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Christian Love in Times of Political Division

AMANDA DUVALL | GUEST Among the cute photos of babies, puppies, and family vacations on social media— you see it. A friend from church posts a political message, and you cannot believe they vote for that person. Or support that cause. Or believe that news story. Maybe you reach for the quick “unfollow” button so you don’t have to see their posts anymore. Now, what happens when we walk into church and run into that person? We want to do the real world equivalent of an “unfollow.” Remove that person from our lives— if not entirely, at least put some distance between us. On the outside, everything probably looks the same, but the communion once shared has shifted, maybe even broken. This is not to downplay the real hurt we can experience in our relationships as the world becomes more politicized. It’s not just the election—there is almost no part of our society, public or private, untouched by politics. Maybe because of this, we tend to think our divisiveness today is so uniquely difficult for the Church to navigate. But then we read the New Testament. The first Christians hailed from every walk of life, and so, it was not uncommon to find a rich and educated individual, who just last month was participating in pagan rituals, right alongside a poor Jew, who had no power or property and adhered to some very strict personal ethics. Imagine for a second with me, then, what these relationships might have looked like— so easily laced with misunderstanding and awkwardness, offense, hurt, and downright rudeness. There was no earthly reason for these people to share anything in common. But in telling the Colossians about their new community, Paul says this, “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all” (3:11)...

Christian Love in Times of Political Division2024-10-02T15:17:23+00:00

John 17: One with God and Others

SARAH JEFFERSON | GUEST “ … that they may be one even as we are one …” (John 17:22) Beginning in November of 2019 and in the 18 months that followed, a tsunami of hard, unexpected events crashed into our lives. My husband and I lost a very close friend as well as both of our mothers. As I sifted through the ashes of our lives, my father reached out to reconcile after ten years of our relationship being broken and estranged. Overwhelmed by it all, I wanted to blow the whistle in the game of life and scream, “Time out on the field! Unsportsman like conduct, Lord!” Wading through so much grief while trying to wrap my mind around the work of reconciliation felt like a hard “no.” But I never want to linger in resistance to God’s word and will. When suffering guts your life so deeply, to whom will you go? How will you respond when waves of hard threaten to steal your very breath? When obedience in the hard circumstances of life beckon, what will you do?

John 17: One with God and Others2023-03-24T17:56:30+00:00

The Church In One Accord

SHARON ROCKWELL | GUEST My husband and I recently attended the 34th Annual Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast in our small town. Several hundred people gathered to pray for our nation, our state, and our city. We watched our area Explorers and the Pipes and Drum Ensemble post the Colors and lead the Pledge of Allegiance. We acknowledged those in local leadership and first responder roles, and we listened to our public high school sing both hymns and patriotic music. Several community pastors read Bible passages and led us in prayer. It was a deeply moving time to come together with those who live side by side with us, who may attend different churches, who may disagree on the need for masks, and who may be on the opposite side politically. But none of that mattered. For the few hours we were together praying, we were in one accord. I was reminded of the story of the early church. After Christ’s resurrection, He returned to present Himself alive to the apostles. He offered many proofs that He was alive, appearing to them for forty days and speaking to them about the kingdom of God. The apostles were undoubtedly excited to spread the news of what they had seen and heard. But Jesus commanded them to wait for the promised Holy Spirit to come. After this commandment, Jesus was lifted up into a cloud and taken from their sight. Acts 1:12-14 records their obedience, “Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” The crowd totaled about 120 people. Later, after Pentecost and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the church grew as 3,000 were baptized and continued in prayer and thanksgiving.

The Church In One Accord2023-03-24T17:57:59+00:00

Connected Women Build Up the Church

I confess I do not remember the days of strong WIC Ministries in the PCA. I confess that I didn’t even know WIC Ministries existed until a year ago. I am currently thirty-five and became a member of a PCA Church when I was twenty-three. During my first several years in the PCA, I was a new believer, a new mom to four children under the age of five, and new pastor’s wife—I barely had any extra margin for women’s ministry in my local context—but my heart always longed to see more connected women in our Presbytery. The men in our Presbytery meet monthly for prayer, and quarterly for Presbytery Meetings; I always desired to see women from different PCA churches gathering together for encouragement, connection, equipping, and prayer. Part of a Greater Whole Last year, at my first Women’s Leadership Training (LT), Karen Hodge asked if I would be willing serve on her National Women’s Team as Regional Advisor to Women’s Ministries in Mid-America. I was quite shocked that she would ask me; I had only been leading women’s ministry in my local context for four years at the time, and I was in every way a newbie when it came to connecting women outside of my local context. As I have served awkwardly as a newbie Regional Advisor—learning as I go, one PCA acronym at a time—my heart has grown to see connected women on a Presbytery Level, Regional Level, and National Level. Being a small slice of the Women’s Ministry National Team has given me a diverse group of wise women who have prayed for me and walked alongside me during a difficult season in my life, and helped me troubleshoot the women’s ministry issues I have faced as a young leader in my local context. The love and connectedness I have received when I reached out beyond my local context, has blessed me more than I could ever ask or think. To step out of my small suburban, Ohio women’s ministry and serve alongside life-giving leaders from South Carolina, Texas, Delaware, and Washington has helped me practically see what Paul writes about in Ephesians 2, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,  in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

Connected Women Build Up the Church2022-05-07T23:41:44+00:00
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