- Jan 30, 2005
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Hey guys, my family and I have the amazing opportunity of being part of a church plant. I'm so stinkin' excited about this. Forgive me if I start to ramble. 
The pastor of the church is an awesome Christian man who has been in the ministry for almost his entire adult life. He's been a missionary to Uganda, lead our current church's small group ministry and done a number of other things. He got his Th.M. from Dallas Theological in Biblical Studies (read: Calvinist
). He has invited our family to participate in the church plant if we are willing.
One of the things that he is really putting forward is that he plans to teach the Bible, and teach it without apology. You can't imagine how refreshing that is for me. Out here in California, we have a lot of postmodern churches that are full of pomp and flair, but have very little substance. You'd be hard pressed to find a lot of meat-eating Christians out here--most of them are still stuck on milk, and it's the fault of these touchy-feely, non-offensive growth movement churches that all but ignore doctrine.
Our new pastor wants to put an emphasis on sound doctrine and biblical faith. One of the things he said is that he will not be preaching to the lowest common denominator. A lot of churches do this. They preach on Christian topics like, honesty, love, generosity, and such. That is all well and good, but they never preach on foundational issues like the sufficiency of Scripture, the nature of man, our relationship with the Father, and so forth. He plans to deliver these things and allow the Holy Spirit to work within the hearts of the members. He can't make them understand it, only the Holy Spirit can. Therefore, he is not going to deprive the more mature believers by preaching on superficial topics all the time.
I have to tell you, I couldn't be more excited about this new church. I pray to God that he would use me according to his plan. I pray that he would provide me the opportunities to serve him and his people as befits my spiritual gifts. I have a real heart for discipleship and leadership, and hope to be able to exhort and instruct others (new Christians especially) in sound, Biblical doctrine. I know that I still have a long way to go, though.
I would ask that you guys keep myself, my family, my pastor, and my new church in your hearts and prayers. Pray that God's will would be fulfilled in all of our lives and that he would glorify himself through our endeavors. Pray that his Son would shine through our works and that people would come to know Jesus by our obedience.
Also, if anyone has any words of encouragement, wisdom, warning, or whatsoever, I'd be more than willing to hear them!
Soli Deo Gloria
Jon
The pastor of the church is an awesome Christian man who has been in the ministry for almost his entire adult life. He's been a missionary to Uganda, lead our current church's small group ministry and done a number of other things. He got his Th.M. from Dallas Theological in Biblical Studies (read: Calvinist
). He has invited our family to participate in the church plant if we are willing.One of the things that he is really putting forward is that he plans to teach the Bible, and teach it without apology. You can't imagine how refreshing that is for me. Out here in California, we have a lot of postmodern churches that are full of pomp and flair, but have very little substance. You'd be hard pressed to find a lot of meat-eating Christians out here--most of them are still stuck on milk, and it's the fault of these touchy-feely, non-offensive growth movement churches that all but ignore doctrine.
Our new pastor wants to put an emphasis on sound doctrine and biblical faith. One of the things he said is that he will not be preaching to the lowest common denominator. A lot of churches do this. They preach on Christian topics like, honesty, love, generosity, and such. That is all well and good, but they never preach on foundational issues like the sufficiency of Scripture, the nature of man, our relationship with the Father, and so forth. He plans to deliver these things and allow the Holy Spirit to work within the hearts of the members. He can't make them understand it, only the Holy Spirit can. Therefore, he is not going to deprive the more mature believers by preaching on superficial topics all the time.
I have to tell you, I couldn't be more excited about this new church. I pray to God that he would use me according to his plan. I pray that he would provide me the opportunities to serve him and his people as befits my spiritual gifts. I have a real heart for discipleship and leadership, and hope to be able to exhort and instruct others (new Christians especially) in sound, Biblical doctrine. I know that I still have a long way to go, though.
I would ask that you guys keep myself, my family, my pastor, and my new church in your hearts and prayers. Pray that God's will would be fulfilled in all of our lives and that he would glorify himself through our endeavors. Pray that his Son would shine through our works and that people would come to know Jesus by our obedience.
Also, if anyone has any words of encouragement, wisdom, warning, or whatsoever, I'd be more than willing to hear them!
Soli Deo Gloria
Jon
