Hello church family!  

We have just begun our annual fall Spiritual Growth Campaign.  We are spending 40 days, focused on the classic Christian disciplines.  We are reading the book A Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth by Richard Foster. This week we have been examining chapter one and an invitation to prepare the ground of our hearts for God to grow us into Chrtistlikeness. Next week, we are headed for chapter 3 on Prayer. We're skipping over chapter 2, Christian Meditation, simply because we cannot cover all of the content provided in the amount of time we have dedicated to this study.  While we will not examine the chapter on Christian Meditation closely, I feel compelled to share this brief excerpt from pages 25-26.  This past Sunday the question, "what is sanctified imagination?" was asked in adult Sunday School.  I attempted an answer on the spot.  Foster's well-written explanation below is quite rich.  Also, if you are not yet in a Small Group conversation, there is still time to join in.  Here is a list of the groups currently meeting. 

Warmly in Christ, 
Pastor Jonathan

Sanctifying the Imagination

We can descend with the mind into the heart most easily through the imagination. In this regard the great Scottish preacher Alexander Whyte speaks of “the divine offices and the splendid services of the Christian imagination.”18 Perhaps some rare individuals experience God through abstract contemplation alone, but most of us need to be more deeply rooted in the senses. We must not despise this simpler, more humble route into God’s presence. Jesus himself taught in this manner, making constant appeal to the imagination, and many of the devotional masters likewise encourage us in this way. St. Teresa of Ávila says, “…as I could not make reflection with my understanding I contrived to picture Christ within me.”19 Many of us can identify with her words, for we too have tried a merely cerebral approach and found it too abstract, too detached. Even more, the imagination helps to anchor our thoughts and center our attention. Francis de Sales notes that “by means of the imagination we confine our mind within the mystery on which we meditate, that it may not ramble to and fro, just as we shut up a bird in a cage or tie a hawk by his leash so that he may rest on the hand.”20 Some have objected to using the imagination out of concern that it is untrustworthy and could even be used by the Evil One. There is good reason for concern, for the imagination, like all our faculties, has participated in the Fall. But just as we can believe that God can take our reason (fallen as it is) and sanctify it and use it for his good purposes, so we believe he can sanctify the imagination and use it for his good purposes. Of course, the imagination can be distorted by Satan, but then so can all our faculties. God created us with an imagination, and as Lord of his creation he can and does redeem it and use it for the work of the kingdom of God. Another concern about the use of the imagination is the fear of human manipulation and even self-deception. After all, some have an “overactive imagination,” as we say, and they can concoct all kinds of images of what they would like to see happen. Besides, doesn’t the Bible warn against “the vain imaginations” of the wicked (Rom. 1: 21)? The concern is legitimate. It is possible for all of this to be nothing more than vain human strivings. That is why it is so vitally important for us to be thrown in utter dependence upon God in these matters. We are seeking to think God’s thoughts after him, to delight in his presence, to desire his truth and his way. And the more we live in this way, the more God utilizes our imagination for his good purposes. In fact, the common experience of those who walk with God is one of being given images of what can be. Often in praying for people I am given a picture of their condition, and when I share that picture with them, there will be a deep inner sigh, or they will begin weeping. Later they will ask, “How did you know?” Well, I didn’t know, I just saw it. To believe that God can sanctify and utilize the imagination is simply to take seriously the Christian idea of incarnation. God so accommodates, so enfleshes himself into our world that he uses the images we know and understand to teach us about the unseen world of which we know so little and which we find so difficult to understand.

MPC’s dear Janice Richards will be welcoming children from preschool-fifth grade to begin preparations for our annual Christmas Program!  Children are invited to join Janice on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. to learn songs for the December 19th Celebration!

Practices will begin on October 27th and will be held in the Post room in the Children’s Wing. 
If you have questions, please call or email Andria Kaskey, Director of Children’s Ministries:   andria@mediapresbyterian.org OR 610-420-4521.

Worship With Us

Media Presbyterian Church is currently offering Worship In-Person in the Sanctuary and Live via YouTube.  

To join online, simply navigate to our YouTube Page.

We gather for worship at 10 a.m., please join us!