Looking Back on a Year
This month, then, is the one-year anniversary of my installation as the Pastor here. In that time a lot of things have happened in our church family....
Keep ReadingMorning Worship at Pearl PCA Resuming May 31st
Morning worship services are set to resume on Sunday, May 31st at 11am. We are encouraging congregants and visitors who are immunocompromised to worship along with us live from home. ...
Updates Updates Updates!
The session of our church met on Wednesday of this week. I felt like for the May newsletter it would be prudent for me to update you on our church. This will seem a little scattershot, but there is much to say....
Of Plagues and Peoples
How do we think about plague, sickness, and potential economic devastation? What is it that the Lord could be doing?...
All Services at Pearl PCA Cancelled Through April [Updated]
Physical services at Pearl PCA have been suspended for the month of April, including morning worship. The session will re-evaluate whether this suspension of services continues into the month of April. In the meantime, we will be posting new sermons each week and sending family worship guides as well as offering mid-week Bible studies and Sunday School lessons. Please read for more information....
COVID-19 Coronavirus and Pearl PCA
Pearl Presbyterian Church will be instituting changes effective immediately to help mitigate the potential spread of the COVID-19 virus....
Child Protection Changes for 2020
Our church is instituting a thorough Child Protection Policy in 2020. Not only do we need to know what those changes are, but we need to know why this is a good and precious thing....
Ain't Just Putting on the Ritz
But we should be careful to put music in its place and maintain a healthy perspective on its relationship to our own hearts. The ordinary means God has given us to grow are prayer, the sacraments, and the reading and preaching of the Bible. Let's start there, and build our spiritual health around those things first and foremost....
Wine in the Supper: Something Old, Something New
We as church members may have become accustomed to it, and for many of us it may be the norm, but all of us must admit, the use of grape juice in the Lord’s Supper is an innovation that was introduced by man and not by God. Not only has it been the historic practice of the church, but it is mandated for us in Scripture that we use wine in the Lord’s Supper. What then should we do? ...
Reflections on Two Months Away From Facebook
Back at the end of September I decided to delete my Facebook account. I hope to mention a few reasons why this was the right decision for me, and then I’ll conclude by reflecting on what I’ve felt and experienced since quitting. I won’t say you should do the same thing, but I will challenge you to consider it....
How to Listen to a Sermon
Yes, the preacher has a responsibility to open the Word of God and say truly what is there, and to do so in a way that doesn’t put you to sleep. And yes he has a responsibility to make the text make sense and to make an earnest application of the text. But we as the sermon listeners also bear a responsibility as well, and it’s a responsibility that I wonder whether we consider all that often? ...
Sunday School is History!
For many of us, the first century time of the Apostles is the most that we really know about church history. We know the book of Acts, and then we know today (and probably a lot of talk about the Reformation)! However, a lot has happened in the remaining 1900 years up until today! And those things that have happened are far more impactful, interesting, and important than many of us may realize....
Go Ahead and Reprove Me
There is more communication going on in our own day and age than ever, and yet people are also probably reproved less than they've ever been. But true reproof is something that the Bible tells us we should welcome. ...
Trusting and Delighting in 2018
We are all far greater worshipers than we may give ourselves credit for. The sad truth though, is that it’s often all the wrong things that we delight in and worship. ...
Remembering Dr. Sproul
“Every single moment of life that we experience on this planet is tied to eternity.” ...
Looking Back on a Year
This month, then, is the one-year anniversary of my installation as the Pastor here. In that time a lot of things have happened in our church family....
How Can We Prepare to Help in Texas?
We don’t know the full reality of the devastation or the damage. In fact, the roadways are still flooded and impassible in most of the Houston area. FEMA is already talking about the work they will be doing in the Houston area in terms of years, and not months. What can we do, as a church? I’m already getting phone calls and messages from people asking what we, as a church will be doing to help the suffering. ...
Learning to Listen
Let me suggest that, as a church, there is no quick fix for us to solve the racial problems around us. I do want to suggest, however, that the first step is the same first step that the Apostles took in Acts 6, and that’s listening. When our brothers and sisters tell us that they’re hurting, let’s listen. Let’s hear that. Let’s take it seriously. ...
End the Spiritual Boom-Bust Cycle
Most experts seem to agree that an economic boom-bust cycle is not ideal, but it is what we’ve lived with for the last hundred years or so in the United States. I wonder how many of us as Christians have decided to live with a boom-bust cycle in our spiritual lives....
Why Is it Okay to Mix Threads Now?
One thing I have noticed is that when a Christian is challenged on the subject of sexual morality, one of the responses that is most common is for the other person to say, “Well the Bible says you’re not supposed to mix threads together, but your shirt is a polyester cotton blend. So you’re a hypocrite and you just pick one rule out of your Bible and ignore the other.” What are we to make of that command?...
17 Ways to Glorify God
Thomas Watson shares seventeen ways that Christians can glorify God in their lives....
Died He For Me?
Is the author of The Shack right? Is the cross really abuse? Is that a fair way to talk about penal substitutionary atonement? ...
Children's Ministry Matters for the Church
Christian education does not exist in order to just keep the kids (or adults!) busy or even to create a knowledgeable group of people in the church. Rather, Christian education, with discipleship as its goal, exists to produce spiritual unity, knowledge, and holiness among Christians....
Taking Pleasure in Our Mysterious God
We will never fully plumb the depths of God and Who He is. We will never run out of questions. He is an infinite well of joy, pleasure, and mystery....
Strategies for Battle in the New Year
The year 2017 will be a year of warfare for our souls, as we tangle once again with our old enemies: the world, the flesh, and the Devil. Central to that warfare is the Word of God. ...
Luther and the Madness of Forgiveness
Luther was once asked by one of his parishioners why he kept preaching about the Gospel. Why not move on to other things? Luther is said to have responded, "I keep reminding you because you and I keep forgetting."...
Escape from Hopelessness
Ernest Cline's best-selling book Ready Player One tells the story of a dystopian near-future in which the world has fallen into such depressingly hopeless disrepair that people have no hope for joy in the real world....