As we say goodbye to 2022, the hope and excitement of a new year bubbles up inside of us. The things that we plan to accomplish get set in motion and, Lord willing, we will be able to grow up more fully into the image of Jesus Christ. This new year brings the question, what do you have planned for 2023?

For Pathway, if the Lord wills, we have lots of exciting seasonal events planned for this year! This winter we will be going through Seeking God and Finding Him. This is a study where we will be searching the scriptures to find the one true God. From there, spring flowers bring May showers…and small group studies! Men, Women, and youth will all have studies focused on an aspect of our Christian faith. During the Summer months, our focus is serving the children in our community by teaching them about God. We do this though Vacation Bible School, which will be a wonderful avenue to display who God truly is, who His people are in Him, while the kids enjoy fun and fellowship! Drawing the year to a close will be our annual Harvest Festival. This event provides a safe and fun way for families to spend time together getting to know Pathway as we continue to work and serve the local community.

While this is only a sampling of the activities for the year, it helps draw our attention to what is important. Paul reminds us about where our focus should be drawn, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV).” As followers of Christ, our job is to glorify our God as greatly as possible. There is no aspect of our existence that escapes this wonderful truth. We know how to do this, Jesus taught us in Matthew 22:36-40. “’Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.’” How then are we to love others? We teach the Gospel, we love others, and we invite them to church! Getting people into church is the biggest reason for the website change to begin the year.

Many younger families exclusively use websites to decide whether they will try a church. Our previous website has served us very well through the years but has not allowed us to really display who we are or the Gospel we preach. Keeping our site up to date has become a monstrous task, and we have not done well. This is not due to a lack of desire or carelessness, but there is no one currently at the church skilled enough to update it or keep it functioning well. Thankfully there are solutions! The elders have decided to switch to the Tithely platform for our website and since we moved to Tithely for giving in the middle of 2022, it has so far been a smooth transition. We expect nothing less from their website builder.

I have been working to design the website over the last few months and I am very pleased with how it has turned out. Plug and play features will allow the leadership to keep everyone up to date on current events, bible studies, and other church business. There will be a digital calendar you can subscribe to, keeping everyone subscribed up to date without a lengthy process. This has become my favorite feature of the site by far. Additionally, since you found this post, you have found the church blog! This is not a new feature, but it is easier to find and will make the writings more prominent. Pastor Eddie has two blog posts already scheduled, one for 1/15 and the other on 1/29.

With every new technological advancement, there are bound to be some bugs in the system. If you stumble across one, please let me know, I am glad to fix it! This includes the spelling errors that I am sure have ended up somewhere. My editor and wife (Caitlin) was not always available to check my work!

The ease in updating is just one bonus. Now that we can keep the site up to date, we are planning on adding Pathway to several different sites that recommend churches. The current generation use these sites to find churches and it should allow us to have greater visibility in our community.

The final thought I want to leave you with is, despite us using new methods to reach our community, our message does not change. Just like Paul, we preach Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2). Our greatest desire is to let a dying world know that sin is a real issue, hell is a real place, and our savior is greater than any of those problems. As we start 2023, let us gather in joy and contend for the salvation that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude1:3b)!