September 2025 (Unity After Opposition)

FBC Gallatin,

I write this as I prepare to go on vacation with my family, and I mark this month of August 2025 moving into September 2025 as a joyful “full circle” season for the life of our church, because it is about a year after a very difficult time at FBC Gallatin. The Lord has preserved us and instructed us well, and kept us together, and we are in so many ways a different church than we were just one year ago. And I have seen the kind providence and clear hand of God’s protection and help with us through such a trying season.

Looking back, relevant biblical instruction and correction just so happened to coincide with coming to Matthew 23:1-12 in our Kingdom Come Matthew 19-28 series a little over one year ago… And in this upcoming month of September about a year later, after our family returns from vacation, Lord willing, we will be coming back to finish the chapter (Matthew 23) in verses 13-39. And the themes of Religious Hard Hearts just landed during this very difficult season a year ago, and the application in that Matthew 23 sermon was, needless to say; very close to home... And then a week after that sermon was preached, we heard from pastor Wood about his resignation and intention to leave not only his job, but also our church because of how unhealthy things were in certain areas of our church. Praise God for moving in ways this past year to lead Wood and Ashley to stay at our church as members, when it looked all but definite that they would be leaving for understandable reasons at the time… But thankfully, things have changed significantly around here at FBC Gallatin, leading to a new way forward in better church health and unity!

Part of the reason it feels like a full circle moment to me is that we recently received similar relevant biblical instruction from God’s Word from 3^rd John. The contrast between the divisive opponents within the church from Diotrephes, and the faithful ministry of Gaius also hit close to home… As we saw that the church bully Diotrephes tried to derail faithful biblical ministry going on in the church, but the apostle John wrote the letter of 3rd John to encourage Gaius and Demetrius and the rest of the church to keep on moving forward in faithful ministry, even in light of the opposition from a church bully of all things… And we saw from 3^rd John the ugly portrait of a church bully that pictures someone who craves selfish authority, spreads wicked nonsense and gossip, and opposes biblical ministry. Furthermore, we learned from the apostle John’s example that we are to biblically expose the bully’s lies and deceit, and side with biblical apostolic ministry over and against the bully’s “strong arming” ways… And we were warned once again to beware of their toxic influence… This was all of course reminiscent of the warning we received from God’s Word regarding the religious hard hearted pharisees from Matthew 23 a year ago.

I share this summary with you now because if you remember at the end of my recent sermon on 3^rd John titled; “Dealing with Church Bullies,” my warning was that we need to watch out for church bullies like this in the future; implying that we are thankfully not now bogged down by this problem as a church anymore. This is the difference that this past year has made. Praise God for leading us into a new direction, so that as I prepare to preach Matthew 23:13-39 in September about a year later, that I am preaching the same chapter (Matthew 23), only to a changed church, that has repented of sin, and has changed its past patterned practices, and is moving forward together in unity! Soli Deo Gloria!

Sincerely,

Pastor Daniel Pelichowski