Pastor's Report for 2007

This is the Pastor's Report for the First Church of God, Oak Lawn, for 2008 . . .

Christian churches exist because a real historical person, Jesus of Nazareth, actually lived and was crucified and literally, bodily rose again from the dead. Christians believe that this man, Jesus, was God, incarnate. Incarnation is “the act of God the Son whereby he took to himself a human nature” [Bible Doctrine, Grudem]. In other words, Jesus was God in human flesh. God became a man.

This truth about Jesus is not a myth or a fairy tale, it is the central fact of human history. It is the most critical, most fundamental, and most important of all historic truths. Jesus died and rose again.

So, Christianity is fundamentally, about Jesus. He is the point. He is the point of everything we do as a church. He is the reason you and I exist. He is the uncaused cause of all that there is. “Without him nothing matters and nothing matters without him.” [I know I’ve heard that sentence I just wrote somewhere in the past, but I don’t know where, so I can’t properly attribute it.]

I received a note this past year from someone who said that our church helped her “get her Jesus on.” You won’t find the phrase—she got “her Jesus on”—in a theology book, anywhere, but that’s actually not a completely inaccurate way of talking about our church’s mission. We exist to help people “get their Jesus on” in the sense of accepting Christ as Savior and Lord and then growing in Christ.

We have a particular emphasis that God has laid upon us to be a church where irreligious people, haven’t-been-to-church-lately people, not-walking-real-closely-God-these-days people can come and investigate, think, seek, discover, and, hopefully, make a connection with God. Sometimes churches can feel a little intimidating, or a little formal, or a little too prim and proper for people who haven’t been around church much. We believe God has called us to be a church for those folks; the ones who haven’t been around church much, lately.

It’s sort of like this:

“What’s that, you say? You haven’t been to church in years? You’re not sure about all this religion stuff? Cool, this Sunday, drop in at 4600 W. 111th Street in Oak Lawn. The pastor’s a little silly sometimes but you might just discover that God is really great! Your problem has been with religion, not with God. Check this church out.”

God has also raised up another emphasis for our church in regard to our mission. He has called us to be a church for people who are hurting. In particular, God is using our church to reach out to those who have been hurt by addictions, relational troubles, and substance abuse, as well as those who have been hurt in past experiences with church and religion.

Why does God trust us with these hurting people? I don’t know. Sometimes, I think he’s primarily asking us to point people to Jesus and to His word and try not to get in the way, too much.

One of the ways that we know whether God is at work in our church, or not, is by life change. The basic thought is this: If Jesus is who we say he is [God incarnate] then a genuine encounter with the living Jesus Christ will result in life change. A sinful, fallible, lost creature will not stay the same after a true, repentant encounter with his/her Holy, Righteous, Almighty Creator.

I have received dozens of written notes and e-mails this year from people who informed me that God worked through the ministry of this church to change their lives. Receiving these notes is one of the experiences that I have, in any given year, that thrills and encourages me the most. I love to receive reports of lives changing. People have expressed to me that things are different, not perfect, but better. They’ve told me that changes have occurred in their lives, in some cases dramatic changes, in other cases not as dramatic. Some of the changes were instantaneous, others were slow. But because of Jesus, it’s not the same.

This is what motivates me and excites me and helps inspire me to keep on going: God is using the ministry of this church—imperfect as it is—to change lives.

That’s all I want to tell you this year: Jesus is changing lives, He’s working through our church. That’s the main thing that needs to happen here—it may not be the only thing, but it’s the main thing. I hope that’s as exciting for you to know as it is for me.

It is my honor to serve God, together, with you.

Love and blessings,

Dan Marler
First Church of God
Oak Lawn, IL

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