This past week, an epic showdown took place that has been much anticipated for a very long time.  This battle has been talked about, blogged about, speculated about for months.  People have gotten into huge arguments over which side is right, which side is the one they are pulling for.  No, I am not talking about the Republican or Democratic debates.  I am talking about the preview for the new “Captain America: Civil War” movie due to release in May 2016.
I’ve been a comic book fan for quite a long time.  I can talk about comic book characters and story arcs longer than most people can talk about anything.  I know more about Wolverine’s origin story than my own children.  I have a collection of comic books stored in four huge plastic bins in my old bedroom in my parents’ house in NJ that I refuse to let my mom throw out.  I’ll be 33 years old this year.  My mom hates me.
We have this nook in the entryway of our home that my wife Mina likes to decorate with seasonal paraphernalia like garlands and bells at Christmas.  I make sure that a Batman figure is prominently exhibited in front of the display.  Whenever Mina takes it down, I promptly put it back up despite her warnings of impending death.  My wife hates me.
My kids have tons of super hero Legos and other figurines.  I get really upset with them when they mix up the pieces and lose them.  I yell at them and make them put them back in the right places and play with them “with the respect due to Silver Surfer and Green Lantern.”  My kids hate me.
Some people might say, “David, it’s time to grow up.  Let’s move on from comic books and focus on, you know, raising your children.”  To them, I’d respond, “Is being a grown up that fun?  Is it really that much better to let go of things you used to love as a child but is frowned upon now that you’re older?  Am I supposed to stop laughing at fart jokes now too?”  As the apostle Paul said, “BY NO MEANS!”
Sometimes, we the church take being a Christian too seriously.  We sit around and debate matters of theology and church business as if we are the very gatekeepers of all that is holy.  We sit in service and worship with frowns on our face, perhaps in concentration, but where is the joy?  Where is our childlike faith?  Where is our unbridled excitement and anticipation to be with our Father?  Maybe for some of us, we’ve been at this “church” thing too long.  Maybe for some of us, we feel like God stuff has to be serious stuff – this is the Creator of FOREVER we’re talking about, right?
Yes, this is all true.  And 1 Corinthians 13:11 says “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”  But I think this has to do with matters of spiritual maturity, not necessarily the posture of our heart before our Father.  As a father myself, nothing makes me happier than when my kids are happy…especially when they’re just happy to be with me.  So while we should all be growing up into adults in terms of spiritual maturity, let’s remain children in our joy and anticipation of being with our Father.
Also, who wants to watch Captain America: Civil War with me?  My mom, wife, and kids all refuse to go.

From Pastor David’s Heart
March 13, 2016

What is ESL? And why should we start an ESL ministry? The past weekend, eleven of us from NCFC had the opportunity to attend an English as a Second Language (ESL) Training Seminar at Chapelgate Presbyterian Church in Marriottsville, MD. The training seminar was for churches who have a burden to start an outreach ministry, especially to their surrounding community of international students, immigrants, refugees, and non-native language speakers. NCFC is definitely situated in an international neighborhood and community in Germantown, MD, and there are still many who do not know our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ! We learned that the primary goal of church-based ESL ministries is “to intentionally share and demonstrate the gospel of Jesus Christ as we help people learn to speak English.”
Some of us were frightened at first by the packed schedule, which ran from 6pm to 9:30pm on Friday evening and from 8:45am to 5:30pm on Saturday. But after helping ourselves to a cup of Keurig coffee and the variety of sweet and salty snacks provided, we were ready to tackle the training! We learned the nitty gritty details of how to organize ESL classes and recruit/train volunteers, how to place students in the appropriate class levels, how to plan out an ESL lesson and effectively teach it, and how to deal with cultural misunderstandings. At the same time we also learned how to incorporate biblical material into our ESL classes. We realized that ESL ministry is more than just about providing quality language classes, but also about building relationships with people, meeting basic human needs, physically demonstrating Christ’s love, and providing a natural setting for sharing the gospel. Oftentimes, ESL ministries also result in new missions and church starts.
But perhaps the most inspiring part of the training seminar for me was the many testimonies that the trainer, Nancy, shared from her 25+ years of involvement in ESL ministry as a lay church member with no professional training in ESL. Here is one that I would like to share with you.
After much prayer and hard work, Nancy finally witnessed the wife of a Chinese couple come to believe in Jesus Christ as a result of attending ESL classes. Even though the husband is not a believer yet, both of them decided to start a weekly bible study at their home. At one point, they were expecting her parents to visit from overseas, and they were hoping that her parents would sit in on the bible studies as well. What they did not realize was that her parents were extremely against Christianity. In fact, they had called the police on a house church just above them in their apartment complex, which led to the church shutting down. As you can imagine, the parents were adamant about not joining the bible studies during their visit. But the Holy Spirit was working! By the second week, the pa rents were eavesdropping from the staircase in the house. By the third week, the parents continued to eavesdrop, this time pretending to clean in the kitchen which was situated closer to the bible study. By the fourth week, they were finally sitting in the bible studies. Her parents eventually became Christians through the bible studies, and returned overseas with the intention to start up the house church that they had originally helped shut down!
I hope this testimony inspires you as well. Our God has literally brought the nations to our doorsteps right here in Germantown, and he desires for us to engage with and transform our community for His namesake! May NCFC take on the call “to love those who are foreigners” (Deut. 10:19).

From Pastor Dave’s Heart
March 6, 2016