Mount Clinton Mennonite Church

06/13/2026

Don't forget to bring your change on Sunday!

Each year, coins and bills collected by children, families and chur...

06/12/2026

This Sunday, Dale Hartzler will be sharing a message titled, "Finding Hope in Exile". Join us this Sunday, June 14th for our Sunday school beginning at 9:30 am and our worship service at 10:30 am. We hope that you can join us!

06/08/2026

Camino Conversation

Last week we looked at the ease with which some say its less complicated to just not believe in God. Atheism is too simple. Another simple thing is to assume that God is in heaven and everything is fine: let's just put aside all these complicated doctrines of sin, hell, salvation and the devil.

But in fact real things are not simple. They might look simple but are complicated. My car looks simple but ask a mechanic how it turns gasoline into motion and they will go on about cylinders, firing order, pistons, sparkplugs, gas/air mixtures not to mention planetary gear sets in the transmission. A car is not simple, in fact more complicated than I will ever understand very well.

The Christian faith is not simple either. To understand the Christian faith is to enter a life long pursuit of something complicated, full of mystery. It is also something odd, it has a lot of loose ends. It is a set of beliefs and behaviors that we could not have made up. We live in a universe that was made good, contains much that is evil and maybe even meaninglessness.

There are only 2 ways of understanding this oddity. Either the Christian view that we live in a good world gone astray but retains the memory of its original good design; or the view that the universe is a battlefield of endless war between good and evil.

Next time: Did God make this universe as an endless tug or war between good and evil?

-Pastor Jim

06/07/2026

We lost the signal to our Livestream, so we won't be able to finish streaming the service.

06/07/2026

Here are a few pictures from this year's Motorcycle for Missions to support Virginia Mennonite Missions.

Since 2014, Motorcycle for Missions participants have raised more than $150,000 for local and global mission.

The 2025 ride raised more than $14,000.

Proceeds from the event go to the Mission Fund, which allows VMMissions to train, send, coach, and support workers in the field.

06/06/2026

This Sunday, guest speaker, Charles Conklin will be sharing a message titled, "Salt and Light in Our World world". Join us this Sunday, June 7th for our Sunday school beginning at 9:30 am and our worship service at 10:30 am.

A potluck Fellowship Meal will follow the service.

06/02/2026

Two people from MCMC are joining the fun for a good cause! Join us in praying for good weather and safety on the road.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1anRSyBxV2/

One week countdown is ON! 🗓️🏍️

We are days away from hitting the road! Get ready for the ride! 🛣️🙌

Want to make an impact? Invite your friends to sponsor your ride and take part in sharing the good news of Jesus with neighbors near and far!

Start Point: 601 Parkwood Drive, Harrisonburg, VA.,

06/01/2026

Camino Conversation

Last time we saw the Christian understanding that God is separate from the universe. The Goodness, Truth and Beauty we see in the universe was created and is sustained by God. In other words time, space, warmth, light, colors, tastes, animals, plants, the soil and life itself exist because of the inventiveness and creativity of God. And God is separate from the creation just as a carpenter uses their creativity to build a comfy house but exists apart from the house.

But here is the big question: If a good God made the world good, how did it go so wrong? The unbeliever might say it's easier to discard the idea of God and assume the universe just came to be in some random and mindless event or process over time.

The problem is that we all know there is much evil in the world, even in ourselves. But why do I believe evil exists? I don’t call a line crooked unless I have some notion of a straight line. What do I compare this world to when I call out evil or injustice? I have some sense of goodness or beauty in order to call something bad or ugly. If the universe is random and senseless it makes no sense to talk of evil or goodness. Denying the existence of God turns out to be too simplistic. Things are more complicated.

So it seems if we are going to believe in goodness or evil we must believe that God created a good universe and intends to save it from the evil that has infected it. If the universe were really random and meaningless we would never know it. Just as if there were no light we would not know it was dark, since darkness was all we could know. Dark would be a meaningless word to us.

Next time: The complications of believing in God.

- Pastor Jim

05/31/2026

It's a fifth Sunday, so it's time for a Fifth Sunday Song Service. We hope that you can join us as we spend the service worshipping with our voices!

05/25/2026

How Jesus reveals God to us. Last week we discussed the 2 main ideas we have about God. One is what some call pantheism. This is the idea that the universe is somehow god and that god does not exist apart from the universe. The other view that Jews, Muslims and Christian hold is that God exists apart from and does not depend on anything else. God creates and holds the universe. The structure, matter, beauty and goodness of the universe comes from God’s invention and creative power and exists because of God’s will and desire. A singer or carpenter can put a lot of themselves into the song or the construction of the house but the house exists separate from the carpenter.

Here is another thing: If we think there is little difference between good and evil then it is easy to believe that god might just be in the universe. But if I believe that some things in the universe are really bad, for instance, and believe that God loves the good and hates the bad then it's hard to believe that God exists in the universe. I must believe that God is separate from the world. A pantheist can look at slavery and say, “well, from the divine point of view this might be good.” But a Christian says slavery is evil because we believe God really does hate evil.

The Christian faith is a warfare faith. It thinks God made the world in all its beauty, wonder, space, time, colors, tastes, plants and animals out of his own Love, Goodness and Truth. But it also insists that much has gone wrong in his invention. And it insists that God’s great plan is to make it all right. Put it back the way it should be. Delete evil and all that is wrong in the universe.

Next time: Another look at what is wrong in the universe. -Pastor Jim