Category Archives: Body of Christ

A Strategic Opportunity We Must Not Waste

June 2, 2012 By in Body of Christ, New Building Tags: , , , 5 Comments

As published last week, we aim to dedicate our new facility on July 29 at 6 PM in the evening. The occasion for dedicating a building to the glory of God provides an ideal opportunity for a rededicating of the people of God to their covenant commitments to Him and one another.

I take my cue for that notion from places like Nehemiah 9 and 10 where the people of Israel rededicated themselves to Yahweh upon completing the rebuilding of the walls surrounding Jerusalem. In the spirit of just such a renewal, our leadership has crafted a written covenant for the membership of OGC to sign as those who have helped build the facility and will worship and serve within it for years to come. The covenant and the various names will be framed and displayed in the entry way of the building as a testimony to God and His faithfulness through His people for this endeavor.

Here is how the covenant reads:

On this July 29, 2012 for the occasion of dedicating to the glory of God our church’s first facility constructed for worship and ministry, We, the members of Orlando Grace Church, bound together by gospel love in covenant membership and having undertaken in recent years to rebuild the “walls” and repair the “gates” of our beloved fellowship, in order to gladly and solemnly renew this firm covenant in writing, do hereby reflect the following commitments with God’s help as fully-devoted followers of our Lord Jesus:

  • We will relentlessly pursue our joy in God by abiding in Christ through the practice of the means of grace that are the spiritual disciplines (John 15:1-11).
  • We will diligently manifest our godliness of character by obeying God’s word through the power of His Spirit (2 Peter 1:5-11).
  • We will consistently fulfill our roles in society by embracing God’s design for functioning in each of the ordained spheres – home, church, and state (Colossians 1:18-21; 1 Peter 5:5; Romans 13:1).
  • We will lovingly share our faith with unbelievers by engaging them through a wise combination of gracious words and merciful works (Colossians 4:5-6).
  • We will strategically do our part in global missions by maximizing our investment through praying, sending, and/or going (Matthew 28:18-20).
  • We will zealously accomplish our ministries to others by using our spiritual gift(s) in the domain(s) of God’s calling (1 Peter 4:10-11).
  • We will faithfully manage our resources from God by utilizing them according to the principles of biblical stewardship (1 Timothy 6:17-19).
  • We will fervently demonstrate our love for believers by engaging in fellowship through keeping the covenants of church membership (Romans 12:9-13).

Signed believing only in the hope of the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit for the strength and ability to do any and all of the above,

May I ask you to begin to pray now if the Lord would have you embrace this gesture during this strategic season and that you might be among those who will sign the document? More information will come as to how and when we will facilitate this, but we wanted to plant the seeds for this as soon as we knew when we would finally take ownership of our facility.

This is a terrific opportunity to examine our hearts and lives and rededicate ourselves to God’s glorious purposes as part of OGC!

What We Need from OGC

October 6, 2011 By in Body of Christ Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

On Sunday I shared what I believe OGC needs from Nancy and me and the rest of our officers and their spouses. For the next two years, arguably among the most strenuous in our history, the church needs us to stay the course. OGC needs us to persevere through the hard work, the late hours, the difficult conversations, the tough decisions. The buck stops here in terms of leadership responsibility and we can’t afford to weenie out just because things get hard.

But now let me turn the tables and suggest a few things we need from our covenant members. First, and foremost, we need your prayers. Pray for our staying power over the long haul. Lord willing, we will get through this season of building a facility and all the challenges that come with it. A new normal will arrive in due season. Pray we hold on and excel in our duties.

Second, we need your participation. Paul called the Philippians partners in the gospel (Phil. 1:5). That’s what we are. We need to partner together in service. It’s every hand on deck. Find a need and fill it. Sacrifice when you must. Let’s pull the load together. We need to partner together in giving, BOTH to the capital campaign/Each One, Seek One and to the general fund budget. On the latter we have been slipping of late. Chuck Mitchell will bring a report this Sunday during the offertory.

Lastly, we need your perseverance and patience. I’ve said all along that we and we alone in the history of this church get to do this stewardship of building a facility. It’s an enormous privilege that will bring multiple rewards. But the endeavor is not for the faint of heart or weak in knee. So join Nancy and me when necessary in having that little talk over the kitchen table when things get dicey: What OGC needs from us right now is to keep the oars in the water and keep on rowing.

Angel Work

September 12, 2011 By in Body of Christ Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

This quarter’s edition of The Free Grace Broadcaster focuses on Comfort in Affliction.

I have taken much of value away from the articles within, especially a sermon by Charles Spurgeon called Cheer Up, My Dear Friends.

In it he addressed those discouraged that they could do nothing due to being laid aside by sickness or some other hard providence. I pass it on for its encouragement, especially with respect to the high work of refreshing God’s saints.

The refreshing of God’s saints is one of the highest works in which anyone can be occupied. God will send prophets to his servants at times when they need to be rebuked; if he wants to comfort them he generally sends an angel to them, for that is angel’s work. Jesus Christ himself, we read, had angels sent to minister to him. When? Was it not in the garden of Gethsemane, when he was bowed down with sorrow? Comforting is not ordinary work: it is a kind of angelic work. “There appeared unto him an angel strengthening him.” A prophet was sent to warn the Israelites of their sin; but when a Gideon was to be encouraged to go and fight for his country, it was the angel of the Lord that came to him. So I gather that comforting work is angel’s work. You, dear kind Christian men and women, who think that you are not able to do anything but to condole or to console with cheery words some souls cast down and sore dismayed, you are fulfilling a most blessed office, and doing work which many ministers find it difficult to perform. I have known some who have never known suffering or ill-health, and when they try to comfort God’s weary people they are dreadfully awkward over it. They are like elephants picking up pins: they can do it, but it is with a wonderful effort. God’s tried people comfort each other con amore; they take to the work as a fish to water. They understand the art of speaking a word in season to him that is weary, and when this is the case they may not complain that they are doing nothing.

Paul certainly thought highly of this angelic work. In 2 Timothy 1:16-18 he praised one such angelic servant in these terms:

[16] May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, [17] but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and found me—[18] may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day!—and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus.

Can you think of someone who might need refreshing through a kind word or note of encouragement. Why not undertake some angel work today?

The Eternal & Cosmic OGC

July 18, 2011 By in Body of Christ Tags: , , , 4 Comments

Following services yesterday we took a picture of a good many of the saints that comprise Orlando Grace Church. Our Digo survey team intends to take a framed print to Kenya as one of our gifts toward forging and strengthening ongoing connections to the church and people there. We want them to have some idea of the community of believers here in the US that maintain a gospel love for these half way around the world.

I long as a pastor that we as a people would believe just how significant a movement we embody as part of the church of Jesus Christ on planet earth. Nobody said in better than John Piper way back in 1981.

The church of Jesus Christ is the most important institution in the world. The assembly of the redeemed, the company of the saints, the children of God are more significant in world history than any other group, organization or nation. The United States of America compares to the church of Jesus Christ like a speck of dust compares to the sun. The drama of international relations compares to the mission of the church like a kindergarten riddle compares to Hamlet or King Lear. And all pomp of May Day in Red Square and the pageantry of New Year’s in Pasadena fade into a formless grey against the splendor of the bride of Christ. Take heed how you judge. Things are not what they seem. “All flesh is like grass. And all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord (and all His family) abide forever” (1 Peter 1:24,25). The media and all the powers, and authorities and rulers and stars that they present are a mirage. “For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15). The gates of hades, the powers of death, will prevail against every institution but one, the church.

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God … because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the liberty of the glory of the children of God (Romans 8:19, 21).

Lift up your eyes, O Christians! You belong to a society that will never cease, to the apple of God’s eye, to the eternal and cosmic church of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

To read the rest of his message click here.

Oh for lifted up eyes to see and red hot hearts to believe all that God has for us and means for us to do in Christ Jesus among the Digo and beyond!

Conciliation Anniversary Sunday

September 9, 2010 By in Body of Christ Tags: , , , , 3 Comments

This Sunday marks the 8th anniversary of a landmark weekend in the history of OGC.

Following a devastating conflict amongst our leadership in the summer of ’02, everyone involved in that struggle met for a weekend retreat with two trained mediators from Peacemaker Ministries for a conciliation retreat.

God gave me the privilege of participating in that event. I will never forget it. Emotions ran high. Hurts went deep. But God worked mightily among us that Friday night and all day Saturday such that all fifteen men came out of the weekend reconciled with one another. Forgiveness was granted. Fellowship was restored. Much has changed since then but each of those men, as far as I know, remain in fellowship with one another as a result of a commitment to do biblical peacemaking for the glory of God and the good of His church.

I refuse to let us forget. On my watch, Lord willing, we will remember. Every second Sunday of September I depart from the regular sermon series and preach on some aspect of biblical peacemaking. Few objectives matter more to our church than the development and maintenance of a culture of peace within our midst. I will preach this Sunday from 1 Cor. 6:1-8 a message entitled How Not To Resolve Disputes Among Believers. I want us to maintain a high regard for the peace and purity of our church so that the testimony of our fierce love for one another in this regard redounds to the fame of Christ and the renown of His name.

You can contribute to the ongoing development of a culture of peace at Orlando Grace by subscribing to various free electronic publications from one of my favorite groups, Peacemaker Ministries. I received this sample from their weekly PeaceMeal publication this week:

Being a peacemaker is difficult. There is no other way to honestly speak about it. It is hard, humbling, and sometimes humiliating work. But consider this: The peace that Christ achieved for us was hard. Jesus is described as a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief (Isa. 53:3). It was humbling. Jesus humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phil. 2:8). And it was humiliating. Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame (Heb.12:2). All this was done so that peace, not just an appearance of peace, but the reality of peace would be achieved between God and human beings.

We may never act more like Christ, more reflect the character and person of Christ, than when we engage one another in love and fight for the peace and purity of our church.

As we observe the anniversary of this landmark event that set us on a course for cultivating a culture of peace at OGC, may we pray and labor for this reflection of Christ in our midst for many, many years to come.


Headed for T4G

April 12, 2010 By in Body of Christ Tags: , , 4 Comments

T4G stands for Together for the Gospel, a bi-annual conference that encourages pastors to take their stand together for the gospel.

I attended back in ’06 but missed two years ago. The image above shows the speakers at that conference in ’08.

This time around I felt strongly led to return. I don’t know of any other event of its kind that draws together like-minded reformed pastors and church leaders from a variety of traditions for the purpose of promoting modern reformation and fidelity to the gospel in the pulpit. I just couldn’t see how I could afford to miss another opportunity like this on my watch at OGC.

The theme of this year’s conference is The (Unadjusted) Gospel. Click below for a look at the brief promo video.

I leave early tomorrow morning and arrive home late Thursday night.

Would you please pray for me that I hear the Lord’s voice these next three days? Also, pray for my time with various folks I know who go to school there as well as other pastors with which I will be sharing fellowship. Pray that I might be refreshing to them like Onesiphorus of old (2 Tim. 1:16).

I am asking the Lord to make me a better pastor by the investment of resources required for attending such an event. I covet your prayers for the same.

I do hope to post on our blog from Louisville while I am there, Lord willing and time permitting!

Update on Pastor John Piper

March 28, 2010 By in Body of Christ Tags: , Leave a comment

This morning before my pastoral prayer I mentioned the news regarding Pastor John’s leave of absence from Bethlehem Baptist Church and Desiring God.

Here is a portion of his statement on today’s DG blog:

I asked the elders to consider this leave because of a growing sense that my soul, my marriage, my family, and my ministry-pattern need a reality check from the Holy Spirit. On the one hand, I love my Lord, my wife, my five children and their families first and foremost; and I love my work of preaching and writing and leading Bethlehem. I hope the Lord gives me at least five more years as the pastor for preaching and vision at Bethlehem.

But on the other hand, I see several species of pride in my soul that, while they may not rise to the level of disqualifying me for ministry, grieve me, and have taken a toll on my relationship with Noël and others who are dear to me. How do I apologize to you, not for a specific deed, but for ongoing character flaws, and their effects on everybody? I’ll say it now, and no doubt will say it again, I’m sorry. Since I don’t have just one deed to point to, I simply ask for a spirit of forgiveness; and I give you as much assurance as I can that I am not making peace, but war, with my own sins.

You can read the entire post here.

Please pray along with me for God’s multi-layered purposes to be accomplished in this man of God’s life, family, and ministry.