VBS Covid Outbreak

Dear Church Family,

After our recent Vacation Bible School (VBS) we received news that multiple volunteers and participants may have been exposed to Covid-19 (possibly BA.5/ Ninja variant). We have been informed of multiple people, as of Wednesday afternoon, have tested positive. This composes 25% of those in attendance which includes volunteers and participants.

VBS families are being notified and we are contacting people with whom those who are positive were in close contact. It could not be known exactly how many people were exposed before coming to church; therefore, we are asking the congregation to assume they are a close contact and test immediately.

Soma is consulting directly with a medical expert on COVID who is treating acute COVID patients and patients with COVID long-haul symptoms daily. We have learned that even the medical community has been surprised by how quickly this current surge has come upon us. Many organizations are experiencing breakthrough infections even in vaccinated people. Although rare, breakthrough infections can be severe. Thankfully, those who have tested positive in this church have communicated they are experiencing only mild symptoms and it looks like there will be no further positive cases.

The Elders have made the following adjustments through careful deliberation after listening to expert medical advice:

We are asking all persons who were at our Sunday Service (July 17^th) to test immediately and report any positive results to a healthcare provider and the church office (573-635-4832).
We are cancelling Gospel Community for Thursday night (July 21^st)
The church offices will be closed July 22^{nd –}24^th(Friday – Sunday) for disinfecting.
This week’s Sunday gathering is cancelled, and we will be hosting an online service both on Facebook (facebook.com/somajeffersoncity) and YouTube (youtube.com/somajcmo).
Sunday Gatherings that meet in person will be socially distanced where possible. If you are feeling sick, please where are mask or choose to join us online.
Positivity rates will be monitored continually and adjustments to these policies will be made as is appropriate.

We understand how fatigued we all are with Covid, this virus: however, knows no fatigue. Therefore, it is important that we stay prepared to make necessary adjustments to keep one another safe. The good news is situations that occur like this one no longer have to shut our church down indefinitely. The science is clear that when people gather masked, vaccinated and/or boosted it protects us and others, it makes the risk of transmission extremely low. Much more is known about this virus now; such measures ensure that we can continue to worship safely and in person.

We love you each more than you will ever know,

The Elders of Soma

“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD. The LORD is God, and He has made His light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar! You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you.”

– Psalm 118:26–28 (ESV)

COVID-19: How To Stay Connected

We’ve been teaching for many years in Soma that the church is not a building, it’s a people, it’s our family, a household. It’s a body made up of many members. It’s a temple of His Spirit, made up of living stones. We’ve never really been about holding events or hosting services. We’ve tried to live as a gospel community on mission and we’re not going to stop now. We need each other – our city needs us – more now than ever. Below are our plans during this season in which we’ve found ourselves. [Read more…]

Sanctity of life and MLK

Over the last few years of my life, around this time of year, I have been placed in a conundrum in my life. Every January the celebration of Martin Luther King’s (MLK) Birthday and the Sanctity of Life Sunday seem to fall on the same Sunday.

[Read more…]

Manhood in the 21st Century

This is a version of a talk that I gave at an Apples of Gold Banquet at Concord…

It’s not easy being a man . . .

Think about it:

Who gets alerted when the spider needs to be killed or the weeds whacked? The man.
Who gets awoken out of a dead sleep when it’s time to fix a leaky roof, plunge a clogged toilet, wet vac a flooded basement, or stop a ninja from burglarizing the house? The man.
Who gets called and asked how to work the universal remote so not to miss recording a crappy romantic “dramedy” (dramatic comedy, that is) which he will later be forced to watch under the threat of perpetual married celibacy?
And that one time that people thought I cried in public, but I can assure you, those were not tears, they were beads of sweat from having to do the hard part during delivery

That’s right, I am a MAN. Now that I have my brothers attention and to any sisters in Christ who are creeping on this blog obviously written just for men, allow me to speak realistically and sincerely for a minute. The world has given us a truly jacked up vision of true “manhood.” We live in an age where men get applauded simply for showing up inside a church, sticking around to be the father, getting married, or for not being addicted to pornography. Let’s be honest praising someone for these things is just ridiculous.

Fathers Pursuing Christ see their children as a blessing from God: Never give in to the notion that your children are anything but a blessing from God.
Fathers Pursuing Christ understand that their children are born with a bent toward evil: Children are born in total depravity. All the potential for sin of every kind is already present in seed form in every child. Parental tolerance, passivity and lack of involvement will allow the seed to germinate.
Fathers Pursuing Christ believe the Gospel is the Good News for Children: Leading your children to Jesus is a long-term, full-time duty given to parents. Genuine faith is prompted by God’s work in the heart of a child and assured by the Holy Spirit.
Fathers Pursuing Christ train their children to honor and obey: This principle of obeying parents lays the foundation for every other principle about how we should treat our fellow human beings. It also lays the foundation for how one is to obey the Heavenly Father.
Fathers Pursuing Christ practice and demonstrate submission:
- Father submits to Christ
- Family submits to father
- Father submits to wife’s needs
- Wife submits to Christ
- Wife submits to the leadership of the husband as granted by God
- Children submit to parent’s authority
- Parents submit to children’s needs
Fathers Pursuing Christ love their wives: Love is the summarizing duty of fathers. Leadership flows from love. Love is sacrificial, Love is purifying, Love is caring, Love is Enduring.

P.S. Confession: Yes, I have wept publicly on those and many more occasions – and so did Jesus, so back off (John 11:35).

Control is the greatest illusion

I am not a a control freak in the classic since but I know I have issues. Don’t we all? I like to be the one to drive, I like to have my say in the restaurant I go to and when it comes to speed limit signs I follow the ‘spirit’ of the law!

However, as I get closer to finishing my internship here at Concord the Lord has been really reminding me of somethings lately through His Word and a some very godly friends. Do you want to know what it is? If you have not read the title then you are the only one who does not know, control is merely an illusion. Seriously, have you sat back and tried to understand how little control we actually have in the world.

We don’t control the day we are born!
We don’t control who our parents were!
We don’t control where we are born!
We don’t control the color of our skin, eyes and hair.
We don’t control when and where we step into eternity.
We don’t control other drivers on the road (man I wish I could).
We don’t control what other people think about us.
We don’t control our children’s future. (I can try to direct it, but I can’t control it!)
We don’t control the weather.
We don’t control how fast (or slow) the person in front of me is driving.
We don’t control whether or not someone we know and loves prays to receive Christ.
We don’t control the fact that our bodies are breaking down (I heal/repair MUCH slower now than I did at 20!)
We don’t control God by my religious performance.

In fact, if I can control anything then the very thing I can control is so small and insignificant that it would hardly register on the eternal scale in regards to things that actually matter. However, I do not want to write this to discourage you actually quite the opposite. I wrote this because it is literally one of the most encouraging revelations I have ever received in my life. Freedom, TRUE freedom, is understanding how out of control we are and then placing our faith in a God who has NEVER ceased to maintain control over what He has created. God has the amazing ability to use all things for His glory and our good.

So if you feels like you are out of control, it’s because probably are. The more we try to control the more likely we are to live in complete rebellion to the One who is in control, who has all things in His hands and who constantly calls us to surrender to Him so that we can experience the joy of living under His sovereignty rather than having to constantly discover that we have none of our own. If there is an area of your life that is completely out of control, if your whole life is completely out of control, it is most likely the Lord trying to get your attention and get you to surrender.

Control is nothing more than an illusion, we have none, He has it all and in His hand is THE BEST place to be!

What would you die for?

By “give my life for,” I mean two things. First, I give my life “for” them by giving my life to them. The life that I now have the privilege of living, I endeavor to invest in these things. That investment amounts to a slow dying for. Second, I pray the Lord would strengthen me in any moment where I might be called upon to give my life “for” these things by dying more quickly, perhaps violently for them. In those two senses of the phrase, here are eight things I would give my life for:

God: The revelation of God as the only God, eternally Triune in nature and yet one, deserving all glory, honor, praise, and submission from His creation (Ex. 15:11; John 10:30; Acts 5:3-4).
Scripture: The Bible as the inerrant, infallible, inspired, authoritative, sufficient, nourishing, life-giving word of God (Rev. 1:9).
Jesus (okay I admit, this is a little redundant) : Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, fully God and fully man, in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, the exact representation of God’s being and the radiance of His glory, apart from whom there is no salvation (Col. 2:9; Heb. 1:3; John 3:16).
The Gospel: The good news that sinful man is saved from the justly deserved, holy, eternal wrath of God by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, who in His perfect life and His substitutionary, penal atonement provides both our righteousness before God and satisfaction to God’s wrath, and to whom we are forever united by faith unto eternal life (Rom. 3:21-26).
Missions: The call and work of going to all the world to make disciples of all nations and to teach them to observe everything Jesus commanded so that the glory, honor, praise, and worship of God through Christ would fill the earth and so that the joy, comfort, salvation, and hope of all peoples would overflow in Christ (Matt. 28:18-20; 2 Cor. 11:23-29).
Discipleship (which includes Evangelism): My own personal profession of faith in and loyalty to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God the Son, my Lord and Master, to whom I owe everything, for and in whom I live, breathe and have my being, and Who lives in me, completing the work He began until the day of His return, who will be perfectly and now is imperfectly my greatest and highest Delight and Satisfaction (Luke 9:23-26; Gal. 2:20; Acts 17:28; Phil. 1:6; Ps. 17:15).
My Family (surprised they aren’t higher?): The good thing and obtained favor of the Lord, my wife, who satisfies me with her love and comforts me with her presence, who is constant encouragement and whose virtue has made me known among the elders at the city gate, with whom I am an heir to life and a partner in the gospel of our Lord, and the arrows in our quiver, entrusted to us to raise as a godly offspring to the Lord, not to provoke but to bring up in the fear and admonition of the Lord, through whom we have no greater joy than to see them walking in the truth, who we pray represent one in what will be generations of godly Nelsons living for the Lord (Prov. 18:22; 5:18-19; Prov. 31; Ps. 128; Mal. 2:15; 2 John 4; 2 Tim. 1:5).
The Church: Those bought by the blood of Christ, granted eternal life and the gift of the Holy Spirit, adopted into the family of God, joined together by covenant love, journeying as pilgrims to the Heavenly City, entrusted by God’s grace into mutual care and leadership to deliver as a chaste bride awaiting her groom (John 10:10-15;Col. 1:28-29; Rev. 21).

These are just the 8 I came up with off of the cuff while borrowing so language that is much better than mine. Do you think that I missed any? Let me know below in the comments.