One of the most central questions in calling Pastor Next is his character qualifications. This Sunday we will examine the qualities the Bible considers key characteristics of a pastor/elder. No one is perfect. If you look for shortcomings you’ll find them. Not every pastor is a straight A speaker, leader, shepherd. The Search team will ask every candidate in the final round, a series of behavioral questions that reveal whether or not they live their life in sync with the first Timothy 3 qualifications. I will reveal some similar questions I have used in the past as we move through first Timothy this Sunday morning. Clearly pastors must have higher standards because although pastors are flawed they do lead by example. 

The apostles and early Christians weren’t afraid to stand up to unjust policies in their culture. As a matter of fact you could say that their commitment to Christ and the resulting persecution inspired their worship. Their worship was centered on what God has done and what God can do. They saw God‘s hand in persecution and asked God for boldness in spite of the opposition. What’s the most difficult situation in which you find it difficult to share the gospel? How does your worship and your prayer life prepare you for what could be tougher days ahead for Christians? How is worship not something you go to but something you live? When was the last time you were empowered By the worship service to be bold in your witness? We will look at these and other worship considerations in our message on Sunday.

The apostles and early Christians weren’t afraid to stand up to unjust policies in their culture. As a matter of fact you could say that their commitment to Christ and the resulting persecution inspired their worship. Their worship was centered on what God has done and what God can do. They saw God‘s hand in persecution and asked God for boldness in spite of the opposition. What’s the most difficult situation in which you find it difficult to share the gospel? How does your worship and your prayer life prepare you for what could be tougher days ahead for Christians? How is worship not something you go to but something you live? When was the last time you were empowered By the worship service to be bold in your witness? We will look at these and other worship considerations in our message on Sunday.

As we look at Psalm 119 there is so much. Reasons to thank God. Errors to avoid. Truth to believe. Sins to confess. Commands to obey. Attitudes to change. Promises to claim. Psalm 119 has changed lives. This Sunday let’s find out how and why. 

Pretty much everyone knows the three ways that God answers prayer: yes, no, wait. What if there were four more ways that God answers prayer? Wouldn’t you be encouraged to see more of your prayers answered? Once you have daily answers to prayer you’ll be more excited about your prayer life. The purpose of prayer is that God‘s will be accomplished in each of our lives. What hinders prayer: sin, wrong motives, puny faith, lack of perseverance, stubbornness etc. We are all plagued by those deficits, but answered prayer will soon diminish our excuses for unanswered prayers.

What we think we own actually is on loan from God. We have what we have because God, the owner, has blessed us. What we do with our financial resources reveals what we believe about God. American entitlement is not a biblical value. If you are a good steward, God gives you all you need.

Is Laurelwood a friendly church or a church in which people can find friends? When our guests show up, especially the ones looking for a new church home, they are looking for someone to take a personal interest in them. Take them out for lunch, meet during the week for a coffee, even invite them into your home for a meal. Inviting them to your home Bible study group as another option. The problem is we are so connected to our current friends, we don’t make room for new friends. Can we  create a fellowship in which people looking for friends can find them? It’s not easy. But if we’re going to have an impact in East Vancouver, we need to have people who are dedicated to making new friends. I hope you’ll consider being one of those people. 

When it comes to sharing our faith, we all could use some improvement. To solve a problem you have to know the causes before you give solutions. When I think of my own evangelism hesitancy I think of: fear, hypocrisy, they may ask questions I don’t know the answer to, if I push too hard I could lose the friendship, lazy, I have offended people when I have witnessed before, I don’t want to turn them off to future presentations of the gospel, etc. So this Sunday I’m going to try to address some of those fears so that we might be better equipped to help people find and follow Jesus.

One thing is for certain, we have to deal with sin. First John chapter 1 tells you how. If you fail to deal with sin there are several negative consequences: not feeling forgiven, guilt, doubt, blame, and denial. The presence of these feelings indicates that sin has not really been dealt with according to the principles of first John chapter 1. I’d like to know who said this and if you know let me know, "Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you there longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you want to pay." Let’s confront sin this Sunday and put those debilitating feelings behind us.

Change is something that we all have a natural aversion to. And of course not all change is good. However if you look at the Bible we find some rather dramatic changes. Particularly in the book of Acts and in the church of Corinth. The truth never changes. The application of the truth may change with the leading of the spirit and the principles of God's word. We find this true in the life of Paul several times as he attempts to change his methodology in order to reach more people for Christ. If it can be demonstrated that more people will be won to Christ if I wear a polka dot suit. Guess what? I would be wearing a polka dot suit. So let’s look at what changes and what doesn’t change this Sunday morning.

When we think about an opportunity to serve Jesus, we wonder whether or not we have the right stuff to accomplish what is required. This very often comes from the fact that we are skill oriented  rather than asking the question: Can I trust God to supply his strength through me? This one thing I know: God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think. True. But how do we link into his power? That’s the sermon for this coming Sunday.

Christ said “I will build my church,” Matthew 16:18. Christ said the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. But what kind of church? Rarely do churches survive hundreds of years. What happens? This Sunday we will discover what kind of church overcomes the devil and Covid!