Pastor's Midweek Message

 April 15, 2026

Sisters and brothers,

Way back in February (when we had snow, not pollen), as part of our sermon series on Deepening Discipleship I challenged us to spend our Lenten time with God, listening for how God’s heart breaks in our community. Where are the places of pain in our own neighborhoods? Who needs a voice raised on their behalf to advocate for justice? Where does Jesus invite us to come alongside people who are struggling? What does that look like for us, specifically, here, in 2026?

Over the past several days, I’ve had the opportunity to begin listening to several of us. I’ve met with our Leadership Board, and then with our Missions Team, to begin to capture some of what we have heard as the Body of Christ from the Word of Christ in this season. In no particular order, here are some of the first thoughts people have shared about how God’s heart is breaking:

·  The storm of social media, and how we can be a joyful, relatable, approachable presence instead.

·  Feeding the homeless in Hopewell is good; how else can we help the homeless next door, and here in Chester?

·  People are silently suffering, scared, hopeless, and in a scarcity mindset: they are just getting by, making tradeoffs to pay the rent this month and their power bill next month, and only when they reach the end of their rope do they reach out to us for assistance.

·  Being a beacon of joy and trust in a world that lacks both.

·  At-risk children need us as mentors and positive role models, so they have an alternative model from the one they go home to.

·  Seniors in our community are lonely.

·  Housing in Enon: there are studio and 1-bedroom apartments, and houses. People who need more than a 1-bedroom apartment can’t afford buying a house, and so have to move out of our community to find other options.

·  Schools need to put children through metal detectors or wand them.

·  We have the Riverside Regional Jail right across the river from us: how are those people being cared for in God’s love?

·  Sharing God’s love through music with the school-age kids in the BHCDC after school.

·  Mental health offerings are inadequate to the need, with a concern especially for veterans.

I still want to hear from you, about how God has spoken and where your heart feels God is leading. We don’t have to have solutions right now: we don’t need comprehensive seven-point plans for each of them. We just want to collect the list of all the “pain points” around us, as the first step towards prioritizing what ministries we want to grow into as we go forward. Please email me, call me, text me, catch me on a Sunday or come get coffee on a Wednesday...just please share with me how God is speaking to you. Let’s add to this list, so that we have a clear understanding of all that God is showing us; then we can make choices and commitments that enable us to step into some of these voids. We can’t solve all these problems; but God doesn’t give us the option of ignoring them, either.

So let’s go.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Eric