If you’ve ever bitten into the fragrant sweetness of a summer peach or sought the cool of shade in sweltering heat, you know the beauty and value of a healthy tree.
In the very first psalm, the psalmist compares a person who delights in God’s Word to a tree firmly planted by streams of water. This tree flourishes because its roots sink firmly into a rich and abundant source of life-giving nourishment. Because of where it’s planted, this tree grows into everything it was designed to be: tall and strong, firmly grounded, and fruitful.
Like the tree pictured in Psalm 1, we see Skillman Bible Church as a community grounded in the faith (the roots), growing together (the trunk), and reaching the world (the branches). All that we do at Skillman is designed to ground us, grow us, and enable us to reach out to others and see the good news of Jesus Christ prosper–to make God known, to increase His reputation.
As we follow Jesus together, we should expect to mature. We’re digging our roots deep–grounding our community in the gospel, in God’s Word. We’re growing together–developing relationships, strengthening unity, and increasing in maturity. We’re exercising our God-given gifts and using our resources to reach the world (both at home and abroad).
Grounded, growing, reaching. That’s how we understand what it means to follow Jesus at Skillman Bible Church. We invite you to join us–plant yourself in our community to become a part of the process. (We’re all in process here.) None of us is a finished work, but we’re doing this thing together, by God’s grace, “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).