Grateful to… you! Church, Your pastors are grateful for all that you do for God through Orchard Covenant Church.  We know that many of you wear several hats.  We know that many of you wear hats that don’t really fit you,  but are needed.  We know that you stretch to give financially, stretch to…

  Troubling News Cycle Bad bad news. What is a loving person to do? What does God ask of those of us who say we are Christian? Do you know what happens to your body when you get bad news? According to the Mayo Clinic, depending on how you react to bad news, you can get…

  What a three years it has been! Did you know that Pastor Karen and I were installed three years ago,  October 25th, 2020!  Facebook reminded me.  Of course, we had started long before that, but COVID had delayed the installation several months. In that time, there has been a lot of change.  When change happens, …

  Many of you are aw Elasticity of a faithFULL life Our sons love their “Goo-Jitsu” figurines which are super stretchable characters ( kind of like “stretch Armstong” from when I was a kid). They love them because they can be pulled and bent and stretched out,  but are able to return back to form when…

  Jonah helps us pray for Palestine and Israel Many of you are aware of the escalating war between Israel and Hamas,  a Palestinian political and military group.  Many of you may also be aware that many American Evangelicals believe the unequivocal support for Israel is a Christian duty.   They get angry when you express…

  Jonah as a parable to make sense of life It is most likely that the book of Jonah was written down after Israel had come back from exile in Assyria and was trying to piece together how they ended up as a tiny poor nation with a sub-par temple and a God that had…

  n this TOGETHER… When Pastor Nancy was here a few weeks ago, she reminded of the verse in Revelation 7:9, “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb…” They were…

  Last Sunday was the first launch of Sunday School. Dina Hokanson has agreed to lead our high school class, which is actually a sizable group this year. There were 7 teens in the class last Sunday. New to the group is Beatrice Kashindi (16) who arrived from Tanzania within the past six months. Dina,…

  Be perfect as God is perfect: clarifying a misconception As I was preparing for my last sermon a couple weeks ago, it led me to Jesus’ preaching from “the mount” and to a somewhat well known passage: Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in Heaven is perfect. – Matthew 5:48…

  I have to confess that sometimes it is easy for me (Pastor Nick) to look past the single impact as I try to help strategize ways to make our church more sustainably impactful. But that is a mistake, and probably a little bit of a sin of pride.  Pastor Karen encouraged me the other…