Posts by Valerie Austin

Dear Brothers and Sisters, This Sunday, we have the privilege of welcoming Ted Powers back to the Faith Community Church pulpit. Ted is the director of the Midwest Alliance, a movement dedicated to planting churches throughout the Midwest. He is also the director of Chicago Friends of Haiti, which connects our denomination and local churches to God’s work in Haiti.…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, How important is prayer really for the Christian life and the life of the church? In his book A Praying Church, Paul Miller says this: “[P]rayer is not one more activity of the church–it lies at the heart of all the church’s ministry . . .. Prayer is not an option; it’s the engine.” Oftentimes we treat prayer as something supplementary to the…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, In Hebrews 4:9-10, we are given a beautiful summary of the gospel message: “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.” The gospel message calls us to stop trying to impress God with our “good works”, and to rest instead in the…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, God never intended the Christian life to be lived alone. When we believe in the gospel, God makes us members of his redeemed family. It is easy to seal ourselves off from God’s people, but this leaves us spiritually exposed, vulnerable to sin and the attacks of the devil. Instead of trying to make it on our own, we are to “exhort one…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, In his letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul gives us a glimpse of how he prays for his brothers and sisters in Ephesus: For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your…

Brothers and Sisters, Have you ever set off on a trip that ended up looking very different from what you had initially expected? Perhaps you left your house with expectations of making your arrival in record time, only by the end of the day to find yourself on the side of the road with a flat tire. God’s ways are often different than our ways. In fact, in our passage for…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, As Pastor Don Johnson shared with us this past week from Psalm 85, we may weep over what is lost but we also can find joy, hope, restoration, and healing in the future God has for us. It starts with the birth of the reformation of our heart as we commit to one another, we resolve to delight in God, and the assurance of God’s unfailing…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, I am excited for us to begin our new sermon series in the book of Hebrews entitled The Glory of Christ.  In Hebrews, the author calls his audience to stay faithful by staying focused on Jesus. Jesus is “the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). In the midst of suffering, hardship, and struggles in the Christian life, the…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, Psalm 133 begins with the words “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” The death and resurrection of Jesus not only brings reconciliation between us and our Creator, it also brings reconciliation on a “horizontal” level–between us and others. The unity of God’s people is both a gift that we have been given…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, It was a joy to worship with you at our Christmas Eve and Christmas morning worship services. What a wonderful Savior we have been given in Jesus Christ, the light of the world. As we read in Isaiah: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” (Isaiah…

Brothers and Sisters, The Apostle Paul says in Romans 5:1-2: “[S]ince we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” As followers of Jesus, we can rejoice in hope. This is a better hope–better than the…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, Our God is a covenant-making, covenant-keeping God. In fact, you could say that God’s covenant with his people has a motto: I will be your God, and you will be my people (Leviticus 26:12). Our God can always be counted on to do what he has said he will do. He has bound himself to his people by a special agreement, a covenant. He did so…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, This Sunday we have the special opportunity to invite family, friends, and neighbors to join us for our Christmas Community Lunch. Our lunch will begin at 11:00am in the Mission Center. Besides enjoying a delicious meal, we will share a little about the vision of Faith Community Church and the hope of Christmas found in Jesus Christ, our Savior.…

Dear Family Community Church Family, In the book Confessing the Faith, Chad Van Dixhoorn says this: “It is one of the great wonders of the incarnation and our salvation that the all-glorious and only begotten of the Father could humble himself and become man . . . . As prophet, he is our teacher. As priest, he is our mediator and only hope. As king, he is our defender and…

Happy Thanksgiving! “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, In September, our congregation came together to explore our church’s Called to Flourish vision. During that evening, we described how we aimed to grow in Christian maturity through pursuing richer, biblical intimacy with God through prayer. Our Praying Life Sunday school class, Praying Life seminar, and Kingdom Prayer series have…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, The Christian life is frequently described in the Scriptures as a battle. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,” the Apostle Paul says, “but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12) We cannot win this…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, Do you ever feel tired and frustrated when it comes to your prayer life? Sometimes, it seems that the harder we try to pray, the more easily distracted we become when praying. Or maybe you’ve had this experience: You put together a long prayer list, fully intending to pray faithfully through the list on a daily basis, only to find that…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, This past Sunday our Kingdom Prayer small groups launched. If you were not able to participate this month, it’s never too late to join! It was a delight to fellowship together and enjoy each other’s company in homes. I am especially excited to see how God will move through our prayer groups to transform us as individuals and as a church, and to…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, Over the past two weeks we’ve looked at the second and third petitions of the Lord’s Prayer: “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” I hope you have been reminded (as I have) of how great a gift prayer truly is–we have the privilege of going to our heavenly Father for our every need! This Sunday, from…