If we were to write down all the adjectives we’d like to describe ourselves, it is unlikely that “needy” would make many of our lists.  We don’t want to be needy.  We want to be helpful, productive, and self-sufficient. We want to be needed by others, not to be needy of others. Yet…

Summer feels like it’s passing fast. But still the trees are full, the grass has turned green, the flowers are blooming — all reminding me of the life around us. I love this beautiful time of the year. Summer kicks off camping trips, hiking, sports, floating the river, riding the green belt, or simply enjoying a peaceful yard or porch. I love this season.

We want children to know and treasure Christ, and we want to obey the command given in the Bible to be baptized if you have put your faith in Christ. If you have a child, who has said they are considering baptism or that you believe might be interested, we host a class specifically for them.

You are different by design. In fact, these differences qualify you to be a part of the body. God has designed his body to not function unless the various parts play their unique roles. God made you incredibly valuable, necessary, and irreplaceable preciously by making you “not like the others.”

New beginnings mark our human experience. Graduations, new jobs, new homes, births, deaths, moving to a new city, new relationships, and retirement to name a few. And yet, each new chapter we encounter brings with it new challenges and obstacles.

The letter of 1 John leaves little doubt as to its authorship: it is the very same John the Apostle who wrote the Gospel of John. It is full to the brim with a nearly identical set of key gospel convictions and emphases: light versus darkness, the new birth, eternal life, etc.

We all know the deadly nature of sin, but we are often unaware of its subtle sidekick — the excuse.

Excuses convert the seriousness of sin into a simple shoulder shrug. “It was just a mistake on a tired night.” No big deal. Not my fault. And just like that, we downgrade our greatest offenses against God into something light, even meaningless. Instead of owning our sin, we excuse it. Instead of killing sin, we explain it away.

This liturgy copied below reminds me of the beautiful generosity of our God. Unfortunately, forgetfulness often marks my days, so I need reminders like this. And as we embark on a new year together as a church, these words serve as a timely reminder for all of us.

God does not simply encourage us to try and be thankful in all circumstances. He commands us to. How, then, can we be thankful at the end of one of the most challenging years many of us have faced?

While it may seem like there are more ways than ever to disagree as Christians, the idea that Christians will have differing opinions or ideas on how to best approach any particular issue is not new. Much of the Christian life doesn’t operate in the easy realm of “the Bible clearly says…” but rather in wisdom and prudence calls. But sometimes we become convinced that a particular wisdom call or personal prudence is absolutely right or absolutely wrong. It moves from a wisdom/prudence/preference issue to an issue of conscience. To be human is to have a conscience, and our Christian life here on this earth is spent trying to calibrate our conscience to God’s will, “for we must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

We are committed to the equality and dignity of all people. Scripture speaks clearly of the uniqueness of humans in God’s creation and how he has imprinted his very image on each and every person. From the beginning of life to the end, male and female, all ethnicities and colors—all are beings that God values and loves and each has dignity, worth, purpose and significance.

The gospel is the good news that man has been reconciled to God through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God is perfect, holy, and just, and as such cannot tolerate sin. All men have sinned and are no longer able to have relationship with God and deserve eternal punishment. Through the righteous life, substitutionary death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ man can now come into an eternal right relationship with God through faith, given by the Holy Spirit, in Jesus Christ.

What if this year, instead of bringing neighbors and friends to church to hear an Easter sermon with a strong gospel message, you took the message to them? What if on Easter morning all our friends, family, and neighbors saw in their Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and every other feed imaginable a slew of messages from the Christians in their life declaring how great the news of Easter is because of Jesus Christ and his work on our behalf for our salvation?

It may well be the first time in many people’s lives that church has been suspended. The idea that the church, God’s people, wouldn’t meet on a Sunday strikes many Christians as odd and even a watching world notices the empty parking lots. There must be a child somewhere that believes God actually answered their prayers and is helping them miss out on a boring Sunday School teacher. In the midst of this COVID-19 outbreak, the Christian church is asking how do we remain faithful when we choose to not gather together in person on Sunday?

The short answer is, we don’t know. Well, that would have been a short article if we stopped there! Obviously, many are wondering how long we plan to suspend our Sunday services at Table Rock Church. While we are praying it would be any day now that we can come back together, we are also making plans based upon the best information we have. Here are some of the factors we are paying careful attention to.

Based on recent updates from local and federal officials, we are choosing to suspend Table Rock Sunday services, youth Wednesdays, and our Life Groups through the end of March. This will also include our TR101 class on March 22 and our Member's Meeting on March 29.

In response to this novel COVID-19 virus, we plan to implement increased health measures such as once-a-month communion with individually wrapped containers, increased cleanliness, hand sanitizer, and refusal of youth with any signs/symptoms of illness from our youth programs. We acknowledge that this situation is fluid and fast moving, so we may need to contact you soon with additional plans or to elevate our response.

It can be a little confusing to navigate the different terms and phrases we come across at church on any given Sunday morning, so we wanted to define a few of them for you.

It is interesting to see what causes people around us to give thanks. While there are many great things to be thankful for, as we will see in Colossians 1:3–5a, Paul and others throughout Scripture usually start with a different orientation for thankfulness—faith and salvation in Jesus Christ. Now, you may be thinking, “Of course a pastor is going to make a Thankfulness blog post all about Jesus and faith!” Well, yes! But it is usually the right reorientation in thankfulness even for me. I am quick to move past what God has done for me in Jesus as though it is just the basics and I need to move on to what is “more important.” Yet Paul is encouraging us to find ourselves, in all aspects, in Jesus Christ. Our salvation in Jesus Christ is not a portion of our thankfulness, it is the thankfulness that drives everything in our life.

As I near the end of the year, I am giving abundant thanks for my heavenly Father has wisely drawn me into the hidden place of postpartum healing. For me, much of this time has been spent in thought while drinking up encouragement from the Bible, sermons, podcasts, music—all the sweet mind candy I’ve been longing to absorb! Somehow, in these days after having a baby and being faced with so many needs all at once, God has hidden me away in himself!