We Are Eternal: Community
August 16, 2026

Colossians 3:11–17
[11] Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

[12] Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, [13] bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. [14] And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. [15] And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. [16] Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. [17] And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (ESV)

1. Who and How Community
2. Why Community and What it Does
3. To What End Community

Church Family!
Beginning on Tuesday, September 1, we will start a church-wide Bible reading plan. The plan has been created on a weekday rhythm of reading one chapter of the Word each day. This does not mean you can’t read God’s Word on the weekends; our hope is that you would spend Saturday morning reading through the passage we will be looking at on Sunday and preparing your heart for our time gathered.

This fall, we will read, Galatians, Genesis, Ruth, and Matthew.

As part of our reading plan, we will also have a memory verse each week. We know that God’s Word is our weapon against the lies that arrive and tempt our hearts during the day. The only way to identify a lie is to know the Truth!

You can see the full plan online here.
This Sunday, we will have printed copies of the reading plan available for you to take.

I hope that you will join us in this intentional work of growing together in Christ. I pray that the Lord would use His Word, through His Spirit’s work, to mature us into the image of His Son.

Consider
Carve out enough time to meditate on what you read and write some thoughts down.

1. Prayerfully consider what God is making known about Himself in this passage.
2. How does that orient your day?
3. What does it look like to walk in that Truth today?

Share
Text, call, and meet with others in the body about the day’s reading.

Gather
Attend our Wednesday Night Treasuring the Word class.
In this class, we will look at the previous week’s reading and discuss how the Lord is making His glory known, and how we then walk in trust and obedience to that image.
Sign Up Here 

Lead
This plan is intentionally easy to keep up with. Our hope is that this would be able to be used with your family.

There’s an app for that!
Here is the Scripture memory app I use. It’s pretty fantastic!
Bible Memory App: Apple // Google 

Want to go deeper in the text?
The ESV Study Bible is a great resource to do just that. It is filled with verse by verse commentary from biblical scholars who help us better understand the context and language of each chapter and verse.
Hardback Edition 
Leather Edition

Church Family,
I pray this finds you well and keenly aware of the continual common and special grace of our God.

This Sunday we will look at Psalm 115:1–11 as we consider our Worship. As we prepare for our time together, I encourage you to take a moment to be courageous enough to sit in the presence of our Lord and ask a  question:

For instance…What gives me security? What is it that if I lost today, I am sure I would be completely lost? What am I running to for joy? What am I running to for rest? What is your greatest hope for the second half of 2026?

And then join us on Sunday morning at 10 AM as we worship together. And as it has been said before, we  gather as the children of God to hear the Word of God sung, read, prayed, and preached in order that the Spirit of God would, by one degree to the next, transform us into the image of the Son of God!

I can’t wait! See you soon.

Eternal Church!
I am excited to take our first step together this Sunday as we grow in Christ through the Word of God being sung, prayed, read, and preached. This week we’ll begin by taking the next four weeks to remember why we exist. We’ll look at how the coordinates of Truth, Worship, Community, and Witness are meant to reorient and remind us of the purpose that’s been breathed into each of us by the God of Creation.

As we begin, I’d love to pass along some helpful ways to prepare for our time together.
Dr. Gunner Gundersen wrote a brief booklet entitled: How Do I Get the Most from My Pastor’s Sermons? In it, he discusses seven tips for hearing well:

1. Read the passage beforehand
2. Pray for your pastor
3. Remember who’s speaking
4. Furrow the field (till the soil)
5. Arrive early
6. Soak in the experience
7. Trust and obey

You can read a brief explanation of each of these things here:
7 Tips for Getting More out of Sunday Sermons 

With that, you can begin to prepare your heart for our time together by reading Genesis 1:1 and asking yourself, do I believe that in the beginning God created all things?
And if so, what are the implications for my life today?

I am wonderfully excited to jump into the Word this Sunday with each of you. My hope and prayer is that each of us arrives early with eager expectation for the Word of God to accomplish its purposes in our hearts and hands.

See you then!
Steve

12 Weeks of Remembering
March/April - Resurrection (4 weeks) - The resurrection of Christ
August - Reorientation (4 Weeks) - Our calling, purpose, mission, posture…
December - Advent (4 Weeks) - The arrival of Christ

40 Weeks of Verse by Verse Teaching through a text

We Are Eternal - The Four Coordinates (4 weeks)
Why We Exist will be the overarching question that we flesh out over the month of August.
Psalms (2 weeks)
James (11 weeks)
Advent (4 weeks)