A seed is planted...Mustard Seed Missions of Venango County

There have been several pleasant surprises here in Franklin in my first ten months: the ease of making the transition due to the overly friendly people, the amazing ecumenical cooperation among our churches, and now the fulfillment of a vision that began before I arrived but which I have become a part of.

Mustard Seed Missions of Venango County: a cooperative effort where Faith Works

This group is the official name of the Venango County Children's Roundtable's effort to come to an understanding with local churches in order to help (primarily) the children who are on the CYS caseload.  Of course, when you help the children, you help their families; and when you help families, you help the community.  This effort represents cooperation between more government agencies than I can possibly keep track of (amazing in and of itself) and more churches and denominations (a God thing if anything is) than I can list. 

My involvement began this past spring as a substitute pastoral representative at a meeting of about 20 people where we heard about the work of Seeds of Hope in Tioga County, an organization that has been doing something similar for the past ten years.  Other meetings followed, and the numbers began to grow; 30, then 40, and finally over 75 in September.  By then, there were representatives from about 50 churches throughout the county that had attended or expressed interest.  There was a critical mass of enthusiasm and hope, but a beginning still needed to be made.

And now, in the last 2 weeks, we have chosen representatives to be on a committee that will begin to move this vision into reality.  Our first priority: get out into the real world and help one of the families that we've been talking about all year.  That is now a reality that will soon be coming true; a local mom with a teenage daughter living in a home that is not safe will be receiving new windows, probably a roof repair, likely some new plumbing, and new doors (more or less).  All this with the generous donation of people's time and money, and especially the help of people with training and expertise in the building trades.

Soon, the project will be regularly helping with unsafe housing, rides to doctors appointments (using county vehicles, expanding an already existing system), and mentoring and counseling of families.  Each time a church offers real help to real people the potential exists to turn that moment into the beginning of a relationship.  Our goal, even beyond the very big task of helping in these situations, is to help construct the support structure that every person and family needs.  Where does that structure exist already?  Within our churches, as those of us who have been blessed with a church family know.  Where is the answer to drug abuse, alcoholism, neglect, anger, hopelessness, insecurity, grief, and every other such trouble that is common to man?  In the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We, Mustard Seed Missions, are not a social service organization; those already exist.  We're not an evangelism arm of our churches, they exist too.  What we are is a mixture of both.  By offering real and meaningful help to people, by showing the love of Jesus Christ through deeds not just words, we show to those in need that they have value; that God loves them.  If those who receive our physical help decline our spiritual help, we offer them God's blessing and leave the door open; if those who receive our physical help wish to know why followers of Jesus Christ would be willing to help them, we have an answer ready to share, "we love because he first loved us." (I John 4:19)

Will it be easy?  No.  Will it be without bumps along the way?  No.
But then again, what worth doing really ever is, and can you think of anything else our churches should be doing more than this?

The website: mustardseedmissionsofvc.org is up and running; it will soon become the hub for upcoming projects and will alow us to see what materials/volunteers are needed and also allow those who wish to help see what is needed and when.

Sermon Video: Are there limits to doing good? - Luke 6:6-11

As Jesus teaches from the Scriptures on the Sabbath he is confronted by the Pharisees over the issue of whether or not it is proper to heal someone on God's appointed day of rest. Jesus confronts their self-righteous and heartless attitude by asking if it is proper to do good or evil on the Sabbath? The question should have been rhetorical, but Jesus has to ask it because of the fear the people are experiencing at the hands of those who should have been representing God and teaching the people right from wrong. In the end, Jesus heals the man, demonstrates the compassion for others we should all have, and proves that it is always the right time to do the right thing.


What stops you from living according to the teaching of Jesus? How can social pressure be an excuse for not confronting evil?  It is not acceptable for the people of God to fail to take up their cross and follow Jesus, we must choose to do what is right.   To watch the video, click on the link below: Sermon Video

Sermon Video: "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick" - Luke 5:27-32

Jesus once again does the unexpected when he calls the tax collector Levi (Matthew) to be his disciple. In 1st Century Judea tax collectors were especially hated as Roman collaborators, and as such were grouped with other "sinners" such as prostitutes. Jesus, however, sees in Levi a sinner in need of repentance, not a lost cause outcast. When the Pharisees complain that Jesus has agreed to eat with tax collectors and "sinners", he responds by telling them that, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick". In other words, God is concerned with the lost, with sinners who need to be healed; rather than hating them, God holds out a hand in hope that they will repent. As Jesus concludes, "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Why does God care about each lost soul? Because he made each one, each person has value in his sight, and each person can be washed clean by the blood of the lamb.


Do we value every lost sinner, or have we become heartless like the Pharisees? Those who follow Jesus must welcome amongst them any who are willing to kneel at the foot of the cross.   To watch the video, click on the link below: Sermon Video

The Undesirables

I've been preaching through the Gospel of Luke as Jesus meets one person after another who was marginalized by their own culture (fishermen, the leper, the paralytic, and finally a tax collector).  Each of these people are given Jesus full attention and treated as if they're the most important people he knows.  The fishermen (Peter, James and John) are invited to follow Jesus and fish for men, the leper is first touched by Jesus and then in that same moment healed, the paralytic is told that his sins are forgiven and then healed, and finally the tax collector is simply told to follow Jesus who then eats dinner at his house.
In each case, there would have been some who questioned Jesus' choices, who would have wondered why he seems intent on ministering only to the downtrodden while angering those in positions of wealth and power.  There's no mistaking Jesus' approach, he's clearly choosing to side with those whom society has discounted against those whom society has elevated.
It makes me wonder with fresh eyes, who are the marginalized in our society who are not being reached?  Who are the people for whom Christ died who are currently not hearing his message of repentance and hope?  How can the Church, and this church in particular, better reach them and show them the same love that Christ has shown us?
We're in the process of developing a radical program of ecumenical cooperation with CYS (Children and Youth Services) here in Venango County with the hopes of paring up church volunteers with the most needy kids and families in our area.  Those of us in the church don't always see them, but in most cases the caseworkers do.  As such, we'll be using their knowledge of the need to give our willingness to help a specific direction one family at a time.  The potential is amazing; there were 2,000 kids that CYS caseworkers worked with in this county alone last year.  What if 100 churches reached out to 20 of those kids each, wouldn't that be a profound change for the better?
Who are the undesirables that our society has turned it's back on, and how can the churches step in and declare God's love to them?  That is a question torn right from the pages of the Gospel of Luke; hopefully, our cooperative effort will begin to help them.

Sermon Video: "Friend, your sins are forgiven" - Luke 5:17-26

As Jesus once again heals the sick while he is teaching he is faced with a paralyzed man lowered through the roof by his friends.  Upon seeing their faith (the plural is intentional), Jesus tells him, "Friend, your sins are forgiven".  The religious leaders are rightly offended by Jesus' usurpation of God's sole right to forgive sins, and wonder who he really thinks he is.  To back up his claim, Jesus does the easier task, he heals the man of his paralysis.  Only God can forgive, Jesus, declaring himself to be the Son of Man (acc. to Daniel's prophecy), has just laid claim to being God...This episode beautifully illustrates how we can help those in need find faith and forgiveness, as we ourselves did at the foot of the cross.

To watch the video, click on the link below:
Sermon Video