Central Church – Online Worship Service – 4th Sunday after Epiphany – 1-31-2021

On this snowy winter Sunday, when the coronavirus prevents many of us from gathering in Central Church’s Sanctuary to worship in body, let us join together in spirit for with our online worship experience!

• Today’s online worship service includes a favorite HYMN with lyrics so you can sing along!

To begin, simply click on the link below to join with the folks who have already made their way into our digital Sanctuary: 

https://business.facebook.com/watch/?v=230876201911420

Central Church

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Stick to Shooting Straight – Truth and Consequences

Who Said It … Larry Osborne

Larry Osborne is an author who says, “I’ve always had a heart for the regular guy, the one who can’t imagine ever becoming a ‘super saint.’  I like starting where people are, not where they should be, and pointing them towards the path of growth.

That’s what Jesus did.  He didn’t blow the common man away with impossible religious standards.  The Pharisees did that.”

Larry is also the innovative lead pastor of North Coast Church in California’s San Diego County.

What He Said … Truth and Consequences

I know a Christian family who lost their home to foreclosure.  They took out a loan to buy a house they couldn’t afford.  Frankly, they got it by lying.  Their broker told them to pad their income statement.  He said, “Everybody does it.” So they did.

Then when the economy faltered and all hell broke loose, a mutual friend stepped forward to tell them not to worry.  Romans 8:28, (“We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”) he assured them, meant that they were in God’s hands.  He wouldn’t let them down.  They might lose their house, but he surely must have something better in mind.

It was false comfort.

The Bible makes clear that there are a number of scenarios where the dark trials of our lives have nothing to do with God’s wonderful plans for our lives.  They had lied.  It had caught up with them.

God did indeed have something better in mind.  But it wasn’t a nicer house.  It was honesty—telling the whole truth even when it was inconvenient.

– Adapted from Ten Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe (Multnomah, 2009).

Prayer for the Week

May your truth so live in me, Lord, that every form of deceit is wrung out of my life.

Taking Sin Seriously – Cruel Delights

Key Bible Verses:  I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong … but I can’t help myself.  – Romans 7:16-17

Bonus Reading:  James 1:13-16

On my eighth birthday my parents gave me a BB gun.  This beautiful gun and I formed a deadly partnership.  Cans, bottles, road signs—nothing was safe from us.  Well, almost nothing.

One afternoon I took aim at a bird perched in the willow tree in our backyard.  Just as I was about to squeeze the trigger, my sister, Patsy, ran into the yard waving her arms and yelling.  As the bird fluttered away, her smug smile as good as taunted, “Ha! Ha! I showed you who’s in charge around here.”

Something inside took control. I lowered the barrel and aimed at my sister.  A look of horror replaced her smug confidence, and she took off at a full run.  Sit on this! I thought as I aimed and pulled the trigger.

The BB found its mark.  She grabbed her posterior and darted into the house screaming, “I’ve been shot! I’ve been shot!”  For a moment I wondered what had made me do something so cruel—then I realized how much I enjoyed it.

My dad disciplined me and confiscated my gun.  But while he could take away the tools I used for evil, he wasn’t able to take away that dark side of my personality that enjoyed doing wrong.

—Bill Perkins in When Good Men Are Tempted

 

My Response: When have I enjoyed doing something wrong?

 

Thought to Apply: We are not stray sheep or wandering prodigals even, but rebels taken with weapons in our hands.  —P. T. Forsyth (British pastor and educator)

Adapted from When Good Men Are Tempted (Zondervan, 1997)

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  Forgive me, my Savior, for my denial of, or my cavalier attitude toward, my sins that cost You Your life.

COVID-19 – Beaver County Metrics – 1-28-2021

Here are the weekly COVID-19 statistics for Beaver County, PA as of January 28, 2021.

At last, we are continuing to show sustained declines over the past 3 weeks in both metrics from the record-breaking Thanksgiving/Christmas wave.  In fact, the PCR Percent Positivity metric has moved into Moderate out of the Red after being deep in the Red for the preceding 9 weeks

• The Incidence Rate moved down 85.2 points (35%) from last week 243.4, still deep within the Substantial

• Similarly, the PCR Positivity Rate has moved down to 8.3% from last week’s 10.2%, moving into the Moderate category.

• • Beaver County remains classified as SUBSTANTIAL.   Again this week, Beaver County’s numbers are worse than Allegheny County’s figures, which came in at 138.5 and 6.8%.

(If either metric is Substantial, the PA Dept. of Health’s recommended school instructional model is Full Remove Learning.)

• There are now four forms of COVID-19:

  • COVID-19 (original);
  • B117 (the UK variant) –                                 70% more contagious; 40% more deadly;
  • B1351 (the South Africa variant) –              50% more contagious; not yet known yet if more deadly; no USA cases yet;
  • P1 (the Brazil variant) –                                 unknown (first case in USA this week)

• Impact:

  • If someone has had COVID-19 before or if has received the vaccine, there’s a possibility they could still get infected with B1351 or P1.
  • Moderna is developing two booster shots: one to combat B1351 and one to fight against future mutations.
  • Pfizer-BioNTech says it could adjust its vaccine, but it would take weeks.

• Small Group Meetings (Sunday School, AA, other meetings):

The current guidance on when and how gatherings can take place is based upon the threshold of infection rate.

For Indoor meetings/Sunday School to resume, the 7-day average of daily cases for gatherings that include unvaccinated folks should be:

• • 1.5-2.0 – for everyone except those at high risk; and
  • Less than 1.0 for those at high risk.
  • Our current level is 22.6, so resuming small group meetings may not be feasible for the foreseeable future, especially in light of the three new variants now moving into the USA.

• As the pandemic continues at high levels in our county, we are continuing our efforts to ensure our building is disinfected prior to every worship service and feeding ministry event.

Taking Sin Seriously – Worse Than You Think

Key Bible Verse:  We were born with an evil nature, and we were under God’s anger, just like everyone else.  – Ephesians 2:3

Bonus Reading: Ephesians 2:1-10

During my late teens and early 20s, I considered myself a Christian.  I went to church regularly, while most of my college classmates slept in.  I went to Bible studies, and worked in an outreach ministry to high school students.  I’d prayed the prayer.

Things changed, though, during the summer between my sophomore and junior years.  I met weekly with a group of friends, who discussed the Scriptures and enjoyed one another’s company.  Following one session, one of the guys asked me if we could meet during the week.  I agreed.

As we sat in his apartment a few days later, he gently but firmly said to me, “I don’t think you get it.  You don’t understand the depth of your sin, and I don’t think you understand the grace of God in offering you His gift of salvation.  He didn’t die on a cross just to give your life purpose and meaning.  You were His sworn enemy, and He came to rescue you from the punishment in hell you deserve!”

His words stung my soul.  I left feeling week in the knees.  For the first time, I found myself humbled before an almighty God who’d chosen to spare my life instead of giving me eternal punishment.

—Robert Lepine in The Christian Husband

 

My Response: In what ways have I been God’s enemy?

 

Thought to Apply: No man ever enters heaven until he is first convinced that he deserves hell. —John Everrett (author)

Adapted from The Christian Husband (Servant, 1999)

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  Forgive me, my Savior, for my denial of, or my cavalier attitude toward, my sins that cost You Your life.

 

 

Taking Sin Seriously – The Mask

Key Bible Verse:  For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard.  – Romans 3:23

Bonus Reading:  Jeremiah 17:9-10

Richard was the kind of kid your folks warned you about.  He was bad news!  A manipulator and a liar, Richard took the stigma of “bad boy” to a new level.

No one who knew him trusted him for very long.  He worked hard to earn the reputation as the troublemaker at our high school.  He had “sinner” written all over him.  After a string of felony convictions, Richard was found dead one morning—murdered after being released from prison on a drug conviction.

Raymond was the all-American kid any dad would want his daughter to date.  He attended church every Sunday and dazzled everyone with his winsome smile.  He was polite and trustworthy.

And Ray was an actor—both in the drama club at school and in real life.  He played the “good guy” role so well that no one suspected his alcoholism and drug addiction.  It was hard to believe that he was capable of what was eventually uncovered.  But in the end the mask came off.

We’d all like to believe that the window to our hearts is beautiful stained glass.  No one wants to admit that the glass is smeared and caked with sin.  The sooner we admit it, the closer we are to having the window cleaned.

—Skip Heitzig in Jesus Up Close

 

My Response: What mask am I wearing? To whom can I admit it?

 

Thought to Apply: All sin, whatever the degree, is equal in its capacity to separate us from God’s heart of love. —George Macdonald (Scottish author)

Adapted from Jesus Up Close (Tyndale, 2001)

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  Forgive me, my Savior, for my denial of, or my cavalier attitude toward, my sins that cost You Your life.

Taking Sin Seriously – In Denial?

Key Bible Verse:  If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth.  – 1 John 1:8

Bonus Reading:  Romans 1:21-25

Imagine discovering a sore on your arm.  You immediately apply an antiseptic and wait for healing.

But what if the sore is the result of skin cancer?  The surface treatment won’t touch it.  New lesions will appear and the cancer will continue to spread internally.

The Bible teaches that just such a cancer is infecting our souls: sin.  If we suffered from cancer, we’d do whatever was necessary to be healed of its ravages.  So why do we hesitate to seek God’s treatment for the spiritual cancer of sin?

Part of the answer lies in our culture’s discomfort with directly acknowledging this destructive force.  The fields of psychology and sociology, observes social critic Henry Fairlie, contend that “our faults are the result of some kind of mechanical failure, which has only to be diagnosed and understood for us to set it right.”

Psychologist Karl Menninger documented our collective loss of any sense of personal wrongdoing in Whatever Became of Sin?  His book traces how the theological notion of sin became the legal idea of crime and then was relegated to the psychological category of sickness.  Today sin is regarded as little more than a set of emotions fixed in our genes.

—James Emery White in Long Night’s Journey into Day

 

My Response:  What have I viewed as a problem to solve that’s really a sin to confess?

 

Thought to Apply: In the presence of a psychiatrist I can only be a sick man; in the presence of a Christian brother I can dare to be a sinner. —Dietrich Bonhoeffer (German pastor and theologian)

Adapted from Long Night’s Journey into Day (WaterBrook, 2002)

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  Forgive me, my Savior, for my denial of, or my cavalier attitude toward, my sins that cost You Your life.

 

 

Taking Sin Seriously – Squeaky Clean Traitor

Key Bible Verse:  “Are they ashamed when they do these disgusting things?  No, not at all—they don’t even blush”  – Jeremiah 6:15; 8:12

Bonus Reading:  Jeremiah 6:13-15; 8:4-13

Robert Philip Hanssen, the former FBI counterintelligence agent, caused the worst intelligence breach in U.S. history.

Ironically, this self-confessed traitor considered himself a devout Christian.  Throughout his 25-year FBI career, Hanssen told friends and colleagues that without religion, men were lost.  When FBI agents held going-away parties at strip clubs near the bureau’s headquarters, Hanssen refused to attend, saying it would be a sin.

When he was arrested on charges that he’d been spying for the Russians since 1985, those who knew him were stunned.  His closest friends and colleagues said they could only guess why a man who seemed to possess such strong Christian faith would engage in anti-American espionage.

In the Charlotte Observer, Philip Shenon speculated that he “must have been able to compartmentalize his life, deluding himself into thinking that espionage was simply an exciting intellectual challenge that had nothing to do with leading a good, moral Christian life.”

—James Emery White in Long Night’s Journey into Day

Adapted from Long Night’s Journey into Day (WaterBrook, 2002)

Prayer for the Week:  Forgive me, my Savior, for my denial of, or my cavalier attitude toward, my sins that cost You Your life.

Taking Sin Seriously – The Best Defense…

Q. Why do I need an early-warning system for sin?

A. Because our sin employs three clever avoidance strategies to avoid detection:

One of those strategies is denial.  Denial says, “Who me? I don’t have a problem.”  How many people have been destroyed by a problem they didn’t have!

A second strategy is rationalization.  This world-class excuse making says, “I know it might look like a problem to some people, but I know all the reasons it isn’t.”

Finally, there’s scapegoating.  It says, “I don’t have a problem.  It’s you that’s the problem.”  Scapegoating is a skunk diverting attention from itself by saying somebody else smells worse.

These attempts to avoid responsibility for our actions must be jettisoned if we desire to please Christ.

How can I strengthen my defenses against temptation?

·         Look at the type of temptation.  Certain temptations have felled us many times in the past.  Satan’s a pragmatist.  He’ll use what’s worked in the past as long as it still works.  So these attacks shouldn’t catch us off guard.

·         Notice the timing of temptations.  Do I know when I’m vulnerable?  How do I react when I’m fatigued?  How do I respond to discouragement?  Have I been undone in the wake of a success?

·         Consider the degree of strength of temptations.  A simple law of biology applies: If we feed something it will grow.  Resolve to deal with your temptations while they are small.  If you indulge and feed them, you may not like what comes back the next time you encounter them.

David Swartz is pastor of Dubuque Baptist Church in Dubuque, Iowa.

Adapted from The Magnificent Obsession (NavPress, 1990)

 

Prayer for the Week:  Forgive me, my Savior, for my denial of, or my cavalier attitude toward, my sins that cost You Your life.

 

 

Central Church – Online Worship Service – Ecumenical Sunday – January 24, 2021

On this cold winter Sunday, when the coronavirus prevents many of us from gathering in Central Church’s Sanctuary to worship in body, let us join together in spirit with our online worship experience!

• Today’s online worship service includes a favorite HYMN with lyrics so you can sing along!

To begin, simply click on the link below to join with the folks who have already made their way into our digital Sanctuary: 

https://business.facebook.com/watch/?t=0&v=243504633896194

(If the link doesn’t automatically open, Right Click on the link and click on “Open Link in New Tab”.)

Central Church

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Taking Sin Seriously – Eye to Eye with Evil

Key Bible Verse:  Greatly distressed, one by one they began to ask him, “I’m not the one, am I, Lord?”  – Matthew 26:22

Bonus Reading:  Mark 7:14-23

Adolf Eichmann was one of the worst of the Holocaust masterminds.  When he stood trial, prosecutors called a string of former concentration camp prisoners as witnesses.  One was a small, haggard man named Yehiel Dinur, who’d miraculously escaped death in Auschwitz.

On his day to testify, Dinur entered the courtroom and stared at the man—behind the bulletproof glass—who’d presided over the slaughter of millions.  As the eyes of the two men met—victim and murderous tyrant—the courtroom fell silent at the tense confrontation.

Then suddenly, Yehiel Dinur began to sob, collapsing to the floor.  Was he overcome by hatred, by the horrifying memories, by the evil incarnate in Eichmann’s face?

No. As he later explained in an interview, it was because Eichmann was not the demonic personification of evil he’d expected.  Rather, he was an ordinary man, just like anyone else.

In that one instant, Dinur came to the stunning realization that sin and evil are the human condition. “I was afraid about myself,” Dinur said. “I saw that I’m capable to do this … exactly like he.”

Dinur’s shocking conclusion?  “Eichmann is in all of us.”

—Charles Colson in A Dangerous Grace

 

My Response:  How aware am I of my capacity for evil?

 

Thought to Apply:  The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. —Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Russian author)

Adapted from A Dangerous Grace (Word, 1994)

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  Forgive me, my Savior, for my denial of, or my cavalier attitude toward, my sins that cost You Your life.

 

 

COVID-19 – Beaver County Metrics – 1-21-2021

Here are the weekly COVID-19 statistics for Beaver County, PA as of January 21, 2021.

At last, we are starting to show sustained declines in both metrics from the record-breaking Thanksgiving/Christmas wave.  In fact, the PCR Percent Positivity metric is just 0.3 from moving out of the Red after being deep in the Red for the past 9 weeks

• The Incidence Rate moved down 84.2 points (26%) from last week 327.6, still deep within the Substantial

• Similarly, the PCR Positivity Rate has moved down to 10.2% from last week’s 12.6%, also still within the Substantial category.

• • Beaver County remains classified as SUBSTANTIAL.   Again this week, Beaver County’s numbers are worse than Allegheny County’s figures, which came in at 166.0 and 7.8%.

(If either metric is Substantial, the PA Dept. of Health’s recommended school instructional model is Full Remove Learning.)

• The new variant of COVID-19, which is 30-50% more infectious, is forecasted to become the dominant coronavirus variety in March, which might trigger another upswing, although the timing and magnitude of the impact of the vaccines currently being distributed may mute any New Case increases to some extent by reducing the pool of uninfected people whose risk of contracting one of the coronavirus variants hasn’t been reduced by receiving the vaccine.

• As the pandemic continues at high levels in our county, we are continuing our efforts to ensure our building is disinfected prior to every worship service and feeding ministry event.

Make Your Talents Count – Be Generous with Your Gifts

God has given each one of us a unique combination of gifts and passions to be used for the good of others.  As the parable of the talents discussed in this week’s readings revealed, we have a choice to invest those gifts and reap a rich return or hoard them to ourselves to our own detriment.

In this week’s Key Study Passage, Paul encourages generosity.  After all, our generosity flows from the generous heart of God and will be bountifully rewarded by him.

Key Study Passage:  2 Corinthians 9:6-15

1. Why do you think Paul gives the church the option whether or not to give rather than requiring it?

 

2. Do you think it’s okay to expect a blessing when you give? (See vv. 8-11.)

 

3. List and then reflect on the motivations for generosity from this passage.

 

4. Take a mental inventory of your gifts, talents, and resources.  Are you cheerfully using each to the best of your ability and for the betterment of those around you and the advancement of God’s kingdom?  Are there any areas where growth is needed?

 

5. If question 4 stirred your heart, commit to praying for and planning to make better use of what God has given you.

 

Spend Time in Prayer: Ask God to give you a cheerful, giving heart that looks to the needs of others ahead of your own; ask him to reveal to you the gifts that he’s given you and help you invest your talents well.

 

2 Corinthians 9:6-15

6 Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. 7 You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” 8 And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. 9 As the Scriptures say,

“They share freely and give generously to the poor. Their good deeds will be remembered forever.”

10 For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you.

11 Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. 12 So two good things will result from this ministry of giving—the needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God.

13 As a result of your ministry, they will give glory to God. For your generosity to them and to all believers will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ. 14 And they will pray for you with deep affection because of the overflowing grace God has given to you. 15 Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words!

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  Giver of all good gifts, help me to be aware of the talents with which you have equipped me; give me a vision for ways to use them for your kingdom.

Make Your Talents Count – Can’t Out-Give God

Key Bible Verse:  “I am the LORD All-Powerful, and I challenge you to put me to the test.  Bring the entire 10 percent into the storehouse. … Then I will open the windows of heaven and flood you with blessing after blessing.”   – Malachi 3:10, CEV

Dig Deeper:  2 Corinthians 9:6-15

I urge you—plumb the depths of the parable of the talents.  Take a good, hard look at the context of your life—nothing happens by chance.  You are where you are and the way you are for a reason, for God’s reason.

The master says that when you invest the talents he’s given you, when you are faithful to bear fruit from the little he’s given you, he will give you more.  And you will enter into his joy.

People around the world are searching for joy.  Where is it?  How can we find it?

Here’s the answer. Plain and simple.  Straight from God: Invest what I’ve given you.  Take a chance.  Put it to work.  Trust me.  Make it multiply.  Then I’ll give you more.

And you’ll be happier and more content than ever fathomed.  Don’t believe it?  Think of investing your talents the way the Old Testament describes giving your tithe in today’s Key Bible Verse.

We’ve all heard it said, “You can’t out-give God.”  He’s made me a believer.  My joy is worth more than all the money in a zillion banks.

What about you?  Are you ready to take a good, hard look at yourself and determine what talents God has knit together within you?

—Bob Westfall in The Fulfillment Principle

 

My Response:  How is the Holy Spirit prompting me to respond to this reading?

 

Thought to Apply:  God has a way of giving by the cartloads to those who give away by shovelfuls.—Charles Spurgeon (British preacher)

Adapted from The Fulfillment Principle (Leafwood, 2012)

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  Giver of all good gifts, help me to be aware of the talents with which you have equipped me; give me a vision for ways to use them for your kingdom.

Report: 750 Massacred at Church in War-Torn Region of Ethiopia

Maryam Tsiyon Church in Aksum, Ethiopia

An estimated 750 people were massacred at the Maryam Tsiyon Church in Aksum, Ethiopia, according to a report. The church (which is reputed to house the Ark of the Covenant) is in Tigray, a region that has been ravaged by violence since last November and which remains unstable.

“Maryam Tsiyon Church has been attacked (local people believe with the aim to take the Ark of Covenant to Addis Ababa),” said a Jan. 9 report from Europe External Programme with Africa (EEPA). EEPA is a Belgium-based non-profit that focuses on promoting human rights in countries in the Horn of Africa. “Hundreds of people hiding in the Maryam Tsiyon Church were brought out and shot on the square in front. The number of people killed is reported as 750.”

In a report published Jan. 12, EEPA said,

More detail has been released on the massacre at the Maryam Zion Church in Aksum. On Tuesday, 15th of December, Ethiopian federal troops and Amhara militia approached the Maryam Zion Cathedral in Aksum. The church was full, and 1,000 people may have been in the building or the compound surrounding it. A confrontation happened after which people were forced to come out on the square. The troops opened fire and 750 people are reported to have been killed. Many residents of Aksum are still staying in rural areas and have not returned yet.

Another source puts the dates of the Aksum church massacre around Dec. 17-20 and claims it was perpetrated by troops from the neighboring country of Eritrea.

Church Tragedy One of Many in War-Torn Tigray

Tigray has been the center of a conflict that began on Nov. 4 last year. At that time, the government of Ethiopia retaliated against an alleged assault from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the latter of which governs the Tigray region. Reuters says over two million people have been displaced since the conflict began.

Details about the attack on Maryam Tsiyon Church have been difficult to verify because Ethiopian authorities have been preventing journalists from accessing the region. However, the Church Times notes that Amnesty International has confirmed the validity of reports of other massacres. For example, Amnesty’s director for East and Southern Africa commented on one such mass murder that occurred on Nov. 9, saying, “We have confirmed the massacre of a very large number of civilians, who appear to have been day labourers in no way involved in the ongoing military offensive. This is a horrific tragedy whose true extent only time will tell as communication in Tigray remains shut down.”

In early January, AP News confirmed that troops from the neighboring country of Eritrea were involved in the conflict, despite the fact that the Ethiopian government had denied that Eritrea was aiding it in the war against the TPLF. According to the AP, Eritrea is a “bitter enemy” of the TPLF and is “described by rights groups as one of the world’s most repressive countries.”

In fact, Eritrea was sixth on Open Doors’ recently released 2021 World Watch List, which ranks the top 50 countries in the world where Christians face the worst persecution. According to Open Doors,

[Eritrean] government security forces monitor phone calls, scrutinize activity and conduct countless raids which target Christians, seize Christian materials and damage house churches. Christians can be arrested and imprisoned without trial. Many Christians are held in inhumane prisons because of their faith, and their loved ones often do not know where they are or even if they are still alive. In June 2020, the UN reported there was no meaningful progress to address human rights violations in Eritrea.

The situation in Tigray remains dire for many. Mekelle, Tigray’s capital, has reportedly stabilized somewhat, but the same cannot be said elsewhere. It has been difficult for humanitarian aid groups to reach the region, and as a result, many are dying from starvation and a lack of medical care.

Central Church

An Urgent Call to Every Christian in the USA on the Day After Inauguration Day

Here is the urgent call to every Christian in the United States of America on the day of the presidential inauguration:

• Pray for our new president and vice president.

We at Central Church prayed for President Obama when he was President. We prayed for President Trump while he was President. We will pray for President Biden now that he has been inaugurated as president.

Why?  Because God commands us to pray for them!

And if you’re a Christian, regardless of your politics, He commands you to do the same.

1 Timothy 2:1-2 reminds us, “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”

This passage gives us a clear command to intercede for our government leaders. This means we pray on their behalf, stand in the gap between God and them and ask God to strengthen, protect and guide them.

God even gives us a compelling reason to pray for them: “That we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”

Storming the Capitol is not “peaceful.” Ranting hateful words online (about President Trump or President Biden) is not “quiet.”  Being a jerk to those from a different political party is not “godly.”  And calling outgoing or incoming presidents names is not “holy.”

And before trying to explain any reluctance to pray for particular leaders based upon Trump or Biden’s immoral views or actions, just remember that when the Apostle Paul penned 1 Timothy, Nero was on the throne of Rome.

Nero was a notoriously evil and utterly depraved dictator who ruthlessly murdered close family members and horrifically tortured Christians. He impaled them, covered them in tar and used them to light his garden yard sex parties.

Paul’s response to his unthinkable wickedness was to pray for Nero!

1 Timothy 2:3-4 gives us even more reasons to pray for our leaders. Paul reminds us, “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

God is pleased when we pray for our leaders. There’s something about it that He loves.
God wants them all “to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

Christians, will you pause to pray for President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris today?  In the days following the presidential inauguration, will you continue to pray for them and all of our political leaders to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth?

It’s a sure way to please God and to live peaceful and quiet lives.

And that should be reason enough to pray for them.

Central Church

Make Your Talents Count – You’ve Got It Already

Key Bible Verses:  “The master called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them … each according to his ability.”  – Matthew 25:14-15, NIV

Dig Deeper:  Matthew 25:14-30

Let me make an essential point here: God has already given you the talent, ability, skill, money, or passion you need to fulfill his plan, to be entrusted with more, and to walk in pure joy.  That’s one of the key truths of the parable of the talents that many people miss.

Remember?  The master went on a journey.  But before he left, he called his servants in and “entrusted his possessions to them” (Matthew 25:14, NASB et al.).  He passed out five talents to one, two to another, and one to a third, “each according to his own ability,” (v. 15) and then he went on his way.

What I’m trying to show you is that you already have everything you need!  The skill is within you.  The dream is deep inside you.  The plan is in place.  The passion is there.  The ability is woven into your DNA by the Creator himself.

Have you examined your life?  The people within your circles?  The possibilities within your realm?   Will you be faithful in the little things?

Examine your life today.  Don’t make the mistake of saying, “Someday, when I have this, I’ll do that,” or, “When I have more time, I’ll pursue that dream,” or, “When I have more money, I’ll give to this or that organization.”

—Bob Westfall in The Fulfillment Principle

 

My Response: Have I been making these kinds of excuses?  If so, I will repent and make a plan of action.

 

Thought to Apply:  He who waits to do a great deal of good at once, will never do anything.—Samuel Johnson (British writer)

Adapted from The Fulfillment Principle (Leafwood, 2012)

 

Prayer for the Week:  Giver of all good gifts, help me to be aware of the talents with which you have equipped me; give me a vision for ways to use them for your kingdom.

Make Your Talents Count – Moving Mountains

Key Bible Verse:  Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young.  Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.   – 1 Timothy 4:12

Dig Deeper:  John 14:12-14

Austin has a book out with a title that reiterates the point of  today’s reading Take Your Best Shot: Do Something Bigger Than Yourself.  One of the Bible verses Austin reflects upon as he speaks about Hoops of Hope is today’s Key Bible Verse.

“I’m happy and I’m proud that kids are finally seeing that they can make a difference at a young age, that they don’t have to wait to be an adult,” Austin said.  “At the same time, it’s hard to be proud of what we’ve done when you go to Africa and see how much more there is to do.”

Wow!  The faith of a child—a child who saw a video about orphans in Africa, and refused to let the memory of it die.  A child who felt a burden and realized, with God’s help, he could move mountains.

Maybe you’re a high school teacher who’s been entrusted with a classroom full of students.  How will you steward the hearts and minds of those kids who’ve been placed in your care?

Say you’re a college student.  You’ve been entrusted with an education.  What will you do with that knowledge and experience?  How will you invest it for the good of others?

—Bob Westfall in The Fulfillment Principle

 

My Response: What talents have I been given?  How can I better use them to serve God and bless others?

 

Thought to Apply: The world asks, “What does a man own?”  Christ asks, “How does he use it?” —Andrew Murray (South African writer, teacher, pastor)

Adapted from The Fulfillment Principle (Leafwood, 2012)

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  Giver of all good gifts, help me to be aware of the talents with which you have equipped me; give me a vision for ways to use them for your kingdom.

Make Your Talents Count – Hoops of Hope

Key Bible Verse:  Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress.  – James 1:27

Dig Deeper:  Matthew 25:34-40

There is a young man in Arizona by the name of Austin Gutwein who, at the ripe old age of 10, saw a video about a girl in Africa who lost her parents to HIV/AIDS, and it gripped his heart.  He learned that 5,700 children are orphaned each day because of HIV/AIDS, and that 15 million children have already lost one or both parents to the disease.

“That hit me hard,” recalls Austin, now 16.  “I felt God calling me to go do something about it.”  A friend suggested Austin use his favorite sport, basketball, to make a difference.

He got some friends involved in shooting free-throws to raise money for those children in Africa.  God used the faith of that little kid from Arizona and he birthed Hoops of Hope (hoopsofhope.org), which has since become the world’s largest free-throw marathon.

Some 40,000 children have participated in Hoops of Hope, raising more than $2.5 million and allowing the organization to build a school in Zambia where there was no school for 70 miles.  Not only that, Hoops of Hope has partnered with World Vision to build four dormitories for students of the school, two medical clinics, a computer lab, and more.

—Bob Westfall in The Fulfillment Principle

 

My Response:  What gets me excited?  How can I use that passion to serve others?

 

Thought to Apply:  Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much.—Erich Fromm (psychologist)

Adapted from The Fulfillment Principle (Leafwood, 2012)

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  Giver of all good gifts, help me to be aware of the talents with which you have equipped me; give me a vision for ways to use them for your kingdom.

Make Your Talents Count – Man on a Mission

Key Bible Verse:  Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless.  – Isaiah 58:7

Dig Deeper:  Isaiah 58:6-12

Sean Lambert is president of Youth With a Mission San Diego/Baja.  While on a mission trip in Tijuana, Sean and his daughter, Andrea, joined a team of 15 people to build a house for a poverty-stricken family.

When the house was complete and the family moved in, Andrea pointed out another poor family living in an abandoned bus adjacent to the new home being built and said, “Daddy, are you going to build them a house?”

Andrea’s words moved Sean to build a second house and Homes of Hope was born.  Starting with this single house in Tijuana, Mexico, Homes of Hope has now built 3,482 homes for poor families in 10 different nations.

One of the “talents” knitted into Sean’s make-up is his compassion for the poor.  He was faithful with the one house God sent him to build and so God put him in charge of many.  Today, Homes of Hope impacts needy families in five key areas: economic, educational, health, social and emotional, and spiritual.

Sean is an excellent example of someone who took small, simple steps in obeying God, entering into all God wanted to do in and through his life in a ministry that is now impacting 10 other nations … and growing!

—Bob Westfall in The Fulfillment Principle

 

My Response:  I will think about people who are less fortunate than I am, and consider ways I can help meet their needs.

Adapted from The Fulfillment Principle (Leafwood, 2012)

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  Giver of all good gifts, help me to be aware of the talents with which you have equipped me; give me a vision for ways to use them for your kingdom.

Central Church – Online Worship Service – Human Relations Sunday – January 17, 2021

On this cold winter Sunday, when the coronavirus prevents many of us from gathering in Central Church’s Sanctuary to worship in body, let us join together in spirit for with our online worship experience!

• Today’s online worship service includes a favorite HYMN with lyrics so you can sing along!

To begin, simply click on the link below to join with the folks who have already made their way into our digital Sanctuary: 

https://business.facebook.com/362949807093157/videos/1820208278136431/

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Make Your Talents Count – Invest Your Talents

Key Study Passage:  2 Corinthians 9:6-15

⁶ The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. ⁷ Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸ And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. ⁹ As it is written,

“He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor;
    his righteousness^[a] endures forever.”

¹⁰ He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.^{[b] 11} You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; ¹² for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God. ¹³ Through the testing of this ministry you glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your sharing with them and with all others, ¹⁴ while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God that he has given you. ¹⁵ Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!  

 

Who Said It … Bob Westfall

Bob Westfall is president of the Westfall Group, which serves charities and Christian ministries in financial stewardship and communications.  His company has helped charities raise more than $210 million in new income for their valuable work.

He frequently speaks at national conferences and to charity boards, philanthropists, churches, and other groups, and is the author of The Fulfillment Principle.  

He currently lives in Suwanee, Georgia, with his wife, Kim. They are the parents of four children.

 

What he Said … Invest Your Talents

The word “talent” spoken of in the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) is a measure of weight and, in this usage, means “money.”  As in many of Christ’s parables, however, the story contains multiple layers of meaning and wisdom.  God gives us something of his to invest—according to our ability.

Although God may have given you five talents and me two and someone else one, he views us each the same.  Just because you have more does not mean God views you as more valuable or important.

Indeed, God sees us all as equal; he values us the same.  And what he truly values most is the way you and I steward the talents he’s entrusted into our lives.

How do we invest those talents?  Are we fruitful?  Do we get good return on the deposit he’s made in our lives?

What talent—be it treasure or ability or passion or skill—has God entrusted to you according to your unique ability?  What passion has he woven into your heart, and only your heart?

Adapted from The Fulfillment Principle (Leafwood, 2012)

 

Prayer for the Week:  Giver of all good gifts, help me to be aware of the talents with which you have equipped me; give me a vision for ways to use them for your kingdom.

 

 

Hey, When Do We Eat?

Quick, someone comes up to you and asks, “Hey, when is the next community meal at Central?”

Sure, since we are serving five or six days a week, the odds are with you if you say, “Why, it’s today!”

But now you get the question, “Great!  What time?”

Uh, oh.  Our community meals outreach provides free community breakfasts, lunches, and dinners each week, one per day, and those meals are naturally all at different times.  Your odds of successfully matching the correct meal with the right day just went WAY down!  What to do?

Thankfully, Central Church now has a brand new sign on Sixth Avenue that lists all of our meals and all of their times, so you can tell, at a glance, when the next set of hot, nutritious meals will be coming out of Central’s kitchen, all packaged in convenient take-out containers (thanks to COVID-19).

So the next time, someone asks you, “Hey, when is the next community meal at Central?,” you’ll know!

Even better, if our meal days or times ever change, we can have a revised vertical banner  inexpensively printed on 2’ x 3’ Coreplast inserts so we can slide the old text out and quickly and easily slide the new text into the heavy-duty plastic sign holder in just a few seconds!

As an added plus, our dedicated volunteers can now forego if they wish carrying those heavy, wooden sawhorses with the different meal times up and down the stairs each time a meal is served.

(Of course, any of our volunteers who miss “feelin’ the burn” of doing Olympic weight training with the old signs are certainly welcome to put the appropriate old sign out on the right day as well!)

Church: It’s Not About Me – The Body of Christ

How does God grow believers toward maturity in Christ?

The answer, Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians, is that he forms us into a body—a group of individuals united in their purpose and love for each other and for the Lord.

If one person stumbles, the rest of the group is there to pick him up and help him walk with God again.  And as we mature together as the loving body of Christ, we, in turn, demonstrate to the world that God’s love is the real deal.

 

Interact with God’s Word:

Ephesians 4:4-6, 11-16

1.      According to verses 4-6, what unites all believers in spite of their many differences? (See also 1 Cor. 8:6.)

 

2.      What is the responsibility of those who have the gifts listed in verse 11? (See v. 12.)

 

3.      According to verse 14, what are the signs that a believer’s faith has not matured?  (See also Gal. 1:6-7; Col. 2:8.)

 

4.      Why are both truth and love (v. 15) important qualities for a healthy church?

 

5.      According to verse 16, how does a community of believers become “healthy and growing and full of love”?

 

Spend Time in Prayer:

Ask God to reveal to you what your own “special work” (v. 16) should be; ask him to enable you to perform it in a way that will contribute to the health and growth of your Christian community.

 

Ephesians 4:4-6, 11-16

4 For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. 5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all.

11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  As your disciple, Lord, I recognize I can’t live a life of faith and faithful service on my own.  Help me to truly connect with Christian community.

 

 

COVID-19 – Beaver County Metrics – 1-14-2021

Here are the weekly COVID-19 statistics for Beaver County, PA as of January 14, 2021.

Following the Thanksgiving surge and then the substantial declines in both metrics during Gov. Wolf’s 3-week “Temporary Mitigation Measures”, it appears that we may be leveling off a bit following Christmas and New Year’s travel.

• The Incidence Rate moved down 61.0 points (15%) from last week 386.6, still deep within the Substantial category.
• Similarly, the PCR Positivity Rate has moved down to 12.65% from last week’s 13.5%, also still deep within the Substantial category.

• • Beaver County remains classified as SUBSTANTIAL.   Again this week, Beaver County’s numbers are worse than Allegheny County’s figures, which came in at 228.0 and 9.3%.

(If either metric is Substantial, the PA Dept. of Health’s recommended school instructional model is Full Remove Learning.

• The new variant of COVID-19, which is 30-50% more infectious, is forecasted to become the dominant coronavirus variety in March, which should trigger another sharp upswing and potential series of shut-downs.

• As the pandemic continues to rage in our county, we are continuing our efforts to ensure our building is disinfected prior to every worship service and feeding ministry event.

Church: It’s Not About Me – The Ultimate Witness

Key Bible Verse:  “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”  – John 13:35

Bonus Reading:  John 17:20-24

An unsettling revelation to most Christ-followers, in light of our fierce individualism, is how many of the marks or proofs of a Christian involve other people.  You can’t truly follow Christ apart from community, for so much of what is involved in following him is tied to the “one anothers” of Scripture.

Originally sent as apostolic admonishments to Christians gathered in local churches, they include such directives as “serve one another” (Gal. 5:13), “encourage each other” (1 Thess. 5:11), “accept each other” (Rom. 15:7), and “make allowance for each other’s faults” (Col. 3:13).  These are clear in their command, decisive in spiritual formation, and impossible to fulfill apart from a local community of faith.

Jesus maintained in today’s Bonus Reading that the practice of such community, brought to life in and through the church, would offer the ultimate witness to the world about his own life and ministry. He was convinced that the church, functioning as a community of love and witness, would arrest the attention of the world and give ultimate affirmation to his message of salvation.

If we fail to participate in this community, we undermine how Christ envisioned his message being affirmed in the eyes of the world.

—James Emery White in Serious Times

 

My Response: If involvement in Christian community offers solid proof of my commitment to Christ, how committed am I?

 

Thought to Apply: Church-goers are like coals in a fire.  When they cling together, they keep the flame aglow; when they separate, they die out.—Billy Graham (evangelist)

Adapted from Serious Times (InterVarsity, 2004)

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  As your disciple, Lord, I recognize I can’t live a life of faith and faithful service on my own.  Help me to truly connect with Christian community.

 

 

Church: It’s Not About Me – Why Not Leave?

Key Bible Verse:  And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another. – Hebrews 10:25

Bonus Reading:  2 Corinthians 2: 5-11

The pastor preaches about generosity in giving, and you’re battling selfishness.  A small group studies moral purity, and you’re crossing biblical boundaries.  A Sunday school leader teaches on integrity in the workplace, and you’re taking shortcuts.  Your discomfort is no reason to leave; it’s a good reason to stay.

Don’t go looking for a church that lowers biblical standards just to make people feel comfortable.

You’ve been caught in a sin.  You’ll be tempted to run away and start fresh in a church where no one knows about it.  Yet God often wants a person in this situation to stay right where he is and let his church family love him and help him through this difficult time.  The community of faith can keep you accountable, ask tough questions, and pray for you.

You’ve had a conflict with someone.  When tensions have flared, hard words exchanged, and feelings hurt, you might think about leaving to avoid the difficult process of reconciliation.  Usually the wisest choice is to stay and work through a process of relational healing.  Otherwise you might find you have to leave a whole series of churches.

—Kevin and Sherry Harney in Finding a Church You Can Love

 

My Response: When I’ve sinned, am I committed to coming clean and trusting the body of Christ to restore me?

 

Thought to Apply:  The house of God is not a safe place.  It is where we are challenged to live more vulnerably, more interdependently.—Madeleine L’Engle (writer)

Adapted from Finding a Church You Can Love (Zondervan, 2003)

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  As your disciple, Lord, I recognize I can’t live a life of faith and faithful service on my own.  Help me to truly connect with Christian community.

 

 

Persecution of Christians – 2021 World Watch List

 

Over 340 million people—1 in 8 Christians worldwide.  It’s hard to wrap our heads and hearts around the fact that 340+ million of our sisters and brothers are targeted, discriminated against and attacked—because they choose to follow Jesus.  This morning, Open Doors released their 2021 World Watch List—the annual ranking of the top 50 countries where it’s most dangerous to be a believer. The list is the foremost report of its kind, offering the most in-depth, reliable data on Christian persecution. Over the last year, we’ve seen record increases in modern-day persecution—from oppressive surveillance and arrests in China and Iran to brutal violence in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa. Throughout the world, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the ugliness of persecution in a new way, as thousands of families were refused government relief due to their faith.  The facts this research reveals are staggering. It’s important we see the current reality. But don’t miss something else the list shows us: the resilience of God’s people.  The numbers of believers who are suffering should mean the Church is dying—that Christians are keeping quiet, renouncing their faith and turning away. But that’s not what’s happening. Instead, on-the-ground ministry partners report that so many times, persecution is the direct result of believers sharing the gospel.  Where there is persecution, you can be sure that God is moving in the hearts of people, strengthening them to share His love and stand resilient (Isaiah 43:19). *   You can download your FREE World Watch List booklet, packed full of information on each of the top 50 countries, including specific ways to pray for each one.

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Church: It’s Not About Me – The Right Question

Key Bible Verse:  I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are.  Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.  – Romans 12:3

Bonus Reading:  Romans 12:3-7; Ephesians 4:4-6.

When I attended Michigan State during the ’70s, the basketball team wasn’t very good even though there were good players on the team.

Norte Dame was in town and we were the underdogs.  It was a close game all the way. You could sense that it was going to come down to the last shot.  And there was a senior guard who was a great shot.  If the game was on the line, you wanted the ball in his hands.

There was another player on the team who was a young, cocky freshman and, although he had a lot of promise, he still had a long way to go.  You guessed it.  As the clock ticked down to the final seconds, the ball was in the hands of this freshman.

Instead of passing the ball to the senior guard, the freshman took the shot and missed.  His desire to be the hero lost the game.  Team unity is based on asking the right question: “What is best for the team?”  The freshman didn’t ask the right question.

Church unity is also based on asking the right question: “What is best for the church?”  You may not agree with the pastor.  You may not agree with the Sunday school superintendent.  But you must ask yourself the question: “What is best for the church?”

—Joe Williams

 

My Response: What is one decision being made in my church that may not be best for me but is still best for the church?

 

Thought to Apply: When Christians meet … their purpose is not—or should not be—to ascertain what is the mind of the majority, but what is the mind of the Holy Spirit.—Margaret Thatcher (British prime minister)

 

Prayer for the Week:  As your disciple, Lord, I recognize I can’t live a life of faith and faithful service on my own.  Help me to truly connect with Christian community.

 

 

Church: It’s Not About Me – Having It God’s Way

Key Bible Verse:  I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.  – Romans 12:1, NIV

Bonus Reading:  Philippians 2:1-5

“Please turn in your hymnals to page 158,” says the pastor, “and bring your sheep to the front to be slaughtered.”

That’s not exactly what we hear in church every weekend.  In the Old Testament, worship and sacrifice went hand-in-hand, but today these two are not as easily connected.  Maybe they should be.

I hate to admit it, but I’ve grumbled to my wife about a worship song that was “so 1990s.”  I’ve complained that my favorite pastor wasn’t teaching.  Not my finer moments.

Now, it’s normal and okay to have preferences.  But I’m concerned with how we respond when things are done according to another’s preferences.

Complaining and grumbling reveal a heart of selfishness and entitlement.  On the other hand, I can choose to sacrifice having it “my way.”  I can peacefully and joyfully sit through a song I don’t like, realizing that the church is not there to serve me.

I am there to worship God—the God who unselfishly sacrificed his Son for me.

Thankfully we don’t offer animals to God anymore (too messy on the new carpet), but we are still called to sacrifice in our worship gatherings.  Let’s put our preferences aside and turn the focus back on God.  This is our worship.

—Jason Kliewer

 

My response:  How do I respond to worship preferences that aren’t my preferences?

 

Thought to Apply:  The church exists to train its member through the practice of the presence of God to be servants of others, to the end that Christlikeness may become common property.—William Adams Brown (clergyman and theologian)

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  As your disciple, Lord, I recognize I can’t live a life of faith and faithful service on my own.  Help me to truly connect with Christian community.

 

 

Church: It’s Not About Me – Serving Customers?

Key Bible Verse:  You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others.  – Hebrews 5:12

Bonus Reading:  Hebrews 5:11 – 6:3

He walked confidently up to me one Sunday morning, introduced himself, and said he’d been attending for over a month.  The teaching met his standards, he told me; the music was acceptable, and he was pleased with the children’s and youth ministries.  He was married, he said, and had several children.

When I asked him where they were, he explained that they weren’t yet allowed to attend; he wanted to first check us out to make sure the products and services were in line with what he felt his family needed.

This wasn’t about theology; this was all about customer service.

Since we’ve been taught that we’re the center of the universe, we evaluate everything on its ability to meet our needs.  Some of the best communicators of the Scriptures I know have had people leave their churches because they’re not “being fed.”

I know that we’re all the sheep of God, and sheep require a shepherd to feed them.  But there must come a time when we become shepherds who feed others.  Over 60 percent of Americans are overweight or obese.  Is this also true in the arena of personal spirituality?

Are we too much about us getting fed and too little about exercising our faith?

—Erwin McManus in An Unstoppable Force

 

My Response: What changes might I need to make so that my church involvement is about more than consuming “products and services”?

Adapted from An Unstoppable Force (Group, 2001)

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  As your disciple, Lord, I recognize I can’t live a life of faith and faithful service on my own.  Help me to truly connect with Christian community.

Central Church – Online Worship Service – Baptism of the Lord Sunday – January 10, 2021

On this cold Sunday, when the coronavirus prevents many of us from gathering in Central Church’s Sanctuary to worship in body, let us join together in spirit for with our online worship experience!

• Today’s online worship service includes two HYMNS as well as an ANTHEM so you can sing along!

To begin, simply click on the link below to join with the folks who have already made their way into our digital Sanctuary: 

https://business.facebook.com/362949807093157/videos/702664967276012/

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Church: It’s Not About Me – The Membership Benefits?

Who Said It … Erwin McManus

Erwin McManus is lead pastor of Mosaic, a congregation that meets in various locations throughout Los Angeles, and founding partner of The Awaken Group, a global leadership development consulting firm.

Erwin is a graduate of the University of North Carolina and Southwestern Theological Seminary. He is the author of several books including Soul Cravings, Wide Awake, and An Unstoppable Force.

He and his wife, Kim, have two children, Aaron and Mariah, and a foster daughter, Paty.

 

What He Said … The Membership Benefits?

Three denominational leaders visited our congregation. “What are the benefits of membership at Mosaic?” they asked.  Their question surprised me.  I suddenly felt like we were American Express.  So I asked our pastoral team what exactly were the benefits of being a member.

One responded, “Members are entrusted with responsibility.”  We started laughing at the irony of realizing that membership was the entryway to service.  The only benefit was the privilege to serve!

Becoming a member of Mosaic is a declaration that you’re moving from being a consumer to being an investor; that you’re joining not simply the community of Christ, but the cause of Christ.

On a deeper level, it is an invitation to genuine intimacy.  People who become members say they’re submitting to the spiritual authority of this community and welcoming genuine accountability in their spiritual journeys.

So up front, we ask for this sincere commitment: to allow God to work in and through them as they invest their passions, their service, their resources, and their relationships for the sake of the Kingdom.

Adapted from An Unstoppable Force (Group, 2001)

 

Prayer for the Week:  As your disciple, Lord, I recognize I can’t live a life of faith and faithful service on my own.  Help me to truly connect with Christian community.

 

 

Endurance Test – Patient Endurance

The Christians addressed in the letter to the Hebrews had placed their faith in Christ for what He’d done for them in the past.  

But times of persecution had struck.  And some—ceasing to trust Christ for their present and future—were abandoning their faith.

The writer argues from the Hebrew Scriptures that if faith doesn’t lead to endurance, it’s not for real.

 

Interact with God’s Word

Hebrews 10:33-38

1. The inspired writer tells us never to forget our early days as believers. What stands out in your memory about this time in your life?

 

2. What does the writer specially want us to remember (vv. 32, 34)?

 

3. What is the basis for this faithfulness and joy (v. 34b)?

 

4. Do you know someone whose confident trust in the Lord has eroded?

 

5. What kind of self-reminder would have prevented that (v. 35)?

 

6. What quality should this expectation enable in your life (v. 36)?

 

7. Verses 37 and 38 quote the then-current Greek translation of Habakkuk 2:3-4.  Is your faith for today and tomorrow solid enough to insure that you won’t “turn away”?

 

Spend Time in Prayer:  Ask God for a faith that doesn’t fluctuate, but stays steady regardless of distractions, disappointments, or attacks.

Hebrews 10:32-38

32 Don’t ever forget those early days when you first learned about Christ.  Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. 33 Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things. 34 You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail.  When all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy.  You knew you had better things waiting for you in eternity. 35 Do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord, no matter what happens.  Remember the great reward it brings you! 36 Patient endurance is what you need now, so you will continue to do God’s will.  Then you will receive all that he has promised. 37 “For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. 38 Do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord, no matter what happens. Remember the great reward it brings you!

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  Thank you, Savior, for enduring all the way to the cross.  Give me the stamina to be a finisher.

 

 

PA COVID-19 Vaccination Phases

 

 

 

​Phase 1A	​Phase 1B	​Phase 1C	​Phase 2
​• Long-term care facility residents Health care personnel including, but not limited to: • Emergency medical service personnel • Nurses • Nursing assistants • Physicians • Dentists • Dental hygienists • Chiropractors • Therapists • Phlebotomists • Pharmacists • Technicians • Pharmacy technicians • Health professions students and trainees • Direct support professionals • Clinical personnel in school settings or correctional facilities • Contractual HCP not directly employed by the health care facility • Persons not directly involved in patient care but potentially exposed to infectious material that can transmit disease among or from health care personnel and patients	​• People ages 75 and older • People in congregate settings not otherwise specified as LTCF and persons receiving home and community-based services • First responders • Correctional officers and other workers serving people in congregate care settings not included in Phase 1A   • Food and agricultural workers • U.S. Postal Service workers • Manufacturing workers   • Grocery store workers   • Education workers • Clergy and other essential support for houses of worship • Public transit workers • Individuals caring for children or adults in early childhood and adult day programs	​• People ages 65-74 • People aged 16-64 with high risk conditions causing increased risk for severe disease Essential workers in these sectors: • Transportation and logistics • Water and wastewater • Food service • Housing construction • Finance, including bank tellers • Information technology • Communications • Energy, including nuclear reactors • Legal services • Federal, state, county and local government workers, including county election workers, elected officials and members of the judiciary and their staff • Media • Public safety • Public health workers	​• All individuals not previously covered who are 16 and older and do not have a contraindication to the vaccine (note that at this time, only the Pfizer-BioNTech product is approved for those age 16 and 17)

The COVID-19 vaccine will not be the cure for the virus. It will be another tool in toolbox for our fight against COVID-19, and we must continue to practice other mitigation efforts, like wearing a mask, hand washing, physical distancing and downloading COVID Alert PA.  

COVID-19 – Beaver County Metrics – 1-7-2021

Here are the weekly COVID-19 statistics for Beaver County, PA as of January 7, 2021.

Following the Thanksgiving surge and then the substantial declines in both metrics during Gov. Wolf’s 3-week “Temporary Mitigation Measures”, it appears that we may be beginning to see another upswing due to Christmas and New Year’s travel.

• The Incidence Rate moved up 101.5 points (35%) from last week 287.1, still deep within the Substantial category.
• Similarly, the PCR Positivity Rate has moved up to 13.5% from last week’s 13.2%, also still deep within the Substantial category.

• • Beaver County remains classified as SUBSTANTIAL.   Again this week, Beaver County’s numbers are worse than Allegheny County’s figures, which came in at 267.6 and 11.5%.

(If either metric is Substantial, the PA Dept. of Health’s recommended school instructional model is Full Remove Learning.

• As the pandemic continues to rage in our county, we are continuing our efforts to ensure our building is disinfected prior to every worship service and feeding ministry event.

Happy New Year!

Endurance Test – God Isn’t a Quitter

Key Bible Verse:  My nourishment comes from doing the will of God … and from finishing his work.  – John 4:34

Bonus Reading:  John 17:4, 7-8, 12

Once, while Francis of Assisi was hoeing his garden, he was asked, “What would you do if you were suddenly told you’d die at sunset today?”  He replied, “I’d finish hoeing my garden.”

Our perseverance doesn’t change God—it changes us.  If we’re willing to continue—even when we feel like quitting—we’ll learn lessons of compassion, understanding, and dependability.

Jesus is our ultimate example of not quitting.  Even as a child of 12, He reminded His distraught parents, “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49, NIV).

Later, during His public ministry, He told His disciples, “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God … and from finishing his work.”  (John 4:34)

Even when Jesus was dying, He rejected the challenge of the crowd: “Save yourself, and come down from the cross!” (Mark 15:30).

It is so human to let go and quit when under fire.  However, it is divine to hang in there.  At the end of His ordeal, Jesus said, “‘It is finished!’ Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:30).

Many people are letting go, giving in, and coming down—quitting after 10, 20, or 30 years.  How sad to someday realize that we didn’t finish our assignment.

—George Sweeting in Too Soon to Quit

 

My Response: On which long-term assignment do I need to firm up my grip?

 

Thought to Apply: The will to persevere is often the difference between failure and success.—David Sarnoff (broadcaster)

Adapted from Too Soon to Quit (Moody, 1999)

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  Thank you, Savior, for enduring all the way to the cross.  Give me the stamina to be a finisher.

 

 

Endurance Test – What Kick?

Key Bible Verse:  For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.  – Hebrews 3:14

Bonus Reading:  Joshua 14:6-12

In the 1972 Munich Olympics, Dave Wottle, wearing his trademark baseball cap, was dead last in the 800-meter race.  As the final lap around the track began, Wottle charged through the pack.

“Watch out for the kick of Dave Wottle!” the TV announcer screamed.  Wottle overtook the leaders in the last 20 meters and won the gold medal by three-tenths of a second!

Many think, That’s exciting—that’s how I want to run. It doesn’t matter if I fall behind; I’ll make it back with a big kick as everyone cheers me on.

But in remarks at a prep-school chapel service in Chattanooga, Wottle set the record straight. “The other runners went out so fast at the beginning that they slowed down at the end; I was able to maintain the same pace that I started with. … Even though I looked like I was kicking on them, they were coming back to me.”

Wottle, one track expert explained, was “just maintaining in a dying field.”

Endurance is maintaining our walk with Christ even when no one else is.  In a society of flash-in-the-pan celebrities and trendy spirituality, endurance is putting our faith to work by showing up for Christ every day, in every circumstance until the race of life is done.

—Tod Bolsinger in Show Time

 

My Response: What adjustments would help me maintain even pacing for the long haul?

 

Thought to Apply: To become a champion, fight one more round.—James Corbett (world champion boxer)

Adapted from Show Time (Baker, 2004)

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  Thank you, Savior, for enduring all the way to the cross.  Give me the stamina to be a finisher.

 

 

COVID-19 – PA Vaccination Plan

The following summary is derived from the PA DOH Interim Vaccination Plan, dated December 11, 2020 as well as information from the January 6, 2021 issue of the Beaver County Times and other media.

The full 68-page text of the Pennsylvania Department of Health Vaccination Plan can be found at:  https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/Documents/Programs/Immunizations/Vaccine%20Plan%20V.3%20FINAL.pdf

 

Summary of Contents

 

Vaccine Distribution Phases

 

Other Information

6. When will each phase roll out?

7. How will I be notified when it’s my time to get vaccinated?

8. Where will I get the vaccine?

9. How will I prove which group I’m in?

10. How can I find vaccine information?

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Vaccine Distribution Phases

1.  Phase 1a – Health care personnel and residents of long-term care facilities – Now (December–February)

Health Care Personnel – There are around 21 million health care workers in the U.S., from those who work in hospitals and emergency medical services to those who provide long-term care and home health care. The CDC has suggested that health care personnel whose jobs require them to work within 6 feet of others be vaccinated before other health care workers.

Residents of Long-term facilities – An additional 3 million adults live in long-term care facilities, which include nursing homes, assisted-living facilities and skilled nursing facilities. The CDC has suggested that residents of skilled nursing facilities receive the vaccine before residents of other types of long-term care facilities if doses are limited, due to the COVID-19-associated death rate among the former group.

2. Phase 1b – Front-line essential workers and People 75 and older – (January-February?)

Front-line essential workers – include a wide range of people who have jobs that put them at greater risk of being infected, or who simply have jobs that are especially vital to society and a functioning economy.

According to the CDC, they include:

• • Firefighters
  • Police officers
  • Corrections officers
  • Food and agricultural workers
  • S. Postal Service workers
  • Manufacturing workers
  • Grocery store workers
  • Public transit workers
  • Those who work in education (teachers, support staff and day care workers)

People who are 75 or older – are especially at risk for poor outcomes if they contract COVID-19.  About 80% of reported COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have occurred in people who were at least 65 years old.

3. Phase 1c – People 65-74; People 16-64 with underlying health conditions; Other essential workers – (February?)

People 65-74 – People at least 65 years old are at especially high risk for poor outcomes — including hospitalization, illness and death — from COVID-19.

People 16-64 with underlying health conditions – People with certain health conditions also are at high risk of complications from COVID-19, regardless of their age. (The CDC has a long list of such underlying conditions on its website.)

Other essential workers – including:

• • Transportation and logistics
  • Food service
  • Housing construction and finance
  • Information technology
  • Communications
  • Energy
  • Law
  • Media
  • Public safety
  • Public health

4. Phase 2 – Critical Workers; People with high-risk conditions; People with vaccine access challenges – Spring-Summer

Critical Workers – including workers who are essential to continue critical infrastructure and maintain the services and functions Americans depend on daily and workers who cannot perform their duties remotely and must work in close proximity to others

High Risk Conditions – including:

• • Asthma (moderate-to-severe)
  • Cerebrovascular disease (affects blood vessels and blood supply to the brain)
  • Cystic fibrosis
  • Hypertension or high blood pressure
  • Immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from blood or bone marrow transplant, immune deficiencies, HIV, use of corticosteroids, or use of other immune weakening medicines
  • Neurologic conditions, such as dementia
  • Liver disease
  • Pulmonary fibrosis (having damaged or scarred lung tissues)
  • Overweight (BMI of 25 kg/m² and higher, but less than 30 kg/m²)
  • Intellectual or neurological disabilitiesoThalassemia
  • Type 1 diabetes mellitus age-associated higher risk
  • People age 40 -64 years
  • Residents of a congregate setting
  • College dormitories
  • Military barracks
  • Boarding schools
  • Summer camps

5. Phase 3 – All persons of any age not previously vaccinated – Summer and Beyond

---

Other Information

 6.  When will each phase roll out?

Wondering when each phase will occur? It’s difficult to say, and likely will vary by state.

For example, Massachusetts officials have created an estimated time horizon for residents at a government website. The Bay State’s schedule is broken into three phases and is as follows:

• • Phase 1: December-February
  • Phase 2: February-April
  • Phase 3: April-June

The Massachusetts schedule roughly — although not exactly — follows the CDC guidelines. Most of the groups mentioned in the CDC guidelines will be vaccinated by April, with the rest of the general population expected to receive the medicine beginning in April.

 7.  How will I be notified when it’s my time to get vaccinated?

The state says it will clearly communicate what phase the state overall and individual counties are in so people will know when it’s their turn.

Information should be displayed on the DOH vaccine webpage and county health department websites.

DOH and counties are currently disseminating information through public relations and law enforcement employees and are working with individual employers with large numbers of essential workers to prepare for Phase 1B.

For Pennsylvanians 75 and older, individuals (or someone on their behalf) will be able to register online or by a telephone call-in line with DOH so they can be notified directly when they’re able to get vaccinated, though the state is still working on plans for an appointment sign-up system.

County officials are still working on plans to reach people in the much larger and disparate groups of Phase 1B.

Teachers and law enforcement officers will most likely be notified through their employers. Additional outreach will be done through partners and community groups to reach eligible individuals once the state is ready to begin Phase 1B vaccinations, Levine said in a previous interview.

Situations are likely to differ by county.

 8.  Where will I get the vaccine?

Many individuals in later priority groups and the general public will likely get the vaccine as they get flu shots — at a health care provider or a pharmacy location.

For Phase 1B, there may still be some large regional vaccination sites for workers, but there also will be employer-based vaccine clinics for essential worker populations and vaccines available for high-risk groups at local clinics and pharmacies.

Employers with essential workers will be notified when vaccines become available.

For adults 75 and older not vaccinated at long-term care facilities, the DOH and local officials are working on a range of options, Levine said.

These could include launching mobile vaccine clinics for homebound individuals and rapid response teams and allocating doses to pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens statewide.

By the time the vaccine hits the general public after the priority groups, distribution should be widespread at places like pharmacies and health care providers.

 9.  How will I prove which group I’m in?

Levine said for individuals 75 and older in Phase 1B and 65 and older in Phase 2, they likely will just need to show their driver’s license or other identification to prove their age to get the vaccine.

Essential workers likely will need to be attend an employer-based vaccination clinic or, if at a pharmacy or doctor’s office, show their badge or proof that they’re an essential worker.

It will become more difficult for individuals to prove their place in the line once later phases begin. For those with medical conditions (Phase 2), Levine does not expect they’ll need to bring proof, but vaccination may be taking place through providers that treat them already.

10.  How can I find vaccine information?

Although information is hard to find now, the state says that will change.

DOH plans to post vaccine locations similarly to how it does COVID-19 test sites.

Vaccine sites also will be listed on vaccinefinder.org eventually.

Looking ahead, Levine anticipates a more standardized approach to providing information and clear instructions on when and where individuals can get vaccinated.

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Central Church

Endurance Test – Ridgeline Reruns

Key Bible Verse:  Patient endurance is what you need now, so you will continue to do God’s will.  – Hebrews 10:36

Bonus Reading:  Hebrews 10:32-38

Hiking north to south on the Appalachian Trail, I found the Smoky Mountains stretch that leads up to Mollies Ridge demoralizing.  I felt like an ant climbing a giant staircase.  I’d see the peak just ahead and, after a steep climb, breathe a sigh of relief, and think, I did it!

Then I’d round a corner, and there would be an up-until-then hidden summit.

What?  There’s more?  There were several premature celebrations before the satisfaction of finally reaching the Mollies Ridge shelter.

The ascent to holiness is like that.  One peak after another appears as God fine-tunes our faith.

In Hebrews 10:36, the writer of Hebrews calls for persevering on the path of improvement.  Perseverance is by definition an ongoing pursuit; but receiving the crown of life is a one-time event.  We strive to be holy for that moment when God will say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant!”

Does your pursuit of righteousness seem to be nothing but an uphill climb?

Be encouraged.  This is the path God wants you on.  He longs for Christians unafraid to take the trail all the way to the top.

He’ll hike alongside you and give you rest when you’re weary.  And the final reward is being with Him forever!

—Nathan Chapman in With God on the Hiking Trail

 

My Response: How do I respond to a succession of tests?

 

Thought to Apply: Victory is not won in miles but in inches.  Win a little now, hold your ground, and later win a little more.—Louis L’Amour (novelist)

Adapted from With God on the Hiking Trail (Harvest, 2002)

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  Thank you, Savior, for enduring all the way to the cross.  Give me the stamina to be a finisher.

 

 

Endurance Test – The Q Word

Key Bible Verse:  When your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.  – James 1:4, NLT

Bonus Reading:  Hebrews 12:1

The summer before my last year of prep school, I decided to quit Coach Marvin Goldberg’s cross-country team.  I was tired of grueling workouts.  I wanted some free time for things like dating.

Come spring, I told myself, I’d get serious again and run on his track team, but I wanted out of the fall schedule of long-distance competition, where our team frequently contended in 10k races against college freshmen teams.

I wrote Coach about my decision.  His typed reply arrived.  The gist: By not running with the cross-country team this fall, you’ll disappoint your teammates, who depend on you to help them win races, and turn your back on the team’s supporters, who show up at every race to cheer your team on.

But most of all, whenever you’re faced with a challenge you don’t like, or that seems too difficult, or that asks for too great a sacrifice, you’ll find it easier and easier to walk away from it.

I changed my mind, returned to the cross-country team, and helped lead it to a league championship.  I can’t claim that I enjoyed myself in that effort, but at a deeper level I learned the satisfaction of accomplishing something that ended well.  Perhaps in the long view of life that’s more important.

—Gordon MacDonald in A Resilient Life

 

My Response: How can I learn to savor satisfaction that runs deeper than enjoyment?

 

Thought to Apply: It is always too soon to quit. —V. Raymond Edman (missionary, educator)

Adapted from A Resilient Life  (Nelson, 2005)

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  Thank you, Savior, for enduring all the way to the cross.  Give me the stamina to be a finisher.

Endurance Test – Enthusiasm Leak

Key Bible Verse:  Don’t get tired of doing what is good … For we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time.  – Galatians 6:9

Bonus Reading:  Matthew 24:45-51

On the first good day of spring, you get into the spirit of car washing.  You wash and dry it with a chamois.  You vacuum it out, take some cleaner to the bug spots, and start waxing and polishing.  This is going so well that you see yourself moving on to clean out the garage and mow the lawn.

But then, as you wax and whistle, your back starts to ache, your right arm to feel sore.  Your whistling slides into a slower rhythm and shifts into a minor key.

Perhaps you’d better leave the lawn for another day.  The garage can wait too, you guess.  Doing this car is a big enough job all by itself.  Well, leave the rest of the car for next Saturday too.  Now find a hammock!

The sense of adventure and the rush of enthusiasm for doing good in the name of Christ can turn into a sinking sense of futility when others don’t notice or care.  We’ve also felt a pain in the neck and all the adventure running off in sweat.  Galatians 6:9 is a word for us spent-out Christians who’ve served until we can’t make one more phone call: we’ll reap the fruit of the Spirit in a life that never ends—if we don’t give up.

—Neal Plantinga in Beyond Doubt

 

My Response: A good cause for which my initial motivation is growing thin is …

Adapted from Beyond Doubt (Eerdmans, 2002)

 

Prayer for the Week:  Thank you, Savior, for enduring all the way to the cross.  Give me the stamina to be a finisher.

 

 

Central Church – Online Worship Service – Epiphany Sunday, January 3, 2021

On this cold and rainy Epiphany Sunday, when the coronavirus prevents many of us from gathering in Central Church’s Sanctuary to worship in body, let us join together in spirit for with our online worship experience!

• Today’s online worship service includes two HYMNS so you can sing along to familiar Christmas carols!

To begin, simply click on the link below to join with the folks who have already made their way into our digital Sanctuary: 

https://business.facebook.com/362949807093157/videos/116794073560171/?t=3&v=116794073560171

Central Church’s Sanctuary decorated for Christmas!

Preview in new tab

Endurance Test – Roll of Rejection

Who Said It…Gary L. Thomas

Gary is a Bellingham, Washington-based writer and speaker.  In the Center for Evangelical Spirituality, which he founded, he shares how believers can learn a great deal from historic Christian traditions without compromising the essential tenets of what makes them evangelical Christians.

Gary says he is a big-time introvert who runs marathons and takes his wife, Lisa, and their three kids to Starbucks “far too often.”

What He Said…Roll of Rejection

I‘d been invited to deliver a commencement address as an author who also speaks widely.  But I wanted the students to see someone wondering if anyone would ever want to hear what he believed God had given him to say.

I knew that 99 percent of the kids wouldn’t remember a thing I said.  So I prayed about providing a picture that would stick with them.

I found it in my rejections box.  My family helped me staple and tape together over 150 rejection letters I’d received from publishers over the years: editors telling me my work wasn’t wanted.

When I told the young graduates that God’s calling doesn’t mean there’ll be no setbacks, I nodded to a few students who began to unroll my rejection letters. Murmurs, laughs, and gasps were unleashed throughout the auditorium as the roll grew longer and longer, ultimately stretching across the entire ballroom.

You see, many Christians don’t fail; they just quit before they get ripe.

Adapted from Authentic Faith (Zondervan, 2002)

 

Prayer for the Week:  Thank you, Savior, for enduring all the way to the cross.  Give me the stamina to be a finisher.

 

 

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone from the kind folks of Central Church!

Our doors are always open to you. 

Why not make a New Year’s resolution to join us for worship on Sunday?

Central Church’s Congregation welcomes you!

Why Your Church Needs You to Volunteer for the Not-So Glamorous Ministries

At the heart of every thriving church, you will find a dedicated team of volunteers who come alongside the staff and give sacrificially so that life can happen.

When I picture volunteer support in the local church, I see an iceberg. The visible portion of an iceberg is also the smallest portion, while the base of its power can be found below the water. Similarly, many of the vital support roles in the church are less visible, or at least less glamorous, but each is critically important. They are the jobs where nobody notices when you do them, but everyone notices when they are not getting done.

The question of whether or not everyone should volunteer is a conversation for another day, but consider this…how do we view our local churches?

• Is it a Panera-like experience where we slip in, grab some coffee and a bagel, enjoy a service being provided and then slip back out?
• Or is it a family thing…a community thing…where we show up early to help brew the coffee, pour it for each other, worship together and clean up our mess before leaving?

Serving is not just about helping meet the practical needs of the church; it is largely about the ways we grow, individually and as a community, throughout the process.

Assuming we are all on the same page about being involved, the next question is what to do.

This is where our hearts are laid bare.  Are we willing to serve in the quiet, unseen places, even if we feel “over-qualified”?  Are we willing to say, “Put me wherever you need me”?

When I was nineteen, I was hired as a director on the student ministries staff in the church I grew up in. I spent the next five years working in a wonderful, energetic community – teaching multiple times per week, counseling students, and planning large events.

During that time, I met my husband and he joined the student ministries staff as well. At a certain point, we felt God calling us to trust Him in new places and we moved out in faith to step down from our positions and put all our focus into finishing school. Today, he is on staff full-time in a new church that has become our home, and when I first offered to volunteer, my heart and mind were confronted with this difficult question. Am I willing to let go of what I’ve done in the past and serve wherever I am needed now?  I will not pretend it was an easy question for me to answer.

Three years later, I connect new volunteers with teams needing help. A couple months ago, we received a registration card from a man who did not request a specific team, rather he asked to be put in whichever place we needed him.  Others had made similar notes, but I was especially struck by what he included at the end – “I don’t mind working outside either, if there is a need for people to do grass or pick up trash.”  Such humble words and pure motives. I thank God for people like this; they show me Jesus.

I am not making light of the skills and experiences we each bring to the table. God has given us those gifts for the benefit of the whole church (1 Corinthians 12). But perhaps those skills are going to be used in different ways, or maybe we will find ourselves in seasons where we are asked to set them aside in order to serve the places of greatest need.

Let me tell you about a married couple I know and admire. He is one of the most talented guitarists I have met and a regular on our worship team. She is warm, friendly and great with people. They both serve in a variety of high-level leadership roles. They also restock the bathrooms with toilet paper and soap. It is often a thankless job, but a true gift when 2000 people show up for weekend services.

“Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the son of man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:43-45)

I am struck by the belief that I could be more “qualified” to do anything. It is a lie.  Jesus, the anointed Son of God, washed the dirty, cracked feet of his friends. He was perfectly holy and yet He died for me, a sinner to my core.

Paul, a scholar, exemplary Jewish priest and one of the single greatest leaders in the church, wrote four of his thirteen New Testament letters from a prison cell; and yet he continued to rejoice and give thanks. Peter, the rock upon which Christ said the church would be built, was arrested and crucified upside down.

So how can I ever think I am “over-qualified” for anything?  Who am I to argue that I deserve a position of higher authority or recognition?

When I picture the early church, huddled around a room…bringing food to share, maybe passing around a blanket to stay warm…singing, praying, teaching, laughing, crying…getting up and cleaning the room together…hugging each other and heading home…sacrificing their reputations and personal safety for the sake of the Gospel…I am quite sure I do not deserve anything grand. And I am reminded of how deeply I hope to look like Jesus and the people who serve Him with sincere humility.

• Are you a gifted teacher in a church that really needs help in the nursery?
• Have you led worship for years but your community needs someone to manage parking?
• Do you have a decade of experience with small group leadership but you are most needed with Sunday morning clean up?

Maybe this is what it looks like to lay down our lives in western church culture.  Maybe signing up to take out the trash requires changes in corners of our hearts that would otherwise remain untouched.

When we let go of the myth of qualifications and we embrace serving the church in these humble places, God will surely meet us there and transform us through the process.

Cara Joyner spends her days chasing a toddler, nursing an infant, starting cups of coffee she rarely has time to finish and thinking about how much she needs to clean her house. Years of working in ministry and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology have led her to graduate school, where she is working towards a Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. While waiting to finish grad school, she is working as a professional birth doula and freelance writer. Cara writes about family, health, faith and intentional living at www.carajoyner.com. She can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

 

 

A Bulletproof Faith – Our New Bodies

The Bible doesn’t tell us everything we’d like to know about our resurrected bodies, but it does assure us that we’ll still have personalities and recognizable characteristics. And what it does describe stirs anticipation of a state perfect beyond anything we’ve experienced. 

Some passages to whet your appetite for your future in Christ are 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, Philippians 3:21, 1 John 3:2, and Revelation 21:4.

 

Interact with God’s Word

2 Corinthians 5:1-8

1. In what ways is your present body (v. 1) as temporary a home as a camping tent?  How will your transformed body compare to it?
2. How has your body made you grow weary, groan, and sigh (vv 2-3)?
3. How does Paul make clear (v. 4) that heavenly existence isn’t, as was believed in Greek culture, a matter of souls without bodies?
4. What hopes do you have for your heavenly existence?  What fears?
5. The Bible teaches that the body and the soul are not permanently separated.  How will our “dying bodies” be “swallowed up by life”? (See 1 Corinthians 15:51-53).
6. How (vv. 6-8) does Paul turn the saying “seeing is believing” on its head?  What factors (in v. 5) bolster our confidence?  (See also Ecclesiastes 3:11 & 2 Corinthians 1:22.)

 

Spend Time in Prayer

Ask God for a solid confidence in your future with him that outweighs any hurt of separation from loved ones and anxiety about the unknown.

 

2 Corinthians 5:1-8

1 For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. 2 We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. 3 For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. 4 While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. 5 God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.

6 So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. 7 For we live by believing and not by seeing. 8 Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.

 

Adapted from Adapted from Relationships: A Mess Worth Making (New Growth Press, 2006)

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  Give me a heightened awareness of the next life, Lord, so that I may strike a truer balance in this one.

COVID-19 – Beaver County Metrics – 12-31-2020

FYI – Three weeks into Gov. Wolf’s 3-week “Temporary Mitigation Measures”, here are the weekly COVID-19 statistics for Beaver County, PA as of December 31, 2020.

After 8 straight weeks of increases, this week and last week have finally shown significant reductions from prior record highs. 

• The Incidence Rate moved down 125.1 points (30%) from last week 412.2, although still deep within the Substantial category.

• Similarly, the PCR Positivity Rate has moved down to 13.2% from last week’s record number, although it is also still deep within the Substantial category.

• • Beaver County remains classified as SUBSTANTIAL.  We once again surpass Allegheny County, which had values of 231.9 and 11.2% this week.

(If either metric is Substantial, the PA Dept. of Health’s recommended school instructional model is Full Remove Learning.

• As the pandemic continues to rage in our county, we are continuing our efforts to ensure our building is disinfected prior to every worship service and feeding ministry event.

Happy New Year!

A Bulletproof Faith – In-Your-Face Sermon

Key Bible Verse:  We want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.  – 2 Corinthians 5:4

Bonus Reading:  2 Corinthians 5:1-8

I went to my first black funeral when I was 16.  A friend of mine, Clarence, had died.  From the pulpit the pastor talked about the resurrection in beautiful terms.  Then he descended from the pulpit, went to the family, and comforted them from John 14: “Let not your heart be troubled … Clarence has gone to heavenly mansions.”

Then for the last 20 minutes he preached to the open casket. “Clarence! Clarence!”  He yelled at the corpse with such authority, I wouldn’t have been surprised had there been an answer.

“Clarence,” he said, “there were a lot of things we should have said to you but never did.   You got away too fast, Clarence.” He went down this litany of commendable things Clarence had done for people.

When he finished, he said, “That’s it, Clarence.  There’s nothing more to say.  Goodnight, Clarence.”  Grabbing the casket lid, he slammed it shut.

Lifting his head with a smile, he concluded, “Goodnight, Clarence, because I know that God is going to give you a good morning.”

The choir started singing “On that great getting-up morning we shall rise.”  We were dancing in the aisles and hugging each other with the joy of the Lord, because for us there was no sting to death.

—Tony Campolo in Preaching Today

 

My Response:  Does sobs of pain over death being overwhelmed by cheers of victory strike you as plausible?

 

Thought to Apply: So he passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side. —John Bunyan

Adapted from Preaching Today (212).

 

 

Prayer for the Week:  Give me a heightened awareness of the next life, Lord, so that I may strike a truer balance in this one.