• Mark and Sherri Schlax • Posted in
Mark and Sherri wanted to send a quick update to thank everyone for their support and prayers and encouragement, and also give a brief update of how the work at Agua Viva in Guatemala is going.
• Donald Whitney • Posted in Books, Evangelism
Here is an excerpt from Donald Whitney's book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, which we'll be using for our fall Sunday morning class on the spiritual disciplines.
• Colin Marshall and Tony Payne • Posted in Books, Discipleship, Evangelism, Every-Member Ministry, Life in the Church, Theology
A quote from The Trellis and the Vine: The Ministry Mind-Shift that Changes Everything, by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne.
• Daniel Baker • Posted in Every-Member Ministry, Life in the Church, Sermons
What do these have in common? All three will converge this Sunday morning at SGC. At least, that's our hope as we have been talking to Jermaine Powell about the possibility of creating some pieces of art that could embellish our auditorium but also capture some of the essence of what we are preaching.
• Tim Chester and Steve Timmis • Posted in Evangelism, Every-Member Ministry, Life in the Church, Mission
"Not all of us are eloquent or engaging. Not everyone can think on their feet. Some people are simply not good at speaking to strangers and forming new friendships. One of the practical benefits of the three-strand model of evangelism [building relationships, sharing the gospel, introducing people to community] is that it gives a role to all of God's people. By making evangelism a community project, it also takes seriously the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in distributing a variety of gifts among his people. Everyone has a part to play--the new Christian, the introvert, the extrovert, the eloquent,…
• Daniel Baker • Posted in Bible, Sanctification, Sermons, Suffering
This Sunday we begin a new sermon series, Wisdom for Suffering. The idea of this series is to take four books in the Wisdom Literature of the Bible and approach them with this question, "What does this have to tell me about suffering?" The sermons will look at the book of Job (Aug. 2), the book of Psalms (Aug. 9, 16), the book of Proverbs (Aug. 23), and the book of Ecclesiastes (Aug. 30).
The issue of suffering is a massive and complex one. This is true at a personal level, because my suffering has unique elements to it that…
• Jim Martin • Posted in Discipleship, Life in the Church, Relationships, Sermons
Yesterday Jim preached on 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15. The primary burden of the text is for us not to walk in idleness--to be "busy at work" and not be "busybodies" (3:11). His opening sections on idleness were excellent, but something particularly helpful was a couple great questions on how to know whether you're being a "busybody" and imposing yourself in someone's life where it isn't right:
- Is the other person inviting my help?
- Is this about them, or is it really about me?
Sometimes I'm not invited in and I should stay out of someone's business, because it's…
• Daniel Baker • Posted in Evangelism, Mission, SG, Vision
This past Sunday a group of us met for what we called a "missions round table." The point of the meeting was to talk with others at SGC who are especially interested in the cause of foreign missions. We all agreed that the gathering was encouraging and exciting. God is accomplishing his purposes throughout the world, and it is a joy to hear about some of that. (Don't miss the end of this post where I explain who was there and what they contributed.)
THE BIBLE AND THE NATIONS
We began with a brief look at the Bible's promises regarding…
• Josiah Ruhl • Posted in Discipleship, Evangelism, Every-Member Ministry, Mission, Service
In June two of our families, the (Joby) Ruhls and the Greguses, went to the Agua Viva Children's Home in Guatemala. Here is a letter from the Ruhls.
Dear Friends,
Below is a family update and a praise report from our mission trip to Guatemala. We are continually grateful for the friendship and support from each of you as we walk through life together. We look forward to continued growth in our relationship with each one of you as we walk through life together here at our new "home" in NC.
Family Update
We moved into our new…
• Daniel Baker • Posted in Gospel, Grace, Sanctification, Sermons
Amazing Grace has to be one of the most familiar Christian hymns of all time. I haven't done any studies on it, but it seems to find it's way into all kinds of Christian and secular movies. If you start the song on a Sunday, everyone present will sing along, not just those who grew up in your church. It is a vivid reminder that something is "amazing" and worth singing about, namely, "grace." But what exactly is "grace"? Let's define it and then look to the New Testament to answer six important questions about it.
And by the way,…