Are you ready to celebrate Christmas again this year? "Once upon a time in a galaxy far far away..." For the last four decades, the world has been captured and anticipating the movies by George Lucas and his team as they created the Star Wars phenomenon. These stories have been so successful that other writers and directors have joined in to create more and more adventures of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia and all of the other beloved characters that you can call them by name. Think how much money has been made and spent? Why? We love stories of adventure, good battling evil, romanc ..read more

When was the last time you heard someone, your children or grandchildren ask, "How long until we get there?" "How long until we eat?" "How long until this Coronavirus is over?" What week are we into this global pandemic? For so many of us, it is too long. David knew what it was to wait for relief, for rescue, for help. So, God inspired him to write Psalm 13. Take a moment to read these 6 verses. Read it again. Can you see the three prayer sections? v 1-2, v 3-4, v 5-6 v 1-2 How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I tak ..read more

There is nothing better than Easter. Nothing better than Jesus rising from the dead. I marvel and try to picture each day of Easter week and then each day of those 40 days where Jesus walked around in His resurrected body... Luke 24:50-53 tells us about that 40th day. "Then Jesus led them out to the vicinity of Bethany. He lifted up His hands and blessed them. While He was blessing them, He left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God." When was the last time you wer ..read more

Easter Week. Holy Week. The Most Important Week in history. As you read through Matthew, Mark, Luke and John about this week, what is the Holy Spirit directing your attention too? What disturbs you? What overwhelms you? What do you love about it? In the midst of so much darkness, there is so much light. Jesus is light. When the hour came, Jesus and His apostles reclined at the table. And Jesus said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God...." Jesus took bread, gav ..read more

As a dad, like all parents, I have desired and continue to strive to be an expert on each of our four children, now semi-young adults to young adults. When they come home, or I come home or when I see them for the first time that day or evening, I want to discover how they are doing by observing them. I want to know how they are doing emotionally, relationally, physically, spiritually and how they are doing with their responsibilities. I have learned to notice the expressions on their faces, the focus of their eyes, the descriptive words they use to share about their day, their slouch or dete ..read more

​I am trusting you are having encouraging time with your family and with Jesus. I trust the Holy Spirit is illuminating the Word in fresh ways that are filling your soul, mind and heart.   I have been listening to the Psalms being read through my phone as I walk each day. It has been refreshing. Our family has been praying and enjoying each other. I have been really busy trying to figure out how we will shift from a face to face church family to an electronic church family.   One Psalm I keep coming back to and letting Jesus anchor me with is Psalm 46. I hope you are familiar with it. I shared ..read more

Southtowners, ​ How was your time with Jesus this morning? I hope and pray that it was empowering for your soul to the point you are experiencing 1 Thess 5:16-18 - JPT (Joyful, Prayerful and Thankful). Here is the link to watch last night's encouraging prayer time with 4 servant leaders of SBC. https://youtu.be/m3vclvziyTs   As a church family, the leadership is seeking to continue to be the church family with each other, for each other and for those far from Jesus around us. We have functioned in these three ways... large group, small group and one on one. We will continue to do these thr ..read more

How are you doing with the continual updates of the Coronavirus news? Are you fear-filled? Are you avoiding the news? Are you seeking Jesus and experiencing His confidence? Or maybe your reaction is something else. Southtown is continuing to monitor news and updates from the Center for Disease Control and the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH). Currently, the advice is to "Be cautious but carry on." What does that mean for us? 1. It means Jesus loves you and is in control of all of your days. Matt 10:29-31 Jesus taught, "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fal ..read more

I asked Hayley Marcon, a young woman who has been part of our Puerto Rico Mission Team for the past three years, to share her thoughts on her experience this year. Hayley Ponders... “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9 There are many words I could use to describe a mission trip: exciting, uncertain, trying, thrilling, awesome, exhausting, joyful adventures. At surface, we tend to view mission trips as opportunities to share the Gospel and share Jesus with the people of our destination. But I would argue that God uses yo ..read more

Quite often, we slip into a dry spell. We experience lack of enthusiasm. We get unmotivated about life in general. We forget that our attitude is a choice and we let circumstances influence how we are doing. If the weather is bad, if we have a handful of problems from work, if we are struggling with a key important relationship, if we are overwhelmed with one personal problem, we can let these negative circumstances control our attitude and motivation. That is why the Bible is such a gift. Each and every passage has the power to help us deal with this. Psalm 119 helps to identify issues that ..read more