Blog

Welcome!

Sunday Worship 10:30Am * Wed night kids clubs (Fall to spring) * Thurs 10AM Bible Study

From the Pastor's Desk

Sometimes a letter to the church, sometimes an essay, occasionally a rant - I think best while writing.  

Slow, Boring, Faithful

by: Dave Moore

06/03/2025

0

A Church Attraction Strategy

Note: I wrote this for other pastors last Fall, after we did our "What are people looking for in a church?" series..  Now I want to share it with you.  I'd love to hear your thoughts! 

- Dave

Like many country churches, ours is figuring out how to manage a seismic shift in our community.  Our area’s population is dwindling; farms are larger, with fewer families; new residents aren’t related to old residents, they work elsewhere, and therefore ha

...
read more

Pray, Love, Focus

by: Dave Moore

02/26/2025

0

Thanks for letting me be a part of the work here at Big Springs! 

Earlier this week I sent out a video review of our Annual Meeting, held this past Sunday. While I know change is hard, I’m encouraged about the steps we are taking. But I also want to emphasize that now comes the hard part. Implementation is where things can go sideways or, often, just fizzle away. 

Our Christian School in Pittsburgh was in its 35th year when I arrived as Executive Director, and in those year

...
read more

Stuck in a Holding Pattern

by: Dave Moore

01/12/2025

0

In one of our favorite movies, A Christmas Story, Ralphie’s family is celebrating the best Christmas ever when disaster strikes: the neighbor’s dogs (those dastardly Bumpus hounds) break into the house and devour the Parker family turkey. 

“Oh, life is like that. Sometimes, at the height of our revelries, when our joy is at its zenith, when all is most right with the world, the most unthinkable disasters descend upon us.” 

The “zenith of joy,” or close to it, was spending t

...
read more

Essay: 400 Silent Years

by: Dave Moore

12/07/2024

0

To get into our study of Matthew, I did a deep dive into the "400 Silent Years," the centuries between Malachi and Jesus.  I wanted to understand the world that Jesus was born into: to know what people knew.   I hope this helps you understand the Gospel better, as you understand the world in which they took place. - DCM

--

To get to the world that Jesus was born into, I need to bridge a gap between the Old Testament and New Testament, because there’s about 400 years where G

...
read more

Election Day!

by: Dave Moore

11/05/2024

0

Well, it’s here: Election Day. I don’t have much to say, but I just want to write to you as your pastor and brother in Christ. 

An encouragement: Pray early and often!

Pray for the Lord to show favor on our country. This is the theme through both Old and New Testaments: “God, you have blessed our nation. Bless it still. We don’t really have any idea what the best path forward is, but You know the future. I am your servant.” 

And when it’s over, and winners are declared, and

...
read more

It was never easy

by: Dave Moore

11/09/2023

0

Last Sunday we dove into 1 Corinthians 5 again, this time emphasizing the need for the entire church to take sin seriously.  Confronting sin is a critical responsibility of church leaders, but 1 Corinthians 5 reinforces that leaders’ efforts won’t work unless the whole church collaborates on the project.  

Take a look at this again.  1 Corinthians 5:9-11:

“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of t

...
read more

The Way It Works

by: Dave Moore

09/23/2023

0

Last Sunday I introduced the Greek word that, in English, looks like “astheneia.”  It’s often translated simply as “weakness,” but you don’t need a Greek dictionary to see that there’s more to it than that.  Just in 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, the word comes up three times with a different nuance each time:

1:25: “…The weakness of God is stronger than men.”  We wouldn’t say that God has a weakness; but He does govern His power.

1:27: “God chose what is weak in the world to shame

...
read more

God and Gods

by: Dave Moore

07/23/2023

0

When helping people read the Bible, I push hard for us to try to understand the text from the point of view of the original author and original readers.   This is not easy: it requires both knowing a little about ancient cultures and being willing to push out what we know now.  No matter where I travel in the world, my basic understandings of how things are and how they should be, of what people’s priorities and expectations are, were developed in late-twentieth century N

...
read more

Who is a Prophet?

by: Dave Moore

01/30/2022

0

The prophet’s basic job was to speak the word that the LORD gave to him.  He was a “forth-teller,” someone who spoke the truth about what God told him, and about what he saw.  Sometimes that meant “fore-telling,” or telling the future; other times it meant reproving God’s people about their sin; prophets are often seen interceding with God on behalf of God’s people; they also, sometimes, acted out their prophecy; the job even, occasionally, meant going to someone – especi

...
read more