Pastor's Page

 "And Jesus interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.”                Luke 24:27

A while back I was browsing at Barnes & Noble. I picked up a bargain book with  the title Can You Pass These Tests—The Toughest Tests You’ll Never Have to Take But Always Wanted to Try. I opened the book and, lo  and behold, there was the Bible content exam given to candidates for the Presbyterian ministry! The authors considered this a hard test because only about 60% of Presbyterian seminary students pass it the first time they take it.

A few days later I was reading a promotional magazine sent out by one of our  seminaries. In it was an article about a new program for Biblical literacy. This seminary had noticed that, over the past few decades, their incoming students showed less and less knowledge of the content of the Bible.

This is a disturbing trend for the church. If Jesus Christ  is the gateway to the faith, the Bible is our key to knowing Christ. It is the fundamental document of the Christian church. The Bible tells the story of how we human beings have rebelled against God, or ignored God, and how God has come to us again and again to save us. The language of the church is the language of Scripture. It is impossible  to grow in the faith without being exposed more and more to Scripture. Without knowledge of the Bible we lose touch with who we are  as the people of God and what God wants of us.

Our church offers you and your children many opportunities to learn more about  the Bible and so grow in the faith. We have Vacation Bible School, Sunday School for children through adults, Monday Bible Study, confirmation class, and special studies from time to time. I hope you will take advantage of these opportunities to learn. You may feel that the Bible is too difficult to understand, or just too boring. But I guarantee that the more you learn the easier and more interesting you will find it. Or you may feel that you learned those stories in Sunday School when you were a kid and that is all you need to know. But I guarantee that reading the Bible      seriously as an adult is a very different and eye-opening experience.

Jesus helped the early disciples understand the significance of his death and resurrection by interpreting the Scriptures, and on that basis the church came into being and grew rapidly. A growing church is a learning church.   A church that neglects study of the Bible is a dying church. Kerri Cordray and our Christian Education committee are very active and offer many opportunities to participate in Christian education. Let’s make our church a growing and learning congregation!

Pastor L. Timothy Doty