Pastor’s Ponderings—November 2025
To the church of God as found at Marion Salem Church, called to be saints together with those in every place who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ: You are miracles of God’s grace and mercy!
I ended last month’s newsletter article by saying we are going to be headed on the upward swing towards the end of the year and that it will likely be a busy season. Friends, that season is upon us! I was in my office speaking with Janet Strine today and the men are out in the field working as hard and fast as they can to get the corn off the field because tomorrow rain is coming. The Church is in much a similar state this week and month. We are working towards Sunday’s special commemoration of the fire 25 years ago. This Sunday’s message is not related to that, however it will be starting us in a series of messages that I hope we all pay special attention to (more later). We are trying to get this newsletter into your hands this weekend as well and that is a signification production. It is crazy busy at the church office!
Our new Family Life Pastor Heather McLeod (pronounced Mc-Cloud) is joining us this coming weekend! I say Pastor because Heather is ordained. So the Family Life position is a Youth Pastor and children’s and family ministry role. I’m sure many will shorten her title to Youth Pastor for convenience sake, just know there is more to her work than 6th-12th graders. Heather will be getting her feet wet over the next couple of months and as we prepare for the holiday season you’ll be hearing news about ministry opportunities that will start in the new year. There is a short letter of introduction from Heather on the youth page. Please take some time to read that and reach out to get to know her.
Among other events that are happening in November: Our Annual Church Thanksgiving Dinner is Sunday, Nov. 16th after worship. Our annual church business meeting, the Church Charge Conference, is Monday, Nov. 17th at 6pm (all members are encouraged to attend). We just came off of an extremely successful New Consecration Sunday campaign. Per the estimate of giving cards that came in on October 26th, we have a projected 16.29% increase in giving anticipated for 2026. This is an awesome response to the blessings that God has given each of us, so thank you for your generosity!
Now is certainly not the time to take it easy. There is a spiritual harvest of souls to win and looking out over the horizon many of us might perceive rain is on the way—we need to get to work Church! That’s why I am leaning into November’s sermon series with a strange title “When God Won’t Work.” Not to share too much, but from “When We Lack Faith”, consider how Nazareth responded to Jesus and because of their unbelief He could not work many miracles among them. In the same way, if we reject the empowering grace at the Lord’s Supper, we are unrepentant, or we neglect prayer— these are all circumstances that lead to a lack of God’s activity in our lives. It’s not necessarily that God can’t. He is sovereign and will work when and how He wishes. However, when we reject Him repeatedly in these ways, we might just find ourselves left without Him. Let’s not do that! Lean in and let’s open ourselves to the Lord’s work.
Blessings,
Jason
