by Rev. Dr, Tim Verhey, January 2026

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

New Year is not a religious holiday. The Christian year starts with Advent, which is at the end of November. But New Year’s Eve gets swept up into the Christmas holiday season with its round of parties and festivities. And there are certain New Year’s themes that resonate with a Christian worldview. As we welcome the coming of the newborn babe in Bethlehem, the Messiah, the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, we are also excited by the turn of the calendar and the opportunity for something better. So, we stay up, gathered with friends, to celebrate the arrival of a new year. Many also take this as an opportunity to make resolutions for personal improvement, having a sense that they are not yet the person they want to be or that God intends them to become.

Presbyterians are part of the Reformed tradition, which traces its lineage back to the great Protestant Reformer, John Calvin, who distinguished sanctification from justification. Justification is already accomplished. It is our salvation, which comes as a gift of God’s grace. We are already saved. But we are not yet sanctified—made holy. That is a process that takes a life-time, as we day-by-day live into our justification. It is also a gift of grace, as we slowly, gratefully, and persistently strive to do better and be better. It is why we confess our sin every Sunday in church. We are not yet the people God created us to be and treats us as. But we are making progress. This is reflected in the Presbyterian phrase, Reformed and Always Reforming. We are saved. Our status before God is unchangeable. But we have not yet become what God intends us to be. So, we put our trust in God and strive to become the people God created us to be—as individuals, as the church, as a society.

On Saturday, January 17th, the Session of College Church will gather at the manse for a half-day planning retreat. Their aim will be to consider how College church can become more faithful and create some achievable goals for the year that will help us move in that direction. The Session needs your help in discerning the goals College Church should embrace and the things we should do to achieve them. Below is a link to the Reformed and Always Reforming Survey. Please contribute your hopes and prayers for College Church by Friday, January 16th. It won’t take very long (it is just a few open-ended questions), but it will have an important impact on the Session’s Planning Retreat and College Church’s mission and ministry in 2026.

Shalom,
Pastor Tim

Reformed and Always Reforming Survey Link: https://forms.gle/vXxkNnfhMZh3BPmY9