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[Imblessed]

Hi everyone! I know it's been ages and ages since I've been on, but I'm going to try to start posting again fairly regularly.

I've been pretty busy, with the boys and keeping the house, and church activities.

Our church is going through some big changes, between moving to a new building (first day in new building will be Palm Sunday weekend) and a real change in how the pastors are teaching.

We just recently celebrated our 10 year anniversary and Pastor Tim has re-evaluated how we've been doing things. He told us it's time to take us off milk and start giving us the good stuff. YAY!!

He's essentially cut out the whole 'fill in the blank' stuff and is requiring us to take our own notes. He's also really encouraged everyone to start bringing the bible, and he's pretty much taken out the scripture references off the video boards, so that we have to actually look it up(I always did anyway...)

He also has tackled some amazingly tough stuff lately. One series he touched on was about the two gates and the wide road to hell that most 'christians' are on. It was a really tough series, with him even devoting one day to mentioning three false prophets in the church today. He named 3 HUGE names in the evangelical church today and explained why they are false prophets. yeah, there were some gasps from the audience, although I wasn't suprised with any of them, and totally agreed.

He also just finished up a series on Sin and it's consequences. Great stuff.

He's been really good about taking a very firm stand against some of the stuff going on in the church universal. We've just recently started a series on the inerrancy of the bible. Week one was amazing. I think next week they are talking about the different bible versions and which ones are best for studying, and explaining the difference between word for word and thought for thought translations.

We are starting a Recovery group and I think that's going to be pretty big. It's sorta, kinda, like the AA and NA but totally Christ- centered.


Anyway, the changes are very exciting. Basically the church is becoming much more Reformed--it's always been reformed but I think he's recently decided to be much more aggressive about teaching the reformed theology.

I just thought I'd let you all know that I'm gonna try to be back here much more regularly. Believe it or not, I've missed you all, and the stimulating conversation!!

time to go pick my son up from school!


Windi

 

[JimfromOhio]

Hi everyone! I know it's been ages and ages since I've been on, but I'm going to try to start posting again fairly regularly.

I've been pretty busy, with the boys and keeping the house, and church activities.

Our church is going through some big changes, between moving to a new building (first day in new building will be Palm Sunday weekend) and a real change in how the pastors are teaching.

We just recently celebrated our 10 year anniversary and Pastor Tim has re-evaluated how we've been doing things. He told us it's time to take us off milk and start giving us the good stuff. YAY!!

He's essentially cut out the whole 'fill in the blank' stuff and is requiring us to take our own notes. He's also really encouraged everyone to start bringing the bible, and he's pretty much taken out the scripture references off the video boards, so that we have to actually look it up(I always did anyway...)

He also has tackled some amazingly tough stuff lately. One series he touched on was about the two gates and the wide road to hell that most 'christians' are on. It was a really tough series, with him even devoting one day to mentioning three false prophets in the church today. He named 3 HUGE names in the evangelical church today and explained why they are false prophets. yeah, there were some gasps from the audience, although I wasn't suprised with any of them, and totally agreed.

He also just finished up a series on Sin and it's consequences. Great stuff.

He's been really good about taking a very firm stand against some of the stuff going on in the church universal. We've just recently started a series on the inerrancy of the bible. Week one was amazing. I think next week they are talking about the different bible versions and which ones are best for studying, and explaining the difference between word for word and thought for thought translations.

We are starting a Recovery group and I think that's going to be pretty big. It's sorta, kinda, like the AA and NA but totally Christ- centered.


Anyway, the changes are very exciting. Basically the church is becoming much more Reformed--it's always been reformed but I think he's recently decided to be much more aggressive about teaching the reformed theology.

I just thought I'd let you all know that I'm gonna try to be back here much more regularly. Believe it or not, I've missed you all, and the stimulating conversation!!

time to go pick my son up from school!


Windi

Welcome back Windi

 

[Erinwilcox]

So glad to see you back! Welcome! We love you!

 

[Imblessed]

ooooh, I like your avatar Erin! Thanks for the kind words...

 

[cygnusx1]

Welcome back Imblessed , only two nights ago I was sat here wondering where you had got to

 

[Iosias]

Glad to have you back!

 

[10Ethanim]

Welcome.

 

[BBAS 64]

Welcome back sister!!!

Good you "see" you again.

In Him,

Bill

 

[edie19]

Windi,

So glad to see you here - you've been missed.

Glad to hear all is well with your family and church too - wonderful news.

Your sister in Christ,
edie

 

[CCWoody]

Hi, sister. Welcome back.

Your friendly neighborhood Cordial Calvinist
Woody.​

 

[Imblessed]

Hello again.

Been on vacation for a while, then spent a week babysitting for my sister in Chicago. Finally back home and trying to get back to the normal way of things.....

anyhoo,

I went to chuch Sunday and was pleasantly suprised to find out that our church has 'officially' changed it's translation recommendation to the ESV. Pastor Tim wrote an open letter explaining why the change and all that.

Also, much to my delight--they are officially moving away from topical preaching to exegetical preaching. I thought maybe they were preparing us for something like that based on the last few series we've done---which was in in depth series on why the Word of God is so important.

I liked the topical preaching that Tim did, because they were always very grounded in the Word---but I'm thrilled that they've decided that as a church who has just celebrated our 10year anniversary, we are ready for more.

Here is a little excerpt from his open letter:

"October 2006 marked our tenth year anniversary. It also marks ten years that I have been your pastor. Over the course of the last ten years I have attempted to design message series that would move you forward in the maturity process. In the 'early years' the messages were designed to introduce basic priciples of the Christian faith. As we matured as a congregation, I attempted to increase the depth of the teaching parallel your growth. Today, as a church, we are at a transitional point in our history. For spiritual maturity to continue, for our faith to deepen 'more and more'(1 Thess 4:1), we must begin to sharpen our skills in the study and personal application of God's Word. The Scriptures call us to this important task: "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth' (2 Timothy 2:15) "

He then went on to explain why the church elders picked the ESV as the translation the pastors will be using, and encouraged us all to use the ESV in our own study and at church. Not that they are saying the other versions are bad, but it is easier to have your congregation following along in the same version!


So yeah, this girl is happy right now---seeing the direction the church is going.......


~

 

[Salamon]

Welcome!

 

[TigerBunny]

Welcome back!

It's always exciting to see a church grow in maturity. What a blessing!

 

[edie19]

Windi,

It is so wonderful to hear the news about your church. God grows His churches in His time without man doing any "marketing" (who'd have thunk it).

edie

 

[erin74]

welcome back - I like the sound of your pastor - sounds as if he's doing a great job.

 

[Imblessed]

We are starting an expository series on 1Thess. next week. Today, we had an 'overview' of it, looking into Act 17 for the history of Paul starting the church, learned some words that described the church--basically got a background before we dig in.

Next week, verse by verse expository. Tim says it may take 8 weeks or more to get though the book. I'm very excited. It's a new direction for the church. A good one, and I couldn't be happier!

 

[picnic]

Is it just me but ten years sounds like a long time to get round to expository preaching, I don't think I'd have stuck around that long. The church I go to started 3 and half years ago and started off with expository preaching.

Hope it goes well 1 Thess.

 

[Imblessed]

Is it just me but ten years sounds like a long time to get round to expository preaching, I don't think I'd have stuck around that long. The church I go to started 3 and half years ago and started off with expository preaching.

Hope it goes well 1 Thess.

Well, as I mentioned before, the topical preaching that Tim and the other pastors did were always very biblical and grounded. I don't have anything against topical sermons, IF you keep much of it grounded in the bible and don't go off on tangents.

However, I do like the idea of expository preaching better. I've never actually been exposed to it before, so this will be a first for me! See, I didn't even know there was more than one type of preaching from the pulpit. I've always only known the ministers to 'pick a topic and preach on it'. It was different every week, and you never knew what they were going to talk about. When I started attending this church, he did topical preaching, but in in-depth series. That was a first for me, and I enjoyed it alot. He preached on some touch topics too, it wasn't light stuff.

Anyway, maybe if I had ever been exposed to expository teaching elsewhere I wouldn't take any less....but since I hadn't, I didn't know what I was missing!