To God's Beloved At Cloverdale Baptist Church:
Another baptism service? Yes! This Sunday we are having another baptism service, and would love to hear from you if you are an authentic believer and have never been baptized by immersion! Please contact one of your pastors, and we would love to help you take this step of obedience. This is one of the great celebrations of the church, and is a beautiful acted out picture of being IN CHRIST! I love baptism Sunday's, and rejoice as God's children take this step of obedience!
Last weekend your Joint Servant Team met Friday night, and all day Saturday (well until 3), and spent time in prayer and seeking an understanding of God's preferred future for our church. I praise God for the Deacons and Elders who God has blessed this church family with and the opportunity to seek Him together. We will be reporting much more on this, in the near future, but for now please keep praising God for those He has chosen to lead you, and praying that for them and their families! We long to focus on holiness (living out our faith in the world, but not of the world) and evangelism, which is very similar, with the added dimension of taking our responsibility as Ambassadors very seriously. I am excited to see where this will take us as we seek to become who God wants, together for His glory! We want to know the good works God has prepared in advance for us to do, and then pursue them with passion and excellence (Ephesians 2:10).
We have been reviewing HTML, and M in our tag line of health stands for MISSION. We want to be a church who understands our role in the community and world as on mission for our KING. This means that we have a role to play with our conduct and words, everywhere we are. God has chosen to use us to be His representatives in the world, as though He was making His appeal through us! May God find us faithful in our communities, and around the world. Today, pray for one of our missionaries, and if you know them well, send them a note of encouragement and love. Today, as you walk and talk, take advantage of every opportunity to show people how amazing God is!
In the last few weeks we have received a number of helpful suggestions in connect cards, and letters and we appreciate these. Many, filled with huge blessing, some with constructive criticism, and we welcome both. I have asked my staff not listen to any notes that come in that are not signed (well, the positive ones they can). So if you are seeking to help us improve, and be excellent in our longing to be a healthy church, please sign anything you send in so that we can interact further and move forward together. It is great to belong to a family like ours and as we seek to make it better, this would be helpful fur as as staff, elders and deacons.
We continue to work on building a strong network of Gospel oriented churches in BC and Canada, to join those around the world who are already TGC churches. Please pray for me, and our church as we continue on these formative steps, as well as seeking the greater goal of revival in Canada through the health of God honouring Biblically saturated churches!
Sunday Is Coming:
Text: Galatians 4:1-11
Title: Slavery To Sonship
Why do you think that the Bible makes such a big deal about Christians being sons of God?
What were we enslaved to before we knew Jesus?
How does thinking we can please God on our own, through our own righteous acts enslave us?
What does the word, "redeem", mean?
Why is it important to understand that we have been redeemed?
How does this change how we live our lives?
Why does Paul seem to constantly be reflecting on the Gospel and brining it to focus in each specific issue he addresses?
Thank you for your service of Jesus with me, may we grow together in conformity to His Image, so others might see Him and praise Him through us!
A fellow SON,
Pastor Rob