Our New Home, Church That Is

I am very grateful for the new home church that God has led Jeff and I to.  We have been attending Bethany for just over two months and since we stepped inside the doors it has felt like home.  We live hundreds of miles away from our nearest biological family so we wanted a church that preached the Gospel and would become our spiritual family for a season, or maybe a lifetime. 

While the church doesn't have a website and can't be found on a GPS, God still used technology to lead us to the church.  An email to a pastor of a church over 100 miles from Beloit tipped me off to the Village Missions website, which is how I discovered our new church.  It was down on the bottom of our list of churches to try and yet somehow it was meant to be at the top of God's list.

I am so thankful for men of God who are willing to devote their time and energy to tiny rural churches.  Their goal cannot be to build big churches in terms of attendance, but to faithfully serve their Savior by preaching the Word and helping members to grow spiritually.  Thousands of times I have prayed for God to lead us to a home church and He has answered that prayer.  I just want to remind myself to thank God for our church as often as I prayed and requested Him to direct us to one.  That's difficult to do isn't it?  Too often God answers prayer and then we go on to begin begging Him to answer whatever pressing need we have.

Pastor is preaching through Philippians and on Sunday he expounded on these verses:

"I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy." Philippians 1:4-5

I want this to be what I can say regarding my new church family.  We have felt the connection we have in Christ with them.  Don't you love that unexplainable connection?  It can be stronger than biological ties and that can often be a good thing.  No, I don't have just one sister,  I have hundreds of sisters who I love and pray for regularly.  Won't heaven be a wonderful place?

Today I'm linking up with:

The Church is God's Farm

We have noticed a trend as we have listened to quite a number of pastors preach throughout the course of our search for a church home.  It seems most of the sermons consist of pastors lauding their personal accomplishments and recounting numerous personal anecdotes.  If this turns my stomach, how must it make our Savior feel?  And we are visiting the proverbial "cream of the crop."  We have avoided churches we know are definitely not Bible-centered and doctrinally sound.

"For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake." II Corinthians 4:5  

Matthew Henry comments that: "Self was not the matter nor the end of the apostles’ preaching: they did not give their own notions and private opinions, nor their passions and prejudices, for the word and will of God; nor did they seek themselves, to advance their own secular interest or glory. Their business was to make their Master known to the world as the Messiah, or the Christ of God, and as Jesus, the only Saviour of men, and as the rightful Lord, and to advance his honour and glory."  Source:  Commentary by Matthew Henry

As I was doing a bit of digging into II Corinthians 4:5 I came across this lovely gem by Spurgeon entitled Farm Labourers.  He uses I Corinthians 3:6-9 as his text.  Here is just a brief excerpt regarding man seeking to steal God's glory:

"This farm [the church] is, by choice, by purchase, by enclosure, by cultivation, by preservation, entirely the Lord's. See, then, the injustice of allowing any of the labourers to call even a part of the estate his own. . .  Shall insignificant nobodies rob God of his glory? Remember how Paul put it: "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos?" "Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?" The entire church belongs to him who has chosen it in his sovereignty, bought it with his blood, fenced it by his grace, cultivated it by his wisdom, and preserved it by his power."

Oh Church, Where Art Thou?

Another Sunday spent visiting a church and we both agreed that we don't really think it's the one.  (I've certainly prayed that God will give us both peace when we find the church home He wants us to be a part of)  We enjoyed the music and the people, but the preaching was . . . well, so-so.   Honestly, it was shallow. The pastor read about three verses total, not passages, verses.  It was very topical and very standard for the type of church we visited, but one can hope there might be a pastor who doesn't follow the status quo.  So are we just being too picky? 


I recently discovered an article written by a Steven Lawson entitled the "The God-Driven Church."   I don't know anything about Steven, but I thoroughly enjoyed his article.  When reading it, I was mentally "Amening" several of the point he made.  He divides modern day churches into several categories:  consumer driven, culture driven, needs driven, purpose driven, and of course, God driven.   His list of marks found in the model church include: 

• Converted hearts
• Changed Lives
• Clear Convictions
• Convicting Preaching
• Christlike Walk
• Courageous Commitment
• Contagious Faith
• Complete Repentance
• Confident Hope

He ends by stating that "man can build a booming church, but only God can build a biblical church."   I encourage you to visit the link and read the article for yourself.

There is such a dearth of biblical churches.  And sadly, so few "Christians" who even care.  They show up on Sunday morning and perhaps also on Sunday evening, and then live the remainder of their week without any regard for their Father's will. Could it be many have never truly been converted?  Have the goats infiltrated the flocks of sheep?

A few years ago I stumbled across a man of God by the name of Paul Washer.  Here is a video clip of him discussing "Churches Using Carnal Means."  In it he states:  "If you use carnal means to attract men you’re going to attract carnal men and you’re going to have to keep using greater carnal means to keep them in the church. So, what has happened is this; we have these large churches filled with many unconverted carnal people, but in those churches we also have this small group of people that honestly want Christ and they honestly want his word and they honestly want to be transformed. They don’t need anything else all they need is true worship of the true God and scripture being preached to them and lived out before them. That’s what they want." Hear hear!

While we're not searching for the perfect church, we're not interested in a spectacular praise and worship teams, a lavish drama department, and lots of creative programs for the kids;  we just want to be fed. 

Later this evening I scoured the web again and found another promising church to visit.  Perhaps it will be the one for us.  I don't want a church merely for our own spiritual benefit.  I want one that God can use to stretch us and develop our spiritual gifts so that others might be blessed. 

I praise God for the freedom we have to attend church in this country!  At least we have the option of trying many churches before choosing one to become a part of. 

In Need of a Sermon

We are once again searching for a local church to join.  When I say "local" I mean a church within 75 miles.  Yes, that's considered local here.  We learned this is the definition of local when we purchased a washer/dryer set from Lowe's and they offered free local delivery and it included us way out here in Beloit.  Of course I joked about trying to order a pizza to be delivered here from Salina.

I struggle at times with the feeling of an empty stomach spiritually speaking.  Today was one of those days.  It's so hard when you have a baby who doesn't like to be away from mom for any length of time.  I'm always grateful for those churches that have a speaker for video system for those in the nursery.  I like to listen to God's Word being preached even if I'm not up in the auditorium.  Abby enjoys the music and sometimes sings along in her own little way, but has not learned to be quiet during the preaching.  She thinks it's time for her to get a few words in too.  Where can I order a "cone of silence" for a baby?

Needless to say, I missed the teaching during Sunday School and the preaching in the morning worship.  Due to the miles and lunch and other logistics we were not able to attend an evening service.  So I turned on one of my favorite live webcasts of a church service and enjoyed good singing and testimonies, but no preaching!!! God had worked in the lives of many young people and they wanted to share what God had done so that was a blessing.  It's just that it feels like it's been so long since I've been able to enjoy one good sermon.  

You know a sermon delivery service wouldn't be too bad.  I would pay to have a good preacher show up at my house during the week and preach a couple of good sermons.   I would cover his mileage and maybe give him a big glass of sweet tea and a slice of pie or even a full meal.  All of this to take place out on the front porch so as to prevent any appearance of evil.   The neighbors could probably use a little preaching too.  I think a tip should be based on how good the sermon is and I expect doctrinally sound expository preaching that lasts well over 45 minutes.  None of the namby-pamby feel-good fluff with a sprinkling of humorous illustrations throughout.  So is there a Christian Craigslist out there where I can post my wanted ad?