Wednesday, October 6, 2010

10/03/2010 Godly Marriage

For all of our Facebook friends here is a link so that you can listen to the message.

http://bendcitychurch.podbean.com/2010/10/06/godly-marriage/

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Sunday Morning Kick-Off

As we have been preaching through the vision of Bend City Church this summer and fall we have been looking forward to the time when we would have a full worship team, children's church, and nursery on Sunday mornings. Slowly we've been adding the different elements to our Sunday gatherings, one step at a time. At the same time, we've taken 3 able men through some leadership training as our next small group leaders.

As we've grown as a church body in these areas, we've tabbed Sunday, October 24th as a kick-off Sunday for Sunday services. The reason we are having a kick-off service is to give a special emphasis on inviting those we hope to one day be a part of our local church. The truth is, Bend City Church is already a church, a small local church at this point and we want to see people know Jesus and come to be a part of our fellowship.

The past few weeks we have started the children's ministry meeting on Sunday. For the time being, the topic has been the life of David and what God can teach us through the man that the word says was "after God's heart."

The next few weeks will see a few changes in the church:
1. Scott and Lisa Christophersen will be starting a small group on Monday nights in their home.
2. We will begin practicing with a full worship team and have that team lead the worship on Sunday mornings.

God has been doing a great thing in the church and we've been excited to see the fruit of His work in our lives. That's all for now.-Shane

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Message Sunday 9/19/2010

Hey guys,

It was very hard to hear the prayers for the leaders so we faded out after the teaching.

Monday, September 6, 2010

New Look

You may have noticed the new look.  We changed to a different template - one which gave us more flexibility so that we could fit the podcast feature to the right.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Our New Place

Check out some pics of our new meeting place. We will begin meeting here the first Sunday in September.

The Church

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Preparing leaders to do the same

The last few months Scott and I have been blogging through the mission of Bend City Church and the 5 main areas we feel God has called us to focus on as we attempt to fulfill the mission. The final area that we are looking at is Preparing Leaders to Do the Same. The first question rightfully asked about this point is, to do the same what? Obviously this point cannot stand on its own, since it is built on the previous 4 points. So it would probably be helpful to review.

The mission of Bend City Church is we exist to make disciples that live for the glory of God, enjoying him completely. The first four vision points we see as crucial to fulfill the mission are:

1) Praying with utter dependence on Christ
2) Proclaiming the gospel to believers and unbelievers
3) Pursuing live of worship and service in community
4) Partnering in ministry for the sake of the gospel

This leads us to our fifth and final point, Preparing Leaders to Do the Same. We aim to prepare leaders to have a growing passion for first four points listed above. A fruitful church will have a vision that is continuously growing in the hearts and minds of the community of believers. As the mission is being accomplished through the community and the sense of mission is growing stronger, individual members of the body are prepared to lead others into this mission. Jesus chose 12 disciples to pour His life into. These 12 disciples became the 12 apostles and were sent on mission to change the world. From this beginning, we see preparing leaders as an important part of the early church life. The apostle we hear from the most in the New Testament is Paul. We see Paul not only give himself to the preaching of the gospel and the ministry but also to developing and encouraging his “children” in the faith. These “children” are men who he feels a direct responsibility to encourage to shepherd the flock of God. We see his heart clearly in 2 Timothy 2:2;

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.

Paul wants not only his hearers to know the truth of the gospel, but he tells them that they need to find faithful men who will teach others also. We also see his earnestness in preparing, teaching, encouraging, and warning a few of these leaders, Timothy and Titus, in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus. Just as Paul did, we aim to prepare faithful followers of Jesus to join us on mission. For us, that means joining us to pray with utter dependence on Christ, proclaim the gospel, pursue a life of worship, and partner with others in this ministry for the sake of Christ and the gospel.