EPISODE 61: Q&A and Year in Review

Date: 02/03/2021

  1. How do you decide to cancel worship services due to inclement weather?
    1. Business ops director, facilities manager, and I (Josh) make the call together.
    2. 6:30am call for morning worship services.
      1. Volunteers start arriving by 7am.
      2. Joe and Kelly were out on the roads by 6am checking routes to CR9.
      3. They didn’t think it was safe to be asking our volunteers to be out on the roads.
    3. Recognize that it may seem silly for people who are showing up at 9 or 10:45 when the roads are clear, but there are a lot of moving parts. One of those being our worship/tech team volunteers who arrive much earlier than other folks.
  1. Are we born sinners or do we become sinners when we make a choice to sin? For instance, if people say, “Well, I was born this way,” can God make something sinful?
    1. God, Creation, and Sin
      1. Genesis 1-2 — God did not create sinful things — including humanity.
      2. Genesis 3 — We sinned and rebelled against God. And we dare not blame God for the consequences of our rebellion and sin. Including the idea of “being born a certain way” that contradicts how God commands us to live as revealed in the Bible.
    2. Nature or choice?
      1. Psalm 51:1-5 (NET) — Have mercy on me, O God, because of your loyal love! Because of your great compassion, wipe away my rebellious acts! 2 Wash away my wrongdoing! Cleanse me of my sin! 3 For I am aware of my rebellious acts; I am forever conscious of my sin. 4 Against you – you above all – I have sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. So you are just when you confront me; you are right when you condemn me. 5 Look, I was guilty of sin from birth, a sinner the moment my mother conceived me.
      2. We are sinners by nature and choice.
        1. We all choose to sin. (Needs little explanation.)
        2. We’re sinners by our very nature.
          1. Romans 5:12 (NET) — So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned.
          2. Adam was our representative in the Garden and his rebellion caused all of us to be born with a sinful nature.
          3. Similarly, Christ came to be our representative, thus his perfect obedience and suffering is the cause of the new birth in those who believe. 
    3. What does “born this way” intend to justify?
      1. This almost always focuses on sexual identity. 
      2. Though some use “born this way” as their excuse for being angry or lazy or other things (“I was born with a temper.”)
      3. But we don’t allow “born this way” to justify things like “I was born a racist.” 
      4. I don’t want to downplay the struggle against something that seems natural (thus, “I was born this way”) regardless if the struggle is with sexual identity, anger, being lazy, or being a racist. These are all very real struggles. I’m just saying that the gospel has the power to transform us so we obey God’s Word and commands. Even those that go against our natural (even sinful) desires.
      5. The transformation will often feel like war, because we’re in a spiritual war.
      6. Too often we want change to be easy; and it rarely is.

Ministry in Review doc discussion