Welcome to the Emmanuel Reformed Church Website. We hope you will browse our site and learn more about us.

Some days it seems as if the one thing the Church is good at is dividing. I know this is not true but it’s what makes for good headlines and community gossip. Dr John Neufeld once observed there is actually a lot the Church agrees on. We agree on the doctrines of the Apostles’ Creed, Nicene Creed, and more. What divides us then? Mainly, preference and practice. A better question is this, where do we find our unity? What is the foundation for our unity? Let’s try on the answer to these questions on Sunday, unless . . . just kidding. I hope to see you and celebrate Jesus with you!

Belonging to a community where you are loved, valued, and accepted is an incredibly profound gift. As much as we like to think we are independent, the truth is God created us to be interdependent. However, what happens to a community where the focus has turned inward? What happens to the community where it becomes all about me and my needs? This is the beginning of the end. The community God calls us into, the kingdom of God, is about service, serving God, serving others, expanding the community. When our attention turns to the things which are ‘good for us’ then we turn away from Jesus’ mission. We are going to take up the theme of service this Sunday and see how important service is for God’s people. See you then!

Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you about the hope you have. This instruction comes from God through the Apostle Peter. I cannot tell you how often I have bungled the answer to the question because I have not been prepared. A couple of those incidences haunt me a little but past failures can also spur on present preparedness. So, what does the hope you have sound like? What does the hope you have look like? How has it transformed who you are? Maybe you are a little short on hope these days. If this is the case we are going to have some conversation on Sunday about our hope and how we can be a people of hope. Looking forward to being together on Sunday!

Last year, I know it seems a long time ago, we took time to study the God Jesus loves and invites us to love. We uncovered some lies we believe and hopefully saw God the Father in a new light. Then, we looked into the life Jesus calls us into and the sin Jesus calls us away from in order to live this beautiful and abundant life. Now, we turn to focus on living all this out in community. God designed us for community, but this is hard work. God designed us to be inter-dependant but often we default to independence. Yet the Bible tells us over and over, we are on this journey to eternity together. Over the next few weeks we are going to dig into what the Bible says about community beginning with this fact, we are being shaped by God into a ‘royal priesthood’ for a specific purpose. I hope to see you all Sunday!

Restoration. It’s a word which means the act of “giving back, returning, putting or bringing back into existence or use, bringing back to or putting back into a former or original state, renewing, putting again in possession of something.” We restore things we consider to have value to us, whether said value is material or sentimental. Bottom line, if it has value you keep it, fix it, love it well. But we live in a ‘throwaway’ society and we even treat people this way. There is a profound part of the Easter story that may have become too familiar for us, the story of Peter’s restoration. Peter, the disciple who vehemently denied even knowing Jesus, is not a throwaway. There is no such thing in God’s kingdom, unless you’re talking about sin, but God doesn’t talk this way about people. Restoration. It’s a breath of fresh air, just like Spring. I hope to see you all Sunday.