Pastor's Note

We are now squarely in the summer season, which, for many of us, means abnormal schedules, travel, and vacation opportunities. This also means that we may be more sporadically plugged into the events and rhythms of church! That's not necessarily a bad thing - just a reality of the season. But we might miss some things, so I want to encourage you to engage in a few specific ways!

Satan is aggressively opposed to the proclamation and spread of the gospel. I think this is clearly established in Scripture and life experience. 2 Corinthians 4:4 says; "In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ..." In 1 Thessalonians 2:18, Paul tells the church he wanted to visit them, but Satan prevented it.

As you read this, Lord willing, I will be on vacation with my family and enjoying some rest and rejuvenation. Whenever I take vacation time, I find myself reflecting on a few things. I'm greatly relieved to be able to step away and rest, and be reminded that all things are in the Lord's hands. Truthfully, every time we even go to sleep it's a reminder that the world is not dependent on our conscious activity. We ultimately are not needed. Only the Lord is.

When you hear the word "Puritan," what comes to mind? For most people, who may not be as familiar with church history as we generally are, the word Puritan has associations of prudishness and uptight morality. We even have a word for it - "puritanical." It is true that they, as a rule, took matters of Christian ethics very seriously.

I am very thankful for all the people who put in so much time to make VBS happen this year. I know I'm biased because my wife had a big hand in writing out the curriculum, but I do think we put together a great week of VBS.

It hadn't occurred to me before Sunday's sermon, but the principles of effective and Christlike correction and reproof in the church, I think, also largely apply to parents as we consider how to best correct our children. On Sunday, we laid out a few principles for faithful correction, including:

I wanted to use this space to give you a slight leadership update here at CBC. As many of you may have heard, and sadly for us, Cole and Laura Younger will be moving in a few weeks, as Cole has taken an assistant principal position at an elementary school in Hutchinson, KS. They have made a huge impact on CBC, and we are naturally disappointed to see them go, while trusting God's leading in this next phase of their life. And we will certainly see them around. But this does impact us on a practical/leadership level in a couple ways.

We are coming to the end of the spring season and launching into summer, which means a number of things, including grad parties, vacations, VBS, and camps. It also means the end of our Sunday School season and normally scheduled 242 Groups. We do this to give leaders, teachers, and hosts a much-needed rest from regular preparation and leading and serving.

I might be the only one, but sometimes I wish I had a little more time during the Sunday sermon! Or, more often, I sometimes wish I could redo parts of the sermon and add a little more clarity. If I could do either of those things, I might go back and clarify the distinction between those who baptize infants (paedobaptists), and those who do not (credobaptists, i.e. us), and how they differ in their understanding of the new covenant (the subject of Jeremiah 31:31-34).

On May 3rd we will be begin a six-week sermon series on church membership and discipline called "Holy Belonging." If I may be transparent, I am less excited now for this series than I was when we began 1 Samuel or jumped back into Romans. As a rule I generally prefer going through books of the Bible as opposed to topical or thematic series. And nobody wants to talk about church discipline. So why this series?