Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Vision (9/30/10): Various Thoughts


Image:  Another look at Tom Ascol and David Murray from the Keach Conference

Note:  The Vision is the weekly e-newsletter of Christ Reformed Baptist Church.  It is sent out each Thursday.  Below is the weekly pastoral reflections column.  To be added to the list to receive the complete Vision, email info.crbc@gmail.com.

• Last weekend was a meaningful one for the CRBC family. We hosted the Keach Conference on Friday-Saturday and held our Covenant Service on Sunday. Now it is time to move forward as a mission church!

• Thanks to everyone at CRBC who helped with the Keach Conference by attending, greeting, serving, and welcoming. It dawned on me this week that nearly all of our members were involved in the conference in some capacity. I was reminded of Nehemiah’s description of Israel while rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem: “for the people had a mind to work” (Neh 4:6).

• We continue to make use of our sermonaudio site to broadcast CRBC sermons and teachings. The Keach Conference messages were posted this week and have already had a couple hundred downloads. The most popular message thus far has been Tom Ascol’s “Does the 1689 teach Creationism?” The most downloaded message on our site is Paul Washer’s sermon on “The Minister’s Prayer Life.” Posted just three weeks ago, it has already been listened to over 8,000 times.

• It was encouraging to hear the testimonies of our members on Sunday afternoon. I was thinking this week that we might make this an annual tradition on our Founder’s Weekend when members can share their testimonies or reflect on what God has done in their lives over the past year.

• Let’s reflect on the three challenges Steve Clevenger offered us in our Covenant Service: (1) the main purpose of the church is worship (John 4:21-23; 17:24-26); (2) the primary means of grace are the preaching of the Word and the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Acts 2:37-47); (3) we are to be the people of God (1 Corinthians 1:25-28).

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

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