The gathering of God’s redeemed is a sacred time to actively worship God.
An Invitation to Participate
From Pastor Chris
When I turn on a screen, it is often for entertainment—laughing at Facebook posts, catching a game (remember sports?), or watching a TV show or movie. Entertainment is passive. I may stand up to cheer when the Nationals hit a home run or look up an article to fact-check the latest episode of The Crown, but I am not participating in any meaningful sense.
Church is not entertainment, nor is it meant to be passive. The gathering of God’s redeemed is a sacred time to actively worship God, bring our needs to him in prayer, and hear God’s word together. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,” Paul wrote in Colossians 3:16. That is why we gather—to participate together in engaging with God.
Yet our church gathering—a participatory experience—is now meeting over screens—a largely passive experience. How do we do this in a way that keeps us engaged rather than feeling like another TV show?
This question has weighed on my heart and shaped where we are heading in our study of God’s word. As I prayed about whether we should study all the passages in Mark’s gospel that we missed or begin a new study, my heart was drawn to doing 3- or 4-week series in a single passage of Scripture. The design is to dive deep into God’s word as a whole church family. God kept bringing Philippians to mind, and the more I read through Paul’s letter the more Chapter 1 stood out.
In an effort to increase your participation, we are providing both a way to engage with God’s word before Sunday morning’s service and a way to engage with one another about God’s word after the service. As you can see at the top of the newsletter, you can download a study guide to prepare you for our study of Philippians 1:1-11 and you can request an invitation to our Zoom discussion after the service at Noon on Sunday.
Let me invite you into this new level of participation. Paul says that letting “the word of Christ dwell in you richly” happens through “teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” I look forward to this time of increased study of God’s word and increased opportunities to share insights and ask questions of one another. May this be a rich experience indeed!