Pastor Tom's Community

God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you. I long to see you so…

For David, beholding the beauty of God was a step toward inquiring of Him. He knew that he could gaze upon God in whatever way He disclosed Himself as a means of meditating upon His truth.In doing so, David could meet God and so can we.

    History, whether Heilsgeschichte (Salvation history), political history, social, or any other sort of history, is the story of learning, remembering, forgetting, cycling over and over, making some progress, taking some steps back, but always leaving markers along the trail of human experience. The meaning emerges from the reflective insights that bubble forth in…

My tribe has a checkered history with forced conversions, violent power-grabbing, and militaristic exercise of religious dominance. To deny that is to deny history. To not care is to ignore scripture. We are flawed in our common humanity and sin with a lust for power that we are willing to exercise with violence and coercion.…

A sure way to invoke the wrath of those who are for war is to be for peace. It will take all of your prayer and strength not to break with your resolve, not to lash out, and not to wish ill upon your tormentors for their anger can be strong and their condemnation can…

We are compulsive arrangers … at least those of us who labor under the dysfunctions of our own control issues. We want to organize, fix, and manipulate things so that they will work the way we want them and never challenge our comforts, preferences, or aversion to chaos. What follows from Paul is not a…

  Don't report the final score before the whistle blows and don't assume that set backs predict loss. Furthermore, don't pursue that which is easy, popular, or compatible with the dominant narrative of any generation at the cost of the soul-searching, soul-wrenching, upside-down message of sacrifice, service, and radical discipleship. The depth, reality, and long-term…

Grace Has Brought Me Safe Thus Far "He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings." – Psalm 40:2 I tread cautiously on the subject of safety. I have to deal with it daily. As an employer, a…