The wise men come to Herod in seeking the King of the Jews. It’s so much woven into the Christmas story that it can be easy to overlook how bizarre the scene is, but the first people who seek out the newborn Jesus are pagan astrologers. There are different responses to this king. Some will seek him out, others will overlook him, and some will seek to destroy him. How do you respond?

It's the most amazing work of God in human history before the resurrection. Mary, a virgin, finds out that she's pregnant. In the ancient world, this would have been scandalous, but her fiancé Joseph has an angelic visitor telling him to stay with Mary. This young couple are the first to learn that the rest of human history is about to change forever as a prophecy from hundreds of years before is about to be fulfilled.

The Gospel of Matthew begins with a genealogy. It can be tempting to move past this to the next section, but this genealogy is a picture of the history of God's people. It points us to the gospel, to the mission of God, to the power of God, and to the promise of God. 

A relationship with Jesus is personal but it is not private. Christians need each other. Fellowship can be an easy blind spot for many, but the goal for any church should be an authentic community where there are meaningful relationships and where everyone is known and loved. 

It's often said, "the customer is always right." But what about when churches take this idea into worship? Every week, churches across the world display worship that revolves more around entertainment than reverence. Our first question with worship should not be how we want to worship but how God wants us to worship him. 

District Superintendent Sam Huggard preaches about pastoral ministry during the installation service of Pastor Josh Benner.

The church is called the body of Christ, and in this passage, the Apostle Paul compares the different ways people have been equipped to different parts of a body. While there is diversity, each part is necessary. In the church, we are all gifted differently, but each person's gifts matter to the church body. 

In Luke 10, Jesus is invited to dine with two sisters: Martha and Mary. In the passage, we see that they have very different responses. One sits with Jesus and hears his teaching. The other busies herself trying to serve Jesus and gets stressed out from her work. Many of us can be guilty of this but it’s the first sister who has focused on the one necessary thing. It’s good to serve and use the gifts that God has given to build up his church, but that is never meant to come at the cost of our relationship with Jesus.

Who is your teacher? We live in a world where there is no shortage of people we might want to follow. For some, we have a political or intellectual figure who has influenced us. For some, we follow the trends of the day. For others, we've tried to draw from different sources or follow our own path. Jesus calls his people to follow him.

Towards the end of his ministry, the resurrected Jesus gave the Great Commission: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." This is the command he has given to his Church and all Christians have a role in serving the Great Commission to reach people with the good news of the gospel.