Church has not always been a safe place for me, or those I know and love. That’s why I have been silent—for years. Silent as I have questioned everything I once felt so sure about. But the cost of silence is great.
One of the things I think about often as a mom is who my kids are looking up to. My kids are at the age where they are extremely susceptible to influences surrounding them. But the thing that seems to speak the loudest is what they observe in kids a few years older than them.
It’s April, so the essays are pouring in. There are exams to write, grades to enter, emails and phone calls to make, and all of that is coming from a job I love but one that’s currently drowning me. In the midst of the storm, the Good Friday service created space for me to breathe and be.
The symphony of gospel is so much bigger and more beautiful than the one note that gets most often talked about. Discover the truth of the whole gospel, believe the good news and find the shalom you’ve long been looking for.
Although giving up my sense of self to teach, serve, and shape precious little people is the hardest thing I have ever done physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, I recognize God is filling that emptiness with his strength; sustaining me and giving me glimpses of who He is creating me to be. But I don’t want to do it alone.
We “do” the basketball camp, youth gatherings, and painting knowing we’re doing it for Jesus. Under the stars the last night, I looked at Juan, sitting in the glow of that fire, and realized that maybe in the midst of us thinking we’re doing something for them, for “the least of these,” they’re actually doing something for us.
Carly Miller spent two and half weeks in Greece serving refugees: “I thought that I knew what I was going to see and hear when we started working with the refugees, but let’s just say I seriously underestimated what I had prepared myself to experience.”
As our city has been devastated the last several years by teen suicide, we have been asking what our response should be as a church. Thanks to your faithful giving, last year we were able to give $2,200 to help provide counseling scholarships for individuals and families in our city so they can receive the help they need.
Your children you are around are always watching and listening to you. They see your daily routines and the things your heart focuses on. They know what matters to you even if you don’t talk about it. If you want to teach your children compassion, the best thing you can do is model it for them.
Are you the parent of a special needs child or know someone who is? Night Lights is a respite care organization that provides a break for parents of children with special needs. We would love to make Pulpit Rock a host site for a monthly Night Lights program that would serve our church and our community.
There comes a time on our path to maturity where we need to assume responsibility for our own walk with Christ. Just as eating one food group would be a foolish way to try to get all our nutritional needs, so is thinking we can meet all our spiritual needs by simply attending our Sunday morning worship services.
Steve Coe teaches English to refugees in Internally Displaced People camps in Myanmar: “Thomas challenged us to think of what we are doing for God’s kingdom, then ask ourselves, “what more could I be doing?” The situation of the IDP’s in Kachin State literally came to my mind immediately.”
