Blog: September 2024

Recently I had the chance to welcome our 2024-2025 Preschool parents during their start-of-the-year orientation.  And I thought that some of parents might be wondering what kind of a church we are.  After all, there are all kinds of churches—larger-smaller, older-newer, this denomination and that, etc. So what makes Goshen Goshen?  Maybe you’re asking that question too.  Well, there are a lot of good answers—but I only had a couple minutes, so I made five quick points.  Goshen is… Bible-based.  We recognize the Bible as the divinely ...

Genesis 4 offers insight into the first family in history—showcasing the deathly reality of sin and merciful nature of God. Here, we read of Abel’s blood that was wrongfully shed, which cried out for condemnation. In contrast, however, the gospel speaks of a different firstborn Son whose blood provides everlasting life to us instead. How does Cain’s life differ from Eve’s expectations for her firstborn son? What can we learn about sin, sacrifice, and the God who is worthy of worship? Brothers Cain and Abel both offered sacrifices to God, ...

Rebecca McLaughlin recently published a short book, Does the Bible Affirm Same-Sex Relationships?  Examining 10 Claims about Scripture and Sexuality. (If you’re not familiar with McLaughlin, I’d encourage you to check out her book, Confronting Christianity, which won the 2020 Christianity Today Book of the Year award.) To clarify, McLaughlin is referring to same-sex romantic partner­ships, and she asserts that the Bible does not affirm such relation­ships (p. 13).  What’s more, “… the question of whether the Bible allows for same-sex sexual ...