Randy Folkenberg

Apprentice of Jesus. Husband. Outdoor enthusiast. Church planter. Seventh-day Adventist pastor.

[Randy Folkenberg @RandyFolkenberg]

“… It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body…” (Phil 1:20)
Grounding myself in this prayer this morning.

[Randy Folkenberg @RandyFolkenberg]

“Lament carves a basin in our psyche for joy.” - Amanda Cook

[Rich Villodas @richvillodas]

Evangelical Christianity in the United States is often characterized by a deep desire to have “Christianity” pervade our culture but not have Christ permeate our being.

[Randy Folkenberg @RandyFolkenberg]

“I’m not sure I’m ready for Jesus’ return.”
If you believe in Jesus but think that, then ask yourself: If God were to come today, would Jesus be ready?

Obviously yes! Well, if Jesus is ready, and you are in Him, then you are ready.
His readiness is yours. Take a load off!

[Rich Villodas @richvillodas]

4 things I have to regularly distinguish as a pastor:

Are my words being shaped by pastoral concern or pastoral anxiety?

Is my leadership invitational or impositional?

Am I nurturing a culture of empowerment or just being lazy?

Am I developing others or controlling?

[Randy Folkenberg @RandyFolkenberg]

I was taught to be able to summarize a message in one sentence. As a pastor I practice this weekly and it’s so helpful.
This week’s #sermoninasentence : “God implores us to ask Him questions, to seek what we don’t know in the One we do.”

[Randy Folkenberg @RandyFolkenberg]

Snippet from a sermon series I’m sharing called “No Bad Questions”:
Until I’m confident that a person knows I love them, and until I’m prepared to treat them better after they answer the question than I have before, regardless of their answer, I’m in no place to ask the question.

[Rev. Benjamin Cremer @Brcremer]

Dear Christian,

If your preferred news source stokes your fear, anger, and hatred towards others rather than inspiring you to want to learn more, empathize, and understand others better, then it is discipling you in the opposite direction from the love of Jesus.

[Randy Folkenberg @RandyFolkenberg]

Promise to claim today:
“Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now arise,” says the the Lord. “I will place him in the safety for which he longs.”
Ps. 12:5

[Rev. Benjamin Cremer @Brcremer]

Imagine if “taking a stand for Jesus” looked like bringing even more good news to the poor, more food to the hungry, more advocacy for the oppressed, more turning the other cheek, more compassion, more grace, and more mercy, rather than stoking the fires of a hostile culture war.

[Rich Villodas @richvillodas]

Sabbath is one of clearest signs of the gospel of grace. You intentionally accomplish nothing and God still loves you.

Such good news.

[Randy Folkenberg @RandyFolkenberg]

Putting the finishing touches on a message for my church family here in Redmond. Going through Colossians and focusing today in 2:16-23.
Such an inspired and prophetic passage for our day:

Anything that points beyond Christ, though it appears as progress, is only regress.

[Randy Folkenberg @RandyFolkenberg]

@ReggieRichJr Bro we should go to a game together.

[Randy Folkenberg @RandyFolkenberg]

@Benjaminlund Ok but that name is good 😂

[Rev. Benjamin Cremer @Brcremer]

One of the gifts of the Old Testament is how faithful Israel was in recording their unfaithfulness.

Israel could’ve erased all their sins, but they recorded their idolatry, oppression of others, and when they put words in God's mouth.

Erasing a nation’s sins isn’t Biblical.

[Rev. Benjamin Cremer @Brcremer]

A Christianity that believes it needs a political party, president, legislation, and a nation to ensure its survival is a Christianity that actually dethrones Jesus as savior of the nations and advances a belief that Jesus needs a nation to be his savior.

Jesus is Lord. Period.

[Anthony WagenerSmith @wagenersmith]

House churches—if not missional—become house fires.

You can worship on a sofa rather than a pew, under a chimney rather than a steeple. But if all you do is transfer the location of consumerism you are living off siphoned energy.

Plant the church around the gospel not a method

[Randy Folkenberg @RandyFolkenberg]

It seems that there are few things more pronounced in Biblical Christianity yet more neglected in American Christianity right now than this.

Why didn’t Jesus just come out and say, “My kingdom is not of this world?”
Oh wait. He did. He does.

[Rev. Benjamin Cremer @Brcremer]

All the first disciples ultimately realized that Christianity sounds like “we need to take up our crosses and follow Jesus,” and not like “we need to take back our nation for God.”

Beware of any Christianity that centers itself more on a nation than it does the cross of Christ.

[Randy Folkenberg @RandyFolkenberg]

If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Galatians 1:10

[Ty Gibson @tyfgibson]

A THREAD ON THE VACCINE

1/10 If you are struggling to know whether to get the vaccine, may I offer the following line of reasoning for your consideration?