Top Ten - June 27
1. Kid’s Camp! – Registration is open for the Northgate Kid’s Camp – “Set Sail” – which is taking place this July, from the 15th through the 19th. Kid’s Camp is open to all children from the age of 4 through those who will be entering 4th grade in September. Camp runs from 9-3pm Monday through Thursday and 9-1pm on Friday and lunch is included. To register for camp, visit the “Register” page at northgatefmc.com.
2. Bottles and Cans – The Costa Rica Team is still collecting bottles and cans to help fundraise for their missions trip this July. Feel free to drop them off in the airlock any time the office is open during the week or during one of the services over the weekend. The team would like to thank everyone at Northgate for making this such a successful fundraiser.
3. Northgate Group Leaders – Attention Northgate Group Leaders: Save the date! Join us on August 18 at 12:15 PM, right after the first service, for a vision casting/planning workshop. Let's gear up for the fall semester kickoff together. A light lunch will be provided. See you there! If you have any questions, contact Angelique @ angelique@northgatefmc.com
4. Kicks for Costa Rica – Our youth ministry is traveling to Costa Rica soon on a mission trip, and they need your help. We're collecting new or gently used shoes for the children they’ll be working with. Drop off your shoe donations at North Campus front doors.
5. Do You Know About the Northgate APP? – Listen to sermons, access notes, explore the Top 10, join groups, check events, and submit prayer requests. Available for Apple and Android.
6. Northgate Missions Team – The newly formed Northgate Missions Team will focus on local and global missions – keeping our congregation informed about what’s going on, exploring ways to be involved, arranging opportunities to hear from missionaries we support around the world, and more. Pastor Chris is heading up this group and the next meeting is July 21 after 2nd service. All interested people are invited!
7. St. Paul Lutheran School – St. Paul’s is a Christian elementary school in Batavia that a number of Northgate people have utilized for the education of their children, and which several Northgate people serve at as education leaders. St. Paul’s is now registering PreK-6th grade students for the 2024-2025 school year. If you’d like to know more about the school you can contact them at 585-343-0488.
8. “God’s Good Grace Home” – All Babies Cherished is getting ready to open a home that will provide temporary housing for up to five mothers and their children under the age of five. Before that can happen, they need to find individuals willing to serve as “house advocates” in the home. These individuals will work part-time in daytime and/or overnight shifts. If you would be interested in one of these positions contact Susan Sherman at sueabcherished@gmail.com or call 344-5660 for more information.
9. Foster Care Informational Meeting – The Genesee County Permanency Planning Unit is currently seeking potential foster and adoptive parents to show love and care for the children in the Genesee County region. This is a great need in our area, and a wonderful way to share our love with children who need a temporary or forever family. The informational meeting is taking place at Grace Baptist Church on July 9 from 5:30-7pm. If you have any questions, please reach out to Danielle at 585-344-2580 extension 6446 or email her at Danielle.wojtaszczyk@dfa.state.ny.us
10. Muckdogs Faith/Family Night – The Muckdogs are holding a special night of baseball on Saturday July 13 at 6:35, putting the focus on faith-based groups. Special discount tickets are available for groups that attend but must be ordered by July 8. For more information contact their ticket office at 524-2260.
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You Can Count on This – 1 Peter 3:8 – Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. (Read 1 Peter 3:1-22)
The first 7 verses of 1 Peter 3 contain some instructions that are not easy for many people in our time to understand or apply. Specifically, I’m thinking about the instruction in verse 1 that asks wives to submit to their husbands, and the phrase “weaker partner” in verse 7, where Peter asks husbands to treat their wives with respect.
In verses 1-6, Peter is addressing women whose husbands are not followers of Jesus. He does ask them to submit to their husbands, which is interesting in part because most women of that time would not have had the freedom to not submit to their husbands – the culture would have expected that as the normal way that marriages worked. That implies that these Christian women were coming to understand that under Christ there is no hierarchy of male or female, but that we are all one in Christ. (Galatians 3:28)
It also seems that Peter is asking these women to submit, voluntarily. Not because they are forced to but because they are willing to. And it is for a purpose… to be used by God to help bring their husbands to saving faith in Jesus. The loving, gentle, respectful spirit of a Christian wife who trusts Jesus to care for her and watch over her may be one link in the chain between an unbelieving spouse and Christ.
Also, we need to remember that Peter would not ask a wife to submit to a husband’s request for sinful behavior on her part, and in a similar way it wouldn’t be right for a wife (or any spouse) to go along with behavior that is sinful or dishonoring to God and His expectations for marriage. For example, to submit does not mean to allow oneself to be abused or harmed. It’s a wrong use of submission to tell a woman she needs to accept being harmed by her husband as her duty to submit. That’s wrong.
It is also important to remember that as Christians we are all, men and women, first to be submissive to Christ, and then to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” This means we are to be people who do not think primarily of “our rights” but we are to think primarily of what Jesus wants of us and be willing to sacrifice our rights, when necessary, in order to honor and obey Jesus.
The focus on submission in this passage can also cause us to miss the main point of what Peter is going after here. That comes out clearly when he says that a wife may win over her husband to Christ by her “purity and reverence.” He notes that this is more important than physical beauty. He is not saying we shouldn’t pay attention to our physical appearance, but he is saying that we should make the condition of our “inner self” more of a priority, and that it is our spirit that makes a deeper impression than our physical appearance. The goal of all of this is to be used by Jesus to help another person come to know Him as their own Lord and Savior.
And we can’t ignore what Peter says to Christian husbands in verse seven. These men are to treat their wives with consideration and respect. All husbands should treat their wives with respect, dignity, sensitivity and love. We are to be Christ-like in our ways. Ephesians 5 teaches that, just as Christ gave Himself up for the church to make her holy, husbands should be willing to love their wives sacrificially, and encourage their growth in holiness.
But why does Peter call wives the “weaker partner”? Scott McKnight, in his commentary on this passage believes that Peter has in mind physical strength when he says “weaker.” He is not talking about women being weaker spiritually, or more vulnerable to temptation, or more gullible, etc. Peter is telling these men that they are to be sensitive and thoughtful toward their wives. They should not be demanding submission or ordering obedience or acting in a physically intimidating manner. Their wives are “partners” in their relationship with them and co-heirs of the gifts of God through Jesus. Husbands of a Christian woman are blessed to be married to a child of God.
It's likely that this brief meditation on 1 Peter 3:1-7 will raise all kinds of issues and questions in the minds of some, and that’s very understandable. It’s a passage that is worth a lengthy discussion in a Bible study, or between Christian friends and spouses. Hopefully I’ve spoken clearly some of my thoughts on this, but I know there is much more to be said, asked and discussed. There are some good resources on this topic and if you would like some assistance finding them, let me know.
Wrapping this up, I return to the verse I cited above, verse 8: Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. This is instruction we can all understand and seek God’s Holy Spirit to help us apply to our lives, and if we are living this out, we probably won’t struggle much with verses 1-7.
Blessings,
Pastor Vern
When you’re not sure what you can count on in the world around you, know this: You can count on God keeping His word. So read what God has to say in scripture! And count on it!
2. Bottles and Cans – The Costa Rica Team is still collecting bottles and cans to help fundraise for their missions trip this July. Feel free to drop them off in the airlock any time the office is open during the week or during one of the services over the weekend. The team would like to thank everyone at Northgate for making this such a successful fundraiser.
3. Northgate Group Leaders – Attention Northgate Group Leaders: Save the date! Join us on August 18 at 12:15 PM, right after the first service, for a vision casting/planning workshop. Let's gear up for the fall semester kickoff together. A light lunch will be provided. See you there! If you have any questions, contact Angelique @ angelique@northgatefmc.com
4. Kicks for Costa Rica – Our youth ministry is traveling to Costa Rica soon on a mission trip, and they need your help. We're collecting new or gently used shoes for the children they’ll be working with. Drop off your shoe donations at North Campus front doors.
5. Do You Know About the Northgate APP? – Listen to sermons, access notes, explore the Top 10, join groups, check events, and submit prayer requests. Available for Apple and Android.
6. Northgate Missions Team – The newly formed Northgate Missions Team will focus on local and global missions – keeping our congregation informed about what’s going on, exploring ways to be involved, arranging opportunities to hear from missionaries we support around the world, and more. Pastor Chris is heading up this group and the next meeting is July 21 after 2nd service. All interested people are invited!
7. St. Paul Lutheran School – St. Paul’s is a Christian elementary school in Batavia that a number of Northgate people have utilized for the education of their children, and which several Northgate people serve at as education leaders. St. Paul’s is now registering PreK-6th grade students for the 2024-2025 school year. If you’d like to know more about the school you can contact them at 585-343-0488.
8. “God’s Good Grace Home” – All Babies Cherished is getting ready to open a home that will provide temporary housing for up to five mothers and their children under the age of five. Before that can happen, they need to find individuals willing to serve as “house advocates” in the home. These individuals will work part-time in daytime and/or overnight shifts. If you would be interested in one of these positions contact Susan Sherman at sueabcherished@gmail.com or call 344-5660 for more information.
9. Foster Care Informational Meeting – The Genesee County Permanency Planning Unit is currently seeking potential foster and adoptive parents to show love and care for the children in the Genesee County region. This is a great need in our area, and a wonderful way to share our love with children who need a temporary or forever family. The informational meeting is taking place at Grace Baptist Church on July 9 from 5:30-7pm. If you have any questions, please reach out to Danielle at 585-344-2580 extension 6446 or email her at Danielle.wojtaszczyk@dfa.state.ny.us
10. Muckdogs Faith/Family Night – The Muckdogs are holding a special night of baseball on Saturday July 13 at 6:35, putting the focus on faith-based groups. Special discount tickets are available for groups that attend but must be ordered by July 8. For more information contact their ticket office at 524-2260.
*****************************************************************************************************************
You Can Count on This – 1 Peter 3:8 – Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. (Read 1 Peter 3:1-22)
The first 7 verses of 1 Peter 3 contain some instructions that are not easy for many people in our time to understand or apply. Specifically, I’m thinking about the instruction in verse 1 that asks wives to submit to their husbands, and the phrase “weaker partner” in verse 7, where Peter asks husbands to treat their wives with respect.
In verses 1-6, Peter is addressing women whose husbands are not followers of Jesus. He does ask them to submit to their husbands, which is interesting in part because most women of that time would not have had the freedom to not submit to their husbands – the culture would have expected that as the normal way that marriages worked. That implies that these Christian women were coming to understand that under Christ there is no hierarchy of male or female, but that we are all one in Christ. (Galatians 3:28)
It also seems that Peter is asking these women to submit, voluntarily. Not because they are forced to but because they are willing to. And it is for a purpose… to be used by God to help bring their husbands to saving faith in Jesus. The loving, gentle, respectful spirit of a Christian wife who trusts Jesus to care for her and watch over her may be one link in the chain between an unbelieving spouse and Christ.
Also, we need to remember that Peter would not ask a wife to submit to a husband’s request for sinful behavior on her part, and in a similar way it wouldn’t be right for a wife (or any spouse) to go along with behavior that is sinful or dishonoring to God and His expectations for marriage. For example, to submit does not mean to allow oneself to be abused or harmed. It’s a wrong use of submission to tell a woman she needs to accept being harmed by her husband as her duty to submit. That’s wrong.
It is also important to remember that as Christians we are all, men and women, first to be submissive to Christ, and then to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” This means we are to be people who do not think primarily of “our rights” but we are to think primarily of what Jesus wants of us and be willing to sacrifice our rights, when necessary, in order to honor and obey Jesus.
The focus on submission in this passage can also cause us to miss the main point of what Peter is going after here. That comes out clearly when he says that a wife may win over her husband to Christ by her “purity and reverence.” He notes that this is more important than physical beauty. He is not saying we shouldn’t pay attention to our physical appearance, but he is saying that we should make the condition of our “inner self” more of a priority, and that it is our spirit that makes a deeper impression than our physical appearance. The goal of all of this is to be used by Jesus to help another person come to know Him as their own Lord and Savior.
And we can’t ignore what Peter says to Christian husbands in verse seven. These men are to treat their wives with consideration and respect. All husbands should treat their wives with respect, dignity, sensitivity and love. We are to be Christ-like in our ways. Ephesians 5 teaches that, just as Christ gave Himself up for the church to make her holy, husbands should be willing to love their wives sacrificially, and encourage their growth in holiness.
But why does Peter call wives the “weaker partner”? Scott McKnight, in his commentary on this passage believes that Peter has in mind physical strength when he says “weaker.” He is not talking about women being weaker spiritually, or more vulnerable to temptation, or more gullible, etc. Peter is telling these men that they are to be sensitive and thoughtful toward their wives. They should not be demanding submission or ordering obedience or acting in a physically intimidating manner. Their wives are “partners” in their relationship with them and co-heirs of the gifts of God through Jesus. Husbands of a Christian woman are blessed to be married to a child of God.
It's likely that this brief meditation on 1 Peter 3:1-7 will raise all kinds of issues and questions in the minds of some, and that’s very understandable. It’s a passage that is worth a lengthy discussion in a Bible study, or between Christian friends and spouses. Hopefully I’ve spoken clearly some of my thoughts on this, but I know there is much more to be said, asked and discussed. There are some good resources on this topic and if you would like some assistance finding them, let me know.
Wrapping this up, I return to the verse I cited above, verse 8: Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. This is instruction we can all understand and seek God’s Holy Spirit to help us apply to our lives, and if we are living this out, we probably won’t struggle much with verses 1-7.
Blessings,
Pastor Vern
When you’re not sure what you can count on in the world around you, know this: You can count on God keeping His word. So read what God has to say in scripture! And count on it!
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