From Your Pastor

To the First Presbyterian Church at Norristown congregation,

This last Sunday we celebrated Transfiguration Sunday and we just marked Ash Wednesday with our traditional burning of the palms video (which as usual is free to view on our church video drive by clicking here). All this means this Sunday, February 22 we will begin Lent. In December I wrote to you about this long series in the lectionary, and we will continue with our emphasis on multiple scripture texts from there read every Sunday.

Lent is starting earlier than usual this year and all the snow on the ground in the above video bears that out. This is out of the ordinary for this area with the ongoing low temperatures and the blizzards, though not in the areas I've lived in prior. In my years of growing up in Minnesota and my last church position in Western New York I am well acquainted with the often interminable wait for the snow to melt and spring to finally come. Lent and its season of earnest expectation fits this theme well. Weather, like life, is unpredictable. Maybe all the snow will melt in a week or we may still see snow on the ground in April. The spiritual practices of Lent teach us that we can't always change our circumstances, but rather rely on God - who brought Jesus through trials into death and back to life! - to bring us through them.

The season of Lent also brought to mind our recent annual meeting and my own pastors report. In that meeting, a new member asked about the funerals and weddings I officiate and which ones appear or don't appear in the annual report. My quick answer was off-site weddings and funerals, many of which don't involve church members, aren't actually anything connected to First Presbyterian Church, but just something that I do on my own time as an ordained minister out in the community. It was interesting to reflect that I did officiate three weddings in a thirteen-month span, which is unheard of for me. In today's age of cheap online ordination certificates, many people just simply get their friends to do it. I've mentioned many times I waited on tables to get through seminary, and I still remember my boss at the restaurant bragging how he was an ordained minister for the price of $15 while I was toiling away at my Master of Divinity degree. Over fifteen years later, I have noticed that while many may call their "ordained" friends to officiate their weddings, almost everyone seems to want an actual minister to officiate a funeral. Even with those three weddings, the funerals I officiated in the same span still handily outnumbered that. This as well, I think, relates to Lent. The finality of death is a hard trial, and grieving people want to hear from more than just a friend, if any friend would even want to officiate a funeral. (This also informs us on the current climate of how seriously weddings and marriages are taken . . . but that's probably best reserved for another column!)

Hard times and loss might be the way the true church, the one of Jesus Christ crucified AND resurrected, can find its witness. People may want a pastor to officiate their funerals and memorial service, but ultimately I'm not armed with anything different than any Christian. And by being Lenten Christians, we can find a way to meet people in darkness and loss and lead them to the new life available only in Jesus Christ. Of course, I've had the training and experience, but Lent is meant for all Christians. And those of you who have been reading my prior Lent columns know that many of the spiritual practices of Lent like fasting and other forms of denial continue to elude me. So I hope we can take this Lent to keep growing together. Besides: funerals, weddings, and really any aspect of life is a community thing. Lent is a time for all of us to be witnesses for Christ to our friends and neighbors. I hope we all can embrace bringing Christ into the darkness of winter and snow, in the darkness of our country and culture, in times of celebration, and in times of trial.

Romans 15:5

~Pastor Peter Martin

YoungLives Banquet

February 26 at 6:30pm

Crowne Plaza in King of Prussia

All are invited to YoungLives' annual fundraising banquet and silent auction. This single parents' ministry meets one to two times a month in our facility and stores a number of their diaper & toy donations here. They have several local chapters around the Philadelphia area, and all of them will come together that night for a fundraising banquet with testimonials from both leaders and their young parents. Pastor Martin attends every year (last year he opened up the meeting with prayer). Please let him know if you would like to go with him.

From Your Pastor

To my church family,

I can begin with those words, because after ten and a half years with all of you, most of my kids’ lives, and so many great moments together, it’s been a blessing not just to be your pastor but to be a part of this congregational family. And this applies not just to me, but for Tara, Kade, & Willow. I think on just last month when Kade & Willow lit an Advent Candle and how Kade for a number of months has been participating, with Tara and other members, on the praise band, sharing his talents with the cajon drum. It is a privilege to say the Martins are a part of the family here.

Being a part of First Presbyterian Church at Norristown means being a part of the wider church of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ church has been here for 2000 years. More than that, in continuity with the people of God in the Old Testament – Israel, the patriarchs, Adam & Eve – it’s really been here since the beginning of time. We can thumb through the Bible and say it has the story of God’s people, of creation, and ultimately each individual member of this church. This last year I wrote one of my more regular pastor columns on how we had completed the Old Testament narrative in our long-running preaching series. (It can be found here, along with a thank you for your surprise party for my ten years here!) This series started in 2016 with Genesis and finished last spring with Nehemiah and Esther. Of course, my own sermons aren’t the point – now that you’ve been listening to them for over a decade you know all my quirks, flaws, and missteps – but the great story of how God cares for His family is one we should all keep hearing about.

Every annual report I spotlight a few different folks and/or church bodies in bold, and this year I’ll keep it to a minimum, just recognizing those who have united with this congregation in the past two years. Jim Walker, Jim Billow, Emmanuel Iheukwumere, Brian, Karen, & Hannah Stoltzfus have united to First Presbyterian at Norristown either by transfer or confirmation of their baptized membership in the church universal. I praise God that they have entrusted care to this church, and that we can continue to be a church that receives and gives the care of Jesus Christ.

Of course, our church government should always have the goal of caring for one another as Jesus cared for us. The last few years we’ve talked at length about the office of “Clerk of Session” and our board structures and we won’t belabor that again here (please see prior reports for more on that, including all the technical details). Suffice it to say here, we are for the time being keeping the bicameral board structure, with trustees and session meeting together more regularly. This is just to continue to keep all our officers involved in the large resource and responsibility of our facility. I am pleased to say that several new members, including several of the folks mentioned above, have joined session and trustees to partner with us in that care.

The process of discernment of church officers is handled by the church nominating committee, a group that my predecessor Rev. Paul Toms liked to call the most important committee in church work. I’ve seen firsthand its necessity with the last three years of serving on the Presbytery’s nominating committee. Again, I’ve detailed all the technicalities of serving on the Presbytery level (also three years ago on the General Assembly level) in prior reports. But in all of these levels of church government the overall thrust is still the same: we are the church, the family of God, and we need organization to care for one another. I hope in 2026 we can continue to embrace this responsibility as we are still very much in need of more members willing to step up and be a part of our ministry here. I anticipate more will be said about that this year.

For 2026, anyone who’s even glimpsed at the news knows it’s starting off with hard news about external and internal conflict involving our country. Now to get into those secular matters is beyond what we do here in church, but we are united together in our belief that our God is the creator of all and author of our salvation. Jesus spoke of wars and rumors of wars. He also spoke of trouble in this world, but we can have peace in His promise that He has overcome the world.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God and His church includes First Presbyterian Church at Norristown . . . my church family. That alone gives me hope for 2026, and I’m looking forward to facing it with all of you.

Joyfully and Respectfully Submitted!

~Rev. Peter Martin