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As most of you know, I have been doing this "preacher stuff", as one of my buddies calls it, for 35 years. In that time I have been everything from the only preacher (which means preacher/janitor/ yard guy!), to the senior preacher of a large staff. Heck, I have even been a national officer for another denomination. I have been in, spoken to and seen churches from down under to across the Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Wilson pond to on the islands. And in all that time and in all those places, one thing continues to stand out to me; the Christian church has an identity crisis. For the most part, I believe it always has and I believe it always will. But before you let that statement shake you up in agreement or disagreement, let me say I think the church should be and needs to be in the midst of an identity crisis, now and always. And we as Christians should be mirroring that same struggle, the struggle to discern who we really are as a people of faith. In today's world, what does it mean to be a believer in Christ Jesus? What does it mean to be a church under the banner of Christianity? Can we honestly say we are rooted, as individuals or as a congregation, fully in Christ? And is the fruit we produce fruit of the Kingdom? Or do we need to re-think what we have been confessing on Sundays in our sanctuary? I hope you will join me this Sunday, the last in our series, as we reflect on Matthew 7:15-23 and perhaps re-consider what it really means to be "like Jesus" as believers and as a church.
Finally, it was good to welcome Robert, Michelle, Britton, Brogan and Brielle Corley, Chris Colavecchio, Claire and Caitlyn Cichostepski, Jude Garner, Henry Ohlweiler, and Brooklyn and Ivey Warpool as new member. Welcome to our church community. Thanks and blessings, The Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Wilson