Pastor's Note

Results filtered by “Chris Abel”

January 31, 2020

Dear Church,
 
This week I excitedly dove into my taxes, feeling preemptively accomplished about getting them out of the way so early. And then, about halfway through the process, the big RETURN numbers in the upper left of the screen changed from the happy GREEN to a bright RED. The number that sat there on my screen seemed to fill my vision, my stomach dropped, and I started doing the math of how my life would be different for the next year. 
 
I couldn’t understand what I did wrong! And to make things worse, I’ve heard story after story of pastors who got their taxes wrong and went into tremendous debt. Suddenly I had BECOME one of those statistics! 
 
So I went over it and over it, even going online and filling out my information on another tax site. And then, praise God, I found out what had happened. I had misunderstood one question. Just one. I changed my response and the red went back to green.
 
And you know what’s funny? I’ve done clergy taxes for 5+ years with no problems. I walked into this confident, secure, and anticipating I’d have no problems. But a routine process suddenly looked a lot different when I had a simple misunderstanding.  
 
This weekend, we’re starting a sermon series called “Love, Heartbreak, and Trainwrecks” where we’ll be talking about relationships and how the Christian faith impacts love and romance. You might be in a long-term relationship, be single after a relationship, or be single and wanting to BE in a relationship. But while relationships can be routine and simple enough (especially when we’ve grown familiar with someone), a few simple mistakes can change the trajectory from GREEN to RED. (And not Chiefs RED. More like San Francisco red.) When we get the little things right or wrong, it can make a BIG difference in our relationships! 
 
I hope to see you this weekend as we dive into how the Christian faith can help you and the people you love. And who knows… maybe if you come to church, the Chiefs will do even better ;) 
 
Chris
Posted by Chris Abel

January 25, 2020

Dear Church,
 
I arrived back home Wednesday morning from Florida where I was celebrating a late Christmas with my mom, stepdad, and Beth. It was a great time and it’s always heart-warming to see family! Every year I head down that way and it’s become a rhythm in my life where I have a chance to reflect on how I’m doing compared to previous years. It’s funny to look back and see how I’ve have had a different predicament each year. I’ve spent some years complaining about my work; others, my dating life; others, my self.... But looking back, the thing that jumps out to me the most is how far I’ve come from the insecure, anxious young man plagued with self-doubt. I think back on my early 20’s and who I was and sometimes can’t believe that I’m the same person! 
 
And when I’m honest with myself, most of my personal growth came not from my discipline or determination (of which I have very little) but from...God. Being a Christian has done more for my life than any other decision I’ve ever made. It’s made me care about others more, given me boldness at vital moments, and helped me have a sense of purpose when I easily could have drifted in a million aimless directions. 
 
But that’s not just my story. Even in the scriptures we see Jesus’ disciples go through a transformation. His ragtag group of friends spend three years with him, and the night he is taken to be executed, all but one run away! Even at the end of three years of learning from Christ, they just run. It seems the Christian movement is doomed to fail. 
 
But decades later, those fearful men have left their small villages and small mindsets and traveled the world changing lives. And not only that, but those same men who ran away in fear from the possibility of joining Jesus on the cross...end up being crucified themselves. There’s an incredible change that happens in their lives, and this weekend we’re going to close out “Foundations of the Faith” by talking about how that growth happened and happens—how fearful followers became brave leaders—and how that can happen in our lives, too.
 
Can’t wait to explore this topic with you! 
 
 
Pastor Chris 
 
P.S. We’re looking for some folks to help us get our new Caring Ministries going. We have a meeting about it this Sunday at 12 p.m. in room 117! We’re especially looking for some men to be part of this group. Hope to see you there.
Posted by Chris Abel

January 10, 2020

Dear Church,
 
Can you believe it’s 2020? It seems like yesterday that I was celebrating New Years Eve on the precipice of the year 2000! I can even remember where I was that evening. I was outside on a friend’s porch on an unseasonably warm night for December in Massachusetts, and have a distinct memory of standing out there and wondering what the future would hold (and if Y2K would leave us in the Stone Age). What I couldn’t have anticipated 20 years later was that… the Patriots would get kicked out of the playoffs in the wild card round... oh, and the fact that I’d be a pastor someday. I never would have dreamed! 
 
I wish I could tell that young kid in 2000 that he’d be at a church in the Midwest someday that collected socks for the homeless, and supplied Christmas presents for needy families. I’d have loved to know there was a church that raised over $34,000 on Christmas Eve to provide clean water for people in rural Mozambique, and sent dozens of people to partner with underprivileged kids in the local school systems to help them grow in their reading skills. And not only that, but as a kid who asked a lot of faith, questions (to the chagrin of my pastor), I’d have been thrilled to know we had a sermon series asking foundational questions about our faith. 
   
Unfortunately, I can’t go back in time and tell young Chris these things. Nor can I stop the years from coming and going (ever faster and faster). But we can decide what kinds of stories we end up telling someday. We can use this new year to continue
to make a difference. We can decide to invite God to saturate our life this year. 
 
And I’m excited to spend 2020 with you! We’re at an exciting turning point in the story of our church and I hope that at this time next year, we can look back at the amazing way God used us this year. 
 
Hope to see you this weekend as we continue “Foundations of the Faith” and take a deep dive into the Christian faith! 
 
Much love,
Pastor Chris
 
P.S. We had 440 people in worship this last weekend, which is an amazing start to the year!  Only five weekends in 2019 were better attended than that. Thanks for helping kick start us into the new year!
 
P.P.S. It’s not too late to join our Bible-in-one-year plan! 60 folks have signed up on the app and I’d love to have you join us. Just go to bit.ly/bible01 to join our shared plan.
Posted by Chris Abel

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