If the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, worship,  (personal and communal) is central to that endeavor. While our whole existence should be centered around a life of worship, the bible has a ton to say about specific ways we encounter God and respond to Him. Starting with knowing the very One we are trying to worship. Imagine the power of a whole community of people who Know God, unashamedly express their love for Him, and carry His presence to a world desperate to know Him for themselves!

The church has not excelled in teaching the biblical view of human sexuality. It has tended to be legalistic or silent, with not much help in between. The gap left by the church has been filled with lies and distortions about sex by our culture, which is dominated by the Evil One. We need to rediscover the teaching from God about sex that is given to us in the Bible. We were sexual before we were sinful! God, who created sex as good, wants us to relearn the beauty, blessing, and joy of sex as it was designed.

Why is the world so messed up, and why does God allow that to be so? When troubles, tragedy, or trauma strikes us, we naturally ask, “Why?” We direct our “Why?” to God. After all, he has the power to stop all things. And while God is never the cause of evil, he does want our faith to take deeper roots. We suffer when we lose anything important to us (control, security, safety, meaning, comfort, material things, or happiness). But here’s what God invites us to do in our suffering - move from asking “Why?” to asking “Who?” The “Who?” question directs us to the one who deeply understands our suffering and joins us in our suffering. In the end, we are left with just Jesus, and he is everything. May we each learn the secret that Jesus minus everything else equals everything.

We celebrate Pantano’s 60-year anniversary as we look back and forward while never forgetting our vision, mission, and purpose. God has called Pantano to be a church that is a catalytic force to bring God’s kingdom and influence anywhere he leads us. Our mission is to love people to Jesus. We launch passionate people to make a God difference, wherever God sends them. Pantano always has and always will be focused on expanding God’s kingdom and influence. This is who we’ve been. This is who we are. This is who we’ll continue to be!

One of the biggest questions among those deconstructing their faith today is this: is the church relevant and necessary? The church has, at times, lost its focus and purpose and in the process done a lot of damage and caused a lot of pain. Yet, it’s clear based on scripture that the church was always God’s plan. Despite the brokenness, can we, as Christ-followers, return to a place of beauty within the church - the beauty that Christ always intended.

Doubt, skepticism, and deconstruction are often criticized not only as a weakness, but as an outright sin. However, every person of faith has experienced and has had to face their skeptical thoughts and doubts. As Frederick Buechner once said: “Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.” Avoiding our doubts almost guarantees our faith will be weakened. But when we face our doubts directly and do the hard work of investigating them, the Holy Spirit can help our faith grow deeper roots producing a more authentic and fruitful faith.

Jesus did not create a new religion! In fact, he came to replace religion with something very different. He came to offer us a path to having a relationship with God. Religion is tiring, exhausting, and frustrating. It creates fear, guilt, and shame. It leaves us empty and the feeling that we are a constant failure. Religion is a set of rules to force us to live a certain way. It uses guilt to keep us in line and reminds us of our failure to live up to the rules.

For three days life was filled with uncertainty. Life was dark, Jesus was dead, hope was gone. Friday was full of mourning. Saturday was full of doubt. Life was sinking in the life of those that were following Jesus. Maybe you feel the same way. Maybe your life is sinking and you feel as if it is dark and hopeless. However, there is good news. God does the unthinkable when life seems the most sinkable. Your life might be hanging onto a Friday or Saturday moment…but Sunday is here.

Saturday, the day Jesus was in the tomb, reminds us to wait on the Lord. Trust him, for Sunday is coming! On Sunday, the tomb was empty, and Jesus was risen from the dead. But until our Sundays come, we wait and trust. To wait is to trust. It’s refusing to think I have to take everything into my own hands, and it trusts that God and his ways are better than my ways. Trust is allowing God to do what only God can do. Trust means we rest in him, not in ourselves. Trusting, waiting, resting - they are all connected and part of the same thing - Faith! But waiting is not passive. It isn’t just sitting down and letting time pass by. It’s active. In the waiting, in the Sabbath, we are preparing our hearts to respond to God. How will you practice waiting, resting, and trusting God and make it a part of your regular rhythms?

Jesus suffered greatly for us. The torture and his pain are almost incomprehensible. He willingly and knowingly took on the punishment for our sin. The result was that we could have an intimate, personal relationship with God. But it goes further. His sacrifice gives us access to a God (Jesus) who suffers too. He has a profound empathy for our pain, suffering, loss, and brokenness that allows us to draw even nearer to him.