Letter 7/22

July 22, 2010
Pastor Steve Mathewson
  

While walking from home to my office this morning, I kept thinking about an astonishing statement from last week’s sermon text. James 4:6 says: “But he gives us more grace.” It almost seems too good to be true! After calling us “adulterous people and reminding us about God’s jealousy for our affections (James 4:4-5), James shocks us with these words: “But he gives us more grace.” We deserve judgment. “But he gives us more grace.” Grace is favor that we do not deserve. Even though I fail God daily and fall far short of his glory, he gives me a grace that is greater than my sin! So when you get frustrated and discouraged with your failures, remember the truth. Sin happens, “but he gives us more grace.”

Several of you asked about getting a copy of the prayer of confession which we read on Sunday. This was something I adapted to fit our sermon series on the letter of James from a prayer of confession written by Bob Kauflin, a worship pastor with Sovereign Grace Ministries. You can find this on our web-site in the “From Pastor Steve” section. Use it in your own prayer times with the Lord.

This is a good place to announce a big change that we are making by keeping something the same! After several weeks of prayer and discussion, we have decided to stay with our current Sunday morning schedule of one worship service from 9:00-10:10 a.m. followed by our education hour from 10:30-11:30 a.m. We will continue this until our attendance is consistently around 400. We have had several newcomers visit and stick with us recently, so this change might need to happen sooner than later. But until we reach that point, we will all worship together in the same venue.

Although I prefer multiple services to provide additional entry points for newcomers and more flexibility for our church family, staying with one service makes the most sense until we grow a bit larger. There are two main reasons for this. First, there is a greater sense of life and togetherness when

we gather together as a larger group. In the past couple years, one of our two services has typically been half-empty. Given the size of our worship center, this can feel a bit underwhelming! In addition to the effect it can have on our church family, it can send a message to visitors that we are not full of life. If you know our church, you know that nothing could be further from the truth! A second reason for staying with one service until we grow larger is putting less strain on our volunteers. For example, asking our current pool of children’s ministry volunteers to staff three time slots on Sunday morning rather than two can spread them too thin and hinder this ministry’s effectiveness.

I want to emphasize that this is not an act of complacency or defeat! I fully expect that we will grow numerically again and return to multiple worship services. Personally, I look forward to it because I am used to preaching two or three times on a Sunday. Also, we have even talked about adding a Saturday night service as a way of reaching out to another group of people. We’ll continue to discuss whether or not this would help us accomplish our mission more effectively. For now, let’s enjoy worshipping God together in one service!

This Sunday, July 25, we will have the opportunity to express our thanks to Ryan Johnson for his ministry here as Junior High Director for the past four years. This is Ryan last Sunday in this role. He is going to preach from Philippians 1:3-11 and Hebrews 12:1-2 on “Because of Your Partnership.” You are invited to attend a potluck honoring Ryan and Kryssia at 11:30 a.m. in our Fellowship Hall.

Finally, I am leaving this Sunday afternoon to teach for a week at Denver Seminary. I will team-teach a doctoral course on preaching with Dr. Scott Wenig, the preaching professor at Denver Seminary. Then, Priscilla and Luke will fly to Denver next Friday, July 30. From there, we will drive to Montana and Idaho to spend a week of vacation with Priscilla’s folks and other friends. Then, we will fly home from Denver on Sunday, August 8. Please pray for safe travels. I’ll see you on Sunday!