Pastor Prince

One of the many extraordinary things about Jesus is the way in which he reached out to people on the margins of life.  Our new worship unit focuses on how he did that, and how he calls us to do the same! Luke 5:17-26 tells the story of the paralyzed man whose friends lowered him to Jesus.  His friends took him to Jesus on a mat in faith that he would heal him.  When they arrived, the house in which Jesus was teaching was so crowded, they couldn't get him to Jesus.  So they went up on the roof of the house and tore a hole in it.  Then they lowered the man to Jesus! When Jesus saw their faith, he decided to heal the man.  He told him that he had been forgiven of his sins, and could take up his mat and walk.  And he did! This is one of many incidents recorded in the New Testament in which Jesus healed people.  Why did he do it?  First, it was a sign.  Luke 7:18ff says that John the Baptist sent some of his disciples to Jesus to ask,...

The book of Job is a deep dive into the problem of suffering.  It's one of the wisdom books of the Old Testament.  Wisdom books like Proverbs often teach that God blesses righteous people and judges wicked ones.  But Job challenges that assumption.  In Job, a righteous man suffers, and struggles with what God has allowed to happen to him. After Job has lost everything and been afflicted with terrible sores all over his body, three friends go to be with him.  When they see him from far off, they don't recognize him.  As they draw near, they begin to weep.  They tear their clothes and fling dust in the air, which were ancient demonstrations of grief.   Overwhelmed, they sit with Job seven days in silence! Here, Job's friends show how we can be with each other in difficult times.  They went to him, they empathized with him, and they stayed with him.  Though they didn't say anything, their presence indicated their love and c...

We're basing our new worship unit on our children's Orange curriculum for the month of September!  The unit is "Friends," and it focuses on God's commands for us to love each other as he has loved us. The account of Jonathan and David is one of the great friendship stories in the Bible.  It's recorded in 1 Samuel 18-20.  Both of them were great, charismatic leaders and warriors.  David appeared to be the inferior in the relationship, because Jonathan was King Saul's son and the heir to Israel's throne.  But God had rejected Saul and his house, and chosen David to be the new king.  Samuel had already anointed David as the new king before he met Jonathan.  Jonathan didn't know about David's anointment, and David didn't let it get in the way of their friendship. Though it was in neither of their political interests to sacrifice for each other, they did.   Their story teaches us that in great friendships, each party focuses on ...

Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) explores the boundaries of love.  A lawyer quoted the Levitical command (Lev. 19:18) that we should love our neighbors.  When Jesus told him he should do that, the lawyer asked the important question, "And who is my neighbor?"   It was a way of asking, "Whom am I supposed to love?" Jesus responded by telling the story of the Good Samaritan.  Afterward, he asked the lawyer, "Who was a neighbor to the man who fell among robbers?"  Jesus flipped the question around, and moved neighborliness from static to active! One of the core commitments of churches that grow young is that they strive to be great neighbors in their communities.  They know their communities and seek to be Christ's hands and feet in them.  They know their surrounding cultures, but don't fear them.  Instead, they seek to know them.  They acknowledge the good and bad in them. If churches want to grow young,...

Jesus made peculiar choices in disciples!  Mark 1 tells us that he began by calling Peter, Andrew, James, and John.  These were good men doing honest work.  But none of them were scholars with  theological training.  Then, in Mark 2, Jesus called a tax collector named Levi to be a disciple!  That was much more peculiar because tax collectors were social outcasts.  Many of them were wealthy, but gained their wealth by corruption. Mark 2 also tells us that Jesus had dinner at Levi's house.  Since the only friends tax collectors had were other tax collectors, Jesus and his disciples were having dinner with sinners like tax collectors and prostitutes. This upset the Pharisees, so they asked Jesus' followers why he was doing something so shocking.  Jesus overheard the Pharisees, and replied by saying that healthy folks don't need a doctor.  Sick folks do.  He said he came to the world not to call the "righteous," but "sinn...

What's your church known for?  Acts 2:42-47 describes the church of Jesus Christ in its infancy.  The Holy Spirit fell on the day of Pentecost and gave life to it.  This passage tells what these early Christ followers were known for.  They devoted themselves to several activities, but one of the most notable was what most of our English versions translate "the fellowship." The Greek word for "fellowship" is koinonia.  It comes from the root koine , which means "common."  Koinonia was a sharing in common.  The text describes the deep connections and sharing in common the early church experienced.  They shared meals in their homes, eating together with glad and sincere hearts.  They shared their possessions, giving to their brothers and sisters in Christ as they had need. The book Growing Young says that one of the important core commitments to churches that grow young is to develop a warm sense of community.  Those in the c...

The book Growing Young identifies six core commitments of churches that have successfully grown young.  One of them is that they take Jesus seriously. In Mark 8:27ff, Jesus and his disciples are traveling in the region of Caesarea Philippi.  Jesus drew large crowds, and the people in those crowds believed he was a great person of God.  But they were unsure of who he was.  Jesus quizzed his followers about who people thought he was.  They offered various great persons from Hebrew history.   Then Jesus asked who they thought he was.  Peter replied with a great confession that he believed Jesus was the Christ, God's Son. Peter was right, but his understanding of the kind of Christ Jesus would be was wrong.  Jesus accepted Peter's confession, but immediately began to redefine his concept of the Savior.  He told him and his other followers that he would suffer, die, and rise from the dead. This was difficult for Peter.  ...