Pastor's Note - September 3 
Last weekend at CBC we held the first part of a preaching workshop – something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. It represents a chance to train and equip some other men in our congregation to preach for us on Sunday mornings. I’ve been excited about that! In the workshop, we went over a number of verses that talk about preaching. One of my favorite such verses is Colossians 1:28; “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” I love this verse, because it tells me what our task is in proclamation. Very simply, we proclaim/preach Christ. We lift up Jesus, and put Jesus before the church, for all of us to behold. As we do this, we warn and teach, as Paul here instructs. And why do we do this? To present everyone mature. This is how we present mature people – through focusing on Jesus. There are many things in this world that can get us sidetracked, discouraged, or set us off course altogether. We may focus on so many other things, good or bad, that we forget what our purpose and goal is. This is a great danger in a divided and distracted age. Paul reminds us to keep holding Jesus front and center, that we may follow Him, and thereby reach maturity in Christ.