Dave's Comments

Going Deep- Book Review

2011-10-03T14:18:00.000-07:00

Gordon MacDonald has given the church a story. This story is a reminder of the great priority that discipleship ought to have in our churches. The story is of a fictional church in New England- the same church that MacDonald imagined in a previous book titled Who Stole My Church? MacDonald could have written this same book as a shorter, non-fiction work- but that would have been far less enjoyable to read and might not have stimulated as much thought on the part of the reader. Instead, MacDonald packages his message in the form of fiction, but still manages to cite his sources appropriately (by making the sources part of the story and through the bibliography at the end of the book).

The story MacDonald tells is of a two year process in which a pastor and church discover the need to train future leaders and then work through the details of training those leaders. Conversations, meetings, events, and even correspondence figure prominently as the primary conveyors of the story.

MacDonald's thesis is that churches should be training "deep" people (a term he borrows from Richard Foster). A deep person is a mature or maturing Christian who lives as a devoted follower of Christ and serves the church and his world. MacDonald recognizes that people need help in order to grow to be deep. He suggests that the primary role of a pastor is to be a trainer of deep people.

I certainly agree with MacDonald's idea that pastors ought to be in the discipleship business. Jesus' Great Commission to the church is that we are to be making disciples. This is not a new idea, but a good reminder of a primary purpose of the church.

One area that MacDonald mentioned several times, but did not fully develop, is that a pastor who devotes his time to training other people will need to stop doing some things in order to have the time to devote to this main task. At portions of the book, both preaching and hospital visitation are mentioned as areas in which the pastor might have to give less time. How these tasks are to get done is not specifically stated. A generous interpretation might imagine that these tasks will be supplemented by the people who have been equipped by the pastor. My only objection to this thought is that preaching should be considered one of the primary areas of a pastor's time since preaching provides the opportunity to disciple a large group of people. In addition, preaching (both the preparation and the delivery of a sermon) is a primary means of fulfilling the pastoral responsibility of being in the Word and in prayer.

I recommend Going Deep as a book that is both enjoyable to read and which will also cause you to think about your life and your church. You probably won't agree with everything. You won't find that your church is exactly like the church in the story (no two churches are the same). But you will probably end up thinking about how your church could do a better job in developing people to serve Christ's church.

Are You Going the Wrong Way Again?

2011-09-16T14:06:00.000-07:00

"Are you going the wrong way again?" My wife asked me this question on a trip home from my parents' home a couple weeks ago. First, it is odd that I had headed the wrong way earlier in the day when we went to my parents' house. Of all the places in the world, one can usually find their way to their own home and to their parents' home. But because I wasn't thinking, I had taken a turn that would lead me to a lot of other places where we normally travel. Now on the way home I was asked, "are you going the wrong way again?" I answered with these accurate but cryptic words, "No, I'm just not going the right way!"

I wasn't lost. I had been driving in one lane. I had to quickly move over a couple of lanes when the road divided. Hence, I was not going the wrong way because I had been traveling the right way up to this point and because I changed lanes in time. But before the sudden lane change, I was no longer in a position to go the right way. Maybe I should look into a career as a lawyer as a side job.

The song that way playing in our CD player while I was not going the right way is a song called, "You Are the Way." It was written by Pat Sczebel and recorded by Sovereign Grace on their Worship God Live CD. This song paraphrases John 14:6- "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." When it comes to what really matters you don't want to go the wrong way. You don't even want not to go the right way. What we all really need is to get to God His way- and that is through Jesus. When it comes to your eternity, don't make excuses and don't try to talk your way into heaven. Just follow God's way- which means following Jesus.

Book Recommendation- The Good News We Almost Forgot

2011-05-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

The Good News We Almost Forgot is not your typical book about doctrine. In fact, though it deals with many topics of theology, it reads more like a devotional. In this book Kevin DeYoung guides you on a tour through an old catechism (the Heidelberg Catechism from 1563). But even though the book is about a document from almost 450 years ago, the book itself is fresh and relevant.

A catechism is a series of questions and answers which guide a learner to truth. This particular catechism is made up of 129 questions and answers. The questions are grouped into 52 sections- one for each week of the year. DeYoung wrote the original form of this book in weekly installments as devotionals for the people in the church he pastors.

The outline that DeYoung proposes that the catechism writers used is: 1. guilt, 2. grace, 3. gratitude. This outline points out that we have a great guilt in the eyes of God because of our sin and have no way of absolving ourselves of this guilt short of an eternity in hell. God's grace has been extended to us in the person and work of Christ on our behalf- specifically His sacrificial death for our sins. After we have seen our guilt and the grace of God, we will then live lives of gratitude to God by living according to the way He has told us to live.

The elders at Grace Church have been benefiting from this book while we are reading it together. You can find more information about The Good News We Almost Forgot at: http://www.amazon.com/Good-News-Almost-Forgot-Rediscovering/dp/B0042P5KFE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1306421886&sr=8-1

Sermon Videos now Available

2011-05-19T06:57:00.000-07:00

Grace Church of Old Bridge now has videos of Sunday morning sermons available for viewing. You can watch them here: http://www.vimeo.com/user6317891/videos.

Book Recommendation- The Next Story

2011-05-18T07:26:00.000-07:00

I benefitted from a book about technology. Chances are, you will too. The book is not about how you can make Facebook and mobile phones work better. Instead, this particular book is a great reminder that all of our technology is supposed to work for us. Technology should serve you, not make you it's servant.

The book I am talking about is titled The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion. The book is written by Tim Challies (www.challies.com) and is a call to us who are now living in the digital age to live faithfully and wisely in these new times.

One of the most helpful portions of this book to me was the point that multi-tasking is actually a distraction. Like many people, I want to check my text or e-mail as soon as I hear a noise that tells me I've received that communication. It turns out that we are actually far less productive when we are able to be manipulated by such a small, beeping noise.

Be sure to also check out the section on immediate versus mediated conversation.

More information about the book can be found on the amazon site here: http://www.amazon.com/Next-Story-Faith-Digital-Explosion/dp/0310329035/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305728822&sr=8-1

Teeth

2011-05-11T09:03:00.001-07:00

In my life I have averaged one trip to the dentist each decade. It's not that I have a fear of the dentist- I just have a fear of dental bills. We recently acquired insurance, so I headed off for my first dental visit in approximately ten years. The results were disappointing, if not predictable. The dentist was appalled by the condition of my teeth and promptly scheduled me with enough appointments in the coming months to significantly alter my once a decade average.

It's probably no surprise to you that there is a reason dentists want to see you twice a year (at least two reasons that I can think of and the first one is so they can collect a lot of money). The health reason for seeing the dentist more than a handful of times in one's lifetime is so they can fix any problems before the problem becomes too bad. Because I waited so long to see the dentist I now will have to endure a host of root canals, extractions, fillings, etc.

Perhaps many people view church the same way as the dentist. We would go if we saw the need for it or if we had the time or the money (okay, you don't need to have money to come to church, but not everyone realizes this fact). I figured that I could handle most of my dental needs at home- I brushed my teeth faithfully and thoroughly. We might be tempted to think that we can take care of our spiritual needs at home as well. We can read the Bible and pray and listen to music and sermons at home. But it isn't the same as coming to church where your friends and fellow Christians will help keep you from greater danger and give you the spiritual maintenance that your life truly needs. My teeth deteriorated when I limited my dental care to self-sufficiency. Your faith will deteriorate if you limit your spiritual care to what you can do yourself. Do yourself a long-term favor. Become an active member in a good local church. It will guard your soul and prevent larger faith problems.

Building Update- May 2011

2011-05-10T10:55:00.001-07:00

Your Building Committee at Grace Church continues to be active. We are still looking at what size of building will best serve us and help us serve the community.

It appears that the building that we will build will be an addition to our current building. The new addition will probably sit in the space of our current foyer and will include a new entryway.

The two most likely scenarios right now are for either a small addition with classrooms, bathrooms, and entry space or a sanctuary with bathrooms and entry space. If we use only build the smaller addition we would continue to meet in our current sanctuary (of course we would try to do some things to make it a little nicer). If we build a new sanctuary we would use our current sanctuary for classroom space.

A major factor in deciding which building is right for us is the financing. We ought to be able to get a loan for the smaller addition, but we still need to find out if we can get the loan for the larger addition. Please continue to pray that we would follow God's leading in this decision.

A Gospel Primer- Book Recommendation

2011-05-09T07:02:00.000-07:00

A Gospel Primer for Christians- Learning to See the Glories of God's Love is an excellent little book by Milton Vincent. In the book we are reminded that gospel Christians need the gospel as much as they need to share the gospel. The book simply reminds us of our need to remember God's goodness in Christ, and then guides us through what God has done for us. The descriptions of the goodness of God are marvelously footnoted with Scripture. Both a prose and a poetic version of the glories of the gospel is included.

Grace Church of Old Bridge will be considering many of the truths from this book in our up-coming "Mid-Week Boost" meetings (Wednesday nights beginning May 25th).

More information about the book can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Gospel-Primer-Christians-Learning-Glories/dp/1885904673/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304949803&sr=8-1

State of the Church- 2011

2011-02-01T08:56:00.000-08:00

Each year I preach a "State of the Church" message. The summary of this year's message in the form of the letter I gave to the congregation is available in the notes section of Grace Church's Facebook page:

www.facebook.com/gracechurchob

My Cousin Vinny and the Judges

2011-01-18T11:38:00.000-08:00

The American Bar Association listed the movie My Cousin Vinny as #3 on the all-time list of their 25 Greatest Courtroom Movies. In this movie Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei played an engaged couple from Brooklyn who traveled to the South so he could sever as a lawyer for his cousin who had been wrongly accused of murder. You might be able to guess that people from Brooklyn talk differently than people from the South. Both areas have distinct accents. There are times in the movie when the southerners can't understand what Vinny is saying. And Vinny has a lot to learn when it comes to Southern culture. In fact, even though Vinny is a lawyer, he has a lot to learn when it comes to courtroom behavior. It turns out that Vinny is actually an auto mechanic who studied law at night school. This will be his first case.

When Vinny gets in front of the judge, his New York brashness and lack of respect for courtroom procedure get him thrown in jail every day for contempt of court. It is abundantly clear that the judge doesn't like him. His life was made far more complicated because of this judge who was always getting mad at him. By the end of the movie, Vinny was trying to skip town in a hurry (after winning the case) because he thought that the judge had just figured out his true credentials. Instead, the judge came up and said how great it was to have Vinny and that he had finally been able to verify Vinny's qualifications. It turned out that Vinny's girlfriend had called a judge that knew Vinny and had him send the positive recommendation. Having a judge that liked him was what eventually overcame having a judge that couldn't stand him.

While I don't think that this movie has much of anything to commend it to us spiritually, the attitudes of the judges illustrate and important truth. It is always better to have a judge who is pleased with you than a judge who doesn't like you. Remember that God is our ultimate judge. When the time comes for you to be judged by God, would you like to approach Him as a friend or as a foe? Would you rater come before God for judgement as someone who has made Him happy or as someone who has disappointed Him. The Bible tells us how we can have a relationship with God in which He is happy with us.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

2011-01-10T09:40:00.000-08:00

In 1852 a woman named Harriet Beecher Stowe published the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. This book became the best-selling novel of the nineteenth century. Stowe clearly wrote the book with the purpose of undermining the slavery of the American South. The book is rightly or wrongly credited for influencing people to bring about the Civil War which lead to the freedom of the slaves.

Not wanting to rush into anything, I finally read this novel (now more than 150 years after it was published). I must admit that I was shocked at how compelling the story of the book actually was. It is a real page-clicker (if you read an electronic edition as I did). No doubt one of the reasons for the terrific interest in the book was because the book itself was terrifically interesting.

I believe that what made this book interesting were the plot, the characters, and the conversations. Even though I had a good idea of what the book was about and what the impact of the book had been, I was still surprised by the many plot twists throughout the book. The characters were made life-like through an assortment of interesting observations and through the way they acted. The characters were written in such a way that you would not have any trouble imagining them as real people. The conversations between the characters seemed like real conversations that would have taken place at that time in America's history. Most likely the reason that Stowe was able to make the events, characters, and conversation seem so true to life was because she admitted that she based the story on composites of real people and on conversations she had had and on events of which she knew to be true.

Stowe very clearly argues against the evils of slavery. She wrote in order to encourage people to set the slaves free. But while she encouraged freedom, she did not write against the South completely or exclusively. Surprisingly, she showed that the prejudice of Northern people was often more severe and just as wrong as the prejudice of those in the South. She also showed that people in the South often treated their slaves as part of their family, though they might have never considered granting them their freedom. While the positive aspects of some slave holders were shown, the evils of the system and the heart-wrenching way in which it continually ripped families apart was highlighted even more.

Very few novels impact their generation the way this one did. Very few novels take on a societal issue and encourage people to do something about the issue the way this one did. Very few novels draw you into their story with such life-like characters, facts, and plot the way this one does. These are some of the reasons that very few novels stand the test of time the way this one has. If you haven't already read Uncle Tom's Cabin, it is certainly worth taking the time to enjoy.

Church Covenant

2011-01-05T08:46:00.000-08:00

The elders at Grace Church have initiated a Church Covenant. A Covenant might be a new concept to you. Basically, a covenant is an agreement. It is a promise. A church covenant is an agreement that a church member makes to the members of the church.

While church covenants were once a common, they are far less common today. We thought that bringing in a covenant would be beneficial to our membership. Our covenant is a reminder of the things that we promise to do for each other. We would like each member of the church to read and affirm the covenant each year. I don't think that our new covenant makes new requirements for us. Instead, our covenant spells out plainly some of the expectations that any church has and calls us to live up to these standards.

Here is a copy of the covenant that we are proposing for Grace Church of Old Bridge.

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?created&&note_id=125984020802653&id=115387825183043

I welcome any feedback regarding the wording of the covenant or questions about how the covenant will actually function.

2011 Bible Reading Program

2010-12-31T07:48:00.000-08:00

Grace Church of Old Bridge (NJ) is hosting a Bible Reading Program for 2011. The program consists of reading one chapter in the Bible each day. The chapters that are selected will take us through the story or action portions of the Bible.

You can read on-line each day at www.gracechurchob.wordpress.com or you can pick up a paper copy of the readings and notes each month at the church.

Religious or Wise?

2010-12-22T08:45:00.000-08:00

This is the time of year when we think about the Christmas story. After Luke 2, the main part of the Bible that we learn the events surrounding Christ's birth is the beginning of the book of Matthew. Luke tells about the shepherds, manger, angels, the trip to Bethlehem and more. But Luke doesn't tell us about the wise men. Matthew is the one who tells us about the wise men.

The wise men appear in Matthew 2 and are immediately contrasted with the religious leaders in Jerusalem at the time Jesus was born. The wise men probably travelled for two months to see the newborn King. The religious leaders refused to travel five miles to discover whether or not the report of the wise men was true. The wise men searched for Jesus, worshiped Jesus, and gave gifts to Jesus. The religious leaders ignored Jesus.

We have a choice. We can be "religious" and use spiritual stuff for our temporary advantage. Or we can be wise and follow Jesus. I encourage you to be wise with your life. Seek for Jesus. He will receive you and save you from sin. Worship Jesus no matter what the cost. And give Jesus the gift of all that you are- time, money, ability, and more.

Merry Christmas. Remember to be wise.

Prayer For a Price? You've Got To Be Kidding!

2010-12-17T11:36:00.000-08:00

In the comments section of my previous post someone asked me to check out a site that he thought was interesting and to give him my opinion. I did a little digging and quickly discovered that the commenter was none other than the author of the other site. The site that he was stealthily (dishonestly?) promoting is a web-site in which you can post prayer requests and pay money to make sure that your request gets prayed for by a certain number of people. In addition, you can pray for the requests and receive tokens so that other people will pray for your requests.

One of the first thoughts I had was that the Reformation in the 1500's included a similar issue (indulgences) where people could pay money in order to get dead relatives out of "purgatory" sooner. But people profiting off of religion actually goes back much farther than the Catholic church. Jesus famously cleared the traders out of the temple because they were using religion as a means to financial profit. When Jesus sent His disciples out to serve He instructed them in Matthew 10:8, "Freely you have received, freely give." Paul warns Christians in 1 Timothy 6 against people who think that religion (godliness) is a means toward financial gain.

Not only does the very concept of paying for prayer go against Biblical principles, but the examples of prayer requests that were on the site were all self-centered. One person wanted to lose a certain number of pounds. Another person wanted a certain minimum score on a test. Someone else wanted their football team to win by a specific number of points (to cover the spread?). Someone else had a political request. Noticeably absent were prayers about God's glory and spiritual growth.

I doubt that I have to encourage you to hold onto your money. Most people aren't going to spend money on prayer. But I do encourage you to guard your heart. We are all in danger of focusing our prayer time on our physical and financial needs instead of on the the great God who meets our needs.

Christ the Savior

2010-12-15T08:38:00.000-08:00

The second verse of the Christmas carol Silent Night ends with the words "Christ the Savior is born. Jesus was indeed born for the mission of saving His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). He came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). The gifts and parties, the decorations and food of the Christmas season are all very nice, but they are not the real reason that Christ came to earth. He came to be the Savior of His people.

What difference should it make to you that Christ came as Savior? First, you should respond to Christ's mission by accepting Him as your Savior from sin. Christ's sacrifice on the cross of His righteous life bore the penalty of sin that you deserved to pay. That sacrifice only becomes effective to you by way of faith in the work of Christ on your behalf. Receive Christ as your Savior by faith and receive the forgiveness He acquired for you.

Second, we should respond to Christ as our Savior by worshiping Him for His act that procured our salvation. We should not grow tired of praising Christ for the cross. Instead, we should be like the one healed leper in Luke 17 who returned to give glory to God. Jesus commended this leper and wondered why the other nine did not do the same thing. Clearly Jesus expects us to worship Him for saving us from our sins.

A third response to being saved by Christ should be to tell others what Christ has done for us. This is what Jesus told the man that he cast a demon out of in Mark 5. That man wanted to travel with Jesus. Instead, Jesus told him to go back to his town and tell people what God had done for him. If Jesus has saved us, then it becomes our job to tell other people what we have experienced and how they can experience the same thing.

Finally, if Jesus has saved us from our sins, then we should respond by living free from continued sin. Romans 6 makes this conclusion quite convincingly. Jesus didn't just pay the penalty for our sin. He also changed our allegiance. We used to be devoted to sin. Now we should be devoted to living out God's righteousness in our lives. We will not always live perfectly, but we can live in a way that is consistent with having a Savior.

Is Jesus your Savior? If not, why not receive Him today? If He is, then live like it by worshiping Him, telling others about Him, and living free of the sin from which He saved you.

NERD

2010-12-09T08:51:00.000-08:00

It's funny to find out how your children perceive you. We were at a McDonald's the other day and a Stevie Wonder song started playing. This caused me to share a story with my oldest two kids who were there about how I had never heard of Stevie Wonder as a singer when I was a kid. Instead, I had a friend at Awana named Steven who had the nickname "Stevie Wonder." I thought it must be since everyone thought he was so cool. This caused me to wish that I had an equally cool nickname- something like "Davie Wonder." At this point my wife and kids cracked up and my oldest daughter said in dis-belief, "you mean you were a nerd?"

My wife was shocked that the kids had no idea that I was a nerd before she made me over. She takes all the credit for changing me to the point where I am the cool dude I am today (although I'm still waiting to be called Davie Wonder- oops, there goes my inner nerd sneaking out again). Mostly, my wife was rightly impressed with herself for changing my nerdiness so much that our teenage daughter had never suspected my nerd-like roots.

Of course being called a nerd somehow got me just a bit defensive. I began to share that I actually fit with the athletes at school as well as with the brains. I thought I was bragging when I shared that I had the second highest GPA in my graduating class (even though there were only 16 of us). My son wanted to know who had higher grades than me. When I said that her name was Rachelle, his reply was, "ha- you got beat by a girl!" Okay, that's humbling. First, I'm a nerd because I had good grades. Then, I'm not enough of a nerd because a girl had even higher grades than me. I don't think I'll ever understand my kids.

Chirst the King

2010-12-08T10:45:00.000-08:00

If you go to your search engine and type in "Christ the King" you will be directed to web pages for various churches and schools. But Christ did not become popular as "King" while He lived on earth. Make no mistake- Jesus came to this earth to become King. He came to establish His kingdom. But during the thirty-some years He walked the dusty landscape of Palestine, He was not recognized as King.

Matthew, the first book of the New Testament, clearly presents Christ as the one who came to be King of His people. From the very beginning of the book Matthew establishes the kingly identity of Jesus. The first section of the book is a list of names. Most people will skip this list or just skim over the names. But if you look closely, you will see that the list traces the kings of the people of Israel from David until the time when they ceased to have kings. But the genealogy does not end there. It continues on a straight line right to Jesus. Matthew is very clearly informing us that Jesus stands in the royal line of King David. Jesus deserves to be seen for who He truly is- King Jesus.

How should our lives be different if we know that Jesus is King? First, we should submit to Jesus as our king. This means that we will trust that His way to God is right and we will accept His payment for our sin.

Second, we should use our time like Jesus is our king. A king expects his followers to come when called. Jesus calls us every day to spend time with Him in the Bible. Jesus calls us every week to spend time worshiping him with His other followers in church.

Third, we should use our money like Jesus is our king. Let's stop asking how much we have to give and begin asking how much we can give to our king.

Fourth, if Jesus is our king, then we should be His heralds. While we may not use the words, "hear ye, hear ye" we certainly should deliver the message of the gospel to the people with whom we have the privilege of interacting.

Finally, if Jesus is our king, then we should submit to the lower authorities that He has placed over us. Government leaders, church leaders, family leaders, school leaders, employment leaders- all of these people have responsibilities to serve us. We should serve King Jesus by submitting appropriately to these leaders.

Every part of the Bible was written by God for a reason (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Matthew didn't leave us to wonder why He included a genealogy at the beginning of the list. Instead, Matthew pointed to Jesus as Messiah and showed that Jesus came to be king. Are you living like Jesus is your king?

Spurgeon Quotes- sermons preached in 1887

2010-12-03T09:21:00.000-08:00

Here are a few quotes from Charles Spurgeon taken from Volume 33 of his sermons.

"A self-righteous man's religion is nothing but a painted pageantry to go to hell in!"

"Let us enjoy Heaven on the road to Heaven."

"The greatest Believer would not believe for another moment unless Grace were constantly given him to keep the flame of faith burning."

"All the agony of death lies in the foresight of it- death itself is the end of all agony!"

"To the Believer it is not death to die!"

"Remember, that Hell for the orthodox will be quite as horrible as eternal ruin for the heterodox."

"It will be a dreadful thing to go to hell with a sound head and a rotten heart!"

"To live without Christ is not life, but a breathing death!"

"When we struggle against tribulation or persecution, we may be warring against untold benefit."

"Preachers need not seek for larger spheres- let them be faithful in those which they now occupy. A Brother recently said to me, 'I cannot do much with a hundred hearers,' and I replied, 'You will find it hard work to give in a good account for even a hundred people.' I confess it very quietly, but I have often wished that I had a little congregation, that I might watch over every soul in it. But now I am doomed to an everlasting dissatisfaction with my work, for what am I among so many? I can only feel that I have not even begun to do the hundredth part of what needs to be done in such a Church as this!"

God's Love and Your (Football) Success

2010-12-01T08:47:00.000-08:00

It probably would have been a good idea for Buffalo Bills wide-receiver to go home and read Romans 8:28-39 before tweeting last Sunday night. On Sunday afternoon Johnson dropped a pass in the end zone that probably would have caused his team to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in a huge upset. Instead, Johnson became hugely upset at being the goat of the game, and decided to blame God with this tweet:

I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO. . .

If I set aside my thoughts on the grammar, spelling, punctuation, spacing, and capitalization of tweets in general and this one in particular, I end up with only a theological problem with what Stevie Johnson has said. Johnson's theology seems to be that as long as he acts in a way that pleases God, then God should give him a good life.

The apostle Paul had no such misconceptions. He had experienced the "tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword" that some might suggest could separate a Christian from the love of God. Paul testified that neither those things, nor anything else would ever be able to separate a follower of God from His love for them- the love that is gloriously displayed through the cross of Christ.

Paul did not deny that much trouble comes to the life of a believer. In verse 36 of Romans 8 he even quotes from the book of Psalms to show that God's followers have always experienced great hardship. Problems in life are not a sign of God abandoning his followers. But problems in life might show us when we have stopped relying on God and started to try to earn physical blessing from Him instead.

I don't know what Stevie Johnson's relationship with Christ actually is. But I can assure you that if you are a follower of Christ two things are true: 1. You will have problems, 2. God's love for you is eternal and will exhibit itself most permanently through granting you eternal salvation.

Why Don't You Do Something?

2010-11-30T07:03:00.000-08:00

When I read on the Kindle my family can't tell right away what I am reading. The other day my daughter Nicole came into the room and asked if I was reading the Bible. I wasn't. "Spurgeon?" she inquired. A very good guess, to be sure, but also incorrect. I informed her that I was reading a book by John Piper who was both a pastor and a writer. Nicole suggested that since I was a pastor that I also should write something. "What should I write?" I asked. She suggested that I write my own biography. I told her that I didn't think many people would want to read about me since I haven't done very much in my life. Her response was, "Well, then you should do something!" Good advice from a brand new teenager.

All Things Work Together For Good . . .

2010-11-24T08:41:00.001-08:00

How can Romans 8:28 be true? We quote it so often when life stinks. Some Christians are even tired of hearing it. The verse seems to be an easy answer for pastors to give when we just don't know what to say about a tragic event.

In reality, the verse itself begins to give the answer as to how such an outrageous claim can be true. It is true that all things work for good to those who love God because God has called us according to His purpose. The following two verses elaborate on that theme even more. They let us know that God's complete directing of our salvation is the good in which we can rejoice.

God's plan of saving people begins with His selection of them to receive His special love. Those He foreknows in this way are ones that He also determines to conform to be like Jesus. When we experience pain, loss, suffering, and any other bad thing, we should remember that God uses those experiences to make us more like Jesus than we were previously. In addition to making us like Jesus, God also is the one who declares us right with Him (based on the work of Christ on the cross), effectively calls us to faith in Christ, and grants us eternal life.

God has sacrificed much in order to take care of our eternal issues. It would be inconsistent of God to fail to handle our more immediate, physical problems. In fact, God is in control. He is using our problems to make us like Him. He is using those problems for our good. The promise may seem outrageous to you, but God's proof of the truth of His promise is overwhelming. Accept it as true. Your problems will still exist, but you will be able to see them for the good that God intended in your life.

Swiss Family Robinson

2010-11-18T09:31:00.000-08:00

I have really enjoyed the Kindle that the church gave me for Pastor Appreciation Month. It is a terrific gift. I think I actually like reading it better than reading "real books" (physical books- you know, the kind with paper that are all over my study).

One of the things that I have done with the Kindle is download and read some free classic books. Many of these books I've read before. One such book is Swiss Family Robinson. It has been many years since I first read this book, but I remembered that I liked it. I also remember my grandfather telling me that it had been one of his favorite books. My dad has since mentioned that it was a book that he enjoyed. And now my son has begun to read it also- on the Kindle of course. I think he just wanted an excuse to use my new toy.

One of the things that struck me as I read this book for the first time as a parent is how much parenting advice is built right into the story. The book is told from the point of view of a dad who has been marooned on an island with his wife and four sons. Throughout the book he corrects the character flaws of his boys through instruction, and also through carefully assigning work projects to each boy based on areas in which that boy needs improvement.

The author also gives much spiritual teaching. The family constantly recognizes the hand of a gracious God in all that happens to them. They remember to give thanks and to study the Bible regularly.

Much of the teaching of the book involves the physical world. The book talks about how they survived by making use of the plants and animals on the island. It also introduces various geological information as they tour their island and make good use of all that is available to them.

There is a reason that some books stand the test of time and become classics. Perhaps this book has survived because it creatively teaches many lessons in the midst of a compelling story. Most of my reading centers on non-fiction, but this book reminds me of the value fiction can play in communicating truth.

Creator, Ruler, Reconciler

2010-11-17T07:15:00.000-08:00

Colossians 1:15-20 exalts Christ for who He is. It shows that Christ is our creator. He made the world. He made people. He created the angelic or spiritual world in addition to the physical world. It is by the power of the eternal Christ that everything continues to exist and to operate.

In addition to being our creator, Christ is also our ruler. He is the head of the church. He is the source of the church. He is the leader of the church in every area, including the area of resurrection. Christ ultimately rules not only over the church, but also over all things.

Along with being creator and ruler, Christ is the great reconciler. He makes peace between God and men. He will one day restore this fallen creation to it's original glory. The cross of Christ was the means through which Christ made peace between sinful man and a holy God.

How should a knowledge of Christ's greatness impact our lives? First, we ought to worship the one who made us, rules over us, and gives us peace with God. Second, we should trust the one who holds this life together- the one who will restore the earth to it's former glory- the one died on our behalf. Trusting Him means accepting Him as our way of salvation. It also involves living our lives for His glory and pleasure. Finally, a picture of the greatness of Christ should be a picture that we want to show to other people. Just as grandparents find any excuse to show off pictures of their grandchildren, we ought to make opportunities to present Christ to the people with whom we interact.

Christ is great for many reasons. Let's make sure we remember His greatness and act according to it.

Colossians 1:15-20:
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities- all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

It Happens

2010-11-16T09:02:00.000-08:00

One of my responsibilities as "dad" is to get the toilet un-clogged. This is not my favorite part of my dad job-description. In fact, I'm sure that un-clogging toilets is not even in my top ten favorite parts of being a parent. Nevertheless, I plunger onward.

Recently I was again called on to make the water flow through the pipes. For some reason I was having a particularly difficult time convincing the poop to get un-stuck. After working for several minutes one of my children suggested an easier method. She informed me that if I would just walk away, it would clear up on its own. At least, that's what always works for her. What a great laugh my daughter provided me. She didn't understand what was so funny. I explained that the reason the toilet re-gained it's ability to flush all of those times was not because the problem just went away, but because I was continually fixing those problems.

Some time after I stopped laughing (and had considered crying) and after I finally had a break-through with that current back-up, it occurred to me that we might fail to notice the work of our Heavenly Father. We are happy when problems in our lives just work themselves out. But we don't always see that God was the one who was behind the scenes actually fixing the problem. Let's remember to look for evidence of God at work, even when we don't immediately notice Him.

Building Update

2010-11-10T13:47:00.001-08:00

The plans for an addition to our building are continuing to take shape. The Building Committee of Grace Church met with our site engineer yesterday. The engineer has showed us his plans and helped us choose some of the landscaping and make some style choices for the front of the building. The engineer should be ready to submit our permit application to our township next month.

Applying for permits costs money. Before we spend that money, the Building Committee wants to make sure the entire church is informed and in approval of the plans. In order to inform the congregation, the Committee will call a special congregational meeting for our church immediately following our next Fellowship Dinner (after church on Sunday, November 21). At this meeting I expect that the plans for the building and the plans for the parking lot and driveway will be presented. In addition, the cost of the project and the needed monthly payments will also be shown. Once we spend the money on permits, that money will be wasted if we come back later with a different plan or if we decide not to build the building that we apply to build. As a result, it seems important that we all are in agreement on the building plans before we apply for the permits. Additionally, once we borrow money for the building, our monthly mortgage cost will rise. We need to make sure that the people of Grace Church are financially committed to the project before we shoulder a new mortgage.

Proud Papa

2010-11-09T07:02:00.000-08:00

My daughter asked a terrific question during our Bible reading last night. She wanted to know why the pronouns had changed from "they" to "we" in Acts 16. We talked about the fact that Luke wrote the book of Acts. The kids were able to realize that the transition from "they went and did things" to "we went and did more things" meant that Luke had joined Paul's group. My daughter also wanted to know why Luke didn't just say that he began travelling with Paul.

I was very proud of my daughter for noticing this very minor change. It not only showed that she was paying attention, but also lets me know that she is already equipped to handle the first step of studying the Bible for herself- the step of observing what the text actually says.

Quotes About Reading

2010-10-13T06:59:00.000-07:00

"The man who never reads will never be read. He who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he has no brains of his own." C.H. Spurgeon

"And in all this reading, our objective is not so much the accumulation of knowledge as the stimulation to think Christianly." John Stott

"Unread Bibles are evidences against rebels, and are unbecoming in believers." C.H. Spurgeon

"Either read or get out of the ministry!" John Wesley

"This much is certain; we will never preach more than we know and we will never preach above our reading." Albert Mohler

(speaking of preaching) "There is no profession in which performance depends so much upon the accumulation of insight and information." John Killinger

100 and 100

2010-10-12T07:21:00.000-07:00

You are currently reading the one hundredeth post on this blog. In addition, our church Facebook page now has 100 fans. You may now access Grace Church of Old Bridge's Facebook page with this link: www.facebook.com/GraceChurchOB.

Quotes about Prayer and Preaching

2010-10-01T06:47:00.001-07:00

"Whatever else a preacher does in preparing for the pulpit, let him above all pray." Arthur Pierson

"Spare neither labour in the study, prayer in the closet, nor zeal in the pulpit." C.H. Spurgeon

"Prayer will singularly assist you in the delivery of your sermon; in fact, nothing can so gloriously fit you to preach as descending fresh from the mount of communion with God to speak with men." C.H. Spurgeon

"Great talents you may never have, but you will do well enough without them if you abound in intercession." C.H. Spurgeon

"The minister who does not earnestly pray over his work must surely be a vain and conceited man." C.H. Spurgeon

"Good preaching is born of good praying." John Piper

"We can preach competently, earnestly, faithfully, intelligently, interestingly, missionally, passionately, humorously, and even brilliantly. But we fail when we do no preach prayerfully." Phillip Jensen and Paul Grimmond

"All preaching must be prayerful, because no preaching is effective unless God is at work in it." Phillip Jensen and Paul Grimmond

Quotes About Prayer

2010-09-30T06:49:00.000-07:00

Here are some general quotes regarding prayer. Tomorrow I intend to post quotes about prayer in relation to preaching.

"When a local church ceases to depend on prayer, God ceases to bless its ministry." Warren Wiersbe

"When we depend upon organizations, we get what organizations can do;
When we depend upon education, we get what education can do;
When we depend upon man, we get what man can do;
But when we depend upon prayer, we get what God can do." A.C. Dixon

"When I fail to pray, the best I can do is the best I can do. I forfeit my spiritual potential. But when I pray, the best i can do is no longer the best I can do. The best i can do is the best God can do. And He is able to do immeasurably more than I can ask or imagine." Mark Batterson

"The condition of a church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer-meetings." C.H. Spurgeon

"Church members who never pray for the good of the church, have no love for it;" C.H. Spurgeon

"Praying will make you leave off sinning, or sinning will make you leave off praying." C.H. Spurgeon

"We have our requests, not always as we pray, but as we would pray were we wiser." Robertson Nicoll

Quotes About Worship

2010-09-29T09:57:00.000-07:00

"The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied." Jonathan Edwards

"Worship is all about consciously reflecting the worth of value of God." John Piper

"Worship is an active response to God whereby we declare His worth. Worship is not passive, but is participatory. Worship is not simply a mood; it is a response. Worship is not just a feeling; it is a declaration." Ronald B. Allen and Gordon L. Borrror

"Reverent corporate worship, then, is not optional for the church of God . . . Rather, it brings to expression the very being of the church. It manifests on earth the reality of the heavenly assembly." Edmund Clowney

"As angels find it their highest joy to praise god continually, should we not also delight each day to sing God's praise, counting this as the highest and most worthy use of our time and our greatest joy?" Wayne Grudem

"The alternative to worship is apostasy." William Lane

Here is one that was just "published" the day after I initially posted these quotes:

"We can worship God by serving our neighbors, but once a week we are called to serve our neighbors by worshiping God." Kevin DeYoung

Event Filled Week

2010-09-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

My daily commute involves walking from my living room to my basement. That commute got slightly longer recently when my study moved one room farther away in the basement. One result of working from home is that there are some weeks in which I don't get out of the house much. This past week was not one of those weeks.

After church on Sunday I was able to take my two youngest daughters to Great Adventure. They loved the rides (well, most of them). On Monday I went with my younger son to his first Yankee game. We took the ferry to Manhattan and then took the subway up to the Bronx. The Yankees made the night special by winning the game (most people probably thought that it was special that a monument was unveiled in Monument Park for George Steinbrenner and that Joe Torre, Don Mattingly, and a bunch of other famous Yankees were there, but my son just wanted the game to begin and was happy that we won).

On Tuesday I headed to Pennsylvania for yet another interview in my ordination process. That night we had a great Bible study at the church which also happened to be well attended. On Wednesday I met with the pastors in the denomination who are most local to me. Thursday night was soccer games for my boys. Friday found me driving to Cape May, NJ for a meeting for a church plant in our denomination. Friday was the longest drive, but was actually far less tiring than Tuesday's trip to PA because my dad let me borrow his car. We have two more soccer games on Saturday morning.

In case you were wondering- I love my commute, but I also enjoy getting out of the study and doing other things.

Too Funny Not To Share

2010-09-17T06:53:00.000-07:00

The best lines are near the end. I enjoyed this clip, so I hope you will also.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=libNMEbv3_M&feature=player_embedded

Building Update

2010-09-14T09:50:00.000-07:00

The Building Committee at Grace Church continues to work. Right now the committee has most of the plans made for an addition to our current chapel. The addition would seat 120 people and have bathrooms and some kitchen space. It would be connected to our current sanctuary, but that sanctuary would become classrooms. The building would be able to be seen by the road since it will be tall and since the parking lot will sit right in front of the building and extend a bit into our current front yard. Much of the yard would remain, but some more trees from the tree line would have to come down to accommodate the flow of traffic. Also to accommodate traffic, the current driveway would be widened so that cars could enter and exit at the same time- quite a novel idea, don't you think?

At this point in time the site engineer has already provided us with the basic overview plans of what the property would look like when the addition was completed. That is the picture at the top of this page. The completed plans should be able to be reviewed by the committee at our October meeting.

While the engineer decides what the property layout will be, it is the job of the architect to plan the inside floor plan for the new building. That is exactly what our architect is in the process of doing for us. We should have some preliminary results from him in the next couple of weeks.

Once we approve the engineer's final plans (which require some interaction with the DEP first) we will be about ready to apply for our permits. All of this is a long process, but it will be worth it when we are able to gather and worship in a building that suits our needs.

Worship Songs

2010-09-01T10:31:00.001-07:00

I found this post both entertaining and enlightening. I trust you will do the same. You have to look at the links to fully appreciate the intent of the "worship rant."

http://firstthings.com/blogs/evangel/2010/08/rant-worship/

Heaven

2010-08-12T08:04:00.000-07:00

In 2004 Eternal Perspectives Ministries copyrighted the book Heaven by Randy Alcorn. On the front of the book jacket, just above the title is this quote from Stu Weber: "Other than the Bible itself, this may well be the single most life-changing book you'll ever read." That's a huge claim to make- unless you only expect people to read one book. Other endorsers of this book include Joni Earekson Tada, Hank Hanegraaff, and Rick Warren.

I found the book to be tremendously helpful in causing me to think about a Christian's eternal future in heaven and how to prepare for it during this life. In particular, Alcorn's ideas showed me that the New Heaven will be a restored earth that is far greater than we currently experience. I had previously thought that the New Heaven would be separate from the New Earth and that Christians would be able to travel between them. Alcorn shows from Scripture that God will be reigning on earth and that wherever God is present and ruling is Heaven.

One strength of this book is in dispelling false ideas about Heaven. People tend to associate Heaven with boredom of sitting on a cloud and strumming a harp. Alcorn disproves this and other stereotypes and whets our appetites for the sheer thrills and excitements that we will experience throughout all eternity.

Another myth that this book disproves is the idea Alcorn terms "Christoplatonism." Alcorn uses this term to refer to the idea that many Christians have that heaven will only be "spiritual" and not "physical." Many people seem to believe that what is physical is evil and won't last for eternity. This book handily disproves such false assumptions. One easy argument against this concept is that God created our current earth and deemed it "very good." Alcorn shows that heaven will be a very real, physical location- and that location will be on a literal earth.

I certainly recommend this book to all Christians. While the claim to be possibly the most life-changing book you'll ever read certainly seems overblown, I would agree that this book is certainly in the discussion of the top ten most helpful books for Christians in America today. If heaven is our eternal destination, then we ought to know about where we hope to go. In addition, we should learn how to use our lives productively now in order to assure our greatest reward when we arrive in heaven.

More Missions Thoughts

2010-08-11T07:52:00.000-07:00

In the previous post I mentioned some of the strengths and weaknesses of a missions philosophy that was proposed in the book Revolution in World Missions by K.P. Yohannan. One aspect of the his proposal that I did not mention before involved the likelihood of missionaries from Western countries to be involved in ministries that were not related to evangelism or church planting. I appreciated Yohannan's analysis of the situation. Of course ministries of mercy such as schools and hospitals and providing food are good things to do. But Yohannan was concerned that we have more missionaries involved in these ministries than in proclaiming Christ to people. The proclamation of the gospel is mankind's greatest need, so it is problematic when we ignore this need in order to meet lesser needs.

I am not against ministries of mercy. Neither is Yohannan. But we both agree that these ministries need to follow the gospel and must be given less priority than the gospel. It is not enough to have a hospital if we never tell the sick people about Jesus. In my opinion, this focus on the evangelism and church planting is a strength of Yohannan's philosophy.

Missions

2010-08-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

I recently finished reading Revolution in World Missions by K.P. Yohannan. Yohannan is an Indian man who now serves his people from America by raising money and prayer support for national missionaries throughout Asia. Yohannan started the agency "Gospel For Asia" which publishes the missions magazine Send.

Gospel For Asia primarily spreads the gospel through Asia by training and supporting local Christians to be missionaries to their own people and to other people groups within their reach. Yohannan seems to have written this book primarily to raise additional funds for the work. In fact, the book was sent to me for free. He provides compelling reasons why this ministry is worthwhile and effective. He points out that Asians are more likely to give a hearing to the gospel if it is shared by someone from their culture. He shows that the cost of a national missionary is vastly less than the cost of a foreigner travelling to a new location, learning language and culture, and travelling back. In fact, for the price of supporting one foreign missionary, Yohannan claims that about forty nationals can be supported. Yohannan also claims that the nationals are reaping a huge harvest of souls and starting churches with a far greater effectiveness than foreign missionaries.

While this author convinced me for the most part of the reasonableness of his thesis, I do still have a few concerns. The tone of the book is often accusatory of Western Christianity for living like people in the West. Yohannan wants us to give a lot of money to help Asians reach other Asians through Asian methods. He doesn't seem to recognize that the church in the West must also use culturally accepted methods in order to reach the people closest to them. Yohannan seems to try to make us feel guilty for enjoying food at our fellowship dinners. He is also very critical of the money spent on church buildings in the West when that same money could have purchased more church buildings in Asia. The fact of the matter is, life and building materials simply cost more here. In my community the church building itself can be a very real hindrance to people coming to church; therefore, it makes sense to us to spend a reasonable amount of money in order to serve the people of our community.

The other disagreement I had with this book was that Yohannan seems to blame each Western Christian for every Asian who dies without Christ. My understanding of the Bible is that each person is responsible to God for his own sin. Of course it is our joy and duty as believers to share the wonderful good news of God's grace through Christ with the world. But the fact that certain parts of the world have not been reached as effectively as we would like is not necessarily an indictment of Christians from other cultures. I find that this accusation lacks theological precision.

Despite these critiques, I still found the message of this book to be compelling. I know that I would appreciate an infusion of cash in our church. I can make the case that outside money would greatly aid our effectiveness. So it doesn't take any imagination to prove to me that an infusion of cash into the ministry of the gospel in Asia could also be highly useful. If it is true that God's money can be better used by supporting national workers, then we should give careful attention to this program.

5 OPTIONS- Reprise

2010-07-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

Last week I wrote about the five options that I perceived our congregation had in front of us regarding a building. A few people left comments and gave suggestions. Now it is time for me to weigh in with my opinion on the options.

Option 1 is to build the big building that we would like to own. This is appealing because it is exactly the building that will best serve our needs. This option is not feasible at this time because it is too expensive. The Executive Director of our denomination told me that this option is financially not an option to us right now- though it might be in the future.

Option 2 is to do nothing. Our Executive Director also informed me that this option is not an option to us either. It was very clear to him that our facilities do not facilitate our congregation. We need to do something. While we have made these facilities work for us for a period of years, we have not seen any growth. It is likely that our facilities are hindering people from checking out our congregation.

Option 3 is to build an addition to our current chapel. There are several ways that this could be done, but the elders have suggested that the best type of addition would be a multi-purpose room that would initially serve as a sanctuary and would have bathrooms. Our current chapel would be converted to classroom space. This is a very attractive option to me. It is far less expensive than building an entirely new building. It could be built much sooner and would make our current property usable to us. This option could be done in such a way that the addition would not infringe on the site plan for the larger building and parking lot. That means that if God chooses to bring many more people to our church, that we would still be able to build the larger building where we had originally planned to build it. This first addition could later become a fellowship hall, or we could add onto it in the back to make it a gym.

Option 4 is to sell our property, buy a parsonage, and lease a meeting space for the church. This option is unlikely to work from a strictly financial standpoint.

Option 5 is to sell our property, purchase a building as a space for the church to meet, and help the pastor find his own housing. This option is also appealing to me, but I fear that I need to be careful of my motives for liking this option. I have worked out financial scenarios where this option is possible for our congregation. The advantage is that the church gets into a usable and more affordable property, and perhaps is able to do it in a short period of time. The disadvantage to the church is that it would only own a building and not a parsonage. This is where I say that I have to watch my own motives. Parsonages can be very good investments for churches because once the house is paid for, the church only needs to pay utilities and maintenance for that house instead of paying a pastor enough money to rent or buy a home. Some pastors appreciate not having to be responsible for the home in which they live. But many pastors (myself included) enjoy the experience of home ownership and appreciate the security it provides. It seems to me that many churches that already have parsonages tend to keep them, but churches that don't already have them don't bother acquiring them.

The elders of our congregation have had some extended conversation about these options. At this time we recognize the need to continue to reach out to our community and strive to grow our congregation. At the same time, we want to make plans for facilities that actually will serve our congregation. I would say that we are leaning toward eventually adding an addition to our current chapel, but that decision is certainly not finalized. We are currently trying to improve our financial situation so that we can pursue better facilities. Please pray for the church and leaders to have wisdom. Pray for God to provide opportunities and finances. Pray for us to act with wise faith.

5 OPTIONS

2010-07-06T11:29:00.000-07:00

This blog was started because the Building Committee of Cottrell Corners Community Church thought it would be a good way of keeping the church informed as to the progress of building program. I trust that this blog has accomplished that much and more.

In this article I would like to speak for myself rather than for the Building Committee of the church. I would like to present what I consider to be all of the options that the church has regarding a future building. Our Committee only has the task of preparing to build a building on our current property. Today, I would like to suggest that this building is only one of our many options. I don't necessarily intend to sway you as to which one we should pursue. I would like to point out that we have choices. We are not yet locked into any course of action. We should consider our alternatives. Perhaps you will think of an even better alternative that I have not considered.

Before presenting the options, let's first remember what we are doing. Cottrell Corners Community Church is a small congregation that has been around for almost 16 years. We gathered for worship for the first 10 years at an elementary school in Aberdeen, NJ. Six years ago we purchased four acres of land in Old Bridge. We renovated a small chapel on the property which is where we have been gathering for worship ever since. The property also contains a parsonage and a rental home. The chapel does not have classrooms or bathrooms, and the chapel only has room for about 80 people. A low ceiling in half of the chapel presents some challenges to visibility. In addition, the chapel sits over 200 feet from the road and is blocked from view by trees.

In order to solve these challenges a Building Committee has been formed. The Committee determined that we should build a building in the front of our property that can be seen by the road. The building should have classrooms, bathrooms, a kitchenette, and a sanctuary with seating for at least 150. Floor plans for this building have been acquired from an architect. An attorney and engineer have been retained. A builder has been discovered. Some money has been raised. Financing has been explored. The engineer has explained the permit process.

The first, obvious, and probably most desirable option for the church is to build the building that the committee designed. This building was designed with our exact needs in mind. It will be an attractive building that simply by sitting on the property might attract people to visit the church. The only thing that is keeping us from building this building is the cost. The committee has succeeded in planning for this building to be built at a very reasonable cost. The problem is that we don't have the $500,000 (minimum) that is needed or the means of paying the additional mortgage on that amount.

The second option which the church could pursue in regards to a building is to do nothing. We are currently surviving in these facilities. We are paying our bills. We are meeting for worship and Bible studies. The work of a church is at least partly being accomplished in our current building. This is the least expensive option, though it could become very expensive if our failure to build also results in a failure to grow or handle growth. Incidentally, the option of doing nothing is the default option. This is the option that we are actually pursuing if we decide to wait to build a large building until we secure enough money for that building. While we might be okay for a time to pursue this option, I believe that the long-term health of the church will be advanced better through an option that puts us into a facility that meets our needs.

A third option to consider is to do smaller building program on our property. An addition that is built onto our current chapel would be far less expensive than a new building that is built out front. The reason is partly because the addition would be smaller and partly because the addition would not require the extensive site work that the new building requires. If we were to build a decent sized "box" in our current parking lot we could have bathrooms, a kitchenette, and a sanctuary. We could connect it to our current building and use that building for classrooms. We could make the addition quite tall so that it would be seen by the road, especially after we finish taking out a few trees from the treeline. The new parking lot could be gravel and simply extend into our front lawn.

A fourth option is to sell our property, buy a house for the pastor to live in with the profit, and lease a property to use as a church building. This is basically what the church did for the first 10 years when we met in a school. Those years have shown us that we don't want to rent a "Sunday-only" property. But if we could lease a property that met our needs we might be able to get into a more usable building sooner. I personally don't consider this to be a strong option due to the financial considerations. The lease rates per sqare foot in our community make this option difficult to achieve.

The fifth option for our church would be to sell our current property, purchase a new church building, but not purchase a pastor's home. I would need some initial help getting into housing, but it might be able to be done. The advantage of this option is that the church might still be able to own a building. It would be a building and property that had space for our needs, including classrooms and bathrooms. We would have to find a property that we could acquire cheaper than our current property. We would put the profit from the sale of our current property toward the purchase of the new property. We would need a new mortgage for the remainder of the sale amount, but that new mortgage would be less than our current mortgage.

These are the five options that I can think of. Please comment on any other options that you think up. Also, please comment on which, if any, of the options you believe to be most useful to us at this time and why. I'll wait a little while to give my opinion, but if you read this post carefully you will probably see which one's I like the best.

Death

2010-06-29T11:12:00.001-07:00

In the past two days I have learned of two strong, New Jersey Christians who have gone to be with the Lord. In the coming days their lives and service to Christ will be celebrated. Their families and friends will grieve, and rightly so. But the families and friends of these men will also rejoice in knowing that these men are now receiving the reward for their labors done for Christ in this life.

When C.H. Spurgeon died one of the hymns that was sung at a funeral service contained this line: "By death I shall escape from death." That blessed truth gives assurance to believers in Jesus Christ. We are living for more than this life. We are living for eternity. Death out of this life leads us into an eternal life which has no end. This escape from the second death is only provided to followers of Jesus.

Have you made sure that your death from this life will provide you with your escape from eternal death?

Building Update- June 2010

2010-06-08T11:32:00.001-07:00

Your Building Committee at Cottrell Corners Community Church has met again and remain active. The current state of our progress is that we are waiting on the engineer to be ready to apply for permits. The engineer had some delays with NJDEP, but we have hopes that he will have everything prepared very soon. Once he presents us with the plans, we can either make changes or proceed by submitting the plans to Old Bridge Township for approval.

We continue to discuss ways to make the new building environmentally friendly. We have gathered information about solar panels and more is on the way.

We will continue to to more research regarding financing. The people of the church have given and are continuing to give. But of course the amount of money that is needed is still quite large. The more money we have available, the better shape we will be in when it comes time to get a loan.

One thing that will help the building project is if more people are part of the church. Ironically, one thing that will help the church gain people is the new building. We all need to do more in order to introduce our friends, neighbors, co-workers, and family to our congregation. Please don't feel that you have to wait until we have a new building to invite people to church. I encourage each of us to invite as many people as we can to come join us as we seek to know God together.

The Next Best Thing to Grace

2010-06-03T07:25:00.000-07:00

In reading through Spurgeon's "Lectures to My Students" I came across the following quote. The context of this quote is related to making sure people are able to pay attention to a sermon. In this section of the lecture Spurgeon is talking about the physical room in which people meet. He says:

"The next best thing to the grace of God for a preacher is oxygen. Pray that the windows of heaven may be opened, but begin by opening the windows of your meeting-house."

Later in the same paragraph he lamented that many church buildings were not well designed for ventilation. How do you like his proposed solution to that problem?

"Provided all such chapels were properly insured, I could not pray for their
preservation from fire."

I don't know if churches in England in the 1800 made a lot of insurance claims after that. I trust Spurgeon never had a class action suit filed against him by the insurance companies.

Spurgeon then went on to explain how he had solved the ventilation problem in his congregation.

"In my former chapel in Park Street I mentioned to my deacons several times my
opinion that the upper panes of the iron-framed windows had better be taken
out, as the windows were not made to open. I mentioned this several
times, and nothing came of it; but it providentially happened one Monday that
somebody removed most of those panes in a masterly manner, almost as well as if
they had been taken out by a glazier. There was considerable consternation, and much conjecture as to who had committed the crime, and I proposed that a reward of five pounds should be offered for the discovery of the offender, who when found should receive the amount as a present. The reward was not forthcoming, and therefore I have not felt it to be my duty to inform against the individual. I trust none of you will suspect me, for if you do I shall have to confess that I have walked with the stick which let the oxygen into that stifling structure."

Follow up about Meetings

2010-05-27T06:31:00.001-07:00

In the previous post I reviewed a book about how to participate in effective elders meetings. Just for fun, here's a look at what happens when meetings go too far.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wac3aGn5twc&feature=player_embedded

Good Things- Small Packages

2010-05-26T06:11:00.001-07:00

The book Meetings That Work by Alexander Strauch is not large. In fact, you could probably read it in under an hour. But don't be fooled by the size. This book contains a big message. It was written by the man who wrote what I consider to be the definitive work on church elders. That book is called: Biblical Eldership. This much smaller book only addresses one area of eldership- the area of meetings.

Elders do spend significant time in meetings, so it stands to reason that we want to make the most of that time. Strauch's tips for effective meetings begin with some brief thoughts about why elders' meetings are so important. Some reasons include: caring for the spiritual health of the congregation, building character on the part of the elders, developing leadership skills, enhancing morale and accountability, and training future elders.

Once the importance of meetings has been established, Strauch takes the major portion of this book to provide tips on how to make meetings better. Interestingly, the major part of that section is concerned with the character and participation of the elders themselves. If the elders are acting with Christ-like character toward each other, the meeting will be more effective.

Next, Strauch provides some priorities for meetings. These priorities are people, prayer, and the Word of God. If there is a weakness in this book it is that Strauch doesn't provide much guidance regarding that final priority- growth in our knowledge of God that can be accomplished during the meeting of the elders.

As the end of the book approaches, the highly practical tips for participating in meetings are provided. One piece of counsel that I appreciated had to do with the agenda. Strauch highlights the importance of the agenda with these words: "Adequate time spent in preparing an agenda, talking it over with others, thinking it through carefully, prioritizing items, and eliminating needless items guarantees a more productive meeting." One tip for the agenda is to send it out to all participants in advance and let people edit it. Another useful hint was to differentiate between major discussion time and quick items of business. One other piece of advice that stuck with me was that the agenda can list "future business" at the bottom so that the current meetings does not become too overloaded.

We have all heard the maxim that "good things come in small packages." This book is an illustration of that saying. Though it is small, it provides some very good and useful advice.

Power Tools

2010-05-13T08:50:00.000-07:00

Perhaps you remember an old sit-com with Tim Allen called "Home Improvement." The father in this show (played by Tim Allen) was the host of a show that taught about repairs to the house. He was always trying to "super-charge" any tool to make it more powerful. His antics lead to lots of laughs.

Once you begin to use power tools you start to see the appeal that they had over Tim. Something about driving a nail with the touch of a button or sawing a board with a power saw really does make a man want to grunt with glee (a far less manly show from what I can tell) over the power that he holds in his hands.

I spent some time working with my power tools last week. I was moving my study to a different room. [As an aside, please notice that a pastor has a "study," not an "office," because his primary task is to study the word of God.] In the process of moving I needed to cut the top shelf off of each of my bookshelves because the new room had lower ceilings. I then had to re-assemble all of those shelves into a new book-shelf. Then I had to build one more bookshelf in a size that would fit the new room. It felt good to use the nail-gun, the mitre saw, the circular saw, a drill, and an impact driver. There is a real sense of satisfaction tearing things up and building new things out of them. In the words of an even older TV show that I rarely saw (The A-Team), "I love it when a plan come together."

This move made me notice something I had not previously considered. I enjoyed using my power tools. But the entire reason I was using them was so that I will hopefully do a better job in using the ultimate power tool. The Bible is the word of God. It is the basis for my ministry. The books in my study are there to help me understand, obey, and communicate the Bible in a better way. While regular power tools are helpful for putting up bookshelves, God's book is essential for life. From the Bible we learn about successful life, not only now, but for all of eternity. I'll continue to use my power tools. But I hope that I never drift away from the one power tool that has the power to "give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:15).

Building Update

2010-05-07T11:50:00.001-07:00

The Building Committee at Cottrell Corners Community Church continues to work toward a new building for the church. Though not much has happened this past month, the committee is still pushing forward. We are still raising money. We are also still waiting on the engineer so that we can submit our plans for permits.

One thing that will help make the new building a reality is if we were to have more people to help pay for it. The committee has many ideas for telling people about the church. The most effective way of seeing more people become a part of our congregation is if each of us who are already a part invite our friends, relatives, co-workers, and neighbors to join us.

Please pray for the advancement of the permit process and the raising of money. Please pray that God would bring more people to be a part of our congregation. And please give action to your prayer by inviting other people to join us at church. Thanks.

Fish Out of Water

2010-04-23T07:17:00.000-07:00

Several month ago my children attended a birthday party for a girl in the church. This party was set up like a carnival, and we ended up with two fish. Amazingly, the fish are still alive. We keep them separated from each other since they are "betas" and supposedly won't play nicely together.

My daughter was feeding the fish the other day. I was across the room. She casually mentioned that one fish was no longer in it's tank. It had become so excited that it was being fed that it actually jumped out of the water to get the food out of her hand, but landed outside of the tank. Now before all of you PETA people and animal lovers get worried, I'll let you know that I quickly put the fish bank in the water and it is fine. What really surprised me though was that my daughter- who gets theatrical over the appearance of a bug in her room- was not in the least bit worried about her fish jumping out of the tank. Didn't she care that it could die? Why did she take her time to casually let me know about the problem? Here's why- it wasn't her fish!!!!! It was her brother's fish, so she just didn't care as much.

The excitement of the fish could have led to the death of the fish. On the other hand, the lack of excitement on the part of my daughter could also have lead to the death of the fish. It seems like there is a lesson there for us. We need to get excited about the right things and to the right degree. Our excitement (or excitability) over issues in society or issues in our lives might be a very good thing. Sometimes we do need to get riled up and take action. Sometimes we need to jump up and down and make some noise and let people know what is going on around us. But we also need to make sure that we make that noise in a way that doesn't marginalize what we have to say. If we completely "jump out of the tank" we could end up being of no use at all to the very thing that motivated us.

Let's remember that the thing that we should be most excited about is the gospel. God, in His grace and mercy, provided the solution to our problem of sin. Don't be so causal about that good news that you fail to let people know that they can also benefit. And don't jump off the Empire State building just so you will have people listen to you preach while you are falling. I hear that the landing is quite unpleasant, and you won't be able to preach again afterward.

Amazed

2010-04-21T09:23:00.000-07:00

About 7,000 pastors gathered in Louisville last week for the Together for the Gospel conference. Although I did not attend, I have read some blog posts about the event and I have already watched one of the sessions on-line.

In the session that I viewed there was a great reminder from C. J. Mahaney that those of us who are ordinary pastors are called to be faithful in our proclamation of the gospel. He reminded me that even when we get discouraged, we should remember that God has already done much for us through the gospel. He also pointed out that those of us who preach regularly should be absolutely amazed that our congregation came back to hear us this Sunday after listening to us the Sunday before.

Mahaney also referenced Spurgeon in his message. He tells of a time that Spurgeon said that some preachers should be sentenced to listen to themselves preach and that it would be a fair punishment to them for the sermons that they inflict on others. He said that if those preachers were forced to listen to themselves, they would cry out with the words of Cain, "My punishment is greater than I can bear."

Mahaney's message is a great reminder of his text from 2 Timothy 4 that pastors are to faithfully preach the gospel. The fruit of ministry is up to God, but we are responsible to serve faithfully.

I want to say a special "Thank You" to the people of Cottrell Corners Community Church in Old Bridge, NJ who do me the amazing honor of coming back week after week and allowing me to preach the gospel to them.

How Churches Grow

2010-04-15T08:25:00.001-07:00

I'm always interested in hearing about churches that grow. I enjoy hearing about God's blessing in particular locations. I also like to find out if those churches have any lessons to share with others. As I've continued to read about C.H. Spurgeon this year, I've discovered two reasons that he gave for the tremendous growth his church experienced. The first explanation is fervent prayer. Listen to his second explanation:

"We have used no carnal attractions to gather people together to worship here, we have procured nothing to please their taste by way of elaborate music, fine dresses, painted windows, processions, and the like; we have used the gospel of Jesus without any rhetorical embellishments, simply spoken as a man speaketh to his friend; and God has blessed it, and he will bless it still."

There it is- prayer and the gospel. Jesus promised to build His church. We have the privilege of being a part of that church and watching it grow. Let's do our part by praying fervently and sharing the truth.

Yet Another Update on the Progress of the Building

2010-04-06T09:03:00.000-07:00

One of the main reasons I write this blog is to keep people informed regarding the building program at Cottrell Corners Community Church. Our intention is to see a building raised which will be used for God's glory. We believe that the building will help us accomplish our core values of worship, discipleship, and evangelism.

The Building Committee met last night. It was reported that the power company does not currently have a program where they would supply solar panels to us. Other options will be investigate this month.

The engineer is still waiting on the NJ Department of Environmental Protection to investigate our property and say that there are no wetlands. Apparently the hard winter has put the NJDEP about a month behind. The engineer should be ready to apply for the permits we need soon after the NJDEP comes.

The Building Fund currently has a little under $50,000 in it. Plus, we have spent $7,000 on retainer fees for our engineer, architect, and lawyer. The pledges seem to be coming in appropriately. The time frame for our fund drive was scheduled to end in June.

We have been considering some back-up plans if we are not able to afford the building that we have proposed. Actually, it seems like we can afford the building. It is the parking lot and site work that might put the project out of reach. We will consider building a smaller building, but we are not going to make any plans for changing to the smaller building until after June. The engineer shared with me that if we built a smaller building we might not have to do a new parking lot. The builder told me that if we put an addition on our current building we could probably avoid most of the site work costs that appear prohibitive to us.

Many options are being considered by the Building Committee. We are still looking forward and moving forward. Please pray that God will grant wisdom. Please pray that God will provide the permits. Please pray that God will provide the money. And most of all, please pray that we will glorify God through this entire process of trying to build a building that will be used to serve Him.

Is the Young Kid Coming?

2010-04-02T08:54:00.000-07:00

A lady in our church hosts a prayer meeting in her home on Thursday evenings. Her home is an apartment in a building for senior citizens. The other people in our congregation who attend this gathering are also retired, including a retired minister who leads the meeting. Because we have other meetings on Thursday nights, I only make it to this prayer meeting once or twice a month. Last night was one of those nights.

Some of the other people arrived at the building before I did. They told me that the security guard asked them if the young kid was coming. They didn't know what he meant. Then someone said, "do you mean the guy with the shaved head and goatee?" Yes, that was indeed the "young kid" he was talking about. They were happy to inform the guard that the young kid was married and had five kids of his own. I don't know if they told him that I also have the extreme privilege of being their pastor. At any rate, it's been a while since I was called young, so that felt good, even if it has to come from someone who works around octogenarians most of the time.

Ethnic Blends

2010-03-30T10:33:00.000-07:00

Early in the story of the Bible God focused His attention on one nation- the people of Israel. Though God was working with and through them, He still promised that they would be a blessing to all the peoples of the world. When Christ started the church He was very clear that His followers were to take His message of salvation to all the world- specifically to "all the ethnicities." The Christian church quickly expanded beyond it's Jewish origin and spread throughout the Roman empire. Throughout the centuries the gospel has continued to reach new groups of people.

God is very clear that His followers are to become one new group instead of remaining independent from each other. The night before Jesus went to the cross He instructed His disciples with these words: "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). Thus, we are not to huddle only with Christians who look like us or who were raised like us. Our love for other believers who are different from us is an example to the world that we have truly been transformed by Jesus' power.

It is understandable why many churches are segregated. In some places I have lived it would be impossible to have a church composed of people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds simply because the populations of those areas were not diverse. But in other parts of our country and the world, it is scandalous that our churches are segregated based on racial features. Here in the heart of New Jersey I see people that look different from me and from each other everywhere I go. A church that welcomes all of these different ethnic groups is a church that displays God's love to the world.

Here is how one pair of authors stated the matter:

"For in an increasingly diverse and cynical society, people will no longer find credible the message of God's love for all people when it's preached from segregated churches."

What can we do? Very simply, make friends with people from other cultures, share the gospel with people from other cultures, and worship with people from other cultures. It may not be easy, but it is a very necessary way to display Christ's love to our world.

Preaching to Myself

2010-03-23T07:27:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the person who most needs to hear the sermon that the preacher is preaching is the preacher himself. That's what happened to me this past Sunday. I had been feeling a little bit discouraged last week. Maybe I wasn't having a full-fledged "pity party," but I was a bit down. I wished that we would be reaching more people for Jesus. I wished that we had a building that would accommodate our needs- (I'm not asking for much- just a meeting space with bathrooms and classrooms and a large enough area for a sanctuary. Ok, I'd also like for it to be able to be seen from the road). But I wasn't seeing those things happening.

In the book Humility- True Greatness, C.J. Mahaney quotes Martin Lloyd Jones as saying, "Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?" That was my problem. I was only listening to the discouraging things that were going on around me. I should have been reminding myself of God's greatness.

In fact, the message I needed to hear was the same one I was preparing for our people. That message was from Habakkuk 3. In this chapter the prophet Habakkuk had a lot of things that could have discouraged him- beginning with the captivity that his nation was about to experience. Instead of staying dejected, Habakkuk asked for God's help. He then reflected on the ways that God had helped in the past and remembered the great character of God. Those memories lead Him to declare his trust in God no matter how bad the circumstances around him would become. The memories lead him to praise God.

Once I preached that message to myself I was indeed happier and more content. I trust that we all can remember to remind ourselves of God's goodness. When we preach that message to ourselves we will be remembering why we can trust God no matter what is going on around us.

New Socks

2010-03-19T08:09:00.000-07:00

Want to feel great? Go buy a package of new socks. Then open the package, take out the first pair, and put them on your feet. Doesn't that feel great? I had not had that experience in quite some time. My socks had become threadbare. In fact, some of my socks were so bare of thread, that my feet came right through them. Lately, at the encouragement of my lovely wife, I have been throwing away socks with holes. I had so few left that in order to have clean socks our laundry needed to be done quite often. My wife has often joked about shopping for new clothes being a better choice than doing laundry. She just followed up with that joke and brought me home some new socks last night. Putting them on this morning was almost a religious experience. They felt great on my feet- all of that warm and cushioning material.

The joy of my new footwear did not last long. One of my children clogged a toilet this morning (again). When I went to fix the problem, I ended up with an overflowed toilet. My nice warm socks quickly turned to dirty, cold, wet, disgusting socks. No way was I going to wear them all day. They came off my feet and went on the laundry pile.

Once I got the bathroom and myself cleaned up, it occurred to me that my sock mis-hap might be a small illustration of our spiritual lives. When God saves us, He makes us new creatures. He washes us clean from all the sin and filth that we had previously committed. We are like that brand new pair of socks. But it usually doesn't take us long to dive back into the filth of sin. We might not mean to, but old habits die hard. God doesn't throw us away and just get out a new pair. Instead, when we confess our sins, we are forgiven by God and cleaned up. In a sense, we are continually going through the washing machine of God's grace.

I intend to enjoy my new socks. But I hope that I will also remember to appreciate the new life that God gives me and the forgiveness that I receive from Him on a regular basis.

Where do the people come from?

2010-03-16T08:37:00.000-07:00

I'm always interested in learning about churches that have been effective in reaching more people for Jesus. In the process of reading a biography of the 18th century preacher C.H. Spurgeon, I came across this quote of how he had built such a large congregation. Here's what he said:

"Somebody asked me how I got my congregation; I never got it at all. I did not think it was my duty to do so. I only had to preach the Gospel. Why, my congregation got my congregation. I had eighty, or scarcely a hundred when I preached first. the next time I had two hundred: every one who heard me was saying to his neighbour, 'You must go and hear this young man!' Next meeting we had four hundred, and in six weeks eight hundred. That was the way in which my people got my congregation. now the people are admitted by tickets. That does very well; a member can give his ticket to another person and say, 'I will stand in the aisle,' or 'I will get in with the crowd.' Some persons, you know, will not go if they can get in easily, but they will go if you tell them they cannot get in without a ticket. that is the way congregations ought to bring a congregation about a minister. A minister preaches all the better if he has a large congregation. it was once said by a gentleman that the forming of a congregation was like the beating up of game, the minister being the sportsman. But there are some of our ministers that can't shoot! I really think, however, that I could shoot a partridge if I fired into the midst of a covey, though I might not do so if there were only one or two."

It sounds to me that Spurgeon found that people would come if they were invited to something and found out that there was a good reason to continue to come. I doubt that it will work for us to have bouncers at the church door with an exclusive guest list, but that would certainly be cool to see.

What do you think? Whose job is it to bring more people to church? And does a pastor tend to preach better if there are more people there to hear him? I'd love to hear your comments.

When Life is Hard

2010-03-09T09:04:00.000-08:00

The message this past Sunday was from the first chapter of the book of Habakkuk and the first verse of chapter 2. In that message we considered that God's power is so great that He works through and in spite of the evil intentions of wicked people. God's total control, or sovereignty, should be an encouragement to us when we endure especially rough times in our lives. Habakkuk's conclusion was that even though he did not understand how God could use the bad things that bad people were doing, he himself was going to wait and see what God would do. Habakkuk came around to a place of trusting that God is in control, God is good, and God would accomplish what is good and best.

An example of God working in the midst of evil is found in the very first book of the Bible. Joseph's brothers lied about him and then sold him into slavery. Joseph ended up in jail for a crime that he had refused to commit. Yet Joseph met someone in jail who later put him in front of Pharaoh. Pharaoh was so impressed with Joseph, that he put Joseph in control of his whole country- and Joseph saved that country from a famine. Joseph went on to tell his brothers that even though they intended to harm him, God was working to bring about what was good.

Perhaps the greatest example of God working in spite of the bad intentions of others is the example of Jesus going to the cross. The religious leaders at that time hated Jesus and literally had Him murdered. But while Jesus was on the cross, He bore the wrath of God against sin. His death was intended by His enemies to harm Him, but was used by God to bring about salvation for all who trust in Christ.

When you face situations that you don't think are fair, remember that God is greater than your situation. And remember that if you have received salvation from your sin through the work of Jesus on the cross, then you have already received more than you deserve. God is consistent. He will continue to bring good out of evil. Our responsibility is simply to rely on Him.

Building Update

2010-03-05T09:29:00.000-08:00

The Building Program at Cottrell Corners Community Church continues to move forward. We are at a stage in which it is difficult to discern forward progress. Both the architect and builder mentioned to me in the past week that the stage we are currently "stuck" is the hardest and longest part of a building project. That stage is the acquiring of permits.

Our engineer thought that he would be ready for us us to submit our permit request to the Township of Old Bridge by the middle of March. Unfortunately, all of the snow that we have had this past month has kept the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection from visiting our site to give their approval. The engineer can't submit our requests to the Township until after the NJDEP has visited. In other words, we are waiting for snow to melt. Incidentally, this reminds me of a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon where Calvin was trying to use a hair dryer to melt the snow from his yard because he had lost a quarter. I'm not quite ready to get out the hair dryer, but I sure am praying for warm weather.

Other aspects of the building program are continuing to be investigated and planned. More research will go into the possibility of acquiring solar panels. We also learned recently that financing might be difficult, but there are still some things that can be done to receive it.

Please continue to pray for God's direction and His leading. We only want to build if/when/what/how/where/He leads. Our intention, as our slogan says, is that we really will be "Building To Serve."

The Secret to Success

2010-03-05T08:25:00.001-08:00

Charles Spurgeon was one of the most successful pastors of all time. When asked the secret to his success, he simply replied, "My people pray for me."

Do you want to have success is following God? Pray for it. Do you want your church to have success in reaching people for Christ and helping them follow Him better? Pray for your church. And pray for your pastor.

First Person Narrative Preaching

2010-02-24T08:12:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday I preached the three "Lost and Found" stories of Luke 15. A shepherd found the one sheep out of a hundred that had wandered away. A woman found her one coin out of ten that had been misplaced. And a father received back his one son who had left the family. The point of these stories is the joy that God has over sinners who repent. God's love for people is evident in these stories, especially when the context is viewed. Jesus told these stories to the Pharisees because they condemned him for spending time with undesirable people (tax collectors and sinners). Jesus told these stories in order to let the Pharisees know that these undesirable people are actually very desirable in God's eyes.

In order to communicate these stories I used a style of preaching called "First person narrative." This style is described by Haddon and Torrey Robinson in their book It's All In How You Tell It. This brief book recommends a technique that has been used by preachers for ages. The technique is simply becoming one of the characters in the story and telling the story from that perspective. For the three stories in Luke 15 I became a tax collector and came in and told the congregation what it was like for Jesus to stand up for me and tell the self-righteous Pharisees that I was valuable to God.

I began with a normal introduction. Then someone in the congregation came forward and read the text. While the verses were being read, I slipped out and got into costume (tunic and headpiece from a Christmas program shepherd's outfit- plus sandals). When the reading of the text was completed, I came in and introduced myself. Then I told the stories. I used several props for the stories. I had hidden a stuffed animal of a sheep, so when the shepherd found the sheep, I found that stuffed animal. I also used a broom and a flashlight to look for the lost coin. I found the lost coin on the floor about half way back in the sanctuary. After I told the stories, I left the sanctuary from the front (looking for Pastor Dave), removed the costume while circling around the outside of the church, and then re-entered as myself from the side. I then concluded the sermon by talking about the meaning of the stories and how they applied to our lives.

The reaction that I received from taking the position of a character in the story has been very favorable. I trust that the point was well-communicated. Though I don't see this as a normal way of delivering a sermon, I can see using this technique again in the future.

You Never Know

2010-02-19T07:25:00.000-08:00

For the past few years I have taken on a fairly ambitious reading project. One year I read Calvin's institutes. Last year it was Grudem's Systematic Theology. This year I am reading some volumes of Spurgeon's sermons. I am also reading a biography of Spurgeon.

Spurgeon was a man who wanted to be useful to God. He was perfectly content to pastor a small church. But God had far a larger ministry in store for Charles. He ended up pastoring a "mega-church" in London for most of his adult life. But Spurgeon's ministry was not limited to his church, or even to his century (the 1800's). Many of Spurgeon's sermons were printed and published. Eventually many of these sermon's were published together as a series of over 50 large books. They are still available today, and many sermon's are available on the Internet.

My dad gave me five volumes of Spurgeon's sermons. I began reading volume 19 in December (of 2009). There are 61 sermons in 732 pages- not short pages by the way. The first owner of this particular book, Rev. George Headley, Jr., inscribed his name one the first page of the book. Rev. Headley was my dad's pastor and mentor when Dad was in college. From notes left in the book it is obvious that Pastor Headley was benefitting from Spurgeon's writings as early as 1972. Below Pastor Headley's name is the signature "Rev. Jack Peters 10-92." The marginal notes on some of the pages were obviously left by him. Curiously, he noted at the end of one message that he had read that particular sermon after PRM (Prayer Meeting?) on 10-16-91. So Dad owned and benefited from the book sometime in the early 90's. Now I am reading and quoting from this same book almost twenty years later.

I doubt that Charles Spurgeon expected that sermons he preached in the 1800's in England would continue to benefit pastors and their congregations in the 1900's and 2000's in America. By God's grace, that is exactly what happened. Three pastors and their congregations have made use of just one copy of one book. You may not feel that the things that you are doing will have much impact on anyone. But because of God's grace, you never really know how God will use your work to serve people you aren't even intending to serve. So be faithful. Continue to serve. And leave the long-term impact of your work up to God.

The Christian's Great Business

2010-02-17T08:35:00.000-08:00

C. H. Spurgeon preached a sermon in 1873 titled, "The Christian's Great Business." This sermon had Psalm 51:12-13 as a text. Those verses state: "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee." The first point made in this sermon is that the people who tell others about God are one's who have already been forgiven by God. It is important for those of us who have received salvation from God to tell others about the great salvation that they can also receive.

It is not unusual for Christians to mention that we should tell other people about Jesus. We are great at telling each other that we need to do it. I'm afraid that I'm better at recognizing the need to share the gospel than I am at actually sharing the gospel. But Spurgeon mentioned a motivation for actually sharing the gospel that I rarely hear. Of course we are told that we should tell others because they desperately need to hear the good news. We are told to tell others about God because He said to do it and because it brings Him glory. We are told to tell others because we have received so much and should share out of obedience and gratitude to God. But Spurgeon also mentioned that we should tell other people about forgiveness through Christ because doing so will add to our own joy. We all like to be the one to share good news. The gospel is the greatest news in the world, so it is our privilege and joy to tell other people about it. And when the gospel you share is received by someone, that is going to bring you greater pleasure.

God cares about people. He cares about you enough to save you from the penalty of your sin. He also cares about you enough to offer you joy as you share the gospel. Now all you need to do is receive that joy by talking to people about Jesus or by inviting them to church where they will hear about Him.

2010-02-08T13:26:00.000-08:00

On the last Sunday of Janauary I preached the annual "State of the Church" message at Cottrell Corners Community Church. I also provided a letter which summarized the main themes.

You can listen to the message here:

http://www.cottrellcorners.org/Sermons/Entries/2010/2/7_Sunday_Service_January_31%2C_2010.html

You can read the letter here:

http://www.cottrellcorners.org/Welcome_files/State%20of%20the%20church%20letter.pdf

Knowing God's Will

2010-02-04T06:07:00.001-08:00

What am I supposed to do with my life? Who should I marry? What should I study? Where should I go to school? What job should I try to get? All of these questions are important to followers of God. And good followers of Christ desperately want to ensure that they make the right decisions when they face these, and other, decisions.

I recently read two books on the topics of God's will and/or spiritual discernment. Kevin DeYoung wrote an entertaining little book called, Just Do Something. Tim Challies wrote a less entertaining, less "little" book called The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment. Both books are well founded on Scripture. Both might prove helpful to people who are searching for God's plan.

Perhaps the most important take-away from both of these books is that God's will for a person's life is already contained in Scripture. Of course there is no chapter and verse that tells you what job to take. Instead, God's will that is revealed in Scripture is His moral will for your life. God is very clear that His will for believers involves things like sanctification (1 Thess. 4:3). God's will for each Christian is the same in the sense that He calls us all to make decisions that are based on the teaching of Scripture. God's will for you is based on what is right and wrong. And He has clearly revealed that He desires you to choose to do right rather than to choose to sin.

While God's will is already revealed, this does not mean that choices about who to marry and where to go to school are unimportant. It does mean that we have freedom to make those choices based upon how those choices will help us to be more like Christ. One school might help you know God better. But there might be several schools that are all equal in how they will help you fulfil God's plan. In those cases, a Christian has freedom to "just do something." So, don't be paralyzed about a decision. Don't spend hours and days agonizing between which of two perfectly good options is actually God's will for your life. Instead, limit your decisions to things that will most help you be like Christ. Then make a decision and be content that God's will has been accomplished.

Quote About Suffering

2010-02-02T12:04:00.001-08:00

"sometimes God works a greater wonder when he sustains his people in trouble than he would do if he brought them out of it."

These words were spoken by C. H. Spurgeon in a sermon about Jesus calming the storm. He pointed out that Jesus allowed His followers to be in the storm, and He did not stop the storm immediately. The same thing is true in our lives as well. Our Lord doesn't always keep us out of the troubles of life, but He does help us get through those troubles.

Hit the Links

2010-02-02T06:47:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not a golfer. Here are a couple of sites to check out that might be helpful or interesting to you.

http://www.1031sermonjams.com/home.html This web site takes clips of sermons and makes them into hip-hop music videos- very cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZS8HqOGTbA For the techies- someone edited the launch announcement of Apple's new iPad down to the descriptive words.

Valley of Vision

2010-01-28T06:56:00.000-08:00

I finally acquired the collection of Puritan prayers titled, The Valley of Vision. I had already enjoyed the CD from Sovereign Grace by the same title. Though I have read through most of the book quickly, I can tell that I really need to go through it a page at a time and study the deep theology and rich Scripture that went into each prayer. I highly recommend this book for its devotional value. Be warned that the Puritans lived a long time ago, so the language used can be a bit tough. But if you are not deterred by the language, you should be blessed by the well written prayers of people who obviously thought deeply about what they were saying to God. You might think it odd to read prayers, but I still challenge you to try it. I myself was a bit skeptical of the idea, but having begun to read, I've discovered tremendous value in what they wrote.

One thing that I have appreciated are the various ways that each prayer addresses God. For example, here are the titles for God used in the first line of each of the first five prayers:

Three in One, One in Three, God of my salvation
O God whose will conquers all
O Lord God, who inhabitest eternity
O Fountain of all good
My God

Here are just a couple of quotes to whet your appetite:

"May my desires be enlarged and my hopes emboldened,
that I may honor Thee by my entire dependency
and the greatness of my expectation." p. 116

"Teach me the happy art of attending to things temporal
with a mind intent on things eternal." p. 134

"oft-times spiritual comforts are at their highest
when physical well-being is at its lowest." p. 157

"if I do not live a life that satisfies thee,
I shall not live a life that will satisfy myself." p. 166

This book contains a lot of deep theological truth, and presents those truths in some flowery language. It might be difficult to read straight through, but most people should find tremendous blessing from reading one page a day and thinking about what they read.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

2010-01-26T08:21:00.000-08:00

It is apparent that my children are growing up in a slightly different culture from the one in which I was raised. I had to lead a memorial service on Saturday, so I mentioned that I was going to put on a suit. Becca immediately stated, "But Daddy, it's not snowing outside." I guess that a "snow suit" was the only type of suit she knows about. When Charissa found out that it wasn't a snow suit, she suggested that maybe I was going to change into my bathing suit. These kids clearly have had limited exposure to formal attire.

The other day my wife made a concoction for dinner that she calls "sloppy rice." It is the meat from sloppy joe sandwiches, but on a bed of rice instead of on hamburger rolls. When Charissa saw what we were having she exclaimed, "We're having slappy rice." I'm not sure when she has ever been slapped by rice, but she must have been pretty sure that it had happened.

Honoring volunteers

2010-01-21T08:09:00.000-08:00

Most churches only exist because the people of the church do a lot of work to make sure that ministry takes place. Of course the paid staff does a lot of work, but without the volunteers, church as we know it would not happen. The dependency on volunteer ministry is a very good thing, as much as it requires churches to follow the Bible's plan for ministry in which "the saints" are equipped for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12).

While volunteers do a lot of work, many of them don't get much recognition. It is the people who stand in the front of the church who are the most honored and recognized. But we are told in Romans 12 that we should give honor to whom honor is due. I believe that church workers are definitely worthy of honor. I intend to spend some time during our church service on the last Sunday in January to honor those who serve so selflessly.

I can think of many of the jobs that are accomplished by volunteers in our congregation. This list is not doubt similar to the jobs that are accomplished by volunteers in other congregations. Please look at the jobs I have remembered, and then post any other jobs that are accomplished by volunteers in your congregation. Thanks for your help. Here's my list:

Sunday School teachers
Nursery workers
Worship team members (instruments, singers, sound guys)
Oversight of rental property
Facility, grounds, maintenance
Elders
Treasurer
Finance Committee
Building Committee
Small group leaders (Bible study, prayer groups)
people who open their homes for small group
Pastor's wives who open their home for Sunday School classes
Meal organizers
Janitorial services/ those who clean the church
Food providers
Ministry organizers- Men's Ministry, Women's Ministry, Children's Ministry, Yard Sale, Pancake Breakfast outreach, Operation Christmas Child, Children's Christmas program, etc.
Drive people to church
Greeters
Attendance counter/tracker
Bulletins
Visitor Info (welcome guests, ask them to fill out info, forward to pastor)
Making a new church Directory (address list and phone numbers)

I want to honor all who serve, but I don't want to miss anyone. Please help me!

Retirement

2010-01-20T11:59:00.000-08:00

I just came across this quote from an elderly theologian- R.C. Sproul:

"I'll retire when they pry my cold, dead fingers off of my Bible."

The statement made me smile. It also contains a very important nugget of truth- namely, that we should never stop serving God. We should not use excuses to avoid service. Our activity may decrease or change as we slow down, but the Christian life and local church involvement are not activities from which to dis-engage as we age.

Thank you, Dr. Sproul.

Earthquake in Haiti

2010-01-14T07:32:00.001-08:00

I have actually visited Haiti. I preached my first sermon while on a missions trip to Haiti. A friend from college was the translator. His family has a great ministry in Haiti. They work through a church. They have a clinic. They start schools. I don't think that they were affected by the earthquake (based on the reports of where it hit), but I really don't know.

What can we do to help the victims of this incredible earthquake? As citizens of America, we can be glad that some of our tax dollars will probably end up helping this relief effort. As individuals and churches we can donate funds to organizations that are quickly mobilizing to help the relief effort (such as this one-http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/About/FinancialSupport/DisasterRelief.aspx ). But most important (and probably most obvious), as Christians we have the privilege and responsibility of praying to our sovereign God and asking Him to intervene powerfully in this situation. Most of us won't be able to go to Haiti to help. Most of us are unable to give large sums of money. But every follower of Jesus has the opportunity of making a difference through prayer. I encourage you to take a moment now to pray for the people of Haiti. And I encourage you to make the people of Haiti an ongoing request of your prayer time.

Mark McGwire

2010-01-13T08:38:00.000-08:00

So the big news in baseball this week is that Mark McGwire finally admitted that he used steroids. Accusations and suspicions have surrounded him for a long time. Five years ago he was called to testify before Congress. Even though he showed up, he refused to comment on any use of steroids.

I suspect that McGwire's conscience had less to do with him coming clean than the fact that he was recently hired to be a hitting coach for the Cardinals. He knew that it would be bad to have to answer more questions and accusations throughout the baseball season. I also suspect that McGwire thinks that coming clean about steroid use will help him get into the Hall of Fame (by the way, that's probably not going to happen).

My view is that Mark McGwire is a self-centered, opportunistic cheater who is currently receiving far more grace and forgiveness than he deserves (a good thing, by the way). All of his actions appear to have been based on what was most advantageous to himself and those around him, rather than on what was right (or even legal). He took steroids in order to heal faster, stay healthy longer, and ultimately perform better on the field. This advantage no doubt helped his team win more games and earned him far more money and fame.

Once the steroid stage of his life was completed, the cover-up was about the same things. He stated that he desperately wanted to tell Congress about steroids, but he couldn't because they had not given him immunity. In other words, he was more concerned about the punishment than he was about the truth. He was more concerned for his own comfort, than for the the help that the truth would bring to other people. And even now in his "confession" he is still only looking out for himself. A revelation of the truth during the season would probably get him fired from his new job and would probably close the Hall of Fame to him forever. So he reveals as much of the truth as is convenient to him, but only when it is convenient to him.

While I believe that Mark McGwire is an egomaniac, I also believe that he is experiencing grace. Though he cheated and lied, he will be forgiven by the vast majority of sports fans. While he may never get into the Hall of Fame, it is unlikely that his stats and records will be stripped away from him. And though he was involved in illegal activity, he will not be prosecuted. So Mark McGwire ought to thank God ("the man upstairs" in his vernacular) for these blessings. And while he is at it, he would be best served if he would ask for even more grace. If he truly wants forgiveness for all of the things that he has done wrong, then he should seek that forgiveness through what Jesus has done on the cross. it is only through the cross that any of us will experience God's grace of the penalty of our sins being forgiven. That grace is far more important than avoiding jail or keeping a job. That grace is the ultimate answer to our search for true happiness.

I stated that McGwire is selfish. The truth is that he sought his own happiness in the wrong place. He sought his fulfillment by cheating his way to the top of his profession. But he now has the opportunity (along with the rest of us) to seek his ultimate happiness and fulfillment in the grace of God which will give him far more than he deserves. I hope he receives that grace.

Funny Kids

2010-01-12T09:09:00.001-08:00

Not long ago my wife and I were awakened around 2:00 a.m. to the sound of someone standing in our doorway, possibly whimpering. Years ago, this might have been alarming. Before we had children, we certainly would have been shocked an alarmed to discover someone in our hallway in the middle of the night. Once our first couple of children became mobile, nocturnal wanderings have become less surprising. Now that we have five children-well, let's just say it takes something special to qualify as "new" to us. As a result, instead of being concerned, alarmed, or curious as to what is happening after we have gone to bed, we now are just irritated.

On this particular night I think I asked in a fairly gruff manner, "what do you want?" The voice that responded was from Charissa- our five year old daughter. She was close to tears when she responded, "I'm tired." "So go back to bed!" my wife and I almost bellowed in stereo. "Oh . . . okay" she answered- as if it had never crossed her mind that maybe just staying in bed could fix her tiredness problem.

Charissa happens to be the same child who brought me a picture of a couple baby deer yesterday and pointed out the animals. I asked her if she knew what kind of animals those were. She had no idea. You can tell that we no longer live in rural Pennsylvania. When Ty and Nicole were far younger than that, they knew all about deer. They were accustomed to having dead deer hang from their swing set while I skinned them (the deer, not the kids) and cut off the meat. They were accustomed to the neighbor's dog digging up the bones that hadn't been buried well enough and then leaving the bones all over our yard. They lived in a culture where the first day of deer hunting season was a holiday- the schools gave everyone the day off. At age three or four Ty was so used to that culture that when we went to town and entered the "mall" (yes, I use the quotes with purpose), upon seeing a Santa Clause display complete with reindeer his excited response was, "Look dad, a deer- bang, bang . . . bang, bang!"

Now I'm just hoping not to hear "bang, bang . . . bang, bang" (or anything else) at two in the morning.

Building Update

2010-01-08T08:22:00.000-08:00

The Building Committee at Cottrell Corners Community Church continues to make progress toward a new church building. We are working with the engineer to get the proper paperwork showing that we have no wetlands on the property. The engineer is also making some back-up plans in case we need a smaller parking lot.

Our builder has given us a good price quote for putting up the building. Before we can confirm with him, we need to get our permits and financing. I will be setting up a meeting with our Township Planning Board in order to make sure that we are getting everything set up right for our permit application. John M. is working diligently to get our financing in order. There was a setback this week with our current bank on the financing front, but we hope to discover other options.

We are also hoping to have an architect look at our current chapel building and the basement of the house in order to provide us with some options for turning them into rental units. If we know what needs to be done, we can get prices. We will also be able to determine how much additional monthly income might be available through these avenues.

We continue to discuss solar panels. We are open to finding a company that leases rooftops and either pays for the space or provides us with free electricity in exchange for them using the roof. We might need to wait until the building is erected before we can move forward with solar panels.

A summary of the past year worth of progress will be provided immediately after our church gathering on Sunday, January 31.

Wild Goose Chase

2010-01-07T11:47:00.000-08:00

While "wild goose chase" is a familiar phrase to most people, it is also the title of a book by Mark Batterson. Oddly enough, he uses this title apart from the meaning of running around like crazy. Instead, he borrows a Celtic translation of a phrase that refers to the Holy Spirit, and uses "wild goose chase" to describe the activity of a Christian seeking the power of the Holy Spirit. Personally, I think he could have picked a better title since the only bird the Bible uses to describe the Holy Spirit is a dove.

The basic point of the book is that following God should be an adventure. The book provides six "cages" which keep us from seeking the true adventure that God has for us. Each "cage" receives a full chapter of treatment.

I was not terribly impressed with this offering from Batterson. He re-tells some stories from the Bible, but with quite a bit of interpretive lee-way. He does a good job of encouraging people to "be all you can be." He also has a talent for turning out good phrases and sentences. Here are some samples that I appreciated:

"I would rather fail at something I love than succeed at something I don't enjoy." p. 23

"When I fail to pray, the best I can do is the best I can do . . . But when I pray . . . The best I can do is the best God can do." pp. 85-86

"The grace of God is the difference between drowning in guilt and swimming in gratitude." p. 115

"Failure handled improperly can be devastating, but failure handled properly can be the best thing that can happen to us." p. 118

"But sometimes a closed door is the very thing that gets us where God wants us to go." p. 122

"sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is just hang in there." p. 138

This book is an easy and interesting read. It is more in the lines of a motivational book rather than anything else. I would have liked to have seen a stronger connection made with the gospel. I would have preferred him to take fewer "interpretive liberties" with the stories of the Bible. I would have suggested a completely different metaphor for the book. But I hope that God will indeed use what has been written to challenge people to be active in their life of faith.

First Book I Read in 2010

2010-01-05T12:22:00.001-08:00

The first book I read in 2010 was A Multi-Site Church Road Trip. This book is a follow up book to The Multi-Site Church Revolution, written by the same authors- Geoff Surratt, Greg Ligon, and Warren Bird. The first book introduced the concept of a "multi-site church" as one church that meets in multiple locations. This second book shows that this movement has grown considerably in America in just a couple of years. This book introduces readers to churches that have grown by expanding to an additional location. One of the most surprising statistics I discovered in this book was that the number of multi-site churches grew from approximately 300 in 2003 to around 3,000 in 2009. This is a trend which appears to be "coming to an area near you."

There are some people who have a theological opposition to the concept of a multi-site church. But John Piper points out (on page 202) that the Bible does not forbid or mandate this type of approach. He continues by saying that his congregation has chosen to follow this model because they believe it will give them greater long-term effectiveness.

I am in favor of churches taking advantage of whatever opportunity God provides to them for sharing the gospel to more people. While this strategy won't be used by every church, we can rejoice to the extent that more people have the opportunity to hear the life-changing message of Jesus.

Spurgeon on the need for prayer

2009-12-18T06:46:00.000-08:00

Here is the beginning of a sermon which was delivered 100 years and 1 week before I was born. Charles Haddon Spurgeon delivered this sermon in 1873. Here is how it begins:

"I thought of addressing you this morning upon the importance of prayer, and I designed earnestly to stir you up to pray for me and for the Lord's work in this place. Truly, I do not think I could have had a more weighty subject, or one which weighs more upon my soul. If I were only allowed to offer one request to you it would be this- "Brethren, pray for us:" do not restrain prayer: on the contrary, be abundant in intercession, for so, and so only, can our prosperity as a church be increased, or even continued."

I greatly desire that "our prosperity as a church be increased" and so I also urge you to pray in that direction.

One Point Six Percent (1.6%)

2009-12-17T06:25:00.000-08:00

A friend recently shared a DVD with me that contained a number of statistics regarding the church in America. It is interesting to see that 9% of Americans attended an evangelical church this past Sunday. According to this study, only 5% of Americans attend a Catholic church service in a given week. Throw in mainline denominations, orthodox, and any other type of religion and you get up to about 17% or 18% of the population attending a religious service during any given week. This information is challenging in that it shows the great need in our country to reach people for Christ.

An old saying declares that "figures don't lie, but liars figure." With that pithy wisdom in mind, I still decided to research my community more specifically. I was not surprised to learn that we are vastly different from the national averages. What did absolutely shock me is the lack of evangelicals.

I discovered was that 45% of the residents in Middlesex County, NJ are in some way associated with the Catholic Church. That does not mean that they attended mass last week, but only that they are on the membership role. After Catholic, the most statistically significant religious group in Middlesex County is "unclaimed." 40% of our population falls into this group, which includes people who don't go anywhere to church, but also some people who do. The 6% Jewish presence somehow falls into this "unclaimed" category, along with any adherents of Islam, Hinduism, cults, etc. That six percent of the population that is Jewish is equal to the combined number of evangelical protestants and mainline protestants. But unlike the majority of the country, mainline adherents are three times more common here than evangelicals. The evangelical presence comes in at just 1.6% of the population of our county (total population around 750,000, but only 12,000 people are claimed by evangelical churches). As a side note, neighboring Monmouth County, NJ has an almost identical breakdown of the percentages of people in each religious group.

What do these numbers mean to Christians in central New Jersey? First, it means that God has placed us in proximity to many people who need to hear the great news of salvation through Jesus Christ alone. The Catholic church does a good job of letting people know that they are sinners in need of salvation. Many people that we talk to grew up in the Catholic church and have not been back since. They already have an understanding and a respect for Jesus. They just need to hear that Jesus is all they need. Please don't misunderstand what I am saying. I absolutely believe that Catholics can be Christians, but I am concerned that too often the message of salvation is unclear in the Catholic church, or it is combined with works.

Second, these number reinforce the truth that most people you talk to about God are approaching the subject from a completely different point of view. They have no idea how to classify you since they run into so few people who believe like you do.

Third, we as evangelical Christians in central New Jersey have been placed into a position where we need to share the gospel. We need to grow in our own faith. We need to develop healthy churches where we can bring our friends and neighbors. We need to help more churches get started who will reach additional people with the life-changing message of Jesus.

The numbers are grim. But they are challenging as well. The numbers mean that you don't have to work very hard to find someone who needs to hear about Jesus. Let's ask God for His power to share His gospel to people that He will call into His family.

Christmas Ideas

2009-12-15T09:05:00.000-08:00

So what do you get for the person who already has the "right" Study Bible? What about the person who needs to have their self-esteem lifted? Or that friend who believes in the prosperity gospel? The answer: A board game of Joel Osteen. Check it out:

http://www.challies.com/archives/churchmerch/rich-daddy-god.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+challies%2FXhEt+%28Challies+Dot+Com%29

It's sad to me that it is true. The article goes on to mention another "Christian" board game called "Big Daddy God." At least that one plays like Monopoly and has a lot of funny mis-translations from Chinese.

Rock Band

2009-12-11T13:56:00.001-08:00

I went to a coffee house this afternoon in order to attend a get-together about effective blogging. After I had been there over an hour, a guy across the table asked what I did for a living. I told him that I am a pastor of a church in Old Bridge. His face immediately turned to stone. I was a little afraid that I had killed him. I wasn't sure if he was thinking about the swear words that had already been uttered during the meeting or if something else had paralyzed his facial muscles. I joked to another guy (who is involved with acting) about trying to read that facial expression. Just then, the stone face returned to flesh and blood. He explained that he was just shocked that I was a pastor- because I don't look like he expects a pastor to look. He had assumed that I was probably a manager of a rock group. How cool is that?

Small Churches Should Merge

2009-12-10T08:26:00.000-08:00

I scrolled down through my Facebook updates this morning and noticed the statement: "Small Churches Should Merge." I checked it out to see what it said. It was posted by someone in my denomination. He apparently started a
Facebook Group, so I joined it. He was the first member. By adding me, there are now two members.

When I pastored a church in rural Pennsylvania I noticed that the very small community had a lot of similar churches. Back then I thought about the advantages of putting two or three of those churches togehter into a stronger church of 100-200 people. There would be a financial savings on the buildings. More workers would be available. The church could probably have a staff of two pastors instead of the one pastor that each church already had. I can see some benefits.

I recognize thaqt there are drawbacks to the ideas of churches merging. But I propose that the advantages probably outweigh the drawbacks. I'm interested in seeing this topic as a discussion. Please post your thoughts.

Outreach Ideas

2009-12-08T14:40:00.000-08:00

For the past several months our church has subscribed to a list which reports the homes which have been sold in our area. After receiving these addresses, we then sent a letter describing our church and inviting people to come visit. After several months we have spent hundreds of dollars with no visible results. Consequently, we are ready to try a different approach.

Today I drove to several of the addresses on the new list. At each home I knocked on the door and was prepared to talk to the residents. Although our nation has an employment crisis, apparently that crisis is not affecting the people who have recently bought houses. None of the people I visited were home. Apparently they were working so they could afford their new mortgage payment. But when each of those people comes home tonight, they will be greeted with a nice coffee mug with our church name on it. Inside the coffee mug is a church flyer, a letter to them, and a business card.

Will this new approach work? I have no idea. But I appreciate that we are willing to try different things, and then if they don't work, we can move on to something else. Please share with me your ideas for inviting people in the community to church.

Only God can change a life. Only God can grow a church. Please pray that God will be pleased to work through our efforts and draw people to church.

Another Building Update- Again

2009-12-04T10:24:00.000-08:00

Plans for the new church building continue to move forward. The Building Committee met last night. Some of the things to report are as follows:

The builder is about to send us a contract with the exact dollar amount for the building.

The lawyer wants us to get the paperwork finished to ensure that there are no wetlands on the property. The site engineer assures us that there are no wetlands, and they are in the process of doing the appropriate paperwork.

Once the paperwork for the wetlands is complete, the lawyer should have enough information from the engineer and architect to submit our permit application.

Various parking options from the engineer have been considered. The best option seems to be one which allows for a constant flow of traffic with no "logjams." For financial reasons, we might have to use a gravel parking lot at first, and plan for the pavement as a second phase.

The bank has been provided with our financial information and will be giving us an idea of how much they would loan us.

We are still very interested in solar panels. For financial reasons, they might have to be included in the second phase, but we want to plan for them from the beginning.

As can be seen, a lot of progress has been made and even more is expected in the near future. Please pray for the continued success of the planning, the submission and approval of the permits, and that the finances would be acquired to pay for the "Building To Serve."

Great Big Faith

2009-12-01T13:23:00.000-08:00

I preached this past Sunday from the beginning of Hebrews 11. We looked at three characters from the beginning of the Bible who pleased God through their faith.

Abel had the faith to believe that God wanted to be approached a certain way. Abel not only believed mentally that God wanted him to worship with a sacrifice, Abel also acted on that belief. He demonstrated faith by offering the sacrifice that he rightly knew God wanted Him to offer. Abel's faith was one of simple obedience. We demonstrate similar faith when we recognize that God wants us to approach Him through the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Receiving Jesus as our sacrifice for sin is a similar type of faith to that of Abel.

Enoch was an unusal, though rarely mentioned, character in the Bible. He lived for God each day. One day God just took Enoch straight to heaven- no need to bother with death. God just gave Enoch that one-way ticket with no layovers. Enoch's faith doesn't seem particularly amazing to me. All we know about Him is that he lived for God in the way that he want about his routine every day. That doesn't sound special. In fact, it is so ordinary that any of us could do it as well. We imitate the faith of Enoch when we do what God wants us to do each day instead of doing what we want to do.

Noah is the guy who easily received the most press coverage in the Bible. If they had newspapers in Noah's day, he probably also made the front page regularly. Noah's faith required him to do something a lot bigger than Abel and Enoch had to do. In order for Noah to have faith in God he had to believe that God really was going to flood the world. Noah proved that he really believed God by building a boat. The boat took a long time to construct. It was probably expensive (just ask people who own boats today). People no doubt ridiculed Noah for building that monstrous boat in a place where it never rained and where there were no large bodies of water nearby. In addition to building the boat, Noah had to gather a lot of animals together and enough food to feed them all. I guess the cages for the lions had to be pretty strong- especially if there were some nice tender sheep in the next stall. As an aside, we are still wondering what Noah did about the woodpeckers. And I'm not sure why he brought along the mosquitos and spiders. I guess he did it because God told him to and because he really believed that God meant what he said.

Noah is an example to us of someone who proved that he really believed God. We might not ever face a situation that is as tough as the one that Noah faced, but let's make sure that we always believe that God means what He says. The way we believe God is by doing what He has already told us to do. That is true faith.

Hold On

2009-11-12T08:19:00.000-08:00

I took my family to the Yankees victory parade on Friday. We took the Staten Island Ferry into Manhatten. By the time we got there the parade route had already been blocked off. We couldn't get over to see much of anything. We did manage to make our way over to where the parade started. We could see the ticker-tape up ahead. And we saw the marching bands and even the floats- just not the Yankees.

In order to get to where we could see anything we had to make our way through a crowd. This crowd was composed of a couple million of my closest friends- and I mean closest in proximity. As we walked through the crowd there were people pressing up against us from every direction. There was really no such thing as "personal space" in that moment. One kid tried pushing me out of the way- I looked at him and let him know that while I was polite, I was still a whole lot bigger and stronger than he was.

I felt bad for my 5 and 6 year old daughters who were holding onto my hands. They couldn't see anything except for the backside of the person in front of them. If you've read many of my posts, you probably have figured out that most of the stories about flatulence that I tell involve them. But this time I was afraid that they would be on the receiving end- right at nose level.

The experience of children holding on tight to dad while in a crowd is a good picture of what Christians are told to do in Hebrews 10:23, which says, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful." We are instructed to hold on tightly to the truth that Jesus is the way to God. We must believe this fact and then live our lives based on the truth of Jesus being our way to God. And just as an earthly parent makes sure that the kids hold on tight, we can be sure that God will help us cling to Him appropriately.

Silly Kids

2009-11-11T07:09:00.001-08:00

Not long ago my first grade daughter asked, "Dad, remember when we went to New City York?"

Last night my daughter in kindergarten didn't want to be in bed. She tried to tell me that she was scared of the "hell . . . ss" outside her window. She was referring to a neighbor's "house" that she could see since the curtain wasn't quite all the way closed.

This morning my wife and I had trouble waking up one of the children. I was talking to her and pestering her. Eventually we started to tickle her. Did you know that in some children tickling is the trigger to farting? We found that out this morning. We kept tickeling, and she kept excreting gas (loudly).

Another Building Update

2009-11-10T12:43:00.000-08:00

God continues to move the building project forward! Some of our Building Committee met with the architect today. The initial plans are exactly what we expected. The architect asked questions and listened to our comments about the plans. Additional details were discussed- things like coat rooms and audio rooms, the size of the kitchen pantry, and places where extra electric outlets will be helpful. All of those changes can be included on the final, more detailed plans. The plans which we currently have are ready to be submitted to the planning board of our township.

The site engineer informed me last week that he will be ready to meet with me by the end of this week. He wants to show us the preliminary site plans. These plans are also necessary when we go to the planning board.

In addition to the architect and site engineer, we also need to have an attorney help us with our submission to the planning board. We recently selected the appropriate attorney and he helped us with another matter. We agreed today to send this attorney a retainer check.

Please continue to pray that God will provide the funds and the approvals that we need in order to make this building a reality. Please also pray that we would indeed use this new building to serve God, His people, and our community.

God is Good

2009-11-03T08:05:00.001-08:00

I still believe in miracles. We saw one last night. Last night John informed me that the lawyer received permission for us to use the parsonage for classrooms. We don't need to rent a trailer. We don't need tents. We don't need to find a different meeting area. I just need to clean my house. Praise God.

picture of building

2009-11-02T08:06:00.000-08:00

Here is a basic idea of what the plans are for the new church building. It is a 7,500 square foot building. The santuary is between 2500 and 3000 square feet. The latest plans from the architect have a few small changes, but this is the basic layout that we are currently hoping to build. The latest plans from the architect have 200 seats in the sanctuary.

Building Update

2009-10-30T09:12:00.000-07:00

God recently placed an opportunity in front of our congregation. The fire inspector and fire marshall informed us that the classrooms we use for the children are not considered part of the church, but rather part of the residence. Therefore, the classrooms are not zoned correctly and cannot be used. I call this an opportunity because it is a chance that we did not previously have to see how God will work.

The Building Committee met last night and we invited other people from the congregation to join us to consider this issue. While many ideas have been considered, we are looking at a classroom trailer as a very good option. We still have some questions that need to be answered, but we are going to try to get the answers very soon. Some of the other ideas are also being pursued. We would like to have a solution in place for our 15 year celebration on November 8.

Here is a list of things that have happened in the past month regarding the building project:

Conversations with the site engineer and attorney let us know that a gravel parking lot is a possibility, though it is not guaranteed (this is important in the short term because of cost).

We sent money to both the site engineer and the architect to retain their services.

The site engineer and architect are coordinating with each other.

The builder is in contact with the architect. Once the architect does a certain amount of the work he will send those plans to the builder so the builder can do the engineering plans for the interior and also so he can give us a final price.

A topographical survey of the property was completed.

The attorney is sending a proposal for a company to determine that we don't have wetlands- we need to make sure that the site engineer was not already doing this.

One other important development came about this month. Ironically, the bad news from the fire inspector lead us to some ideas that we had never previously considered. With some renovation work we might be able to rent out the chapel and part of the basement as residences. If we are able to rent out these spaces, the rent would probably cover the additional mortgage money that we will need each month to pay for the new building. Now you can see how the fire inspector closing down some classrooms is actually an opportunity from the Lord.

I'm Not Funny Enough

2009-10-26T17:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, my wife didn't say it exactly, but after reading my past several posts she pointed out that the blog had not made her laugh and that there weren't any funny stories. Please keep in mind that I am not a comedian, I'm a pastor. And I don't write the blog simply to entertain, but also to inform. But a smart man listens to the advice of his wife. So please enjoy the rest of this entry as I try to provide you with some of the humor that I have selfishly kept from you (or perhaps protected you from).

So, what's funny to you? A lot of people find physical humor to be funny and easy. I was leaving the house today while pulling a large, empty box behind me. Why did I have this box? Because before it was empty it contained a new desk chair. Why did I need a new chair? Because the one that I have used for many years decided that it no longer wanted to hold me! The old chair tried magnificently to dump me to the ground. I got to the point where sitting on that chair required all of my focus, or else I would tumble to the ground. I caught myself several times, but it never succeeded in dumping me all the way to the floor (there were some very close calls). I now realize that I was devoting all of my attention to self-preservation, and therefore I had no creativity available for humor.

So I was dragging this large box out from the new chair out the door and down the front steps. In my other hand I was holding an open drink. I had just locked the door behind me, so my keys were in my other hand. And in my other hand I was carrying some papers. Since I am not a monster or an action figure, I really only have two hands. But as I attempted to carry too many items I fell victim to the clumsiness inherent in my heredity. It wasn't so much a lack of coordination- I think it had more to do with the fact that my ankle rolled right out from underneath me. Once again, my tremendous instinct for self-preservation kicked in and I managed to avoid falling to the ground. But the cost of staying upright was two-fold- first, I have continuing pain in my ankle which rolled; second, I seem to have lost some of my ability for humor as all of my attention was focused on my ankle.

Of course my children provide lots of material for comic relief. Again, physical humor gets the easy laughs. I'll avoid telling you which of the kids did these things in order to protect the guilty, but one of them recently had a booger on the top of their head- not absolutely certain about how that happened. At dinner tonight one child was not feeling well. Then came a long and pronounced experience with flatulence which brought a big smile to her face. All of her stomach problems farted away and she became a happy camper. Meanwhile, the rest of us were trying to eat. Okay, so the rest of us laughed as well and all was right with the world for that moment.

To my wife, I apologize for not being funny enough. To everyone else, watch out for office chairs and ground that attacks. And remember that being there when someone else passes gas can bring a smile to your face- or it might just choke you and finish off the job that the ground and the chair started.

Louisiana Judge

2009-10-22T06:33:00.001-07:00

A judge in Louisiana has made news for his refusal to marry an inter-racial couple. He referred the black man and white woman to another judge. He said that he always refuses to marry inter-racial couples because of his concern for the possible children the marriage could produce.

I have conflicting thoughts regarding parts of this story. First, I consider the judge to be wrong to refuse to marry a couple based on race.

Second, a married couple raising children in our society is a good thing. Children have a much better chance of growing into well-adjusted, functioning adults when they have the parental love and care and supervision that God provided through a two-parent family. It shouldn't make any difference if the parents are both white, both black, one each, or anything else. The commitment to each other, the children, and God are what will make that family succeed.

Third, the racial component of raising be-racial kids varies based on the location where the family chooses to live. My wife and I have five children. Four are mixed black and white. The other one has black, Spanish, and Asian in her heritage. When we lived in an all-white area we did not have issues of the children not being accepted. We did have issues with the children themselves feeling out of place because they looked different from everyone else. Now that we again live in a diverse area it doesn't seem to make any difference to anyone what the racial component is. My kids attend school with kids that are white, black, Spanish, Indian, and Asian. And the white kids and black kids are not all from America. The judge should realize that America has changed in the last forty years and that diversity is better accepted in many places now than it was then.

Fourth, as someone who performs marriages, I don't want to be forced to perform a marriage if that marriage violates my beliefs. If the judge could not in good conscience perform the marriage, then he should not be obligated to perform it. I appreciate that the judge at least recommended a different judge to the couple so that they could still get married. But if he doesn't want to perform the ceremony, then I am not sure that he should be required to do it. I see this as an issue in a couple of other situations. For example, as a pastor I have standards to be met by any couple that I will marry. One of those standards is that I want them to be in the same place spiritually. My requirement for them is that they should either both be professing Christians or they should both be up front about the fact that they are not professing Christians. Another of my requirements is that the couple be composed of a man and a woman. I would be greatly disturbed if I was required to perform marriages that violated my own conscience. While the situation with the judge is different in that he works for the government, I would like to think that our government would not force employees to violate their consciences either (in this situation it seems to me that the judge's conscience ought to be informed by something other than his limited observations, but those are still his convictions).

Finally, the fact that this story garnered so much attention is significant. The "newsworthiness" of this story makes me hopeful that as a nation there has been progress (slow though it may have been) in our race relations. The story shows us that there is still progress to be made, but the reaction of many people against the beliefs of the judge is encouraging.

2 or 3 percent

2009-10-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

My mom picked up a bunch of books at a library sale and passed some on to me. One of them is titled, 44 Ways to Increase Church Attendance. Lyle Schaller wrote this little book, so I figured I'd glance through it. It is a bit surprising that only one of the 44 ways to increase church attendance seems to have much to do with God. That way is to, "place greater weight on intercessory prayer." Apart from prayer, the rest of the ways all seem to assume that (a) the Sunday morning attendance is all that matters, and (b) an active church is responsible to get more people into the building. It would have been nice to have seen more dependence on the power of God.

One piece of advice was particularly relevant for our congregation- Cottrell Corners Community Church in Old Bridge, NJ. Included in the section dealing with the physical property and building of the church was this piece of advice:

"Perhaps 2 to 3 percent of all American Protestant congregations have the mixed blessing of an obsolete building on a desirable parcel of land of adequate size at a prize location. For them the most effective path to increasing worship attendance may be to raze that obsolete structure and replace it with a more attractive and functional meeting place."

I don't know where the 2 or 3 percent figure comes from, and it appears to be more of a guess than based on a detailed study. But the description of the property describes our church property quite well. We have four acres of ground in a nice community. We have great road frontage, on a road that runs past all of the main community buildings (library, police, etc.). But our actual building sits too far off of the road to be seen. The building does not have plumbing or classrooms. It does not have a kitchen or a fellowship hall. The building is quite small, and even when visitors park right next to it they are still not sure if they have arrived at a church. The building is certainly functional. We use it each week when we gather to worship. I don't know if a new building will increase attendance (again, I see that as a work of God who works through people), but I know that a new building certainly would be appreciated by everyone who currently meets in the old one.

Here is one other quote from the "real estate" section of this book:

". . . while a new building may not attract people, an unattractive or functionally obsolete structure often does repel people."

I am not willing to call our building "unattractive," but "functionally obsolete" is probably a good description for any modern building that lacks bathrooms and plumbing.

Let's remember that it is Christ who builds His church. And on a local level, let's remember to rely on Him and to use the resources that He provides in the best way that we are able to do so.

Who Stole My Church?

2009-10-15T08:24:00.001-07:00

I recently finished reading the book by Gordon MacDonald titled, "Who Stole My Church?" MacDonald is a fairly well known writer and pastor who tends to comment on things that are current in ministry. This book is written as a story where MacDonald himself is the new pastor of an old church in New England. In the story the "old guard" have just shot down some proposed changes to the church that would have helped the church position itself better for ministry in a contemporary world.

MacDonald gathers a group of people together who are opposed to change in the church and listens to what they have to say. They then agree to meet regularly and continue to discuss church life, specifically change in the church. Over the course of the meetings they talk about the name of the church, music in the church, and outreach and evangelism among other things. Over a period of time the "crusty old-timers" experience renewal as they see that the church really does need to change in order for it to accomplish what they had always dreamed it would accomplish. One of the highlights for the older group is when a group of teenagers came and met with them and they both got to ask questions of the other group.

I was a bit hesitant at first when I began reading this book. In the early chapters I heard a lot of "anti-change" rhetoric that reminded me of things that I've heard in other churches and I would not want to become accepted anywhere. But this turned out to be MacDonald setting up the story. As someone who loves the church, this book was encouraging as "they all lived happily ever after." Since the book is a story rather than a non-fiction work, MacDonald was able to impact his audience without the need to prove a specific point. But along the way he ended up sharing many points.

I drew a couple of specific lessons for my own church situation from this book. First, I should always remember not to marginalize the opinions of the older generation. Our congregation is only fifteen years old and so we don't have generations of tradition influencing us. But we have some elderly people who have been part of other churches most of their lives and they sometimes like to see some things continue. I should remember to hear what they have to say and also to appreciate their heart attitude. For example, some of our older people wish that we had a mid-week prayer meeting. I'm all for having prayer meeting, but it would be impractical for me to be away from my family one more night each week. A while ago one of the retirees in the congregation called me and asked if it would be okay if they had a prayer meeting in the home of an older lady whose health prevents her from getting out as frequently as she would like. The person who called is a retired pastor and he volunteered to lead the weekly prayer gathering. Obviously I was thrilled. They meet faithfully. And I attend when I am able- which is about once a month. When I am there I am impressed to see their love for the Lord and their desire for the church to grow. I don't always like all of the suggestions that they give me, but many of them have been productive.

A second area in which the book challenged me was regarding the impact of a church's name. The name of our church is "Cottrell Corners Community Church." I like many things about the name- it is alliterated, it should appeal to a lot of people since it is a "community church," it is early in the alphabet so people who look for churches in the phone book should get to us before they give up looking. It is a satisfactory name to me- except for the fact that we live in Old Bridge, NJ and very few people here know where Cottrell Corners is. There was supposed to be a development of Cottrell Corners, but it never happened. The book reminded me of the power of a name. I don't really look forward to the work associated with coming up with a better name and then advertising that name, but I learn from this book that I should not get so attached to the name that we have that I would allow it to keep people from hearing about the church.

This book is an illustration of the power of a story to educate an audience. And the education that this book provides relates to changes in churches. I found the book to be entertaining and engaging. The book would probably be most helpful for people who are a part of a long-established church and are either trying to change it or resistant to the changes that are being made.

Where are the Churches?

2009-10-13T11:05:00.000-07:00

David Dockery stated, "Most churches are found in rural areas while most people live in urban and suburban areas" (see session 12 of the "Southern Baptists, Evangelicals, and teh future of Denominationalism" conference). I have obvserved this statement to be true quite often, though there are exceptions.

The national average in America is that there is one house of worship (church, synogogue, mosque, cult, etc.) for every 1,000 people. But for some reason, churches tend to be more densly clustered in places where the population is quite sparce. For example, I have two friends who pastor churches in northern Minnisota in a town of about 800 people. There are 6 churches in that community- or one church for every 133 people. On the other hand, I live in Old Bridge, NJ. Our township website lists 21 houses of worship (and I could only recommend about 1/3 of them as Christian). But there are over 60,000 people in the township of Old Bridge. That means that we have one church for every 3,000 people. Stated differently, there are 20 times more churches per person in a rural community in MN than there are in a suburban community of NJ.

Before coming home to NJ, I lived in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Chambersburg is the county seat of Franklin county. Franklin county is a rural area. It has over 400 churches serving about 129,000 people. This means that there is one church in Franklin county for every 325 people in that county. This county has approximately three times more churches per person than the national average.

You may be wondering why we should care where the churches in America are as long as we have plenty of good ones. But the sad fact is that there are heavily populated sections of our country that do not have as significant of a gospel witness as they should have. Many people recognize the need for more churches to be started. I would encourage us to be strategic in seeking to start more churches in areas that are "under-churched." I trust that more God will raise up more churches in central NJ and other parts of this country so that He will be glorified as He draws more people in these communitites to Himself.

31 Reasons to Study, Preach, and Teach the Old Testament

2009-10-09T13:41:00.000-07:00

I spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday at Pinebrook Bible Conference in the Poconos. I was there with many other pastors in the Bible Fellowship Church. The main speaker was Philip Ryken. In the first session Dr. Ryken provided 31 reasons why it is important to read and study and learn and teach and preach the Old Testament. Here are the 31 reasons that he gave.

1. It is the word of God.
2. The Old Testament is necessary background to understanding the New Testament.
3. The Old Testament gives us a fuller understanding of Christ.
4. The Old Testament gives us a fresher understanding of Christ.
5. The Old Testament helps us understand our world today.
6. The Old Testament gives us more of the promises of God.
7. The Old Testament shows us a fuller range of human experience.
8. The Old Testament teaches us more of the law of God.
9. The Old Testament exposes us to more Biblical poetry.
10. The Old Testament is our Lord's own method for dealing with temptation.
11. The Old Testament is the apostolic method of preaching.
12. Careful use of the Old Testament opens up more than half of the Bible for life and ministry.
13. Studying and teaching the Old Testament honors the Holy Spirit who breathed out these words.
14. The old Testament gives us a clearer picture of our sin.
15. The Old Testament gives us more stories to tell.
16. The Old Testament tells us the story of our people- the people of God.
17. The Old Testament gives us greater confidence in the truth of the gospel because it is rooted in history.
18. The Old Testament presents a fuller revelation of the character of God.
19. The Old Testament gives us something new to learn and new to teach.
20. The Old Testament is useful for equipping.
21. The Old Testament will stretch you to grow.
22. Reading, teaching, and preaching the Old Testament is a task vindicated by the history of the church.
23. The Old Testament will give you a richer appreciation for the grace of God.
24. The Old Testament enables us to follow Paul's example in preaching the whole counsel of God.
25. The Old Testament helps us see the gospel.
26. The Old Testament shows God's one plan of redemption unfolded throughout all of history.
27. The Old Testament will give you a broader perspective on the work of missions.
28. The Old Testament will give you a deeper understanding of the many great doctrines of the Christian faith.
29. The Old Testament will bring people to faith in Christ.
30. The Old Testament introduces us to many great heroes and heroines of the Christian faith.
31. Dwelling on the Old Testament will deepen our understanding of prayer from all the prayers in the Old Testament.

While the Old Teatament might be more difficult for people in the world today, it should still be used. Great benefits are available. So use the whole Bible, not just the New Testament.

Church Building Update

2009-10-02T07:24:00.000-07:00

One of the primary reasons that I started a blog and am on Facebook is because it was recommended by the Building Committe of our church. The idea is that I will be able to update the congregation and anyone else who is interested regarding the progress of our new building.

On Thursday night the Building Committee met. Since our last meeting we have discovered that the bank believes that our current property probably does have quite a bit of equity based on location and size- that is good for us. We also discovered that the bank will only loan us what they believe that we can afford. The extra income which has been given to the building fund this year should help the bank believe that we can afford a reasonable sized loan. We also discovered that the bank doesn't think that we need to worry about the loan until we are deep into the permit process.

We have intended to help the congregation track the progress of the money that has been given to the building fund through a "thermometer" type chart. The chart has already been designed. It just needs to be filled in and posted in the church and on the internet. We hope to have that chart posted this month. We also intend to add a page to the church web site. That page will include the plans for the building and current progress, etc.

We received an update on the money given to the building fund. Those numbers will be included in the bulletin soon. I was encouraged that about $21,000 has been given since we began to raise money earlier this year (around March or April). I was also encouraged that we already have $47,000 in the building fund and that we have pledges for more.

Probably the greatest challenge we faced this month was the estimate for the site work. The costs for the parking lot and drainage are considerably more than we had hoped that they would be. The solution that we have proposed is to design the project with two phases. The first phase would include the building itself, but only a gravel driveway. The second phase of the project would include the paving and draining, as well as possibly including some of the other things that we would like (solar panels for example).

The next steps are to investigate the possibility of doing the project in the two proposed phases. While we will not be able to get a definite answer, we should be able to learn how acceptable it is generally in our township. Next, we need to send some money to the architect and site engineer. They will work together to make a proposal that we will take to the township for our permits. Since the permit process might take a while, it is important that we begin the process as soon as possible.

Please pray with us that we would follow God's plans and that our proposals would be favorably received by our township officials.

New And Improved

2009-09-30T08:53:00.000-07:00

I generally think that it is ridiculous for a company to advertise a product as "New and Improved." Usually, something must be either one or the other. If a product is new, then it hasn't been around to be improved. And if a product has been improved, then it has already been around for a while and must not be new. But in Hebrews 8, God presents us with a covenant that He says is new. But God also contrasts that covenant with an older covenant and shows that the new is an improvement.

The Old Covenant was the law of Moses. It was a deal that God made with the people of Israel that was based on them obeying the 613 laws that were given. When a law was broken, a sacrifice had to be made. But the New Covenant (also made with the people of Israel) is much better because the New Covenant is internal and people want to follow it. People are able to follow the New Covenant, but they were unable to follow the Old. The requirement of the New Covenant is faith in Jesus Christ. HIs perfect sacrfice for sin fulfilled all of the sacrifices of the Old Covenant. Therefore, not only is the New Covenant an improvement over the Old Covenant, but Jesus is seen to be the best (and now only) way to approach God.

Since Jesus is the best way to God, we ought to come to God through Jesus. And since Jesus is great, we ought to rely on Him for help in everything that we do. The greatness of Christ can give us a tremendous assurance of God's love. The greatness of Christ can also give us additional reasons to trust Him to guide us through every situation of our lives.

Food

2009-09-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about living in the middle of New Jersey is that all sorts of food is available. The internet phone book for my town of Old Bridge lists around seventy restaurants- and there are pleanty of other towns nearby. We have more types of food available than I even knew existed.

One place to eat that I just recently discovered is called "Harold's Chicken and Grill." Harold's just recently opened their Old Bridge store on Route 516 accross from Wendy's. The owner (Harold maybe? I talked to him, but didn't ask his name) told me that he has had the other Harold's in South River for about five years.

What I like about Harold's is that the menu is extensive and the portions are huge. I fed my family of seven with a cheesesteak and salad. We've tried the place a couple times now and everything has been delicious.

So here is the question for everyone to comment on- What food establishment (restaurant, diner, delivery place, whatever) do you recommend?