The World’s Greatest Conversations

I’ve been married 20 years. During that time, my wife and I have experienced periods of extreme busyness that tended to cut short our times of real togetherness. During such seasons, she’s consistently pointed out to me that “the distanced life” is not what she signed up for. When we “dated” we spent serious time together. Once I picked her up for an evening, our time was our time – nothing else interfered. We ate together, talked together, laughed together, dreamt together, we were together – period. Then once we were married, we found that we increasingly had to schedule times to talk about serious issues. Ok – let’s look at the schedule – when can we sit down and talk? Sound familiar to anyone?

Perhaps at some point you have felt like your prayer life is a similar routine. Prayer somehow has become something that you have to schedule. Where can I fit in? Can I fit it in this week? I’ve gone too long without fitting it in. I’ve been so busy – I need to sit down and talk with the Lord!

That routine is not God’s intention for you. He didn’t adopt you into a life of “Check in with me occasionally so we can catch up with one another.” As sure as the sun burns bright, God intends for you to know what it means to live in His presence – walking through every day with Him, bringing every thought, concern and circumstance to Him and then listening for His response (or His silence).

Perhaps a real key in learning how to do this is found in learning how to live consciously in His presence every moment of every day. As we take our Journey in the Word today, we’ll be looking at prayer less as a “conversation event” and more as a lifestyle of continually living in God’s loving presence and care. What else can I say – in His presence is just the place to be – it gets sweeter every day.

Hoping and praying that we all have good ears to hear His voice,

Will

Devoted to the Book

Did you know that many of our best words like “new, adventure, surprise; unique individual, person, vocation, time, history, future, freedom, progress, spirit, faith, hope, and justice” have come through Jewish culture (actually, the concepts behind the words)? And did you know that this has a significant impact on the life that you are living today?
How so? Listen and think through today’s sermon to find out.
Pursuing understanding with you,

Will

Boxes, Strings, Ladders and Birds

During our time in the word today, amongst other things, we’ll be thinking largely about the following two quotes:

Firstly, “. . . confess your sins to each other” which is a rather serious, biblical command found in James 5:16.

Secondly, we’ll consider a quote found in the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer where he begins to describe how churches unwittingly establish an environment that drives believers away from obedience to the command above from James, “He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone. It may be the Christians, notwithstanding corporate worship, Common Prayer, all their fellowship and service, may still be left to their aloneness. The final breakthrough to communion -to community- does not occur because although they have fellowship with each other as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout-as sinners. The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner.”

Looking forward to discovering more of true life with you,

Will

An Unbelievable Life

In our Journey in the Word today, we’ll contemplate the following questions:

“Have you ever noticed how absolutely extraordinary is the life that Scripture describes as normative for Jesus Christ?”  It is a life filled with joy; a life marked by sincere love from the heart, a life characterized by a deep sense of satisfaction and unhindered peace; a life that is anything but common.

“Have you ever noticed how painfully common is the life of many people within the church?”  When you glance around the church, in general (not just PCC), it’s not hard to find evidence of depressive attitudes, grudge harboring, restlessness and anxiety to name just a few problematic behaviors/attitudes.

“Why is there such a gap between Scripture’s glorious description of the Christian life and the real, day-to-day of so many “Christians?”  And “if such a gap exists in your life is there anything that can be done about it?”

Hoping that we discover answers and fullness of life together as we seek His face,

Will (for the Pastors)

What it Means to Follow Jesus

Our mission here at Pioneer Community Church is “To show and tell others of the fullness of life that is offered in Christ.”  Did you know that the disciples in the Bible had that same mission?  Well, it’s true, which means that we too are disciples.

Pastor Gary brings the message “We are Disciples- What it Means to Follow Jesus.”  This message gives specifics on how to attain spiritual growth so that we may become effective disciples of Christ.

Your Pastors