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Fellowship Is a Beautiful Thing! – Acts 2:42-47 By Pastor Lee Hemen May 31, 2026 New things are exciting; new houses, new relationships, new cars or new toys – all of these things can be exciting at first. The same is true for churches. But after the excitement wears off then there is the hard work of taking care of, maintaining, and developing believers. Volunteers can often be like herding cats. The disciples found this out in a hurry. The church was brand new and it was exciting. Things were happening and God was moving to build his church in the world so it could be the witness he needed. Within the newness of the early church, we discover that the disciples began to develop how the body of Christ was to operate in the world and in doing so we discover that fellowship is a beautiful thing. Let’s see how and why… READ: Acts 2:42-47 GBC is in the process of finding a Worship Leader and we should desire one that encourages fellowship, is willing to come alongside of others, and develo...

Ramblings from Retirement – Worship By Retired Pastor Lee Hemen April 6, 2021 We just celebrated Resurrection Sunday, Easter for those of you who are biblically illiterate, and I noticed that we had several visitors even during our National COVID scare. And this got me to thinking about when I first began to Pastor and how frustrating it was when folks saw their church attendance as an afterthought. Attending their children’s sports programs, doing their hobbies, simply waking up and feeling like going to the beach or because it was sunny was an excuse to miss their church worship. It was frustrating because many of these same people would get their feelings hurt because they were seen as “visitors” by those who did show up regularly or when they were not asked to do certain ministries in the church because of their fly-by-night attendance. Now if you are getting your feelings hurt by reading this what does it say about your church attendance and why you feel you have to make excuses f...

Ramblings from Retirement – Freedom! By Pastor Lee Hemen (Retired) March 22, 2021 Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. (Romans 6:16-18 NIV) At what point do believers “submit themselves to the governing authorities”? Paul would write the Roman Christians, who were under severe persecution, that they were to honor God and that those “who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves” (Romans 13:2 NIV). However there does come a time when the Christian must follow the Lord and not man because man can do evil and ...

Ramblings from Retirement - Nativity By Lee Hemen (Retired Pastor) December 24, 2020 A couple traveling was nothing new especially at this time when everyone was required to head back to their ancestral places of birth. It was required and they had no choice in the matter. The government dictated that they had to go and be counted and so they went. To do otherwise would have brought the full force of the Empire down on them. This one couple walked side by side carrying a few meager possessions, food, and things for the baby that could be born any time soon. The young woman was pregnant. Her husband was worried because there were so many traveling and what if he could not find anywhere for them to rest and for her to be protected from the weather. She was pregnant after all and that alone was risk enough. Many women died in child birth but she was strong, young, and a lovely person who loved God and he was certain that God loved her. I wonder if he thought about what had transpired in b...

Ramblings from Retirement: Finding Rest in a Fearful World By Lee Hemen October 8, 2020 The dictionary defines alienation as “the state or experience of being isolated from a group or an activity to which one should belong or in which one should be involved.” If furthers goes on to state that there can be a loss of sympathy and an estrangement that occurs. This is evidenced by those who stay away from worship for any length of time and why the writer of Hebrews would state: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:23-25 NIV)” When we stay away from those that we are told to fellowship with we become alienated from them. When we stay away from the One we are supposed to daily talk with we also become ali...

Why Worship Is so Special! -- Nehemiah 8:8-12 By Pastor Lee Hemen May 10, 2020 My mother was a character. She left home at an early age to seek her fame and future in the wilds of Alaska from the wilds of Wyoming! She was about 15 years old and it was right before WWII. She had a 7th grade education, could ride a horse, shoot a rifle, and roll a cigarette using the “fixings” with one hand. Now I am not commending that teenagers leave home at 15, smoke, and learn to ride a horse; but my mother like most Americans enjoyed her freedom and willingly went north. The Israelites had not enjoyed freedom for many years. They had been enslaved by the Persians and had only recently been allowed any kind of freedom. Ezra the Priest went to Jerusalem to try and get the people educated in the word of the Lord. Nehemiah came later to help rebuild. They both knew that with the Israelites new found freedom and not having temple worship they would soon stray from God. Here in Nehemiah we discover why wo...

The Joy of Palm Sunday! – Luke 19:29-40 By Pastor Lee Hemen April 5, 2020 Do you think you would recognize Jesus if he came into your community? Sadly, the church today while it is supposed to be “Jesus” to their neighbors, family, and friends I fear few would see Jesus in them. What would you do if Jesus came to your town, your neighborhood, or your home? While we would all like to think we would immediately recognize Jesus if he came to our area we might not. People in Jesus’ day had longed for and prayed for generations for God to hear their prayers and it seemed as if God was not listening but he was. All of sudden in the midst of what seemed their darkest days, Jesus came healing, caring, and displaying how God works. For the average person it was a miracle of God and rightly so. The common people responded with joy, let’s see how… READ: Luke 19:29-40 We become witnesses of Jesus’ final days as we read the gospel of Luke and here we discover… I. The joy of Palm Sunday in sharing w...

Trapped by sin! -- 2 Kings 17:5-12, 16-20 By Pastor Lee Hemen November 4, 2018 Two men were members of the same church. Both were active and were positive witnesses to the presence of God. One grew as a Christian vividly. God gave him victory over various sins committed before becoming a Christian. He became a strong, positive Christian influence in his workplace and community. The other man did not make worshiping and serving God his highest priority. Instead, he began giving into temptations seeking pleasure and possessions instead of a relationship with the Lord. Eventually, he gave up any visible identification with believers and the Lord. All 20 kings who ruled northern Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. None of them worshiped God only. None were descendants of David to whom God promised his family would always rule over God’s people. Ahab and Jezebel made Baal worship legal. God disciplined his people, but nothing turned them to the Lord. God sent prophets Elisha, Amos, an...

Malachi 1:6-14 – Being honorable! By Pastor Lee Hemen March 18, 2018 We can dishonor someone by not holding them in high regard. The people of Israel had done this with God. Within the Ten Commandments given most important instructed, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Yet the Israelites had dishonored God. Malachi’s second burden therefore deals with the dishonor God’s people can have for the Lord. While it may be easy for us to point to specific religions today that make idols and worship them, Christians can fail to see the idols we fashion and impure worship in our lives. In this, Malachi’s burden is just as much a message for us as it was for the Israelites. We are to honor God with acceptable sacrifice. Let’s find out what Malachi teaches us about being honorable… READ: Malachi 1:6-14 From the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation relationship is important to God. When God told the Israelites, “You shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3 NIV)” he...

United! - Acts 2:42-47 By Pastor Lee Hemen June 11, 2017 Unity, what does it mean to be unified? I know as a military unit you have to work together to achieve the same objective in order to win the battle. As a company you have to be on the same page as to what your objectives, projections, and costs are. And if you are a church the Scriptures teach us that we are to be united as well in order to achieve the kingdom of God here on earth until Jesus returns, but what does that mean and what does it look like? In our day and age few churches teach about unity except as a spiritual concept or construct but few believers understand or know what it means for the body of Christ, his church, to be unified. In the book of Acts, which is the early history of the first century church we discover that they were united in purpose. Let’s find out what that means for us today… READ: Acts 2:42-47 If a group wants to achieve anything worthwhile the members have to be on the same page and work...

3rd Sunday of Advent - The Joy of our worship - Matthew 2:1-12 By Pastor Lee Hemen December 11, 2016 Though not everyone agrees on the timing of the arrival of the Magi from the East, they apparently came sometime after the birth of Jesus. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, though still in Bethlehem, were now in a house (oikia) which can also mean place or residence, and could have been used generically by Matthew to describe where Mary and Joseph were simply staying. Jesus was also called a little child (paidion) rather than a newborn infant. This however is not the focus of our verses, but rather the Magi’s joyous worship. When my wife and I first began to date, I would drive hundreds of miles, often times during very bad weather just to see her. I wrote her letters where I had painstakingly taken hours to draw cartoon characters just to make her smile. I was and am willing to sacrifice anything for her happiness and contentment. Why would I do such things? Because I love her. She is the joy o...

The Tainted Lady at the Local Watering Hole! -- John 4:1-26 By Pastor Lee Hemen November 16, 2014 Recently one of the local news outlets did a series on prostitution in Portland, Oregon. The people involved are younger and more dangerous than ever before. They enslave their victims, often abusing them physically, mentally, and emotionally. Police are trying to get a handle on the human trafficking in order to gain control of illegal guns on the street as well. Interestingly, no one ever mentioned the fact that the criminals involved did not register their weapons or submitted to background checks. I digress. Some call it the oldest profession, but it is a dirty, nasty, crime-ridden, and immoral blight on society that needs to be eradicated. In Jesus' day we discover that many women were placed in this horrendous position simply because they had no other means of support. Pimps, drugs, and illegal weapons were not necessarily a part of the trade back then, however it did carry a soc...