Pathways Church Blog

We are sending out another postcard to the community that will be arriving in homes early next week. The front of it looks like the picture to the left. If you just received the postcard, and you are visiting the website…welcome!

When we sent out our first ever postcard in August, we thought it would be fun to tell the Story Behind the Photo. This postcard seemed like a good opportunity to do that again, so here goes…

As we’ve done different publications to represent Pathways, one of the things we’ve tried to avoid are stock photos of perfect looking people who aren’t actually a part of our community. Rather, we’ve tried to include pictures of people who are part of Pathways. There are a few reasons for this: 1) usually stock photos have copyright and licensing fees behind them, and we feel like that money could best be put to use in other ways, and 2) we want our materials to represent that we are a community of normal, everyday people.

This postcard was suggestive of the idea that God himself was once a baby in the person of Jesus. As you look at this postcard, you might notice a few things about this baby that would be inconsistent with what Jesus might have looked like. First of all, this baby is caucasian, and Jesus most certainly was not. Those of you with highly trained eyes might note another big difference — unlike Jesus, this baby is a she!

The she in question is a member of Pathways — my four month old daughter Ellie. The original picture is to the right. If is another far from professional photo (although I do think she is beautiful enough to be a model!) I snapped it, along with about a dozen others, while Ellie was sitting in her carseat on our kitchen counter. In making the postcard, I decided to show only her face because the outfit she is wearing isn’t exactly standard issue first century Palestine nursery wear…not to mention it has pink trim on it!

Regardless of how much this photo might look like Jesus, we hope it makes the point. God came to earth in the form of a helpless little baby for you and me. I want to try to understand who that God is!

There are a lot of phrases in Christianity that have been used by people in so many ways that they don’t really have much meaning left. We are never quite sure what they mean because we’ve heard them used a lot, but perhaps not fully described.

One of these is a phrase Jesus used a lot: “kingdom of God”. However, it is an important phrase for us to understand, because Jesus’ ministry on earth was closely tied in to the beginning of the kingdom of God. This week, we will look at the arrival of the kingdom of God through Jesus, and what that meant.

Early in his gospel, Matthew describes the work of Jesus (and the kingdom of God) in this way: “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” (Matthew 4:23)

This verse is really a summary of the ministry of Jesus through his time on earth. What are examples of how he did each of these three things: teaching, proclaiming, and healing?
If the church is the continuation of the work of Jesus, in what ways can we continue his work in each of those three actions?
What is your understanding of what the kingdom of God is?

Being that this concept is close to our hearts – as it is the first of our Core Values, this article caught my eye. Written by Charles Colson, who was a hatchet man for Nixon in the Watergate scandal, but came to trust Jesus while he was in prison for the crime he committed, he is now a prolific Christian writer and activist for those who are in prison.

“Exhausted from hospitals, two years of writing The Good Life, and an ugly situation with a disgruntled former employee, I found myself wrestling with the Prince of Darkness, who attacks us when we are weakest. I walked around at night, asking God why he would allow this. Alone, shaken, fearful, I longed for the closeness with God I had experienced even in the darkest days of prison….I’m not sure how well the contemporary evangelical world prepares us for this struggle, which I suspect many evangelicals experience but fear to admit because of the expectations we create.”

May we never create an expectation that life is easy or that you need to have it all together for the community of Pathways Church. Life is a struggle and we were meant to walk it together. It’s better that way.

Every year, as we celebrate the Christmas season, we tend to look at the stories found in Matthew and Luke describing the birth of Jesus. However, we should not overlook John’s first words about Jesus in his gospel. John makes grand statements about the arrival of Jesus that very much worth our consideration as we concentrate on the incarnation.

Take some time this week to read over John 1:1-18.
What claims does John make about Jesus?
What questions come to you as you read through this text?