What Is My End Goal?

THEOLOGY THURSDAY

BY DAVE HOLZHAUER

Have you ever heard the phrase “if it was a snake, it would have bit you”? It’s an idiom that humorously expresses how the thing we were looking for was right in front of us the whole time. Sometimes things are so obvious that they get glossed right over, unnoticed by their seeker. While the phrase is most often used when looking for physical objects, it’s just as true when looking for answers.

The Christian life can be said to be a series of questions and answers. While the order can and will vary, the question will inevitably come up “what is my end goal?” Maybe not in those terms; instead, the question probably is couched in a much wiser and more elegant fashion. But the basic gist is the same: what does God have to offer me? Good, Christian answers would say that God offers eternal life, a relationship made right, or Heaven. All correct answers, but let’s define our terms. What do any of those answers mean?

I think we find our definition of terms in the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John. This chapter chronicles a prayer Jesus made to God just before he was betrayed and the conveyor belt of events becomes a freight train. While I won’t quote the whole chapter here, I encourage you to read the entirety for better context.

“When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.  And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” (John 17: 1-5, ESV)

The answer of what eternal life is is very simple, very easily missed or glossed over: "that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Full stop. Seems kind of anticlimactic. 

But I think that is because of how we often understand the word "know": we understand it to mean "have or collect information about". It's limited to exclusively reeling off facts about someone. The Bible isn't limited like this; ginosko has the connotation of first hand experience of who someone truly is. It includes how they act or respond when the situation is far less than ideal or, antithetically, when something really great happens. Not everyone is a gracious winner.

In essence, Jesus is inviting us to test one of the central claims of Scripture: that God is the infinitely most desirable person/thing/being. If we decide that God really is as valuable as he claims, then Jesus offers the most life giving and eternally satisfying gift: first hand knowledge of the most infinitely desirable being. Just right there, right in front of the seeker. 

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Count The Cost

THEOLOGY THURSDAY

BY DAVE HOLZHAUER

People will often describe decisions as a fork in the road. My high school econ teacher always talked about them in terms of opportunity cost. His preferred example was that you had a choice between working a few extra hours at your job at Arby's or hanging out with your friends. If you chose to work, you missed hanging out with your friends. If you chose to hang out with your friends, you missed out on Arby's roast beef and wages (the man loved Arby's). Whichever way you chose, there was a cost, something you gave up to get what you wanted.

For small things, e.g., deciding between a mountain hike or going to the beach, the opportunity cost is so minuscule it might not even register. But it's there. As the decision gets bigger, so does the opportunity cost. In Luke 14, Jesus reminds us to count the cost. "Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple" (v.25-27). If we assume Jesus is using the word " hate" in the same way as God uses it in Genesis, hate being " to love less", you get the idea that you will choose Jesus over something else. Every time. 

Maybe this seems like an obvious choice.  But as Jesus does, he gets to the crux of the issue in the following verses, asking if someone would build a tower before figuring out if they could afford it or whether a nation would make war on another if there was no chance of victory. Jesus is humorously pointing out that if people earnestly reflect before building a tower or declaring war, why doesn't everyone following him consider what they would honestly do if asked to choose between Jesus and a dream/desire/goal they cherish. When the rubber meets the road, can you let go of (fill in the blank) and it never come back?

We aren't told of the crowd's response; the decision is left to us, the reader. Jesus offers eternal life; what is the opportunity cost?

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Only God Is Worthy Of Our Worship

THEOLOGY THURSDAY

BY DAVE HOLZHAUER

There’s a Russian proverb that says “old favors are soon forgotten.” We humans suffer from short memories when they should be long and long memories when they should be short; we remember hurts and grievances for years but forget kindness in a day. Even as you read the previous sentence you might even have remembered some kindness or benefit you had forgotten about. Struggling to remember is nothing new; it’s easy to become fixated on the challenge you’re currently facing.

Throughout the book of Exodus, the Israelites struggle. The book starts off by describing their travails under pharaohs who have forgotten Joseph and what he did for Egypt. It tells how they struggle both physically and with their faith in God rescuing them after they were told to make bricks without straw. When Pharaoh pursued the nation of Israel into the wilderness and tried to trap them against the Red Sea the people panicked, wondering why they ever listened to Moses and God in the first place. As the chapters go on, the people complain when they don't find water or food. Or, of course there is always the example of making the golden calf while Moses is talking to God on the mountain. It's easy to feel smug and wonder why the Israelites did not remember how God had come through for them in the past. But we should also remember that Paul warns us: “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (1Corithians 10:11 ESV).

There’s a lot to unpack, but I’d like to focus primarily on what the story of the golden calf says about you and me (or maybe just me). Bull shaped gods were common in the ancient Near East, usually representing some combination of strength and fertility; oxen were generally the draft animal used to plow the fields and make food production possible. Scripture says that when Aaron had fashioned a golden calf, the people declared “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” People worship what they find admirable and compelling. I think in worshiping a statue that represented strength and fertility, the people show what they, at their cores, worship. This, to me, helps explain why the people seem so bitter and caustic when complaining about lack of food or water: rather than telling God about their need, what the people have put as their central desire, food, drink, and comfort, has not happened. We’re often at our most bitter and cynical when our deepest hopes have been dashed or have not fulfilled.

One of the central claims of the Bible is that God is infinitely the most desirable being/thing; everything else is, at best, an unsatisfactory substitute. We struggle to remember that. Other things, each with a flavor that seems particularly sweet to each of us, are much louder and urgent.  But as an old pastor once said "urgent is not the same as important." Remember the important things, because they're worth remembering. 

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The Lamp Of All Heaven

THEOLOGY THURSDAY

BY DAVE HOLZHAUER

Have you ever had the misfortune of having your eyes dilated by an optometrist only to walk outside into bright sunshine soon afterwards? Or perhaps have a flashlight beam shown into your eyes? If so, you know the sensation of tightly shutting your eyes before you can even recognize it's bright. And of course have the bright, shiny dots dance before your eyes.

Light is a funny type of radiation; too little and you can't see anything. Too much and you can't see anything. All thanks to the limitations of human retinas.

“The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass.  The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.  And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.  And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” (Rev. 21: 18-23 ESV)

While it’s easy to focus on the imagery of gold and precious stones, the overwhelming theme for me is light. I say this because the author talks about gold as though it were glass instead of the eponymously colored metal. Plus, I think humans find these stones so lovely because of how they sparkle; how they reflect and refract light. This impression continues in chapter 22: “Then the angelshowed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb  through the middle of the street of the city.” (Rev. 22:1-2) Picturing water as it were flowing in a clear stream, the image is that of sparkle, shine, and life. The stream isn’t polluted with oil sheen or anything that might give a false appearance of light; it’s clean, bright as crystal. It's fitting for the river of the water of life to be described like this; I think all of us would be viscerally repulsed by a river of life described as polluted, stained, or matte.

We're fascinated by light; it's simultaneously beautiful, as shown in sunsets, nature scenes, paintings, glass sculptures, etc., and it is the medium by which we see beauty. While it's dangerous to take poetic imagery and language literally, it does begin to give us a ravishingly beautiful picture of what eternal life with God will one day look like. It does give us encouragement in all the vagaries and disappointments of this life that suffering isn't forever. It is interesting that while the heavenly landscape description occupies verse upon verse (it’s just reflecting God, after all), the brief description of God is that he is the lamp of all Heaven; that like a lamp on Earth he's difficult for mortal eyes to look at. But we are promised that we will see God, that we will see him for who he is. Just as soon as your retinas are prepared for it. 

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The Cost Of Loving Your Life

THEOLOGY THURSDAY

BY DAVE HOLZHAUER

Every year I was in high school, there was a fundraising event called Mud Tug, which, as you may guess from the name, was a large tug of war event held in a mud pit. There were two ways a team could lose: the first was if the flag suspended from the rope crossed a certain line; the second was if the entirety of one team fell into the mud at once. Well, three ways: the third being a combination of the first two. And the third option almost always happened.

One of the more famous Bible stories occurs in Genesis 19, where angels physically visit the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to get a firsthand report of how bad things really are there. Keep in mind that the cities were described in chapter 13 as "wicked, great sinners against the Lord" and in chapter 18 " the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin very grave" (Gen.13:13 & Gen.18:20). When Lot sees the angels, he insists that they stay at his house and makes a feast for them. Later, when the entire male population turns out to do indecent things to the men-who-are-secretly-angels, the angels strike all of them with blindness and tell Lot that they are going to destroy the cities; he needs to evacuate post-haste, he and his family. Lot warns his future sons-in-law what is going to happen, but they think he is joking. Why they think he is joking is soon explained, as Lot lingers and does not seem to believe what he himself is saying. Fortunately for him and his family, the angels take him by the hand and send them out of the city. On the journey, Lot's wife is turned into a pillar of salt for beginning to turn back. The chapter ends with Lot and his daughters living essentially as hermits in caves, with nothing left to their names.

Among the multitude of topics, what strikes me is how Lot, who was described as being extremely wealthy earlier in Genesis, lost everything. I wonder if he tried to hold tightly onto the physical blessings in his life: the respect he enjoyed in the city (he sat in the gate, a place where the revered elders sat in ancient Near Eastern cities) and the fantastic herds of livestock he owned (how wealth was most often measured); unable to get everything out, he was unwilling/unable to leave any behind. Like the folk tale, he couldn’t get the pickle out of the jar, so he had neither hand nor pickle. The angels still showed him mercy by escorting Lot and his family out of town, but by not getting when the getting was good, he lost out.

There’s something so human in this story, that we as humans cling so tightly to what can be so easily taken away. Rather than accepting defeat and staying out of the mud, we choose to lose AND end up in the mud pit. Jesus warns us against this line of decision making in John 12:25-26, that “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.” When escaping from a disaster of biblical proportions, it helps to know what to take and what leave behind.

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Sin Separates

Theology Thursday

by Dave Holzhauer

There’s a line from song that is frequently quoted, but people often don’t know came from a song. “One is the Loneliest Number” shows up in all kinds of places, whether in advertisements or Mulder quoting it in the X-Files. However, the frequently forgotten second line is an interesting, if less poignant one: “Two can be as bad as one, it’s the loneliest number since the number one”. 

It strikes me that in Genesis 3 that there is a chicken and the egg situation between sin and the breakdown of relationship. In verses 1-6, the serpent tempts Eve, who then eats the forbidden fruit, as does Adam. Adam is standing right there with her. There’s obviously a lot of things that can be explored off that one situation, but I want to talk about the relationship between the two breaking down. Two was the loneliest number after the number one, as Eve was seemingly on her own here to deal with the serpent being crafty. 

This separation rolled down into the two of them mutually creating and wearing clothes to hide themselves from each other (they were previously naked and without shame, according to Genesis 2, v. 25). It rolled down into them hiding themselves from God in a sad game of hide and seek (it’s pretty tough to hide from someone who knows where you are/what you’re doing/what you’re thinking at all times), separating themselves from the one being who had been their infinite joy to please. It even rolled down into one of their sons (spoiler alert for chapter 4) murdering the other and being further ostracized from God.

In many cultures, most notably Germanic cultures, there’s the idea of a blood price, or wergild, the offending party had to pay. This is still seen in many relationships, though it’s usually not monetary exchange. It seems to illustrate the offender trying to “pay off” their guilt. Sin separates. It can’t be fixed by the offending party, it has to be forgiven; but until that forgiveness takes place, there’s a yawning chasm of separation. Separation turns into loneliness; loneliness turns into being absolutely alone. By alone I don’t mean solitude; what I mean can be best represented by a word picture. Picture yourself in a room full of people who you know and know you, but everyone talks only to someone else and never to you.

It's into our estrangement that God brings forgiveness. It’s into rejection that God brings his saints the ability to please the being who we infinitely want to please. He paid the wergild, though he was the one wronged.  But it’s also into this situation that we are to be with others, all of whom are experiencing the exact same thing. You might not be able to help, but hopefully two isn’t the second loneliest number. 

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Work For Eternal Reward

Theology Thursday

by Dave Holzhauer

If you’ve been working in Boston for very long, you’re likely very familiar with people becoming dissatisfied with their earnings or wages. That brand new job or that promotion with its fancy new title and fancy new salary seemed so nice and so agreeable at first. And as time went on, you likely found yourself saying “I don’t get paid enough for this.”

 I find it fascinating that the Bible addresses this same subject. “But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6: 21-23, ESV). 

I think it’s important to clear up two things quickly. Having worked on a farm while growing up, the phrase “what fruit were you getting” sounds a lot like harvest, or when the farmer gets the payoff, since you don’t get paid until the crop is in the hand of the purchasers. Secondly, it probably sounds a bit crass when talking about wages or payoff when it comes to God. If you’ve been a Christian or around christian culture for very long, you will likely know that Christians are supposed to be unselfish and others focused. So it seems more than a little mercenary or self-interested that we would work for a wage from God. But, the trip up might be in how wage is defined. Author and economist Milton Friedman puts it this way “Self-interest is not myopic selfishness. It is whatever it is that interests the participants, whatever they value, whatever goals they pursue. The scientist seeking to advance the frontiers of his discipline, the missionary seeking to convert infidels to the true faith, the philanthropist seeking to bring comfort to the needy - all are pursuing their interests, as they see them, as they judge them by their own values.”

In essence, this passage in Romans tells us that whatever work we do, whether for God or not God, we will receive wages. The claim is simply that the wages God pays are better and will actually satisfy you. As Jesus says to the crowds: “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you” (John 6: 27).

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All Satisfying Jesus

Theology Thursday

by Dave Holzhauer

You have likely heard the phrase “bread and water”. You have also likely heard it used in context of prison or privation. It is a metaphor that has become a byword or shorthand for giving someone only just enough to keep them alive. But it is also a metonymic phrase, where bread is a poetic stand in for food, and water likewise. Both would have been would have been important to your average traveler in first century Judea, since it is difficult to carry substantial supplies of either on one’s back while walking the rugged roads. Since you couldn’t carry all the water you needed and surface sources of water were rare, you were reliant on the hospitality of others to give you water. This is the backdrop of the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman.

“Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John(although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples),he left Judea and departed again for Galilee.And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”(For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”’ (John 4:1-15, ESV)

            An important bit of context before we proceed: there were three basic types of water in the first century Near East. There was cistern water, which came from a purposely dug hole in the ground; fancy cisterns would have been dug into non-permeable rock. These relied on water running down into them during a rain. Since there was no filtration system, these were essentially cesspools, filled with water, dirt, and decaying organic matter, among other things. Well water tapped into aquifers, a better source of water, since the permeable rock above the aquifer acted like a rough version of a Britta filter. However, like their modern counterparts, these wells could become contaminated. Living water was running water, whether from a spring, an open system fountain, a stream, etc. Living water was the best type, since it was least likely to contaminated.

            With that background in mind, let’s zoom in on the metaphor Jesus is using. He’s at a well, talking to a woman with the tools to draw water. But he offers her water that’s better than the water he just asked her to give him. It’s akin to asking a complete stranger at a restaurant to buy your dinner and then telling them that you have three Michelin star food. When the woman tries to call him out, Jesus begins to describe something tantalizing indeed, water that will satisfy the thirst of one’s soul. If you’ve ever been thirsty for very long, you know how it is a sensation that refuses to be ignored or suppressed, and the longer it goes, the worse it becomes. 

            I suspect that the woman was intrigued, but not entirely sold. But, she tells Jesus ‘…“Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”’ (John 4:15). Might as well see if Jesus can deliver the goods, right? Jesus’s response takes an unexpected tack: ‘”…Go, call your husband and come here. The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’;for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”’(John 4:16-18). 

Think back to how thirst refuses to be ignored or suppressed. Now imagine being surrounded by only sea water. Sure, you can drink it, but it will only make you exponentially thirster. The Samaritan woman had been drinking the incorrect water, and it had only made her soul thirstier. She had gone through five husbands and was now on a man who was not her husband, but her soul was still thirsty. What she tried to quench with men could only be quenched by God. I think she suspected, somewhere inside, that this was true, because her next question to Jesus is about where people should worship God (verses 19-20). It’s a test of what Jesus would say, since Samaritans and Jews disagreed vehemently about where one should worship, but there’s the kernel of awareness that she was trying to put a round peg in a square hole. Jesus confronts her on her most pressing issue, that she was attempting to anesthetize her spiritual needs. The Samaritan woman attempts to defuse the conversation by saying that when the Messiah comes, he will explain everything (v.25). Jesus puts the onus back on her, saying “I who speak to you am he.” (v.26).

            It’s very easy to stretch a metaphor too far, to over-conceptualize it and lose sight of its actual point. But if you have a craving that has not been sated by all that you’ve thrown at it, you are likely in the same place as the Samaritan woman in verse 29: “Come, see a man who told me everything that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”

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Jesus Makes Me Clean

Theology ThurSday

by Dave Holzhauer

If you’ve ever picked up a book off of the shelf that you’ve never read before and started reading half way through, you’ve likely felt lost in the story pretty quickly. The same goes for a show that you started in season five. Sure, with intelligence and insight, you can probably figure out a lot of what’s going on, but you know you’re missing a lot. Context matters.

The same is true in Scripture; each author had a purpose in writing, and context is key. Vignettes are often related to what happened before or after them. In the Gospel of Mark, this relationship can often look more like a rope than links of a chain, with ideas continuing on and interacting with other parts of the story.

At the beginning of Mark 7 the Pharisees ask why Jesus’s disciples don’t ritually wash before eating: “And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’” (Mark 7:5). For anyone unfamiliar, the Pharisees were obsessed with ritual cleanliness and purity, even creating a washing ritual to avoid becoming unclean by having touched something unclean. After Jesus publicly declares that it is not external factors that defile a person, the disciples don’t get it, so Jesus reiterates: ‘” …What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”’ (Mark 7:20-23).

            The vignette that follows this exchange is that of the Syrophoenician woman.

“And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden.  But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet.  Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.” And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.” (Mark 7:24-30)

While all commentators I’ve been able to find chalk this vignette up to testing of the woman’s faith, this has always seemed incomplete to me. It seems odd to sandwich a quick exchange about faith between the disciples not understanding what defiles a person and the healing of a deaf stammerer. This doesn’t fit with how the Gospel writers structure their books. Any time the disciples are slow to understand something that Jesus is teaching them, a teaching moment example seems to follow. 

The Syrophoenician woman would have been seen as doubly defiled: a Gentile and unclean through contact with her demoniac daughter. Remember also that the Gentiles of the ancient Near East would have worshipped an array of pantheons of gods and goddesses, an anathema to any Jew. But aside from proving the virtue of persistence, she is an example to the disciples and to us of what Jesus said in Mark 7:20-23, that pride, envy, slander, etc. are what defile in God’s eyes. And as Jesus has shown before, he’s willing and able to clean up any defilement that you and I ask him to.  

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The God of the Seasons

THEOLOGY THURSDAY

BY Dave Holzhauer

Of New England’s autumn rituals, traveling to see the fall colors of trees, or leaf peeping, as it has been called, is perhaps the best known nationally. It’s a comforting tradition, watching the beautiful colors emerge as the rolling seasons continue their cycle, a milestone of delight.

The author of Psalm 104 must surely have shared this very human delight in Nature, its cycles, and gives words to the wonder. The author explores the wonder that God, who is so majestic and magnificent, would bother to create. God instills order into this new creation (verses 5 – 8). He creates the water cycle, so essential for life to exist (verse 10). Branching off of the water cycle, the author begins to explore the whole interconnected system that God has created. But through this whole interconnected system of cycles (chemistry), natural laws (physics), and relationships (biology), God is involved. 

God being involved in his creation is staggering. The various disciplines of science can tell us how the universe around us functions. Very likely it could run along just fine once God set the universe in motion. But he chooses to get involved and leaves his fingerprints throughout. God gave beauty to be appreciated and endowed humans with an appreciation of beauty. Completely unnecessary, from a biological point of view. But it’s there. The desire for celebration and the ability to celebrate. Wonderful flavors and smells. God makes good things.

God being involved takes on a different dimension when you consider the relative magnitudes of the two actors. From a human point of view, Creation is huge, wonderful, and awe-inspiring. But our everyday experience tells us that while the created reflects the creator, it is only a shadow. Artists have made exquisite music, paintings, sculpture, etc. But the art can’t move, breathe, or interact like its creator can. This extrapolation breaks down a bit when moving from the finite to the infinite, but it gives a base for beginning to appreciate that God, who did not need to create and gains nothing by creating, would take the time and effort to be involved in his creation so intimately. God has assigned a high value to us, valuable enough to allow Jesus to be sacrificed on the cross that we might be redeemed. What other artist or creator has ever invested so much into their creation?

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Where Can I Find Comfort When I'm Hurting?

THEOLOGY THURSDAY
WITH DAVE HOLZHAUER

Have you ever asked someone how they were doing and they responded “not good”? There’s something about that response that causes some instant tension in a conversation. This goes beyond the violation of the unspoken societal norm that “how are you” is simply an informal way of saying hello. There’s a discomfort when others are suffering that we dislike dealing with.

This discomfort seems to be there throughout human history. In the book of Job, the protagonist, the eponymous Job, loses everything: all his wealth, property, children, and health. His wife stays in the story long enough to ask him why he doesn’t curse God and die. Through all of this, “Job did not sin with his lips” (Job 2:10). It’s at this point that Job’s three friends hear about all his troubles and agree to go together and comfort him. Commentators have estimated that between the friends hearing about Job, contacting each other, agreeing to comfort Job, and actually arriving where Job was, the whole process may have taken as long as seven years. When they did, they didn’t even recognize him; when they did, they saw how great his suffering was, grieved, and sat in silence with him (Job 2:11-13).

For the next 35 chapters, Job expresses his own pain, confusion, and desire to ask God why all of this happened. As you may already know, his friends spend the next 35 chapters telling him that it was his own sinfulness that brought this down on him and he needs to repent of his sinful thoughts and deeds. 

There are a number of different themes occurring throughout these chapters, but I want to focus on the final five chapters of the book (Job 38-42). God speaks directly to Job, asking him if he can do any humanly impossible tasks and asking him if he knows how to create the laws of nature. The implication is clear: if you don’t understand how to create visible things, how are you going to understand God’s plans? Job’s response is surprising: 

I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
    but now my eye sees you;
 therefore I despise myself,
    and repent in dust and ashes. (Job 42: 5-6)

There is a footnote that says repent may also mean “am comforted”. Job is comforted by God’s presence. This profound: having spent 41 chapters losing everything, expressing his grief, having terrible comforters, and having God show up to tell him that Job knew nothing of what was going on, Job is comforted by God being there. Job may have been able to give mental assent to God’s character and characteristics, but it seems Job did not know God for who he was, not in the way that you know someone after having been through the fire with them. That’s the single biggest takeaway of Job, that no matter how deep or long lasting our grief, even if it’s never made better in this life, only being with God (in the deepest sense of the term) can comfort us. That’s not to say the grief goes away or is made right. But there is joy.
[Thank you for reading! If you are looking for a church in Boston or churches in Boston please consider giving Renewal Church a try!]

Why does God take so long?

Theology Thursday
with Dave Holzhauer

One of my favorite novels is The Count of Monte Cristo, a story of a man who has everything taken from him and then acquires unlimited means to seek revenge. The story explores what happens when any one idea becomes what you follow at all costs. It shows what it costs a man bent on revenge unless he is saved from himself.

The Count of Monte Cristo is hardly the only human question about justice delayed. The Roman poet Horace expressed it as pede poena claudo (Punishment comes limping). The prophets and Psalms both ask God why he has not yet given them justice. In the book of Habakkuk, the prophet Habakkuk asks God why, as a just god, he allows wickedness and wicked people to prosper (Habakkuk 1:2-4). God responds that he already has a plan in motion that Habakkuk “would not believe if told.” Hababkkuk’s follow up question is pretty logical: when? The prophet goes so far as to compare all the people of the world to fish, who have no one to protect them and are helpless against the one catching them (the wicked). Habakkuk’s response epitomizes the feelings of everyone who has ever waited for justice; the wait seems interminable and the situation seems worse and worse.

God replies:
“Write the vision;
    make it plain on tablets,
    so he may run who reads it.
 For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
    it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
    it will surely come; it will not delay.
Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
    but the righteous shall live by his faith.” (Habakkuk 2:2-4)

God’s response does not give us the answer we long for. It doesn’t give a specific time; it simply says to trust God, that justice may seem slow, but it is coming. That does feel particularly satisfying. As the rest of Habakkuk 2 and the Bible in general show, God gets deeply angry over injustice and wrong. However, we’re reminded in Ezekiel 33:11 that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked; he desires that everyone would turn from their wicked ways and live. He extends the same grace to others that we want for ourselves when we make mistakes or wrong others. However, that grace is in perfect tension with God being unable to tolerate injustice. We’re called to trust in God’s timing, no matter how delayed that timing seems, because while we can only see a small part of the picture, God not only sees the whole thing but is working out his plans. And what seemed like an injustice unpunished might just be a facet in someone else’s redemption.

[Thank you for reading! If you are looking for a church in Boston or churches in Boston please consider giving Renewal Church a try!]

When God Wants to Do Something New

BY ADRIANA ESPINAL

There’s something about the outdoors that renews my spirit. Maybe it’s those moments where the silence is only broken by the cracking of twigs on the forest floor as I move forward, unsure where the next turn will take me, or maybe it’s the smell of fresh pine air that fills my lungs until my chest can’t expand any further. Perhaps it’s those moments at the base of majestic mountains that make my place in this world – and any troubles I’m experiencing – feel so small. 

Every year since moving to Boston, I’ve taken a longer trip outdoors with the purpose of escaping the city and being renewed. This year, I invited my brother and decided we’d go to the Pacific Northwest. On our week-long excursion, we hiked and camped through Mt. Hood, Crater Lake National Park, Cannon Beach, and Mt. Rainier. Crater Lake was my idea and I almost regret it because in the process of recording my brother jumping off a cliff and into the lake, I – while standing on said cliff – dropped my phone into the lake. And it wasn’t just any lake – it is the deepest lake in the entire country. Of course. As I watched it descend from this world into the next, the thought of jumping into the lake to save my five-year old phone didn’t even cross my mind. Instead, I stood still on that cliff and closed my eyes in frustration, wondering why I couldn’t be more careful. 

I spent the rest of the evening disappointed in myself and annoyed that I’d lost photos and other sentimental pieces that were only on that device (for years, I’ve refused to pay extra for cloud storage, but I’ve learned my lesson). A new phone would be expensive and my budget was already pretty tight, so I didn’t want to think about my bank account. The next day when I broke the news to my mom using my brother’s phone, she could tell I was a little distraught and said, “You have emergency savings, so use that to buy a new phone. You probably weren’t going to buy a new phone unless it fell into a lake anyway. Just get excited about it!” And she was right. 

Maybe that’s one of the ways God chooses to move in our lives. Sometimes he removes things that we hold onto tightly because if it were up to us, we’d hold onto them for much longer than we should. Instead of stepping into the future he has for us or the new thing that he wants to do in our lives, we grip onto the things that are comfortable whether it’s a living situation, job, habit, relationship, personality trait. Releasing those things requires faith and if I’m honest, sometimes I choose to keep doing what’s comfortable to avoid the pain that comes with letting go, but I have to remember that God promises that “the path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” (Proverbs 4:18)

As followers of Jesus, we can know and trust that God’s plans for us are good and that our days get brighter and brighter even when it doesn’t seem that way. When we suffer or endure pain or lose something that was once comfortable, we get to love and serve a God who comforts, restores, and redeems in the midst (and after) the suffering. We can rest knowing that Jesus came so that we “may have life and have it in abundance” (John 10:10) even in the times where it doesn’t feel like our lives are abundant.  

I’m reminded of words God spoke to the Israelites as he promised to deliver them from their captors, the Babylonians: “Do not remember the former things, or ponder the things of the past. Listen carefully, I am about to do a new thing, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it. I will even put a road in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:19) He was reminding them of how he previously provided a way through the Red Sea when he rescued them from slavery in Egypt and that he would make a way for them again in the future. Similarly, in our lives we should remember that God is faithful to His promises and that he continues to work in and around us to build his kingdom here on earth. The future he has for us is better than our past or current circumstances if we choose to follow and trust him. 

What is something you’re holding onto that God is asking you to release? Focus more on the new thing he is doing and get excited because he never fails. 

[Thank you for reading! If you are looking for a church in Boston or churches in Boston please consider giving Renewal Church a try!]

The God Who Gets His Hands Dirty

Theology Thursday with Dave Holzhauer

We’re used to the idea that if something clean touches something dirty, the clean thing becomes dirty. Think of food and the five second rule (except on a really dirty floor, with dust bunnies running amok).

One of the major themes in the Old Testament is the idea of cleanliness, usually a metonymy or stand-in for holiness. In Haggai 2:10-19, this problem is addressed directly. God asks the priests if something holy touches something else that is unclean, does the unclean become holy/clean? The priests said, “no.” What about if something unclean touches something clean/holy? The priests said, “it becomes unclean.” God goes on to tell the tell the people that they are unholy through their actions, but he will make them holy. Something that seems impossible after the previous Q&A session.

Haggai never resolves this dilemma. If something holy is made unholy by contact or interaction with something unholy, what are we to do? Are you simply supposed to shut yourself from anything unclean or sinful? Good luck. If everything around you is unclean, you’re going to become unclean at some point when you brush up against it. If you’ve ever sinned or done wrong in your life, you’re already unholy or unclean.

We get the answer to this unsolvable problem in Mark 1:40-45. A leper begs Jesus to heal him. This is no big deal, we’ve already seen Jesus do lots of miracles by this point in the story. What’s interesting/weird is how Jesus heals the leper. Instead of simply healing the disease (we’re not told which skin disease it was) with a word of command, Jesus reaches out this hand and touches the leper. Only after touching the leper does he tell the disease to be healed. Jesus does not stay aloof or far away from our suffering. 

Under the reigning ritual purity laws of the day (and our own experience), the clean (Jesus) has now become dirty and contaminated. Stop and think about that for a second. Jesus didn’t grab a bar of Irish Spring and scrub the guy. Instead, we’re presented a picture of something so clean that the dirty and unclean become clean by touching it. That’s a stunning reversal of our ideas of how things go. And yet there we have it. There is a god who is so infinitely clean and full of compassion that he will reach out to touch the dirty and unclean. Not simply to make reassuring contact with the dirty and unclean, but to make them clean like himself.

[Thank you for reading! If you are looking for a church in Boston or churches in Boston please consider giving Renewal Church a try!]

Adult Baptism in Boston

Have you been wanting to get baptized, but you aren’t connected to a local church in Boston? At Renewal Church we can help you get baptized.

About Baptism

Baptism is for anyone who has placed their faith in Jesus Christ to be their Savior and Lord. In more contemporary language, you could say that baptism is for anyone that has asked Jesus to be the forgiver of their sins and the leader of their life.

Baptism is a way of saying that you are dying to an old, sinful way of life and being raised to walk in a new way of life. It is declaring that you have been born again into the family of Jesus.

About Church

If you don’t have a local church in Boston that will baptize you then you actually need two things, don’t you? You need to be baptized to follow your Lord AND you need a local church to belong to. Renewal Church has become the spiritual home of many people who have been baptized here. They are being discipled in Community Groups, serving on teams, and connected to godly leaders. At your baptism service you’ll have the opportunity to sign up for a four week experience called Next Steps where you can get more involved.

What’s My Next Step?

Currently we have an adult baptism service once per month. Head over to www.RenewalChurchBoston.com/baptism and sign up for the next service today. You’ll be contacted by someone from the church who can help you get ready for baptism.

How to Make Friends in Boston

Phones, Headphones, Dogs

This is the unholy trinity of loneliness in Boston.

It would be nice to make some friends in Boston, right? It would be wonderful if it was easy to make friends like it was in college. But everyone is on their phone, listening to their headphones, or focussing on a dog.

You can’t force friendship, it must emerge naturally. That’s why the easiest way to make new friends is to surround yourself with many positive like-minded people on a repeating basis. Then friendship will have the time and space needed to emerge naturally.

This is one reason why Renewal Church is launching our Young Professionals Ministry in Boston. Every third Thursday we meet right after work. If you want details check out @gathrboston on instagram.

When you connect at church you’re also surrounding yourself with people who can help you grow spiritually. So if you find yourself alone in Boston, we’re here for you.

[Thank you for reading! If you are looking for a church in Boston or churches in Boston please consider giving Renewal Church a try!]

How to Find a Church in Boston

You just moved to Boston and you’re thinking about finding a new church.

I’ve been here through eight years of people moving to Boston: living, working, playing, worshipping, leaving. And I’ve got two pieces of advice that will positively affect the quality of your time and the size of your impact during your time in Boston.

Find a church quickly.

I don’t mean you should close your eyes and point at Google maps, but I do mean that when you arrive pick three or four churches from your online search, go check them out, and if one of them seems legit, stay there. When you’re searching online think about doctrine, teaching style, worship style, and distance. But try not to travel over 25 minutes to get to the “perfect church” or you won’t be able to participate mid-week.

When you find a church you like, go to the membership class the first time it’s offered. They are called “membership class,” or “next steps,” or “growth track,” or something similar. This should be a good time to check and make sure you haven’t accidentally joined a cult or anything weird. They should believe the whole Bible, encourage you to grow spiritually, and be serious about spreading the message of Jesus.

Take a friend if you can.

A friend can help you sort through whether the church is a little too authoritarian, whether the doctrine was correct, or whether you are being too picky and just need to commit. Ideally your friend is a believer, but if you’re roommate isn’t a believer, asking for a wingman/wingwoman is a great way to expose your friend to the gospel message.

A friend will ease the social anxiety of wandering into a room full of strangers. If you have to go it alone, then that’s totally ok. But bringing a friend is a huge help.

Renewal Church is here for you.

Finding a church that is friendly and isn’t weird is hard! Renewal church is in Boston, right on the Boston Common. We’re here to help you grow spiritually, meet a few new friends, and prepare you for a life-time of impact in Jesus name. If our church isn’t right for you, we can help you connect with an amazing church nearby that is a great fit. So I hope you’ll stop by and check it out soon.

Getting Unstuck With Prayer

Have you ever wanted to change, but just couldn’t seem to. make it happen? Have you felt frustrated and tired of letting down people you love because of habits you can’t break in your life?

I have. But, I learned something that changed everything for me. I learned, from God’s Word, how to pray in a completely different way. And, that’s what I want to share with you today.

2020 was a year when a lot of us got stuck. Because of the extra uncertainty and anxiety in our lives bad habits, destructive patterns, and sinful ways of dealing with life crept back in. But God has given us prayer as a tool to handle uncertainty and anxiety and get the help we need to live with peace. God moves in response to prayer, and he also can change you protect your mind and your heart. Prayer is how you get unstuck.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
- Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)

Let’s start by gaining an understanding of how prayer changes us. A few things to point out from Philippians 4:6-7:

How prayer changes us:

1. Prayer is bridge from Anxiety to Peace.

The text takes you on a journey. It starts with anxiety, and it ends with “and the peace of God.” There is a gap between the anxiety we experience and the peace we long for, and that gap is filled by prayer. 

You will face troubles, and you will experience anxiety. It doesn’t go away just because you are a Christian. You can turn away from God, or you can turn to God in faith. Prayer is how you turn to God in faith. And the result of that is peace.

Part of the reason you are stuck is because you are experiencing anxiety and you are trying to run from it, or hide from it, or numb it by turning to things that cannot save you from it. And the next day, your situation hasn’t changed except now you are deeper in debt or you’re little addicted or your relationships is a little unhealthier.

2. Prayer is the way to a protected thought life.

The text says that when you pray, God’s peace will “guard your heart and your mind.” The phrase heart and mind is a way of speaking of your whole inner world.

Have you ever noticed that. It doesn’t take much, to send your inner world spiraling out of control. One sentence that touches the raw nerve of your insecurities. One thought that sparks a worry of the future that is out of your control. One social media post which worries you that you are not keeping up. Your inner world is vulnerable to worry and anxiety. It is much harder to respond in faith, than to spiral out of control.

But when you pray, God’s peace guards your heart and mind. When you pray you are reminded that God is in control. You are reminded that God is bigger than your circumstances. You are reminded that God is sovereign. You experience his presence and his love. All of those experiences you gain in prayer invite God’s peace to stand like a sentry in front of your mind.

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.
- Isaiah 26:3 (NIV)

You focus on God when you trust in God by prayer. God keeps you in peace.

3. Prayer brings you to the Prince of Peace. 

When Paul was writing he could have said, “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds.” Period. Full Stop. Why does he go on to say, “in Christ Jesus?” What is it about Jesus that contributes to this peace in prayer? What is it about Jesus that can’t be accomplished with prayer by any person? Prayer gets its power from its connection with Jesus. Why is that?

When you have a relationship with God through his son Jesus Christ, you no longer have to worry about whether God hears your prayers. He is not just God, he is your Heavenly Father. And you don’t have to worry about whether you’ve been good enough, or spiritual enough, or righteous enough. You can come to him and find his peace not because of what you’ve done, but because of what Jesus has done for you. He died on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins and he rose from the dead so you could have freedom and hope.

This destroys anxiety. Can you imagine coming before God looking for peace, but not really knowing whether you’ve been good enough or religious enough? That itself is anxiety inducing. But, when you know Jesus, whom the Bible calls the Prince of Peace, you can have peace even in your asking, because you know that the Father hears you and loves you and cares about you. When my little kids are scared, they don’t come ask me for things, they want to be near me, and our closeness is what they need to feel safe. It’s the same way with your heavenly Father…

*Important Note": Maybe, one of the reasons you have dealt with endless anxiety in your life, even if you’ve tried to pray before is that you don’t have a relationship with God. Knowing him won’t mean you never feel anxious again, but if you don’t know him, you’ll never experience that supernatural peace that God can bring into your mind. [To get more information about how to start a relationship with God, click here]

Practical Tips to Get Unstuck with Prayer:

Pray the Psalms aloud.

You learn to speak by having 10,000 words spoken into you before you make your first noise. You imitate the people who have mastered the language. Prayer is the same. The psalms are the vocabulary of prayer, and they touch on the deepest human emotions, processing them in God’s presence. If you want to learn to cast all your anxiety on him, then pray the psalms aloud one each day. 

Get around people who know how to pray.

I thought I knew how to pray. Then I went to South Africa on missions trip. Man, I learned some things. People were crying out to God with a passion I had never experienced before. People were praying in a different way and with a different intensity. I gained access to a whole new way to pray by putting myself around people who really new how to pray.

[Thank you for reading! If you are looking for a church in Boston or churches in Boston please consider giving Renewal Church a try!]

How Pastors Can Help You Get Unstuck

If you want to get unstuck and grow, you need to put yourself in a position where you can benefit from people who can help you the most. In the church, these people are pastors. God gives pastors to the church to protect her, lead her, and provide for her. But if you are stuck in your life and want to grow spiritually, you’ve got to put yourself in a position where you can benefit from your pastor’s ministry.

Below is a text that was written by one of the earliest followers of Jesus, Peter. Peter gives instructions about church leadership for elders, or leaders in the early church, also called overseers. The work elders do is called shepherding. [In Latin the word shepherd is pastor. Which is why we call our elders shepherds, or pastors.]

To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
- 1 Peter 5:1-4 (NIV)

A few things to point our from this text:

1. Pastors protect the flock.

The word translated “watching over them” in the text means to “to look carefully, or beware.” It doesn’t mean just stand back and admire. It includes the meaning of protection. Pastors have a responsibility to protect their people from false teachers, heresies, gossip and divisive people.

I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock… So be on your guard!
- Acts 20:29-31 (NIV)

A good pastor is looking out for wolves at all times. A good pastor has some teeth. He should be meek and humble like Jesus. Gentle with the sheep, but deadly with the wolves.

Pastors also protect their church from the attacks of Satan by covering you in prayer.

Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
- 1 Peter 5:8 (NIV)

Satan wants to destroy your life, your witness, and your joy. He is actively looking for an opportunity to ruin you. When you aren’t a member of a church, you lack the spiritual covering and protection of godly elders. When you come under the covering of a pastor or a group of elders you have godly people praying for you by name.

2. Pastors provide for the flock.

The text also says that God’s flock is “under your care,” and the word translated “be shepherds” literally means to feed a flock. Pastors provide the Word of God for their people, carefully interpreted and applied to their lives.

People need pastors who are faithful to and careful with the Word of God. And here is Paul’s final charge to a young minister just before Paul’s death.

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.
- 2 Timothy 4:1-2 (NIV)

Faithful pastors provide the Word for the flock. On Sundays, from house to house, in coffeeshops and Bible studies, in staff meetings and casual conversations.

3. Pastors lead the flock.

The pastors are “watching over.” The people are “under” their care. Just as a shepherd leads the sheep out to a green pasture each morning, then leads them to a stream to drink, then leads them back home to safety in the evening, so faithful pastors lead their flock. Pastors are not caretakers of buildings, or even employees of the church. Faithful pastors have a vision for the future. And the flock follows the shepherd.

Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.
– Hebrews 13:17 (NIV)

Hebrews instructs us to have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority. For me personally, this is our elder board. I don’t submit to their spiritual authority because I have to. I do it because I need their covering, their support, and their leadership in my life. Whose lead do you follow spiritually?

Now you might think this opens the way for abuse, and the Lord knows that many pastors have abused their position. This is why, even in our text today, healthy boundaries are given for leadership.

Peter warns that pastors must be:

• Willing servants, not begrudging

• Not in it for the money

• Not domineering

• Leading by their personal example

• Aware of the appearing of Christ and their own judgement

When you’ve found a pastor like that, you’ve found a treasure.

4. Jesus is the shepherd of the church. The sheep belong to him.

Peter ends by reminding all of us that there is a chief-shepherd and his name is Jesus. 

(Jesus) “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
- John 10:11 (NIV)

Both pastors and their people are under the authority of Jesus. And what a beautiful place to be, because Jesus loved you so much that he left the comforts of heaven to find you. The Scriptures say that:

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all.
- Isaiah 53:6 (NIV)

When you went astray, Jesus’ heart ached for you. In order to get his runaway kids back, Jesus died on a cross bearing the shame of our iniquities, then he rose from the dead so he could lead you through life.

While pastors should be respected because of their position, they are not Jesus Junior. We all need Jesus. If Jesus is the head of the church, then everything else is just body. We all need spiritual authority in our lives. We all need God’s grace so we don’t blow up our lives. And if you want to get unstuck and grow spiritually, having a pastor is a major way God is going to work in your life.

How to Apply this to Your Life Today:

Consider this: It doesn’t do any good to know that a pastor exists. You’ve got to put yourself in a position to benefit from your pastor’s ministry.

Here are some practical ways you can start to benefit from your pastor’s ministry.

1. Have a relationship with the Good Shepherd.

Ultimately a good pastor is going to point you to Jesus, but Jesus is the one who is going to change your life. To be in a position to benefit from my pastor’s ministry, you first need a relationship with Jesus. [To learn more about starting a relationship with Jesus, click here.]

2. Attend Church Services consistently.

It’s important to make the gathering of believers a top priority in life. When you attend weekly services, you will start to grow. Have you ever been to a church service and thought, “I wish so and so were here to hear this!”? Let me let you in on a secret - pastors think that about you all the time. We think, “Oh, I wish he were here this week. This is exactly what he needs to hear from the Lord.” But you can only receive your pastor’s ministry when you attend church services consistently.

3. Step out of anonymity.

To benefit from your pastor you need to take a step. You’ve got to reach out and let us know what to pray about for you. If there is a major decision or if you get seriously stuck in life, send an email, text the church, or send a carrier pigeon. We want to pray for you. And if you get stuck, maybe we can help point you in the right direction.

4. Pray for your pastor.

Pastors need your prayers for protection, and effectiveness, and healing, and guidance, just like you need your pastor’s prayers. Praying for our pastors is something we can all growing and helps us love people well.

How can grow to benefit from your pastor’s ministry this week?

[Thank you for reading! If you are looking for a church in Boston or churches in Boston please consider giving Renewal Church a try!]