Category: General

Each year, the Free Community Thanksgiving Meal also fills an important need: on the holiday, many county programs and Meals on Wheels are closed. We are glad to serve and to provide meal delivery on Thanksgiving Day for their clients.

One story from the day: A woman who received meal delivery sent a message thanking us, and mentioned that many years ago, she and her mother had volunteered together for multiple years at the Free Thanksgiving Meal. Now she is living with a disability, and her husband is having some health issues — so they called to receive meals this year. It was a “full circle” experience for her to have volunteered in the past, and now be blessed by receiving a meal.

It is a blessing to offer this meal as a gift of love to our community, and live out Jesus’ commands to help those who are hungry and spend time with those who are lonely. And we couldn’t do it without every person who volunteered, donated food or finances, and prayed for every detail.

We also thank our community partners, Fox Communities Credit Union, Hupy & Abraham, N & M Transfer, and The Grand Meridian. And we are grateful to WHBY, WIXX, The Family Radio Network, WBAY-Channel 2, FOX 11, and WFRV-Channel 5 for helping get the word out to the community!

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; His love endures forever. ~Psalm 136:1

Our Peru team is back stateside! This trip was a construction trip focused on building a home in a very hard-to-reach area of Peru’s Amazon River basin. The team from CTR traveled by plane and boat to meet up with volunteers and staff from RiverWind Inc., our ministry partners in Peru.

The CTR team transported tools and materials, and had to anticipate needs they might have. When you’re working in such a remote location, there is no Home Depot or Lowe’s to run to! The project location was in the wilderness near Nueva Italia, where they were building a house for pastors who are receiving training by RiverWind.

RiverWind Inc., is run by Richard and Ruth Hidalgo de Robinson. RiverWind’s  mission is to equip and educate indigenous pastors to share the Gospel and establish churches in remote locations, reaching out to people groups who may never have heard the name of Jesus previously.

We are so thankful to this team for bringing their creativity, problem-solving skills, and construction knowledge to serve others. We are also grateful to everyone at Christ The Rock — your generosity and love for people you may never meet made this trip possible. Please keep Dick, Ruth and the pastors they’re equipping in your prayers as they carry the Good News of Jesus Christ to remote places, and please also pray for people who may be hearing about Him for the first time.

Each February, The Family Radio (91.9 FM) organizes a community-wide collection of hygiene supplies to help emergency shelters, domestic violence shelters, school districts and other crisis agencies. And Christ The Rock is so grateful to be part of this effort — and all of us together are providing basic items like shampoo, laundry detergent, diapers, toothbrushes, and more to people experiencing homelessness in the Fox Valley.

And you showed up, CTR! Each week, you filled the cardboard bins, and the table in the lobby overflowed onto the floor. Over and above your tithing and usual generosity, you helped provide items that crisis agencies often lack the budget to purchase.

Here’s one story from last year about the impact your giving has for our Fox Valley neighbors who are in a housing crisis:

After losing her job due to COVID, she’d been sick for a month and was still suffering acute sinus pain and hearing loss. Her eyes lit up when she saw the laundry detergent, saying “Thank you! I’ve been using dish soap to clean our clothes since I haven’t been able afford laundry soap.” She also was thrilled to get deodorant for herself and her teen daughter because they’d been scraping the inside of their tube to make it last. In spite of her poor health, she’ll start a new job this week, “Because it’s what I have to do.” – June Sawall, The Salvation Army

Thank you for loving people in Jesus’ name right here in our community.

In October, a team from CTR traveled to Clarkston, Georgia to serve people who are refugees to the US. The team worked with our ministry partners at Envision Atlanta. Over the years, Clarkston, Georgia has received over 40,000 refugees. Envision Atlanta focuses on helping refugees “thrive, not just arrive.” Over the years, adults and children from 90 different people groups have all arrived and lived in Clarkston.

On this trip, the CTR team started by being educated about the circumstances that bring refugees to the US, and typical difficulties as they adapt to living here. During their trip, our volunteers helped with a variety of projects.

Team members spent time organizing donated toys for Christmas, and helped run a gymnastics camp outreach for children in the neighborhood. They also joined refugees for worship, and attended a French African church service,  The CTR team also blessed one of Envision Atlanta’s long-term ministry families by cleaning their apartment.

We are thankful for each person who served and shared the love of Christ — and for work Envision Atlanta does all year long to welcome refugees and share the Gospel and love of Jesus with them.

Don’t mistreat any foreigners who live in your land. Instead, treat them as well as you treat citizens and love them as much as you love yourself. Remember, you were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. ~Leviticus 19:33-32

I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me. ~Matthew 25:35

On Sunday, October 17, Christ The Rock attenders and our Elder Team prayed over our new Lead Pastor, Joel Zeiner. While his staff position as Lead Pastor is new, Pastor Joel has been part of CTR for more than 20 years, first as a new Christian, and later as a staff member.

Pastor Joel grew up in Appleton. When he was a teenager, he accepted Jesus Christ while attending a family camp at Green Lake Conference Center. He started attending Christ The Rock with his family when he was in high school.

After graduating from Appleton West, Pastor Joel earned a degree in Comparative Religion from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2001 then went to seminary at Yale Divinity School, where he received his Masters of Divinity in 2005.

Joel first joined the church staff as a Youth Pastor in 2005. Then he became our Missions Pastor in 2014, and as such, became part of our Senior Leadership Team. In 2019, his ministry focus shifted, and he began serving as our Teaching Pastor and Weekend Services Director. Joel accepted the role of Lead Pastor when it was offered by the elders in early 2021.

Joel and his wife Jenn have been married for 12 years, and have three children, Finnleigh (10), Ainsley (8) and Bode (5). He loves spending time with his family, and also enjoys golf, fishing, biking, canoeing, and reading. He also serves on various boards for the YMCA of the Fox Cities, where he is a life-long member.

In addition to his educational qualifications, Pastor Joel’s ministry is fueled by his love for Jesus, and his love for this local church and the Fox Valley. He is passionate about introducing people to the Gospel, and seeing them grow as disciples of Jesus Christ.

We are excited to see what God has in store as Pastor Joel begins serving as our Lead Pastor — and as always, we invite you to pray for him, our Senior Leadership Team and and our Elder Team as they lead us.

Honoring Pastor Curt

During our October 10 services, we honored our Lead Pastor Curt Drexler on his final Sunday before retiring from staff. It was an honor to celebrate his leadership, which started in 1988 — and was hallmarked by integrity, faithfulness and a shepherd’s heart. He and Marian have blessed so many people in more than three decades  serving our church family. It was an incredible time remembering and worshiping God for all He has done through Pastor Curt’s life and ministry.

We invite you to watch this recap of his ministry, and the profound impact he’s had on the life of Christ The Rock, and on so many individual lives:

Click here to watch “Honoring a Legacy: Pastor Curt Drexler.”

Earlier in the week, the CTR staff had a fun surprise for Pastor Curt before his retirement. After cheering him down the back road to the church, there was a ceremonial unveiling: the road is now officially named Drexler Drive in his honor! Staff shared words of thanks and blessing, and had a time of prayer under the gorgeous blue sky.

In this new phase of life and ministry, Pastor Curt plans to continue pursuing two of his passions. He will keep volunteering with Catch A Dream, which offers hunting expeditions for terminally ill children, and shares the hope of Jesus with them. And he will continue another passion: designing and creating custom log and wood furnishings. If you’d like to know what he’s building, you can see his latest work at Dry Creek Custom Log Furniture on Facebook.

Note: If you’d like read transcripts of a few messages Pastor Curt has shared over the years, we have published six of them here.

This weekend will be my is my last “official” Sunday with you before I retire. I can hardly believe that this time, which we’ve planned for years, is finally here.

It seems when we start out, life is a series of “firsts.” First day of school, first dance, first car (and first car troubles!). First job, house, child.

I still vividly remember my first day in the church office in 1988. There were only a few of us on staff, and I felt overwhelmed. With a small business background, what did I know about being in ministry? And there were other firsts – the first time Pastor Bill asked me to speak on a weekend, my first elder meeting, and being ordained.

In the fall of 2020, I began a new phase: a series of “lasts.” The last weekend I shared from the pulpit, my last elder meeting (at least for a few months), my last staff meeting. And Sun., Oct. 10, will be my last time speaking to you as your Lead Pastor.

But not all lasts are bad – a few weeks ago was an amazing “last.” I had the privilege of facilitating my last baptism: baptizing a 70-year-old man in the beauty of the Wolf River. Hearing him proclaim his commitment to Christ in full view and hearing of all creation was an honor I will carry with me for the rest of my days!

While I am retiring my position from the church, I’m not retiring from life! After a time of sabbatical, you’ll still see me around CTR. And I will continue doing things I love. For 16 years, I’ve had a side business building log and rustic furniture. I will be able to expand that business in retirement. If you’d like to keep tabs on what I’m doing, feel free to follow Dry Creek Custom Log Furniture on Facebook.

It seems fitting that God, the Alpha and Omega, gives us beginnings and endings. I am deeply grateful that God gave me the opportunity to serve Him and to serve you these past three and a half decades! I can’t thank you enough for your patience, grace, and mercy. My wife Marian and I consider you as much family as our own blood brothers and sisters.

Christ The Rock is and always will be God’s church, so please continue to pray for Joel Zeiner, the Elders, the Senior Leadership Team, and staff as they work with you to fulfill the calling God gave us so many years ago. I do believe that our best years are still to come!

I am and will always be “in it with you.” With much love,

Pastor Curt

The question “Who is my neighbor?” launches one of Jesus’ most well-known parables, the story of the Good Samaritan (found in Luke 10:25-37). Like the teacher of the law in this account, all of us who are disciples of Jesus must answer this question. A group of high school students from Christ The Rock traveled to Clarkston, Georgia in June to serve new neighbors in our country: refugees from all over the world who are resettling in the United States.

Working with Envision Atlanta, our students and their adult leaders worked to meet practical needs, and shared the love and Gospel of Jesus in a variety of ways. They prepared food boxes for refugee families, delivered food door-to-door, and cleaned up garbage and broken glass in an apartment complex where refugee families live. Students prepared for Vacation Bible School, and played with neighborhood kids.

The week was also educational. Our students learned about House Church Planting and how to share their testimonies and the Gospel in five minutes. Students were then divided into groups with Envision staff and walked and prayed through the apartment complex. They also got to see and hang out with Kadeem, our speaker for January’s IceBlast retreat.

Students worked hard preparing the grounds of a new site that will provide food, resources, and jobs for refugees in Clarkston. Then they hosted a Friday night Youth Group for refugee teens, serving them dinner and playing games.

They also took time to enjoy God’s creation by hiking on Stone Mountain, and took a trip into Atlanta to see historic Ebenezer Baptist church and the MLK memorial.

We are so proud of these students and their adult leaders who model living for Christ, and reflect God’s concern for foreigners throughout the Scriptures:

He (God) gives justice to orphans and widows. He shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing. You, too, must show love to foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 10:18-19)

I instructed the judges, ‘You must be perfectly fair at all times, not only to fellow Israelites, but also to the foreigners living among you.’ (Deuteronomy 1:16)

For I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison and you visited me. (Matthew 25:35)

Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it….Share in the sorrow of those being mistreated, as though you feel their pain in your own bodies. (Hebrews 13:2)

We thank our High School Student Ministry Director Dave Coulson, and everyone who was part of this trip — you were the hands and feet of Jesus, and also represented the mission of our church family to “seek the lost, love the hurting, and make disciples.”

by Curt Drexler, Lead Pastor

As we reach the one-year mark of being affected by Covid, I have been thinking, praying, and meditating on some things that have emerged during these months, hoping I would come to some helpful conclusions or resolutions. However, with the passage of time, my concerns have only grown deeper. I want to lay out what I’m seeing regarding the church, the faith and what may be happening right under our noses – and what I believe God is calling us to be.

C.S. Lewis wrote a book in 1941 called The Screwtape Letters, which depicted the workings of our enemy. In these letters, Screwtape (a seasoned warrior of Satan) instructs Wormwood (his apprentice) about what he is doing wrong in trying to “turn the patient,” which is how Screwtape describes turning a Christian away from the fellowship of believers and from following Christ. It is a masterful depiction of how easily we can be distracted from what we are called to.

The Screwtape Letters reminds us that Christians are in a real war. It is not just a war to distract us from good – it is a war for our very souls, and a strategy to weaken and destroy His Church. Throughout history, one particular tool has worked with precision and power – and continues to do so in every sphere of human influence, including the church: divide and conquer.

It is not a complicated tactic – it is a simple strategy to turn us against one another. As long as the enemy can make us think the person next to us is the problem, the actual enemy isn’t in focus. It changes us from a unified force to a divided army in our church, community, family, or relationships. It erodes our trust in each other and takes our focus off of God, the only true source of safety and security.

Between the election and the onset of Covid, 2020 was one of the most divisive years I can ever remember. It would have been bad enough if this dissension were confined to the political world, but it also began to seep into churches and into sincere believers’ hearts (including mine) without fanfare or overt detection.

This past year, I have been disappointed in my own responses. I have to admit that I was shocked by how quickly I picked a side, how easily I made judgements about others because they had different points of view. This wasn’t a disruption happening “out there.” It crept into my closest relationships, including my own family. How could this happen?

If “divide and conquer” were a one-time event, we could see it coming and fight it together. But this favorite tactic of our enemy is much more subtle. It’s cumulative and progressive, and with the help of the internet we can find, with a few clicks, scores of people who will reinforce our personal convictions . . . while eroding our trust and shared purpose as followers of Jesus.

Have you not said something like this over this past year: “Who can I trust?”

With that question comes a mic drop from the enemy – as soon as my trust in you is in question, I have begun to be cut out of the flock and am a prime target to be isolated from the very force designed to overcome the gates of hell. Here’s my concern as it relates to us who call Christ The Rock our church home.

When the pandemic hit and we were asked to suspend services, there were immediate reactions on all sides. Not just here, but across the nation. It was the birth pains of an (almost) invisible war. As soon as we made those excruciating decisions to hold services online for a time, sides began to form. I wish it were just sides centered on wearing or not wearing masks. But suspicions and conclusions ran deeper. We (including myself) began to believe the small voice suggesting there must be something more sinister going on. Once that line of thought gets crossed in our minds, trust, unity, and our calling as a church are in peril. The result of mistrust is that the pursuit of a common cause (the Gospel) gives way to every man for himself. When that takes root – the enemy wins!

We are beginning to see the pandemic wane, with infection rates decreasing. By summer, much of our lives will begin to return to more familiar rhythms. What none of us know yet is what damage has been done to our country – to our trust in our leaders, friends, family members, and even our church. On a personal level, I’m afraid I will be tempted to bury what was exposed when I was pressed, and I will want to deny I was part of the problem.

I long for us to get back to “normal” again. But things aren’t the same – we are not the same. God allowed us to see some pretty ugly things this year in our nation, and we would be wasting an opportunity if we pretend we didn’t see it.

He wants us to see something that was always there – not to shame us, but so we would see it and repent. God is giving us a chance to see and repent of any foothold the enemy has in our lives concerning our relationships with others and with Christ Himself.

The root problem isn’t a virus, a mask mandate, an election or differing opinions. The real problem is what it’s always been: sin. The sin that puts our thoughts and opinions above others. The sin that says I am the holder of truth, and I will defend my personal rights at all costs. When our personal truth becomes king, our ability to see and love others is diminished.

To live out the following Scripture passages in our present circumstances it will take humility, courage, and forgiveness. I wish we had never heard of Covid-19 – I wish it hadn’t affected the way we think, live and love others. But it has. I pray that we will not forget what we have learned and that we choose to live differently. We have been called together for a purpose greater than ourselves! We have been called to show what unity looks like in a world being shaken every day. We are called to be His Church! May it be so.

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. ⁴Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. ⁶It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

⁸Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! ⁹Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! ¹⁰But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. ¹¹When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. ¹²Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

¹³Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. • 1 Corinthians 13

I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. • John 17:23

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the LORD’s people. • Ephesians 6:12-18

Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. ¹⁴Do everything in love. • 1 Corinthians 16:13-14