February 5, 2014
Dear Eastridge Family,
A couple of weeks ago I shared a message I entitled the State
of Eastridge Church 2014, and today I want to give you an abbreviated version
of that message along with some other items of note for our church family.
·
The State
of Eastridge Church
The evidence is abundant that the church in America is in
decline. Of the 400,000 churches in
America only about 5% are actually growing in number and much of that growth is
a result of transfer growth from another church rather than conversion.
The dropout rate with our young people between the ages of
18-22 is staggering, about 70% and only a fourth of those will return to the
church by the age of 40. Only 2% of
church members actually invite unchurch people to attend worship services or
Bible studies. Yet we see growth in numbers
with cults like the Jehovah Witnesses and the Mormon’s here in America.
It would be tempting to get
discouraged looking at these kind of numbers.
But I want us to look to God’s Word instead. In Matthew chapter 16 we see that Jesus is identified by Peter
as the Christ, the Messiah, and the King. For Matthew this is a crucial
point so he puts it in the very center of his gospel account. Mark does the
same in his Gospel account and puts this story at the very center of his gospel
as well.
“Who do people say that I am? Who do you say that I am?”
These are important questions that each one of us needs to
answer today. What good does it do to give the right answer, that Jesus
is the Messiah, Jesus is the Christ, Jesus is King; if we don't then order our
lives and live according to this truth?
If we really believe that Jesus is King, the Messiah then we should live
accordingly. We should submit our lives
to the King.
Jesus tells us that the progress of His Kingdom will not be
stopped by the Gates of Hell. Jesus says
He is building His Church. He has come
to defeat the devil and take back His Father’s world.
Is there anyone here who wants to be part of King Jesus is
work? Does anyone here want to be on the side of victory? If you
want to be with Jesus you must take up the cross and follow Jesus there's no
shortcut. This is not a onetime decision but something that we must do
daily: take up our cross; set-aside our agenda and begin to live King Jesus'
agenda.
As a church we have done a good job recently reaching out to
our diverse neighborhood. Our church
family is beginning to look like our multi-ethnic neighborhood. This is certainly not easy and we have
certainly not reached a level of perfection but we are to be commended for our
efforts.
As a church we have made a serious effort to reach out to children
and teenagers and we have seen some fruit as a result. It is imperative for any church that desires
to be faithful to the gospel to reach the next generation and make disciples of
that generation. You are to be commended
for your efforts to adapt changes to better communicate the gospel to the next
generation and to our neighborhood.
You have worked to remodel the church facilities and to provide
handicapped accessible restrooms. You
have embraced a move to change our style of worship music to include singing
songs and reading Scripture in both Spanish as well as English. This must of course continue to be a work in
progress.
I have tried to communicate that being a disciple of Jesus
and making disciples of Jesus requires relationships. Disciples are not
mass-produced. Rather they are forged in relationships. This is the Jesus model that we see in the
New Testament and this is what I want us to continue to work to put into
practice in our own life. Being and
making disciples of Jesus does not happen by accident we must we intentional.
Like many other churches we have a big need for
leadership. Leadership is not just a
position or a title but leadership requires action. We need leadership for our church board.
We need trustees who will step up and take responsibility for the
building maintenance and overseeing the repairs and upkeep of our facilities.
We need stewards on our church board who will take care of the
responsibility of decorating the church, visitor follow-up, preparing communion,
and church meals.
We need leadership in our youth department; we
need leadership in our children's department, Sunday school teachers and
workers.
We need leaders who will guide us and direct us
and organize us to come together and pray as a one congregation. We need leaders who will help organize
outreach events not just for children but also for adults.
Being a church takes money. It takes money to maintain the facilities, it
takes money to pay the pastors, and it takes money to pay the electric
bill. It all takes money but God has a
plan for this, it's called the tithe. If each member were faithful to pay
their tithe (10% of their increase) to God; our church would have no financial
problems at all. The problem is here Eastridge, like most other churches,
not everyone is faithful to do what God is asked them to do; and therefore the
church struggles financially to meet the needs.
We need not worry about the gates of hell; they
cannot stop the advance of God’s Kingdom, only our lack of obedience can stop
us. I believe we have some good days
ahead here at Eastridge Church. For this to be true we need everyone to
join together and be the church God wants us to be.
·
Prayer
request
I spoke with Kevin Williams this morning and his surgery went
well yesterday. The doctors did find
cancer and they are running test to find out if it has spread beyond his lungs.
Beulah Peterson (Todd’s
mother) had a heart attack yesterday morning.
She had a couple of stints put in while she has been staying at St. Joseph. We want to remember both Kevin and Beulah in
prayer.
·
Missionary
On February 16th in our evening service at 6 pm we will have
Nazarene missionaries David and Rhoda Restrick from Mozambique sharing about
their work in Africa.
·
Church
Board Meeting
We will have our monthly Church board meeting at 4:30 pm in the
Fellowship Hall
·
Video
Projector
We hope to make a purchase of a new video projector soon. Of course this requires some money above the
normal operating expenses. We have
already had some who offered to give towards this need above their tithes. If you would like to do so please mark your
offering “projector” and we will make sure to apply to that expense.
·
Quotes of
the week
“Gluttony is
eating and drinking as if there will be nothing tomorrow, as if the Father will
forget to feed us. Gluttony is unbelief.”
–
Peter Leithart
“Prayer is not
monologue, but dialogue. God’s voice in response to mine is its most essential
part.” - Andrew Murray
"Learn the art of prayer, for fear dissolves in an
atmosphere of prayer."
- E.
Stanley Jones
“And first let us
inquire, What is salvation? The
salvation which is here spoken of is not what is frequently understood by that
word, the going to heaven, eternal happiness. It is not the soul’s going to paradise, termed
by our Lord, ‘Abraham’s bosom.’ It is
not a blessing which lies on the other side death, or (as we usually speak) in
the other world. The very words of the text
itself put this beyond all question. ‘Ye are saved.’ It is not something at a distance: it is a
present thing, a blessing which, through the free mercy of God, ye are now in
possession of. Nay, the words may be
rendered, and that with equal propriety, ‘Ye have been saved.’ So that the salvation which is here spoken of
might be extended to the entire work of God, from the first dawning of grace in
the soul till it is consummated in glory.”
–
John Wesley in his sermon “The Scripture Way of Salvation”
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