The Churchtown Weekly Thursday, January 9, 2025
Learn-Grow-Become-GO!
Shout it in the assembly.
Shout it to the world. (Psalm 40)
Ephesians 4:1-16 (BSB)
1As a prisoner in the Lord, then, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have received: 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3and with diligence to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
4There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
7Now to each one of us grace has been given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 8This is why it says:
“When He ascended on high,
He led captives away,
and gave gifts to men.”
9What does “He ascended” mean, except that He also descended to the lower parts of the earth? 10He who descended is the very One who ascended above all the heavens, in order to fill all things.
11And it was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to equip the saints for works of ministry and to build up the body of Christ, 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ.
14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves, and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head. 16From Him the whole body, fitted and held together by every supporting ligament, grows, and builds itself up in love through the work of each individual part.
Church is a body of people who are inspired by God’s Holy Spirit and have been gifted in every way possible to make the body work according to God’s will. You have heard me say that there are as many associate pastors of Churchtown as there are committed Christians in the pews – and that is also true. We all have a role to play.
EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON.
It is a great joy to have been called to help lead this body, and over the past several years, we have grown together – from the inside out. It has not always been easy, and it has, indeed, led to great change – but I know that it has been ordained by God because I know the faithful people through whom God is working.
Moving forward, I will be asking every person to take a good look at themselves as Christians. Do you know what you believe and why you believe it? Are you aware of the gifts that you have been given by the power of God? Are you intentional about exercising them?
Together, we can continue to grow if we continue to be intentional about what we do as individuals and as a church. To this end, as I have mentioned a couple of times from the pulpit, we will be very intentional about developing our spiritual selves and this body of Christ through several intentional initiatives. Let me talk about them a little bit.
Intentional Ministries: To be sure, we have several ministries that serve the Lord and His people well. Some have been established for a long time – some have been created recently: The Sisters in Grace, The food Ministry, The Benevolent Fund, and our Ministry of Fifth Sunday Charitable Giving are good examples of long-standing ministries. Kids for Our King, Pairs & Spares, and the three prayer initiatives (during the service, council prayer, and congregational prayer) are excellent examples of newly established ministries. We have also begun to intentionally observe all three ordinances of the Churches of God General Conference.
Moving forward, we will continue to explore all the ways that we are led to worship and serve with goal being to grow and become the disciples that God wants us to be.
• We continue to explore the various ways that the men of the church can serve God and serve one-another. We will be seeking intentional leadership in this area. We will be focusing on teaching and edifying Christian men as they take on their God-given roles and
• Biblical Literacy: We continue to dive deeply into scripture through our Sunday morning time in the Word, various Bible reading plans, messaging groups, our twice-weekly livestream called “Turning on the Lights,” and the Churchtown Weekly devotional teachings. as we go along and support one another.
• Positional Leadership: we continue to grow in this area as well. More people are choosing to become members so that they can not only declare their roots to be embedded in Churchtown, but so that they can serve in both ministry and leadership positions. We will continue to grow this culture of leadership so that we are able to continue in healthy positional leadership.
• Finally – we seek to build our commitment to prayer and fasting. I would like to, again, build it back into the experience of the Lord’s Supper fasting the day and/or night before, and promote us all, as we are able, to fast and pray from Saturday afternoon through the time of sharing Communion the next day. We will also provide a time Saturday evening for people to come to a quiet sanctuary and pray.
So, there you go. We have moved through a season of change both physical, the improvements made to the building – and spiritual, our commitment to the word and to prayer. We intend to continue this path – knowing that the machinations of Satan will be working against us; but as scripture teaching 365 times – DO NOT BE AFRAID!
THE LORD OUR GOD GOES WITH YOU!
AMEN AND AMEN!
WE WILL SEE YOU IN CHURCH!
If you have not taken the theological study day survey, please do! We want to hear from you!
You can now subscribe and listen to the
“Churchtown Podcast Network!”
Available on both Apple Podcasts and Spotify, just search “Turning on the Lights!” and “Churchtown Church of God Sermons” – subscribe and then leave a rating and a review! More folks will see it!
Super shout-out to Mark Cole for making this a reality!
*Audio and video are always posted on our YouTube channel @churchtownchurch (there are 1,100 videos there)
Church Calendar
• Sunday, the New Song Singers will be leading a service that will include the welcoming of 6 new members to the church! (practice TONIGHT @6:30)
• Council prayer is Tuesday January 14th @6:30pm
• Kids for Our King! Sunday, January 19!
• Congregational prayer is Wednesday January 22 @7pm
• Sunday January 26 is our first service of the ordinances for 2025.
• Service of the Ordinances:
o January 26
o April 17 (Maundy Thursday)
o July 27
o October 26
o Thanksgiving Eve Lord’s Supper
Remember, the single biggest reason given for why someone attends church for the first time is that a friend asked them!
As always, we continue in prayer for Churchtown, for our community, for the church universal, and for the lost everywhere.
God is good. God provides. Keep your eyes up and on the cross people.
Be well and do good, my friends. And, as always, Keep Looking Up! The lord comes!
REMEMBER THAT!
Opportunities!
• We are always seeking individuals to be trained in technology. We would like to develop TEAMS that could rotate weekends.
• There is always the opportunity to provide music – join up with the New Song Singers and / or talk to me about a special prelude or piece.
Gather-Grow-Become-Go
Churchtown Church of God
Sunday, January 12, 2024
Welcome to Churchtown!
We are glad you are here! We welcome new members today!
“The Blood Will Never Loses Its Power” – NSS
Opening Word
Psalm 133 (NLT)
“Unto Thee O Lord”
#204, “Rock of Ages”
“Above All”
The NSS with, “Cornerstone”
Our Time In the Word
1 Peter 1:13-25; 2:1-3 (NLT)
Service of Membership
Chorus #507, “Through It All” (x2)
Time of Corporate Prayer
“The Lord’s Prayer”
The Final Word
Romans 12:3-5 (NLT)
Your offering to the church is received with humility through the offering box located in the side room as you face the sanctuary. Thank You for supporting The Churchtown Church of God.
As a “little” church, we are always asking the question, “What CAN we do?” Well, we can start by caring for the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of each other.
• We CAN serve the next person God places before us.
• We CAN invite that person to church!
• We CAN be intentional about going to church and strengthening ourselves and the body.
• We CAN serve our community and show who Christ is to those who do not know Him.
• We CAN PRAY, PRAY, PRAY – and we can REMAIN FATIHFUL!
I Love Being Your Pastor and Your Friend,
Brian
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