“The power which Christ has committed to His Church vests in the whole body, the rulers and those ruled, constituting it a spiritual commonwealth. This power, as exercised by the people, extends to the choice of those officers whom He has appointed in His Church.” PCA Book of Church Order 3.1   What a vested interest we have in the demonstration of Christ’s power on earth! Your elders lean in…

“The Church, with its ordinances, officers and courts, is the agency which Christ has ordained for the edification and government of His people, for the propagation of the faith, and for the evangelization of the world.” PCA Book of Church Order 3.5   What a calling from Christ and His church! Your elders and deacons lean into this as they come together once per quarter for a joint officers m…

“The Church, with its ordinances, officers and courts, is the agency which Christ has ordained for the edification and government of His people, for the propagation of the faith, and for the evangelization of the world.” PCA Book of Church Order 3.5   With this grace and privilege upon their minds, your elders come together each month to exercise their vows as officers of the church, for the…

From Rick 08.04.25 Session Highlights  “Our blessed Savior, for the edification of the visible Church, which is His body, has appointed officers not only to preach the Gospel and administer the Sacraments, but also to exercise discipline for the preservation of both truth and duty. It is incumbent upon these officers and upon the whole Church in whose name they act, to censure or cast out the erro…

“Lead US today, O Lord. In your righteousness, help US take the next right step… Your way, instead of OUR OWN way.” (paraphrase of Psa. 5:8)   Your elders come together every month with that prayer on our lips. It’s the heart of Christ’s undershepherds – a “band of brothers” teaching and tending and trusting – exercising our vows to nurture and to lead the church forward in Jesus’ name. What…

Acts 20 narrates the beautiful aspects of Presbyterianism (just as we heard this past Sunday) – it’s a team ministry, a “band of brothers” teaching and tending and trusting. Your elders and deacons experienced this and promoted this during our recent Joint Officers’ Meeting, exercising our vows to shepherd (elders) and to administrate the church (deacons).   The following are just a few highl…

As people, we have a curious tendency to make mountains out of molehills. We can easily blow small issues out of proportion, turning them into much bigger problems than they really are. If we step back, however, we often realize that these concerns aren’t nearly as significant in the grand scheme of things.   I have a group of fellow ministers I did doctoral work with, spread across different…

It’s hard to overstate the beauty of the Easter season for Christians. Not only does it commemorate the most important event in the history of the world, it takes place during a season in which the flowers are blooming, the sun’s coming out after a long winter, and the birds start chirping again – all around us, signs of new life show themselves in a fitting accent to what happened on Easter morni…

But then came JESUS….   Good Friday is one of my favorite services each year.  As Christians, we love the jubilation of Easter morning but we can’t fully celebrate the complete sacrifice that our Lord paid on our behalf unless we focus (as much as our human minds can fathom) on the costly price of that sacrifice.    In Isaiah 1:11 the Lord says, “What to me if the multitude of your sacri…

“‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” Matthew 22:32   Some of the religious leaders in Jesus’ day did not believe in the resurrection, so they posed a challenge to Jesus about a woman who was widowed and remarried several times. Given her natural history, who would be her husband after the resurrection? To them,…