Blog

This is the conclusion of our interview with Phil Sasser. For this segment we ask him a number of questions about workplace evangelism, drawing on his years as a pharmacist. Phil proved gifted in being both relational and truth-ful as an evangelist in the workplace. For our interview I asked him for practical advice to help the many of you who work and interact with non-Christians. 

The quarantine that has occurred over the last seven weeks or so has only increased our love of the fellowship of God’s people as we gather to worship, pray and hear God’s word preached.  The elders would appeal to each member of our church to help with the transition that will occur over the next few weeks and months as we begin to gather again and move back to normalcy. 

This week our special guest is Phil Sasser, Pastor Emeritus at SGC. We'll post this in two parts. The first has to do with the Sunday gathering, and the second with workplace evangelism. Given Phil's decades in pastoral ministry and his extensive study of the Bible and church history, he has a lot of insight about the Lord's Day gathering and what it means to the life of a Christian. Stayed tuned for the end of the interview for his...candid...advice to parents of young boys about preparing for Sunday worship.

The example of the NT church is that they met on Sunday, the day of Jesus’ resurrection, and they referred to it as “the Lord’s Day.” To come together on the Lord’s Day wasn’t a convenient add-on to living the Christian life. It was one of the essential activities of the Christian:

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Heb 10:24–25) 

This is our next installment in the COVID Chronicles, a mid-week encouragement to help us “set your minds on things that are above.” That comes from Colossians 3, and right before this Paul says to “seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”

Last Sunday we thought about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Jesus the King. But the resurrection isn’t where the story ends. There’s also his ascension and coronation.

Today marks a convergence that is not easy to process. On one hand we’re in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and the numbers are continuing to rise. Experts are predicting the numbers to rise into the weekend. Our prayer is that we see the downturn soon. For God to be merciful and to spare lives. Let this plague pass. On the one hand is COVID-19. On the other hand it’s holy week. We’re at Wednesday of the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. We’re looking ahead to Good Friday and then Resurrection Sunday. There are no days more glorious or more important than the Friday Jesus was crucified and the Sunday he rose again.

Easter falls this year on April 12th, a fairly typical date on the calendar in most years. This year it's right in the middle of a whole set of restrictions surrounding COVID-19. Likely we'll be talking about this Easter for the rest of our lives: "Remember 2020 when all Christians around the world stayed home at Easter."

However, for many of us "stay at home" also means that the pace of life has slowed just a bit. And maybe that means we can prepare for Resurrection Sunday more than we typically do, not less. This post is to help you do that. 

With hard things coming our way pretty fast it's good to look at God's Word and remember some of the reasons why they do. Otherwise we can miss what God might be up to in our lives. Here are the 12 reasons listed out:

One of the realities of this COVID season is that we'll each be impacted uniquely. Even as we talk to different people within this church we're seeing it. Some are experiencing significantly reduced hours, others have had their jobs doubled. Lou Gregus, who helps organize our Side-by-Side Ministry dedicated to building bridges between our church and ministry in the community (and beyond), passed along a prayer that helps us remember how others might be faring in this season:

For this installment we look at Isaiah 40 and the way it presents God as both infinite over us and concerned for us. In hard times we need to be confident of both.