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Rejoicing for the Little Ones & Praising God With Steve and Heather Casey!
It is never a good thing when a parents rights to raise their children are terminated. It is never a good thing when a family is so broken that the authorities that God has put in place (Romans 13) need to step in and separate the children from the parents. Not only is this never a good thing, but it always represents a major tragedy full of sin and sorrow.
While it is never a good thing (in and of itself) to see a family dissolved, a good thing can come of it.
In fact the horror of a family dissolving can result in great glory to God. That seems to be what is happening in the lives of Steve and Heather Casey. For months and months the Casey's have been fostering two precious girls who were rescued from a horrible home situation. And, today the Judge decided that this rescue needed to be permanent. As of today, the judge terminated the parental rights of the parents of Steve and Heather's two foster children. This is a major triumph for justice, since these children were in such an awful situation. It is also a major triumph for grace, since the Casey's desire to raise their children to know the God of grace. This is also a major answer to prayer since God's people have been praying and fasting for God to move in this situation. Praise God that He has. Now all that remains is for the Casey's to officially adopt these two precious girls. Let's pray that comes to fruition quickly and without delay.
Introducing "Welcome, Serve, Mission" pt. 2
Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. In our life together at Immanuel, service to one another is one of main ways we display our reverence for Christ! How can one follow after Jesus and not be a servant of the least important people? In order to encourage Immanuel to serve one another, we are redesigning and implementing an all new “back table”. The desk will be located where the sound booth is currently located. The sound booth will be relocated. The new design will enable service opportunites to be more easily displayed, updated, and understood with just a casual glance. It shouldn't be hard to figure our where help is needed and we hope that the new Serve Desk will provide an easier avenue to communicate and engage everyone from Immanuel in the service of the church. We hope that everyone at Immanuel does not come to be served, but like Jesus, to serve and to take the burdens of others on themselves to the glory of our God!
Attached you'll find a rough artist's visualization of the Serve Desk.
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| serve desk.pdf | 74 KB |
Hey career men and students: Think you're too busy for the pastoral apprenticeship? Think again!
Hard Work: The Spurgeon Way
Author: Jim Elliff
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the renowned preacher of London in the 1800s, was not only a gifted leader, but was a hard worker. By the time most pastors write a few emails, wrestle with the dates for VBS and read the junk mail, Spurgeon would have completed a mountain of tasks.
For instance, each week he preached several times (often 10), trained pastors in the pastor's college, wrote several hundred letters ("I'm immersed to my chin in letters."), led an elders' meeting, conducted a prayer meeting, counseled numbers of new believers preparing for baptism (on average, 30 persons), read volumes of Puritan theology, edited both his printed sermon and The Sword and the Trowel, wrote a few chapters in one of his 150 books, squared off against some heresy, buried a few members, entertained many guests, and visited his orphans at the orphan home established by the church.
"A man cannot be idle and yet have Christ's sweet company," he once wrote. "Christ is a quick walker, and when His people would talk with Him they must travel quickly too, or else they will soon lose His company."
He exhibited his tirelessness in labor when he began preaching as an 18 year-old at Waterbeach. The church at first had only 40 members, but soon grew to 100, with many more guests attending. "I'm 18 tomorrow and hope Sunday to preach for the 188th time since I started about one and a half years ago," he said. By the time he was 20 he had preached approximately 500 times.
He once exclaimed, "The sin of doing nothing is about the biggest of all sins, for it involves most of the others . . . .Horrible idleness! God save us from it!"
But won't too much labor for Christ and the church harm your family? Every pastor and committed Christian worker must be careful about this, it is true. But for every Christian leader who works too hard, there are many more who do way too little.
Once I returned home from several days of public ministry. Saddened that I was going to have to leave again the next day, I was lamenting the whole thing before my wife and young son. After listening to my whining, my son approached me with these words: "Daddy, you have to go for three reasons: First, God told you to; second, you get presents [meaning that sometimes generous churches would send something back to the kids]; and third, people need to hear what you have to say." Not bad advice for a nine year-old.
I shut up, realizing that my son was not harmed by my hard work. In fact, I think it has been extremely important for my kids to see a dad who believes what he preaches and is willing to labor to get the message out. Soon my kids began helping me in the ministry, and loving it. I worked hard to include them.
Veteran pastor Vernon Higham said this about revival leaders in Wales: "Labor for God was to be respected rather than despised."
Spurgeon stated that he believed in Adam Clark's adage: "Kill yourself with labor, and then pray yourself alive again."
I know that Spurgeon died as a young man. He wore himself out with his labors. But would we have it any other way?
"If I have any message to give from my own bed of sickness, it would be this—if you do not wish to be full of regrets when you are obliged to lie still, work while you can. If you desire to make a sick bed as soft as it can be, do not stuff it with mournful reflections that you wasted time while you were in health and strength. People said to me years ago, 'You will break your constitution down with preaching ten times a week,' and the like. Well, if I have done so I am glad of it. I would do the same again. If I had fifty constitutions I would rejoice to break them down in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. You young men that are strong, overcome the wicked one and fight for the Lord while you can. You will never regret having done all that lies in you for our blessed Lord and master. Crowd as much as you can into every day, and postpone no work till tomorrow. 'Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might.'"
FOR MORE INFOR ON OUR PASTORAL APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM GO TO http://www.ibclouisville.org/ministries/pastoral-apprenticeship
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"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." 1 Corinthians 15:10
Spurgeon quotes from - Quoting Spurgeon, Anthony J. Ruspantini (Baker: Grand Rapids, 1993)
Wanted: Trained and Tested Shepherds
Paul tells Timothy: "If anyone desires the office of overseer (pastor, elder), he desires a noble task." We hope and pray that God would excite many men of Immanuel to become the kind of men that God calls to lead His Church, both as leaders here at Immanuel and all around the world. But pastors aren't simply dropped from heaven, they are made. They are formed by the Spirit's power, steeled by the trials and tribulations of life, sharpened by training and tested in the local church. The Pastoral Apprenticeship here at Immanuel is our plan to train and test men to lead God's church as elders and pastors.
Men in the program will meet early on Friday mornings to gather and discuss the Bible, theology and ministry with the pastors of Immanuel. As the men progress in the Apprenticeship, more responsibilities and ministry opportunities will be entrusted to these men so that they can test their gifts and desires (eg: Wednesday night preaching, Care Group leading, Pre-Engagement counseling, Hospital Visitation, etc.) If you're interested, please note that applications need to be handed into the church office by Sunday, September 5th. Find out more and then submit your application!
Poetry and Pornography
I promise that I will eventually write about something other than sexual immorality. But, I am sure you would forgive a US WW2 soldier if he talked a lot about Germans and so I imagine you could forgive a Pastor if he talked a lot about the enemy of his people, and how that enemy is overcome. It seems to me that one of the missing ingredients in our fight against lust is beauty.
Most Christians know lust is wrong, the problem is they do not know lust is ugly. They see lust as a problem but not as a nasty hag with one too many warts on her puckered upper lip. We are convinced lust is wrong in our minds, but we are not turned off. So what do we do? We should fight the seduction of 'ugly beauties' with the incitements of 'better beauties'.
Isn't that biblical? Why should we put away water that does not satisfy? Because there is better life giving water available. Why should we follow Jesus? Because he is new wine. Why should the troubled Churches of Revelation press on? Because there is a king surrounded by a rainbow, lightning, and a sea of glass seated on his throne in heaven. Something better is what should drive us away from something pathetic. The battle over sin is not ultimately won by merely being convinced we are wrong. It is won through the enticements of living water, red red wine, rainbows, lightning, and glossy glass that reflects the beauty of Holiness in the face of the Lord God Almighty!
So too with beauty. Proverbs 5 says the best defense against the breasts of the adulterous is staying drunk with the breasts of the wife of your youth. So stay joyfully delighted in the home fires and you'll avoid getting burned on the internet. That is a call to fight 'ugly beauties' (even if you think they might look good for a moment) with better beauties.
But wait, your wife does not look like the girl in the magazines? She does not have time to airbrush herself before you get home? That is where the poets come in, brandishing their 'word swords' to help us see the beauty in the wrinkles of commitment, and the grey hairs of devotion. We need words to show us the beauty of committed love and wrinkled hands. Do you doubt that beauty can be seen in the midst of grey hair and dentured teeth? Doubt no more. Why do people spontaneously applaud when they hear that a couple has been married 50 years? They cannot hold back their reaction to beauty. We spontaneously affirm the beauty of covenant bound broken bodies. Won't somebody write a poem, a song, a story to remind us of the glory?
Wouldn't it be glorious, if a Church were so filled with songs, hymns, and spiritual songs that they became intoxicated with the beauty of God and they actually became turned off by sin. Wouldn't it be wonderful if poets and banjo players, song writers and hip hop artists labored by the Holy Spirit to show the beauty of things that do not photograph well (things like a battered body on a bloody crosses). Perhaps the Holy Spirit would use that kind of poetry to stab the conscience wide awake and to slay the vile of dragon of pornography once and for all.
Welcome, Serve, Mission Pt. 1
Welcome! We're glad you've come to Immanuel. Immanuel is not a building, it is a people; A community from all cultures where Christ is king. At Immanuel and under the kingship of Jesus, we live life together in a peculiar way and we want that way, that peculiar way, to be explained well as people come into our midst as visitors. Attached you'll find a rough artists visualization of the welcome station we hope will help us better introduce ourselves to visitors. As you can see, in coordination with the welcome station, we're also developing visitor cards, welcome booklets and signage . The visitor cards will be used to give our visitors an opportunity to share their contact information with us so we can follow up with them and care for them. We'll also use the visitor cards in a visitor's reception time that will begin immediately following each service. The visitor's reception will begin at the same time the welcome center is installed. The welcome booklets will include introductory information about Immanuel as well as some frequently asked questions.
Communities are best known by talking to the inhabitants and Immanuel is no different! We recognize that an informational booklet, a sign, and some visitor cards will not provide complete knowledge of Immanuel. However, we do think it is important to provide concise introductory information to vistitors that will allow them to quickly understand who we are and what we're all about as a people who follow Jesus as king! The material available at the welcome station will aid not just our ushers as they interact with vistors, it will aid all of us as we welcome people to Immanuel and explain to them what it looks like to be a community from all cultures where Christ is King.
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| welcome center.pdf | 76.61 KB |