Beloved of God,
     I hope you are planning on joining us for BASIC dinner on October 20th. Our MoTR program for children will be “hosting” dinner that evening, and if you have kiddos in tow dinner will be covered and some special activities will follow. If you don’t have children, please come anyway. It will be so good to be together and break bread after a long hiatus. 
    Please be praying as we approach our congregational meeting on October 24th. There has been much work to develop consensus over the last 9 months, and the hope is that we can address the remaining proposals for revision in this meeting in order to vote on them all In a succeeding meeting. Copies of the bylaws including revisions to date will be available this Sunday.
    I mentioned last Sunday that I intend to begin calling for a vote on those who petition for membership on the same day that they come forward and testify about their faith. I want to say a few words about why I think this change is important. 
    Each Sunday as we come to worship, whether we realize it or not, we are participating in a regular meeting of this church as defined by our bylaws:
Meetings for the purpose of worship and ministry are held as scheduled by the pastor and associate pastor(s) in consultation with the church council, the deacons, and/or various ministry leaders.
You will notice that the purpose of these meetings is worship and ministry, which means there is a narrow sense in which Sunday worship is a meeting. But I think that when persons are petitioning to join our church by offering testimony, or by making confession and seeking Baptism, and committing to follow Christ in our company, that is not a business function. That is a ministerial function. I believe that we need not wait, sometimes months at a time, in order for those folks to be received by the fellowship of believers and welcomed into our midst. 
    There is a long-standing paradigm of this practice in Baptist churches, and while each Baptist church is autonomous, I believe this practice accords with the intent of our bylaws. In order to keep faith with you, here is my commitment around this practice as your pastor:

1. I am not going to exceed the express limits of this provision by bringing up business that does not pertain directly to matters of worship and ministry, namely, the petitions of individuals seeking to join us as we follow Christ.
2. As I call us into that moment, I will neither make the motion to receive a member, nor offer a second on such a motion. It will be your responsibility either to receive them or reject them.

 I will tell you that this very Sunday, there are some faithful folks who have been among us for more than six months. They are going to be petitioning this congregation for membership, and I hope you will be praying for them and for this church as we prepare to hear from them. Recall as you do the Apostle Paul’s words about what constitutes a church body. 
 Please join me this week in praying for:

• An end to this pandemic.
• Those among us who are sick, hurt, or suffering in body, mind, or spirit. 
• Those among us facing difficult decisions and new possibilities.
• Doctors, nurses, PA’s, paramedics, and others working to keep us all well.
• Parents in our community who are facing worry as they care for their children.
• First responders as they address emergencies on our roads, in our wildlands, in our towns, and even in our homes.
• In praise for the change in the weather, and the shift of the seasons; they are signs of God’s presence and care for creation.
• Folks among us, and in our community, who are missing someone they lost through the year. 
• Each other (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer list).

 You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world,
 Marshall

Beloved of God,

    I want to remind you that this weekend our service at church will be a little different because I will be out of town at the Labor Day retreat in Glorieta. I have prepared something for you that I hope will be a meaningful chance to read and pray through Scripture together. I do want you to know that if you usually read Scripture on your phone or a tablet, a hard copy of the Bible may be useful for you to have with you. For some of you it won’t make much difference, but for others it will be a great help.
    Sunday School for all ages will be resuming on Sunday, September 12th. If you would like a list of adult classes you might attend, we will be sending out a list in the coming week. The list may update over the next week as leaders get a better sense of their scope and focus. I am especially excited to be teaching our Middle School class.
   
    I’m struck this week by the way the first verses of Psalm 125 speak of God’s care and protection with such confidence:
Psa. 125:1    Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion,
        which cannot be shaken but endures forever.
2     As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
        so the LORD surrounds his people
        both now and forevermore.

There are any number of difficult situations that folks near and far are having to deal with at the moment. The world in it’s fallen goodness is always ripe for chaos to emerge, and there are times when that chaos can catch our attention in a special way: devastating weather events, pandemics, economic crises, political upheaval. Some of these things don’t feel far away at all, in fact some may be right on top of you.
    ...And yet the Lord surrounds His people. I don’t know if there were many who supposed that God might save and protect his people through the use of a cross, but that’s what happened. There may be surprising things that emerge from troubling moments. God has never been one to abandon His people, but God also has a way of bringing help and protection from unexpected places. I think Israel could sing songs like this because they knew that. I hope we remember that for ourselves.

Please join me this week in praying for:

• An end to this pandemic.
  
• Safety for those who are travelling this weekend.
• Courage and wisdom for those facing difficult decisions.
• Doctors, nurses, PA’s, paramedics and others working to keep us all well.
• First responders who address emergencies on our roads, in our forests, in our public spaces, and even our homes.
• Those reeling from the damage and danger brought by fire and flood.
• Those who are injured or sick in body, mind, or spirit.
• In joy and praise as we begin Sunday School next week, and for wisdom as we seek to do so safely and well.
• One another (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer list).

You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world,

Marshall

Beloved of God,

I want to remind you that next week (9/3-9/6) we will be on a church retreat at Glorietta through the weekend. This means that I will not be present to preach and that the worship team will not be present to serve in person. However, I’m working on something for you for Sunday that I hope will still be an opportunity for meaningful and careful engagement with God’s word. Please consider coming up to the building and spending that time with others if you like.
Our semi-regular newsletter, The Rock, is going to press within the next two weeks. If you know of special things happening within our church body, please submit them to Vanessa for publication by 9/1. Photographs of any of our recent events are especially helpful.

Our Scripture reading for this week is Psalm 15. I’m reminded of the way someone wiser than I suggested that we read the wisdom Psalms. Many of them are written with the intent of having them wash over you, over and over, until you become the sort of person that fits them. And I think this is one all of us could read more than once.
These are behaviors that one would expect in a righteous person. They are matters of the heart, matters of the tongue, and matters of the pocket book. They are also strikingly everyday things. Did you seek to walk in righteousness today? Did you tell the truth? Did you speak plainly and generously about your neighbors and not succumb to slander? Did you deal honestly with your money?
We could do a lot worse than to lay our lives against something like this at the end of everyday to take the measure of what sort of person we are. But flagellating ourselves over what we did poorly or congratulating ourselves for what we did well isn’t the point. We read and reread something like this because it tells us how to respond in love to a God who has already saved us from our sins. We want to be these sorts of folks because it is a way to love God. Let’s seek to love God by living honorably this week.

Please join me in praying for:

• An end to this pandemic.
  
• Doctors, nurses, PA’s, paramedics, and others working to keep us all well.
• Those who are facing difficult personal, professional, and physical circumstances because of the pandemic.
• Students, teachers, administrators, and staff seeking to do the good work of education, and facing challenges early in the year.
• Those who are lonely, afraid, or tired in ways they have never been.
• Those of us worrying over family who are ill or injured.
• Wisdom as we seek to be faithful and be good neighbors.
• In praise for those who are have sensed a call to serve in our ministries this fall, and for strength and joy as they do.
  
• Each other! (Please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer list.)
  

You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world,
Marshall