Hey church family! Some of you thought the day would never come, but yesterday, by the grace of God, we finished the book Romans! Romans proved to be a great body of truth, Amen?!?! I hope I speak for all of us when I say, as Paul said in Romans 1:16, I am not ashamed of the gospel!

Many of you have asked me, what’s next? I’m very excited to take few weeks for a sermon series, Healthy Church. This has been prayed over for some time now, as it is something that our elder team saw the necessity for last Spring. This series is timely for a few of reasons:

1. Our little church family has grown significantly in numbers over the last few years. And our church body is diverse! We have folks from all types of church backgrounds and some with no church background at all. We like it that way. Diversity is good thing in a church. But, unity amid diversity, is a necessity in a church. This series will bring unity in the form of clarity, to what it looks like for a church to be faithful, biblical — Healthy.

2. The culture continues to change at a rapid rate.  What is believed, accepted, even condoned in our culture is in direct opposition to biblical, historic Christian theology and living. But even as the culture shifts, the church is called to go and “make disciples” (Matt. 28.19) to be “salt and light” (Matt. 5.13-15), to follow the example of Paul in becoming “all things to all people” (1Cor. 9:22). At the same time we are called to “contend for the faith” (Jude 3), we’re instructed not to be “unequally yoked with unbelievers” (2Cor. 6.14) and not to be “conformed to the pattern of this world” (Rom. 12.2). As this faithful balance becomes seemingly more challenging the health of the church comes to the forefront. We are to be a hospital for the sick, not a hospital of the sick. For this, we must be faithful, biblical — Healthy.

3. Last, but certainly not least, the health of the church is always timely because it’s important to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it…” (Matt. 16.18). Jesus viewed persecution of the church as persecution against Him (Acts 9.4)! Paul warned church leadership to “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock…to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.” (Acts 20.28). Jesus paid a high price for the church, his own blood! It is of great interest to Jesus, and thus should be of great interest to us, that the church be — Healthy.

Church family, I hope you will join me over the next several weeks as we journey through a series simply titled, Healthy Church. By God’s grace I believe this series will prove to be a God-glorifying, church edifying season, with far-reaching, grande, implications for our church family. Y’all bring your Bibles, it’s gonna be great, because God is GREAT. See ya Sunday.

—Pastor Roy