Summer Preaching at Westwood

In June, July, and the first half of August, we will take a break from The Story in our Sunday worship, children’s classes, and adult Bible classes and studies. We will return to The Story on August 18.

We will begin the summer with three guest preachers at Westwood on the first three Sundays of June while Christine and I travel overseas. We leave on May 31 and fly to Rome, from where we will embark on a cruise to visit the sights of the Apostle Paul’s missionary journeys, including Rome, Ephesus, Corinth, Athens, and several others. We will return home on June 15.

Marion and Marilyn Greaser will be on the cruise with us. Carl Ferguson, the preacher at Waupaca Christian Church, and his wife, Deb, will also be traveling with us. We are all looking forward to having a remarkable adventure.

The three preachers during our travels will be:

• June 2 — Lance Hawley, who for a few years led a church here in Madison known as Emmaeus Fellowship and which participated in our first three annual Great Communion services, will preach. Lance is currently a member at Mandrake Road Church of Christ and a Ph.D. student in the Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies at UW.
• June 9 — Tom Jones, who has preached at Westwood a few times in the past, will preach. Tom held long-term ministries in Green Bay and Brookfield and was a chaplain in the Aurora Health System in Milwaukee.
• June 16 — Bud Holmes, Christine’s brother, will preach. Bud had a long-term ministry at Lake Superior Christian Church in Marquette, MI, where I enjoyed preaching for him several times.

I have asked each of them to preach from a story in the Bible with an emphasis on how that story weaves into the Upper Story of the Bible.

Beginning June 23, I will preach seven sermons around the theme “Sifted: Pursuing Growth Through Trials, Challenges, and Disappointments.” This series is intended to help us understand how God uses the tough things we face in life to build our character and our trust in him. I will develop each sermon around the life of a Bible character whose faith was challenged and strengthened through personal challenges and temptations.

The premise of this series is built on Luke 22:31-32: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Jesus was speaking to Simon Peter. Satan would indeed sift Peter like wheat as Peter would deny Jesus three times before that night was over. God, however, would use Peter’s sifting to make him stronger, so that he would lead the church beginning on Pentecost.

We all go through difficult seasons in life during which God sifts us like wheat. We might wish that those times were optional or that we would not have such times at all, but we do. God, however, can use the difficulties we face — even the most painful ones — to make us stronger. We will learn this summer from seven characters in the Bible how God can use such sifting times to strengthen us.