by Pastor Curt on December 17, 2011
filed under
church, gopspel, spirituality
For an excellent article from 9 Marks reflecting on various issues relating to gospel centrality in our church or any church click here.
by Pastor Curt on December 8, 2011
filed under
church, congregational meeting, deacons, elders, leadership, officers
This Sunday evening at 6 PM at the SDA we will have a very important congregational meeting. Open to members and attendees alike, in this 90 minute gathering we will engage our three officer candidates in Q & A about their nomination for church leadership positions. This is no small thing. Our bylaws require confirmation [...]
by Pastor Curt on November 10, 2011
filed under
church membership, commitment, discipleship, shepherding
That would be how long should someone attend a church before deciding to commit to covenant membership? Good question. And a pertinent one for the twenty or more folks currently working their way through the latest edition of Discover OGC. I came across this post by Brian Croft on his blog Practical Shepherding. He asks [...]
by Pastor Curt on September 30, 2011
filed under
church officers, deacons, elders, examinations, leadership
This Saturday is a big day. A number of our current elders and deacons will meet with our three candidates for office from 8 AM to 3 PM at the church office. Each of the three, two for elder and one for deacon, have completed their written exams. We will meet with them, one at [...]
by Pastor Curt on September 24, 2011
filed under
authority, church membership, commitment, love
A friend of mine in ministry posted a link on Facebook to an article about church membership. I am so grateful for over twenty-five folks in this fall’s edition of Discover OGC! I am looking forward tomorrow to sharing with them about the doctrines of grace. Here is #3 of the reasons in this post: [...]
by Pastor Curt on August 30, 2011
filed under
church, community, division, gospel
That’s easy. Christians. Saints by position in Christ who still act like pagans in sin. No matter how spiritual believers become, while in the flesh, the potential for relapse ever remains a threat. In my role as a pastor, occasionally I take the heat for the local church body by receiving complaints about real and/or [...]
by Pastor Curt on August 24, 2011
filed under
community, love, one another passages, relationships
Someone sent me a link with a thorough list of the one another passages of the New Testament confirming my notion that they all constitute intricacies of the ultimate grace of loving within our relationships in the body of Christ. The author introduces the list with this provocative assertion: A local church is not built [...]
by Pastor Curt on August 16, 2011
filed under
church membership, spiritual health
Spiritual that is. Thabiti Anyabwile has written a 9Marks book to help church members assess the state of their spiritual health. It’s called What Is a Healthy Church Member? He proposes that you can identify a healthy church member by ten marks. Expositional listener Biblical theologian Gospel saturated Genuinely converted Biblical evangelist Committed member Seeks [...]
by Pastor Curt on July 13, 2011
filed under
deacons, elders, leadership, nominations, training
Check out this week’s enews for an update on the officer nomination process ongoing in 2011. The three men remaining on this demanding journey will meet with representatives of our leadership this Saturday morning for a debrief from their near two month self-study process of officer training. Here are the kinds of questions we will [...]
by Pastor Curt on July 5, 2011
filed under
church planting, leadership, staff
As I announced on Sunday morning to our congregation, effective July 1, Greg Willson assumed a full-time pastoral staff position with the title of Church Planting Pastor. Recently God favored us with keeping Greg and Christina around for another year before they answer the call to help with a church plant in Columbia, South Carolina. [...]