Newsletters - Turner Christian Church (OR)

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Last month my family got COVID, and the four of us went into quarantine. While we were locked up, I got a package in the mail that made me incredibly happy: the collected works of W. Carl Ketcherside! If that doesn’t mean anything to you, don’t worry. I’ll explain who he is—and why I was so excited to receive a copy of his books!

W. Carl Ketcherside was an evangelist in the Churches of Christ in Missouri. During the first decades of his ministry, he was well-known as a debater: he would travel the country debating with others about the proper way to do church. He never shied away from telling others when they were doing something that wasn’t in the New Testament, whether it was worshipping with instruments or hiring a pastor or supporting a seminary or bible college. Ketcherside specialized in defending his approach to Christianity as the only true one.

Then Ketcherside had an experience. While he was visiting a church in Ireland, he had this sudden realization that everything he was doing to divide the church was working against the Holy Spirit. He had a kind of conversion experience that led him to realize that all of the Christians he had been condemning for their different opinions were really his brothers in Christ. From then on, W. Carl Ketcherside dedicated himself to building unity in the body of Christ.

Fast forward about seventy years, and you’ll find me, as a youth pastor in Wallowa County, reading a church history book and coming across a quote from Ketcherside that had a profound impact on how I understand the mission of the church. When I received these books during my COVID quarantine, I immediately searched through them for the quote. When I found it, I highlighted it, underlined it, and folded the page corner to make sure I wouldn’t lose it. Here’s the passage that inspired me so deeply:

“I shall make nothing as test of fellowship which God has not made a condition of salvation. I shall not seek to establish brotherhood by definition of a human document, nor by conformity in matters of opinion. I shall be a brother to all who have been begotten by my Father. Brotherhood based upon fatherhood, fraternity based upon paternity, that shall be my standard because it is scriptural. I will free myself from all partisan traditions, schemes and ideas which men have adopted to offset unity of the Spirit….

“The unity of the Spirit is one of community, not conformity; of diversity, not uniformity. It is rooted in mutual love, not dogmatism; in freedom, not in slavery. Our peace is a person, not a plan or a program!”

What inspires me most about this quote is the phrase “because it is scriptural.” The Bible is full of commands to God’s people that we love and accept each other—over 30 times in the New Testament!—and yet somehow I thought being right was more important than being God’s family. I hope that you are also inspired by that idea. The church—our church—has the power to be a place of peace, reconciliation, and radical transformation because God forms us into a family. God chooses his own children, and he often chooses children that we would not have chosen. But as we accept each other—as we accept all of our brothers and sisters, not just the ones we like or agree with—we experience a love and unity that can transform our broken communities. I am so excited to be a part of that mission with you.

God bless!

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This past month I had the opportunity to

preach through my very first sermon series.

It was a great privilege to put it together and deliver it. Through study, preparations, and compilation, I learned very much throughout those four weeks. The general theme of this series was the idea of transformation. More specifically, within our faith, how we live out, pursue, and recognize simple transformation. Don’t get me wrong, transformation can be complicated, tricky, and downright difficult. But it isn’t always these things. An underlying theme throughout his series was how we are to care for others. I have a great passion for people caring for one another.

Our world is divided. What’s interesting is that the world has been divided for a very, very long time. Just look at the earliest people, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and so many others throughout history. Now, I don’t say that lightly. I also don’t say that to mean that we ought to be ok with where the world is at. We have, as everyone else has ever experienced, historical nearsightedness, I believe. Everything always seems to be worse when we are living than it ever has been before. The church is struggling more than before, the world is such darker than it ever has been, or Christianity as a whole is struggling more than ever. In reality, I don’t know if we can feasibly say any of these things are true.

The church is having conversations that are necessary and beautiful or how we love others. It is continuing to love those around it. The world has always been a dark place full of evil, but it has also always been a place full of beauty and light as well. Christianity is growing all over the world. People are also excited for the gospel and excited to share it. We just have a natural tendency to think we have it worse off than anyone else ever has.

What I’m trying to say is this; following Jesus has always been about loving those placed in front of us. The world has always been a place that makes that difficult. We are facing unique challenges, sure. But we are facing challenges just like those who have walked before us. We must acknowledge these challenges and move forward to love others in a radical, counter-cultural, and Jesus-like way.

Matthew 22:37-39:

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

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About Camp!

I’ve been thinking about late nights and early mornings, about excessive amounts of coffee (me, not the kids), about all-out worship and passionate speakers. I’ve been thinking about card games while we pass the time, and crying girls, and earnest prayer, and picky eaters.

I love camp season. Don’t get me wrong; I can be a bit of a whiner and if you stand too close to me during the summer you might hear some complaints about camps that over-exhaust kids or teens, or lean too heavy on emotional appeals, or camps with policies I disagree with or watered-down worship or any number of things. But you’ll also see me glow with excitement over a teen who just started to “get that Jesus-thing” or who opened up for the first time or who started asking about baptism, or who allowed themselves to be vulnerable, or who asked a question that showed their wheels are really turning over scripture carefully . . .

I love camp season because I get to do life with kids. Good conversations can happen when you’re standing in line at a snack shack. Questions are asked while you walk back to the cabin after a worship set. The speaker that sits down and has dinner with us after preaching the gospel shows teens a new side of community. when someone confesses to a group that they need prayer and a whole group circles up and goes before the King together . . . it teaches kids how the church supports and loves one another, how we walk this road of faith together. When we work on a service project, or raise money for a missionary, teens and kids get to see the body of Christ in action, serving together and impacting the world.

Sometimes I pray over the fact that we often miss these aspects of community as adults. We don’t stand in enough lines together, we don’t pray over each other enough, we don’t live the boring and everyday aspects of life together, or play together. As I watch kids splash around in a pool, or teens cling to each other as they cry and pray over something, I am reminded that we have a lot to learn. The community of Christ can always be growing in the way we love one another, walk alongside one another, serve together. It is my prayer and hope that our community will continue to grow in the ways we invite one another into our lives-the good and the bad-and go faithfully before the King together.

May you love someone well this month, may you grow in vulnerability, may you pray fervently with another. May His Kingdom come.

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