SEPTEMBER 19, 2024

Lakeshore Friends—

Hey Lakeshore,

The autumn twilight is coming earlier, the nights are cooler, days are still warm, and the leaves are starting to turn and fall.  One of my favorite things about this time of year is the distinct smell that autumn always brings.  It sends me back to autumns long ago and some of the things I most enjoyed. 

The weekends of my youth before high school were spent in the rolling hills of Nunda, NY where my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins lived.  There were times afield in the beauty and ever-changing moods of fall.  There was fresh apple cider, Sunday afternoon football, and the start of school and all the other things that kicked off during the early days of September.

One of the things I remember so distinctly was our weekly attendance at the small country church.  The autumn mornings were perfect for walking to church, not too hot and not too cold, and beautiful in their splendor and aroma.  The average church attendance was between 12 and 25 people per week.  That church didn’t have a Small Groups ministry— it was a small group ministry. 

I knew everyone there.  I can’t remember their names, but they taught me lessons of faith I will never forget.  They instilled in me a love and a longing for those Small Groups of people who gather to discuss the Bible, faith, care, community, and biblically driven life-change.  That small church had a big impact on establishing my faith in Christ.

It might be one of the reasons I’m so passionate about the Small Group ministry here at Lakeshore.  Disciples are formed in the forges of Small Groups.  Faith is grounded and established in Small Groups. Biblical truth becomes practical in Small Groups.  All the risks that come with being part of a Small Group couldn’t possibly outpace the rewards of being in a Small Group.

That’s a part of my faith story.  It’s also what we'll be talking about this Sunday as we finish this two week series, Why You Need a Small Group.

See you Sunday!

Pastor Brian R.

SEPTEMBER 12, 2024

Lakeshore Friends—

It’s so important that we have the right relationships in our lives, isn’t it?  Relationships with people that care for us deeply, and with whom we care for as well.  People who will help us and who we can help.  People who help us become better followers of Jesus and who we help do the same.  These are the people who we can “do” life with, who we can hang together with, and just have fun with too!  They are the kinds of friends that Proverbs 18:24 says stick with us closer than a brother or sister does.

We all want those kinds of friends.  We all need those kinds of friends.  And yet, we all wish we had more of those kinds of friends.  Some of us wish we had just one of those friends.

Where do you find friends like that?  I can tell you from experience it’s not easy.  Friends like this are hard to find.  And once you find friends that might be candidates, it takes time to arrive at a place like what I just described above.  After all, you can’t get close or deep with a person without time.  While there are many circumstances that lead us to establish great friendships, the Bible identifies one of the most powerful ways to make this happen.

Small groups.

They offer us three important ways to grow together and three important benefits that will come from them.  And in time (and it will take time), they can help us find some of the best friendships we’ll ever find.

Over the next two weeks, we’ll talk about why you need a Small Group and how you can plug in to one as they kick off this fall.

Who knows? It could be one of the best things you could do to make friends and have relationships with others who you grow to love.

Warmly,
Vince

SEPTEMBER 5, 2024

Lakeshore Friends—

This Sunday, we'll be wrapping up our summer series “By Faith” from Hebrews 11.  We’ve looked at many characters who have lived by faith in this great chapter— 19 people or people groups are specifically identified in this chapter.  Many others are also alluded to.  All of them were clearly and definitively people who had true faith!

As I was thinking about my series-concluding message on Sunday, it led to me to raise this important question: how do you know when your faith (or someone else’s faith) is real?  How do you know when it is the kind of faith that pleases God (Hebrews 11:6), the kind of faith that has put you into a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3), and the kind of faith that will save you from eternal torment, ushering you into heaven on the day you die (Ephesians 2:8-9)?

This is not a theoretical question.  We know that there will be people who die thinking that they do have real faith only to tragically find out that the opposite is true (Matthew 7:21-23, 1 John 2:19).  Those are people who thought they had true faith but they really didn’t.  So it’s an important question to answer.

"How do you know when your faith is real? ... it's an important question to answer."

I think the answer is fundamentally found in this truth: true faith will always endure the hard times.  No matter how hard life gets, true faith will carry us through. 

That doesn’t mean we don’t struggle, or doubt, or even at times fail when hard times come.  Anyone who lives outside a cave should know this.  But what it does mean is that they survive and even thrive through their trials in such a way that they still trust God to be great, good, and loving when it has finished.  Their faith gets stronger over time, even if it is not always a linear, “every day is better than yesterday” growing faith.  Nonetheless, their faith does not die when trials come but instead develops and grows (see James 1:2-8, 1 Peter 1:6-9).  They still love God even when circumstances tempt us to think God may not love us.

So if you want to know if your faith is real, ask yourself these questions:

Do I still trust God when life gets hard?

Do I still live for God when things are crazy?

Do I still serve God when it is hard?

Do I love Jesus more now than I did last year?  Three years ago?  Ten years ago?

I hope you have a faith that is real and authentic.  And if that’s not you right now, I hope it will be soon.

Warmly,
Vince