“The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work that you need most to do and that the world most needs to have done.  The place God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
- Frederick Buechner

“You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.”
- Psalm 139:13-14

Applying “universal truths” to our mission field

• We have been called out as the living embodiment of Christ in this world.  That is our purpose – our reason for being, who we are.
• We have been sent out with a “great commission” (Matthew 28:18-20).  This is our mission – why we are here.
• We have been placed in a particular place at a particular time.  We know our purpose and mission (and are growing in our understanding of their implications).  But how are we to fulfill those in the circumstances He has placed us?  This is our vision – applying callings true for every church to our own unique circumstances (the times, the place, the needs, the gifts).

Elder oversight

• God in His grace raises up shepherds to serve His people by leading, nurturing, correcting, and protecting them. 
• They are to prepare God’s people for the work of ministry – giving appropriate guidance and encouragement.

Member involvement

• God equips and calls all His people to serve within the Body and reach the world with the gospel of grace.
• They are to carry out the work of ministry.

Need:  A local church must have a mechanism for utilizing gifted member initiative while maintaining elder accountability.

Solution:  “Ministry Teams”

Don MacNair, The Practices of the Healthy Church (p.177), “A ministry center consists of an organized group of individuals endowed with significant authority to design and carry out certain church activities within certain parameters and in line with the church’s overall vision.  A ministry center team, under the leadership of its chairperson, sets specific objectives to be accomplished.  The team determines the particular programs and activities that will constitute its ministry.  It decides how the funds allotted to its ministry will be allocated.  It sets its own standards for evaluating its efforts and implements a regular schedule of self-assessment.”

Consider these calls…

• Mercy:  Our God is a merciful God.  He has demonstrated this in the mercy He has shown towards us and the call upon us to be merciful to others.
• Evangelism:  Our God has a heart for the lost.  He has demonstrated this in reaching out and pursuing us and the call upon us to reach out and pursue others.
• Fellowship:  Our God is a relational God.  He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in eternal communion.  We have been created in His image, according to His likeness.  Thus, in order to be “truly human,” we need not only communion with Him but with one another as well.  And we have been commanded to pursue this.

Consider these struggles…

• In being merciful – Reflected in the callousness of our hearts towards those in need.  Implicit in the commands to be merciful.
• In reaching the world – Reflected in the indifference of our hearts towards the lost.  Implicit in the commands to reach the world.
• In reaching one another – Reflected in the superficiality of our relationships with one another.  Implicit in the commands to peacemaking and hospitality.

NOTE:  Each of these struggles has, at its root, an inordinate love of and preoccupation with the self.  That is to say, we are not merciful and do not reach out and do not reach in because we are selfish and have not really applied the gospel to these areas of our lives.

General

• Pursuing cultural change:  The great overarching goal is that our church would become more merciful, more given to outreach, more given to deeper fellowship.  The desire of our hearts and the focus of our prayers are that the gospel would really take root in us, change us in each of these areas, and that the world would be struck anew with wonder as to the reality of the living Christ. 
• Programming tangible acts:  Each team will develop intentional ministry strategies appropriate to our mission field and in accord with the overall vision of the church.  This is to be done with the following in mind:
  • The fact these things are good in and of themselves (e.g., Angel Tree Ministry, Visitor Lunches, Welcome Packets)
  • The hope they will lead us toward these “cultural changes”
  • The reality of the inevitable entropy (lack of movement) that will take place without some strategic plan.  Again, the natural bent of our selfish hearts.

Specific – to be determined by each team (and approved by the session)

“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”  (Proverbs 27:17)

(What We Believe)

• God has made us in His image, according to His likeness, male and female, with equal worth and dignity.
• Created in the image of the triune God, we have been made for relationship with each other.  Looking to the shared life of Jesus with His disciples, we see that we are never more human than when we are in community.
• God has fashioned men and women distinct in their roles, needs, and callings.
• God has made us as men to lead and to serve both in the home and in the church.

(What We’ll Do)

• Recognizing the unique challenges of striving towards a biblical masculinity in today’s world, we will seek ways to encourage one another, spurring one another on towards love and good deeds – at home, at work, in this community, and in the life of the church.

(How We’ll Do It)

• Bible studies
• Conferences
• Social outings
• Service projects

 

 

Call Richard Schwartz (931) 906-6650 for more information.

 

Vision

• We want to help women explore and fulfill our unique design as women.

• We want to encourage women to reach out to other women (including cross generational), providing opportunities for nurturing and authentic relationships and for accountability.

• We want the women of our church to be actively involved in praying for our church and its ministry, for missions, and for the concerns of our congregation.

• We want to provide opportunities for women to be challenged to learn and grow spiritually through study of God’s Word.

• We want to help make Christ Presbyterian a warm, welcoming church.

• Recognizing that we are a covenant people, we want to contribute to a genuine sense of community in our church. Simply put, we want to be a family to each other.

• We want to be actively involved in supporting the care and discipline of our covenant children.

• As a covenant community, we want to be a celebratory community. We recognize that we as women can make unique contributions in this area. We hope to make milestone events be memorable occasions, particularly for our covenant children.

• We want to provide opportunities for women to discern and exercise their spiritual gifts and abilities to the glory of God as we support the total work of the church. We see woman’s ministry as an integral part of our church that spills over into other ministries of our church, rather than as a separate entity.

• We want to encourage and train women to be channels of compassion in our communities.

• We desire for women to know Christ and to be committed to extending His Kingdom in their lives, homes, church, communities and around the world.

Connected in a caring covenant community

Called to be channels of Compassion

Committed to the Great Commission

 

Call Kacy Stone (931) 358-3726 for more details

What is “AIM” and what sets it apart from other approaches to youth ministry?

It starts with our foundational premise.  Believe it or not, the goal of AIM is not to create a great youth ministry.  No, seriously.  The goal is to create disciples of Jesus for the long haul, starting now and into adulthood.  Now that may sounds like we’re splitting hairs.  But there really is a difference.  The sobering reality is that a focus on “excitement” tends to lead to a consumer mentality (“What’s in it for me?”).  We don’t need more of that.  And a tendency towards “isolation” (allowing ourselves to be cut off from adults) severs connections.  And we don’t need more of that either.

What we need is to pursue biblical goals through biblical means.  “Fine,” you say.  “What would that look like?”  Consider that the strongest indicators of ongoing faith maturity are twofold.  First, what happens in the home.  Second, our relationships with the “extended family” of faith.  The implications?  The family needs to be empowered.  And there need to be intergenerational relationships growing within the body.

So what are we proposing?  A team approach with parents and youth engaged and leading together.  It’s a family-based youth ministry with this vision:  To train young people to grow toward Christian adulthood.

Curious?

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”  (Colossians 3:16)

Corporate worship entails a conscious effort of moving our affections off of our idols and placing them back where they belong, upon the true and living God.  This same God, in His manifold wisdom and grace, has given us the gift of music both for His glory and for the good of His people.  With that, we delight in utilizing the many expressions and styles available to us, ancient and modern, as they express the love of our hearts towards Him and shape our hearts in a way more pleasing to Him.

We practice each Wednesday evening from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm. Please contact Natalie Felts if you’d like to participate and we can discuss working you into the rotation of the team.  We would love you to share your gift with us!

We meet Sunday's at 1230 Rossview Road (click for map) at 9:30am for Sunday School and 10:45am for Worship Service.

Please see Natalie to sign up to do Special Music.  We would love you to share your gift with us!

“I wish that the young men might have something to rid them of their love ditties and wanton songs and might instead of these learn wholesome things and yield willingly to the good; also, because I am not of the opinion that all the arts shall be crushed to earth and perish through the Gospel, as some bigoted persons pretend, but would willingly see them all, and especially music, servants of Him who gave and created them.”
- Martin Luther

 

Call Natalie Felts (270) 707-0559 for more information.

 

What does it mean to build?  To build anything?  It’s significant that the Bible describes God Himself as One who builds – the designer, craftsman, and sustainer of all Creation.  He is also described as “building” salvation, building a people, building His temple (once a physical structure, now the Church), and building a heavenly city as well.  God is a builder.  And He has made us as human beings in His image, according to His likeness.  Which means, simply, that we too were made to build – to bring order and control into a world of chaos and decay.  To build is to be human.  To build is a good thing.  And we see that all the more in our Lord Jesus – the One who alone bears this image perfectly – who in His days on this earth spent time employed as a what?  A carpenter.  To build is to be human.  To build is a good thing.  And God delights in it.

But what is it to build a church?  Not in the way that the Lord alone builds the church – in adding to her numbers and depth – but with sticks and bricks.  What is it to build a structure in which His Church would meet?  We know that in the 1st century Church, believers met in private homes.  We see this in the New Testament.  Then later (as early as the 3rd century), as congregations grew, certain houses were “converted” and then exclusively devoted to such gatherings.  Not long after that, we see evidence of buildings being constructed expressly for this purpose.  So there’s a long history here.

Today, of course, constructing such facilities is quite common.  It’s the norm.  Statistics indicate that even now 64% of churches are planning some type of construction or renovation within the next several years.  Some, I’m sure, for good reasons.  Some, I’m sure, for bad.  Here’s the question:  what are our reasons?  What are ours?

Why should we build?

1. Not for our name.  Think back to the foolish pride expressed in the building of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9).
2. But for the Lord’s name.  He opposes anything less.  And He is worthy of nothing less.

How should we build?

1. Not independently of the Lord.  Not with ingratitude or presumption.
2. But dependently upon the Lord.

What should it be for?

1. A place to gather for worship and yet also a place to minister during the course of the week. 

2. A means by which to serve our community in works of kindness and compassion.

3. Or, another way of putting it would be simply “a community center with space for worship.”

 

Call George Leavell (931) 647-4034 for more information.

 

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this:  to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”  (James 1:27)

Two critical realities:

1. Our God is a merciful God.  He has demonstrated this in the mercy He has shown towards us and the clear call upon us to be merciful to others.
2. The callousness of our hearts towards those in need.  This is at least implicit in the commands to be merciful.

The implication:

1. The need to create and to encourage a “culture of mercy” in our church and through our church in this community.
2. If we are to become more merciful, both as a congregation and as individuals, it will require intentional strategies and conscious effort.

Current endeavors:

1. FUEL
2. Angel Tree through Prison Fellowship
3. Partnership with the ministry of the diaconate

    

   “A theology without passion is lifeless.  A theology without compassion isn’t true.”
   

   - Steve Brown

    

   Call Nancy Profitt (931) 645-3986 for more information.

Bowling Green, KY "PCA Church Plant"

Rev. Brian and Missy Howard

Children: Missy, Caleb, Connor, Joe and Jadyn

http://www.pca-mna.org/planting%20ministries/ChurchPlanterProjectProfiles/BowlingGreenKYHoward.pdf

Campus Outreach

Patrick and Tara Lewis IUPUI (Indiana) www.coindy.org

Children: (Tara is pregnant with their 1st)

Charles and Carol DeWitt (Spain)

166890 Dewitt

Katrina Relief

http://www.christcommunity.org/nashvillepca/

Consider joining the PCA for the next missions trip!

Officer Christian Fellowship

http://ocf.gospelcom.net

Reformed University Fellowship

Click Here.

Uganda Ministry

Click here for Trinity Central Oahu Uganda Ministry Webpage.

To download the presentation you must have Microsoft Power Point. If you do not have the program you can download a Power Point Viewer by clicking here. Next right click on the link and *Save Target As.* After you save the file to your computer, open the compressed zipped file. Download the Uganda Presentation.

 

 

Call Roger Pinkley (931) 368-1568 for more information.

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”  (Hebrews 10:24-25)

Basic principles:

1. Our God is a relational God.  He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in eternal communion.  We have been created in His image, according to His likeness.  Thus, in order to be “truly human,” we need not only communion with Him but with one another as well.  And we have been commanded to pursue this.
2. Our struggle with this essential reality.  This manifests itself in the superficiality of our relationships with one another.  And, like many other things, is implicit in the commands to peacemaking and hospitality.

The implication:

1. The need to create and to encourage a “culture of fellowship” in our church and through our church in this community.
2. If we are to realize biblical fellowship, both as a congregation and as individuals, it will require intentional strategies and conscious effort.

Current response:

• Plan social events for the entire church family.
• Encourage smaller gatherings through the week.
• Create as welcome an atmosphere as possible on Sunday mornings, especially for our guests.

“Let him who cannot be alone beware of Christian community…Let him who is not in community beware of being alone…Only in fellowship do we learn to be rightly alone and only in aloneness do we learn to live rightly in fellowship.”

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

 

Call Lucas Berg (678) 787-1412 for more information.

Guidelines for Nursery Volunteers

TEAM LEADERS - Arrive 9:00-9:10 AM to complete setup and greet early arrivals.

Sunday School Volunteers - In room by 9:15 AM

Worship Service Volunteers - In room by 10:35 AM

Church policy: There must be two workers in the nursery at all times, and there should be one adult worker for every three babies in the Infant Nursery. When additional help is needed, ask someone to find your Team Leader if she isn't nearby

We plan to offer a periodic Orientation Class for volunteers and for children age 12 and above who would like to assist in the nursery when extra help is needed.

Guidelines

(Your Team Leader should be present for the first 15 minutes or so to make sure the setup is complete and to help with check-in.)

1. To lessen confusion on Sunday morning, we ask that only volunteers come inside the nursery rooms. This is also a safety and liability issue. This means team leaders must be in the hall outside the rooms, making it necessary to recruit two volunteers for each room. A regular teacher is assigned for the Toddler Nursery (2 & 3-year olds) to teach a lesson during the Sunday School hour only. Two recruits are needed for worship time.

2. Check-in: Upon arrival parents will be asked to fill out a 4-part label (on tables outside both nursery doors). Team leader or one of the volunteers will help with this before Sunday School and Worship Service. The parent will place the name portion of the sticker on the child's back. Two smaller stickers on the label are for other belongings such as coat, sweater, etc. The parent keeps the final portion of the numbered label and they (or their designated person) must present this when returning for the child and his/her belongings. The number must match the one on the child. Team leaders will give one of our Nursery Brochures to first-time visitors.

3. Check for any special instructions on the label on each child's back.

4. Snacks and juice are available to serve at your discretion after checking the child's label to be sure there are no instructions to the contrary.

5. Near the end of each hour, check/change diapers. There is a diaper champ provided by our church.

6. Clean-up Check List: posted inside the left door of the white cabinet in each nursery. Use the felt tip pen to check off the items as completed after worship. Nursery Supply List should be checked for supplies that are running low and given to the team leader at the close. Blankets, sheets, and baby toys (rattles, church's sippy cups, & small plastic toys) used that morning will be cleaned each week. Wash small items in the sink and put linens in the mesh bags available for this purpose. Set aside for the team leader.

If you are unable to serve on your assigned Sunday, please find a replacement and then notify your team leader who your substitute is. It is usually possible to switch weeks with someone on the schedule for another week or to ask one of our subs.

We hope these guidelines will keep our nursery a place where our visitors and members alike feel comfortable leaving their little ones.

 

Call Jessica Thomasson (931) 552-4651 for more information.

“The Christian…is free to have imagination. This too is our heritage. The Christian is the one whose imagination should fly beyond the stars."
- Francis Schaeffer, Art and the Bible

“Considered in very general terms, the ideas in works of art often constitute truthful insights into life. At its most specific, the intellectual content of works of art consists of a world view – basic   premises about reality, morality, and values, as well as a central integrating value that gives coherence to all of life.”
- Leland Ryken, The Liberated Imagination

“Every act of creativity is directly or indirectly an intuitive response to offer back to God what has been given to us.  We can twist this intuition and may create something transgressive...and injurious, but the source of this creative impulse comes from the Creator.”
- Makoto Fujimura, painter

 

Call Gwen Rodriguez (931) 647-3880 for more information.