“Abide in me, and I in you.”

Abide. It’s a strange word to us, not one we use much in conversation. But it’s everything we were designed for and what our ultimate goal is. Abide means to live, to find a place, to remain, to endure, to last. In the context of John 15, it means to immerse ourselves in an ongoing, intimate relationship with God, characterized by prayer, obedience and joy.

The beginning of the school year is a time of fresh starts and renewed vision. As we consider plans and goals for this year at Summitview, we’re trusting that God prepared us by having us spend our summer in John 14-17. These chapters contain some of the final words we have from Jesus. They’re what he wanted to impress upon his disciples before he returned to his Father. And in these chapters, much of what he emphasized is abiding. Sometimes he used the word itself, as in John 15, and sometimes he used other words to share the same idea, as in John 17.

This year at Summitview, our hope is that all of us can freshly discover an abiding relationship with God. We want to know him more deeply. We want to experience the joy that Jesus promises us. We want to pray expectantly and see him answer. We want to shift priorities and schedules in order to be with him more. As we think through our Sunday mornings, our small groups, and dozens of other ministries, our aim is to weave abiding throughout, and in so doing, to experience an extraordinary renewal of relationship with God.

Not only does abiding with God have an internal effect on each individual, but also an external one. That’s clear, especially in John 17. Growing in oneness with God necessarily results in a greater oneness with each other. And a greater oneness with each other necessarily draws people on the outside in, as indicated in John 17:20-23. So our priority is to be with God, but we expect that our nearness to God will bear fruit in far-reaching ways.

So as we begin another school year, join us in reflecting on how God may lead you to freshly abide in him. And as you do abide in him, expect that others will want what you have.

– Aaron Ritter, on behalf of the pastors

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This really is a magnificent truth. A loving, joyful relationship existed within God himself before the foundation of the world was laid. Love didn’t come into being along with the creation. Rather, love is independent of the creation and fundamental to the nature of God. God truly is love.

That basic truth is one of the most life-transforming realities and one in which I tried to immerse myself during the last two months of sabbatical. One of my main goals was simply to know our Triune God better – to know that God exists in a mysterious relationship of Father, Son and Spirit.

By the grace of God, I believe I was able to better grasp God’s relational nature. However, I also know that I only scratched the surface. We all may take significant steps in our knowledge of God, but we still only “see in a mirror dimly” (1 Corinthians 13:12), and we will spend our entire lives getting to know him more and more.

That being the case, perhaps the real blessing from my time away was not only the knowledge of God that I gained (enormous blessing that it was), but the pattern of seeking to know God that I was able to reestablish. That is, it wasn’t the end result so much as it was the trajectory that I believe will make all the difference.

This past Sunday, I shared about the priority of “abiding.” During my sabbatical, I was able to abide in Christ in a unique way, but my prayer is that the renewed practice of abiding will carry on into my normal rhythms of life. And what’s more, my hope is that Summitview Church as a whole can reset some of those normal practices.

Extended, focused, uninterrupted time with God is an invaluable gift. It may not be something that we can realistically do constantly. Clearly, God wants us to live a balanced life where we work and eat and serve and spend time with family and friends. The monastic lifestyle probably isn’t what God would have for most of us. Nevertheless, some regular extended time with God is vital, and I know that most of us could use a lot more of it. But it’s not easy. A thousand different concerns compete for our time, and extended time with God can feel so difficult to pursue. And yet, none of our other endeavors will have the necessary power behind them unless we’re drawing deeply from God’s well.

Will you join with me in considering how to regularly set aside longer stretches of time to simply be with our amazing God? Again, it won’t be easy. It will take difficult decisions. It will take rearranging priorities. It may take vacation time and extra investment. But it will be worth it. God will meet us, and pour his love and joy into and through our lives, the love and joy that he has experienced within himself before the foundation of the world.

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Easter is all about hope. But, more often than not, that hope seems intangible. Suffering, pain, and the weight of this world seem to obscure the hope that the cross provides us. And yet, our pain doesn’t have to obscure hope. It can actually enhance it.

Join us this Easter as we attempt to freshly embrace hope. Specifically, we will look at the brokenness of our bodies but remember how Jesus overcame death and entered into life so that we, too, can one day be transformed.

Romans 8:23 says that we “groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” Most of us can relate when we read about inward groaning. We somehow sense that things aren’t how they should be, and we experience an intense longing for everything to be made right. That’s especially true when we experience physical pain. And physical pain isn’t something that’s unusual. After all, we are fragile creatures. I look around our church, and I see (and experience) a whole lot of pain and injury. From cancer to back pain, from infertility to simple exhaustion. We are all damaged goods.

And yet, all of our infirmity can be a reminder that we have a future hope. We are “wasting away,” but at the same time being “prepared for an eternal glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17). This Easter, we hope to take a long look at the finiteness of our bodies, but then let that finiteness drive us towards a hope in our future redemption.

So as we approach the Easter season, let us prepare ourselves to truly connect with the hope of glory. Let’s make sure that we are able to reflect on the life that Jesus is leading us into. We’ll begin on Palm Sunday with a full morning of music and prayer. We’ll follow that with a Good Friday service at 6:30 p.m. that will remind us of the brokenness and death that is a part of this fallen world. And then we’ll end on Easter Sunday with a celebration and anticipation of our “adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

Also, please keep in mind that this Easter season presents an opportunity to invite others who are likely more willing to come to church on Easter than other times of the year. As we talk about redemption from pain and death, our hope is that it will connect with many people who are experiencing that pain and death in a very real way.

So this Easter season, enter into a fresh hope. Because, indeed, he has risen. And we will as well.

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• Church-planting in Severance, Colorado, one of the fastest growing communities in the nation with very few churches
• Next-generation ministry to high schoolers and college students who statistically are very underexposed to the gospel
• International student ministry that is reaching college students at CSU from all around the world, many of which come from countries that are very closed to the gospel
• Afghan refugee resettlement that welcomes displaced families who have been forced to resettle in America
• Middle East refugee ministry in Amsterdam where many people have been forced to flee in recent years
• Central Asia missions where some of the most unreached peoples live and where exists the intersection between the East, the West, and the Muslim worlds
• Middle East missions that support a Summitview family as they bring light to a very closed country in the heart of the Middle East
• Japan missions in which the gospel is being brought to a large, influential, and very unreached country
• Hong Kong missions in which a church is being strengthened that is holding on to the gospel in an environment that is becoming more and more restricted
• Costa Rica missions that are being developed as we build a relationship with a church that is ministering to disadvantaged people from throughout Central America
• Cross-cultural ministry to students from all over the world through the development of an online ministry that grew out of previous Asian missions that can no longer happen in person

Is that not encouraging? And it’s not just that a few people are taking big steps of faith in distant places. It’s that an entire church has joined together in an effort to catalyze the spreading of the gospel throughout the world. That’s worthy of celebration.

Over the upcoming weeks, we’ll get an opportunity to hear about each of these projects, often from the missionaries themselves. Their stories and details about the campaign will be posted at summitview.com/missions. Before then, we invite you to begin to pray. Pray for these missionaries and projects. And pray for yourself as you consider what role you might play in supporting them. Last year, we raised about $64,000. This year, we’re aiming to duplicate that with an overall goal of $60,000.

So please join us as we renew our focus on God’s mission to the nations, remembering that God’s church really does make a difference. The gospel is going out. Light is shining in dark places. Churches are being built up. God is being glorified.

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I was recently talking with a man who was visiting Summitview on a Sunday morning. As he shared about his background, I could tell that he had a strong and genuine faith, but he admitted that he was struggling with church. The reason? He had gone through a major crisis in his life and felt like the church simply wasn’t there for him. Those he thought would be a huge source of strength were strangely absent.

The conversation certainly stirred something in me. First, it stirred a sense of regret. I reflected on how I have surely been guilty of the same kind of neglect in the past. Busy schedules and misplaced priorities prevented me from expressing tangible care for friends in need. But secondly, it stirred a renewed commitment. When others are hurting, I want to do everything I can to show a Christ-like compassion in ways that really matter.

But I must admit, although I can have grand ambitions to care for people, it’s not always easy to do when the opportunity arises. Needs are difficult to understand, life throws distractions at me, and pretty soon I end up echoing the faithless man in James 2:16 who says, “Keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about physical needs.

That’s one of the reasons we have Service Saturdays. We live in a broken world, and all of us experience legitimate hardship at some point in our lives. When hardship hits, though, the church is designed to respond. Our benevolence deacons have been tasked with the care of those in difficult situations. Basically, the deacons’ job is to provide the administration and structure it takes to connect needs in the church with the resources to help meet those needs. With Service Saturdays, the deacons have created a consistent opportunity for the church to be a true family and take care of those who could use some help. They’ve provided the structure that helps overcome so many of the barriers that keep me from loving well.

Our next Service Saturday is this coming Saturday, February 5. We will be helping several people, and we would like to invite any and all of you to join us. In addition to the needs of people in our church, there may also be other projects in our community, such as preparation for the housing of an Afghani refugee family, or helping Serve 6.8 pack supplies for Marshall Fire victims. We’ll plan on meeting at the church building on Saturday at 8:00 a.m. Then, we’ll break people into groups and send them off to help with the various projects that have been arranged. It truly is a wonderful opportunity that our deacons have created to help us love each other. Please join us in our effort to be the church!

– Aaron Ritter

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That you may believe. This is why John, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote his gospel. In fact, the word “belief” occurs ninety-eight times in John, far more than any other book of the Bible. Belief is what God had in mind. But not just belief in the sense of acknowledging some fact of history. Rather, belief in the biblical sense – an ever-deepening trust in, love for, and devotion to Jesus Christ. That’s what God is aiming to draw us into through John’s gospel.

This Sunday we’ll begin what is sure to be a belief-strengthening journey through the Gospel of John. The book really is a remarkable one – and unique as well. The other three gospels are known together as the “Synoptic” gospels because of their similarities. John is different. God had something very distinct he wanted to convey through John. He wanted to highlight the identity of Jesus as the Son of God. At the same time, he wanted to show Christ’s personal, human nature by recording long and intimate conversations with individuals. God is revealing the fullness of the person of Jesus Christ so that we can indeed believe in him.

Yet it’s not an easy book. It’s full of the paradoxes that come along with Jesus being fully God and fully man. Several extended teachings from Jesus stretch our understanding. Jesus answers questions in ways that we would never expect. This book invites us to not just passively read, but to think deeply, to ask questions, and to cry out for understanding. But on the other side of that effort, there’s a rich and resilient faith.

So buckle up! As you come this Sunday and future Sundays, come ready. Read and reread beforehand. Pray for fresh insight. Write down thoughts and reflect on them later. Discuss these passages with friends and family. And then receive – receive a greater depth of belief in the Son of God who took on flesh.

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1. What does it mean to be safe?
2. What does it mean to be subject to the government?
3. What does it mean to care for the convictions of our brothers and sisters in the church?
4. What does it mean to be the church?

Of course, the answers to those questions have never been absolutely clear, and any policy we implement will not answer each question with complete satisfaction. Nevertheless, we do believe that wrestling through those four questions together has given us some helpful guidance. Up until now, our answers have led us to require masks on Sunday mornings. We’ve felt that masks would provide needed safety, they would allow us to maintain a clear conscience before the governing authorities, they would protect the consciences of many of our church members, and they would not excessively hinder the expression of the church community. However, in recent weeks, the answers to those questions have, in our minds, changed. By most measures, we are now living in a safer environment, especially to those most vulnerable. With the CDC’s announcement, there are not the same government restrictions. We believe that we can accommodate well for varying convictions, given that most have had the opportunity to be vaccinated if so desired, and that we will be providing a fully masked area in the gym. We will also be maintaining spacing of every other row. And finally, we believe that leaving the decision up to the individual most benefits the overall health of the church. Regulating consciences at this point would probably not be most helpful for church unity.

For these reasons, we believe we can move forward in faith and make masks optional. However, we certainly recognize that this new phase presents an opportunity for division. The unity of the church has been tested throughout this past year, and that testing is by no means over. And yet, just as we’ve been encouraged by your efforts to maintain unity this past year, we are confident that this will be another opportunity to strengthen our love and commitment to each other. That said, we’d love to offer several encouragements as we move forward.

Ask yourself those four questions.  While we as a church do not feel that it is appropriate to police consciences, we do feel it appropriate to encourage all of you to still prayerfully examine your own conscience. I would encourage you to open-handedly take those four questions into a prayerful time with God and see where you arrive. After all, you may still feel the need to follow the government’s recommendations. You may feel the need to maintain a special sensitivity around certain people. Regardless, make sure you are acting thoughtfully and in faith.

Be fully convinced in your own mind.  Romans 14 is such a powerful and important piece of wisdom. The entire chapter is about loving each other in the midst of differing convictions about disputable matters. I would encourage all of you to read and reread that chapter this week. Verse 5 speaks about being fully convinced in your own mind regarding the convictions you have. This doesn’t mean arrogant insensitivity, but it does mean confident resolve. In our current case, please do not feel pressured to proceed against your own conscience. It will be very easy to simply fall in line with what seems to be the majority opinion, and then wrongly burden your own conscience. Whatever conclusion you come to, walk in it confidently.

Be careful and gracious in your speech.  It will be very easy to make off-handed comments that unnecessarily create defensiveness. Sometimes, it’s appropriate simply to keep your thoughts to yourself. Romans 14:22 is key here: “The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves.” Walk in confidence in your own conviction, but be careful not to belittle someone else’s conviction.

Now, although we recognize the opportunity for division as we move forward, we’re not fearful. Actually, we’re very confident in this church. Over the last year, we have seen such amazing graciousness in an incredibly difficult time, and we’re expecting to see the same in this next chapter. Thank you so much for making this year a uniting time in so many ways. We’re thankful for your willingness to strive for the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3).

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Learn more about missionaries we are supporting in this year’s Missions Fund here.

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