Category: The Church

In the front of our church’s constitution booklet, you will find a page entitled “Church Covenant”.  If you do happen to take the time to start reading it, you might be tempted to quit after the first paragraph. It is written in an early 20th century style and starts out a little bit like a legal statement.  I can understand if you skip over it thinking it is irrelevant. That conclusion, however, is far from the truth.  The Church Covenant is actually a very important part of our Church Constitution and an important part of who we are as a …

In the book of Revelation, Jesus dictates letters to seven different churches. It is clear that even back then churches were different, and some were clearly better than others. That is true as well today, and should make us wonder, what can we do to make sure we would get a good letter, if Jesus were writing one today?  This message, together with the previous one, asks “What makes our church special?” It is not just about discussing the distinctives of our church but gives us a chance to consider how we measure up according to God’s will for churches.  …

In our part of America, there are a lot of churches to choose from.  Even when you narrow your choices down by denomination, you may still find two or more options driving distance.  What makes our church special?  What sets First Baptist Church of Elimsport apart? First, it is important to realize that we are not in competition against other Bible believing, Gospel preaching churches.  All Christians are part of the body of Christ and have the same mission of making disciples of all people.  When looking for a church, you want to find one that is going to help …

As you well know there are hundreds of church varieties.  Not only are there different religions, but within the different religions, there are different sub-groups.  Under the broad heading of “Christian”, there are Catholics and Protestants.  Under Protestants, there is an incredible diversity of denominations.  Some of the more well-known ones are Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Baptist, each having a variety of sub-groups within them. Today I want to address what sets traditional Baptists apart from these other denominations?  What makes us unique, why do we generally worship and function apart from these other groups?  While the answer to this …

Today is a little awkward as I will be talking about myself and my role as pastor.  Sometime in the future, however, First Baptist of Elimsport will need to find a new pastor.  Whether it’s because I retire, move, die, or get the boot, I’ll need to be replaced someday. You may not be part of FBC of Elimsport, but if you attend church anywhere, someday you will likely be facing such a situation.  Or maybe you are looking for a church and the quality of the pastor is a huge factor in making that choice.  What should you look …

I can remember in 1989, when I started working at a local grocery store, we were closed on Sundays.  In fact, apart from the mall, gas stations, and restaurants, most other businesses were closed on Sunday.  My manager at that time told me that when he was a kid, you couldn’t even find gas stations open on Sunday.  Even today, most professions outside of retail stores, have the weekend off.  Why?  While few talk about it, it is the result of Christianity.  When Christ entered the world at the beginning of what we call the Common Era, Sunday was just …

In our first message in this series on the local church, we looked at the fact that the church was God’s idea, it is not manmade.  While man has produced many forms of church that may be very different than what God intended, make no mistake, God is the one who created and established the church.  Because of that, we want to make sure we have a good grasp of what the church should look like and what the church should be doing. To that end, we are going to dig into Acts 2 this morning.  We want to look …

How important is the church? I have been a pastor for over 25 years and I have been a follower of Jesus for 45.  If I have not learned anything else in all my experience, I have learned that the most important elements of the Christian life are time with God in prayer, time with God in His Word, and time with God’s people, specifically through local church involvement.  I have also learned that those are the things Satan most wants to keep us from. Now I think we all know those first two items are important.  I’ve never heard …