Evangelising and Disciplemaking

To get stronger takes a lot of dedication and hard work. Improvement doesn’t happen overnight. There are a lot of similarities with growing in Christ. What is the hardest thing about being a Christian? In my experience, there are two answers, both equally difficult. The first is evangelizing, often called “witnessing”. The other is disciplining.…

The Magic of Christmas

Religious philosophy can lead one through logical deduction to the conclusion that belief in religion is the best choice. Along those lines, 17th century mathematician Blaise Pascal is best known today for what is called “Pascal’s wager”, where he argued that belief in God is logical because we have far more to gain by believing…

Thoughts from Pastor Timothy Keller

Pastor Timothy Keller is a leading example of how faithful Christians should stand apart from the world even as we seek to transform it for God’s kingdom. What follows are two short excerpts from his Facebook page that seem appropriate for believers, and bear repeating:   A Warning Against Online Mockery God sometimes mocks (Ps…

Why do priests wear different color vestments?

The following article was written by Philip Kosloski and published on https://aleteia.org on 17 December 2017: Each color has a unique meaning that points beyond itself. Throughout the Church’s liturgical year, priests wear several different color vestments. The colors are not arbitrary, but reflect a deeper meaning that is meant to point us to a…

Do the Old Testament Laws Apply Today?

We recite the Ten Commandments every Sunday at Epworth, so we clearly think they are important, but how do we apply them to our lives today? For example, do we keep the Sabbath holy in a different way today because part of Sabbath restrictions were cultural for Israel, or do we not keep the Sabbath…

Why We Preach from the Lectionary at Epworth

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA On occasion, some may wonder why the sermons at Epworth are always based on one (or more) of the assigned readings from the lectionary.  Why not let the Minister choose the texts for preaching?  Or why not preach sequentially through the Bible or various books…

A Christian Response to Pride Month

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA   Here we are at the end of Pride Month, which the Church as a whole largely ignores, but because it is something the rest of society acknowledges, it seems appropriate to address it here. Dealing with the issue of homosexuality in a biblically accurate…