Pastor Prince

One of the most important and difficult parts of a renovation project is electric wiring.  Wiring is mostly hidden behind walls, so you can't see it.  You can assume all is well, but when you turn on a light or plug something in, nothing happens!  That's because the wiring has failed to supply power. The wiring and power source of the church is the Holy Spirit.  In Acts 1:8, Jesus promised his followers that after he ascended to heaven, they would receive power when the Holy Spirit fell on them.  In the Spirit's power, they would be his witnesses all over the world!  The rest of the book of Acts tells the story of how the Holy Spirit worked through Christ followers to accomplish that mission. Sometimes we think church growth is a matter of having the right plans, structure, music, space, and so forth.  But none of these matter without the power of the Holy Spirit!  The Holy Spirit transforms us and gives us abilities to minister in and through the church. J

This week, we continue our church renovation show by thinking about windows and doors.  Matthew 28:18-20 records that Jesus gave his followers a commission to go and make disciples of all nations.  The church was to both go outwards and to bring people in.  Our mission is like our church's windows and doors.  Windows bring light, ventilation, and view.  We should subject all we do as a church to the light of our mission.  We should allow our mission to ventilate and refresh us.  We should also look out and view the needs of our community. Doors allow people to come in and out.  We go out our doors to minister in Christ's name in our community.  We invite people into our community through our doors. Our church's mission, vision and strategy statements reflect our need for windows and doors.  Our mission is to make disciples, united in worship and service.  This is our reason for being.  Our vision is to embody Christ, loving all people, and introducing t

Immigration is in the news a lot these days.   Have you noticed that it comes up often in the Bible?   Immigration is important to the story of God’s people, Israel.   In Genesis, Abraham migrates from Ur to Canaan, and lives as an alien.   In Joseph’s time, the Israelites migrate to Egypt during a famine.   In Exodus, God saves the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and in Joshua, he takes them back to Canaan and enables them to conquer it. In the Old Testament law, God often reminds his people to be kind and fair to immigrants because they were once immigrants themselves: “You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”   Exodus 22:21 (NRSV) “You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”   Exodus 23:9 (NRSV) The book of Exodus says that Pharaoh oppressed the Israelites because he saw this group of immigrants as a security threat (Exod. 1:8-10).

In our worship unit "This Old Church," we're looking at our church as a renovation project.  That doesn't mean our church is dilapidated!  Every structure needs occasional updating and inspection.  The same is true of churches!  Last week, we looked at our foundation, and saw that the only foundation for a church of the Lord Jesus Christ is Christ himself.  We're tempted to mix other things in with that foundation, but when we do, our foundation cracks and our structure sags! This week, we're going to think about walls.  In particular, load-bearing structural walls.  These walls are our essential teachings.  Scripture passages like Romans 10:9-10 describe the essential early proclamation of the church.  We'll find that these essential walls include having faith in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead, confessing that Jesus is Lord, affirming that the Bible is our authority for our beliefs, loving everyone in Christ's name, and fulfi