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Hi everyone! I trust your week is going well once again! We’ve now passed Thanksgiving, and we’ve officially crossed the half-way mark through the month of October, so fall is definitely here in earnest. Hopefully you enjoy the autumn. May it be cozy, beautiful, and blessed for you all. It can certainly be a lovely season.

This week, I’ve spent too much time indoors and not enough outside enjoying the leaves. (At least, so far—the week’s not over yet.)  Quite a bit of that time has been spent in the boardroom at the church office. It’s a nice room, and a good place to have meetings. Of course, if you attend enough meetings, sooner or later your mind is likely to wander a bit and your eyes will tend to turn from the business table to whatever else there is to look at in the room. So, this week I’ve found myself pondering some of the stuff that’s collected on our shelves over the years.

Our boardroom is absolutely full of shelves on all sides. They are very useful things, and we store a lot on them. There are candles for Christmas, mugs for the welcome table, paper and supplies, a whole lot of Bibles, communion wafers, and other essentials for church life. The shelves are also a kind of archive of classes we’ve taught at WVBC and programs we’ve run over the years. There are left-over workbooks for Alpha classes, classes about spiritual gifts, lessons on boundaries and being an emotionally healthy church, studies on various Bible books and themes, and program resources for ministries to kids, youth, adults, singles, people who are grieving, people who are making life decisions, people preparing to get married, people learning English, people wanting to train their dog or cat, people learning to tie knots and rig sailboats, people wanting to join the circus, and so much more.  (Well, most of those are true. I’m joking about the last few, but you get the point.)

I smile when I look through these resources. I know a lot of the courses and programs, and have heard about most of the rest. They’re full of quality stuff. I’m confident that they’ve had a positive impact on our church and its members over the years. Some of these we should probably use again along the way. No doubt we’ll add more in the coming years, because there is always more to learn and there are always new things to try in our effort to be effective servants for our Lord’s kingdom.

I like and support such resources. I’m also aware that they come with a temptation. Precisely because they are biblical and useful, it’s sometimes tempting to equate one or more of the very good ministry resources on our shelves with the Christian faith itself. For some of us, this or that program was instrumental in bringing us to faith (how many people have met Jesus through Alpha!), or in helping us grow. The very value of the programs can subtly start us thinking that Alpha or the Emotionally Healthy Church, or some other resource, is essential to our faith. That brings at least 2 dangers. (a) It can launch comparison games. “I’ve done program ‘x,’ have you? No? You should if you want to be a really good Christian!” And (b) it can create the unhealthy impression that going through program ‘x’ is what makes a person a Christian. “I sat through Alpha a few years ago, so now I’m all good and there’s nothing else to add.” 

It's good that we use a variety of tools and programs - that there are multiple resources on our shelves. This helps us to keep things in perspective, to remember that none of these is identical with Christian faith.  Of course, it’s also important that we keep coming back to Scripture, which is the key source for our best tools and the standard for evaluating them all. That’s where we get the real picture of what it means to follow our Lord Jesus.

Even in Scripture, we’re sometimes tempted to try to reduce the gospel to a single Bible verse. We read Paul’s words to the Philippian jailer: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31) and assume we’ve heard all that Paul and the New Testament have to say about faith. That’s not how the Bible works. We need to hear its whole message, taking the time to learn all that it has to say about our Lord and our salvation, growing in our understanding little by little.

But there are some Bible passages that provide a pretty good summary of what it means to be a Christian. These are a great starting point for folks who are new to the faith, and a very helpful reminder for all of us. It’s worth being aware of some of these.

This coming Sunday, we’re looking at one of the best New Testament summary statements I know. It’s short—only 3 verses: Colossians 1:21-23. But it offers a pretty good overview of what it means to experience the salvation God offers us in Jesus. I’m looking forward to exploring it together. It’s a healthy study, and a key part of how Paul sets us up for the rest of his letter to the believers in Colossae.

I encourage you to look over the verses again this week. Since they are so short, you might even want to go back through his introductory words so far in this chapter. You’ll see ways that earlier comments anticipate what he says in 21-23. You’ll also be encouraged by the reminder that Jesus, who makes this salvation possible, is an absolutely amazing Lord and Savior, as we saw last week.   If you want to do a little more comparison reading, once again, you may find it helpful to spend a little time in Ephesians as well. Paul says a number of similar things about our salvation (and adds some other insights) in Ephesians 1:3-14 and 2:1-10.

Well, that’s enough for now. As you can see, I’m excited about what I’ve been studying, and looking forward to sharing together with you. In the meantime, have a wonderful week, and may you know God’s blessing in full!

—Pastor Ken