In the most recent issue of Christianity Today there is a fascinating article by Mark Galli. Mr. Galli wrote a book titled God’s Wins in reaction and critique of Rob Bell’s book titled Love Wins. In Rob Bell’s book evangelicals were treated to what can go wrong when we leave the bible as our sole authority for truth. In his book Mr. Bell continually asked theological questions that appealed to God’s character as “loving” instead …
Beauty Misconceptions
Dear friends, I if you haven’t had a chance to see what Jini had to say last weekend at SMCC, I encourage you to do so. After watching or listening, go to http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/blogs/doves-real-beauty-sketches-video-leads-to-controversy and watch this incredible video. We are more beautiful than we think. We are hard on ourselves. I think it is time we let ourselves be thankful for what God has given us. Remember, “flaws are 100% subjective.” (Rick Warren) Pastor Paul
The Church, The State and Gay Marriage
I’ve been thinking a bit about the decision before the Supreme Court regarding gay marriage. I recently read an article by Tony Campolo in which he asked, why is the government at all involved in marrying people? If marriage is a sacred institution, why is the government controlling it, especially in a nation where we believe in separation of church and state? When I officiate a wedding, I’ve always said, “And now, by the authority …
A Note from Jeremy Piehler, SMCC Pastor of Student Ministries
Recently I have been spending extra time in the book of Proverbs. While we often look at Proverbs as a book of random collections of wise sayings, what you will quickly discover when reading Proverbs is that the author is writing the book to his own son. Throughout this book the author encourages his son to follow godly principles, warns him against falling into temptations, how to treat friends and fools, how to deal with …
Does Jesus Want Me to Attend and Be Committed to One Local Church?
We live in a day of low commitment. People want to keep their options open. We see this in the way that people fail to commit to attending events such as weddings or parties until the last minute. We see this illustrated any time the church holds an event – 75% of the sign-ups happen during the last week. But worst of all is the failure of Christians, who are supposed to be different than …
Motivation and the Gospel
Today’s blog includes my “after-thoughts” from this weekend’s message. As I re-think what we learned about the gospel I contemplated why it is so easy for Pastors to slip into legalism in what they say from the front. I think in many cases it boils down to a desire for their congregation to obey God. When that desire is strong it is easy to slip from “inviting” their people to change to “demanding” or “requiring” …
Turning the Other Cheek
I participated in an event last week where I was asked to give my take on the topic of non-violence. What I actually did was respond to a Bible Professor’s paper that he had written for the occasion. Something that he wrote was helpful to me this week in that I felt it necessary to respond to a “Christian” celebrity’s attack on me and SMCC. This was an opportunity to turn the other cheek (Matthew …
Real Life Decisions in Stewardship
It is decision day at the Robie household. Our beloved Barkley (80 lb pit bull) is at the doggie hospital in Sandy. Evidently he ate something with a wire in it. For those that don’t know Barkley, this is nothing new – that is, that he would eat anything and everything around. The problem is, how much do we spend on getting him better? He threw up all afternoon yesterday and so we took him …
Spiritual Growth
I wonder what you would say if I were to ask you this question: “What is the most powerful tool we can give SMCC’ers so that they can grow spiritually?” If you said Inspirational Worship Services, you would be wrong. If you said Small Groups, you would be wrong. If you said a Discipleship mentor, you would be wrong. If you said a significant ministry, you would be wrong. If you said regularly reflection on …
A Day to Mourn
Today we mourn the loss of Nathan Wiebe. In the book of Ecclesiastes Solomon wrote that there is a time for everything. One example he gave is, there is a time to mourn. When I think about it, there is something special about mourning for those of us who walk with God. First of all, we don’t mourn like the rest of humanity, because we have hope in the midst of our mourning. This hope …
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