"On these trips, students helped thousands come to know Christ, healed the sick, cast out demons, and brought the Gospel to unreached people for the first time."

Jane and I were talking out on our back deck this morning about some of the recent things that have taken place in our culture that are so shocking and immoral that it literally takes our breath away. How did this happen in America?

Overflow. That is the only word I can come up with to explain how this year, 2023, has seemed.

Having recently completed our SEEK 21 day season of prayer and fasting, I am a bit stunned and encouraged by the level of spiritual hunger that I witnessed in our community right from the beginning. Historically, it takes a while for the distractions of the holidays to catch up to our commitment to pursue the Lord. But this year, there was a supernatural anticipation that began on the opening Sunday of SEEK which bled into our Revival Nights, resulting in an overflow. As your pastor, I was so encouraged, but also asked the Lord, “What does this mean?”

As we are approaching Christmas this year, I am again struck by the creatures of cultural habit that we all have become. Our calendars drive us from the celebration to the next, and before you know it, the year is done, and we repeat the cycle without giving very much thought or focus on what these “seasons” should mean to us. Christmas is the biggest holiday of them all. We watch the Macy’s parade, listen to classic Christmas music, decorate our homes, and even in the Church, we can often become guilty of forgetting about the miracle that Christmas really is…

As I write this letter, I feel more urgency about the hour we live in than I ever have before. In a recent weekend sermon, I went off script from my “scheduled message” and shared about what I believe is a window of time that we are in as a nation. I shared about the upcoming vote on Proposal 3 in the upcoming elections here in the state of Michigan. A horrendous bill that has to do with the expansion and codifying abortion up to and beyond the 25th week and removes parental notification for minors seeking an abortion.

This summer on our July break, I was reading through the Pastoral Epistles of Paul and was struck by the heart behind them. Even though the apostle Paul traveled extensively and rarely saw the leaders and congregations he was responsible for starting, they were never out of his thoughts. He took every opportunity to write to them, answering their questions and encouraging them in their continual pursuit of Jesus Christ.