There are a lot of things about Pathmakers Church that make us different than other places. One of those is how often our “main preacher guy” shares the speaking duties with other Pathmakers. Frankly, too many churches elevate the message or “the pulpit” as being these sacred responsibilities that must be “received” with total obedience and submission by those in attendance. On the contrary, every message you’ll ever hear from anyone who isn’t actually Jesus Christ Himself (or maybe one of the Apostles…) is really just the speaker’s opinion on a topic and the speaker’s interpretation of the Scripture and the speaker’s conception of how it all relates. They could be right, they could be wrong. It’s YOUR job to go home, review the Scriptures for yourself, pray about it, and seek God’s leading with respect to what you heard on a Sunday.
We realize that is the most deflating news to the majority of self-important “teaching pastors” in the world. And a surprising perspective to many other church regulars. But it shouldn’t be. The Bereans of Acts had this figured out at the dawn of church history. Read it for yourself.
That’s the Pathmakers attitude. We think it’s a whole lot more Biblical (again, our interpretation and opinion…) to understand “sermons” in that context… and it gets rid of a whole bunch of pesky denominational challenges and debates Christians have been having for centuries (it’s amazing what losing an unBiblical view of things can do for your spiritual freedom!). And the fun part? You get the chance to hear a lot of difference voices at Pathmakers over the course of a year! Male and female, young and old, classically trained or ruggedly organic, intellectual or emotional, facts-based or experience oriented… and everything in between. The one thing everyone has in common? They all love Jesus and seek to follow Him according to the timeless, inspired truths of the Bible and the ongoing leading of the Holy Spirit in their lives. At least that’s the criteria our main guy, Joe, has set for anyone that wants to share their heart with the Pathmakers family.
This summer, we have the privilege of hearing from founding leadership like Andy, Sean, Sarah, and Jeremiah, along with some new voices making their Pathmakers debut. These are always special times for us as a church family… and the best part? They all seem to speak about 10-20 minutes less than Joe normally does! So, join us this summer for another “Voices of Pathmakers” and let God speak to you from the unique ways He is speaking to your brothers and sisters in Christ.