Posts from October 2020

5 Items

Pray the Psalms! REALLY!?

by Tyler Dirks

I have often heard the leaders of ECPC say to people, “Pray the Psalms!” If you heed this counsel, you will find it fairly straight forward so long as you happen upon prayers like Psalm 5, wherein your participation involves personally adopting the words, “Through the abundance of Your steadfast love, I will enter Your […]

Blood That Speaks Better…

by Tyler Dirks

I had the privilege of baptizing Mason Smith yesterday. Naturally, for Presbyterian purposes, I wanted to work the word “sprinkle” into the baptism schpeel, and so I quoted from Hebrews 12:24 where it says, “Jesus, the Mediator of a New Covenant, and His sprinkled blood which speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” […]

Leadership…

by Tyler Dirks

Over the past 6 years ECPC has many times wondered, debated, and wrestled with the question, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” And Christ’s prophetic and pastoral response has consistently been, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child […]

Option #3

by Tyler Dirks

Imagine your sibling needs medicine for a chronic medical condition. Your family struggles to make ends-meet, and the needed medication is expensive. Through creative budgeting tactics your family is barely able to afford the daily doses. The average pressure of this predicament is stressful, but to make matters worse there is a brutal chief tax […]

Full Disclosure

by Tyler Dirks

One of my favorite words is “subversive.” Ask Justin …he’ll back me up on that. So you can imagine my excitement when I read this excerpt from Eugene Peterson’s book, “Subversive Spirituality.” The emphasis of ECPC has always been on SAVORING the King of kings, and of course slowness and savoring are inextricably linked; but […]