Reborn- Church
When did the Church begin?
Begin with the Gospel of Luke (Spirit led ministry of Jesus). You need to know this, that the church began when Jesus came to earth as a missionary to our culture (God as a man) and thus EVERY church is to follow after Jesus. The church began with Jesus. In Acts Jesus before He ascends tells the Apostles to wait for the Holy Spirit which will enable them to lead the church. The Church begins with Jesus. The church first begins as a group of about 120 people meeting in homes together and then Peter preaches the first sermon of the Church to thousands of people and 3000 people are saved! Acts 2:36 summarizes Peter’s sermon. Read Acts 2:36-47 and study.
Who leads the Church?
Some of you think that there is a separate senior pastor at every church and you are wrong. There is one senior pastor over all Christian churches and that is Jesus. Jesus is the Apostle; Jesus is the Senior Pastor of every Christian church (1st Peter 5:4, Chief Sheppard). The Bible tells us that Jesus died for the church and that the church is considered His bride. This means the church is important. If you are willing to die for something then it is obviously important. This is why it drives me crazy and I am totally baffled as to why Christians think that church is no big deal. That involvement and leadership in church is something that can wait till they are older. These people are deceived and need to repent of their sin and get involved in church.
What is a Church not?
It is not a cult.
It is not two guys hanging out in the wilderness reading their bibles together.
It is not your family reading their bibles and even having worship together (though that is good).
It is not your (if you go to a Christian School) chapels.
It is not your devotions.
What is a Christian Church?
Universal Church: all of the churches everywhere
Local Church: Northshore Baptist Church
Activities of the Local Church:
Regenerated church membership: You are a new creation, you are changed.
Qualified Leadership: 1st Timothy 3 and Titus 1.
Gathering for preaching and worship
Sacraments: Baptism and communion
Unified by the Holy Spirit
Discipline: The whole point of discipline is to bring to into a place of holiness.
Obey the great commission: This means we are people who evangelize and make disciples.
What is Jesus doing in our church?
In the past year we have seen over 20 people in the junior high youth ministry alone become Christians or recommit their lives to Christ. In the church we have seen close to 100 people get saved by Jesus.
I got to preach at Spring Retreat this last spring and we saw 15 people be saved by Jesus.
We have close to 300 committed members of our youth group with over 70 amazing leaders who serve by leading in small groups, retreats and camps.
We are right now between our two week long summer camp for Junior High and Senior High where we will when we are done have had over 200 students and over 100 leaders attend with many people being saved and or being transformed by Jesus.
We have been producing and releasing all of our material. That means you can download my messages from ITunes and get the sermon notes online on our blog, my facebook, my myspace. And people are actually downloading and reading many of them not even from our church and in other states (this is not a boast).
Our church is about 2000 people with 250-300 members who lead and or serve in ministries in and out of the church.
God is continually brining amazing leaders to this church to teach and lead: Jonathan Alexander, Andy Wright.
We are searching for a church planting pastor so we can plant a new church in the next few years.
People are getting baptized (summer Sunday), new babies are being born, people are getting married.
Jesus is doing amazing things through and in our church!
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