PBPC Announcements

PBPC Family, In worship on Sunday, before we sent the kids downstairs to continue their worship, I shared John 3:16 with them and invited them to begin memorizing Scripture. When we memorize passages of Scripture, we make deposits of hope for our future selves. When we are struggling, dealing with grief or sadness, or navigating a difficult situation, those memorized passages can be a source of deep encouragement. It takes work to commit them to memory, but the ways God uses those passages to comfort and heal us far outweighs the effort required. I once lived with a family and the father had memorized the entire book of Matthew. He would be mowing the lawn, suddenly stop, go inside to check a passage in Matthew to make sure he recited it correctly, and then would return to his yardwork. I've always thought of him when I'm attempting to memorize a short passage. In the coming weeks and months, we're going to practice memorizing Scripture alongside our kids. Each Sunday, befo...

PBPC Family, My guess is that most members of PBPC don't listen to hip-hop (though I could be wrong!), so you most likely missed nobigdyl, a Christian hip-hop artist, recently winning NPR's Tiny Desk Contest Fan Favorite for the second year in a row. Last year, nobigdyl won for his song "Go With the Ghost" . This year, his song " imago interlude " took the top spot again as a fan favorite.  Christianity Today interviewed nobigdyl , who's real name is Dylan Phillips, which is how I stumbled on his music and videos. I encourage you to watch the video and read the lyrics to his song . I was convicted by the last line of nobigdyl's song - "You don't know Jesus til you see him in your enemy." The final lyric especially takes on deeper meaning in light of everything he says before. I know many of us feel overwhelmed by everything that is happening in the world. It is important for us to be able to name the evil that is happening - the killing...

PBPC Family, On Sunday, Ginnie shared about a Zoom conversation between Matt Edminster, an Alongside missionary in Estonia and Fyodor Raychynets, a pastor in Ukraine. As promised, I'm sending along the email from Matt with the link to the conversation. Thank you to all who were able to join us for my Zoom conversation with Ukrainian pastor Fyodor Raychynets on Saturday morning. As promised, here is the recording of our conversation. You can find important links to donate or join the mailing list in the show notes.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL1fhuPJdZU   Join me in prayer for clear thought and writing for Fyodor as he works on his doctoral thesis during an important study leave in Oxford. Let's also be praying for the Bethany Church as they develop their ministry to war orphans and elderly. And finally, let's be praying that the Hrantsev family will quickly find the resources they need to purchase a van. One more update on Alongside Ministry. Dave Pierson recently st...

PBPC Family, The last two Sundays, we looked at Galatians 2:15-21 and tried to make sense of the faith of Christ and our faith in Christ. We have delved into the depths of Paul's thoughts and the massive theological and Scriptural work the early Christians did in making sense of Jesus' connection to the Hebrew Scriptures. Paul came to believe that God's new covenant family was no longer defined by ethnicity or certain rituals but by fidelity to Jesus Christ. Jesus was the door to God's family and he was leading all who belonged to him out of the old age and into the new. And this very same Jesus came to live in those who were loyal to him - so much so that Paul could say, "it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me." Diving into the historical and theological background of Paul and his writings is no small feat. We will continue to do that over the next few Sundays. For those of you who would like to explore these ideas on your own, I recommend the ...