|
|
|
|
|
On Sunday, April 23rd, we had the blessing of hearing the reports concerning ministry in St. Petersburg, Russia, from Pastor Charles Hoblitz and Pastor Oleg Vladyko. Pastor Charles has been a faithful servant of God for some 30 plus years in Madagaskar, South Africa, Germany and for the last 13 years in St. Petersburg. It is a hard place to ministry but God continues to bear fruit through his labors.
Those that came had the opportunity to meet a dear young pastor, Oleg Vladyko, with whom I had the privilege of forming a friendship when I ministered in Russian in October of 2004. Oleg and his wife, Catherine, have stepped into a challenging circumstance as they took over the work of a country church in Otrodnoye. There they have continued that church's outreach to an orphanage just three miles away into the next town. It was so encouraging to hear of God's hand of blessing on their ministry.
We were all challenged by the greatness of the needs that these children experience. One of the key ministries that the two churches partner in is their summer camp. Over a series of three one-week camps, the children are given the blessing of going to the country for a week for games, crafts, swimming, and of course the learning of God's Word. Camp is a key experience when many young people come to Christ or commit their lives fully to him.
We have already taken up a collection to send several of these kids to camp this summer. But what was so heart warming was to see the way our kids' hearts went out to these children overseas. My daughter, Eden, and some of the other kids immediately began brainstorming about ways they could raise some extra money. And that leads me to this appeal. How can we help the kids? Not only the kids in Russia, but how can we help our kids' faith grow by helping them attach the good work of giving as an expression of their faith. Not so much a handout. Let's find ways to help them work for it.
Ephesian 4:28 says, "let him that steals, steal no longer; but rather let him labor, performing with his own hands what is good, in order that he may have something to share with him who has need."
Eden's original idea was a car wash. Then we moved to a church-wide yard sale. We thought that might be doubly profitable--the kids could raise the money, we all could get our basements and garages cleaned out, and we'd have a few less things grabbing our time and attention.
Drop me a line to give me your ideas and make sure your kids get to be a part of the discussion. After all, we're trying to share the blessing of giving with them. Also, if anyone has some expertise on organizing a bang-up yard sale, let me know. |
|
|
|
|
|
If you are reading this blog entry there is a good chance that you have already looked at some other areas of our newly refurbished web site. If otherwise, please take the time to look it over and let us know what you think. Go to: www.followingtheway.org. Now like all remodeling and construction projects a couple issues are always to be expected.
Issue #1 - There is always a punchlist of things that still need to be completed. Anyone that's moved into a new home or remodeled portion of a home knows little things show up after the major construction. This will surely be true of our web site. Please just drop me or the webmaster (or webservant for the theologically correct) a line about what we can do to punch that correction off the list and we'll get to it as promptly as possible.
Issue #2 - The decorations and arrangement of the rooms are always in flux. As much as you may like things right now it doesn't take long to get discontent or restless with seeing the same things in the same location day after day after day. We know the feeling. What we had up before was ok for a while, but it needed a face lift. The new site will be the same. We'll want to see bigger and better; more features, more pictures. We already have plans for those things so bear with us.
Issue #3 - Whatever you see and grasp from our website will be a poor reflection of who we really are. It's a little like what Paul was saying in 1 Corinthians 13 when he said "we dimly see in the mirror (of the then only partial Scriptures), but then face to face". He was saying that his knowledge of the will of God was partial because the full mirror of the Scriptures were not completed as the revealed will of God. But when it was completed it would have the ability to reveal God to us and us to ourselves as if we were face to face. Obviously our website would make no claim to be the full and final revelation about who we are and what we're about at Open Door. So please don't invest so much into it as a replacement for body life. We've enhanced it as a tool so that you will enhance your personal investment into the members lives and ministries of our church.
Our church and hopefully, "The Church," must remember that our business is not just about getting out information, "being in the know", or having an opinion about everything. It is about spending time together and imparting spiritual encouragement and mentoring life-to-life. To the extent that our upgraded web site encourages that outcome then we've succeeded. To the extent that it becomes a replacement for life-to-life and heart-to-heart communication (which happens best face-to-face) then we've failed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
On Tuesday evening, Mike, Patty, Denise and I were able to attend the CCN Telecast of the "Da Vinci Code Training". Although it may have seemed a little short on the meat of apologetics it was helpful in raising the opportunities and urgency of the issues that will be raised when the movie opens on May 19th.
Lee Strobel likened the opening of the film to what he believes will be a "cultural tsunami." That may seem like hyperbole since many of us haven't even had a conversation with anyone who has read the book. But there are some alarming things that should help us take this opportunity more seriously.
A poll that was taken in Canada revealed that one in three people surveyed now believe that Jesus has physical descendants that are alive today. Now I can tell you that there has not been a long history of that particular belief being circulated for the past two thousand years. That is a recent phenomenon. As a matter of fact, some of the early heresies against Christ sought to undermine his humanity and his claim to being the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.
George Barna conducted a poll particularly about the book itself. Fifty-three percent of those surveyed agreed that "the book has been helpful to their spiritual life and understanding." That's almost scary.
One the other hand, the issues raised by the story provide some of the most ready occasions to speak about spiritual things and one's relationship with Christ. But as the panelists stated, we will probably not speak unless we are prepared with informed answers. In my opinion, it will be our responsibility to get our noses in the books over the next month. I plan on doing my best to equip from the pulpit on the doctrinal and church history issues. And the elders have already discussed other forums, like our small groups, to help each one be ready to give an answer.
As to getting into the books: It was encouraged that we be able to speak intelligently to what is contained in the book. I know many of you don't want to put any more money into Dan Brown's pocket and it should help that paperbacks have just come out for about $5 each. I have read the book and worked through all the emotions. I think that is necessary so that we are received as credible and so that we can calm down and be ready to gently and reasonably work through these issues with some of our sure to be confused friends and associates. |
|
|
|
|
|
Over the years we have stated that we are a church that doesn't want to get bogged down in meaningless tradition. I think that is still true of us. One of our traditions has been to hold full congregational fellowship dinners which we call Agape Dinners (it doesn't have the confusing connotations that the term "Love Feasts" would have for those in our culture).
These dinners have been marked by true fellowship--the sharing of life together--that the Scriptures speak concerning the life of the church in Jerusalem in Acts 2:42-47. We have laughed together, cried together, comforted one another, prayed for one another, disciplined the unrepentant and restored the same when he or she repented, and always enjoyed good food and lots of singing and praise. We've met new friends and bonded them into our fellowship even as we shared in the Lord's Table. We've laid hands on members and prayed for them as we've sent them out to minister for Christ in other places. And we've consoled ourselves through tears as we've said "good-bye" to those whom God has moved to other parts of the world.
But has this tradition lost its meaning? Are they getting to be too much trouble? We used to do them every month when some of us were quite a bit younger and with fewer children. We now only hold them in the months of September, November, January, March, and May, with an occasional summer picnic.
What do you think? Are they worth it? Should we continue them? I have my own opinion. What's yours?
Tradition is not a bad thing in and of itself. I guess we have to decide whether the tradition has lost its meaning or not.
Wanting to hear the voice of the people, Pastor Brian |
|
|
|
|
|
Welcome to the Open Door Bible Church web log or "blog" as they are called. This probably should have been the first entry, but I dropped the first entry in the other day when it was fresh in my head.
Just wanted all to know the parameters of how this blog will operate. I will address issues based on following current categories: Church News, Encouragement, Message Reflections, Missionary News, and Pastor's Thoughts. Please consider sending me some suggestions of topics that you would like for multi-viewpoint discussion. I'll try not to be trivial, but will hope to put up entries that are relevant, informative, and make us all think together.
Always open to suggestions on how to make this a profitable tool for all. Please be patient if you don't see daily entries. I'll do my best. Also, comments will be reviewed before they are posted, so please be appropriate and considerate with you comments.
Looking forward to interacting with you, Pastor Brian |
|
|
|
|
|
This past Sunday's message on 1 Peter 3:18-22, was not an easy one to preach. There are definitely some interpretive challenges and for those who heard it live, I hoped I hadn't obscured the obvious in explaining the difficult. It was encouraging to hear one of my daughters succinctly sum up for her sister, who missed the sermon, the gist of the message in one or two sentences what I had tried to explain in an hour.
My daughter said, "What dad was talking about is that suffering well gives us a chance to speak to a bigger audience and when we see how God uses us to get out His message we get more boldness because as people react to it, for better or worse, we know God is pleased with us."
Another of our teens picked up on the significant experience that identifying with the Lord in the waters of baptism has in encouraging our faith and giving us a good conscience toward God. She encouraged a friend to speak with me about taking that vital step of obedience in a Christian's life.
It's a great encouragement to see how God is raising up what I believe will be our next greatest generation!
Special thanks go to our Youth Leaders, Bob and Janet Hoffman for their faithful investment into the lives of our teens and to the parents who have laid a foundation of faith and obedience to Christ.
Do you have any testimonies of God's work in our young people? Why not add them as a response?
BTW: When the new website is ready for prime time The Crew (youth group) will have their own page |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
