Author: schoeneckmoravian

Is the Church relevant today?

Many churches and denominations are experiencing a steady decline in church attendance and membership. Whenever we speak with individuals and families who haven’t been to church in a long while or those who only attend seasonally, we typically ask them how they are doing. We ask them out of genuine concern about the status of their lives and to see if there are any needs that we as the body of Jesus Christ here at Schoeneck are able to meet. Unbeknownst to us, the answers that are given are typically telling of why the Church, particularly in the western hemisphere, is on a steady decline.

We can often hear the tiredness, the fatigue, and occasional stress as individuals and families express to us just how jammed-packed their schedules are. Thus, making it to worship or participating in a church activity simply isn’t feasible for them. Translation: there is no opening on their schedule for Jesus Christ. Let that sink in for a moment.

This is not a “casting of stones” movement. We have all been there at one point or another. Having been there, however, and understanding the situation doesn’t legitimize the excuses. We are choosing to prioritize everything in the world above Jesus Christ who gave His life for us. This is a conversation the church ought to be having openly. Again, this is not a “casting of stones” but rather diagnosing a problem in hopes that we will be willing to engage in honest dialogue, and we will be willing to seek the Lord’s treatment plan.

This is a spiritual “pandemic” facing many western churches, and it forces us to wrestle with some questions. These are some of the questions we will raise in our sermon series for September 2021. The questions are listed below. We invite you to take some time to ponder these questions in you heart.

Is the Church relevant today?
Can’t I just worship at home by myself permanently? What is the difference between being spiritual and religious? Do we need a church building? Do I really believe in Jesus?
Can a true believer in Jesus really abandon worship? How does this affect our witness, our faith?
When did we become comfortable with putting Christ out of our lives?
Am I willing to change? Am I willing to do and speak about this?

Revs. Garritt and Sanette Fleming, Pastors

From Screens to Relationship

In a 2016 report from Apple, the tech company reported that the average iPhone user unlocked his or her phone approximately eighty times per day. One can only imagine how that number has only increased over the last five years as more people have come to own smartphones, and more time has been spent on them especially during the pandemic. While electronic tools like our iPhones or Android phones have enhanced our lives in many ways, they have also subtracted from them as well. Whereas we used to drive by the bus stop in the morning to see youth conversing with one another, now we see each youth’s eyes glued to a phone. In reference to the iPhone statistic mentioned above, Christian writer Arlene Pellicane wonders how life would be different if, for all the times we reach to unlock our phones, we instead reached out to our spouse to interact with him or her.1 Can you say that you have pursued your husband or wife even just eight times a day, let alone eighty times a day? Can you say that you have reached out to a friend or family member more than just a couple of times per week?

Why is it that we have become so comfortable reaching out to our devices instead of people? Our devices can do just about everything but wash the car. On them, we can make dinner reservations, pay our bills, check on the game, read our emails, listen to music, watch TV, and this is just touching the tip of the iceberg. With all these distractions, it’s no wonder we reach out to our phones instead of people. Our pocket-sized computers are an endless source of entertainment. There is also the truth that relationships sometimes require work. They aren’t always easy. Differences of opinions must be talked about. Feelings need to be shared. Time needs to be spent paying attention to and listening to the other person. This can be tiring. It can be risky. Sharing feelings risks someone getting hurt. Pulling out our phones seems so much easier, so much safer. While our devices aren’t inherently evil, they often take the place of something that is more difficult but that is far more important and life-giving: relationships.

Rather than encourage us to live separate lives, Scripture implores us to move closer to one another in our thoughts and feelings. The phrase “One another” occurs at least 90 times in the New Testament.2 The command to love one another occurs at least 16 times3 and is accompanied by other commands such as these: be devoted to one another (Romans 12:10), honor one another (Romans 12:16), admonish one another (Romans 15:14), serve one another (Galatians 5:13), teach one another (Colossians 3:13), encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11), pray for one another (James 5:16), confess your faults to one another (James 5:16). And the list goes on. The early church serves as an example of the way we ought to be prioritizing relationships in our lives. After approximately three thousand people joined the church on the day of Pentecost, the ranks of new believers didn’t just go about their business but rather they committed to being together, growing in faith together, spending time together: “All believers were together and had everything in common…every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts” (Acts 2:46).

“But relationships are hard!” you say. God no doubt knows that, and Scripture encourages us not to give up on them despite this: “If it is possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men” (Romans 12:18). “If you are offering your gift on the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24). “Do not let the sun go down on youranger” (Ephesians 4:26). All these Scriptures point out the importance of persevering in our relationships.

“But what for?” After all, our phones require much less effort and are guaranteed to make us smile for at least a little while. The answer is that we should pursue relationships because God has commanded us to, and also because like all of God’s commands, there is great reward in keeping them (Psalm 19:11). Sure we can find relief in the devices that entertain us, but what happens when life gets tough? We need friends, we need our spouse, we need our church family, and we need God who binds us together and gives us the words and the heart to help one another. We need relationship. As Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 tells us, “Two are better than one…if either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.” We need each other. We can find comfort and joy in many things, but God describes an even greater joy that flows out of good relationships, ones that we have fought hard to maintain and restore. God’s word says, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1) You can have the finest food on the table, the best phones in the hand, the nicest house on the block, but if that home is devoid of love and relationship, it will always be missing something.

This week, instead of swiping to unlock your phone, reach out to your spouse. Reach out to a friend or neighbor. Ask them about their day. Build relationship. Work through the challenges. And be encouraged because in doing this, you are doing the work God calls you to do, and in doing it there is great reward.

God bless,
Pastors Garritt and Sanette

1 “Taking Back Your Home from the Phone,” Family Life Today, July 12, 2021: https://www.familylife.com/podcast/familylife-today/taking-back-your-home-from -the-phone/.

2 https://biblehub.com/greek/240.htm

3 “The ‘One Another’ Passages,”https://www.mmlearn.org/hubfs/docs/ OneAnotherPassages.pdf.

What Will our New Normal Be?

It is easy to find ourselves desperate to reclaim lost time, lost opportunities, lost fellowship, and the loss of what we once called our normal routine. We all have done it or are doing it, trying with all our might to seek after and reclaim that which we perceive we have lost regardless of what may have caused the experience of loss.

In Matthew chapter 6, the same chapter in which Jesus taught us the Lord’s Prayer, He also taught us what it is we are to truly seek after. “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33) Have you paused to earnestly, desperately seek after lost faith and intimacy with Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior? Have you paused to seek Him first above all else? Let’s be clear, we are not talking about the loss of a loved one, though in some ways this, too, may apply. Nevertheless, we are talking about the loss of everything else.

God may not have caused every experience of loss, but He certainly does not waste these experiences. In the loss of time, opportunities and so on, we may find ourselves in a position in which everything that once hindered, distracted, and enticed us away from true relationship and worship of Christ have been stripped away. By stripping these things away, we can see clearly that which our hearts truly desire. You know, the Scripture tells us that where our treasure is, there we may also find our heart. (Matthew 6:21) Perhaps God is using loss as a way to reveal what’s truly in our hearts and to draw us back to Him.

Are you desiring Christ, His word, His Kingdom, His Righteousness? Are you coming back to the sanctuary to worship God or are you coming back for something else?

Whatever your loss is, don’t allow it to pull your heart into the wrong places and wrong desires. Rather invite Christ into your loss. He can do for us what no one and nothing can. Jesus values each and every one of us, and He is here for us. “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:25-26)

Let us covenant together to seek first Christ’s kingdom and His righteousness in our spaces of loss, whatever those losses may be. Let us covenant to not want what we had, but seek after what Christ has prepared for us in the steps we take next. Perhaps Jesus Christ is calling us to a different, a better, and a more purposeful “normal” guided by His Holy Spirit living inside of us.

Proverbs 3:6 says, “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.”

Love and Blessings Always,
Revs. Garritt and Sanette Fleming and Baby Esther

Staying Focused on the Work of God

March has arrived and the spiritual season of Lent is nearing its halfway point. To guide our walk with the Lord during this season, we often look to Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. The Scripture says that “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them He was hungry” (Luke 4:1-2). During this experience, the devil tempts Jesus in multiple ways to take the easy way out. “Tell this stone to become bread,” the devil says to Jesus, who is famished and would no doubt delight in a warm meal. “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here,” he says to Jesus, trying to convince Him to doubt the provision and care of God the Father. And then the devil offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world saying, “If you worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus knew the road ahead of Him would be difficult. It would require Him to give up His life. Here the devil was trying to give Jesus a way out by appealing to the desires of the flesh.

In our own walk with God, we will face temptations. The enemy works in our lives, too, just as he worked in Jesus’ life, trying to tempt us to take the easy way out. Ever have the Monday blues? Perhaps you can relate to the reluctance of getting out of bed and starting the work week. It’s a common experience. We say to ourselves, “If I had just one more day to relax, then I could handle the week ahead.” While it is Biblical to take time to rest and to press pause on our commitments, often what fuels our “Monday blues” isn’t a legitimate need to restore our body and soul but laziness and a fear of facing real life.

In our devotional and prayer life, we face the temptation to “call in sick.” Let’s face it, sitting down and watching TV often feels more enjoyable than sitting down to read our Bibles. Exercising or warming up that bowl of oatmeal for breakfast feels more rewarding than taking five or ten minutes to pray. We may even start to think, “It’s alright if I don’t pray today,” or even “Does it really matter if I pray?”

As these ideas start to creep into our head, Jesus provides us the truth and the example. Yes there is a time to celebrate, but first God has work for us to do. At one point in His ministry, Jesus looks in need of a meal and the disciples urge Him to have something to eat, but His response to them was this: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work” (John 4:34). Jesus never lost sight of His calling and His purpose. It’s not that He didn’t take time to eat, but He made sure to not lose His hunger for God. Looking back again to His forty days and nights in the wilderness, by His fasting it’s as if Jesus makes the declaration, “Lord, I will not forget the work you have for me!” In His fasting He teaches us that sometimes we have to put our reward on hold for God. There are things that God wants us to do — people He is calling us to reach, needs He is calling us to pray for, time He is asking us to give to Him in service and in study. We have a purpose, and God calls us out there, even on Monday morning.

Not only does God desire our service, but He desires closeness with us. We may be tempted to think that we can do it alone, that we can do the work and then clock out and go back to our business. But again Jesus reminds us of the truth. “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). In these words He was saying to the devil that even if He made food out of stones, that food would not be enough; He would still need more. We still more. The great church reformer Martin Luther once said, “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” Prayer, reading God’s word, worship, all bring us close to our Heavenly Father who is our source of strength, who is the anchor of our soul in this dark world, who is the Great I Am who makes the impossible possible. God is our everything! As Christians, may we never lose sight of that. May we never give the devil lip service in telling us we don’t need God. We need the Lord; He is our lifeblood.

Just as the Spirit called Jesus into the wilderness, the Holy Spirit calls us to God this very day to remind us of our high calling and purpose, that we have work to do. And He draws us to Himself to remind us that He is our all in all, that in Him we find our everything. Today let us give God our praise, and let us give God our best. Amen!

Pastors Garritt & Sanette

Hearts After God

What is your relationship with God like? Are you just acquaintances? Do you spend a couple minutes together a week? Or is your relationship with the Lord living and active?

We recently heard an interview with professional football player Kirk Cousins, quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. Cousins, who grew up in a home where faith in God was right there with salt and pepper on the table, tells of a trying time in his life. He played on the high school football team, and it wasn’t until his junior year that he actually got a chance to play on the field. Sadly though, that didn’t last long because he suffered an injury which put him back on the bench. This hit Cousins especially hard because junior year is when the scouts come and recruit for colleges. Cousins thought it was over, his chances of playing college ball done. But his Dad was quick to put his despairing son back on track. “Remember Proverbs 3:5-6,”

he said. “‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.’”Cousin’s dad wasn’t trying to promise his son that football was still his future, but rather he was imploring him to trust in God, that no matter how this turned out, He still had a plan for him. As it turned out, Cousins did make it back on the field, and now he plays for the pros. What a miraculous turn around. “For nothing is impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37)

For Cousins, this experience was a turning point and for him is a continual testimony of God’s faithfulness. God is real, and He desires us to trust Him and walk in relationship with Him. As we listened to Cousins’ testimony, we were moved to take our relationship with God more seriously, to walk with Him more intimately each and every day. The interview also mentioned a weekly practice of Cousins’ team and other professional teams, of having Bible study and chapel. This devotion time goes right alongside their other routines like working out in the weight room and running drills on the field. And so here are these titans on the field who also find it important bow their knees before the Lord. Again, as we heard this we were inspired to hunger after God a more deeply.

We are about to enter the season of Lent, a season which kicks off with a retelling of a prominent moment in Jesus’ life when He hungered and thirsted in the wilderness. While He was tempted by Satan to give in, His hunger for God was greater, as He declared to the tempter, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)

This season, may you hunger and thirst for God in your life. He is who we truly need. Put Jesus first. Prioritize your relationship with Him, your devotions, your study of the Bible, and your honest conversation with Him. We pray that as you do this, you too will find the life and hope that Jesus, our living Savior, offers to each of us. Amen.