Year End Thoughts

I cannot believe 2011 is coming to a close. It seems the older I get the faster the time goes. It is hard to believe that my family and I have been in Spring Valley for close to four and a half years. God has been faithful to us and I pray for his continual faithfulness in the year to come.

As we enter 2012 there are a lot of things I am believing God will accomplish. My number one prayer request for the year would be for our church health altogether. I am really excited about the new series I am starting in December called Christian Idols and my prayer is that this series will be an entry level series for the future health of our church. My purpose for this series is to look at the idols we Christians put in our lives that many times we fail to see as idols because they are not necessarily bad things. However anything that we place above God in our lives are considered idols no matter how good they may be. The Bible is clear that God will not tolerate idolatry among his people so as his children we need to recognize what things we have in our lives that are hindering our true worship of God. I hope you will join us on Sunday mornings as we go through this eye opening series.

In October the Deacon and Trustee boards met with the 4-C’s Director of Conference Care and Church Development John Kimball as he introduced to us a the Natural Church Development (NCD) and Vista Assessment surveys. Vista is a an assessment tool designed for the leadership of the church to help determine the mission, purpose and Spirituality of the church. The NCD is a 20 minute survey that is to be taken by active members and non-members of the church and evaluates Eight Key Principles of our church. The Principles are…

1) Empowering Leadership

2) Gifts Based Ministry

3) Passionate Spirituality

4) Effective Structures

5) Inspiring Worship

6) Holistic Small Groups

7) Need Oriented Evangelism

8) Loving Relationships

John Kimball proposed and the boards concurred that we do both the Vista Assessment and NCD. The Boards are currently determining the date we would like to administer the NCD and it is important if you are an active attendee of Spring Valley Congregational Church to be willing to take this survey. After taking the survey the results will be compiled and areas of concern will be addressed. Please keep your eyes open for the date and time for this survey as we need about 30 to 40 participants in order for us to get an accurate look at the health of our church. If you would like more information on this process please feel free to contact me.

I would like to invite you to join with me in praying for the coming new year and ask that God would provide all we need in order to have a healthy and effective ministry here in Spring Valley. Join me in thanking God for his blessings on the youth ministry and in his blessings of our new members which will be installed by years end.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! I look forward to celebrating our Saviors birth at the Candle light service and Christmas morning.

Book Review

If God Is Good: Faith In the Midst of Suffering & Evil
Randy Alcorn
Multnomah Books

I don’t know how many times I have heard people say, “If God is so good then why does he allow suffering and pain?” but it is a lot. I think it is a good and valid question and is not easily answered. There are a number of books out today that deal with this question and as far as I am concerned most of them are not very good. They spend so much time making excuses for God or use philosophical analogies that don’t necessarily pertain to the trueness of God. However, when I picked up Randy Alcorn’s “If God Is Good…” I found this book to be one of the best, most comprehensive and honest books on the issue of suffering and evil. Alcorn brings a fresh and biblical perspective to these issues and does so in an easy to read format that is loaded with scripture references to back up his findings. He also uses many examples of men and women throughout history whose lives have been affected greatly by pain, suffering and evil and still have a faith (although challenged at times) that remains stronger than ever.

“If God Is Good…” is an excellent read for anyone who is struggling with the question of why God allows suffering and pain. It is also a great companion for those in the midst of suffering and trials in their own lives presently. It’s not a light read as it is nearly 500 pages but is worth the time investment.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review