The Rock Church

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With a heavy and thankful heart, I took a final, sweeping glance around the place my family and I had called home for the last eleven years. Then I locked the door and drove away. 

As I did, memories flooded through me. I thought of bringing my two youngest daughters home from the hospital as newborns. And then, there were all the Christmas, birthday, and Thanksgiving dinners with friends and family. Another was the treasure map I made to look old and “hid” in the attic where my son could find it. Along with that came the cloth bag of quarters he dug up in the backyard. So. Many. Memories. 

Posted in A Word from the Pastor by The Rock Church

Grief is an Oversized T-Shirt

Yesterday (October 23) marked three years since my father passed away. In previous posts, I have shared some of the things the Lord has guided me through so far on this path of grief. With that in mind, today will be the latest entry into that diary.

But first, a story. As children, my brother and I would oftentimes get our dad a t-shirt for his birthday. We’d get ones with his favorite rock bands on them. I always wanted to wear them to school, but they were obviously too big for me. However, as I got older, I began to grow into the shirts that once drowned me as a child. Today, I still have most of my dad’s shirts. You’ve probably seen me wear many of them often. 

These memories have me reflecting on this thought:

Posted in A Word from the Pastor by The Rock Church

Live by the Spirit

“For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out, or you will be destroyed by each other.” — Galatians 5:14-15

The Fruit of the Spirit is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit working in our lives. Paul explains the fruits to the Galatians right after these verses. They are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These virtues are interconnected and essential for our spiritual growth.

However, we can easily cultivate the opposite virtues. They entirely oppose the working of the Holy Spirit. Responding in our flesh leads to negative consequences, such as hate, despair, anxiety, impatience, cruelty, wickedness, unfaithfulness, harshness, and impulsiveness.

Posted in A Word from the Pastor by Tony D'Amico

Doctrine?

One of my best friends recently moved to a small town in South Dakota. He asked me if I could help him find a church there. After I did a quick Google search I was amazed to find 34 churches in this “small” town! I also visited some of their websites and read their statements of faith, values, leadership details, etc. In the end, I was able to categorize those 34 churches into three separate groups:

• Churches I wouldn’t even consider going to 
• Churches I’d visit because they’re historically biblical 
• “Proceed-with-caution” churches 

Posted in A Word from the Pastor by admin