Chuck Foreman – Teaching Pastor

If you pay attention to a common thread running throughout the main story line in God’s Story (what we find in the Bible), you’ll find that owning our personal screw ups (sin) is central to our part in initiating a relationship with God. As it turns out, it’s also central to reconciling our relationships with others. In fact, God holds out on us, in relationship, until we get things right with those we need to get things right with. So God’s Story now becomes Our Story. We can’t do a relationship with God well without also doing a relationship with others well. And every time, it always boils down to either admitting what we’ve done and determining to not keep doing it, and/or forgiving those who’ve wronged us.  (more…)

Chuck Foreman – Teaching Pastor

We’re hearing people talk a lot about community in church circles these days. I’m hoping it’s not just another contemporary religious fad because I think we’re onto something significant. Plus, it sounds better than the churchy word fellowship, which is what I hope people actually mean when they talk about community. The Greek word used in the New Testament which we have always translated, fellowship, (koinonia) describes a kind of participatory togetherness shared and enjoyed by people who have found each other because of some common bond. In the New Testament this common bond was always faith in God, and specifically for Jews, faith in Jesus the Messiah who fulfilled and competed their faith. Luke gives us a glimpse of what true community looks like in Acts 2: 42-47.  These new Jewish believers in Jesus as their crucified, now resurrected Messiah, seemed to instinctively devote themselves to The Koinonia (fellowship/community). And Luke tells what that meant for them…  (more…)

Chuck Foreman – Teaching Pastor

Dr. Henry Cloud says, “We need to see the difference between pain with a purpose and pain for no good reason.”  Part of being human in a fallen world is that we all endure physical and emotional pain, to one degree or another. Some pain is necessary, reasonable and acceptable when we know it’s simply the price we’re paying to accomplish a worthwhile goal. We believe in “no pain, no gain” when we’re trying to get in shape, or trying to get out of debt and achieve our financial goals, or when we’re pursuing an education that will make us more marketable. But some pain is unnecessary and for no good reason, yet we endure its misery simply because we believe the lie that says, “You can’t do anything about it; it’s just the way it is and the way it’s going to be.”  Who says?!  (more…)

Chuck Foreman – Teaching Pastor

Moving forward personally, growing in our faith, overcoming weaknesses and difficulties is what we all want and hope for in life. But how often do we move ahead, grow, overcome? More often than not, we stay stuck. Why is this?  (more…)