February 2025 Connections

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CONNECTIONS F EBRUARY 2 02 5

HOME There’s no place like it.

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INSIDE

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HOME AS A CONCEPT Esther Waldrop

SANCTIFIED IMAGINATION: IMAGINATION IN THE SERVICE OF TRUTH

Truly at home in Jesus.

Pulling us toward the Word.

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WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?

TOXIC EFFICIENCY

Pat Cirrincione

Tony Visconti

Everything!

Technology meets theology.

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AFTER CHRISTMAS HOME

ANGELS IN THE FRONT YARD

Wil Triggs

Judy Sattler

At home with the Holy Family.

The kindness of strangers.

Alex Lee

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FEATURES From the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Gallery SPOTLIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 ArtSpace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

20 WHEN HOME IS A WAR ZONE Serhii Sologub

Our Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 New Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 CHURCH LIFE: February Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Looking Ahead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Under the Radar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Facilities Facts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Milestones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Opportunities for Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

A long one-day-at-a-time.

SOHL Announcements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 GOSPEL NOW: Recommit in 2025 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 At the Bookstall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

28 GRACED MARRIAGES Ryan June

An interview with Brad Rhoads of Grace Marriage.

30 BUT GOD: AN ENCOURAGEMENT Kara Beth Vance

GIVING JOY: A Mixed Bag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

On the Cover: Black Sturgeon by Philip Hossu Our Pastors, Directors and Residents: Our Pastors, Directors and Residents: Cheryce Berg, director of children’s ministries | Roger Burgess, pastor of visitation | Felipe Chamy, pastoral resident | Julie Clemens, director of disability ministries | Erik Dewar, pastor of worship and music | Tate Fritz, pastoral resident | Matt Heaton, pastoral resident | Baxter Helm, high school pastor | Dan Hiben, middle school pastor | Tim Hollinger, technology director Jim Johanik, pastor of evangelism | Ann Karow, human resources director Howard Kern, facilities director | Bruce Main, pastor of visitation | Josh Maurer, pastor of discipleship | Curt Miller, missions pastor | Josh Moody, senior pastor Mindy Rynbrandt, director of women’s ministries | John Seward, executive pastor | Nancy Singer, director of administration and finance | Wil Triggs, director of communications Our Council of Elders: Mark Berg | Mark Bradley, vice-chair | Jay Cunningham Steve Ivester | Randy Jahns | Glenn Kosirog | Josh Moody, senior pastor | Jeff Oslund | Roger Sandberg | David Setran, secretary | Dave Tweeten | Chad Thorson | Brian Wildman, chair

Connections is a monthly newsletter published for and about the people of College Church. Send news items and suggestions to: connections@ college-church.org. Keep Connections in mind to promote a community event to the College Church family. Send event information by the following dates: For the March issue: February 9 | For the April issue: March 9 | For the May issue: April 9

God intervenes in life.

332 E. Seminary, Wheaton, IL 60187 (630) 668-0878 | www.college-church.org

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CONTRIBUTORS RYAN JUNE

WIL TRIGGS

ALEX LEE

KARA BETH VANCE

enjoys practicing law while also feeding his other passions for local politics, skiing, and playing basketball (despite not being good at it!). He also loves serving in various College Church ministries, but most of all, he treasures his wife Heather and their three wonderful, super fun kids.

was a letter-carrier for 35 years and is counting down the days when he can hang up his satchel in retirement and take up his pen more frequently. He and his wife, Virginia, are blessed with a daughter and a son, and five grandchildren.

JUDY SATTLER

has been collecting words and stories since before she could tie her shoes—or make snow angels.

She and her husband, Tim, serve as College Church missionaries. Along with reading and writing, Judy is also part of the ArtSpace community.

SERHII SOLOGUB

serves on the pastoral team of Irpin Bible Church near Kyiv, Ukraine. He is a published author, with one of his books translated and available in English, Kitchen Table devotions: Worshiping God from A-Z as a Family (Moody Publishers, 2021).

Serhii and his wife, Tetiana, are parents of three teenage children, Vlad, Anna and Yegor.

enjoys reading, writing, book discussions, gardening, cooking, coffee and travel.

He is involved in missions through shortterm trips and projects and support for the global persecuted church. He also makes time to teach Kindergarten Bible school.

currently serves as a mentor with the College Group discipleship team and is actively involved with the Sanctity of Human Life Task Force. She works in Wheaton as a financial planner.

Kara Beth continues to “count macros” as part of her recent interest in nutrition and weightlifting.

TONY VISCONTI

serves at College Church as the digital ministry manager since 2019. He lives in Winfield with his wife, Kristin, who also serves College Church by teaching music in the STARS Disability Ministry.

They have two boys, Pearson (7) and Isaiah (4).

ESTHER WALDROP

enjoys hearing and writing God’s stories of faithfulness to her and her family as well as other missionaries. She and her husband, John, now have a new home in the Philippines.

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NO P LAC E L I K E HOM E WIL TRIGGS | EDITOR

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s someone who likes to think of himself as culturally engaged, I need to confess that I have not seen Wicked—not the stage or the cinematic version.

So, I don’t know if “There’s no place like home” is a theme in that production, but I still remember as a kid watching the movie. I always felt a little sad when things went back to black and white, and Dorothy found herself back in Kansas.

This month’s theme “Home” has some interesting takes on the topic. There’s Esther Waldrop’s reflection on making and finding home in a variety of cultures, Serhii Sologub’s perspective on Christian faith when home is in a war zone, Judy Sattler’s brush with angels, I mean, neighbors in her “Angels in the Front Yard,” Pat Cirrincione’s memory piece “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” revisits her homes in Chicago and the suburbs with both verve and faith.

Ryan June’s interview on Grace Marriage with its founder Brad Rhoads underscores the importance of marriage relationships in shaping a home. Alex Lee’s piece, “Sanctified Imagination” and my own “After Christmas Home” consider the life of Jesus in ways that underscore the ultimate meaning of home life from different perspectives. And the way we handle AI in the months and years ahead may very well shape our homes and our lives. That’s why I think Tony Visconti’s piece on “Toxic Efficiency” may very well point us toward future homes where less is more.

Other angles on home in this issue consider the womb as home (Kara Beth Vance’s “But God: An Encouragement”) and the Giving Joy writer’s “Reconsidering Gift-Giving” challenging us to reconsider Christmas gifts we exchange in our homes every year. Home is such a ubiquitous place, longing and life-shaper that we would do well to strive to make our homes better reflections of the gospel of Jesus.

Back to Oz, I think the best kind of homes “defy gravity,” to borrow a phrase from a Wicked song. Home, so rooted in place, actually can guide us toward eternal place—heaven or hell.

We are free to shape our homes in our own ways—not shaped by past hurts or triumphs but reshaped by the Word and the Spirit. May it be so in each of our homes and lives.

“By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.” (Proverbs 23:3-4) 1

Home as a Concept ESTHE R WAL DROP

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t was December of 1996, and our family’s first Christmas abroad together. The four of us had left Donetsk, Ukraine, for a spiritual retreat with other WorldVenture missionaries in Austria. As we sat in one of the sessions, one of the wives was talking about the concept of “home,” and inexplicably, I discovered my face was streaming with tears.

I realized “home” was a concept that I struggled to comprehend at that moment.

What are some of the essentials that make something a home to you? For me it is security— feeling safe; belonging—having a place, a role that is accepted by others; and finally—simply being loved. All these essentials of mine have been challenged from time to time, especially during transitions, and I have needed to reform my ideas of home, safety, belonging and being loved—all in light of the truth of the gospel.

As missionaries, there have been times when we have felt kind of at home anywhere and nowhere. Once when we were on a home assignment, staying in one house after another, we went outside to discover that all our children had gravitated into the van and were hanging out in the one place that they really felt was “theirs.” Over the years they have commented about how at home they feel in any airport, anywhere around the world.

It makes sense—as they have spent so much time in airports and cars. But it also confirms the idea that home is where we belong.

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As a child, I loved hearing missionary stories, especially those that involved amazing deliverance, provision, transformation of people and situations. I wanted to have stories like those of my own. It somehow did not occur to me that to experience God’s deliverance, I might need to be in some danger; to experience his provision, I might have to be in need; and to more deeply appreciate his gifts of kindness and forgiveness, I would have to be brought low.

And as a military kid, although our family moved every six months to two years, the overall impression I remember is a sense of the warmth of family, abundance, safety and full provision. And that certainly is one aspect of who God is and what he does for us. But there are some aspects of who he is that shine out in fresh ways when we are in dark places or dark times, or when those transitions are more difficult and painful.

Every time we moved, one thing was made real to me once again—that I needed Jesus, and he was the constant in my life. My parents did their best to make a home for us, and reminded us that we always had the Lord and each other, but I always felt a little out of place. As I struggled to understand what life meant, what he expected of me, many of the things that meant the most to me were stripped away—friendships, family, any sense of belonging in a place—and this was training

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ground for learning to make myself at home in Jesus. When my husband, John, and I met at a Christian conference center, our rootlessness was one of the things that connected us— along with a desire to be at home in God and whatever his plan was for us.

DANGER AND DELIVERANCE Our first field of ministry, Donetsk, Ukraine, is now and has been war-torn for many years. When we went, in 1996, Ukraine had fairly recently become independent and naturally had a lot of things to figure out as a country. Our oldest, Wendy, was almost three, and Johnny was two and a half months old, when I caught my first glimpse of Donetsk through the plane windows and saw the city surrounded in a haze of orange coal dust. I remember thinking, “I can’t believe we are going to be living in this place!”

Someone from the church picked us up in their car, and we bumped along pot-holey roads to the place that had been arranged for us to stay. I waited in the car while John and the driver went in the iron-fenced yard, past a fiercely barking dog, to see what would happen. To my relief (and chagrin), John came back and said that the lady of the house had gone to Russia to pick sugar beets, and we needed to find another place to stay! Hotels were not an option at that time, so we went to the family center that some people from there built, to see if we could find a place to lay our very weary heads.

The accountant at the center ran home to ask her family if we could stay with them for a while, and soon the four of us were bundled into a little room that would become our home for the next month. It had been our plan to live with a Russian speaking family anyway for the first month, to learn the language, so the adventure began. I still remember her husband trying to teach us the difference between the Russian i sounds—and whenever we did them wrong, he would yell, “Nyet!” Our first week there the monetary currency changed from “coupons” to Grivne, which it is today, so we were not alone in learning a new currency! One day I saw the lock to the apartment spread out like an intricate jigsaw puzzle on the dining room table, where our host was “fixing” it! —I felt, needless to say, very vulnerable!

After the month was up, our colleagues were going on vacation, and they let us stay in their place while they were gone. So, we thanked our hosts and moved on to our friends’ little home.

Two days after we settled into the new place, a young pastor knocked excitedly on our door, and gave us shocking news: the place where we had been staying had been broken into.

Our host had been threatened at knifepoint and asked, “where the missionaries were.” We were so relieved that the Lord had moved us in time, but we felt horrible about our hosts having been threatened because of us. It took a while to get over that,

and over being a target. Thankfully, no one was hurt, and the thieves ran off with a fur hat and a hand-held Tetris game— that was all. But we all were shaken. We had only been there a month and so far, we had only caused harm, and not good— how would our host country see us—and how could they consider us a blessing to have around? Maybe God did not want us there after all? We voiced our questions to Ukrainian friends, and to our surprise, they did not see the difficulties as signs that God did not want us there, but on the contrary—it was more a confirmation to them that God did want us there, but Satan didn’t. So they reassured us.

Little by little, the Lord began to show us that although our sufferings were comparatively small, we had hope that “the things that happened to us would really serve to advance the gospel.” We were there for a purpose, and that purpose was to share the gospel with those who had not heard, to build and support God’s church there, and to encourage and love the believers that God brought into our lives.

Those were the pre-cell phone days, for us, at least. We did have internet, but John had to walk through dark fields and roads, carrying his heavy computer on his shoulder, to get to the Christian University to send and receive messages. We eventually found a place to live, and someone to watch over the kids while we studied the language at the state university for about four hours each day. I remember the first day we left the baby with a nanny—I cried all the way to the bus stop.

It was things like this happening, oddly enough, that made me realize that no matter what happened, God was with us, and if he wanted us there, he would keep us there. Philippians 1:21 became more and more real: “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Everything was for the sake of the gospel, and we became more secure in the idea that no matter what, he was in charge, whether we lived or died, whether we had enough or not, whether we were comfortable or not . . . it was all for him, and we were “safe” in that nothing was going to take us out of his care.

NEED AND PROVISION AND LOTS MORE About a year after we arrived there, we received a call from what was then Campus Crusade/commission team that had been working in Donetsk. A number of students from the musical conservatory had been meeting for a Bible study, many had come to Christ, and they were wanting to start a new church, as the existing churches were such a different culture for them, that they really needed a kind of “new wineskin” type of church. So, we prayed and consulted our leaders about it, and John started a Bible study on what is the church—and on Easter Sunday 1997 Hope Church was born.

It was an incredible experience to be part of a new church, continued on next page 3

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where people were telling their friends and relatives about Jesus, and inviting them to their baptisms, where they would experience the fellowship, the joy, the singing. We sensed that we were in the middle of something special that God was doing, something real and exciting, and it was fun to be a part of it.

People’s lives were not easy there—coming to church, Bible study, worship team—was what they looked forward to more than anything else. It was touching to be part of a community where, coming to church was truly the highlight of people’s weeks. But there were a lot of intractable problems too. One day I was just so sad and felt so hopeless about so many things—I wrote them down in a prayer to the Lord. That was a key moment in my life, when I realized that most of the things I cared most about, everything that really mattered— I was powerless to do anything about—I needed Jesus! So, I prayed for all my “impossible” needs: for our babysitter S to grow strong in Christ and love him more than anything, for N’s husband to come to Christ, for a Christian school to start in our town, for the church to be God’s hands and feet in this needy place . . .

We also had a lot of other things going on—my mother had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s, my sister was marrying a nonbeliever, our oldest daughter, Wendy, needed another surgery, and Jackson was having a hard time breathing. It was quite difficult to keep on going at times, but we kept laying our cares on him, and plugging along, taking seriously Paul’s charge to “do everything without complaining or arguing,” entrusting our parents, our children’s health, our relationships and problems to him as we saw our church family around us doing every day. It was that life together— our friendships and fellowship in Jesus, that brought us joy, and made every gathering a celebration. When we left for our first home assignment in 2000, we assumed we would be coming back “home” to Donetsk.

But 2000-2001 Stateside had its own surprises. John’s father suddenly passed away, my mother had surgery for colon cancer (on top of her Alzheimer’s), Johnny had eye surgery, and our daughter Hope was born. It turned out that Jackson had asthma, and we realized it would not be wise for us to go back to Donetsk. John was the most grieved of all, as he felt that in the freshly formed Hope Church, he was leaving a newborn baby to someone else’s care. But we knew it was right, and began to look for a new place where the family could stay while John traveled back to Donetsk to care for and nurture this new church. There was a WorldVenture team in Vienna, Austria, which took us under its wing for a while as we adjusted to the new plan. John continued to travel back to Ukraine, and I stayed in Vienna with now four children, two who were in school.

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GIFTS OF KINDNESS We began to adjust to a new place and new roles, and before too long, as we knew we were not likely returning to Donetsk anytime soon, when a position opened at the International Church of Prague. John applied, not expecting anything, but to his surprise we were offered the job. There was a good school there, good medical care, good access to Ukraine— and we took it. It was a nice place for the kids to grow up— they loved the international church environment, and the international school—and we had a beautiful home situation at the end of a dead-end street with a field at the end of it, and a forest preserve also within walking distance. It was beautiful, kind of idyllic in a way. But we found a very different kind of darkness there, as the Christian community was strong and growing, but very small. It was difficult for us to adjust to a new identity, and a new kind of ministry, more developing an existing church than starting a new one, and in some ways, we felt we had been removed from the “front lines” of what God was doing in the world. But it was rewarding and fun in its own way. The children were thriving, and John’s ministry was flourishing. I wondered whether it was really okay that my main ministry was with the children and other women, mostly working at home, cooking and cleaning, things I considered very ordinary. But the Lord showed me in this season that this was the way for me to worship and serve him—in the ordinary things of my life, done with love. We even had the opportunity to share Christ with our little village. They had a program called “Make yourself at home,” through which they welcomed their foreigners by inviting them to host a celebration typical of their country. We invited whoever wanted to come for a Thanksgiving feast! We opened our home, had a lovely big meal together, and talked about what Thanksgiving means to us. Spontaneously, conversation gravitated to God: “You know, I think we are a thankful people,” they said, “but we don’t really think about to whom we should be grateful!”

One day in Prague, as I was cleaning the basement, I came across my “impossible” prayer list from Ukraine. And as I looked at it I was so surprised that ten years later, every one of those “impossible” prayers had been answered! Every one.

That was amazing to me.

I began to see how the Lord was answering prayers, big and small. He was doing the things that only he could do, and he was continually leading and guiding us into understanding our own roles, and the particular tasks he had for us day to day, with which to serve him. And he was also reassuring us more and more of his particular care for us, individually and as a family.

There was a very lean Christmas one year, when I decided that I wanted to ask only the Lord for a Christmas present, mostly because I wanted to know it was from him. I wanted to

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be assured that he was thinking of me. I asked him for white leather gloves and boots. And then I kind of forgot about my request, until one evening before Christmas, friends came over for dinner and their last good-bye. We had a lovely time, and as they were leaving, the wife said, “Oh, by the way, I have a bag of clothes in the car that I didn’t have time to drop off. Could I leave them with you, (of course you can have whatever you want) and would you donate them for me?” This lady had excellent taste in clothes, and I knew I would find things I loved—but I certainly did not expect to find white leather gloves and two pairs of boots. This is just one example of many of how the Lord not only met all our needs but also went above and beyond in so many ways. By the way, I did ask for souls too, not just for gloves and boots. And God gave us those too!

After ten years in Prague where John pastored an international church and I taught in an international school, we thought the Lord might use this to open doors for us in a less reached country. It was on our next home assignment in the States in 2012-2014, when we started praying about the next place of ministry. We took a vision trip to Istanbul, Ankara, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the top four places for potential ministry, and Istanbul took the prize. The Union Church of Istanbul offered John a position, and International Gateway Academy offered places to our three youngest children if I were to work there, full time, as an English literature teacher. So that was what we did for the next eight years.

While we were there, we experienced firsthand and heard many stories of the amazing ways God, through his church, was connecting people with Jesus. Together we prayed for boldness to share the gospel, and for people to come to Christ. And we rejoiced in each other’s stories, and prayed for opportunities to share Christ, especially with those who had never heard.

sitting beside me asked me if she could ask me a question.

I apologized for my poor Turkish and said, “Of course, but I don’t speak Turkish very well.” She said, “That’s okay—do you speak English?” I said yes, and she proceeded to ask me if I had found the purpose for our existence here on the earth, and if so, would I be willing to share it with her?

“Well,” I said, “You need to know that I am a Christian, and everything I believe flows out of that.” “That’s okay,” she said.

“I want to hear about it anyway”— we talked all the way to Uskudar, and then sat outside a little tea shop drinking tea and talking some more. I never heard from her again, but I was so grateful that the Lord answered my prayer and allowed me to share the gospel with someone new. I felt showered upon with grace. That didn’t happen to me very often—most of the time my opportunities to share the gospel came in my own family, in my four-year-old Sunday school class, in my English classroom. And I do believe that the ordinary, everyday ways we live out and share the gospel are the bread and butter of how the Lord most often leads people to himself—in the longstanding, every day, hard and ongoing relationships.

Although I never had another conversation with Z, I trust the Lord used that providential meeting as a seed in her life.

In all our adventures, I have been so grateful for the Lord’s kindness in allowing us to make ourselves at home in his love, and enabling us to draw near because of Jesus, and giving us the privilege of inviting others also to draw near. No matter how dreary it is outside, the warmth of relationship, of belonging, of a shared identity draws us together around the light of Christ, wherever in the world we find ourselves.

As a full-time high school teacher, my days were pretty prescribed, so I asked the Lord if he would also give me opportunities to share Christ, not only in the ordinary every day, but also with someone who had never heard. One week, after hearing small group members share their stories, I asked the Lord to please give me an opportunity, please make it very clear, and please help me to do it “with gentleness and respect.” I had been reading a book about how to share Christ with your Muslim neighbor and very much wanted to put it into practice. Less than a week later I had a long day at school and was desperately trying to leave, but I kept forgetting things—my phone, then had to run back and get my scarf, and something else, so by the time I left it was much later than I intended. I rode the metro, which came every four minutes, and the chances for my opportunity happening were slim. I got on the metro, and almost immediately the girl 5

What’s PAT C I R R I NC I ONE

Got to Do with It?

T

ina Turner’s song, “What’s Love Got To Do With It” always comes to mind in February, and this time it got me to wondering what does love have to do with anything.

And my pondering led to my thinking of the different homes I’ve lived and grown-up in.

My very first home was with my maternal grandparents, from birth to about age three.

They owned a two-bedroom, one-bath Chicago bungalow. To this day I don’t know where we all slept. There were eight of us inside that house, and somehow, we made it work. My fondest memory was waking up to the sound and smell of coffee percolating on the kitchen countertop. I can smell that coffee to this day and still see myself sitting between my dad and Gramps as they “zipped” their morning coffee before leaving for work. Once in a while I was treated to a “zip” from one of their cups. Even after my parents moved into their first apartment, my grandparents’

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home was my favorite place to spend time. It’s there where we spent Easter hunting for eggs and Easter baskets. It’s there where we spent Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, surrounded by family members and friends. It’s where my siblings and I spent summer vacations enjoying the sprinkler on hot summer days. It was also where I lived during my first year of college. What a joy and a blessing to be there with Gramp, Grams and aunts and uncles.

Things went up and down after we moved out of my grandparents’ home. The apartment my parents were able to rent (this was right after the war), was a two room, single bathroom living area, with a shared kitchen.

Somehow, my mom and neighbor worked out a cooking schedule and managed to share the small refrigerator. By this time, I had a brother and a sister and we all shared a bed in the bedroom while my parents slept on a sofa bed in the living room. If we weren’t eating at Gramps, we would eat our meals,

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picnic style, on the floor in the living room. Although it was a tight fit, we were happy and content as children because we were surrounded by love.

Then we moved again—to the army barracks where officers once lived but now sat empty. I’ve tried to research this more and actually found a description that I vividly remember. There were two bedrooms, a living room/family room, a tiny bathroom, a small stove/oven and a tiny refrigerator. It seemed like a mansion—with its front porch and front yard, and room to run around! Here, my siblings and I learned to ride bikes, and where we celebrated Christmas and Easter, the eggs hidden around our house. This was where I began to go to school, and where my dad taught me how to ice skate.

It is also the place where I lost my first “best friend.” We had decided to play barbershop. I had and still have very, very curly hair, so how she cut my hair didn’t really make a terrible difference in how the curls bounced around. My friend’s hair, however, was long and straight and waist length. Need I say more? I was banned from seeing her after that, so it was a good thing that the army decided to sell the property, and we moved once again.

This time we moved to my paternal grandparents’ three flat, and there our lives would change in many ways.

Some good, some not so good, and it was here where God began to seep into my life in bits and pieces. We lived on the top floor, with grandparents on the first floor, and my dad’s sister and her family in the basement flat. We now had three bedrooms, a full kitchen with a walk-in pantry, a bigger bathroom, dining room and living room and a back porch. Could this be heaven?

Well, it would become a bit of heaven and down under. The good news was that we were two blocks from our new school (you could see it from our living room windows).

We moved in shortly before the school year began. I was missing my other home and friends, and was sitting outside on the front steps bemoaning my fate as only six-year-olds can, when a girl about my age saw me from her vantage point across the street. She introduced herself and made me feel welcome, and we stayed friends until a boy came into her life around sixth grade. Anyway, the point is that she made me feel welcomed.

She saw me, like God sees us, and she welcomed me like Jesus does, with open arms and a hug.

Our new school was wonderful but home life had its ups and downs. We children had to be extra quiet so as not to disturb our grandparents in their apartment below us. My aunt didn’t like my mom so whenever Mom was hanging out our laundry she would come out of her apartment and scream nasty things at her. While we lived there my baby brother was born. He had eye issues from day one, and between my screaming aunt and the stress of getting help for my brother Mom eventually had a small breakdown, and I had to watch my other siblings while she recovered.

Dad was amazing through it all. A huge help to Mom and us kids once he got home from work and on weekends.

It was one of the rough patches in our lives, but I remember praying to be kind and loving through it all.

Soon, our life on the west side of Chicago was coming to a close. Dad and Mom had been looking for a house for over a year, and found nothing their liking, so they decided to build.

Yes, one more move for our family.

To the suburbs. I was not happy. I had already registered at the high school I thought I was going to attend, but God had other plans. So out to the burbs we went! Where I knew no one (family didn’t count at this point), and I felt totally lost.

Alone, by myself, even with family around. I was deflated. Now what

Lord? Was this really happening? Dirt roads? A field across the street where wild animals roamed? Was I in Iowa?

I mean, Wheaton was fine as a summer get away, but where were the buses to get us from place to place? Where was the movie theater I could walk to? Where was anything? Eventually friends were made, and school and life within our home became fun and exciting.

Maybe moving to the burbs wasn’t so bad after all (and we still went back and forth to our grandparents, spending the nights there and visiting what we had left behind). However, the more countrified I became the more I enjoyed its freedoms, and before I knew it my four years of high school were over. What a gift our new home and life became as I developed great memories and wonderful friendships, some of which I have to this very day.

And one of the nicest memories I have while living at home and working, was a phone call from my friend back in first grade when I lived my paternal grandparents’ three flat. Her cousin was home from college and wondered if she had any friends, she could introduce him to, and she thought of me. What’s funny, was her cousin had been the crossing guard in grade school, the quarterback on the football team and general all-around top athlete. Me? I was the school bookworm. Well, we agreed to meet, and have now been married for fifty-one years and have stories about our own homes.

It amazes me constantly how God’s tapestry weaves its way through our lives. He knew us before we were born, and what our lives would be like.

And in our final “home” with him in eternity, I can’t wait to see its beauty.

The colors, the landscapes, our homes.

No more pain, no more tears, no more dying. And we will see our Savior faceto-face. And that’s what love’s got to do with it.

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FEBRUARY 2025 CONNECTIONS

Gallery SPOTLIGHT FIVE ARTISTS OF FAITH This gallery focuses on Five Artists of Faith within our church community.

Here is just a small sampling of some of the images.

Be sure to visit the gallery before March 7.

PHILIP HOSSU

KATHY BURKE

KEN KROGER

DON RYAN

PHILIP HOSSU

HELEN READ

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FEBRUARY 2025 CONNECTIONS

GALLERY

WORKSHOP

FIVE ARTISTS OF FAITH

IMPROV FUN!

paint. canvas. beauty. life.

Shake off your winter blues.

FEBRUARY 2 - MARCH 7 Opening Reception, Feb. 2, Noon in Crossings

SATURDAY, MARCH 1 10 a.m.- NOON. in Crossings

Kathy Burke Philip Hossu Ken Kroger Helen Read Don Ryan GALLERY HOURS: Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 12 to 2 p.m.

NOTE: For other opening times, contact the church office at (630) 668-0878 or email artspace@college-church.org

GATHERING A monthly coming together, where we discuss our personal projects and the many facets of creativity and God.

COST: $20

Improvisational games and scene study are wonderful ways to have fun and refine critical skill sets such as public speaking, creative writing, and mental agility! Please join us for an Improv Workshop with Second City alum, Maureen Kelly. No previous experience is required. If you attended the improv workshop in September, no worries, this will be a new experience. Have fun!

Maureen Kelly has worked with The Second City Improvisational Theatre in Chicago and as an actor and screenwriter in Hollywood. She has collaborated with producer Lawrence Mark, Diane Keaton, Robin Williams, Drew Carey, and many others.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11 at 7 p.m. in Crossings Art, AI, and the Divine: Navigating Creativity in the Digital Age Join us as College Church’s own digital guru, Tony Visconti, takes us on a journey of discovery and creativity at the intersection of art, generative AI, and human imagination. We will explore together how AI can both positively and negatively impact our relationship with God, others, and the creations we bring to life.

Feb. word of the month: HOME ALL ARE WELCOME! Future Meetings: March 11, April 8

For more information or to sign up for a workshop, visit our webpage: college-church.org/artspace.

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After Christmas Home WI L TRI GGS

T

he craft stick is impressive. Really I still think of them as popsicle sticks, because when I was a kid that was the only way I would get one—I would save the stick from the popsicle and reuse it to make something else. It never occurred to me that you could buy a whole bag of them for crafts. In my world they had to be reused from the frozen treat, usually a little red food dye still stained in the wood like a kind of kid furniture rub. Either way, there are so many things to do with them.

As someone who loves stories and imagination, I wonder about Mary and Joseph as parents, or a few years later, about his siblings.

BETHLEHEM Make an angel from a coffee filter and a popsicle stick. Cut out a wedge from the coffee filter. Fold the coffee filter to make a triangular shape. This will become the body of an angel when you glue it to a popsicle stick; leaving the top of the stick exposed as the angel’s head. Paste the filter wedge like wings.

Bethlehem has a history. The woman who was abused and cut up, her parts sent to every corner of every tribe, that was 10

Bethlehem. So, the killing of the little boys was not the first terror to hit that little town. Ruth gleaned and married there as well. And it was also in Bethlehem’s fields outside town where the shepherd David tended his sheep and played and sang, harp in hand.

It was a decidedly difficult time to start a family, especially if your newborn was the king of kings. People from other countries came. Occupied territory like Bethlehem meant that the ruler was on guard to find and squash his newborn rival. Rumors were swirling; the king was up to something. We don’t think too much about all the two-year-old boys Herod killed because one of them might have been Jesus.

The message that came to them the first time came with good news, and they responded with submission and obedience.

This time though, in Bethlehem, the messenger had a different message: get out now. Again, they obeyed.

EGYPT Make a pyramid out of toothpicks and gumdrops. You could do the same thing with pretzels and marshmallows, but the children might be tempted to eat them.

FEBRUARY 2025 CONNECTIONS

So that’s what they did—they hightailed it straight to Egypt.

Back to Egypt. This place had a history as well. The country that spared Joseph and his family in a time of famine now offered shelter from Herod’s sword to the family of Jesus.

If Joseph’s brothers resented his most-favored son status with Jacob, what about the siblings of Jesus once they came into the family? Besides surviving the trauma and danger of their own births, which was a victory at face value, there wasn’t anything to match the angels or the magi. Just an ordinary mom and dad. Of course, Jesus had to be the best big brother ever, so there’s that. But life in the fullness of time was different from ours in so many big and little ways.

The Bible doesn’t tell us a lot about Jesus in his growing up years. One thing we do know: Jesus was born into and grew up in a one hundred percent human family. I have heard that false gospels tell stories of Jesus turning stones into toys.

I would probably have done something like that, but I don’t think Jesus did.

And then, when Herod died, they moved on to Nazareth.

NAZARETH AND BEYOND Make a Bible scroll from a paper and two popsicle sticks. Cut the paper to be just smaller than the sticks. Glue the paper onto the sticks top and bottom. Write on the paper “God’s Word.

Holy and True.” Roll the popsicle stick ends toward the middle and hold it together with a rubber band.

When at last they landed back in territory familiar to them, what was their family like?

Left to my imagination, the family Jesus grew up in seems mysterious. And I’m prone to think in terms of the families of modern times. Definitely not Addams or Munsters, but maybe elements of the Cunninghams, Cleavers, the Huxtables, the Pearsons, Connors, Barones, Keatons, Bradys, Bundys, Waltons, Taylors—there are a lot of them. Media families mostly make jokes, but they do help each other. In more dramatic moments or plots, they suggest ways we might do well. Network television gives us some kind of lesson however flawed and incomplete.

Joseph and Mary lost track of Jesus when he stayed in the temple to talk with the teachers, which doesn’t present them as the ideal parents in our risk-averse age of protection. But what else do we know?

As they added more children to the family, did Mary and Joseph tell the siblings of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem? Or why they moved to Egypt or how they decided to move from there to Nazareth?

We know that after Jesus’s ministry started, members of the family tried to take him away as a crazy man. Some say the family of Jesus in the Bible was more than just his nuclear, that it could have included cousins and close friends.

Eventually, the siblings of Jesus became his servants and followers in the early church. They came round. So, too, had Joseph’s brothers, well, sort of, after Joseph saved the family from starvation. And who cannot rejoice when Jacob is reunited with the son he loved, and thought was dead for so long.

I could be wrong, but the families of the Bible seem to demonstrate our sins and failures as much or maybe more than our virtues. Sure, there are hands on fathers praying blessings on sons. But I think the families of the Bible show imperfections. They try to preserve their family lines in the wrong ways. God works and uses families, but this happens through God’s presence and grace, not by virtue of the families themselves out-Jesusing Jesus.

From the cross Jesus asked John, not his biological siblings, to look after his mother. The hand of God is at work in different ways. Grace and redemption come into the families from outside—theophanies, angels, prophets, Jesus. Ultimately, the family of God is not a biological line (genealogies notwithstanding) but the church itself. Something new is happening that transforms words like father, mother, brother, sister into something beyond biology.

NEW JERUSALEM It’s simple to make a cross out of two sticks and some glue.

Before you glue it down, put the one on top of the other and be sure you have it placed just right. Rub onto the cross any metallic color you like: blue, silver, bronze, gold. You can add cotton ball clouds to the base if you like.

We read it in his reply to the man who asked who were his mother and brothers: “Stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’” (Matthew 12:48-50) “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:16–17)As God makes us his children, we are the craft, the earthen vessel craft stick formed gospel that he forms so that others might see and believe. Week after week, parents picking up their children from Bible class, the children holding up what they’ve made and the parents are so impressed. “That’s a keeper.” continued on next page 11

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Following Jesus takes us different places than we would ever go on our own. It’s hard to understand, like making mangers and pyramids and scrolls from popsicle sticks and paper and candy. The path takes Paul on journeys across the ancient world, takes missionaries to places and people far away from home and family, takes some to befriending and welcoming different kinds of people, the sick, the dying, the crazy, the lost who do not know they’re lost, dares each of us to venture into the homes of strangers, to welcome people into our very hearts and homes, people not like us welcoming into the family we join not by our bodies but by his, broken for us, raised and seated in the heavenly place.

It isn’t really the childhood of Jesus I’m wondering about.

It’s not some sort of reimagining of my own family or childhood. It’s something more to do with Jesus’s presence in my life—how close when I was growing up, learning to read, interacting with family. Where was he the day I married or my son came into our life? Something closer than we can know. This something seems like it’s already happened and has but at the same time, has not yet.

It’s the realization that one day the man who created everything, the one who gave up everything, the one who holds together everything, will on this day will be there, I mean, here, standing beside us or holding onto us as we open our eyes. There will be brilliant morning light and the smell of the sea. Gentle breeze. Yellow sun. Azure sky. He will smile and simply say, “I’ve made breakfast. Come and eat.”

God Centered Life is an independent, listenersupported ministry that brings the preaching and teaching of Pastor Moody to all corners of the globe. Listeners from more than 200 countries visit the GCL website for resources.

A broadcast listener shared this: “I live and work in Japan. My wife is Japanese and not a believer. We have two daughters. There has been a lot of pressures, suffering and difficulties.

But I am hopeful, holding on to God’s wonderful promises. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. God bless God Centered Life…”

This global ministry is here for you, College 12 Church. Use it to augment your daily devotions and re-listen to pastor Moody’s sermons throughout the week. Or get it in your email daily. Download the God Centered Life app and listen to the daily podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.

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FEBRUARY 2025 CONNECTIONS

OUR VISION 2025 INITIATIVES Vision: “Proclaiming the Gospel”

PATHWAY. We will foster a pathway for our gospel ministries: Discover Jesus, Grow in Your Faith and Impact the World. In 2025, we will continue to expand and strengthen this pathway by 1) equipping and encouraging congregants so that they are motivated to share the gospel and their personal faith stories within the community; 2) expanding outreach initiatives by building upon our existing programs and developing new efforts designed to invite community members to engage with the church more frequently and meaningfully; and 3) promoting the proclamation of the gospel and what College Church offers to the community through a variety of communication channels.

Rationale: After consultation with a Christian communications company, and surveying the neighborhood, we have discovered that we need to present the distinctive gospel ministry opportunity of College Church more clearly and invitationally to the surrounding community.

COMMUNITY. We will cultivate care, encouragement and connection in 2025 by: 1) Calling a pastor focused on care, encouragement and connection; 2) Establishing a permanent Care Team to support congregational care; and 3) Exhorting our congregation to: make consistent attendance on our Sunday morning worship a priority; be active in a smaller gathering; and to be involved in an area of service.

DISCIPLESHIP. We will elevate biblically rigorous and practical discipleship in 2025, by developing a clear track to introduce people to the foundations of Christian discipleship: basics of the Christian faith, spiritual growth (including training in Bible study and prayer) and gospel impact. This will parallel our church-wide ministry pathway of discover, grow and impact.

Rationale: After a churchwide discipleship survey, we have ascertained a growing need for more rigorous and practical discipleship that is coherently coordinated across both small and large groups.

PARTNERSHIPS. We will leverage the church’s history of church planting, training programs, and connections across the country and world by seeking to develop one new church partner in each category (planting, strengthening, revitalizing) by December 2025.

Rationale: By partnering with like-minded churches and organizations, and by broadening our scope to including planting, strengthening, and revitalization, we can increase our gospel impact through gospel-centered, Bible preaching churches.

We bathe all these initiatives in prayer.

CAMPUS. We will increasingly activate our campus by utilizing the Crossings as a crossover space to reach the community and for student, worship and family space, executing year two of the three-year capital campaign launched in 2024, prioritizing safety and accessibility upgrades to our parking and other key areas, and clarifying the highest and best missional use for our portfolio of rental properties.

Rationale: After the Site and Facilities committee’s extensive work surveying the ministry pinch points, it is apparent that we need to develop our ministry space, and we will target the Crossings space.

Rationale: After conversations with key ministry leaders, it is apparent we need to increase connectivity between members and attenders of the church through mutually loving and caring hospitality.

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Sanctified Imagination Imagination in the service of Truth ALEX LEE

I

first heard the phrase “sanctified imagination” on a program on Moody Radio, I can’t recall which one. I do recall my reaction to the phrase. I was at work, delivering mail from my truck. “Sanctified imagination!” I thought. “Who wouldn’t want to have that?” Adding, as I shut a mailbox, “or use it?”

Roughly one in five adult Americans That evening, I searched online for context around the term, an old one apparently, whose coining is difficult to trace definitively. Its definition, in any case, is plain: A sanctified imagination, exercised by a Christian believer, is one in which the truth of the Bible is put forward, enlarged and enhanced by the believer’s transformed mind and unique experience.

Obviously, any literary effort of this sort can be misused. So much depends on the believer’s integrity, motive, and ability. I get it.

The Book of Mormon, invented by Joseph Smith, is not sanctified, though it is clearly imaginative.

The foremost requirement for creating a work of sanctified imagination is that it comports with what Scripture teaches.

When this requirement is satisfied, the expectation is that poetic license and literary devices will be employed to reinforce biblical truth, furthering it by means of responsible psychological speculation, and fictional dialogue consistent with the speakers’ points of view. The themes and resolution of any work of sanctified imagination must not contradict or dilute or supplant the Bible, from whose text, which is carved in stone, there can be no 14

straying. All sanctified imagination does is provide extraneous, artistic curlicues to cover parts of the stone.

Archeology, linguistics and scholarly commentary do something of the same sort. Leaving aside revelation’s spiritual claims, these disciplines shed light on the material and cultural reality of revelation, making it more cognitively persuasive.

When a creative apologetical effort succeeds, its expression is often moving, pulling the reader toward the Word by stimulating a nerve, a need, heretofore hidden. For sheer impact, I’m thinking in particular of C.S. Lewis’ allegorical novels, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce and Till We Have Faces. More recent examples of this genre are cinematic: “The Passion of the Christ,” from 2004, and the popular series “The Chosen,” on DVD and streaming.

a good color for a donkey. He remembered that sixth day of creation, when all the land animals began their existence. This memory startled the baby.

This was something he had never experienced as God. Changed this because remember is a Bible word: God remembered Noah (Gen 8:1), he remembered his covenant with Noah (Gen 9:15, 15), he remembered Abraham (Gen 19:29 and he doesn’t remember our sins (Isaiah 43:25) As God, he just knew—knew everything, all at once, forgetting nothing, missing nothing.

“The child called Yeshua entered the world as helpless as any newborn… (needing) to be nursed, held, burped, and changed.” James Martin, SJ JESUS: A Pilgrimage

The baby thought it was weird seeing the stars through the stable’s patchy roof. The same stars that came into existence at his utterance, “Let there be light,” and light shone forth, and the universe expanded, matter and dark matter both, energy and time and space swirling like fairies. Now, billions of years later, some of those stars into which the primal elements had congealed were twinkling in his own retinas.

The baby blinked again. Closure, that deep need in the human psyche, was strange to him. The baby knew, on top of his omniscience, that there were a lot of things he would have to get used to, in the world he had come to save.

The baby turned his head and blinked.

He saw a donkey, and of course the baby had no idea what it was. The smell was unfamiliar. Smelling was new to him, as was every other human sensation. But the baby, only a week old, also saw the creature whose progenitors he had created ages ago, when he first strung out the DNA of horses. He thought gray was

Finally, the baby fell asleep. The stars above became the flickering illumination of our cities, and instead of shepherds and angels, there were men and women rushing about, shopping and making merry—celebrating Christmas with nary a thought to the child without whose birth this earth, though every forest in it were ablaze, would be forever dark.

Though not as ambitious, my two are as follows.

DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE? John 1:1-5

CLEANING UP AFTER DINNER Luke 9:13-17 “God never instructs people to do, or avoid doing, something without reason.”

Biblical Principle #53 chasingalion.com All of us have read about the multiplication of the loaves and fish, a miracle performed by Jesus when a logistical need arose which flummoxed his disciples. Jesus on that day was preaching to a large crowd that had followed him to a remote place near Bethsaida. Since it was getting late, his disciples urged Jesus to send the people away, back to town, where they could find something to eat. There were in excess of 5,000 souls (and rumbling stomachs) in attendance, so it is understandable that the Lord’s “handlers” were concerned about crowd control and the optics for their ministry—better to avoid a dicey situation, they decided.

We know of course what happened next. The people stayed and settled on the grass, and Jesus directed his disciples to bring him some provisions. Five loaves of bread and two fish were all his men could scrounge up. Jesus took these, and blessed them, and had them distributed to the multitude. And the multitude ate heartily, and had seconds.

A miracle is a miracle, but to me, the really interesting and telling thing about it is this: When the disciples afterwards collected the leftover fragments of bread, filling twelve baskets with crusts and end-pieces, Jesus never says, “Ah, fellas. What’s the point of picking up leftovers? I can make fresh bread at will, all day long, out of crumbs. There’s no need to gather leftovers.”

No, Jesus was simultaneously a worker of miracles and a practical man. He expected his friends to pick up the leftovers. As God, Jesus is the giver of all good gifts. As man, he understands the value of those gifts and appreciates and treats them the way a good steward would.

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Toxic Efficiency

I

drove myself to the ER in desperation. My stomach was empty, and my nausea had temporarily subsided.

I estimated I had a brief window of time to act before my head started to spin again. Thankfully, the ER was quiet that night and I found my way quickly into a bed. Initial assessments did not raise any alarms, I was clearly sick but I could walk and talk, and my blood pressure was normal.

I got my wish rather quickly, the nurse came in with some pain relievers, and IV fluids to supplement my recovery. From that point forward my blood pressure started to drop. More fluids were administered but my blood pressure stubbornly sat 30 points below its normal level. The medical team’s calm demeanor masked the severity of the situation. Something was very wrong. More aggressive treatment ensued, and I was moved to the ICU to administer norepinephrine. When patients experience a persistent drop in blood pressure, a septic event, the outcomes are not great. For upwards of 15% of individuals, a septic event is a fatal event. The nurses had employed a simple measurement, the blood pressure test, and it kept me from joining that not so desirable 15% group.

Likewise, should we take the blood pressure of our society we quickly can see that something is very wrong. As Christians, we know that something has always been very wrong, and now, thanks to Oxford University press and its 2024 word of the year, it has bubbled to the surface for non-Christians, too. That word is “brain rot.” The phrase was coined by Henry David Thoreau in 1854 to describe a society’s decline in intellectual effort, a people collectively trading complicated ideas in favor of simple ones. The idea we are losing a part of ourselves to decay still deeply resonates today. While fears of a dystopian future controlled by AI are popular in the news today, I believe we have a separate problem to tackle. There are many scenarios where we maintain control over AI but ultimately lose our dignity or more precisely scenarios where 16

TONY VISCONTI

our “Imago Dei” likeness degrades and our “Imago Diaboli” shines through. The way we choose to use technological tools, and for that matter any tool, shape us. As a father and the church digital ministry manager, this problem weighs on my conscience, and I return to it regularly.

Something is very wrong, but Jesus would not have us despair.

Let us instead collectively and not apart from Jesus, consider if we are experiencing something much deeper than the rearrangement and degradation of our neural networks. I see a curse with a cause and solution the world will not find. Let us then lean into our relationship with the Spirit of truth and the Word of God as we grapple with this spiritual septic event plaguing so many. Our soul beats more slowly as we lose hold of the passions and relationships that bring us joy, first and foremost our relationship with a relator God, a creator God who fashioned us in his image. To better understand ourselves we must go back to the garden, back to mankind’s original attempts to navigate the temptation of efficiency. Lest we perish we must examine this present moment and the tools we use which all too often deform us. I’ll share some strategies and ideas I have for engaging with technology with the hopes of spurring on conversation in the area. And finally join with me in putting our hope in the future and present panacea, promised to all who follow the great physician.

The tools we use inevitably shape us. The more powerful the tool is and the more prolonged our usage, we get a predictable result. We are transformed significantly into something different. The increased modern focus on “near work” and its accompanying increased eyes appears to be dramatically increasing the prevalence of nearsightedness in the digital age. The introduction of the smartphone has radically shifted human behavior in public margin centric waiting spaces.

Places and spaces like the train stations, the doctor’s waiting

room, and the few precious minutes before the start of a ballet, times of waiting, thinking, conversing and simply breathing have become places of toxic efficiency and self-entertainment.

In 2023 ChatGPT and Midjourney coursed through the veins of our society and helped generative AI go mainstream.

Excitement and aspiration regarding these new creative allies were not tempered. Many believe AI will help us finally cure cancer, unlock fusion energy, and translate the Bible into every language in the next generation. Here is a small taste of this sentiment from Winship Cancer Institute “From the realm of science fiction to a sudden, very real reality, artificial intelligence is here—and it’s rapidly shifting the fundamentals of how we live and work.” Dystopian concerns and fears over AI abound as well. As Christians our voice is essential to add to this conversation, not one that demonizes the tools, or wallows in defeatism, but explores how a tool that promises near phenomenal cosmic powers can pull us away from our creator God. We need to share how any tool without balance and boundaries can degenerate our humanity and separate us from the one who searches for his lost sheep. We can speak with hope and clarity and remember that the real problem lies with the human heart and its obsession with wickedness. In John 3:19 Jesus declares, “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.”’ Jesus is the light of the world and the world hates him because he exposes those whose work apart from him is evil built on top of a foundation of sin. In Isaiah 64:6 the prophet clearly define our reality apart from the blood of Christ, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” So, what then is the gravest danger presented by innovative technology, it is a notion and way of living that feeds into the original lie. To the garden we go.

THE FALL Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

(Genesis 3:1-5) Satan’s claim was that God did not desire for his creation to become like him. The fatal irony here is that God has already declared “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

(Genesis 1:26) Satan’s lie pushes us to pursue the fastest way to become like God. Satan’s path is efficient, yes, but one laced with poison. Here is the lie put another way, “It’s simple, do this one thing apart from God and without consequence you will become wise like God.” So then, it is not the tools themselves that are inherently dangerous but the lies the deceiver will spin around them.

Satan holds out wisdom as what we need to become like God, God declares we are already like him when we take hold of our identity, first as image bearers and forevermore in Jesus. If we come to rely more and more on the likes of instant answer ChatGPT and less on a prayerful contemplative ongoing conversation with our Father, we will continue to experience more of the nakedness and shame felt by Adam and Eve. If we attempt to completely turn over our work and passions to an AI Assistant, we will find our passions crushed and the joy of our work decayed. This generative tool will degenerate our humanity. continued on next page 17

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The regenerative path forward comes only when we accept our reality, we are already dead in our sin, and we cannot innovate our way back into the garden and back to life. Life to the full and life itself only comes when we retether ourselves to God and find forgiveness for our sins through the blood of Christ.

So, what then do we do after putting our trust in Jesus? Put our head in a hole and wait for his return? First and foremost, we must pursue the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way. We are the sent ones, following in the footsteps of Jesus. But what is the Lord’s work?

The Lord’s work is a harvest. Jesus said to his disciples “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:37-38) In John 10:2 and in John 6:29 Jesus declares, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” This harvest is intentionally laborer centric.

Whether it be money or machines, let us not send or pursue any strategy that replaces our broken vessels, fragile jars of clay empowered by the Spirit of God. Francis Shaffer warns us, “If we try to influence the world by using its methods, we are doing the Lord’s work in the flesh, trusting its forms of publicity and its noise, and imitating its ways of manipulating men. This is the Lord’s work in the Flesh. If we put activity, even good activity at the center rather than trusting God, then there may be the power of the world, but we will lack the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Let us then in humility, recognizing our desperate need for the Holy Spirit, pursue strategies which give glory to God when they succeed. For if the world looks on and can explain our cleverness then men will applaud their fellow man. We cannot simply do what they are doing and add Jesus. But if the world looks on and cannot explain our love and success apart from God, then he will receive the glory, and many will be drawn to his Son. I wanted to leave you with a couple of strategies in the areas of discernment and boundaries to consider how to reduce the impact of toxically efficient tools and means of connection.

As for discernment, we need help from the Holy Spirit as we separate out the newness of tech from its trueness. We can only recognize God’s voice and the Spirit of truth when his word fills our mind and is engraved on our hearts. We must be like the Bereans in Acts 17:11. When a new message, the good news, came to them they “received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” (NIV) Without God’s Word we are weaponless against Satan’s lies and unable to see ourselves clearly. If instead we take up the Word of truth, we know that we are better equipped to enter into this spiritual battle. For the Word of God is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) As we handle the Bible daily, our familiarity with truth greatly increases and 18

when we encountered half-truths and misdirections they stick out like a sore thumb.

How much time we spend in God’s Word and investing in God’s kingdom dictates our ability to discern truth from lies. Our time allotment is one such boundary we must define and monitor as the seasons progress. There are other boundaries as well such as how we spend our time. Limited to the area of AI this may mean setting boundaries regarding the conversations we initiate. If we do not want our ability as writers and communicators to degrade, consider asking for AI to be more of a coach and less of replacement. In the area of generative art, this may mean requesting feedback from AI instead of brushstrokes.

As parents we must also consider boundaries for our children. Children need a safe environment for learning and gaining wisdom. They are born with a hard wiring for instant gratification, survival, not with a capacity for careful consideration of the long-term consequences of their actions.

They are highly impressionable and need time, years of time, to learn how to think and express themselves without technology acting as their primary teacher. They will benefit from a diverse set of real teachers with whom they form a human bond.

We must protect children from the forms of technology that are toxically efficient and addictive. In our family life, these boundaries are not always easy to right-size or maintain. After some initial experimentation bonding over video games with my son, we found the toxicity greatly outweighed the benefit and decided to pause video games through adolescence. I’ve found the recommendations and resources at Screenstrong.org extremely helpful when it came to implementing this change.

It is important to note that when a child receives instant gratification, it is hard for them to let go of the source of this reward, even if that gratification comes with significant losses.

While the application of Matthew 5:30, “cutting something off ” is not appropriate in all tech engagement situations, it certainly needs to be on the table, especially for children. Parents across the board face complex decisions as they navigate an increasingly tech focused world. Teachers in a similar vein are facing new challenges and opportunities as they consider AI’s place in academia.

Discernment takes time and we will make mistakes while traversing new ground. But thanks be to heaven that we serve a God of grace. We are not alone on this journey, and we can escape the society wide septic events that plague us to find healing. We can hold onto a premise tucked away in Exodus 28. As believers, underserving priests to a holy God, we can find dignity if we pursue God’s work with beauty, great skill and care. The template for this beauty is found most clearly in God’s magnificent magnanimous Son. The skill and care come as we partner with his Spirit. We are set apart for this holy work. Let us join together to take up his work today.

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Angels in the

Front Yard JUDY SATTLER

I

woke up one morning to three inches of wet, heavy, heart-attack snow on the ground. My husband, Tim, was on the other side of the globe training pastors at the foot of a volcano and had forgotten to leave directions for starting the new snowblower, so I pulled on boots and gloves and went out to clear the driveway the old-fashioned way. I took a couple of long swipes with the snow shovel before my shoulder began to ache. It’s a casualty from the days when I used to garden carelessly, thinking I could tackle just about anything with persistence. Just then, a gentleman came strolling down the street with a shovel over his shoulder and offered to clear the bottom of the driveway for me. We all know it is the worst spot to shovel because of salt and snowplows, so I accepted his offer eagerly and asked if I could pay him, thinking he might be a dad without work who was just trying to make a few extra dollars to feed his struggling family. He refused the money. He was just being kind.

When I was done clearing the driveway and sidewalk, I grabbed my camera to snap a few pictures of snow clinging to shrubbery and trees like layers of thick white frosting. Then I thought it would be nice to take a picture of a snow angel to send to my husband. I threw myself backward into a smooth, untrampled patch of snow in the front yard and waved my arms and legs back and forth like I did long ago when I was a child. I am not nearly as limber as I was then, so I had some trouble getting back up without messing up my angel. A truck drove by, stopped, and backed up. The man inside the truck rolled down his window and asked:

“Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” I replied, smiling and brushing snow from the seat of my pants. “I was just making a snow angel.” The man laughed.

“I’m probably too old to be doing that,” I added sheepishly.

“No, no,” the man said charitably, “my wife does that too.”

I already liked his wife, even though we had never met. “Well, thank you for stopping to ask,” I said, “that was kind of you.”

I went into my empty house with a warm glow in my heart.

I know that neither of those men were angels, at least not the kind sent from heaven with messages from the Almighty, but they were heaven-sent, nonetheless. I had been feeling a little overwhelmed with doing the work of two and keeping the home running while my husband was away again, and I was feeling lonely without his companionship. I know these are a part of the support and sacrifice that I willingly give so that Tim can minister to others around the world, but, as we all know and experience, sometimes it is easier to bear the cost than other times.

The kindness of strangers blessed me with unexpected comfort and joy that day, especially because it reminded me that God was beside me to strengthen me for each daily task and to care for me in a way that no one else could. It’s so basic a truth that I shouldn’t forget, and yet, somehow, I do. How precious is the kindness and closeness of God, that he would see me wobbling and send a couple of strangers to prop me up.

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When Home is in a War Zone WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY TODAY IF THIS MIGHT BE YOUR LAST DAY ON EARTH? SERHII SOLOGUB

A

theology of “one-day living” helps us Ukrainians endure the war while minimizing the emotional toll. Given the constant threat of shelling, the lives of many are at risk.

The ever-present danger has literally taught us to live one day at a time.

Even before the war began, I came to understand the importance of living one day at a time,” one of our church deacons, Roman, told me recently.

“Knowing that each day could be my last, I enjoy it and what the Lord is sending me that day. Our life is measured by how we live each day.”

We approach life much like the driver who creeps slowly and carefully through a thick fog, focusing only on the small stretch of road visible ahead.

The war has reduced our capacity for long-term planning. What is closest— both in proximity and in our hearts— has become the most important. In a sense, the war has made us somewhat “near-sighted.”

A one-day-at-a-time approach to living is not unique to us and our war-time situation. The ancients also spoke of such an approach, and “one-day living” is well-described in the Bible.

I first encountered this concept in a course, One on One with God, written

by Jerry and Marilyn Fine. The authors compared a daily relationship with

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God to his provision of manna to the Israelites in the wilderness.

God sent the manna once each day and only enough for each person’s consumption that same day. This was highly inconvenient because the manna could not be stored until the next day, with the exception of Friday when a double portion fell to last people through the Sabbath: “And Moses said to them, ‘Let no one leave any of it over till the morning.’ But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them.” (Exodus 16:19, 20) Day by day, God’s sustenance for the Israelites arrived in one-day portions.

I had not previously noticed this aspect— that for 40 years, God was teaching his people a unique doctrine of “one day,” a one-day theology. God was training his people to trust him, not in the past or future, but in the present moment.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11), words that some consider an allusion to manna. In this way, the great teacher commanded his followers to ask the Father for provision for a single day, today.

Jesus also taught his disciples to live one day at a time—to “live in today.”

Addressing the cares and worries that fill our lives, Jesus said: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

(Matthew 6:34) Notice that Jesus does not forbid us from caring or being concerned. He simply sets limits on our cares to that day’s concerns. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Christians may feel uneasy when they hear about living “one day at a time,” given the Apostle Paul’s negative

Serhii Sologub of Ukraine is one of the most productive and upbeat Christian authors I know. As Ukraine’s nearly three-year battle to repel the Russian invasion rages on, Serhii remains a fountain of creativity when it comes to fresh ideas for book projects and ministry outreach.

He is the author of the book, Worship Alphabet for Families, offering crAeative ideas and models for meaningful family devotions, now in at least four languages.

He wrote and published a flip, devotional calendar, “365 Perfections of God,” which features a different attribute, or “perfection,” of God for each day of the year with an accompanying Scripture text, now also in multiple languages. More recently he helped create a handbook for military chaplains.

In his desire to equip young Ukrainian Christian writers, Serhii organized a writing contest in which participants penned, “My War Story.” Significantly, 38 entries were received. The judges selected three for awards, and the best entries were published in the moving book, My War Story, published in both Ukrainian and English.

A computer programmer and systems analyst by background, Serhii also serves as one of 12 pastors on staff of Irpin Bible Church near Kyiv, a vibrant congregation with which College Church partners and where missionaries Charlie and Cheryl Warner attend.

Serhii is responsible for the church’s nearly 50 home groups.

In addition to its full program of preaching, teaching and discipleship, “our church actively participates in helping refugees, rebuilding houses, and helping military personnel and their families,” he said.

How does this author, pastor and father of three continue to serve the Lord with such energy, vision and vibrancy in the middle of a war, which has so far left more than 40,000 Ukrainian soldiers dead and 370,000 wounded?

I had the opportunity to ask Serhii that question during a delightful mealtime conversation at the recent LittWorld 2024 Christian publishing conference in Mexico. As my wife, Elsa, daughter Natalie and I listened intently, Serhii explained that he and other believers in Ukraine are living a “one-day theology,” knowing that each day could potentially be their last.

But what exactly did Serhii mean by a “one-day theology?” we asked. In response, Serhii sent this article.

“Although my article is about getting through difficult times, I am convinced this strategy is not just a temporary one for hard times, but that it is God’s will for our lives and useful to American believers as well.”

—John Maust

continued on next page 21

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reference to Corinthians who had the mentality, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (see 1 Corinthians 15:32).

A superficial reading of this text might lead us to believe that living one day at a time is sinful and inappropriate for Christians. But here Paul is referring to a careless attitude toward eternity with God—not suggesting that it is wrong to invest oneself in today. In fact, as we study this concept further, we see that the Bible not only instructs readers how to live one day at a time, it also recommends it.

WHY IS IT SO HARD TO LIVE IN THE PRESENT? Western society inherited from the Greek culture its emphasis on the future, unlike the ancient Middle Eastern cultures that focused on the past. It’s no surprise, then, in Western society we put great emphasis on the future— our future travels, future careers, future successes that promise to make us happy. But excessive dwelling on the future will steal from us the fullness of life in the present.

People who focus on the future bear a burden that God never intended them to carry. Can we really predict what will happen tomorrow? If not, why do we let tomorrow’s worries weigh us down?

How many Christians are crushed under the weight of an unrealized future—a future that brings anxiety, worry and fear? Fear paralyzes our joy because we have not yet learned to live in the present as God calls us to do: The psalmist points us in the right direction: “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24) Notice that the words “in it” do not refer to joy “in God” (although other Scriptures teach that). Instead, here the emphasis is on joy in this day, today. God has already provided all we need for today, and that is enough for complete joy.

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A one-day theology simplifies many aspects of our lives. Instead of asking ourselves, “How can I live my entire life in obedience to God?” we can ask, “Am I being obedient to God today?” After all, where did this notion of “my entire life” come from, when we don’t even know how much time we have left?

Let’s take this a step further. If you want to dedicate your life to studying the Bible, then simply study it today. If you want to be a lifelong witness for Christ, then share the gospel today. All we have for sure is today. Today is, in essence, your entire life. This is the approach to which God calls us. We’ve been so bombarded with motivational appeals regarding the future that sometimes we forget how to live in the present.

WHAT ABOUT PLANNING? This naturally raises the question about planning. The Bible does not oppose planning. In fact, one characteristic of wisdom is the ability to prepare for the future. For instance, Scripture urges us to learn from the example of the diligent ant: “Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.” (Proverbs 6:6-8) Scripture also describes the value of planning in Jesus’ parables about a man building a tower (Luke 14:28) and a king preparing for war (Luke 14:31).

However, thinking about the future and worrying about the future are two different things.

We may plan for the future and make our plans, but we are not called to be anxious about them. Our life must remain anchored in the present. A helpful practice is to plan your day as if it’s your last. Read God’s Word, pray, share what you’ve read with your family or friends, do your work with love for God and for others. Fill your day with these things. This is our direct responsibility before God.

HOW TO LIVE IN THE PRESENT Study and internalize this biblical principle of “one-day living” as taught

by Jesus. Write the word, “today,” on a sticky note or create a phone reminder with the words of Psalm 118:24. Let this simple reminder draw you back to a full life in the present. When you sit down for a meal, turn it into a daily act of worship. This can be as simple as thanking God for the meal in a more thoughtful and intentional way.

I have been living in the “one day at a time” mindset for a long time. Take today, for example. In the morning I had a quiet time with God and read Matthew 8. I prayed and talked with God about what I read. This gave me strength for the whole day. I had a discipleship meeting with a young man.

Then a couple more church meetings (some of them was hard). Then there was a time of talking with my wife. In the evening, we had a family prayer time, and we ended the day. The whole day was like a packed full portion, in which there was everything: spiritual, family, friendship and work. It’s like preparing a salad with different ingredients all in one bowl.

Right now, I can hear air alarms going off, so this really could be the last day of my life. Who knows? Of course, God knows. And if this were the last day of my life, I would say, “This was a pretty full day!”

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NEW MEMBERS MIKE & ANDREA LEWIS

Mike works in sales for an investment company, and occasionally plays string bass in services here, and for side gigs elsewhere. Andrea taught elementary music for 10 years in District 200 before taking time off to raise their two teenage sons.

She now works as a visual merchandiser.

The Lewises are avid football fans.

CYNDY LORIMER

Cyndy grew up as one of eight siblings and has lived all over the Midwest. She moved to Lisle from Mt. Prospect at the end of 2022, and she has been attending College Church since then, involved in Women’s Bible Study and serving in the nursery.

REBEKAH MOHN

Rebekah moved to this area from Minnesota a year ago for work and is now attending College Church and involved in the Life Together Adult Community. She is a botanist studying diversity within and among native plants.

MANDI MUNIE

Mandi was born and raised in a Buddhist family in Mongolia. She accepted Jesus as her Savior at a vacation Bible school in 2017. Mandi has been attending College Church since 2022. She attends Women’s Bible Study, and her two young children are involved in the children’s ministry. In addition to being a homemaker, she is pursuing a degree in nursing.

PAT & CHRISTINE QUINT

Both originally from Michigan, the Quints have been married over 25 years and have two young adult sons. Pat is the CIO at an industrial manufacturing company. They are involved in the Thrive Adult Community, and Christine serves with Women’s Bible Study.

NOAH REIMER

Noah is from Oklahoma. He is a theology student at Wheaton College and is preparing to go into cross cultural missions work. He attended the All Nations Adult Community, and enjoys reading and playing basketball with friends.

PARKER SMITH

Parker was born and raised in Beaufort, South Carolina, and is the brother to three younger sisters. He is a graduate student at Wheaton College and plans to marry Alison Taylor in the spring. He is involved in College Group and serves with HYACKS and in the choir.

MIKE TUSKEY

Mike is a small group leader for seventhgrade boys in KMs and was part of the recent STAMP Thailand team.

He studied to teach Spanish and is considering some aspect of ministry.

ANNE WIEBE

Anne grew up in Ukraine and is the daughter of College Church missionaries Chad and Leanna Wiebe. She is involved in a small group and has served in children’s ministries. Anne is currently interning at a structural engineering company in Chicago and is in grad school studying for her master’s degree in structural engineering.

GREG & LINDA WILSON

The Wilsons have been married for over 70 years and have two children. They both grew up in California and moved to the Midwest for Greg to work for the Wrigley Company and later Mars until he retired. They are involved in Men’s and Women’s Bible Studies and enjoy visiting their children and grandchildren in Portland, Oregon, and in Scotland.

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CHURCH LIFE FEBRUARY HIGHLIGHTS

SUNDAY MORNING WORSHIP SERVICES Everyone welcome.

Join us at 8, 9:30 and 11 a.m. Livestream broadcast is at 9:30 a.m. You can watch it at college-church.org/ livestream.

MORNING SERMON SERIES:

The Gospel of Matthew

ADULT COMMUNITIES

LOGOS Sundays 9:30 a.m. in C104E

FORUM 15 Sundays 8 a.m. in C104F

• Teacher: James Seward

• Teacher: Bruce Main, John Maust and others • Study: Probing Scripture: Personal Bible Study Principles • Description: prayer, singing and study with class interaction.

• Study: The Book of Hebrews • Description: A caring community centered around interactive Bible teaching and prayer, spanning a range of ages and family situations.

THRIVE Sundays 9:30 a.m. in Crossings-Clapham Main Area

Senior Pastor Josh Moody preaching

GREEK EXEGESIS CLASS Sundays 9:30 a.m. in the Board Room

FEBRUARY 2: Treasures, Matthew 6:19-24

• Teacher: Jon Laansma

• Study: Gospel of John

• Study: 1 John

• Description: a vibrant group, ages approximately 40-60, committed to growing with Jesus and his church through Bible-based teaching, small group discussion, common prayer and fellowship

FEBRUARY 9: Anxiety, Matthew 6:25-34 FEBRUARY 16: Judge Not, Matthew 7:16 FEBRUARY 23: Baxter Helm preaching

EVENING SERMON SERIES:

• Description: Reading and discussion of the Greek New Testament. Knowledge of Greek is not required for this class.

LIFE TOGETHER COMMUNITY Sundays 9:30 a.m. in Commons Gym

VERITAS Sundays 9:30 a.m. in C104B & D

• Teacher: Teaching Team

• Teacher: Dr. Gregg Quiggle

• Description: Various Topics with small group discussion.

Authentic, biblical community for adults ages 25–40

• Study: Christian History since the Reformation

LIVING WORD Sundays 9:30 a.m. in C104A & C104C

Let’s Gather: What is a Healthy Church Like?

• Teachers: Felipe Chamy, Jacob Raju, Gary Cook, Dick Albright, Jay Cunningham

FEBRUARY 2: 2 Timothy 3:10-17, Pastor Josh Maurer preaching

• Study: Gospel of John

FEBRUARY 9: 2 Timothy 4:1-8, Pastoral Resident Matt Heaton preaching FEBRUARY 16: 2 Timothy 4:9-22, Pastoral Resident Felipe Chamy preaching

Let’s Gather: Songs of Wisdom FEBRUARY 23: Psalm 1, Pastor Curt Miller preaching

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• Teachers: Joe Becker

• Description: Do you enjoy closer connections with people?

Laughing, studying and praying together? Living Word Class is a “community within a community,” with fellowship around tables where we can look each other in the face to share, pray, and learn together. Our lively rotation of international teachers helps us dig deeply and methodically through the Bible. All are welcome!

• Description: a teaching class with active discussion and interaction.

Most attendees are middle to upper age.

WOMEN’S MINISTRIES MOM2MOM FEBRUARY 3: Large Group Gathering, 9:30-11 a.m. in Commons Hall. Topic: technology FEBRUARY 10: Gym Playdate, 9:30-11:30 a.m. in Commons Gym WOMEN’S BIBLE STUDY We hope you’ll join us as we study 1 & 2 Chronicles this semester.

To register, visit our website.

MORNING: 9:30-11 a.m.

EVENING: 6:45-8:15 p.m.

WOMEN’S RETREAT We’re looking forward to being

FEBRUARY 2025 CONNECTIONS

together February 21-23 at the Hyatt Regency in Deerfield. Visit our website for more info.

WOMEN’S MONTHLY GATHERING February 8: 9–10:30 a.m. in Commons Hall. This month we are focusing on Jesus’ statement in John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd,” as we consider what Jesus is teaching us about himself, God in human flesh. Whether you’ve joined us before or this would be your first time, we’d love to have you.

MEN’S MINISTRIES MEN’S BIBLE STUDY Wednesdays, 6:45-8:15 p.m. in Commons West We are studying the Book of Isaiah: Here is your God by Tim Chester.

Bible Study meets on Wednesday nights in Commons Hall. The session combines teaching, table discussion, and fellowship. Light refreshments are provided.

MEN’S BREAKFAST SERIES Saturday, February 1, 7:308:30 a.m. in Commons Hall Join us for our Men’s Breakfast series: Leadership Essentials. Along with breakfast and fellowship, we will discover together the biblical principles and tools for godly leadership. We meet at 7:30 a.m. in Commons Hall. No registration is required. Invite a friend!

CHILDREN’S MINISTRIES (KIDS’ HARBOR) SUNDAY MORNING Nursery (0-2) at 9:30 and 11 a.m.

Bible school (preschool-third grade) at 9:30 a.m.

At the 9:30 hour, fourth and fifth graders begin with their families in the service (or an Adult Community) until dismissed for Bible school.

FEBRUARY 5: Hebrews 4:15

Wonders of Worship “WOW” (K-third grade) dismissed during second half of 11 a.m. service

FEBRUARY 5: Large group gathering. Matt Heaton teaching on Systematic Theology

Children’s church (older preschool) during second half of 11 a.m. service

FEBRUARY 12: Small groups meet.

Discussing Hebrews.

Children’s church (younger preschool) at 11 a.m.

FEBRUARY 19: Large group gathering. Encounter night.

SUNDAY EVENING God’s Children Sing, Children’s Choirs, Preschool and Nursery

FEBRUARY 26: Small groups meet.

Discussing Hebrews.

KIDS’ HARBOR WEDNESDAY MINISTRIES KIDS KORNER: 9:30-11 a.m., (connected with morning Women’s Bible Study)

AFTER HOURS: Sunday evenings, 6-7:30 p.m. in Crossings; dinner, fellowship, and examination of Biblical Christianity

Evening Programs: 6:45-8:15 p.m.

HOME STUDY: of Gospel of John, Monday or Tuesday evening

KIDS’ HARBOR EVENTS FOLLOWING JESUS CLASS, open to 4th and 5th grade students, Thursdays, Feb 20-Mar13, 3:45-5pm; registration required.

MIDDLE SCHOOL (KINGS MESSENGERS) SUNDAY MORNINGS: 9:30-10:30 a.m., in the KMs room (Commons Lower Level) WEDNESDAY EVENINGS: 6:45-8:15 p.m. in the Crossings.

HIGH SCHOOL (HYACKS) SUNDAY MORNINGS 9:30-10:30 a.m. in Crossings—Baxter Helm is teaching a series on the book of Hebrews titled, “Jesus is Better.”

WEDNESDAY MORNING: 6:30-7:30 a.m. Men and Women of Courage groups meet in Crossings conference Room and women meet in Welsh Hall.

FEBRUARY 19: Hebrews 4:16 WEDNESDAY NIGHT: in Crossings (Clapham main area) or small groups in homes at 7-8:30 p.m.

COLLEGE GROUP

PRAYER GROUP: Friday evening Contact tmain@college-church.org for details.

STARS DISABILITY SUNDAY Children/Adult/Multi-Generational Sunday classes meet at 9:30 and 11 a.m.

STARS Choir at 5 p.m.

STARS Moms Bible Study Sundays at 5 p.m.

STARS Praise in Action Wednesdays at 6:45 p.m.

STARS Friday Night Fun on February 7 at 6:30 p.m.

SIGNS OF LOVE

Deaf Ministry. Building Bridges, February 2 and 16.

ARTSPACE Details on page 9. continued on next page

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Looking Ahead STREAMS OF MERCY

an evening of singing featuring Felix Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42 March 2, 5 p.m. in the Sanctuary

MARK YOUR CALENDAR:

Crossings Update, a Gospel Now event on Wednesday night, March 12.

Under the Radar NEW BOOK! THE DAY OF KNOWING— A FUTURE STORY

By Pastor Josh Moody Our own Pastor Josh Moody has written a Sci-Fi book called The Day of Knowing, set in an imaginary, but all too eerily familiar future where what seems normal is not.

It follows the journey of John Broadus, and his friends, through their university experience. Bit by bit the contagion is unearthed, and a path to a remedy gradually unfolds. The book is by turns dark, humorous, dystopian and hopeful.

It’s quite a ride.

You can find the QR code at the Bookstall, or use this QR code to order.

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PODCAST

CONCERT

Psalm Podcast.

Former pastoral resident Mike Solis is pastoring at Rock Hill Community Church in Duluth, MN. He contacted College Church to make us aware of his podcast The Woven Psalms as part of his ministry there. Mike describes he podcast as “a reflective, unhurried, and practical podcast about praying every psalm in the Bible. Each episode is about 15-20 minutes long and walks through one psalm, ending with suggestions for how to incorporate the psalm into one’s prayer life.”

Check it out here: https://youtu.be/ ITgdfGzFIQU

WHEATON COLLEGE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CONCERT

THEATER WHEATON COLLEGE ARENA THEATER PRESENTS OUR TOWN Written by Thornton Wilder and Directed by Andy Mangin.

Thursday, February 20, 2025 Saturday, March 1, 2025 Find out more at: https://tickets. wheaton.edu/shows/arena-theaterour-town

Saturday, February 22, 7:30 – 9:30pm Edman Chapel Auditorium

Facilities FACTS

Keys and Fobs for College Church.

Did you know that it takes two different fob systems and over 80 different key types to manage all the areas of access on the campus.

This does not include office cabinets or display keys. There are also crash bar keys, Knox box keys for firemen and police, and keys for keeping the paper towel and toilet paper dispensers full.

For special events there are cash box keys, lock box keys, even the AED Heart Savers has keys. There are 34 sets of apartment keys, two sets of parsonage keys, two sets of garage keys. The organ and piano have their own keys and it is good to know that communion supplies and choir robes are also kept under lock and key.

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MILESTONES DEATHS Pray for the family of David Roth, including his wife, Nancy, daughter Sarah Mikolajczyk and son Steve (Kris) Roth, who passed away suddenly on January 16.

Pray for Karla Bare and family as they grieve the loss of Karla’s husband, Michael, who passed away suddenly on January 16.

Pray for Elizabeth (Jim) Reid and family as they grieve the loss of Liz’s father, Richard Enderle, who passed away on January 7 in Oak Park.

Pray for the family of Ed Selander who passed away on December 30 in Batavia.

Pray for Noël (Roger) Beyer and family as they grieve the loss of Noël’s brother who passed away recently.

Pray for Ken Bryer and Beth (Tim) Stough as they grieve the passing of Ken’s wife and Beth’s mother, Grace Bryer, who passed away on December 28 in Colorado Springs, CO. Pray for David (Diane) Dick and family as they grieve the loss of David’s mother, Nancy Dick, who passed away on December 27 in Wheaton.

Pray for family and friends of College Church member Fred Miller, who passed away on December 22.

Pray for Dick (Sharon) Jahns and family as they grieve the loss of Dick’s brother, Adam Jahns, who passed away on December 21 in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

Pray for Phil (Maggie) Girgis and family as they grieve the loss of Phil’s mother, Grace Girgis, who passed away on December 19 in Hillside.

Check out the online resource to learn about and to share Pastor Dewar’s worship songs. https://www.gloryandgladnessmusic.com

OPPORTUNITIES FOR PRAYER Call the church office or email info@college-church.org for details on these prayer meetings.

SUNDAY MORNING PRAYER: 8:15-8:40 a.m., meets in the Commons board room MIDWEEK PRAYER MEETING: Wednesdays now at noon via Zoom FEBRUARY 5: Jonatán and Teresa Simons, SIM, seminary teaching in South America FEBRUARY 12: Anita Deyneka, Mission Eurasia (A Family for Every Orphan), organizational leadership, Eurasia FEBRUARY 19: Thad & Joy McAuley, GEM, administration and organizational leadership, Europe FEBRUARY 26: TBD PRAYER FOR THE PERSECUTED CHURCH: Fridays, 12-1 p.m. in the Board Room.

AARON-HUR PRAYER FELLOWSHIP will meet on Thursday, February 13, at 7 p.m. at the home of Eri and Marilyn Enstrom, 1460 Stoddard Ave. in Wheaton, (630) 248-5016.

Our guests will be Shannon, serving in Asia.

BARNABAS PRAYER FELLOWSHIP meets Tuesday, February 18, at 1:30 p.m., in the Patio Dining Room at Windsor Park to hear about the work being done in Brazil by Steve and Mirian Cox. They have worked practicular. Men and women are welcome to visit or join the group.

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Graced Marriages RYAN JUNE

College Church is looking forward to continuing its ongoing marriage ministry with the Grace Marriage curriculum that returns in March. College Church member Ryan June recently talked with Brad Rhoads, who with his wife, Marilyn, cofounded Grace Marriage.

RYAN: Since you founded Grace Marriage and are passionate

about marriage ministry, we wanted to have this conversation with you to help set the vision for College Church’s marriage ministry. To start, why is marriage so important from a biblical and theological perspective, specifically for a church like College Church, with its vision to proclaim the gospel? How can healthy marriages support that vision?

BRAD: That’s a great question. Marriage preceded the fall as

the first human relationship. When God said it was not good for man to be alone, he provided Eve, and the whole earth was populated through marriage. So theologically, marriage is the designed relationship for raising children in the ways of the Lord. Moving into the New Testament, marriage continues as a profound analogy. The relationship of husband and wife reflects Christ’s sacrificial love for the church.

Marriage is a relationship that should usher people into a desire to learn more about Christ because they see the sacrifice, the love, the grace of Jesus from the husband to the wife and the wife to the husband. The Book of Revelation even concludes with the wedding supper of the Lamb, emphasizing how central marriage is to the biblical narrative.

Marriage ministry is so much bigger than “let’s help two people get along better and have a more enjoyable life.” From an evangelical perspective, marriage is rich—husband and wife, Christ and the church—that if people see husband and wife in a stagnant, complacent, non-attractive relationship, it becomes a hindrance to spreading the gospel. However, if people see a husband and wife in an enjoyable, sacrificial, gracefilled, creative, romantic relationship where the love of Jesus is evident, people are drawn to it and to Christ. When not focused on, marriage becomes a hindrance to gospel expansion. When focused on, it becomes an avenue for gospel expansion.

RYAN: That’s a beautiful picture. Marriage is clearly a priority

for God, but some couples get so busy that marriage is put on the backburner and, at best, gets fatigued leftovers. How would you encourage these couples to invest in their marriage through participating in Grace Marriage?

BRAD: Wise schedule management means putting the most

time into the most important things. What if I told you, “Ryan, I know that spending time with Jesus is important, but I have five kids on four different sports teams, so I am really just too busy, and now is not a good season to invest in reading the Bible.”

And you would turn around and tell me to prioritize the most important things in my time management.

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FEBRUARY 2025 CONNECTIONS

Likewise, it is unwise and harmful to allow the busyness of life to squeeze out investment in marriage. It just doesn’t make sense. For those who are married, marriage is the most important horizontal relationship in life. If a couple’s life is such that they cannot find time to invest in their marriage, things are upside down and will ultimately break down. That is why many marriages are stagnant and complacent or are in crisis, and very few are really thriving and gospel attractive. So, I would just say, don’t schedule over your marriage, instead block off the time for it.

RYAN: Can you share a little about the structure of the marriage

discipleship platform? What does a Grace Marriage session look like, and how can it help couples prioritize their marriages?

BRAD: Well, I first want couples to feel like they’re part of

College Church’s marriage ministry, not part of Grace Marriage.

We work with College Church to help it serve marriages well.

Regarding the structure, each session includes four elements: a short teaching video, prayer and personal reflection, structured communication between spouses, and brief group discussion. This format helps couples personalize biblical truths to their unique situations because the Bible has universal application but will convict people in different ways depending on the season and the struggle. Participants have time to pray, reflect and apply the Bible to their context, writing down insights and discussing them with their spouse.

Group sharing is optional, keeping the focus on applying lessons to individual marriages.

RYAN: Some couples might feel their marriage is already strong,

while others may be struggling. How does Grace Marriage serve that full spectrum?

BRAD: It’s like physical fitness—you don’t stop exercising

just because you’re fit, nor avoid it when you’re out of shape.

Marriage investment benefits every couple, regardless of their current situation. If your marriage is thriving, continued investment can help it become even more God-glorifying. If you’re struggling, it provides tools for improvement. The goal is consistent growth, regardless of the starting point.

RYAN: That analogy to fitness reminds me that I’ve heard you

share how your experience with business coaching inspired the creation of Grace Marriage. Could you explain that connection?

BRAD: Sure. I was part of Strategic Coach, a business

coaching program based in Chicago. Every 90 days, I would step away from daily tasks to focus on improving the law firm I was running at the time. This intentional focus led to significant growth and success. I was also serving as a lay pastor of marriage, I thought, “Why don’t we approach marriage with the same intentionality?” People invest heavily in professional growth but often neglect marriage. Inspired by that experience, I developed Grace Marriage as a platform for ongoing marriage investment.

RYAN: Suppose one couple is experiencing a season of financial

difficulty signs up for Grace Marriage, and another couple with challenging in-law relationships also signs up. The situations are different, but both put strain on the marriage. How does the Grace Marriage curriculum serve these couples as one group coming together to walk through the curriculum?

BRAD: We create a safe space for couples to address issues

constructively. Rather than discussing problems in the heat of the moment, sessions provide structured, intentional opportunities for couples to work through challenges, regardless of the issues they may be facing. The curriculum encourages couples to work together as a team to grow and resolve issues instead of defaulting to unhealthy patterns.

RYAN: What would you tell a couple that participated in Grace

Marriage last year and feels they already got the value from it, and they don’t need to participate again this year?

BRAD: Everything needs ongoing attention to thrive, and

marriage doesn’t do well on autopilot. Grace Marriage is designed as an ongoing investment platform, not a oneyear program. I encourage couples to get into a mentality of consistent investment and growth and discover that curriculum changes with every single year and every single session.

RYAN: As we close, what final encouragement would you offer

to couples considering Grace Marriage and to College Church as it invests in marriage ministry?

BRAD: We’ve watched the family deteriorate for 60 years,

starting with no-fault divorce and the redefinition of marriage.

It’s been under attack for years, and we are so overdue for a proactive church response. According to a Communio/Barna survey, 72% of churches have no marriage ministry, and most couples lack a strategy for investing in their marriages.

We have an opportunity now to invest in marriage and stabilize our families, and then to expand our witness through healthy, gospel-centered marriages. I’m thankful for College Church stepping forward to have an ongoing, devoted ministry to marriage. The more churches that step forward, like College Church has, the more likely it is that churches across this country start serving marriage in a more meaningful and consistent way.

RYAN: Thank you, Brad. We eagerly anticipate what God will

do in this next year of marriage ministry at College Church through Grace Marriage. Our marriage ministry leadership team is praying that healthy marriages are part of the DNA of College Church, and that God moves mightily in our couples to get involved in intentional investment in their marriages.

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But God:

An Encouragement KARA BETH VANCE

F

or several years, the Sanctity of Human Life Task Force took groups of over 100 from College Church to participate in March for Life Chicago, the largest pro-life march in Illinois. It was encouraging to be a part of thousands of people gathered in downtown Chicago who valued human life and wanted to see an end to abortion. The experience also built community within our church as we got to know people of different ages and stages of life who were sitting by us on the bus and marching next to us. Participating in a pro-life march has been the first step for many on a journey to engage more in pro-life work and ministry.

Last summer leading up to Rockford’s Walk for Life on June 22, 2024, I wrote about putting feet to our beliefs—about how it is important for us as Christians to stand in public witness that every human life is valuable. I had recently been to the Pro-Life March in Springfield (as March for Life Chicago organizers decided to move locations to Springfield). I was excited to gather with others from College Church to participate in a Pro-Life March in Rockford in June.

However, when we left College Church on the morning of June 22 to head to Rockford Walk for Life, I was discouraged.

Our already comparatively small group had become smaller as people needed to 30

back out at the last minute. It was gray and rainy outside. I already knew that Rockford wouldn’t have as many people as Springfield did or Chicago had in prior years. It felt like a bit of a flop from an event-planning perspective— and I had done the planning.

But God. I love those words in Ephesians 2:4-5 that communicate the gospel, how God in his mercy intervened in the lives of his people. When we were dead in our trespasses, he gave us new life!

I left the Walk for Life in Rockford encouraged and I can’t explain it except for God breaking in. Our smaller group was fun to be with and a reminder of the sweet fellowship that we have with believers. On the bus, conversations took place that couldn’t have happened with a larger group. The experiences of some shared had specific relevance and encouragement for others.

The main speaker was a woman named Nicole LeBlanc. Hers was a name I hadn’t heard before. She shared about her and her husband’s heart-rending experience fighting for the lives of their unborn daughters: conjoined twins who shared a heart and other organs and were not expected to live long outside the womb.

They were pressured to abort their babies but, because of their convictions on the value of human life, this wasn’t a path that they could take. A few things struck me as Nicole spoke:

The pain and sadness that is in this world is expansive. God meets us in that. He sustains faith. He offers hope.

It is right and good to recognize the dignity of every human being made in the image of God, however long they may have left on this earth.

It takes courage to be faithful amid the pressures of this world, to seek to honor God in everything.

And this snapped me out of thinking about how I wanted the day to go, and instead to remember the seriousness of why we were gathered. All around us, people are embracing a culture of death as abortion is accessible and promoted.

Abortion takes an innocent human life.

Every human life is valuable, made in God’s image.

A march is a way to be a voice for the voiceless, to advocate for the most vulnerable among us. It is a public witness. Your friends might even see you in a photo on Instagram and ask you why you participated. The media and our state legislature will see that there are people who want unborn lives legally protected. That’s why I invite you to join the College Church group that will travel to Springfield for the Illinois Pro-Life March on Tuesday, March 25. Keep an eye out for more details!

FEBRUARY 2025 CONNECTIONS

SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE ANNOUNCEMENTS Let’s keep the College Church Baby Bank Donation Crib filled with donations year-round. Bring diapers (lately, newborn and size 6 especially needed), wipes, baby lotion, shampoo and wash, diaper cram and formula to the crib (outside the Sanctuary on the first Sunday of the month and in the Commons the rest of the month.) Check out EveryLife diaper company which funds pregnancy centers at hhtps://everylife. com/ (20% off with auto renew. Use code LIVEACTION10 for an additional $10 off first order.) You may also order from the Baby Bank Amazon Wish List!

40 DAYS FOR LIFE PRAYER

In addition to marching, there are many other ways to start learning and serving in the pro-life movement (email sohl@ college-church.org with your questions).

There is much work to do. While some states have put in place legal protections for the unborn following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Illinois has pursued expanding access to abortion and taxpayer funding for abortion, as well as marketing it to women from other states. When we pray outside of Planned Parenthood in

Aurora, the parking lot is markedly busier on Saturday afternoons than it was a few years ago. One way we can follow Jesus and impact our community for life is by learning more about what the Bible teaches regarding the image of God and abortion. On the morning of Saturday, March 22, John Ensor from PassionLife ministries will help us to think biblically about the value of human life, the reality of abortion and the hope of the gospel.

Join us for this pro-life equipping session!

Saturday, Feb.8, 1-2 p.m. Join Sanctity of Human Life Task Force at 40 Days for Life’s year-round peaceful prayer vigil. Meet on Waterleaf pregnancy center’s property across from Planned Parenthood Aurora. Questions? Contact sohl@college-church.org.

SAVE THE DATE ILLINOIS MARCH FOR LIFE IN SPRINGFIELD On Tuesday, March 25, join hundreds of others in Springfield to stand for the value of every human life. Request the day off now. We are working on an option to travel together from College Church.

If you’d like to assist with planning contact Kara at sohl@college-church.org.

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Recommit to Gospel Now in 2025 If you’re the kind of person who reads every word of the weekly worship folder, you may have noticed a little box at the bottom that contains statistics on the Gospel Now project. As of January 2025, we have raised more than $4.3 million in gifts and pledges. After just eight months since the project launched back in May 2024, this is encouraging progress!

What’s not so encouraging is the total number of gifts and pledges received—about a third of the congregation. Why is this number discouraging? Because it means that we as a church are not yet fully behind this project. This month we thought we’d do some Q&A to answer some questions you may have.

What is Gospel Now? It’s an invitation to everyone who calls College Church home to Pray, Give, and Act for local outreach.

Why didn’t we just do a traditional capital campaign? Because if we just raise the money but aren’t personally engaged in ministry, the building won’t be fully utilized. And because we want everyone to be able to participate—maybe not everyone can give, but everyone can pray. That’s why we’ve provided monthly prayer cards to help invigorate your prayer life for gospel outreach.

What are the objectives for the financial portion of Gospel Now? We have three significant objectives: Create new accessible parking for disabled and elderly congregants, get the Crossings Building ready for a new phase of discipleship ministry, and retire the church’s debt. Currently our debt stands around $5 million, most of which is left over from our purchase of the Crossings Building. When the congregation voted to purchase the Crossings, we knew we were also voting to pay for its eventual renovation. Now the time has come to realize the full ministry potential of that facility!

What is the Crossings building being used for now, and what kinds of renovations are needed? The second floor is currently not being used at all, but that’s where we envision our youth ministry taking place. There’s room up there for KMs and HYACKS, but we need to build walls, install sound barriers, put in stages for worship and create some hang-out spaces. Both ministries have outgrown their current space will help them thrive.

The first floor of the Crossings Building will be used for College ministry, Mom2Mom, counseling ministry, ArtSpace and community outreach. This floor actually is being used right now, but 32

not to its full potential. The College Group meets on the first floor on Sunday mornings and evenings, but with no kitchen there, they have to transport all food from the Commons. Occasionally we use part of the first floor for Sunday evening services, but if you’ve attended a there, chances are you’ve noticed the acoustical challenges.

After renovations are done on the first floor, the College Group will be able to meet in an inviting café-themed space. The Mom2Mom ministry will use the first floor for their meetings and to have a place for kids to play during the cold winter months.

Small groups will use the Living Room spaces for hosting informal gatherings in a comfortable environment. And our counseling ministry will have access to private meeting rooms.

How was this plan formulated? We came to the congregation with a “wet clay” plan developed by a combination of the Gospel Now task force (see below), church staff, congregants, and community members last May. After getting congregational feedback and seeing some of the changes in the community since then (including three new/expanded coffee shops), we’ve modified the above plan. The only real change is that the outward-facing café has been changed to a more flexible caféthemed space and the children’s play area is smaller to leave more space for future growth.

What’s my next step if I’m not involved yet? We need everyone who calls College Church home to get involved in this project.

If you haven’t seen and experienced the Crossings Building for yourself, ask a pastor or a Gospel Now team member for a tour.

Come to the March 12 Open House Commitment Event. If every College Church member and regular attender upped their giving by a third over the next three years, we would achieve our financial goals for Gospel Now. That would enable us to complete the parking project, utilize the Crossings Building properly, and pay down the church’s debt. That’s a worthy and achievable goal! But we can’t get there without everyone’s participation. And it’s urgent. Every month that goes by when we don’t have enough money in hand to begin the project, prices for materials and labor continue to increase.

Let’s all start 2025 off right by committing to Give, Pray, and Act for local outreach. Let’s proclaim the Gospel—Now. GOSPEL NOW LEADERSHIP TEAM Jeremy and Nancy Taylor Eric Schlickman Pastoral liaison: Jim Johanik Eric Ollila David Gieser

FEBRUARY 2025 CONNECTIONS

at the

BOOKSTALL C IS FOR CHRISTIAN

GOSPEL STORIES

by Alistair Begg

by Andrew Wilson

This A-Z Book is wonderful for family devotions or bed time. Each letter teaches a theological truth that teaches kids about their identity in Christ. Excite your kids about what it means to be a Christian.

In fifty-seven short narratives, Gospel Stories explores the beautiful, triumphant, often heart-breaking and always glorious stories that make up the gospel of God—Gospel Stories. Just as we have one God in three persons, and one church made up of many people, so in Scripture we have one gospel made up of many stories.

Bookstall Price: $14

SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES FOR THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

by Donald Whitney This practical book helps Christians to grow in their walk with Christ. We are meant to be holy as Christ is holy and this book helps us to actively pursue that by encouraging us in areas such as absorbing scripture, serving, evangelism, worship and more

Bookstall Price: $12

GOOD NEWS FOR ALL THE EARTH

by Mitchell Chase This stimulating book shows us how the entire New Testament points to Jesus, the one who secured our atonement, builds his church, and will one day return again.

Bookstall Price: $7

Bookstall Price: $13

Bible-Reading Plans Pick up your copy of the Discipleship Journal Bible reading plan, available for free at the bookstall. Most days of the year, this reading plan coincides with Pastor Moody’s daily Bible-reading devotionals.

Visit the Shepherd Shelf Between the fireside and the bookstall checkout desk, we are building a “Shepherd Shelf,” a curated collection of books our pastors and directors are referencing in their varied counseling and Christian living situations. Be sure to check out this new “Shepherd Shelf.”

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FEBRUARY 2025 CONNECTIONS

A M I X E D BAG

N

ow that we’ve hit February, I think I can say this: Christmas is always a mixed bag of gifts. Literally. Looking back on the season of giving, I think some gifts came in small boxes with very beautiful wrapping and were just what I was hoping to receive. Other gifts were in big boxes, where the wrapping paper wasn’t quite big enough to stretch around the oversized box, and there was a gap where the wrapping paper couldn’t cover it. Inside was a lovely gift, but something I have no use for, and now I’m presented (pun intended) with the dilemma of having to write a thoughtful thank-you note to the giver all the while figuring out how to return the gift for a store credit.

If I’m ambitious enough to go to the store, wait in a long line at the “Returns” area, I might wind up receiving 85% or 90% of the original purchase price less the re-stocking fee. Perhaps I’ll try to re-gift the item, or if I’m too lazy to do either of those things, I’ll put the item away in my closet or storage area and let it stay there until the next time I make a New Year’s resolution to clean out those spaces and donate things to Twice Is Nice or STARS Resale Shops. When it comes to gift-giving, why does it have to be this difficult?

Perhaps it is because the person purchasing the gift doesn’t really know me that well or gives sufficient thought to what I need or want for Christmas. It’s difficult to develop such a knowledgeable relationship with someone other than a spouse or a child that you can give a gift that is actually wanted, needed, and appreciated by the recipient. It’s okay. They mean well.

But think about God. He knew us before we were formed in our mother’s womb (Jeremiah 1:5). He has one of the most intimate relationships with us that’s possible, and He gave His only Son because He loved us so much and knew exactly what we needed was a Savior so we could be reconciled with God (John 3:16). In turn, how much time and effort to we spend learning more about Him as revealed in the Scriptures and in prayer praising Him and telling Him of our needs? And do we worship Him with our gifts to His church so that more individuals can be told of his wonderful deeds (Ps. 9:1)?

Thinking about gifts we receive (and probably some we give to others) that don’t quite hit the mark, consider a different concept when gift-giving is appropriate or expected. I know of a family who switched their giving over to some different—a monetary contribution to the church or another charity to each person on their list. Each gift was chosen thoughtfully, the need and connection to the recipient was timely, and there’s no need for a return. And you definitely won’t need to worry about whether the wrapping paper will be large enough!

In our culture, that approach might take some adjustments. But we might be surprised at how much joy we can find when we give different kinds of gifts like these.

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