Every Thursday I post a small taste of the upcoming Sunday sermon.  This week marks  3/4 through the year, so I am spending the time reviewing what we’ve learned so far this year.  Its hard to cram 37 Sunday’s worth of material into a half hour, but here are the high points I”ll try to cover.

1.  Pastor Jamie’s (aka Pastor Greenbean on this sight) new year challenge.  I started the year off by challenging the people in our church to do five things:

• Feed yourself–take responsibility for your spiritual growth.
• share your faith–at least invite them to church!
• Join a small group–it is impossible to grow without a group.
• Serve somewhere–Jesus came to serve, and told us to do the same.
• Give financially–where your treasure is, there you heart is too!

2.  PROJECT 68–In February I went through a three week series based on Micah 6:8.  I asked the hearers to engage in a project for each one of the major points.  Do something in the realm of justice, do something in the concept of love kindness (or love-love as we called it after looking at the Hebrew words), and a project to help you walk with the Lord.

3.  We’ve spent a lot of time this year in the book of Acts.  For a large part we examined the different churches in Acts (Antioch, Jerusalem, Ephesus, Rome) and we also did biographies from Acts of people like Stephen and Lydia.  This Sunday I want to remind everyone that all of those great people and great churches were following the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and we are to impact our world like they did theirs.

4.  Most of the Spring (Easter onward) we were in a series called “ALIVE” that carried the Easter message over into other areas that need to be resurrected like families that are dying, churches that are dying, finances in ruin, broken relationships, and dead dreams.  All of these things can come back to life in the hands of Christ!

5.  In our 1st Timothy series we learned about the important role that churches play in defending against heresy, proclaiming the gospel, and developing leadership.  Those are important functions for us still!

6.  Finally, we recently completed the series from Mark as it records Jesus later Galilean ministry (Mark 3-5).  A dominant theme in these sermons was the ongoing call of Christ to faith and the varying responses.  The epitome of this is found in the Parable of the Soils (Mark 4).

 
I am really looking forward to Sunday.  I have found that ‘review’ is a powerful learning tool and I regret that I did not use it more in my earlier pastoral ministry.