MASKS ARE OPTIONAL

Church, this is a season to celebrate. Last week the CDC issued new guidance that people who are fully vaccinated are no longer required to wear masks indoors. In light of this recent news, masks will be optional in all of the gatherings of Veritas Church.

This has been made possible by teams of doctors and scientists and experts who have worked tirelessly to finally bring an end to this crazy season we’ve been living in this past year. In a very real way we all have played a part in loving our neighbor by keeping each other safe in this past season. God tells us in Isaiah 43 that he alone is our savior. We celebrate this news but not without acknowledging that this has been God’s doing, and we want give him the credit he is due.

I hope that these next few Sundays feel like a bit of a homecoming for those of you who have been waiting on gathering with us in person again. If that’s you, we are excited to welcome you back (quite literally) with open arms and smiling faces.

Now for some, this good news might create a bit of tension because you may not be comfortable gathering without a mask yet. We want to assure you that although wearing a mask at Veritas is optional, treating each other like the family that we already are in Jesus isn't. If you still want to wear a mask, we are for you and we respect you.

Personally, although I’m comfortable not wearing a mask I’m going to have a mask in my back pocket to put on if I’m approached by one of you still choosing to mask up. It is important that as followers of Jesus, we never put barriers in between others hearing about Jesus. If having a mask in my back pocket means more people hear the good news about Jesus, that is an easy decision.

On Sundays we will still continue to clean, sanitize before our gatherings, and our VeritasKids teachers will still be masking due to the current recommendations.

Beyond that, we are so excited to get back our normal rhythms of gathering and scattering to advance the gospel, being for the city, for the military, and all for the fame of Jesus.

For the fame of Jesus,
Jacob Warren
Lead Pastor | Veritas Church

WHY DOES PARTNERSHIP MATTER?

I was reading a book this past week called A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and the Great War about the friendship that developed between the prolific writers C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Both of these men had served in the British military during the first Word War. The writer of the book points out how deeply marked these men had been by experiencing the unique bond that forms between those that endure hardship in pursuit of a common mission. 

As I read about the fast (and unlikely) friends of The Fellowship of the Ring or the instant family of the Beavers and the children in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, we can see how deeply concerned these men were in confirming that deep desire in us for friendship, camaraderie, shared mission, and community.

Within our church this depth of relational community is expressed in becoming a Partner at Veritas. Partnership isn’t a club to join or a status to achieve, it’s a family to be welcomed into. At its core, our welcoming you into Partnership is only contingent on one thing: our affirming that you are a follower of Jesus.

Followers of Jesus are going to care about their sin, service, money, relationships, and fulfilling the mission that Jesus has given them. That is why we as partners covenant together to live a life of mission, generosity, holiness, service, and in community with each other. These things aren’t radical, in fact they are boringly normal in the life of a Jesus follower. But just because they are usually normal doesn’t mean that we can’t fall out of the habit of these things.

I want to encourage you if you are a Partner at Veritas to ask yourself these questions:

1. Am I living a life of holiness? Am I confessing my sin and trusting in Jesus? 

2. Am I living a life in community? Am I consistent and known in my Community Group? 

3. Am I living a life of generosity? Am I being faithful in my giving to God and generosity toward others

4. Am I living a life of service? Am I actively serving on a Service Team and serving the city so that others can hear about Jesus?

5. Am I living a life of mission? Am I consciously pursuing relationships with others who haven’t heard the good news of the gospel?

Jesus’ disciples along with Tolkien's Fellowship and Lewis’ Narnian friendships were an unlikely bunch held together with little more than their common aim and a deep resolve; may our Partners realize that we will be very much the same. My hope is that, as we hold on tightly to Jesus through the thick and thin of ministry alongside one another, deep friendships will be formed, trust will grow, and our willingness to take ownership of the mission that Jesus has given us will solidify. 

Let’s do this together as partners in Jesus' mission. 

For the fame of Jesus,
Jacob Warren | Lead Pastor
jacob@veritasfayetteville.com 

WHY PREACH THROUGH GENESIS?

WHY PREACH THROUGH GENESIS?

This Sunday we are starting our series through the book of Genesis. Why are we choosing to spend time doing this? I want to give you a few reasons why we’re so excited to walk through this book.

1. To learn to trust God as our Creator.
   Genesis is going to help us learn to trust God as our good Creator. Genesis teaches us that God is the creator of everything, that he loves his creation, and that he rules over it in wisdom and goodness. God creates a good world for us, but then we bring death and corruption into the world when we sin in Genesis 3. We are going to learn to trust the promise God gives in Genesis 3:15 that someone is going to come who will redeem us from the curse of sin and restore all of creation, and so we will learn to trust God to keep his promises and do what he said he will do. The whole bible is about how God is going to fulfill this promise he gives in Genesis 3:15.

2. To learn what it looks like to walk by faith, live in grace, and rest in hope.
   As we look at the lives of Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph, we will see what it looks like to walk by faith in this life when the fulfillment of God’s promises don’t seem to come quickly. In Jacob’s life, we will see what it looks like to live in God’s grace, as God shows us how he pursues sinners and rebels and wins them back to himself. In Joseph’s life, we will learn what it means to rest in hope because God is in control and working out all things in our lives for our good and his glory.

3. To see how the whole bible fits together in Jesus.
   As the first book of the bible, Genesis is absolutely foundational to knowing who God is, who we are, why we’re here, and what our lives are all about. Genesis is the foundation of the whole bible’s story, and so understanding it will go a long way in helping us put our Bibles back together. We will see, week after week, how the whole Bible is about Jesus and what God is going to do to save sinners and restore his world through Jesus! Over and over in Genesis, we will see God give us hints and foreshadows of how he is going to keep the promise he makes in Genesis 3:15 to send a redeemer to save us. The book of Genesis is not primarily about things we are supposed to do or people we are supposed to emulate, but about someone we are supposed to see. Genesis was written to show us more of Jesus.

4. To see how the gospel is for all of life.
   Throughout our journey in Genesis, we will see how “practical” the book of Genesis is and how it speaks into every aspect of our lives. Dysfunctional family dynamics, frustrated ambitions, work, relationships, suffering, sin, decision-making, trusting in God when he seems absent, and so much more is addressed in the book of Genesis. We will see how the good news of Jesus speaks into all of it and transforms all of it, how the good news is not just about us “getting saved,” but about transforming all of our lives.

Can’t wait to get started this week! See you Sunday!
Ryan Ross | Pastor of Discipleship
Ryan@veritasfayetteville.com

WHY HAVE A BLOG?

A few reasons! There are things that we would love to nerd out about with you, but Sunday morning isn't really the place to do it. Have you ever wondered the difference between Christocentric and a Christotelic hermeneutic? Yeah. Us too. Let's talk about it!

In addition, we want a space that we can share your stories about what God is doing in and through your lives. We believe that part of being a faithful worshipper of Christ means remembering what He has done for us. Deuteronomy 8 paints a beautiful picture of the importance of remembering. To give you some background context, the Israelites have spent the last 40 years in the desert awaiting the entering of their promised land, and they are now mere moments away from this claim on the land of milk and honey. Moses knows that the time of his death will soon arrive, and that he will not be permitted to enter the promised land. A short time before Moses’s death, what does he encourage his people to do in chapter 8? Remember. I encourage you to read the entire chapter, but here is a small excerpt:

Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do good in the end. (Deuteronomy 8:11-16 ESV)

Moses calls the Israelites to not only intellectually remember what God has done, but to act on their remembrance by practicing faithfulness.

There seems to be a clear connection between the ability to remember what the Lord has done for His people and their faithfulness to obey Him. A blog is a great place to publish the stories and celebrations so that we may spur us forward to trust and obedience.

Additionally, we want to have the space to share Veritas-specific theological clarifications, guided prayers through current events, or equipping resources. It is our prayer that this blog becomes one of many resources that lead you to deeper affections for Jesus and His church!

If you are a Partner of Veritas Church and interested in contributing to the blog, do not hesitate to email us with your ideas at samantha@veritasfayetteville.com! We want this to be a space for a shared voice of the local saints at Veritas.

Sincerely,
Samantha Metheny
Executive Administrator

FROM DEATH TO LIFE - TRAVIS FULP

My story isn’t uncommon to many of yours. I grew up in the local church. We were active in attending and my mother was a faithful servant in the kids ministry, and in time, so was I. I vaguely remember “asking Jesus into my heart” as a preschooler and would say that I believed Jesus had died for my sins. I was baptized at ten and when I entered youth group I became an active participant in small group, mission trips, and Sunday night youth service.

Growing up, I always felt the clash of flesh and Spirit. I can look back and see sin patterns and behaviors that, though I knew what I was doing or how I was acting was sin, I had no power to stop or change it. My false gospel was limited to “Jesus gets you on the team but once on it you’re on your own to keep your spot.” My sense of right standing before God ebbed and flowed with whether I did or didn’t sin compared to the things I did for God. As a result, I wandered away from the church for the better part of seven years during and after college.

My wandering wasn’t the result of unbelief in Christian things but rather God handing me over to sin. I spent years trying to “live according to the flesh,” as Paul would say (Romans 8:5), only to find myself unsatisfied. I knew the way I was choosing to live was contrary to how God created me to live, but I had no power to stop sinning and thought I had to clean myself up before coming to God.

But God.

Through the colliding of worlds with my wife (Spring), moving to Fayetteville and being invited to Veritas by a coworker, God was working to bring me and Spring to Himself. At Veritas we heard the Gospel preached and, for the first time, understood and believed that Jesus not only gets you on the team through his life, death, and resurrection, but keeps you on it, too. The eyes of my heart were opened to receive Jesus’s grace and forgiveness through faith in what he had done for me. God’s love and grace are endless. Jesus’s finished work is enough. The Spirit gives life to all those who come.

For Jesus,
Travis Fulp
Director of Family Life