Chuck Foreman – Teaching Pastor

One of the most difficult and yet refreshing things for me to wrap my head around has been the joyful discovery that God actually does not expect me to become someone or something I’m not in order to be totally, 100% engaged in his work in this world. There are so many stereotypical versions of what it means to be a disciple, or a follower of Christ and I don’t really care for any of ‘em! Confession: I know deep down that the images presented to me of “sold out”, “on fire” Christians just aren’t me or who I even want to be. (more…)

Chuck Foreman – Teaching Pastor

Just the very thought of influencing another person to change their entire world view toward one that has God and his plan for our world at its center, is overwhelming. Even more daunting is the idea of how I might possibly persuade someone who is at the center of their own world to change their allegiance from self to Jesus and their focus from self to others.  From my experience people don’t change easily. Some people never change at all. I’ve learned how presumptuous it is for me to think that I alone am influential enough to change anyone.   (more…)

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Chuck Foreman – Teaching Pastor

Has anyone ever wondered where all those passages are in the New Testament instructing Christians to “share their faith”, “witness”, and be “soul winners” ?  I can only think of one that comes close to presenting the idea of Christians giving some kind of overt verbal testimony about their faith. (But I’m not going to tell you where it is. Let me know if you can come up with it.)  However, the New Testament record is clear that our Christian ancestors did have a “testimony.”  There was something about them that did win the attention and approval of outsiders.  It was deeper than and more profound than their verbal message.  This is what it was…are you ready?…    (more…)

Chuck Foreman – Teaching Pastor

We don’t all run off to the mission field or enroll in seminary, but we see our world, our life and our sphere of influence, differently. Now our neighborhood, our work place, our school, is our mission field. We still have our occupations, but now we have a pre-occupation – people – created in God’s image, but separated from Him and in need of finding their way back to Him.

Chuck Foreman – Teaching Pastor

We seldom see ourselves as others do. Most of the time we aren’t aware of the things about us that rub others the wrong way. We rarely have the conscious thought, “Hey, I need to change and become a better person.” Usually our conscious thoughts fall into one of these two categories: (1) Defending myself: “I’m a pretty good person. Everyone else just needs to accept me and get over themselves.” (2) Loathing myself: “There’s no hope for me. I can never change.” I’ve heard it said that people never really change. But I’ve actually seen people change dramatically for the better. We all have. How does someone become a better person—stop old habits, become more loving, less self-centered? If that can happen, then how?   (more…)

Chuck Foreman – Teaching Pastor

We all know there are always at least two sides to every story, sometimes more. We’ve all heard that there’s more than one way to skin a cat. (I’ve never been able to figure out why anyone would even want to skin a cat, but anyway…) When it comes to how people respond to a challenge to change their behavior or thinking in some way, there are probably as many ways of responding as there are people. What is it that causes people to change for the better, to grow and mature? Our various and complex personality types makes predicting causes of behavioral and attitude change difficult if not impossible. I believe people can change their ways—become radically better people. I’ve seen it happen. Some call this type of change conversion. But what causes real, genuine conversion in anyone? (more…)