Greetings in the name of our hated and persecuted Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

June is here. It’s been a year since our Lord revealed His answer to our unceasing prayers for our congregation. For years (decades even) we have been praying that we could reach our neighbors with the truth of God’s Word. We’ve been asking our Lord to reverse the decline in membership and church attendance and counter the stagnation of our own spiritual growth as Christians—to strengthen us and equip us to live the faith.

He heard our prayers. He has answered them and continues to answer them.

He did it in His unchanging, Godly fashion. That is, He answered in a way we weren’t expecting. For years we prayed for the mission of our church and while we prayed, we acted. We hosted community activities (carnivals, dinners, etc.) and launched services (date night, movie night, etc.) While we served our neighbors well, none of these areas of mission work bore the fruit we longed to see.

We loved our neighbors but never truly gained an opportunity to teach them what God says so that they would know the redemptive love of our Lord. So, we continued to pray, “Lord, let us reach our neighbors. Show us how we can reach those who are lost and caught up in the ways of the world. Lord, bring people to our church. Fill our pews. Keep our doors open. Glorify Your name among us.”

It felt like God was saying, “No, that’s not what I have prepared for Humboldt County. I let my church in Eureka close and I let my church in Fortuna close. You don’t know the plan, child, but I will let my church in Ferndale close, too.”

And then came June 2021. It wasn’t through a date-night program, participation in the Chamber of Commerce, or some other outreach idea, but the Lord did answer our prayers. He answered them His way, in His timing.

In God’s divine wisdom a powerful church sign, which spoke directly to our neighbors, was put on display. Immediately, we had our mission work cut out for us and were engaged in nonstop outreach efforts. Nearly every member of the church was sharing the Word of God with his or her neighbors. We were living our faith!

It turns out, that when we communicate God’s Word to our neighbors, when we speak up and share the truth of Scripture (even when it’s an unpopular message), God blesses our faithfulness. Scripture shows that this is how the Lord works. There is no need for ministry programs and we don’t need a big budget or specific training in mission work. All we need to do is what Scripture says: follow Jesus—be faithful to God’s Word.

The beauty of it, as we have seen, is that even the smallest congregation can do it. All it takes is a single Christian who is willing to remain faithful to Christ Jesus and take up the cross that He gives. All it takes is you trusting the promises of the Lord. It’s simple, but it’s not necessarily easy. At times it feels hard. Why? Because we’re not used to living out the faith. We’re not used to being hated and ridiculed for Christ’s sake. It hurts. However, when we lean on Christ and turn to His Word for comfort and peace, there is no insult or threat that can rob us of joy in Jesus.

Saints loved by God, may our Lord strengthen you now and forever. May He keep you steadfast in the faith all your days, and especially this month. May you be able to say with St. Paul, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Rom. 8:18)

The Lord is good. He is answering our prayers. The gates of hell will not prevail against Christ’s church, (Matt. 16:18).

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Bramwell

2 Cor. 12:10

When it comes to why we do what we do, there are certain things we should never forget. Among them are the words President Abraham Lincoln spoke when he established our National Day of Thanksgiving.

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and even soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious

gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United Stated States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

Abraham Lincoln

Click to access transcript_for_abraham_lincoln_thanksgiving_proclamation_1863.pdf

We have received many gracious gifts from the Most High God. The most cherished of them are distributed among Christ’s people every Sunday morning at St. Mark Lutheran Church. If you’d like to learn more about them, feel free to connect with me via the contact [page].

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Bramwell

Ferndale will resist the woke.

Recounting the first time he heard of hippies and marijuana, Dave Renner said, “what is taboo for one generation, the next generation tolerates and the third generation accepts as normal.” (71 Reunion Committee & Our Story Staff, “Riders on The Storm,” Our Story: The Ferndale Museum, 42 no. 3 [May-June 2021]: 7.) This is how it seems to work, isn’t it? And not just with social taboos, but with morals, too.

Charles Spurgeon described what Mr. Renner observed another way. He said, “The house is being robbed… but the good people who are in bed are too fond of the warmth, and too much afraid of getting broken heads, to go downstairs and meet the burglars….” (Owen Strachan, Christianity and Wokeness [Washington D.C.: Salem Books, 2021], 205.)

Spurgeon’s words present toleration and the acceptance of sin in terms of contented selfishness and cowardice.

The words attributed to Edmund Burke address moral creep in yet another way. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Amen! And Ferndale has them. Good men. That’s why I’m confident we will resist the wokeness that has infected our country. We have too many good men to tolerate and accept Marxism as the norm. I can already hear them getting out of bed, heading downstairs, and meeting the woke burglars where they stand.

Like Communism, wokeness derives from the ideas of Karl Marx. It’s “an activist social religion [that] specializes in mobilization. It creates a false society-wide sin pattern, raises the alarm to solve it, marshals support from the public square, and then agitates for sweeping social and cultural change to combat it,” (Strachan, Christianity and Wokeness, 203). You might say that the woke rally cry urges Ferndalers to be indivisible in a way that marches to that ol’ Marxian maxim, workers of the world, unite! (Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, Gutenberg, January 25, 2005. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/61/pg61.html)

But as I said, good men are already out of bed. They can hear the woke doublespeak. They have recognized that wokeness is not about unity, equality, or justice. They see that it is divisive and that it encourages neighbors to despise one another. They recognize that it promotes a pride that condemns people who have different thoughts and how it robs us all of joy and peace. They see that it directs us away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ, makes us bitter, traps us in error, makes it difficult for forgiveness and mercy to prevail in our hearts, and distracts us from God’s presence. (Strachan, Christianity and Wokeness, 201-202.)

Good people in Ferndale have begun to see the truth and many of them are already in action. They are countering wokeness by returning to the values upon which Ferndale was built.

If you are not afraid to confront the burglars, then Owen Strachon offers advice on how to combat wokeness.

1. Be a happy member of a local church. The local church is where we see that the Gospel saves people of every background, sin pattern, and skin color. It is the place of true unity, equality, and justice.
2. Be salt and light. Anywhere you see it, fight injustice. Anywhere you can, spread the hope of Christ to your neighbors.
3. If needed, make the hard decision to leave a compromised church. Respectfully express your concerns to your pastor and elders, pray for them, and if they do not repent of woke preaching and teaching, find a local church that has not been taken captive by a false gospel.
4. Protect and help your children. Raise your children in the church. Don’t assume your child is being trained well by others. Take ownership of their education, whether secular or spiritual. Model the Christian faith for them.
5. Pray daily for the church and the world. Give your greatest effort to preserving and strengthening the church. The Christian faith is a public faith. Live it for all to see.

If you would like further guidance on how to resist wokeness in Ferndale, Owen Strachon’s book, Christianity and Wokeness, is available at Chapman’s Bookery. Or you can connect with me via the contact [page].

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Bramwell

In 1908, well-known writer, G.K. Chesterton, said, “If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change. If you leave a white post alone it will soon be a black post.” (G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, Colorado Springs, CO.: WaterBrook Press, 1994. 171.) Ferndalers can perceive this truth with ease. Our butterfat palaces require regular attention if they are to retain their Victorian beauty and charm. Chesterton explains that “If you particularly want [the post] to be white you must be always painting it again; that is you must be always having a revolution… [I]f you want the old white post you must have a new white post.” (emphasis added)

Preservation, then, is the art of actively repelling, rebuffing, and refusing the torrent of change that lies in wait to displace what one wants to maintain. It is continually updating the old with the new in a way that replicates and perpetuates the old. If you don’t do this, something new will still take the place of the old. But be warned, it will look entirely different.

In 1975 our city was officially designated a State Historic Landmark by the California State Park Office of Historic Preservation.2 This designation distinguishes our community from others and highlights that our city is, to use Chesterton’s language, engaged in the revolutionary effort of preserving the old. Indeed, it is a joyful and unified cause that enlists all but a few who choose to take up residents in and around our cherished village.

Obviously, the truth Chesterton articulated reaches beyond fence posts and Victorian homes. It extends beyond the purview of our Design Review Committee, touching not only what falls in the Design Control Zone, but everything susceptible to rot and decay, all of creation, including human beings, physically, as well as spiritually.

Historic, orthodox Christian teaching informs us that God is unchanging, and His Word endures forever, unscathed by the torrent of change that would overtake it (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8; Isaiah 40:8; Matthew 24:35). From this same unchanging Word, Christians learn of their sin and how to wage an ongoing revolution against it. We live baptismal lives of daily repentance, continually fighting against the evil that threatens to harden our softened hearts (Ezekiel 36:26). To leave our souls alone is to give them over to a depraved torrent of change (Romans 1:28).

Rightly understanding that without constant intervention, everything will rot and decay, even faith in Christ— and with it the culture of goodness, truth, and beauty that Christianity creates and sustains—is why the pioneers who settled our agricultural community brought Christianity with them and established Christian congregations and erected sanctuaries where they could gather regularly to hear God’s Word in their own languages and receive His Sacraments. They knew the alternative was untenable. Had the early settlers of Ferndale left their faith alone because they were too busy establishing their farms and businesses, raising their families, and forming our city, we would have nothing to preserve. Our forefathers knew that when you “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” life’s other concerns are also resolved (Matthew 6:33), but if you leave the kingdom of God alone, corruption will take its place within you and those around you. As 1 Timothy 4:16 says, “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

Do you know that old white picket fence so often associated with the American dream of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Well, it needs a fresh coat of paint. In Ferndale, we’ve done a great job preserving our historic buildings, but a torrent of change seeks to displace our culture. To fend off the mold, we must return to where the One beyond change has promised to meet us: in His Church (Matthew 18:20). There, we renew our brushes with the refreshing paint of His Word and Sacraments. There, the old truth is delivered anew. There, we’re equipped with the paint supply needed to protect our heritage from the unwanted rot and decay that seeks to make us and our town into something new and different.

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Bramwell

Courage. Bravery. Boldness. These words come to mind as we celebrate the independence won for us by our American forefathers. The courage of our ancestors resulted in a country that the free call home, a land of the truly brave.

Ferndale is no stranger to bravery. Many of our own have followed in the footsteps of our forefathers. The VFW Kenneth Rasmussen Post 6353 and the American Legion Stuart Macklin Post 559 are testimonies to the bravery of Ferndale’s courageous children. The slideshow on display during the monthly pancake breakfast held at the Veterans Hall puts faces to the names of the bold, helping those of us not blessed to grow up in Ferndale appreciate that courage comes at a substantial human cost. Neighbors, friends, and family members have experienced real loss because courage is more than an idea. It is lived. Every one of Ferndale’s soldiers—those who came home and especially those who didn’t—reminds us that there are consequences to standing up for what is good, right, and true.

We are right to think of the Founding Fathers as brave. They put everything on the line so that man could live freely. We are right to think of Ferndale’s vets the same way. They exemplify Cream City’s courage. Likewise, we are right to live accordingly, exercising the same boldness that moved our patriotic predecessors and protectors to service.

Courage, bravery, and boldness convey an image of physical risk. One may think of heroes digging deep to overcome grave danger to life and limb, willing to die in service to others rather than cower to the fear in their hearts.

It is true for America, and it is true for Ferndale, that our fortitude is a fruit of the Christian faith. The steeples that extend above our village stand as constant reminders of the source of our courage. The crosses atop our bell towers teach attentive residents and tourists alike that our town once drew courage from the boldness of Christ who courageously suffered corporal punishment for crimes He didn’t commit to save the lives of others, we who are unworthy of His sacrifice.

Jesus was bold and His Word teaches His followers to be bold. The Greek word for boldness is parresia. Its basic definition reveals that boldness is not an attribute reserved for soldiers on the battlefield, nor was it unique to America’s Founding Fathers. It’s something everyone can live out in his daily life. Parresia (boldness) means to be able to say anything. That is, to be able to speak freely. That is the root of what it means to be bold. Heroic acts start with finding enough courage to verbalize what is true, not just when it’s popular, but even when it’s not (2 Tim. 4:1-5). In Classical Greek, parresia is used for the right to freedom of speech.

Boldly speaking the truth freely, even when it won’t be well-received, is the sprouting seed of bravery, which, when grown, enables a man to lay down his life for what is good, right, and true. We see this in Jesus. He was killed under the influence and unrest of public opinion, but not before He spoke against the false teachings that had corrupted His people. We see this in Ferndale’s fallen soldiers, too. Before our heroes displayed bravery on the battlefield, they spoke up as free men who were willing to preserve the rights of their fellow man because it is a good and true act of service to do so.

As we celebrate our independence, I pray that all of us who call Ferndale home will remember the courage of those who, for the sake of their neighbors, were not only bold enough to die freely but first learned to speak freely. May each of us dig deep and be bold. May we always speak freely against the lies that assault truth, the evil that attacks goodness, and the wrongs that corrupt what is right.

If you would like to learn more about how courage is a fruit of the Christian faith, you can reach me via the contact [page].

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Bramwell