Dynamic Faith
I’m thankful for you and all our teams who have planned and participated with excellence during this season of new things. I am additionally thankful that we’ve been able to adapt Sundays and some of our events to new formats. VBS has been a mainstay for decades in our kids, students, and senior adult ministries, and we were able to continue them virtually! Next week is the last of these three virtual VBS offerings, our Senior Adult VBS entitled “The Battleground of our Minds.” I’m excited about what our team has created, a “VBS in a Box” that has everything our senior adults need to participate in VBS wherever they are! Lessons, crafts, snacks, music, and more are available within this box. If you or your loved one needs to register for Senior Adult VBS, please visit our Senior Adult page here for more information or send an email to Sydney Yeager here.
We also continued our August Apologetics series with a new format by premiering on YouTube earlier this week on Monday. This year, we’ve partnered with Dr. James Tour (a Rice university professor and active chemist and nanotechnologist; a passionate follower of Jesus; and a member of our church family) to launch his new endeavor called The Science & Faith Podcast with Dr. James Tour. Dr. Tour has a heart that beats for Christ and for science, and he wants to lift our city and this world by engaging other brilliant believer scientists in discussions to help both Christians and skeptics alike understand that science and faith are connected, not separate.
In the first episode earlier this week, Dr. Tour talked with Dr. Joshua Swamidass, professor at Washington University in Saint Louis and author of The Genealogical Adam and Eve. In only three days’ time, this interview has been viewed 1,500 times across Dr. Tour and our YouTube channels! If you missed it, replays can be found on Dr. Tour’s channel here or our CityRise channel here. This coming Monday at 7pm, Dr. Tour will interview Dr. Stephen Meyer, director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture and author of Darwin’s Doubt and Signature in the Cell, among others. Set some time aside on Monday night and subscribe to the YouTube channels above for a reminder to tune in!*
I hope you watch these interviews. They are incredible to witness because these academically gifted individuals exhibit dynamic faith. What is dynamic faith? Well, God desires His children to not simply believe in Him on a surface level, that is, knowing about Him without it affecting our choices. James calls this having a dead faith (James 2:17, 26), a type of faith that even demons have (James 2:19)! Dynamic faith is the result of a deep belief in Christ that transforms us on the inside and leads to good works because of it. These scientists certainly have an extraordinary knowledge about God on a scientific level, but they are also living out their faith through their books, their interviews, and in their studies.
Dynamic faith was the topic of this past Sunday’s services in our “No Filter” series on the Book of James. If you missed it, watch it here! You and I, we are called to live out a dynamic faith while we’re here on this earth. Not all of us have the ability to share about Christ on a scientific level, but we have chances every day to be the hands and feet of Jesus, whether it’s while running an errand, talking to a friend on the phone, helping someone who’s in a financial crisis, or any of a million ways. Join us Sunday, on campus or online, for the next part of “No Filter,” and ask for the Holy Spirit’s help to see the moments in your day where you can live out a dynamic faith.
Stay Expectant,
Pastor Roger
*Due to scheduling, these interviews are being recorded and uploaded to YouTube each Monday night in August. If you sign up to participate in the recordings, please know that some have already taken place as of this typing, such as August 17 with Dr. Meyer and August 24 with Dr. Henry Schaefer.
Roger Patterson is the Senior Pastor of the CityRise Network, leading multiple congregations in lifting our city and the world by generously giving the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Roger lives in Houston with his wife Julee, and three children.