There were a lot of great things that happened and that were announced during our last Member’s Meeting this past Wednesday night. Just a side note, if you are a member and were not present for that meeting, you can request a link to the video. But that’s not really why I’m writing this week’s Pastor’s Corner. This week I’m writing about the value of a personal note. What do I mean by that? Well, let me tell you.

Near the end of our Member’s Meeting we passed out a missionary directory with pictures, bios, and contact information for all of the missionaries and organizations that our church supports each month with finances and prayers, 24 missionary families and 3 organizations in all. Whenever we get new prayer letters or updates from our missionaries we’re going to be inserting those into the weekly church bulletin so that everyone has access to all of our church’s missionary correspondence.

What we hope you will do with these letters and updates is to first read them. Familiarize yourself with what’s happening around the world with the missionaries we support. Get to know their families, their needs, and their desires. Get to know their ministries, and learn about the people they’re ministering to. Learn about projects that they are raising money for, and events that need our prayers.

Then secondly, if you’re not already doing so, begin regularly praying for our missionaries. Whenever you receive a new letter, let me encourage you to make a point to pray specifically for the requests of that missionary. Pray for them and their family and the ministry that God has entrusted them with. Pray that God will encourage them when they’re facing difficult times. Pray for wisdom when they need to make decisions. Pray for people to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and for them to then grow through discipleship. Pray for local churches to be strengthened and for new, strong, and healthy churches to be established. Pray that God will move mightily.

Let me give you a quick little anecdote. When my wife and I were missionaries to Poland we always had prayer cards with us whenever we went into a new church or a church that already supported us financially. On those prayer cards we had one verse printed on the back that really meant a lot to us, 2 Thessalonians 3:1. That verse says, “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified, just as it is with you.” That verse, as well as the entire letter of 2 Thessalonians was written by the Apostle Paul, a missionary, asking the church of Thessalonica to pray for him and other missionaries, and for the work of the ministry. That was our desire as well. We sincerely wanted others to pray for us, our family, the ministry in Poland, and the people of Poland. We were asking pastors and churches, “Please pray for us.” Now that I’m on the other end of the sent/sending side of the missionary equation I’m asking you, the members of the church who are supporting missionaries, support them by faithfully praying for them.

Then, lastly, once you do pray for the missionaries, let them know you have prayed for them. You have all their email addresses in the missionary directory, so drop them a quick email to say that you’re praying for them. Tell them you’re praying for the specific situations and needs that they had mentioned. That will mean a lot to them. Another idea is to maybe send them a physical card. The times that we received an actual card from a church, or from a member of a church; that was really special. And let me also say, it didn’t happen very often. Most people, sadly, just aren’t thinking about communicating with missionaries that their church supports. I would love for our church to shatter that stigma of churches hardly ever communicating with their missionaries. We have the privilege to partner together with people all over the world to advance the kingdom of God. Let’s rejoice in that, and let’s celebrate what God is doing as we support our missionaries well.

Today in the Pastor’s Corner I’m thinking about and looking forward to our next Member’s Meeting that will be taking place this coming Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. This is only our second officially termed “Member’s Meeting,” as these gatherings were formerly called business meetings, but they are already proving to be an important part of the unity of our church family. The transition from a more business-structured meeting to more of a family get together actually reflects the model of the New Testament church. Acts chapter 2 saw the church gathering daily from house to house, breaking bread together, praying together, growing in the knowledge and practice of the Apostle’s doctrine, and serving one another. That too is to be our model for the church—in short, life together.

That’s what we’re striving to foster within our church family, a desire and an expectation that we genuinely love one another and compel one another to good works to the glory of God. Yes, we’ll conduct a little bit of “in house business” at our Member’s Meeting, but that won’t be the focus or the investment of the majority of our time. The focus will be upon what God is doing in our midst and how we can better come alongside Him in what He is doing in His church—God’s will, God’s work, God’s church.

The role that we play in God’s church and in His work and will is that we are what make up the church. God has chosen to use those who are His children, those who are born again through repentance and faith, to carry out the task of making more disciples who then become parts of more churches who make more disciples, and on and on the process goes. It’s the ongoing fulfillment of the Great Commission, and we have the privilege to be a part of it. That, to me, is very exciting! Those are words that haven’t often been uttered in a business meeting, but I hope that they are a regular part of our ongoing Member’s Meetings.

So, what would I ask of you, church member? First, please show up! That would be great. Just showing up in support of your church is hugely important. If the church is a family, and it is, why would the family not gather together to celebrate what God is doing through the family? So please show up this coming Wednesday night at 6:00 p.m. And just to entice you all the more, we will be serving snacks following the meeting. Food, I knew that would get your attention. Well, it at least got my attention.

Second, please pray for this meeting, and I mean it. Pray that a majority of our members would attend. Pray for God to be honored in all that is said and done. Pray that there would be a great spirit of unity. Pray that people would be challenged to serve and minister to others in the name of Christ. Pray that everyone would be encouraged by the many good things that God is doing, has done, and will continue to do here at Berean.

Then, lastly, be ready and willing to share some of the good things that God is doing right now in your life. One of the things that we’re adding to this Member’s Meeting is a time of sharing of testimonies of the goodness of God. Sometimes we just need to hear from our brothers and sisters in Christ as to what God is doing. It encourages the whole church, and it motivates us to step out in ever-greater faith. This coming Wednesday is going to be a great night. Don’t miss it!

“ 13 For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. 17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with You.”

Those verses are Psalm 139, verses 13-18. They’re amazing poetry, phenomenal imagery, but most importantly they are the truth from the Word of God concerning life. Today is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, and today we direct our thoughts to the crown jewel of God’s creation, mankind. Out of all living things that God created, God created man differently. He created him in His image. He gave him a soul and spirit. He gave him intellect with which to reason, understand, create, and ultimately to know Him.

From the moment that God breathed the breath of life into Adam immediately after forming him from the very dust of the ground, and as God said, “man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7), everything changed. God had created something, someone, with the ability to communicate with Him and the ability to learn from Him and to learn of Him. This man, as well as all other people who would follow after, bore the very image of God. That means that you and I, at our very nature, are image bearers of God Himself. Theologians have long delved into the depths of what this means, and there’s a lot to it, but in its simplest form is the fact that because we are image bearers of God, we have infinite value and worth. All people have infinite value and worth. That’s what Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is about.

So today, as we think about God’s precious gift of life, remember that there is still a battle going on for the least of these, the most vulnerable, those who are yet unborn. Even though Roe v. Wade was overturned, abortion did not go away. If anything, the fight has gotten all the more fierce. Even here in the state of Missouri we sadly lost a battle back in November of last year to where abortion has now been added into the very constitution of our state through amendment 3, which was enacted on Dec. 6, 2024, bringing the murder of the unborn back into practice.

I want to state this as clearly and yet kindly as possible. As Christians, we must stand on the side of life. We must pray that evil men with evil intentions, motivated by money, or power, or position, that they would be restrained, and that people would see abortion for the evil that it is, the murdering of another human created in the image of God. We must also stand with the least of these on the other spectrum, the elderly, and speak up for their dignity and worth as well. And all those in between those two bookends of life, they too are more valuable than gold. We must stand for life.

This week in the Pastor’s Corner I wanted to write about something that is a great resource that many of you may not know about, and that resource is RightNow Media (RNM). For several years now, our church has subscribed to RNM for the benefit of all members and visitors to our church. RNM has over 25,000 videos in the forms of Bible studies, documentaries, seminars, conferences, children’s programs, etc., all from a Christian worldview. All of these videos are free for you and your family, and we want you to take advantage of all that RNM has to offer.

As Hollywood, and the vast majority of network programming goes further and further away from endorsing that which is God-honoring, it’s good to have a source of truth and a source of media that supports that which is. That’s what RNM does. It provides God-honoring materials and media to families. If you’re married, you will find hundreds of options for biblical marriage enrichment. If you have children, there are hundreds of children’s episodes for all ages. If you enjoy studying through books of the Bible, you will find countless studies that do that. If you enjoy topical studies, you’ll find those as well. Archeology and history, RNM has those types of programs in abundance as well. If you enjoy specific topics or certain pastors, speakers, or authors, you can search for things that way too. RNM is a wonderful video library and source of discipleship and means of spiritual growth.

If you aren’t currently using RNM, I highly encourage you to do so for the simple reason being that there is so much great content to help in the area of discipleship and growth. If you aren’t signed up for it, you can sign-up in less than a minute, and it’s free. Just go to rightnowmedia.org/account/invite/BEREANB to get started. You can sign-up and use RNM on a smartphone, tablet, computer or SmartTV. We also have a link to RNM at the bottom of our church App as well. If it’s easier, you can also just stop by the welcome center in the foyer and pick up a QR code that you can scan to get it onto any device that supports QR code readers.

Also, once you have an account for RNM, you can check out our specific Berean page, just look for our logo, and once there you will find content that I’ve recommended for LifeGroups or individual studies. You can catch some of our past sermon series from Berean that I’m highlighting there, and I’ll also be including more special interest libraries that you can use for recommendations of good content. If you have any questions about RNM or how to navigate it, don’t hesitate to ask. And one more thing, if you’re currently using RightNow Media, let me know how you’re using it and your thoughts about it. I hope that this is a tool that all families will continue to regularly use or begin using.

What do you do when a pastor says something that is not true? That’s the question that I was thinking through this past week not because I was reflecting upon something another pastor said, but because I was reflecting on something I said as the pastor. For context, I’m referring to the message that I preached a week ago from Mark chapter 14. We were looking at verses 12 through 21, and upon hearing Jesus’ statement that one of the ones who was eating with Him would betray Him, the Bible says that, “they began to be sorrowful, and to say to Him one by one, “Is it I?” And another said, “Is it I?”
 
Now Mark doesn’t give names to all those who asked, “Is it I?” nor do the other gospel writers. We’re left to speculate who actually asked out loud, who was wondering in their hearts if they were the one, or who didn’t ask or think it at all. Matthew 26:22 said, “…each of them began to say to Him, “Lord, is it I?” That term “each of them” is used to reference the whole group of the disciples, the twelve, so it’s obvious that Jesus’ words caused quite a disturbance and some level self-examination of each of them. In fact, perhaps each of them did ask out loud, “Is it I?” We simply don’t know.

Here’s where the not true part comes in, though. I made the statement that Judas did not ask, “Is it I?” I said something to the effect that he didn’t ask because he knew that he was going to betray Jesus. Nice thought, except for the fact that that wasn’t true. If we continue reading in Matthew’s gospel, after Jesus spoke woe to the man who would betray Him, saying, “It would have been good for that man if he had not been born,” Judas then says, “Rabbi, is it I?” It’s interesting that Judas asked Jesus, “Is it I?” after Jesus spoke those incredibly heavy words of it being better for that man to never have been born and not before. Seemingly, if that evening’s events were being recounted chronologically, which seems to be the case, the other disciples who asked the question did so prior to Jesus’ weighty statement. Nevertheless, Judas still clearly asked, “Is it I?”

I, unfortunately, did not remember Judas asking that question. Since we are studying the gospel of Mark, Mark is my primary text. I do, however, usually try to cross-reference the other gospels to make sure I have a clear understanding of all of the details, since Mark doesn’t usually give a lot of additional detail to the rapid-fire events he records of Jesus’ ministry. On this occasion I did read both Luke’s account and Matthew’s account. It was from Luke’s gospel that we learn the names of the two disciples, Peter and John, who went to prepare for the Passover meal. When it came to Matthew’s account though, I stopped reading before I came to Judas’ response to Jesus, thinking it was the same information contained in Mark. I was wrong, and because of my carelessness in handling Matthew’s narrative, I completely said something that was not true. For that I am very sorry.

Now to the question of what to do when a pastor says something that is not true. First, if you hear something from a pastor or Bible teacher that you believe to not be true, make sure that you first go to the source of truth, the Bible. Check and see if what you know, understand, or believe is correct, as it is the Word of God that is always to be the judge of what is right and what is not. I always want to encourage people to not just “take my word for it,” whatever the “it” is, but to search the Bible for themselves, to check what I say against the truth of God’s Word.  

Secondly, I think it’s wise to be willing to give the benefit of the doubt that what the pastor said he believed to be true. That was my situation. I thought I was making a truthful statement, even though it turns out I was not. I would hope that pastors would never intentionally say something untruthful to those they are called to shepherd. If they take their responsibilities of pastoring seriously, lying to those you are called to shepherd would be the worst way possible to undermine what God would have you to do. Sin, in any form, is never the answer to any issue.

Third, ask the pastor to clarify the statement or statements he made that are in question. Perhaps the issue was simply phrasing something wrong, or a wrong word choice. That happens. In my case, it has happened a whole lot more than I’d like to admit. My wife or children will sometimes ask me, “Did you know what you said?” Usually what follows is something that I totally didn’t remember saying, or something that becomes quite laughable. In most cases, it’s clear that I used a wrong word or phrase. It never hurts to clarify.

Then, lastly, if what the pastor said has theological and/or doctrinal significance, especially if it concerns the gospel of Jesus Christ, ask to meet with him to discuss what was said. Perhaps what was being taught or preached was something that you misunderstood or something that you haven’t fully studied or learned yourself. Maybe you felt that the pastor was saying something that wasn’t true because it’s something that you weren’t fully comprehending. Or, on the flip side, perhaps it’s something that the pastor, himself, didn’t understand well, and in turn didn’t teach or preach well, or even taught contrary to the true teaching of Scripture. In this case, it would be like the situation of Apollos and Priscilla and Aquila. Apollos was a good orator, and a man who wanted to honor God with his teaching, but there were some things he had not yet learned. In Acts 18:26 we read, “When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.”
 
Whenever a pastor says something that isn’t true concerning the teachings of the Bible, whether it’s by complete accident, a slip of the tongue, or because of a lack of understanding, it isn’t something that should be taken lightly. Yes, I do firmly believe pastors should be given the benefit of the doubt when they may say something that’s off, because it’s likely unintentional, but pastors are called to study the Word of God and then faithfully teach the Word of God and lead God’s people. Then, if for some reason, that doesn’t happen, it isn’t something that should be swept under the rug and forgotten. It’s for the benefit of all people involved to search the Scriptures, clarify things that are taught, and then seek deeper understanding of theology and doctrine.