TMG
Tom’s Midweek Greeting
Crossroads Community Church
Nevada MO
November 15, 2018
www.nevadacrossroadschurch.org
Hello, Crossroads Family!
I believe this coming Sunday morning will be one of the most important we will spend together since I came to Crossroads as pastor 3 1/2 years ago. I believe the kind of ministry we wish to do together in the future hinges in many respects on what God will have to say to us – and how we will choose to respond – this Sunday. I highly encourage you to be there. If you’re not able to be there, the sermon will be posted on the church website next week.
Last summer our church Elder Board, along with a handful of other ministry leaders in the church, began a process we’ve been calling “Walking the Walls,” based on the story of Nehemiah’s rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem in the Old Testament. Walking the Walls is, very simply, a process of looking at how and why we do ministry at Crossroads, and then identifying where ministry needs to be strengthened. Its goal is to establish a strong church that will have healthy ministry for many years to come. In addition, it’s a way of providing for the members of the church (those currently attending and those God brings to us in the future) ways to serve according to their gifts and desires. It’s a happy church where the joy and burden of ministry is shared in ways where everyone feels they are contributing effectively for the glory of God.
This Sunday we will present the first two ministry “gates” our church leadership has identified as being places on the Crossroads wall where we should devote attention and energy in the coming year. I’m very excited about sharing this with you! Together, we will identify other ministry gates in the coming year. Would you please be in prayer for all of us at Crossroads, both for this Sunday and for the continuing process of building and rebuilding healthy ministry at Crossroads.
Please pray:
- for good attendance this Sunday
- for open hearts to God’s message to us
- for a response to God’s call, the same call he gave to the people of Nehemiah’s day : “Arise and build.”
- for joyful worship
- for the peaceful presence of the Holy Spirit
- for clarity for me as I speak
- for our elders who will be available to answer your questions.
The morning will include:
- Adult Bible Study at 9:00. We’ll study Leviticus 23, a fascinating chapter of the Old Testament outlining Jewish festival days … but which is also a calendar of how God intends to unroll the future right up through the return of the Lord Jesus.
- Worship led by Glory Reichard. Glory will lead us in worship with a missions theme, and she’ll share briefly about her own missions experience in El Salvador.
- Our friend Joe Chenoweth, Young Life staff member and elder at Cornerstone Community (E-Free) Church in Harrisonville, will be with us too. Joe has been guiding our leadership through the Walk the Walls process.
I look forward to seeing you Sunday, and I appreciate your prayers in advance of this special day!
Dates
Men’s Monthly Discipleship & Fellowship
All men are invited to a time of fellowship and study next Monday night, November 19th, at 6:30 pm. We’ll meet at the deli in Woods Supermarket. Plan on bringing something to eat, or purchase something at the deli. We’ll finish around 8:00. Always a good time!
No Wednesday night activities
We’ll take a break from Wednesday night Home Group and Youth Group activities for the rest of November and December. Thanks to everyone who contributed to such a successful season of fellowship and encouragement on Wednesday nights this fall!
Children’s Church Help needed next Sunday
Could you be a helper in Children’s Church / Nursery next Sunday, November 25? Judi Edwards will be the primary teacher, but we’re in need of someone who can be her assistant (must be at least 14 years old) and love on some children during the sermon time.
Congregational Meeting, December 2
Our quarterly congregational meeting will take place Sunday, December 2, immediately following the worship service. We have need of electing a Nominating Committee whose job it will be to nominate a person for the open seat on the Elder Board next year. Dave Reedy is finishing his first term as an elder and is eligible to be re-elected to the Elder Board. If you have a name of someone you would like to submit for the Nominating Committee, would you please let me or one of the other elders know before December 2? Thank you! Also, if you have an agenda item you would like to include for the December 2nd meeting, please contact me.
Some Additional Thoughts on Tithing, Giving
Since we’ve spent some time recently discussing the subjects of money, offerings, and tithing, I was interested to read this short excerpt from an article written by a professor at Columbia International University in South Carolina. Dr. Terry Powell writes about some of the disturbing ideas presented in churches today concerning the offerings we give to God. I hope you’ll read it and be encouraged and challenged!
from “I’m Still Waiting,” by Dr Terry Powell, at www.penetratingthedarkness.com, October 26, 2018 :
My mind shifts to the TV preachers, many of whom pastor local churches, who plead with viewers to “sow their financial seed.” I’ve actually heard preachers guarantee that God would bring an adult child back to the faith of his or her childhood; that He’d heal you of debilitating back pain; that He’d provide an out-of-the-blue financial windfall that would erase all your debts–if you sowed your money seed into the soil of their particular ministry! (“Get out your credit card and call the 800 number on your screen now to experience your breakthrough!”)
I’m still waiting for these preachers to see the incongruence of sending them money via your credit card as a means of getting out of debt.
I’m still waiting for these preachers to tell his or her viewers to sow their tithe to their local church, and give to them beyond that amount as the Lord leads.
I’m still waiting for faith healers to conclude that sometimes God chooses not to heal. If they read their Bibles more, they’d come to the conclusion espoused by the late Robertson McQuilkin: Adversity is a means of God’s grace. Their viewpoint assigns weak faith to anyone whose disability or disease remains. Take their “health” gospel to its logical extreme, and no one would ever die.
I’m still waiting for these TV preachers to realize that they cannot manipulate God the way they do gullible people. Can God miraculously heal someone after physicians give up? Can He woo a grown child back to vibrant belief in Christ? Can God meet a financial need from an unexpected source which can only be explained by His intervention? Of course He can (and does)! But God is far too big, mysterious, and uncontrollable for anyone to guarantee how He’ll react to someone’s financial gift. To think that we can guarantee how He’ll respond invalidates His sovereignty. Such manipulative promises put us in the role of God—and that’s a frightening scenario, indeed!
Looking forward to seeing you Sunday!
Tom
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