TMG
Hello, Crossroads Family!
It’s hard to believe it was eight years ago this Saturday that my family and I came to Nevada! Where have the years gone? Thanks for receiving a middle-aged widower pastor and his family into your lives and community! Who would have thought we would have experienced together all the things we have, growing in our love for each other and for the Lord!
As I think about changes at Crossroads Church, I think the title of our Home Group study series, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, sums it up best. As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to realize that’s not just an interesting title for a book on discipleship, but it truly is the experience God intends for anyone who wants to follow Christ. It’s a long, slow, gradual growing in love with the Lord and in the understanding of His ways. His ways are always right, always perfect and best for us!
In that book, the author, Eugene Peterson, writes the following about people’s relationship today to the gospel:
“It’s not difficult in our world to get a person interested in the message of the gospel; it is terrifically difficult to sustain the interest. Millions of people in our culture make decisions for Christ, but there is a dreadful attrition rate. In our kind of culture anything, even news about God, can be sold if it is packaged freshly; but when it loses its novelty, it goes on the garbage heap. There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness.”
I feel like our experience at Crossroads is that long apprenticeship. God is peeling away layers and making us to be more like Christ. That’s not a process that happens quickly! I’m so glad each of you is a part of that journey!
I’m also glad that in recent weeks others have been joining us at Crossroads on Sunday mornings. Let’s be mindful of the needs of newcomers and how to make them feel comfortable among us. Our space at the Community Center is cramped. Arrive early, keep an eye out for people who may be wandering around in the parking lot looking for the way in (!), and let’s fill up the front seats as best we can so that newcomers and late arrivers can come in without feeling like they’re attracting attention. We live in culture of rugged individualism; in fact, another local pastor calls it “radical individualism”! But in the church (to revert to an old, perhaps overused adage), it’s Jesus – Others – Yourself, right? Thanks for letting me be your pastor!
Going on at Crossroads
Moving Help Needed
Alex and Emily are moving into a new house on Saturday, July 15. Can you lend a hand between 7 am and noon? They would love some extra help starting at their current home on 320 N. Spring Street. If you have a question, feel free to contact them at 573-747-5270 (Alex) or 573-747-6292 (Emily). Thank you!
Home Group Tomorrow, 6:00
We’re going to have a very interesting study tomorrow evening, from A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, in Psalm 129. The subject is patience / perseverance / stick-to-it-ive-ness. Is there something you need to stick with right now, and it’s hard? Join us at Cris and Donna’s house, 12536 E. Quail Road, 6:00 – 7:15 tomorrow night! Everyone is welcome!
Picnic, July 16
Plan to join the church family for hot dogs, yard games, and swimming at the Vestals’ home on July 16, following the worship service. Hot dogs, buns, condiments, and paperware will be provided. Please bring a side and/or dessert and your favorite drink. We’ll have a great time ! If you’re interested in being baptized, please contact me soon !
Thank You!
Thanks to Jessica and Forrest who have led our Young Adult / Youth Group this past school year. The group just finished this week their study in “The Power of Knowing God.” Let’s pray for our young people and the impact of this study as well as the fellowship they’ve enjoyed. Thanks to our nursery team that serves so faithfully each Sunday — Michaela, Ryan, Kim, Erin, Donna, Michelle, Jaci & Konner (and probably someone else I’ve forgotten just now), … and thanks to the new team (Emily, Cris, and Forrest) helping with 7-10 year-olds during the sermon time!
Tom on Vacation
I’ll take time off July 3-15 and will be in and out of Nevada. I will not be answering my phone or email, so if you have a need during that time, feel free to reach out to Dave, Shane, or Forrest. Dennis Painter, chaplain at Nevada Regional Medical Center, former pastor at Crossroads, and a long-time acquaintance of mine, will be preaching in my place Sunday, July 9. Thanks to everyone who is filling in gaps during this summertime season. Thanks for your prayers for my time off.
Worship this Sunday
I hope you’ll be at the Community Center at 10:00 this Sunday morning as we finish our sermon series in Revelation! It’s going to be a good finish, and we’ll also worship the Lord by remembering Him through Communion. If you can’t be with us in person, the sermon will be posted on Facebook. “Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).
Do You Like Your Job?
I like these thoughts from Erwin Lutzer, Pastor Emeritus at The Moody Church in Chicago, on finding God’s glory in our work, based on 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” I thought they might be a help to you too!
Five Principles for Finding the Glory of God in our Work:
1. Accept your job as from the hand of God. (Even if you hope for a change, accept what you have right now as being from the hand of God.)
2. Never substitute the lesser glory for the greater glory. (Is there something you value in your work — money, prestige, promotion — more than God’s glory? Be careful not to let the lesser glories take the place of God’s glory in your work.)
3. God is most glorified in us when we bear fruit in a desert. (If you’re in a difficult job situation, you have even greater opportunities to bring glory to God!)
4. What you do is not as important as the Person for whom you do it. (Do your work for Him, as we’re instructed to do in 1 Corinthians 10:31.)
5. Live your life with the assurance that heaven is coming. (In other words, don’t worry about trying to right all injustices at the workplace; there will come a day when God will take care of that.)
And finally…
This quote from Alistair Begg meant a lot to me this week. I wonder what it means to you?
“A pastor wonders about how he can move a congregation from one condition to another. The answer is by preaching. Not by springing an idea, however biblical, on the church leadership, but by feeding the flock regularly so that God’s Word pastors, leads, directs, and changes both individuals and the whole Body.”
I hope to see you Sunday!
— Tom
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