity. While our work—like everything else—has been subjected to futility (cf. Romans 8:20-21) by the curse of sin in Genesis 3:17-19, the commission to work as God’s representatives on earth came in Genesis 1:28. It has been keenly observed that striving for a “work-life balance” is a misnomer. Life is meant for work.

Yet that is not all that Genesis has to say on the subject. When God arrived at the end of the Sixth Day declaring his work very good (Genesis 1:31), he didn’t rest from all his work on the Seventh Day because he needed a break. He wasn’t living for the weekend. He didn’t need a nap. No, he instituted a day of rest, the sabbath, as a gift (Mark 2:27). He made us finite creatures, and he baked into the design of the cosmos a weekly rhythm of rest to remind us of our dependence on him, both in our work (Exodus 20:8-11) and in our redemption (Deuteronomy 5:12-15). This sabbath rest is set on a trajectory of expanding significance (see Leviticus 23:1-44, 25:1-22) until that Day when we finally enter the eternal rest Jesus has secured (Hebrews 4:1-11). So, rather than finding a “work-life balance,” a more fitting objective is a “work-rest balance.”

Flowing from this rich, biblical theme, Westview pastors will be granted periodic sabbaticals, time away from the routines of normal ministry and daily life for enrichment, rest, renewal, and personal growth. Both staff and non-staff pastors will be afforded the opportunity of a sabbatical every seven years, yet by nature of his increased responsibilities, a staff pastor’s sabbatical has a larger impact on the life of the church. As we prepare for the first of these sabbaticals later this year, let’s consider the why and what of pastoral sabbaticals.

Serving as a staff pastor has unique challenges. Reflect on these statistics:

• 1 in 5—the number of pastors that leave vocational ministry due to burnout (Lifeway Research)
• 3-4 years—the average tenure of a lead pastor at a church (Thom Rainer)
• 1 in 10—the number of pastors who actually retire as a pastor (Schaeffer Institute)
• 56%—the number of pastors who report the immense stress of the job as the reason they consider quitting (Barna)

Sabbaticals aren’t a silver bullet to secure the long-term service of pastors in ministry. But church ministry researcher Thom Rainer identifies five reasons for why they are a significant help:

1. A pastor has emotional highs and lows unlike most other vocations.
2. A pastor is on 24-hour call.
3. Pastors need time of uninterrupted study.
4. Pastors who have sabbaticals have longer tenure at churches.
5. Pastors who have sabbaticals view the time off as an affirmation from their churches.

Gratefully, as I see my seventh year of serving Westview on the horizon, I do not feel like I am on the brink of burnout and certainly not considering quitting. A key reason why I am looking forward to this sabbatical is to preserve and encourage healthy rhythms that promote longevity in this ministry. My eager desire has been and continues to be to serve Westview until I die or no longer have the physical or mental capacity due to age. So, as I have reflected on why a sabbatical would be wise for me, I have focused on three reasons.

The all-in demands of church planting, the 24/7 availability of pastoring, and my own personal disposition toward productivity can lead me to believe the lie that the health, success, and vitality of Westview is dependent on me. It’s a lie that stokes the flame of the praise of man—it’s a fire that can consume a pastor. In his book Dangerous Calling, Paul Tripp writes, “Perhaps in ministry there is no more potent intoxicant than the praise of men, and there is no more dangerous form of drunkenness than to be drunk with your own glory” (167). Stepping away for a sabbatical is a tangible flame retardant for such self-glory. The church does not need me, and I do not need to be needed.

We are all made to be worshipers. The weekly grind of pastoral ministry can have a tendency to move away from wonder to “what’s next.” The next sermon, the next counseling meeting, the next training, the next crisis, the next, the next, the next. A plurality of pastors and shared preaching helps mitigate against this experience, which is also found in other professions. However, the unique feature of pastoral ministry is that, in a sense, the source of wonder is the work. And familiarity can breed contempt. Eli and his worthless sons, though ministers of God, failed to worship, failed to wonder, failed to give God glory—and they were judged accordingly (cf. 2 Samuel 2:12-36). I don’t want to become a worthless minister. I need wonder.

Out of 8 billion people, I am the only one called to be a husband and father in my family. Many men could be a pastor at Westview. I am the only one who can shepherd my family. This is a strategic point in family life with my kids old enough to flex schedules and habits but not pulled to other responsibilities. I have seen buds of resentment of being a pastor’s kid as my regular absence from home in the mornings and evenings is felt—buds that I nip by flexing schedules and investing intentional time. But the extended time away from such demands of church ministry would be a testimony and gift to my family that they are not less important to me than Westview is.

The substance of a sabbatical will look different for each pastor. The target is to leverage the time for mental, physical, relational, and spiritual replenishment such as to extend the length of time a pastor can be in ministry and to make his time in ministry more fruitful and energized. The goal is not to simply vacate responsibilities or work. Rather, the objective is to follow Jesus’ model to go away to a desolate place to be refreshed by God (Mark 1:35) and heed Jesus’ words to “come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while” (Mark 6:31).

It can include personal and professional development through exposure to and study of new ideas through travel, research, and quiet time alone with God. The sabbatical should be taken at a location that is rejuvenating and include activities that renew and refresh the pastor. It is important to have a balance of planned time to read, study, and cast vision, as well as open-ended time to allow the Holy Spirit to work during the sabbatical. As I have sought counsel for planning my very first sabbatical, a common element is to have a clear plan for the time so it doesn’t slip through your fingers like sand.

This year, both Pastor Zach and I are planning on taking a sabbatical. I will step away for most of June and July, and, God willing, Pastor Zach will do likewise this Fall. Contributing to the specific plans of our sabbaticals will be feedback from our members. We will send out a form to members to provide the opportunity to contribute encouragement and opportunities for growth.

At this point, I am structuring my planned time away in three phases:

My wife and I are making arrangements to meet up with an out-of-state ministry couple for the better part of a week to debrief the last six years together. This couple are dear friends who have navigated challenges in ministry faithfully.

The focus of this second phase is to fill my soul with wonder and spend formative time with my family in the mountains. Few settings so readily cultivate rest and awe in God like the mountains (there’s actually a whole biblical theology of mountains I have reflected on—I’ll save that for a future article). The plan is for this time to be marked by:

• Running and hiking
• Reading Brothers Karamazov—I don’t normally read fiction and have heard how beautiful this (long) book is
• Memorize the letter to Titus
• Have extended 1:1 time with each of my children

The focus of the third phase is to give time, prayer, thought, and planning on what the next seven years will look like for my family and ministry before “re-entering” normal life. If the Lord wills, at the time of my next sabbatical (2033!), we will be knocking on the door of a whole new season: launching kids into independent adulthood and transitioning to an empty nest. So, during this phase I want to:

• Keep working on the same things in phase two
• Develop a discipleship strategy for my children in the burgeoning young adult years that also could serve as a resource to other parents (and perhaps capture what we’ve done through the little to childhood years)
• Read books related to writing and preaching: On Writing Well by William Zinsser, Saving Eutychus by Gary Millar & Phil Campbell, and Preaching by Stuart Olyott
• Transition to a new Bible study system, Logos, for study and sermon preparation
• Prepare reflections on the benefit of the sabbatical to report back to the church

I am eager to see how the Lord will use this sabbatical for his good purposes in my life, in the lives of my family, and in the life of Westview. If you would, pray for these plans. Pray that logistics and details would come together. Pray even now that the investment would reap exponential dividends for Christ’s sake. May the Lord do far more than we could ever ask or imagine.

At the beginning of last year, we adopted a sabbatical policy for our pastors. After completing six years serving as pastors, Pastor Brett will plan to take a sabbatical this summer and Pastor Zach this fall. This is not a vacation. A professor uses a sabbatical in order to become a student again with an extended time away from teaching. Similarly, our pastors are to receive their sabbaticals in order to feed their own souls with an extended time away from feeding the church.

When I was at the Serious Joy Pastors’ conference a few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting a pastor visiting from England. He and his wife were both attending the conference at the start of his three-month sabbatical. I asked, "What does your church require of you during your sabbatical?" His answer, "That we (he and his wife) conduct ourselves in a godly manner. Beyond that, nothing is required." What a lesson there is for us in this answer.

There is something in our American culture that emphasizes work at the expense of rest. We want to live with a proper view of work and rest. This is one way we seek to better learn the lessons of rest. The purpose of this sabbatical policy is to promote the spiritual health of our shepherds by granting them an extended break from normal ministry for their enrichment, rest, renewal, and personal growth.

We do not want pastors to burn out. We do not want pastors to neglect their own souls. Instead, we want to bless our pastors and promote their longevity in the ministry and at our church.

With all of this in mind, I have included below a brief letter to Pastor Brett and Pastor Zach.

Pastor Brett and Pastor Zach,

On behalf of Westview, I want to express gratitude to God for your work in the ministry of word and prayer these last six years. We thank God for you both. As an expression of our love for you and your work among us, we want to bless you both with an extended time away from the day-to-day concerns of ministry. With a desire for you both to be refreshed and enriched, I and the other pastors want to exhort you in the following things:

The author of Hebrews warns what it is that makes people unable to enter God's rest, "They were unable to enter because of unbelief" (Hebrews 3:19). Use this time to strengthen your belief, to be refreshed by the living and active Word, and to look to Jesus the founder and perfecter of your faith (Hebrews 12:2).

"My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest" (Exodus 33:14). Rest is not something that can be taken. It is something that is given by God, and true rest cannot be received apart from his presence. The sabbath is different from the other days of the week not only due to the lack of work but also because of its emphasis on the Lord's presence. Let this be the refrain of your sabbatical: to be earnestly seeking the presence of the Lord.

Westview Church belongs to Jesus. He is our Head. He is our Chief Shepherd. We are his church. Let this truth lift the burden of ministry from your shoulders during your sabbatical. In his kindness, the Lord has raised up a plurality of elders at Westview. Four under-shepherds will remain with and care for the church.

Pastoral ministry is full of emotional highs and lows. There are always more people and relationships to which you can devote your energy and bandwidth. Take this time away from those concerns to devote your energy and bandwidth to your wives and children.

We love you both and wish to bless you as you have blessed us. We pray that you will be refreshed as you enter your next seven years of ministry at Westview. As eager as we are to send you on your sabbaticals, we are far more eager for your return.

One older tool for teaching the truths of Scripture that we like to draw on from time to time at Westview are catechisms. These were a series of questions and answers that were a simple way for people to learn (often through memorization) big truths about God, redemption, and his Word. They are an especially useful tool with children because their brains soak up content like a sponge. And while children may not grasp all that a catechism answer means, they have that truth stored away that they can grow up into.

A question that we will return to and reflect on over the next six weeks is from an early Reformation catechism written in the German city of Heidelberg. It is named—you guessed it—the Heidelberg Catechism. The first question may be familiar from a song that that we sing on Sundays, “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” The answer is, “That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.” But the second question is what we will be returning to over the next six weeks, “What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort?”

If you will rest in the joy of the comfort of belonging fully and eternally to Jesus Christ, you need to know something. In fact, the catechism answer highlights three things you need to know. And we’re taking those three things in turn at services over the next six weeks. This evening, at our Memento Mori service, we will reflect on how we need to know “how great my sin and misery are.” On Good Friday, we will meditate on “how I am set free from all my sins and misery.” And we will come to the pinnacle of Resurrection Sunday giving attention to “how I am to thank God for such deliverance.”

To further advance your faith and joy in these weeks, I want to encourage you to take the “Catechumen Challenge.” In the early Church, those new to following Christ were known as “catechumens” (pronounced KAT-uh-kyoo-munz). They would go through a catechism, not as developed as the later catechisms like the Heidelberg, but an extensive time of training and preparation. This would often be leading up to their baptism on Resurrection Sunday. So, in the six weeks leading up to Easter, join others at Westview in devoting yourself in this season to move forward in following Christ in all of life by reading through all four Gospels.

If you are well on your way into a Bible reading plan as part of your normal pursuit of the habits of grace, wonderful. Keep at it. If you have fallen off from your plan or didn’t have one, this is a great opportunity to focus on for six weeks. Set a designated time to read or couple it with another habit you are already doing (like going to the gym or rocking a baby to sleep or at the table after dinner with the family). In about 5-10 minutes a day, you can read through all four Gospels over the next six weeks.

If that is enough of a challenge for you, to be consistent in that Bible reading for six weeks—do it. One step further I would encourage you towards is to take the daily reading and then reflect on these questions for each day:

Or, what is Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John trying to say about who Jesus is? The Spirit did not inspire them to write these Gospels just to record historical facts. They had a purpose to communicate about Jesus. No story, no sermon, no parable was included just because that’s all the author could remember. He had a purpose. He’s telling you something about Jesus.

Maybe a spouse, a child, a roommate, your Discipleship Group? Maybe it’s a coworker or writing a key verse that summarizes that observation about Jesus on a notecard to have in your pocket ready to pass along? It doesn’t have to be long. It sure doesn’t have to be a sermon. It could be as simple as, “I read Luke 6 today. Did you know Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath? What a generous provider that he is the king who provides rest for his people.”

So, you are dwelling on Luke 6. You are thinking of sharing with your parents about the Lord of the Sabbath when you call them in the evening as you normally do. But you take time during lunch to pray that your parents would find their rest in the Lord of the Sabbath who provides and restores, not getting anxiously worked up over what the future holds.

My hope is that this evening you will know afresh how great your sin and misery are. And by being a “catechumen” of sorts over these six weeks of reading, meditating on, sharing, and praying from the four Gospels, your soul will be filled up in awe of Jesus Christ such that come Good Friday, you will know all the more deeply how you are set free from all your sins and misery. And when we come together to declare on Resurrection Sunday, “Christ is risen!” you will rejoice all the more gladly, thanking God for such a deliverance.

We are in a familiar place. Deja vu all over again. The tension in our city is thick. Emotions are high. Race, ethnicity, policing, politics—the fault lines are there again. As Christians, we ought not be governed by the 24-hour news cycle, the constant demand for a hot take or public statement for or against the latest flash point. But we do need to walk wisely—God has appointed the time and place in which we live (Acts 17:26).

Because we are in a familiar place, we should be better equipped this time around. We saw six years ago how churches were wrecked and Christians set against one another because of differing impulses in responding to cultural crises. This time around, we cannot miss that the air we breathe is the prevailing worldview of division. A couple authors have termed it "tribalism," an "us verses them" mindset. It's the mindset that concludes, "If you don't 100% agree with me on this topic, then you hate me." Others have more acutely identified it as identity politics that gets inflamed by the critical theory divisions of oppressor and oppressed.

Is that the worldview that will govern our interactions together? Such dynamics play well for the politicians because it mobilizes their voting base. If people get worked up enough with fear and anger, then they will more reliably show up to vote. And such moves swing both ways, to the right and to the left.

I'm not proposing some happy medium, a "third way-ism," or suggesting that the Democratic and Republican Parties are equally valid camps for Christians to associate with. What I am saying is that we need to be aware that our culture shapes our thinking and impulses far more than we are likely to give it credit. And that worldview will sweep us away in the current if we are not intentional to observe the current and hold fast against it.

This familiar place with its challenging tensions, these are not easy things to navigate. And it is overly simplifying things to point to a single Bible verse and draw a straight line to a particular response or policy decision. Here are a number of current fault lines that Scripture would hold us in tension:

There is much more to consider. The above is by no means a comprehensive political theology. Rather, the aim is to highlight that the tired tribalism of our culture has no place among Christians who should instead wrestle together with God’s Word with charity toward one another. And it should drive us to pray, because most of us have not been given the authority or responsibility to directly bring about change. But we know the Maker of Heaven and Earth who delights in his people calling for his will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. And going to the Father in the authority of King Jesus by the Spirit does far more than social media activism.

One of the beauties of Scripture is that it can communicate things without explicitly stating them. The Spirit-inspired authors can be making one explicit point in what they write, but their assumptions about God and the world, or allusions to other passages, reveal more. I think we see this in Ecclesiastes 6:5. This verse has persuaded me more than any other on the perennial question of what happens to children who die before being born or in infancy.

The point Solomon makes in Ecclesiastes 6:1–9 is that searching for satisfaction or relief from the futility of life apart from God in any of the material blessings is a fruitless endeavor. You will die nevertheless and stand in judgment before your Maker. A long life, lots of kids, unmatched wealth—none of it changes what happens after you join the rest of humanity in going to “the one place” (v. 6). Put more simply, the godless search for satisfaction is in vain.

So, that’s what Solomon is saying. But in doing so, he says something more—something not directly related to his primary point (which is why I didn’t mention this directly in the sermon).

Solomon underscores the vanity of the godless man searching for satisfaction by saying that this man is worse off than the child who dies before birth (v.3). That man will experience something worse than never having seen the sun. Why is that? Because that child “finds rest rather than he” (v.5).

I believe this statement reveals Solomon’s understanding that a preborn child goes to Heaven. He can’t mean that the child merely “rests in peace,” as in the common euphemism for dying. The godless man dies as well, yet he does not rest.

Solomon’s use of “rest” (the Hebrew word is nachat) is a fitting contrast to his thematic description of life in this world as toil. The child experiences a cessation from toil—deliverance from futility under the sun—while the godless man dies yet continues in toil, remaining under God’s curse.

Theologians have wrestled with this question throughout history, with many arriving at the same conclusion: that infants are redeemed. Some argue from Romans 1:19-20 for God’s deliverance of such children. Others see a similar affirmation in David’s words after the death of Bathsheba’s son in 2 Samuel 12:23, or in God’s mercy on those lacking the ability of moral discernment in Jonah 4:11. I think we can rightly add Ecclesiastes 6:5 to these passages in persuading us toward that conclusion.

Some object that affirming the salvation of infants undermines the Bible’s teaching on the complete depravity of every person. That, apart from faith in Christ, there is no hope of salvation. This is what makes this question so theologically challenging. But Scripture pulls us in two directions:

• Passages that pull us to see infants do “find rest”
• Passages that pull the other direction, emphasizing the original sin and utter wickedness we all possess

But the tension between these two directions is not irreconcilable. I see the resolution chiefly in Ephesians 1:4. God has chosen—he has elected—all who would be holy and blameless before him before the foundation of the world. It is not beyond God to have chosen and elected in Christ all who would die in infancy.

My aim in writing this is not to provide the definitive answer—as if I could. There is much more to consider, and (as noted in the links above) there is more reading worth exploring. Neither is my aim to give rock solid assurance to grieving parents. Rather, my aim is to draw your attention to an inference about God and his world in the inspired words of Solomon, and to beckon you to know the Lord more and more through his Word.

He has revealed far more of himself than we often realize. And we will know him and his character more and more as we devote ourselves to reading and studying Scripture.

So, regarding this question of whether infants go to Heaven, let any confidence and assurance rest not in our ability to answer the question perfectly but on God himself. He will do what is good and right. And when we enter into glory, we will rejoice at his wisdom in all that he does.

Spoiler: the catechism question I am sharing about during the home visits I do this year is from the Baptist Catechism: “What is God?” The question itself catches us off guard—“What is God? Not ‘who’?” A.W. Tozer famously wrote in The Knowledge of the Holy, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” What Tozer implies in that sentence is profoundly true: theology leads to doxology. What you think about God—how you answer, “What is God?”—shapes how you live and what you praise. And that’s why the pastors are asking that you take a brief survey to help us gauge the “state of theology” at Westview.

Let’s first consider this connection between theology and doxology. Take, for example, the atheist. If you reject the premise of the catechism question and deny the existence of God, that will have a profound impact on your life. You will live according to naturalistic convictions, understanding people to operate out of relativism and base instinct for self-advancement. And ultimately, nothing in life matters, since we will all die and simply decompose. There is no foundation in this “theology” for love. You will live for your own praise and gratification.

Or another example, closer to home. When you think about God, you might think he is concerned only with your spiritual life and that’s about it: “All God cares about is if I believe in Jesus.” This can be a footing for you to praise God for the precious blood of Christ. You can hold to true things about God—theology—and respond to his redemption in grateful praise—doxology. But the progression between those two terminals, the movement from theology → doxology, can leave that arrow a hot mess. That arrow is where most of life happens. You won’t have an abiding confidence in God to supply sufficient grace when suffering comes. You won’t search the Scriptures when your marriage is hard. You won’t invest deeply in discipling relationships. Your theology has separated the spiritual of life of “then” from the Christian life of “now.” And your doxology will be stunted.

As your pastors, we aim to shepherd you well in following Christ in all of life. There are multiple avenues through which we strive to know you and shepherd you. Our pastoral home visits are a clear example. We aren’t just generic pastors of a generic people. We are your pastors, so we want to know you. And as we press into more personal, experiential aspects of life in home visits, we can further identify areas we need to address by getting a sense of the church’s theology.

Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research have been working together for a number of years to produce and distribute a short survey among evangelical Christians in the U.S. Their data reveals where there are shortcomings to theology—areas that do not align with historic statements of faith. This helps identify where more attention in teaching and preaching is needed: areas that are short-circuiting doxology.

You perhaps have seen results from Ligonier. If you haven’t, don’t go looking yet. They make the same survey available for churches to utilize, gaining focused insights into an individual local church. The pastoral team would appreciate you taking a few minutes to complete the survey. You can look up the nationwide results after so that exposure doesn’t influence how you would respond. Now, don’t worry—you don’t need to study. The questions are straightforward, and if you don’t know what the question is asking, answering accordingly will still be helpful.

We are not putting all of our “shepherding eggs” into the one basket of this survey. Formal theological statements are not the be-all, end-all assessment. But this is one aspect of being a disciple of Christ that does have a significant downstream impact. Having a better sense of where our church is at on the theological topics addressed in the survey will help us know where exhortations, sermons, and articles could focus instruction and application. We want to help you believe truly, live faithfully, and praise robustly. Thank you for helping us do that.

Amid all the gourds and ghouls, the spooky and kooky, the dark and macabre, Christians have differing responses to the annual traditions of this week. However your conscience and convictions lead you to interact (or not) with what has become of October 31, Christians ought to take Halloween most seriously.

I have shared before how I have been helped in considering the missional opportunity the evening’s festivities present, as well as by other resources on the topic. Additionally, the origins of the day incline me to reclaim what has been corrupted. Halloween finds its roots in the Christian observance of Allhallowtide, which comprises “All Hallows’ Eve,” “All Saints’ Day,” and “All Souls’ Day” (read more from Danielle Hitchen). But a significant reason we ought to give serious thought and attention to the day is that the things being trifled with—including the Devil—are absolutely real.

As my family strolls around the neighborhood on evening walks, we see more and more Halloween décor show up in yards as we move deeper into October. There’s the yard with inflatable ghosts, the house with massive spiders, and another with a faux cemetery. My first thought is, “Where do you store all this stuff the rest of the year?” That flutters away quickly to the observation that what is being touted as fun and games is in fact gravely real. Christians too easily default to an anti-supernatural worldview and a simplistic rejection of such things.

Yet the Bible presents a world where witches are real (1 Samuel 28:3-25). Evil giants roam (1 Chronicles 20:6). Ghoulish spirits possess men and animals (Mark 5:1-20). Unseen demonic darkness wages war (Ephesians 6:12). Fortune-tellers, diviners, and necromancers are not mere hucksters and charlatans (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). The creeping things of the earth are fearful (Exodus 8:20-24, 10:3-19). The Devil—Satan himself—prowls about (Job 1:6-12, 1 Peter 5:8). And Death—O Death, that ancient foe—he draws us back into the dust (Genesis 3:19, 1 Corinthians 15:55).

All of these things are very real. We ought to take them seriously. Yet our neighbors flirt and flitter around with them every October. It seems to go in one of two directions. The first is to trivialize them—to make blow up cartoon varieties of the Grim Reaper, dress up the seven-year-old as a nondescript demon, and portray silly monsters. The other direction seems to take them more seriously—or at least more darkly. Down that path are the horror movies and the things that make you jump in the dark. Such things tickle the fascination with what really might be at work in our world. Yet engaging with the Darkness in either of those directions fails to take it seriously. The trivial and the macabre both serve to distract. We can dismiss evil spirits, thinking, “Oh, it’s just a silly ghost,” or, “That haunted house was a blast since nothing like that could ever be in the real world.” Either reaction makes light of weighty realities.

One way to arouse our senses—and those of our neighbors—to what is really going on in our world is to reflect on the vanity of it. A genre of classical art that developed in the 1600s is known as Vanitas. That is the Latin word from which we get “vanity,” and it is the driving theme of the book of Ecclesiastes. The art form, like the biblical book, highlights the ephemeral nature of life and the futility of finding deliverance from death and sin in anything of this world. A prominent feature of Vanitas paintings is a human skull, recalling Hamlet’s famous words, “To be or not to be,” spoken while holding a skull. Such artists provoke us to reckon with the world as it really is. Death is real. It is right and wise for us to memento mori—to remember death.

We take death seriously not only because making light of it won’t make it go away, but we take death seriously because we know the Skull Crusher has come (Genesis 3:15, Matthew 27:33). “In him is life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4-5). Christians ought to take Halloween most seriously because it is a day that deals with the most serious of realities. They are the realities that shape and influence this life and the next. And we have been given the privilege of being called children of God, that we might bear witness to the Light that darkness cannot overcome.

Serving as a pastor is a sobering task. Our duty is the oversight of souls—a responsibility for which we will give an account (Hebrews 13:17). The primary means of carrying out this calling is through prayer and the ministry of the Word (Acts 6:4). This work most consistently, visibly, and intentionally takes place in our preparation for and gathering in public worship on Sundays. Yet it is not limited to that time in the week, for we are called to shepherd the flock of God that is among us (1 Peter 5:2).

Since 2021, one practice our pastors have been committed to is not only the public ministry of the Word on Sundays but also ministry from house to house. As we begin scheduling another year of pastoral home visits, let me explain what these times are about.

While Scripture makes clear that the apostles carried out their shepherding duties in homes (cf. Acts 5:42; 18:7; 20:20), the classic renewal of this pastoral practice came through the influence of Richard Baxter. Baxter, a 17th-century English pastor, wrote The Reformed Pastor to exhort his fellow ministers to reform their ways. Many pastors in his day had grown lax in personally shepherding their parishioners—to their great detriment. Baxter urged a recovery of visiting church members in their homes and providing instruction, especially through the use of a catechism. It was a practice worth restoring then, and it remains valuable now.

We don’t conduct home visits merely out of esteem for a Puritan forebear; we do them because we believe this is how God’s Word instructs us to pastor. Consider three passages that shape this pastoral practice.

Peter exhorts the elders of the churches in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia to “shepherd the flock of God that is among you.” He goes on to describe how not to shepherd, but the context of this initial charge is key. Peter is not concerned for pastors to build a social media platform, comment with a hot take on every headline, or be caught up in what is happening at other churches. His command is simple: Shepherd this flock—the one among you.

The local church matters. There are names, faces, children, and stories to be known, prayed for, guided, corrected, encouraged, rebuked, and wept with. And that kind of shepherding can’t happen if a pastor doesn’t, as Jeramie Rinne puts it, “smell like sheep.”

“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” The leaders in view are “those who spoke to you the word of God” (v. 7). There is a reciprocal relationship between pastor and member—each bears responsibility toward the other. But for this article, the emphasis falls on the pastor’s accountability for spiritual watchfulness.

The word translated “keeping watch” evokes the image of a night watchman—someone who stays awake while others sleep to sound the alarm if danger comes. General leadership, oversight, and vision-casting may be needed responsibilities for a pastor, but that is not what Hebrews keys in on. Who will sound the alarm if danger comes? The guard in the tower. Tragedy will ensue if he is negligent and falls asleep himself. The verse could be paraphrased, “they are losing sleep over your souls.” That is the heart of pastoral vigilance, carried out with joy. Home visits are one of the means by which we learn where dangers threaten and how we might sound the alarm. And, if need be, run to the fight.

As Paul journeyed ominously toward Jerusalem (cf. 21:11), he stopped to meet the elders from Ephesus, where he had served for over two years (19:10). In this farewell, he reminded them how he had lived among them, “not shrinking from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house.”

Paul’s ministry was not built on public persona or platform but on personal presence. He charged the elders to “pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock… to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood” (v. 28). The twofold pattern—public ministry and house-to-house ministry—ensures careful attention to the flock. It is a model we gladly seek to emulate millennia later.

Most of our members have not previously been part of churches that practiced pastoral home visits. Several have even said they’ve never had a pastor in their home. To help set expectations and encourage fruitful visits, here are a few specifics.

You can certainly reach out to your doctor when something feels wrong, but your doctor provides better care when there are benchmarks from annual checkups. Those visits establish your “normal,” allowing for small corrections before problems become serious. Similarly, home visits serve as a spiritual checkup—an opportunity to reflect on how you (and your family) are doing from different angles.

We’re not coming with our families for dinner. Rather, we’re coming to know you better and to discern how we might need to “lose sleep over your soul,” ensuring that spiritual dangers are guarded against. So we’ll ask probing questions, spend time in the Word—perhaps reflecting on a catechism question—and, of course, pray with you. After all, “unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain” (Psalm 127:1).

When we began home visits in 2021, I conducted all of them myself for our eighteen households (and ambitiously hoped for two per year—that never happened). As the Lord has added to our number, our other pastors have joined in shepherding through these visits. Each autumn, I assign households to each pastor, taking into account who visited whom last year and where relationships might be strengthened. Over time, this allows every pastor to know every household—and every member to know each pastor. Our goal is to complete all visits before summer. For those who join after September, the first official visit usually happens the following year, since the membership process already covers much of the same ground.

We don’t want these times to be one-sided. In the scheduling app I utilize, I ask what topics or questions you would like to talk about. Knowing in advance the areas of focus equips me to come best prepared. Sharing those in advance helps your visiting pastor prepare and ensures the time is most fruitful for you.

Serving as your pastors is a sobering responsibility that we carry out before the face of God—but we do so with joy. It is a privilege to be among you, Church—to pray for you and minister the Word to you. Thank you for welcoming us pastors into your homes and into your lives.

As a kid, my family moved around a fair bit. By the time I was ten, I had moved nine times to eight different states. People often assume, upon learning this, that we were a military family. We weren’t, but these transitions would give rise to my dad singing, “Make new friends, but the keep old. One is silver and the other gold.” Leaving a relationship or a change in the context of a relationship is hard. It isn’t as easy as saying things won’t change. But as we go about those relational transitions as a church body—whether it is joining a new Community Group, starting with a new Discipleship Group, or moving to join with a different church all together—there are some principles that will help us in leaving well.

The spark for reflecting on and sharing these principles is not in response to any one departure or transition. Having crossed the five-year mark as a church, we have been together now long enough where we have seen people come and go and relationships change. Additionally, our church size is such that, while still small, we can’t have the same depth of relationship with everyone. So, my hope is that these four general principles will help us navigate those changes with grace.

Leaning on Ecclesiastes for this first principle, we need to recognize first that all of our relationships are varying degrees of vapor. Every relationship we enjoy in life under the sun will one day end. Even that most enduring relationship of marriage is not eternally permanent. But instead of the relative fleetingness of relationships leading us to treat them trivially, we ought rather cherish them all the more while we have them. Relationships are a gift to us from God who has always been in relationship—Father, Son, and Spirit.

And when relationships change by not seeing one another as consistently or to the same depth as when in the same Community or Discipleship group, there is a sadness in the loss of that gift we have so enjoyed. And that sadness can be complicated when it feels like rejection for a friend and fellow church member to decide to leave the context of the relationship that has been so meaningful. Oftentimes, the change is not meant as a rejection, so let it be to your glory to not take offense, to overlook any slight, and to not bear any resentment (Proverbs 19:11, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7).

Instead, regard all of your relationships—vapor though they may be—by the adage, “Leave it better than you found it.” For the season and time God has appointed for you to enjoy that friendship, how can you do spiritual good to that brother or sister in the Lord in helping them follow Christ in all of life such that when the day comes for a change in that relationship, that person is better having known you? Such a perspective embodies a confidence in the promise that “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). You can pursue the blessing God has for you by giving in any relationship so that your friend is blessed by your friendship.

Most of our relationships don’t end with the grief and sorrow of that comparable to death or divorce. Often, time, location, or life stage change and friendships transition and grow distant. Someone has used the imagery of “friends of the road” and “friends of the heart.” Some friends you have for a certain stretch of the journey. Others are friends you don’t see often, but when you do, you pick up right where you left off. It’s ok that not all friendships are the same.

But it is also ok for it to be sad when friendships and relationships change and fade. It’s ok to grieve the loss of the gift that friendship was. And it’s ok to express that sadness to the friend who is leaving or staying behind. You might give voice to it saying, “The relationship we have developed in Discipleship Group has meant so much to me. It is really sad for me that our group is not meeting any longer.” But expressing that doesn’t mean the relationship is forever cut off or is cut out of your life as with death or divorce. We can grieve the change and recognize it does not mean it is the very end of contact.

Before leaving a relational context, you should prayerfully consider why. There may be forces at work moving in one of two directions: pushing you out of that relationship or pulling you to a new context. As you perceive a desire for a change, ask the Lord to help you know your own heart and motives for it. Ask the Spirit to help you discern if there are “pushing” factors, things that are hard about a relationship that feel like they are edging you out of that context. If that is the case, you should have conversations to work toward resolution. You may still end up leaving, but you do so in a way so as to “live peaceably with all” (Romans 12:18).

If through pray and reflection on your motives, you honestly assess that the reasons for a change in your group (or church membership) are of the “pulling” variety—there is opportunity for further deployment of your gifts, an open door for the gospel is made available to you, you would be stretched to be more generous in your hospitality in welcoming others into meaningful relationships. If there are factors pulling you into a new setting, have those reasons clear in your own mind so that you are able to articulate them when communicating with those you are leaving.

A final general principle is to communicate early with those in your present relational circles. If you are exploring connecting with another group or church, invite others to pray with and for you as seek to leave well. This is one way you allow your current relationships to obey Jesus’ command to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). We do well to allow others to “pray for one another” (James 5:16).

It can be particularly hard for those friends you are leaving if you are evaluating and praying and discerning a transition without telling them. It can leave them puzzled about the depth of relationship they understood to have with you. Now, the different contexts of relationships may modify this principle. Attending a Community Group once a month for a handful of months is not the same as sharing a meal together every other week for five years. The greater time and vulnerability present in a relationship, the more vital it is to communicate early. And that communication should be honest and clear. You don’t want to tell your group, “I just want to connect with another group,” if the real motive is that someone has offended you.

With those general principles in mind, here are some specifics related to the three formal relational connections we practice as a church: Community Group, Discipleship Group, and membership.

When it comes to Community Group, and you have decided to branch off to connect with or start hosting a new group, be sure to communicate with everyone so none think you’ve ghosted them. This hopefully should have already happened because you have already communicated early to invite them into that decision-making process with you. Nevertheless, be clear when you’ve arrived at a final decision. In this change, set yourself to see the good in it, looking at it as an opportunity to welcome others into the kind of rich relationship you have so valued with those in your group previously. You now have the chance to practice generous hospitality and gospel intentionality with people who have not known such things.

Ideally, the closing of a chapter for a particular Discipleship Group is happening because new groups are forming. You should view your present Discipleship Group as preparing you to be ready to step up and give leadership to advancing others’ faith and obedience to all that Jesus commanded. Our disciple-making mandate is clear. We don’t perpetually benefit alone from the discipling work of others in our lives, but we are sent as well under Jesus’ all-encompassing authority equipped by his never-ending presence to make disciples. But if that “pull” factor isn’t present, and you are feeling more of a “push,” you really need to talk about it with your group. If assistance is needed in doing that, reach out to a pastor.

Last, when it comes to leaving well from church membership, there are a number of particular things to keep in mind. Leaving this relationship is the most substantial of the three since it is creating the most distance. But we want to leave well because moving our membership doesn’t mean a full severing of relationship, especially if you’re staying in the same area. We will still see each other school functions, conferences, concerts, and even the grocery store. So, it is necessary to keep in mind our final commitment to one another as members, “that when we remove from this place, we will notify the church leaders, and, if possible, unite with a likeminded church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant.”

So, with either “push” or “pull” factors, talk with your Discipleship Group and a pastor, ideally before something rises to the level of considering leaving to join another church. It can be particularly hard for Discipleship Group members to learn of your church transition after the decision has been made. That doesn’t convey the kind of depth of relationship we are after in these groups. If and when the decision does come to leaving Westview, share that and the steps you’ve gone through with both kinds of groups as well as others you are closer with.

Part of the transition should also include making thoughtful plans. Before you leave, have a pretty good idea of what church you will join. This is all the more vital if relocating to a new city or state. You very likely will have evaluated neighborhoods to live in, schools for children to attend, commute times to work—you should absolutely factor in whether or not there are healthy churches in the area for you to join. It’s been observed that moving is “one of the most dangerous things a Christian can do.” Another aspect of the plan is, as Kevin DeYoung described it, to “leave off a ledge.” Don’t drift away, gradually attending public worship less and less, slowly showing up less and less to Discipleship Group. So long as you are a member with us, be clear and committed. And as you look to make a transition, be sure your responsibilities are covered. If you host a Community Group, who can take up that mantle? Do you need to help recruit a new volunteer to take your spot on the set up team?

Know that once you decide to withdraw your membership and unite with another likeminded church, communicating that to one of our pastors, one of us will plan to set up an “exit interview” with you. Much of what we will seek to discuss in that conversation will already be known because the above principles have been taken into account. But that discussion helps to address anything else that may have been missed and provides an opportunity for us to pray for you as the season God had for you under our care comes to a close.

One last, sober note on leaving as a member of Westview. If your departure is in the midst of our efforts as a church to carry out the formal aspects of church discipline, know that we are committed to our promises to you and will continue to call you to repentance and restoration. By that I mean that if you, as a covenant member with us, are in unrepentant sin that has warranted that process Jesus describes in Matthew 18:15-20, we will not grant your request to be removed from membership until there is resolution. We will continue to pursue you, calling you to turn in repentance and faith, as you have agreed and asked us to.

We want these relationships together, this kind of life in Christ together, to be shaped by trust in his Word and love for one another. What a grace that most often, God is kind in ordaining that relationships transition happily and without ill will toward one another. And while we recognize that such changes are hard, we trust that God will give grace for it.

The first time I recall seeing Van Gogh’s “The Good Samaritan” was in a pastor-friend’s office. He cared deeply and practically for those around him. It was fitting that this print was hanging in his office. He had been gripped by Jesus’ compassion for the poor, helpless souls who were destitute, destined to die, apart from the intervention of an unanticipated Savior.

When Jesus told that parable, he concluded with a pressing question to the self-justifying man who would excuse away compassion through a legal technicality on the definition of “neighbor.” Jesus—as he is so keen to do—flipped the question around to, “Who proved to be a neighbor?” The neighborly one was the one who showed mercy (Luke 10:25-37).

In Galatians 6:10, Paul adds to this summons to do mercifully by exhorting the church to “do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” We ought to be on the lookout to be neighborly, to show mercy, because of the great mercy we have been shown in Christ. And we ought especially be keen to do such things for our brothers and sisters in the Lord.

These passages (among others) inform one church-wide effort to do mercifully to the household of faith: our Benevolence Fund. We started this fund a few years ago to have financial resources set aside to do acts of mercy. It is a separate fund from our regular, operating expenses so that such resources are kept for such purposes. The oversight and administration of this fund has markedly increased since we appointed Eric Simpson as the deacon for mercy and care.

The Benevolence Fund has been funded through two means. First, when our annual expenses are exceeded by your giving, we have allocated some of that surplus to the Benevolence Fund. The other means is through your designated giving. There is an option when giving online to contribute directly to that fund as opposed to the general budget. Contributing to this fund is one way we work together to be a Good-Samaritan-neighbor to one another. The fund has been used to help meet tangible needs within our church.

I share all of this for two reasons. First, I want you to be aware of this ministry of the church to make use of and pray for. O that God would be pleased to encourage and sustain our brothers and sisters in the hope of the gospel through such tangible expressions of care and support by the Body to its members. If you know of a need or have an idea that would better care for the Body, reach out to Eric or fill out this form.

Second, we have been able to address a few substantial needs recently, and the fund has been depleted. If the Lord has entrusted the resources to you, and you would gladly give beyond your normal gifts to the ministry of the church, I would encourage you to do so.

There are more things we would like to do and support than what the Lord has presently provided for. As we shared at our July members meeting, our regular expenses are still tracking about $20,000 above what has been given for the year. The Benevolence Fund is lower and needs are greater than what we presently have. Yet none of this is a surprise to the Lord. He still owns all and deploys all as he deems best. Perhaps one purpose in this is that he would have us pray more and more earnestly for all the means necessary for us to be following Christ in all of life, so that we would, collectively, be abiding in him more and more.

We are—all of us—like that man on the road to Jericho. We are poor, helpless souls who were destitute, destined to die, apart from the intervention of an unanticipated Savior. What mercy, what benevolence, we have been shown in Christ. May we go, and do likewise.

There is the old adage, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Sometimes, however, the cover—or more precisely the title—sums it up well. One such book is Colin Marshall and Tony Payne’s The Trellis and the Vine. The authors hold out a vision for church life that is not so heavily focused on structures and programs and activities and calendar events that the vine withers. All the energy goes into building and maintaining the trellis. However, pressing into “organic relationships” and going with the flow can be so unstructured that it too can hinder the vine. The vine does need some kind of trellis in order to grow.

I think this is helpful imagery for the discipleship structure we have at Westview. Changing metaphors, I have described the structure in relation to moving in four directions: up, to, in, and out. Let me describe this “trellis” with that movement and share details about what we have starting up as we move into September.

The primary direction of our discipleship strategy is to move upward in public worship as we reorient on the gospel each Sunday together. Our liturgy—the way we have decided to structure our service from what we read in the Bible—has five movements:

• Call to Worship
• Confession
• Consecration
• Communion
• Commission

Coming up, we plan to return to a minor prophet again in September to “hear the prophet speak” before starting in on a series through Ecclesiastes for the remainder of the year.

The second movement is toward one another in Community Groups. Christ has created a new people of which we are a part, and we are a compelling community because of the grace of the gospel. These groups are the low-bar entry point into the life of the church, of the community. We move toward one another with gospel intentionality and generous hospitality. We eat together and practice “gospel fluency.”

We have three new Community Groups starting this fall. If you have not connected with a group, reach out so we can make that connection. If you have been part of the same group for years and want to branch out (that’s a vine reference) to foster relationships with others, connect with a Community Group host directly or let me know, and I can help make connections.

We move inward to press relationships deeper and spur one another on in following Christ in all of life in the context of Discipleship Groups. These groups are limited to our members, those who have committed to and been welcomed into the relationships of accountability we desire to carry out together. The aim of each of these groups is to advance our members’ faith and obedience to all that Jesus commanded through study, prayer, and accountability. And as we communicated at our last members meeting, we want to increase the intentionality and effectiveness of these groups by focusing more on identifying and equipping the leaders of these groups.

One "low-hanging fruit" opportunity we plan to leverage this fall is having Discipleship Groups focus the content of their meetings on Ecclesiastes. With each sermon, the pastors will prepare questions as a means of equipping leaders to facilitate their group in moving from listening to a sermon to listening expositionally. The questions will give leaders reps at learning how to be a man or woman of understanding who can draw out the purpose within the hearts of the men or women in their respective groups (Proverbs 20:5).

Separate from Discipleship Groups, we also are going deeper together at 9am on Sundays. This fall we are adding to our kids’ class two studies for students in grades 5-12. The younger kids will continue growing in their knowledge of God's Word and a love for God's people in their class. The students will break up into  young men and young ladies groups, respectively led by Toby P and Joas Y, and Kelina T and Kate H. Adults are welcomed to dig into an hour of study and prayer, taking the first half hour in the Gospel of John and the second half hour before the throne of grace in prayer.

The final direction of our “trellis” is the more explicit work of equipping the saints for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:12). If we are going to see healthy churches advanced in the west metro and beyond, if we are going to play a role in seeing our neighbors and the nations following Christ in all of life with us, then we need to be a healthy church with equipped and healthy church members.

This is the objective of the Anselm Institute. Because the Triune God is bringing about our gospel growth, and we have caught a vision of divine hospitality moving us to be so generous in our own hospitality, we joyfully move forward in the mission. And we want to do so equipped and prepared. So, from that starting point of faith, we seek understanding.

Starting this fall, all five of the fellowships of the Anselm Institute will be launched:

The Antioch Fellowship is a 6-week intensive led by Pastor David that is particularly focused on training you to be Antioch-like Christians who go about “preaching the Lord Jesus” (Acts 11:20) and remain faithful to him with "steadfast purpose” (Acts 11:24)—even as an example to others. For Discipleship Group leaders, or any members who desire further equipping, this fellowship will join doctrine and practice together to stimulate your devotion to Christ and your discipleship of others.

This fellowship is asking the Lord to move again through his people like in Antioch but here in these Twin Cities as men and women are equipped through study and practice. The book of Titus will serve as the trellis of this fellowship, studying and memorizing it together. Each week will also include a workshop component to put into practice the different aspects of disciple-making.

The Churchman Fellowship will continue this fall to foster the renewal of men being committed to the local church by opening God’s Word with others. For ten weeks, this fellowship will gather on Friday mornings to discuss and apply Mark Dever’s Discipling and David Helm’s One-to-One Bible Reading, practicing with the sermon text for the following Sunday.

The Colson Fellowship is underway with the inaugural cohort diving into the curriculum curated by the Colson Center, being equipped to gain wisdom, live faithfully, and act courageously in a world that seems to have utterly lost its mind. This fellowship aims to take members beyond the ordinary to being thoroughly Christian in all of life.

The Paraclete Fellowship will be concluding its second iteration this fall as the fellows learn how to be better “paracletes”—comforters, helpers, and advocates—for their fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord. This fellowship has been making use of the classes produced and taught by the Christian Counseling & Education Foundation.

Last, the Timothy Fellowship is wrapping up its first offering as two of our members complete this course of study and preparation as we seek God’s will as to whether he would have these brothers serve as pastors at Westview.

Church, our prayer is that this trellis, this discipleship structure with its multi-directional movement, would be a means of God’s grace to you. May the Master Gardener be pleased to use this trellis to prune and grow the vine “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).

*Ding Dong* * Knock Knock Knock* {Well, that isn’t the neighbor kids. What kind of salesman is it now?} I open the door and unexpectedly greet a college-aged woman. She tells me, “I’m in the neighborhood today on behalf of your representative to ask how you feel about your representative and what hope you have at the federal level.” I was not anticipating that introduction. But the interaction brought together in my mind two opportunities before us: the Colson Fellowship and Night to Unite.

Why would a political door-knocker be told (presumably) to phrase her questions that way? Maybe it seems perfectly natural to you. Maybe even thinking of questioning the premise of her request seems unnecessary. The air we breathe is one of “expressive individualism” where all is governed and oriented around the political. Because of the reading and resources I benefited from in going through the Colson Fellowship, I perceived those premises behind the request.

My initial response was, “How do I feel? I don’t particularly feel anything about my representative.” The premise that our feelings are most operative in how we relate to others and the world is, by the very nature of the changeability and instability of feelings, an unsure footing. How one feels about an elected official is irrelevant to how such a one carries out her office. She is a minister of God for our good, to be a terror to bad conduct, bearing the sword not in vain (Romans 13:1-4). If I do wrong, I ought to be afraid. Would that feeling be a negative assessment of the representative’s work? No, it would be fitting. Because it means the representative was doing what God ordained.

A bit unsure of my response, the young woman continued, “Well, what do you hope in?” She had already indicated that she meant in the realm of national politics. But why would hope be the framework in which we interact with the political? Politics are to govern a rightly ordered society. But it is a terribly misguided worldview that has your hope governed by politics. John Stonestreet has commented how 18th century French observer Alexis de Tocqueville noted the strength of these United States coming from the prevalence of pre-political social connections: social groups and associations, meaningful relationships within local communities, and yes, churches. Encompassing all things into politics has served to weaken our society. So to the question, “What do you hope in?,” I replied with what is rightly true, “The resurrection of the Lord Jesus.”

These premises are the kinds of things undergirding not just political door-knockers but your neighbors also. With “Night to Unite” (formerly “National Night Out”) on Tuesday next week, I hope you will attend your block party to engage with your neighbors. God has providentially placed you on your block for such good through your gospel witness. But I would encourage you to have a vision for next year’s “Night to Unite” as well. How might you be better equipped to engage the premises and presuppositions of your neighbor’s? That is what the Colson Fellowship is about. And the deadline to register is tomorrow. In all of your interactions with friends, neighbors, and door-knockers, may you be spurred on by the exhortation of Peter, “In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15).

Pride month is a tangible reminder to me of my baptism and my identity in Christ. During pride month, people declare their sexual and gender identities, connect with similar or supportive people and strive to experience a sense of freedom in being accepted just as they are. This movement has significant attraction among those who feel like outcasts, who desire to belong somewhere, who are tired of feeling misunderstood and masking to pretend to fit into a world that they feel like is not their home.

Pride month is the family reunion. There are siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles, parents and grandparents, but everyone is at least part of the same family tree. There is shared language, shared experiences, shared memories, and a sense of belonging and fitting in unconditionally. There is storytelling and life updates—showcasing significant others and babies. There is lots of food and drink, laughter, tears, and an awkward moment or two. Those attracted by or part of the LGBTQIAA+ community are just like everyone else in humanity: longing. And if it were not for the Lord's great gift of mercy and grace to me, that he would take my sin upon himself and give me his righteousness in its place, granting me the new identity of a child of God with all its benefits of belonging, acceptance, and love, I would still be identifying as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

See, we used to belong. We used to have perfect union with our creator, with the animals, with the land, with each other. We were created through, into, and for relationship. But the enemy pursued us with deception in attack of God's good creation and glory. Our disobedience of the one life-giving and sustaining relationship we had quickly followed—the relationship where we fully belonged, were fully loved, did not have to hide ourselves, or face rejection. It was the one relationship where everything was, well … perfect. Instead, on that dark day, humanity—exposed and “enlightened”—hid and trembled in the shame of sin and fear of rejection from the one who loved us best. He had not rejected us or hidden himself from us. We had rejected him and hid ourselves from him as we began to seek the shadows and darkness rather than the light to cover up for the guilt and shame that we could not undo.

Creation and cultivation were cursed, and death entered the world. Perfect relationship with the Giver of Life was severed. Our good God could not dwell with sin. Since that day, all of humanity has been groping around, blind, deaf, and lame, searching for a relationship where we belong, are fully loved, fully accepted. A relationship where we can be naked and unashamed, experiencing a fullness, deep satisfaction, and rest. Through the ages, we have sought solutions in vain to our separation and shadow-dwelling through all manner of avenues: the pursuit of philosophy, religion, marriage, vices, doctrines, cults, keeping of the law, removal of law. We have tried to be enough in and of ourselves to bridge the separating gap between us and God. We have also tried to live as though there were no gap or greater relationship to be had. Every solution has failed. Nothing truly satisfies. As an end in itself, everything is meaningless and fleeting.

In our unfaithfulness and unfruitful attempts to reconcile the great divide caused by our disobedience and rebellion against a just and holy God, the one who made us and loves us remained faithful. He established a people and promised to dwell with them, to love them, to reconcile them, and to restore them—though we had done nothing to deserve this. He promised to destroy the shadows and bring an eternal, unfading light. He promised to defeat the Deceiver for good and bring us into a kingdom where we would be fully loved, fully satisfied, fully accepted, fully at rest, and would fully belong. Not as a result of anything sufficient in ourselves but to the praise and glory of a merciful, loving, holy, righteous, and just God.

How did he accomplish this? He came down from on high—Creator entering his creation—Jesus, the Son of God, becoming fully human while still fully maintaining his divinity. He was born and raised in this fallen, separated, broken humanity and cursed creation. He lived his earthly life in perfect adherence to God's given law of righteousness, fulfilled every prophecy made about him in ages past, and in his perfection, sacrificially took upon himself the curse of the broken law, the sins and disobedience of his beloved people.

He gave himself over to bear the eternal wrath of God, justly poured out on him in the stead of all who believe he is the Lord, the Son of God, and who put their hope and faith in his finished work. What work is that? That after Jesus Christ, Son of God, bore the eternal wrath of God for our lawlessness against him, he died, was buried, and he was raised from the dead. "The wages [payment] of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). But in Jesus rising from the dead, he proved that his death was eternally sufficient to pay for the sins he bore. My sin! It's been paid for. And not only that but all who proclaim that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father, no longer live to sin but live to Jesus. When our sin and corruption are borne by and buried with him in his death, we are also raised to new life with him in his resurrection–free from the curse of sin, which is death. And in his resurrecting from the curse of death, which has no hold on him, we now have the guarantee of an inheritance of eternal life with him–death having no hold on us either, in Christ.

He took our sin and gave us his righteousness. In this justice and redemption, we are reconciled to God, restored in relationship, and brought into a holy community of perfect love. In dying to ourselves through his death and living set free in his life, walking by the Spirit in faith and obedience to him, we glorify God and find belonging, satisfaction, acceptance, and love.

Since childhood I have known something is different about me in comparison to my friends in relationships. It was quite clear at my co-ed boarding high school that I didn't like boys the way the other girls did. I stood out like a sore thumb when girls got together to share who they had crushes on or talk about who was cute or "hot." I never seemed to “like” anyone, and on the rare occasion I did, it typically had nothing to do with physical attraction. I couldn't relate to what these girls were discussing or experiencing, and I began to take pride in a misguided belief that I was somehow spiritually stronger and more mature in my lack of fawning over boys. I was raised in Christian “purity culture,” where chastity and sexual purity were overemphasized and women were made to be overly responsible for the relentless sin of masculine lust. It felt taboo to talk about what I was experiencing internally. Heck, it still felt inappropriate for me to look at people kissing in a movie.

While boys rarely consumed my thoughts, girls regularly did. Certain girls would catch my interest, and I would find myself drawn into the powerful feeling of infatuation and attraction. I can recall this feeling and interest as early as fifth grade, around the time when everyone else was developing their first crush. Don't get me wrong, I had an enduring crush on a boy named Ryan, whom I was close friends with from fourth grade to eighth grade. I kept my crush on him, though we lived far apart and had no relationship, until he got married. That's normal, right? My crush on Ryan—and any other boy I developed a crush on for that matter—felt completely different, however, than whatever this feeling was towards the girls who relationally caught my eye.

When I reflect on my past, I can most easily mark the seasons of my life in terms of seasons of friendships or longings after friendships with specific girls. Sometimes we never even became friends, I just admired them from afar, daydreamed about them, mustered up the courage to say a few words to them, and lived off of that high for weeks. Sometimes I pursued them: slowly got myself in their circle, befriended them, showed them all my best sides, asked them deep questions to draw us into relational intimacy at an intense rate, and then latched on to them, making their friendship my whole world and consuming all my time and thoughts with them. I developed what I now understand to be a codependent pattern of relating with these girls. When the intensity became uncomfortable and unsustainable for them, they would pull away from friendship, and I would hold on tighter until there was a friendship "break up." Afterwards,  I would spiral in emotional insecurity and rejection. We would never talk again, and I would move to a new city or state to escape the pain of what had just happened and start fresh.

One day, after feeling drawn in yet again by another girl in college who had caught my eye and recognizing that this attraction didn't seem to be something I saw in my group of normal girlfriends (friends I loved as friends but wasn't attracted to in that way), I began to do some searching. “What was wrong with me!? Was I gay? Why didn't I like boys the way I liked girls? I can't be gay because I'm not sexually attracted to these girls,” I thought to myself. “But I can't exactly say I'm straight when I also have no physical attraction to boys either.” That's when I found the term, "asexual,” a sexual orientation defined by a person not experiencing sexual attraction or interest.

Oh the relief I felt wash over me in that discovery. There's a term for this! Other people experience this too! There are colors and a flag and a community of other people who experience this same thing! I had spent my life up to this point constantly feeling like I needed to cover up what felt so glaringly wrong with me. In high school, I didn't fit among my Christian or secular friends, but at least in the eyes of the church I thought I was being mature and keeping from the path towards inappropriate sexual relations. But once college and grad school hit, every one of my friends was dating and getting married and I still hadn't had my first date, nor were there any prospects. I began to feel rejection from members of my church as well: "Why aren't you married yet?" "Are you dating anyone?" "I know a single guy that I think you'd like." I still liked girls and rarely liked guys. I was terrified of the prospect of relationships with the opposite sex because marriage involves romantic and sexual acts that I found disturbing. The church's conversations on singleness had begun to shift from purity to “enduring the wait.” I couldn't relate.

In the midst of this whole journey, as I wrestled with what this meant for me as a Christian, I spoke with several friends from my past who had renounced Christianity and were now embracing an identity of being gay. They spoke of embracing relationships and marriage with their partners. They described their hope in freedom from hiding and feeling so out of place in the Church. They talked about finding belonging with their partner and the LGBTQ+ community. It was tempting, really tempting. I entertained the thoughts of freedom and release that I might feel if I gave in and embraced whatever I was. I wrestled with Scripture, which was entirely unclear to me since I wasn't dealing with sexual lust. I just had weird friendships and longed for emotional closeness with them. I prayed and prayed and prayed.

Ultimately I came to a place where, terrified and shattered, I told God that I wanted to follow him and submit to him. I told him that I knew how I had been thinking about these girls was wrong and that the lusts that I did experience toward them were wrong even though they weren't necessarily sexual. I admitted to him that I was heartbroken because I was worried that I would never be allowed to have a close friendship with a girl again. I told him I was willing to be isolated from friendship because I believed he knew what was best for me and would take care of me, that I could trust him even though I didn't know what the future would hold. I submitted to God and in letting go I wept and grieved over what I thought I might be giving up: any hope of belonging on this earth, being known in friendship by either sex, finding satisfaction in the earthly joy of relationship.

Sometime that year, I was baptized, and I saw the Spirit grow me in ways I hadn't before thought possible. I was still asexual and took comfort in having that term and that identity at least. When I felt insecure, I could fall back on having that identity as an excuse to get my family and the Church off my back for why I still wasn't in a relationship. One day, in that first year of being baptized, I had dinner with a family from my church, and I was explaining that I was asexual. It's possible, at that time, that I was wearing the flag colors on my wrist, or perhaps I was explaining how I had joined a meetup group for asexual people in my town. They challenged me on my choice to identify as asexual and, at that time, I became defensive, thinking to myself,  “It isn’t sinful to be asexual. In fact, it's the only LGBTQ+ identity that the church would probably be okay with! Don't have sex until you're married? No problem!” But as I thought about the points they made, the Spirit convicted me that they were right. As a Christian, my identity is in Christ. "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal 2:20).

I still experience asexuality and would consider myself ‘asexual’ in the descriptive sense–it's a term that helps capture how I relate to attraction and relationships. But I am not "an asexual," meaning that I do not root my identity in that term, nor do I associate myself with the asexual community, their flag, colors, or symbols. My identity is in Christ alone. However, my corrupted flesh that so easily falls prey to deceptive counterfeit satisfaction, sees the asexual celebration days come and go each year; sees the “Ace Flag,” the most beautiful of the flags in my opinion, paraded during Pride Month; and, at times, I feel the temptation arise within me to reclaim it. I feel the pride threatening to well up inside me. Even as I write these sentences, I pray that God would remind me of my true identity.

I let those moments pass, by God's grace and strength and forgiveness, reminding myself of what is true: how much more secure my identity is in Christ; how much more hope I have; how much more loved and accepted I am than that community could ever offer me; how faithful God has been to me over the years to consistently surround me with healthy friendships with women and a genuine, accepting, and loving church community. He is slowly healing the parts of me that are scared and broken inside; that have kept me from being open to relationships with men; and have gotten me into so many unhealthy relationships with women. And it is good. He is good. This identity in Christ is so precious and worth more than any treasure or relational joy that this world could ever offer.

The ache of longing is part of our fallen human nature. We are all longing for belonging, love, acceptance, community, security, and living in the freedom of the light without shame or shadow. The longing experienced by so many in the vanity of Pride Month cannot be met in trying to get the world to accept you and hold you secure. It cannot be met in human relationships, whether the most faithful of Christian marriages or the dirtiest of relational fantasies. It can only be met in the glory of the Gospel–in Christ, the perfect, sacrificial, faithful Bridegroom. Come, find your identity in him, and take up the new life he offers you.

As we consider our pursuit of happiness this summer in our current sermon series, we are reflecting on how God holds out to us the promise of reward as a motive for faithfully following Christ. It is not by mere duty that we forego the enticements of sin but because God offers a surpassing pleasure. There is the same motive when it comes to giving of our resources. As we come in to the halfway mark of the year, I want to draw your attention to the status of our church finances and encourage you “to contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of this church.”

We regularly provide financial updates as part of our quarterly church meetings, brought to us by our illustrious Deacon of Finance, Aaron Hansen. Our next meeting is coming up on Sunday, July 20. Ahead of that meeting, however, Aaron and the pastors have decided to delay a number of planned expenses and contributions. The driver for this is that after the first five months of the year, our regular, budgeted expenses exceed our giving by about $23,000. Looking at patterns from prior years, Aaron is currently estimating that if we spend according to the approved budget, our expenses for the year would exceed our giving by about $60,000.

We knew our 2025 budget was above our means when we presented and approved it in January. Our overall financial position is healthy and can account for the anticipated difference. However, the present status is greater than anticipated. As such, we are planning on delaying about $29,000 of planned expenses and contributions, most of which was budgeted to go toward partner organizations doing good work in our community and beyond. If we see over the next five months of the year that giving is closer to what we anticipated for the year, we will revisit this decision.

As we looked at our giving thus far in the year in comparison to previous years, a little more disconcerting data point was found. The system we use for keeping record of giving to be able to provide IRS-required receipts provides some analysis of trends. The disconcerting pattern is that of our fifty-two households that include covenant members, almost 30% have no record of giving to the ministry and expenses of the church.

There could be a number of factors that contribute to that data point. There could be financial hardships being addressed, contributions made anonymously by cash, or giving planned for a single, annual donation. Our current financial status for the year is not solely due to that 30%. But it is concerning when we covenant together as a part of being a member of the church that we will “contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of this church.” And as it would be negligent on our part as pastors to not speak to other areas of the Christian life related to what we have covenanted, we must shepherd in this one as well.

And that’s where the motive comes into play. Whether you have given this year or not, the motive is your own joy and happiness. I have in mind the passage I probably go to most often when discussing giving to the expenses of the church. Philippians 4:17, “Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.” In a sense, the whole letter of Philippians is a “ministry support letter.” Paul provides an update and encouragement to his supporters, giving thanks to God for their generosity.

But as he highlights their financial partnership and his needs, he is quick to point out that he is not merely after what they can provide. Yes, money is needed to help make ministry happen. But Paul—and your pastors—are not after your money. We “seek the fruit that increases to your credit.” Give generously to the expenses of this ministry for your own joy, for the increasing fruit in your own life that is to your credit. What fruit might Paul have in mind that is produced through financial generosity? I think Paul would say doing good, being rich in good works, being generous, being eager to share (1 Timothy 6:18). And what credit does the giver receive? “Treasure [stored up] for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life” (1 Timothy 6:19).

We don’t review individual giving habits and amounts. We’re not comparing donations to estimates of gross income to see if people are giving a set percentage. We’re not chiefly seeking the gift. We seek the fruit that increases to your credit. If you are not giving to the expenses of this church or are not giving cheerfully according to what God would have you, we want your joy to increase. We want you to enjoy the fruit of such giving so that you especially are aided onward in laying hold of that which is truly life.

So at this midpoint of the year—not amidst the influx of appeals for year-end giving—would you prayerfully review your finances? In all that the Lord has entrusted to you, are you setting your hope on the uncertainty of what you have been given? If you are a member and are not giving regularly, make a plan to do so. If there are extenuating circumstances where you feel it would not be prudent, talk with us. We want to pastor you well, even in the too-often-taboo topic of personal finance.

If you have questions or comments on more of the specifics, feel free to reach out to Aaron or me. It doesn’t have to wait for our next meeting. And neither does seeking the fruit that increases to your credit.

We encourage and pursue a "regulated free market" approach to ministry. It's an approach that aims to equip the saints for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:12) rather than create ministries for the saints to come work. The goal is to deploy our members, gifted and empowered by the Holy Spirit, to all manner of opportunities where they live, work, and play. It's by pursuing that approach to ministry that I found myself riding shotgun, doing 70mph north on Douglas Drive.

It all started on March 10, 2020. The world was on the cusp of descending into the longest "two weeks" of history, but that was not top of mind. It was the first time I joined the Church Ambassador Network at the capitol to meet and pray with state legislators. A friend started the effort in Minnesota, and I had capacity in my schedule to join him. I saw it as an opportunity available to me as a pastor that other Christians might not have. Legislators would meet with us because the group was comprised of pastors from throughout the Twin Cities and beyond. We would share something from Scripture and pray with legislators.

Over the following years, I continued to prioritize serving with the Church Ambassador Network, giving me a vision for how chaplaincy work is a strategic avenue of evangelism and discipleship for pastors. I don't have unbelieving colleagues I work with. My relational circles are almost exclusively Christian. And meeting with legislators helped further put to death the fear of man. It was initially intimidating to go to the capitol and meet with powerful holders of public office. Until talking with a few and realizing they were, after all, just people—farmers, small business owners, insurance salesmen, moms. They're just people who feel burdened to serve their community and state. They're just people who need to repent and believe in Christ and be encouraged to follow him and his commands faithfully in all of life, even public office.

The modeling I observed from other pastors and opportunities to lead meetings with legislators sparked an interest to bring a similar approach more locally. So in April 2021, I attended a "coffee with a cop" event hosted by New Hope police at Fat Nats to learn more about the department and needs in our community. Then in November 2023, I contacted the New Hope community relations officer to see if there were ways our church could serve the community. While nothing substantive came of those interactions beyond the pancake breakfast we hosted, I was added to a "faith and police" email group. And then earlier this year, I was invited to a tri-city (Robbinsdale, Crystal, New Hope) chaplain info lunch.

Now, that backstory may mean nothing to you. "Just get to the 70mph part!" you may be thinking. But I share that to highlight that the free market may take your ministry in unexpected directions. It may take longer than you anticipated. You may end up somewhere different from where you thought you were going at the start. How has the Lord gifted and equipped you to take the next step in faithfully carrying out his work? Where can you bear witness to Christ unique to where you live, work, and play? Strategic plans and initiatives are good and have their place. But sometimes you just need to take a step without knowing the whole plan—almost like living by faith.

Having had some interactions with different officers, most of whom are a part of the Crystal police department, I heeded the encouragement of one to schedule a "ride along." Years ago I had heard going on one is a great way to gain insights into your community. Most police departments will have a "ride along" program for residents. So I found a time that worked, and soon enough I was riding full lights and sirens northbound on Douglas Drive.

I had read online and heard from officers that ride alongs sometimes can be slow. It just depends on what happens. So I was ready for that. But my experience on one Friday evening was not that. The word that captures my four-hour window into the world of policing is "intense." I joined a sergeant in responding to a handful of calls. A girl got bit breaking up fighting dogs. Two different calls due to alcohol-induced fighting. A broken taillight on a rental truck.

In the midst of those calls though came one I was not expecting. We were driving around, talking about stressors and challenges of being an officer, how alcohol is the single greatest issue police deal with in Crystal, how residents don't seem to know or talk with their neighbors, how—the sergeant stopped talking. Something on the radio got his attention in code I had not deciphered. A man called 911; his diabetic brother was dying, perhaps dead. Lights and sirens. We pull up to the house and, surprisingly, the sergeant isn't moving too fast. Apparently, another officer arrived first and was in the house. He had radioed that the diabetic had passed away hours prior and was just recently found. The man's brother was angry and raw. The sergeant and I stood in his kitchen while the other responding officer gathered what information he could in the bedroom.

And then we left. Off to another call.

Just another shift—another Friday evening in Crystal.

The ride along affirmed to me the need to step into this opportunity as a volunteer chaplain. Here's why:

• Leadership within the police departments are asking for it. It's not quite a Macedonian call (Acts 16:9) but similar. They have social workers and therapists available to officers, but they are specifically seeking Christian pastors.
• At this point, I have not discerned any theological vetting of pastors. So, if I and a few other evangelical pastors in the area don't step in, others will.
• While down the road there might be an avenue for church members to be trained as chaplains, right now the invitation is just to staff pastors. So this opportunity is for a pretty thin slice of the total number of Christians in the area.
• It seems like a uniquely strategic avenue to have a ripple effect more broadly. How might our community be different, how might policing here be different, if the Spirit blows and brings new life and revival through these departments? Only the Lord knows the full effect of Paul's gospel ministry spreading through the whole imperial guard (Philippians 1:12-13). Perhaps he would do something similar here. How much better for God's servants to bear the sword governed by faith in the Lord Jesus (cf. Romans 13:1-4).
• Like legislators, officers are people. Men and women who want to do good to their community. And the demands and stressors they are under on a daily—and at times hourly—basis is intense. And Jesus is enough to save, strengthen, and sustain them.

 
So, if you would, pray that the Lord continue to guide and open a door for the Word, to declare the mystery of Christ (Colossians 4:3). Pray when you see an emergency vehicle flash by that God would bring peace and healing in the hard situation it is en route to. Pray that he would give you the boldness and faith to take a step in pursuing your own "regulated free market" ministry.

Carrying out our calling as Christian parents requires a positive vision for the task. Correction plays a pivotal role, but we must have a broader, more expansive vision for our children. I think such a vision is consistent with reformed baptist convictions and is what Scripture would call us to. In short, this is what Paul is referencing when he exhorts fathers to bring up their children “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

I’m not tied to denominational monikers. I don’t feel any keen affinity for the label of “baptist.” But such titles are helpful shorthand for theological and biblical convictions. In this case, I am bringing up “reformed baptist” convictions in relation to parenting because of the tension some fellow reformed baptists feel. By the “reformed” label, I am referencing the Protestant Reformation and the truths of Scripture recovered in that formative time in the history of the Church. I particular have in mind here the Bible’s teaching on sin and our sinful nature. All people are sinful all the way through (Gen 6:5, 8:21; 1 Kgs 8:46; Prov 15:26; Eccl 7:20; Rom 1:21, 3:23, 5:12-21, 8:20; 1 Cor 15:22; 2 Cor 4:4; Eph 2:1-3). That means our children—yes, even children of Christian parents—are sinners. Apart from saving faith in Christ, our children have no hope of salvation.

By the “baptist” label, I do not mean to reference a denomination but the conviction on the nature of the church. The baptistic understanding of the church is that it is comprised of those who are members of the “New Covenant.” It is that covenant anticipated in Jeremiah 31:31-34, where the covenant members are those who have the law of God written on their hearts and know the Lord. Or in Ezekiel 36:22-28 where God’s restored people will be those who are indwelt by the Spirit and have been given a new heart. It is this New Covenant that Jesus inaugurated and accomplished through his death and resurrection (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).

What’s this got to do with parenting? Too often, reformed baptist couples have a baby and start spinning about what they are supposed to do with this child. They grapple with all the Bible says about children and feel as though they have to abandon their reformed baptist convictions to go sprinkle water on their babies in order to live out a positive vision for Christian parenting.

I don’t think such a reaction is necessary. There is no incongruity between being reformed baptist and a faithful Christian father or mother. In fact, I think such convictions advance our faithfulness. There was a decisive focus on children in the Old Covenant because of the promise of being a populous nation from whom the Son of the Woman would come (Genesis 3:15, 12:1-3). Now that the Son has come, covenant members are not born into the covenant community, they are reborn into it (John 3:1-8).

This focuses our parenting away from any semblance of mere behavior modification or presumption of salvation and onto the steady gospel witness we hold out to our children day after day. Children of Christians are beneficiaries of a great grace of God, being given by God into our homes that they may be under such steady influence and proclamation of the gospel (1 Corinthians 7:14). But they are sinners needing the greatest grace of God, being redeemed through the blood of Christ (Ephesians 1:3-10).

Christian, you can have children who obey you immediately, completely, and joyfully on their way to Hell. Such obedience is not your ultimate goal—your children’s embrace of Christ is. I would much rather have my children obey slowly, imperfectly, and begrudgingly and love Christ than to be perfectly obedient outwardly and hate Christ in their heart. Does the Lord require them to honor and obey their parents? Yes, of course. And they will, by God’s grace, grow in being sanctified in this. The goal of our parenting is for God to be glorified in our children through the gospel.

While that in itself is a broad vision for our parenting, I think we can go further. And I think this is what Paul is doing in Ephesians 6:4, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” The leadership in this task is for fathers, but God mercifully and normally provides wonderful partners in that task through mothers.

The task is two-fold: discipline and instruction. Both operate in the sphere of and in relation to the Lord. My objective as a father is not to bring up my children in the discipline and instruction of me. I am not ultimate. I, too, am under authority. My objective is to lead my children to relate rightly to the Lord and all of his instruction. That is, I have this wonderful, empowered, authorized commission to teach my children to observe all that Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:18-20).

But my goal, your goal as a Christian parent, is not just to teach your kids Christian things. It is not enough that your kids know the commands of Christ. And I think this is what Paul is referencing when he says the “discipline … of the Lord.” The word he employs is paideia. The foremost scholarly resource on the meaning of Greek words describes this term as "the act of providing guidance for responsible living” (BDAG, s.v. “παιδεία,” 748).

A number of authors have observed how this “paideia of the Lord” is most likely drawing on the historic Greek use of the term. Paideia is not merely corrective consequences like corporal punishment; it encapsulates a whole-life vision for what a child ought to be. Plato defined it as “the art of living as well as possible.” Paul employs a loaded Greek word to exhort fathers to bring a true vision of the good life in the shaping and development of their children. We are to bring up our children where they understand the world correctly, know who they are in it, and move forward by faith to conduct themselves accordingly.

Does that mean you make a practice of family worship? Yes. Does that mean you bring painful consequences into your child’s life that he might be trained by them (Hebrews 12:5-11)? Yes. Does that mean you set the standard in your home that your child is to honor and obey you (Ephesians 6:1-3)? Yes. Does that mean you prioritize the weekly gathering of the local church to join in worship together as a family? Yes.

But it means much more than that. It means you are laboring to train your child to see and interact with all things under the lordship of Christ. It means you equip them to praise that which is praiseworthy, to esteem what is good, true, and beautiful. It means you shape them to love virtue and hate vice. It means you say the same thing 10,000 times so your children know in their bones that this is our Father’s world and all art, music, math, creatures, poetry, cells, sport, science, drink, vistas, weather, emotion, food, suffering, money, aspirations—we engage with all of it in relation to the Lord Jesus who is preeminent over all (Colossians 1:15-18).

This all-encompassing vision for bringing up your child that she might repent and believe on Christ and see all things as they truly are has ramifications on what church you are a member of, how you go about schooling, who your family spends time with, what friends your children have, how you go about summer and vacation, what sports teams your child will play on, what books your children read, who the influential leaders and mentors are in your child’s life, how technology is used, and on and on and on.

Fortunately, you don’t have to have all this figured out before you become a parent. Children develop, and so do parents. Isn’t it a grace to have a ten-month window to prepare for the birth of your child? And five years to practice good, healthy family rhythms before starting school? And seven years of establishing a foundation? And three years of making connections to so many aspects of life? And three years of refining how ideas and beauty come together? You don’t have to do it all at once.

And you’ll mess up. You’ll sin. You’ll make mistakes. You’ll repent and seek forgiveness. And it will be given. Because there is grace for people—for parents—like you. And there is grace for people like your children, too.

We have just completed our extended sermon series going through the letter of 1 Corinthians. In the last couple months, people have been asking about where we’re going next. I appreciate the inquiries and the eagerness to be looking forward to God’s Word. Let me lay out the course we’ve charted and a little bit on why we’re headed this direction.

Our first destination will be an initial stop on a “sporadic series.” We’re calling the series “Listen to the Prophet Speak.” This will be different from other series in a few ways. The first distinction being that it will predominantly be the reading of whole books of the Minor Prophets. Paul commends to Timothy the public reading of Scripture in 1 Timothy 4:13, a practice that resulted in weeping and rejoicing when Ezra read all the Book of the Law of Moses (Genesis - Deuteronomy; cf. Nehemiah 8:1-12). We’ve typically reserved more extended readings for special services like Christas Eve, Good Friday, or the recitations of 1 Corinthians. Though, if you recall back, some of the passages of Genesis were longer as well. So, being a relatively new thing for us, we’re going to start with a shorter book, Joel, this Sunday. The book, and the prophet’s foretelling of the gift of the Spirit in Joel 2, will also be top of mind then as the Easter season concludes the following week on Pentecost (June 8).

Another distinction is that this will be sporadic. We aren’t planning on going through all twelve prophets in twelve weeks. Instead, we will periodically come back to a new prophet to listen to what he spoke and captured in writing. A third distinction in this series is that the main substance will be the prophet’s words, not ours. We will have a shorter message that draws out a key verse or central theme in the book that we read that morning. Or to draw again from Nehemiah, we will “read from the book … and [give] the sense, so that the people [understand] the reading” (8:8).

The next destination will be an eight week theological series we’re calling, “The Pursuit of Happiness.” In previous, theologically oriented series, we have drilled down on the doctrines of sin, image of God, atonement, the church, and union with Christ. We have not as of yet focused on God’s sovereignty, his purpose in creation, and how those things serve our everlasting joy. So, we’re going to camp out this summer on, like I mentioned Sunday, how “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”

Specifically, we plan to address eight questions:

1. What is God’s greatest purpose?
2. Is God happy?
3. Why does God seek our worship?
4. Should we seek happiness?
5. Does pursuing joy undermine love?
6. How does the gospel bring us joy?
7. What about self-denial?
8. What about when I don’t desire God?

I’m looking forward to this series as the passages of Scripture we will be looking at and their implications for our lives in the truths they convey have been probably the most influential on my life as a Christian.

The third destination will be a familiar one. Each summer since 2020, we have spent at least a handful of weeks together in the Psalms. It’s a good practice since the Psalms have played such a key role in the life of God’s people over the centuries. That’s what we will plan to do this August. Meditating further on psalms helps us grow in living in covenant with God’s King, responding faithfully to all of life’s joys and hardships.

The last destination on where we’re going in the foreseeable future is to the book of Ecclesiastes. It’s a book that is challenging to understand. Is it communicating a nihilistic, “all is meaningless” view of life? Or is life under the sun perplexing but hopefully shaped by fearing God and keeping his commandments? Those aren’t rhetorical questions. That’s what I plan to be wrestling with over the summer in preparation for that series. You can pray for me to have fruitful preparation.

Actually, you can pray for this whole course through different parts of Scripture we will follow this summer. Pray that the reading and preaching of God’s Word would not return void but have its due effect (Isaiah 55:11). Pray that those preaching would, like Ezra, “set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach” it to the church (Ezra 7:10). Pray that God’s Spirit would use his Word and give us gracious gifts according to all that we need to be built up (1 Corinthians 12:7,11).

One thing that strikes me in the conclusions of Paul’s letters, including 1 Corinthians, is the shuffling of fellow laborers and ministers. It’s almost like the apostle is functioning as the general manager of a professional sports franchise. He calls up ministry partners, sends others off to another team, warns of those who have been “let go.” There is this strategic deployment of personnel throughout the Mediterranean for the cause of Christ. Could we benefit from such an approach while maintaining the autonomy of the local church?

For starters, consider the ministry moves that are being made:

• Timothy was sent to Corinth before returning to Ephesus (1 Corinthians 16:10-11; 1 Timothy 1:3). Paul planned to send him to Philippi (Philippians 2:19). He was known in Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 1:1, 2 Thessalonians 1:1). He was deployed to Macedonia (Acts 19:22).
• Titus served in Corinth (2 Corinthians 7:13), having accompanied Paul to Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1), and was commissioned to Dalmatia (2 Timothy 4:10) and Crete (Titus 1:5). Paul planned on him serving in Nicopolis as well (Titus 3:12).
• Phoebe is commended to be received and sent through Rome (Romans 16:1).
• Aquila & Priscilla served in Rome (Romans 16:3), Corinth (Acts 18:1-3), and Ephesus (1 Corinthians 16:8,19).
• Epaenetus was saved in Asia but sent to Rome (Romans 16:5).
• Apollos hailed from Alexandria but ministered in Ephesus and Corinth (Acts 18:24, 19:1).
• Epaphroditus was sent to and from Philippi (Philippians 2:25-30).
• Tychicus ministered in Colossae (Colossians 4:7), Ephesus (2 Timothy 4:12), and Crete (Titus 3:12).
• Epaphras labored in Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis (Colossians 4:12-13).
• Luke practiced in Colossae (Colossians 4:14), not to mention all the travels he accompanied in researching and recording his Gospel and Acts.
• Demas partnered in Colossae (Colossians 4:14) before deserting Paul in Thessalonica, in love with this present world (2 Timothy 4:10).
• Erastus remained in Corinth (2 Timothy 4:20), having been sent to Macedonia (Acts 19:22).
• Trophimus was left on Injured Reserve, recovering in Miletus (2 Timothy 4:20).
• Then there is Barnabas, Artemas, Mark, Aristarchus, Justus, and many other men and women both named and unnamed in Paul’s canonical letters.

This list is not a comprehensive accounting of the comings and goings of the ministry team under the leadership of the Apostle Paul. And yet it is still dizzying to consider all the moving pieces taking place among the fraternity of churches throughout the Mediterranean.

What could churches today glean from this? Some no doubt would argue it is a case for the papacy and bishops of Roman Catholicism and other Christian traditions that hold to an episcopal ecclesiology. Having a singular org chart where ministers can readily be shuffled about provides one approach to accountability and efficiency.

However, the New Testament points instead to a less efficient model of providing accountability and gospel advance through the autonomy of local churches:

• Elders were to be appointed in each town for the good of that local church (Titus 1:5)
• The New Testament letters were written to specific churches, even though they could be beneficial more broadly (1 Corinthians 1:2, Philippians 1:1, Colossians 4:16)
• The discipline of a Christian was carried out by the local assembly, not an international organization (Matthew 18:17, 1 Corinthians 5:4-5)
• Jesus addresses seven separate churches in the letters of Revelation 2-3, not campuses or parishes of a singular entity.

Bringing together then Paul’s strategic deployment of gospel partners with the New Testament vision of autonomous, local churches, there could be an approach to shared, biblically-qualified pastors and elders to further advance healthy churches in these Twin Cities. Traditionally, local congregations don’t balk at the idea of pursuing a staff pastor who presently is serving in another church, even in another state or country. Search committees are formed to pursue and vet such candidates. However, when it comes to non-staff pastors (often called lay or non-vocational elders), the expectation is that such men are identified and developed from within the congregation.

But what if we took a cue from Paul’s playbook? How many elder-qualified men are under-deployed throughout the Twin Cities? Perhaps they are not even serving as pastor-elders due to the size dynamics of their church or its pastoral team. What if there was a greater mindset of the success of other churches and not only the focus on the success of “my church”? It doesn’t require a bishop or apostle. Pastors of different churches could collaborate in raising up, equipping, and then strategically deploying such faithful men where they are most needed.

Local congregations could interview and evaluate such non-staff pastor candidates just as they would in hiring a new staff pastor. Get to know him and his family through a few intentional gatherings. Hear him teach or preach. Listen to the recommendation of the church he has been at most recently. Then vote to call him as a non-staff pastor.

If there was such an open-handedness in sharing such gifted men, would that not promote the health and vitality of the Church more broadly throughout these Cities? Simply because local churches have not traditionally gone about sharing godly leaders in this way does not mean it can’t be done. Such a deployment of faithful men throughout these Cities very well could be a strategic means of advancing healthy churches in the west metro and beyond.

Sometimes it is the little things in life that can have the most transformative effect. A simple encouragement from a friend. A kind gesture by a stranger on a stressful day. The quiet faithfulness of a grandmother’s prayers. No headlines to be written about such things or grand announcements. There were four little words that we did not dwell on this past Sunday that reframe how you view your life.

As Paul motivates the Corinthians’ planned generosity by pointing to their vital partnership in the gospel, he lays out his intentions (1 Corinthians 16:1-9). I think he is serving this church functionally, missionally, and relationally. Functionally, they are being helped to know the horizon of when their gift will be needed. Missionally, Paul is aiding their partnership in the advance of the gospel by bringing them into his strategic planning. And relationally, he is conveying his concern for them, not merely what they can provide. His goal is to spend some time with them, perhaps even a number of months over winter (v.6-7).

It is in this relation context that we breezed over the four little words: "IftheLordpermits."

A throwaway phrase of sanctimony? By no means! These four little words have a transformative effect in how you view your life. We can make all of the best laid plans with the most upstanding intentions to accomplish a great cause … and then get a flat tire, stuck for hours on the side of the road … or a virus lays you up for days in bed … or your supervisor at work sets a Monday deadline requiring you to work through the weekend.

Through all of our accomplishments and all of our health and all of our abilities, we succumb to that ancient lie, “You will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). We think we exercise dominion not as image bearers but the Image. We believe our own press that we are strong, competent, capable. And we subject the truth about who is God and think it is us. We don’t get this credo tattooed on our forearms and bumper-stickered on our minivans, but when we live and move and have our being not according to those four little words, that is in fact what we are doing.

It takes only a breath to say but faith to practice. “If the Lord permits.” It is a transformative phrase because we are actually in so little control over life’s circumstances. And if we’re honest with ourselves, when our best laid plans don’t come to pass, we react far more like our children than we would admit. We are quick to throw a fit and clamor, “But you said … !” We holler and spit, not getting what it was we set out to receive. Do you not know it is the Lord who determines what comes to pass?

Make the practice of following the Apostle’s example when declaring your intentions. “We will go on our anniversary date Friday night, if the Lord permits.” “We will open our home to our neighbors to love them well, if the Lord permits.” “I will confront that fellow brother to call him back to faith and repentance, if the Lord permits.”

Four little words serve as a testimony to your mind and to your soul that you are not God but live in moment-by-moment dependence on him. Four little words to make plain, as subtle as it may be, to your children, coworkers, and neighbors that your life operates in submission to the One who rules all things according to his good pleasure. Four little words that reframe how you view life.

Just four little words: “IftheLordpermits.”

We’re going to look this Sunday at Paul’s grand inference on the doctrine of the resurrection. How should that reality break in to our everyday experience? By being steadfast and immovable. We want to further strengthen you to stand through one of two upcoming opportunities because odds are you feel like you don’t know how to help others apply the gospel to life or you don’t actually have a biblical worldview. Let me explain.

The stream of the Christian tradition we swim in is especially good at study and doctrine. I think that is a commendable strength, to wrestle deeply with Scripture, synthesizing how it works together to convey a comprehensive understanding of God’s revelation. However, bringing that strength to a personal conversation where a friend pours out her anxieties and fears? That is an adjacent skill set. One that I think many Christians feel ill-equipped in.

And the upcoming Paraclete Fellowship course “Helping Relationships” sets its sights directly on equipping Christians like you to have conversations like that. You may have heard us talk about “biblical counseling” and the “Christian Counseling & Education Foundation” and thought, “Yeah, that’s not me. I’m not a counselor. I’m just a mom/engineer/church member/fill-in-the-blank.” But so much of “the work of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58) takes place in everyday conversations where a Christian faithfully brings the Bible to bear on the topic at hand. Call it counseling, evangelism, parenting, discipleship—it is all essentially the same task. In prayerful dependence on the Spirit, you apply Scripture to life’s situations.

Deepen your footings, bringing the certainty and power of the resurrection to bear on your life so that you might abound in the work of the Lord by joining Pastor Zach and others for a ten-week bootcamp this summer.

My second comment above about not having a biblical worldview comes from research done by the Barna Group and Arizona Christian University. Through their work, they have identified that while 66% of Americans self-identify as Christians, only 6% of that group has a biblical worldview. Worse is that their same research shows only 37% of American pastors have a biblical worldview. By “biblical worldview,” they mean respondents think and act like Jesus. It is further defined by “seven cornerstones”:

1. An orthodox, biblical understanding of God.
2. All human beings are sinful by nature; every choice we make has moral considerations and consequences.
3. Knowing Jesus Christ is the only means to salvation, through our confession of sin and reliance on His forgiveness.
4. The entire Bible is true, reliable, and relevant, making it the best moral guide for every person, in all situations.
5. Absolute moral truth exists—and those truths are defined by God, described in the Bible, and are unchanging across time and cultures.
6. The ultimate purpose of human life is to know, love, and serve God with all your heart, mind, strength, and soul.
7. Success on earth is best understood as consistent obedience to God—in thoughts, words, and actions.

You may read that list and say, “Hey! I believe those things!” But do they shape your decisions? Your values? And they very well may—praise God! But do you know how to talk with your neighbor who grew up Lutheran but has a “Love is love” sign in his yard? Do you know why such a sign would even be a thing? Where did that idea come from? Do you know how to talk with your kids about that sign?

The Colson Fellowship, starting in August, aims directly at addressing such worldview issues. Come to my house Saturday morning for an hour to learn more about this opportunity (RSVP to me or Kelina). Deepen your footings, bringing the certainty and power of the resurrection to bear on your life so that you might abound in the work of the Lord by joining me, Kelina, and others in engaging with the Bible and the ideas that shape our culture over nine months of study and discussion.

Jesus is risen. He is risen indeed. That’s not just an emotional high for one Sunday a year. That’s true today. And it makes all the difference.

While I was not able to attend a recent theology conference with a number of our members that drilled down on God’s providence, I was able to see the same in the United Arab Emirates. In addition to visiting with a family Westview has sent there, I got to travel to the city where Christian influence in the country began. From that city, God’s providence has brought about a ripple effect that has reached 1,700 miles away in Kerala, India.

The city of Al Ain developed around a natural oasis in the desert far from the glitz of Dubai and the bustle of Abu Dhabi. Christians provided medical care in faithfulness to Christ that eventually gave rise to the government permitting churches and a seminary to be founded. One of those churches, Evangelical Community Church of Abu Dhabi (ECCAD), started a global pastoral internship program, inviting elder-qualified men from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East to come and learn and hone pastoral skills.

One such brother is Shyam. He leads Christ Community Telugu Church of Abu Dhabi, a church he helped lead in planting after completing the internship at ECCAD. It’s a church that is part of our shared Pillar Network. There are 3.42 million Indians living in the UAE, comprising 30% of the population. Many of these Indians come from the southern region of Kerala and speak Telugu. But there are few faithful churches seeking to serve them with the untarnished gospel.

Sixty-five percent of the Indians that come to the UAE are blue collar workers, many of whom are laborers earning around $200 per month. They rise before dawn to be bussed from “labor camps” an hour into the city to work all day, only to return well after sunset to sleep and do it all again. Day after day, seven days a week. It is this predominantly Hindu demographic that Pastor Shyam has been especially burdened to engage.

Twice a week Pastor Shyam travels to the labor camps to bring dinner for those who will join him. Typically, laborers eat sparingly—some bread in the morning and evening—so they can send as much of their earnings back to family in India. As the men gather on a carpet rolled out on the concrete, he opens his Bible and shares from God’s Word.

And he is able to do so openly because of God’s providence.

The medical professionals who went to the UAE decades ago didn’t have a strategic plan that involved Telugu church plants. But God did. The government officials who decided to leverage oil wealth by recruiting laborers and professionals from what seems like just about every people, tribe, nation, and language didn’t do so to provide access to the gospel. But God did. The ripple effect of God’s providence won’t be fully known until glory, but we get glimpses of it now. And O how glorious his providence is.

Unity within a church is no small matter. It’s why Paul starts there with the Corinthians in their slew of problems (1 Corinthians 1:10-13). It’s why Paul returns there in his drawn out illustration of the body (1 Corinthians 12:24-26). The significance of unity is emphasized in the warnings and admonitions as well. Some of the strongest denunciations are reserved for divisive people (Romans 16:17, Titus 3:10, Jude 19). And it was one of the sweetest parts of Westview’s story that I love to share. Amidst all the turmoil and fracturing churches were experiencing in 2020, the Lord gave us a oneness of mind in what he called us to.

I have been mulling on the significance of unity as we have been going over Paul’s teaching regarding spiritual things in 1 Corinthians 12-14. The central exhortation flowing out of the rebuke of 1 Corinthians 13 and to guide the proper use of prophecy and tongues is, “Pursue love” (1 Corinthians 14:1). It’s simple but hard. Unity need not be called for if only we consistently pursued loved. But gifts and convictions are fertile soil for envy and rivalries. That’s why Paul needed to plainly state the command.

Two things help us in making strides in our pursuit of love. Consider first Bonhoeffer’s observation in Life Together, “I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me." If I am inclined towards division with a brother or sister, if envy or bitterness rises in my heart, there’s a good chance that I do not pray often for that person. Prayerfulness drives out strife. Pursue love and strive for the unity of the church by resolving to pray all the more for that person who gets under your skin.

A second thing to consider is the application of the gospel to our church relationships. If we have our standing in the gospel, that message of the work of Christ by which we are being saved (1 Corinthians 15:1-2), the culture of our church ought not be one of division but of gracious unity, of love. When one member sins against another—it is inevitable—the response should not be to clam up in spite. In going to your brother or sister to address that sin, should the expectation not be to be met with grace? If God’s grace toward us individually is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:10), then his grace will neither be in vain toward us collectively. And divisions will be nipped in the bud. Love will be pursued.

Don’t fall for the false categorization that unity means uniformity. If we’re all the same and think the same, there’s no room for love. There has to be some distinction for the selfless consideration of others to be made manifest. And it is that unity absent of uniformity that displays Christ and the gospel as truly beautiful.

During the Memento Mori service, we walked together through three movements which each included three focuses: hearing from God’s Word, confessing our sins before him, and singing in remembrance of his mercy. These movements were ordered around three divisions the Apostle John gives us for sin (or “all that is in the world”) in 1 John 2:15–16. The passage reads, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world — the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life — is not from the Father but is from the world."

One of the reasons we focused here is that the church has used these three categories as an apt description of what living contrary to the will of God looks like — and therefore, they are an apt description of the sins of which we need forgiveness and the unrighteousness from which we need cleansing (1 John 1:9). Further, this classification takes us all the way back to the garden, just like we read during our service:

"So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food [the lust of the flesh], and that it was a delight to the eyes [the lust of the eyes], and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise [the pride of life], she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate" (Genesis 3:6).

This comes to a point in our reflection upon death — and onward through the season of Lent — because ever since the fall, sin and death have walked hand in hand. One is the seed, the other is the fruit; one is the work, the other is the wage. We do well to remember, therefore, that the pervasiveness of death is a signpost to the pervasiveness of our rebellion. If death is a covering cast over all people, a veil spread over all nations (Isaiah 25:7), then the seamstress of that covering is sin — our desertion from the God of
Life.

In light of this, we brought with us the following words to humble ourselves before God, owning the works of sin in light of the wage: our death. Regarding the lust (or desires) of the flesh, we read Joel 2:1–2, 12–17 and said: Come, let us "return to the Lord with our whole heart," confessing our sins with regard to the lust of the flesh. This includes every inordinate appetite and desire of our bodily nature that is not submitted to the will of God: all gluttony and overeating, all gratification of unlawful sexual desire, all drunkenness and illicit use of drugs, all laziness and neglect of responsibility; anything in which bodily gratification has ruled over spiritual welfare.

Regarding the lust of the eyes, we read Ecclesiastes 3:1–11, 12:1–1 and said: For everything there is a season, so let us take time now to remember our Creator and call to mind our sins in relation to the lust of the eyes. This includes all covetousness and excessive passion for things we have perceived through our senses, represented foremost in what our eyes have looked upon: all inordinate desire for things that are pleasing to the eyes, all discontentment with regard to finances, all complaining for want of material possessions, all obsessive shopping and spending, all envy of another person's house, position, spouse, prosperity, or possessions.

And finally, regarding the pride of life, we read Psalm 90 and said: God is the one who ordained that man would return to dust, and God is the one who causes man to return to it. Let us not forget "the power of his anger," but instead — with a heart of wisdom that knows our days will soon run out — let us confess our sins with regard to the pride of life. Everything self-reliant, self-promoting, and self-absorbed; all angling toward compliments and posturing for prominence; all grasping for power and recognition, whether among friends, or coworkers, or family members; all boasting in intelligence, strength, looks, or moral fortitude; all false humility and self-pity; all forgetfulness of that fact that we are not
God.

So let us bring with us words to return to the Lord with all our heart. In this season we are brought low in the remembrance of death and the sin which produced it. And as we humble ourselves, from that very place, we must also remember the One who took upon himself our dust and received to himself the invoice of our rebellion. He never sinned, yet he ate sin’s fruit. Though flawlessly obedient, he accepted the wages of a rebel in order to win rebels and abolish the penalty of our treason. As George Herbert once wrote (from Christ’s perspective):

O all ye who pass by, behold and see;
Man stole the fruit, but I must climb the tree;
The tree of life to all, but only me.

So, brothers and sisters, remember your death, remember the cause of it, and remember the one who paid out its wages in full so that we could live to God.

Do you remember the “communion pods” churches used in the midst of COVID? They were shaped like those little shelf-stable coffee creamers and had two layers of tabs. You peel back the first one to access the wafer that was more like styrofoam than bread. Then you peel back the second tab to uncork the overly sweet juice. We were glad to move away from those and to something a little more normal.

More recently, the Anglican Church made headlines (at least ones pastors read) for banning gluten-free bread and non-alcoholic wine (which apparently is distinct from juice) at Communion. What constitutes acceptable elements at the Lord’s Table is a longstanding discussion, in part because of an inordinate desire to push boundaries and try to justify Mt Dew and Doritos for such purposes.

It’s clear that when Jesus instituted the ordinance of Communion, he used bread and wine (Matthew 26:26-29). He and his disciples were celebrating Passover, commemorating Israel’s exodus from slavery in Egypt. The additional ceremonial moment was foreshadowing the New Exodus Jesus was about to accomplish after the meal through his death and resurrection. However, we don’t insist on “reclining at table,” the bread being unleavened, or being in an upper room for Communion, so why insist on the elements we consume?

I think the parameters of what is permissible for Communion is some kind of bread—unleavened, leavened, multi-grain, sourdough, gluten-free, gluten-laden—and a drink from “the fruit of the vine,” that is grapes. I think what is preferable is a good bread and red wine. I phrase it that way because Scripture ought to regulate how we worship—we are not free to worship God however we want (listen to Pastor Zach’s recent exhortation on this for more). Scripture does not just give norms for worship, freeing us to do what we will so long as it is not forbidden. However, Scripture is not overly prescriptive on this either.

Additionally, the significance of bread has been highlighted as we have gone through 1 Corinthians. Paul envisions a loaf of bread in 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, “The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” The breaking of bread signifies a meal of unity. Our oneness as a church is on display at the Table. Jesus’ death and resurrection purchased for himself a people for his own possession (1 Peter 2:9 is making that New Exodus, New Israel connection).

There is more that could be said on all of this. There is richness in considering the biblical theology of bread and wine that informs both my thoughts on what is permissible and preferable. But as the pastoral team has wrestled with 1 Corinthians and implications for us as a church as a whole, one thing we are inclined towards is taking another step toward a fuller representation of the imagery conveyed through the bread and cup. A few years ago, we moved away from the COVID communion pods to diced gluten-free bread in cups. We would like to return to pre-COVID communal dishes of fresh bread. As you reflect on what I’ve shared here and our practice as a church, we would appreciate hearing your questions and feedback. In particular, how necessary is it to have gluten-free bread be what we serve?

In all the nuance and details of this topic, we want to keep the main thing the main thing. Namely, when we eat and drink together each Sunday, we are together nourished by faith in Christ as we proclaim his death until he comes. Maranatha! Come quickly, Lord Jesus!