I titled this blog, “Politics and Peacemaking”. Those two ideas never go hand in hand. In our current cultural environment, there is no peacemaking attached to politics. Due to various reasons (which are being documented and verified), our culture and even our church are more polarized than ever. The right is further right, and the left is further left, and the two see each other as enemies rather than citizens of the same country with differing opinions. 

So why would I be so foolish to even think that politics and peacemaking can both be pursued? Because God, through his Holy Word, has directed us to be peacemakers. The Apostle Paul wrote: live at peace with everyone (Romans 12:18) and make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification (Romans 14:19). “Everyone” includes those of a different political persuasion. “Make every effort” means that division and conflict over politics is a realm to be included in our peacemaking efforts. And Jesus says that if we want to be children of God, we need to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9).

Making peace doesn’t mean we don’t have political opinions. Making peace doesn’t mean we give up our convictions. Making peace is all about how we think and respond to those we are not currently at peace with. I can disagree with you and still be at peace with you. Making peace is one of our best paths to bring our Jesus-centered faith and concerns into conversations. However, it means my disagreement will take a different tone. I’ll be willing to honestly listen and try to understand your viewpoint. I’ll refuse to judge you for having a different view. I’ll try to understand your concerns, fears, perspectives, and your story that led to your position. And no matter where we land, I’ll respect and honor you.   

I know this whole area of politics, for some of us, is so incredibly challenging. I’m seeing families and friends torn apart by political conflict. So as we finish our series on Peacemakers this Sunday (September 27), we want to add a Deeper Dive on politics to the discussion. In the Deeper Dive, we will not be directing you to vote for a particular candidate or party. We won’t debate the current political issues. We’ll save that for the candidates to debate. Instead, we’ll look at how we can be peacemakers in a world where politics equals war. 

Join us for another live Deeper Dive on Monday, September 28, at 7:30 pm. Note that we moved this from Tuesday to Monday because there is a presidential debate scheduled on Tuesday (which I encourage you to watch). Remember, our focus is on how to be peacemakers in a polarized political culture. Send us your questions and watch us live by clicking here to link to all our digital channels (Facebook, YouTube, Online Campus, and our app).

Glen Elliott

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For the last few teaching series, we’ve been adding a digital Deeper Dive live event. Deeper Dives allow us to address specific things at a deeper level and in a Q & A format. For the current series – What Would Jesus Undo, we thought that a Deeper Dive on racism was needed and would be helpful. I’m confident that Jesus came to undo racism in addition to many other things. 

Join us this Tuesday night, August 25th, at 7:30 pm for our live Deeper Dive through our normal channels: Online campus, YouTube, or Facebook. I’ve invited my friend Pastor Grady Scott to join me in what will be a great discussion. Send in your questions on race – click here.

Jesus gave the church the purpose of going and making disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). What’s interesting is that the word translated “nations” is the word from which we get our English word “ethnic.” It means races, ethnicities, cultures, and nations. Jesus wants his church to take the good news to every racial group. The New Testament is also clear that the members of the church are to be equal, one, and united regardless of categories like male or female, or socio-economic standing, or race (Galatians 3:28). 

Racial unity and reconciliation have been a passion of mine for the last eight or nine years. For me, it started by actually meeting with Black and Latino leaders and asking questions (sometimes hard questions) and trying to listen and understand. I had to find a way to move from a “you” and “me” stance to a “we” position. That’s why we’ve done four film nights at Pantano with other predominantly Black churches. We watched movies about race and then had discussions where we could talk, listen, and understand each other. The Deeper Dive this Tuesday is meant to be another opportunity to talk openly and honestly about race, culture, and ethnicity. Very few of us consider ourselves to be racist. But we do have blind spots. We are by nature, more favorable to our own race. We all have room to grow.

My hope and prayer is that you’ll have an open mind and heart to understand the challenges and complexities of racism. Neither Pastor Scott or I speak for our races, nor are we the experts. But, both of us have learned to listen to each other, trust each other, and come to some new understandings about race. We won’t avoid the difficult racial issues that most are talking about like Black Lives Matter, white privilege and more. We’ll answer as many questions as we can. You don’t want to miss this Deeper Dive – Tuesday, August 25th at 7:30 pm. If you can’t watch it live, you can watch it On-demand at a more convenient time. 

Glen Elliott

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Do you want to go deeper in your faith and walk with Jesus? There are three opportunities coming up that will give you tools to grow closer to God: 

Deeper Dive – Tuesday, July 28 – 7:30pm

Our Deeper Dives follow a teaching series; our next one concludes our series, The Eye of the Storm. We already have some great questions about worry, anxiety, prayer, breaking habits, grief, and more. Join us Tuesday evening, July 28 at 7:30 pm for a live discussion with Josh Reich, Rebecca Hamlin, and myself. Send us your questions by going to https://pantano.church/deeperdive/. That’s the same location where you’ll be able to find the link to watch the Deeper Dive. 

July 31 and August 1

Men all across the globe will gather via live stream in their homes to experience the Promise Keepers 2020 Global Digital Experience. Some men’s groups will be watching the event together. 

Keynote speakers include Mark Batterson, Bob Goff, Miles McPherson, and many more. There will be great worship as well.

It’s a FREE event! Register here. Invite others to join you. 

The Global Leadership Summit – August 6-7

The Summit looks to be as good as it’s been every year. Take a look at the amazing 2020 faculty. 

Pantano will not be hosting a live event this year – the first time in 11 years! However, you can join us virtually for the GLS Online Experience. Register Today >>

Take the step to go deeper with Jesus!

Glen Elliott

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Changed Forever

9/11 changed our world forever. COVID-19 will do the same. It doesn’t take a genius to understand that when the crisis passes, we won’t go back to the way things were before. More folks will work from home. We’ll use all our digital tools in new and deeper ways. Small groups will utilize online meetings more. And we can’t even imagine how it might change shopping, food delivery versus eating out and more. 

A couple of years ago I committed our church to develop a legitimate online campus with the technology and the staff needed to make that happen. That included having our first online pastor – Nick Farr. I’m so grateful we did that as we were able on day one of this crisis to provide a quality online alternative to a physical worship service. I’m so grateful for our amazing production team who are working overtime to provide great online options not just for adults, but for students and kids too.

By the way, some of you had trouble getting online through our website last Sunday; the reason was the platform we use added 12,000 churches in one week and their server had issues. They’ve purchased extra bandwidth and servers to keep that from happening again. We should be fine going forward. Every week there are three ways to watch: 1) Pantano.Online; 2) Facebook live or; 3) YouTube.

Stay Up to Date, Connected, and Get Help

We’ve set up a special web page titled COVID-19 Update to keep you up-to-date on what’s happening. With things changing so fast, we are even dating the updates! On that same page, you or someone you know can also request help like food, supplies or help shopping. You can leave prayer requests or ask for pastoral help on that page also. To get updates to your phone text “Pantano” to 31996.

Our pastors will be communicating daily (Monday – Saturday) through a short video on our Pantano Facebook or Instagram pages.

Day of Prayer and Fasting

In times like these, we need the church to come together to pray and fast. Wednesday, March 25th was a day set aside by church leaders from around our city for prayer and fasting. If you missed this announcement, you can choose any day to pray and fast for our city, nation, and world. Our tech team and leaders (Did I say how proud I am of our team?) were able to help broadcast a one-hour prayer service from our auditorium. If you missed it, you can watch it at pantano.church/LightUpTheDark

Deeper Dive – Thursday at 7 pm

Thursday night at 7 pm Josh Reich, Michael Goodwin and I will be hosting a Deeper Dive into the Holy Spirit. This will finish our teaching series called Ghost. We received about 3 pages of questions and we’ll be able to answer most of them. Go to https://pantano.church/online/ to watch the Deeper Dive. I’ll also make my notes available online at Deeper Dive along with the video, so you can watch if you miss the Thursday 7 pm broadcast.

During this time, be confident in the fact that our God is in control.  Ask the Holy Spirit to continue to lead Pantano as we Love People to Jesus.

Glen Elliott

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Ghosts have been a part of our book, movie and TV culture for a long time. There is the Ghost of Christmas Past in the book A Christmas Carol. Then, there was the movie Ghostbusters. There are cable shows like Ghost Hunters. I grew up watching the cartoon Casper the Friendly Ghost. Most importantly, the word “ghost” saw a dramatically increased use starting in 1611 due to the King James Version of the Bible. Using old English, the translators of that Bible version referred to the Spirit as the Holy Ghost.

When we think of the idea of a ghost we think of something with personality; after all, Casper was very outgoing and friendly. We think of something that influences us, yet is unseen. That’s why the King James translators used the term “ghost.”

There is an unseen power available to every believer. That power transforms us on the inside and empowers us to do the very things God wills of us. But this power is not an “it”, but a person who is the third person of our one God. We are talking about the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus returned to his Father, he sent us the Spirit because he knew the Spirit would be so much better for us. The Holy Spirit is our forever helper. The Holy Spirit comes alongside us to make us stronger so we can do greater things than we could on our own. The Spirit is God who came to live inside to guide, protect, convict, coach, instruct, counsel and empower us. This is a “ghost” we do not fear but depend on to love God and serve others well. 

Yet, the Holy Spirit is probably the most neglected part of the Trinity – God as Father, Son, and Spirit while remaining as one. Francis Chan wrote an excellent book titled – Forgotten God- Reversing our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit. We agree with Chan on this. So Sunday, March 1st, we are starting a new four-week message series titled Ghost. We’ll be looking into who the Holy Spirit is and how he helps the believer.

But, we can’t cover all there is about the Spirit in four Sunday messages, so we are going to offer the first of many events we are calling Deeper Dive. On Sunday, March 22nd at 4 PM, we’ll offer our first Deeper Dive into the Holy Spirit. From scripture, I’ll be answering your questions about the Holy Spirit. If you have a question about the Holy Spirit you would like to have answered at the event, submit it by visiting mypantano.church/deeperdive. Join us March 22nd at 4 PM at the Pantano East Auditorium to take a deeper dive into the person and work of the Holy Spirit.