Dear HBIC Family,

I preached my first ever sermon on Christmas Sunday, 1997. I was 14 years old. I think it was impossible at the time to know the significance of that experience. I probably just assumed everyone was away at Christmas, so they needed somebody to fill in. Looking back, I can now see it was an important step on the way to a life in the pulpit. Furthermore, it was the beginning of me heeding God’s call, trusting the Spirit fully, and just trying to live for Jesus.

My message that morning was rather simple; Jesus Christ is God’s great gift to us. I remember asking several people, from friends and family near and far, to strangers on the trolley on my way to school…”what is the greatest gift you have ever received?” I recorded their answers, and very much enjoyed those interactions. However, in each conversation, I was reminded again and again, Jesus is God’s greatest gift to us. 

This week as we gather to worship, our focus will be on our fourth theological root (more commonly referred to as streams), Evangelicalism. From the B.I.C. U.S. website (https://bicus.org/about/history/): 

Around 1950, struggling with decreasing church membership and legalistic religious practices, the Brethren in Christ family was drawn to a new wave of Evangelicalism sweeping the nation — one embracing faith and culture. Leaders of the new movement, such as Billy Graham, promoted the core tenets of Evangelicalism: the saving work of Jesus Christ, believing Scripture, and the Church’s mission to reach a lost world for Christ. Yet the leaders of Evangelicalism’s latest movement wanted to break from its fundamentalist ties. Through the influence of this “mainstream” Evangelicalism, the Brethren in Christ’s focus shifted from what separated us from culture — such as dress and lifestyle — to how we could better engage culture with the transformative message of the gospel.

For the Brethren in Christ, the Evangelical movement found a home because it revived within us a call back to true salvation through Jesus. It also called for a communal reliance on Scripture as God’s authoritative Word to build our lives on, and a commitment to engage with culture to make disciples. In many ways, Evangelicalism has become the foundational stream for most of Christianity in our world. 

As Brethren in Christ, we have always been open to what God is doing in and around us. For over 200 years now, we have experienced renewal through various movements of God in our world. To us, when God has moved, the Spirit has led us in such a way to teach us new things that are founded in authentic heartfelt desire to follow Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

As you prepare for this week’s services, I would like to invite you to read and meditate on Romans 1:14-17. As you reflect, I would like to ask you to focus on the following questions:

• What is our responsibility to our world?
• What is the message of God to our world?
• How are we telling the message of God to our world? 
• How do we live, today, unashamed of the gospel? 
• How does our life and witness reveal God’s righteousness to others?

As Brethren in Christ, we have always desired to be faithful to God and one another. To do so, we have centered our lives on Jesus, depended on guidance and transformation led by the Holy Spirit, and prayerfully relied on God for everything. This has led us to be Anabaptists, Pietists, Wesleyans, and now Evangelicals. 

Many years ago, our brother Luke Keefer reminded us that we have always been Anabaptists, Pietists, and Wesleyans, but with a difference. By this Keefer meant that while we were impacted by these movements and transformed by them, it was always in light of who God has always called us to be. Keefer warned that we have not done the same work with Evangelicalism – this was twenty-seven years ago. 

My prayer for us today and going forward is that we do the work of identifying what it means to be an Evangelical from Scripture and even history and tradition. We continue by defining this in light of who God has always called us to be. I hope this week is another step together in this, and I hope you join us, as we learn together what it means to be…Evangelicals with a difference!

God bless you all and take care. 

Love in Christ,

Pastor Hank (Romans 1:16)