ACTS New Testament

The church that I find "most" like mine is the Church in Ephesus. As I read over each of the churches to find the characteristics most like mine I am reminded that this year our church is celebrating 175 years of service. In the Scripture for the Church of Ephesus it states "I know your hard work and your perseverance." That entire statement is something that stuck out the most to me. We have been striving not to be the "best" but to be what God has called us to be. It later goes on to say that because we have been so obedient we are also faulted for that. Just because we are doing good deeds of service does not mean we are repenting for past wrong-doings during the processes. The action point I am taking back for the church is to repent and we must remember how high we have fallen in the past. Through the years we have learned what has "worked" and what has not lead us into the "right" path.

In comparing my church to one of the seven churches described in the book of Revelation i believe that my church is like the the church in Pergamum. We do hold fast the teaching of the Bible and we do revere the name Jesus Christ and we believe that He is the Son of God and the he is the only way to eternal life with God the Father. Jesus did have something against us that needed to be addressed that effected our relationship with him. While our problem wasn't with eating foods sacrificed to idols, and we are not involved in pagan worship as was the the case with the Nicolaitans, we did have a problem with people teaching our youth Sunday school who were immoral in their lifestyle. I did pick my pastors brain reguarding this project and he shared with me how when he took over as pastor this was one of the first problems he was forced to address. A former youth teacher was living with his girlfriend and when he and the pastor talked about the situation he resigned rather than change his behavior. Apparently others in the church had known about it but ignored it. This individual really is a nice, friendly person who got along well with the youth. The pastor stated he didn't receive any flack over the individual resigning, but even if he had he had an obligation to God, a mandate to address sin and other spiritual issues. I applaud him for his stand especially as a new pastor. We as leaders have to have the courage to stand for what is right. Today we as people (unbelievers) and as a Church have lost our moral compus or exchanged it for political correctness. Most of the time it's hard to tell Christians from non-Christians if placed in a room side by side and you could listen in on their conversations without them knowing. If you get a chance listen to the two part message by Christian Apologist Ravi Zacharias entitled "Releasing the Next Generation." Here he talks about how how lost this generation is spiritually and how the Church is to blame to a degree. When God judges us as believers and the Church i believe there will be much that WE will be held accountable for not doing or failing to do.

The Church in Smyrna GraceCrossing Community Church formerly Phoenixville Baptist Church has bore its share of sufferings and difficulties. Through much needed change and vision- anger, envy and deceit took hold. It was an us and them situation-The traditionalists and the visionaries. Though, the traditionalists are not all to blame and not the only ones with the bad behaviors, that I should make clear. I have learned many many things over the years and relatively short time in ministry. With the vision changes came growth in attendance and joy exploded. Teens-even without parents,young adults, children and families in church were growing, baptisms often, new members monthly. Music was joyful and worship was lively, sermons were of hope and restoration. Most of the church, minus the traditionalists spent hours together after church, sharing meals, hanging out, participating in God filled programs. Other programs filled weekday evenings with special outreach projects on Saturdays. Shortly following the joyful time, was a louder grumbling, slow leak of people leaving, anger voiced, money withheld and eventually despair set in. The money ran low, very low, months from closing the doors forever…the Pastor was called to a different church, one he had previously turned down but this time accepted. He was defeated after years of trying to rally what seemed to be a hopeless situation. The mass exodus of members continued. A lively church of 140 with loads of children, was left with a few kids, 2 teens and 40 adults. This difficulty lasted way more than 10 days! Some of us stood still, knowing that if the Lord wanted us to be here, He would make it happen. Psalm 121- I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. Looking back, I would change a few things…but not the visioning. It was the right way to go. The delivery could have been gentler. There should have been more face to face “confrontations” of the whisperings and misconceptions, even at risk of losing some who were causing problems. We have survived our prison time…barely…but we are moving forward now. Momentum is building, joy has returned and God is fulfilling His promises to the faithful.