Josh Scheiderer Coming to Northeast Ohio

I’ve been praying for Bible Community Church of Mentor, Ohio since they began looking for a pastor last year. Bible Community is a church with a strong history. They have sent out several pastors and missionaries over the years, have taken a strong stand for truth, and have ministered to churches and families in Northeast [...]

Pastor Albert N. Martin’s Retirement

One of my favorite preachers, Albert N. Martin, has retired following 46 faithful years pastoring Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, NJ. He concluded his ministry with 9 messages filled with counsel to his beloved congregation. You can read about the messages (which seem to encapsulate his strong philosophy of ministry) here. (Thanks for the good [...]

The Heartbeat of Tri-County Bible Church

Yesterday I preached a message entitled “The Heartbeat of Tri-County Bible Church.” It was (to quote the sub-title) “A Look at TCBC through the Lens of Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians.” It’s essentially our philosophy of ministry in one “drink-from-a-fire-hydrant” message. It addresses issues that are vitally important to us, including a doxological purpose, cross-centeredness, [...]

Borrowing Brains: How Can We Make the Lord’s Supper a Spiritual Feast?

Christ gave the Lord’s Supper to the church as a great gift—a perpetual reminder of Himself, the greatest gift. It’s inclusion in Acts 2:42 as one of the four basic practices of the Jerusalem church (along with apostolic teaching, fellowship, and prayer) indicates that it was considered precious by the New Testament church. The attitude [...]

Quick Hits (7/16/08)

There is more pleasure in God than sin.
This first link is just fantastic. It’s well worth a few minutes of your time. I’ve wanted to read Charnock’s Existence and Attributes of God for some time; in the past I’ve merely referenced it when studying a particular topic. Beyond that, I’m very aware that my reading [...]

National Church Planting Conference Workshops Online

The mp3 files of the network sessions from ARCH Ministries’ 2008 National Church Planting Conference in Mentor, Ohio are now online. There were 5 sessions, all of which can be downloaded here (or at the links below). I’ve also made the handout from my session available as a pdf here. Perhaps someone will find it [...]

The Church as a Slingshot

One of my favorite New Testament studies is considering the many “pictures” used to describe the church. The church is a flock, a building, a body, a family, an army, a bride, a cultivated field, etc. The pictures vary greatly, each providing a different perspective and emphasizing different truths. Well, another picture—which, though it isn’t [...]

Why Four Services?

We try to be intentional about what we do at TCBC. So why do we have four services? Ideally, to accomplish four different goals. Here’s the answer as we published it in yesterday’s bulletin:
1. EMM Fellowships* — Fellowship and Bible Interaction
2. Sunday AM — Worship and Bible Proclamation
3. Sunday PM — Testimony and Bible Instruction
4. [...]

Covenant Life Performs Andrew Lloyd Webber? Why?!

Over the last few years, I have come to appreciate the spirit and focus of Sovereign Grace Ministries, and especially of Covenant Life Church in the DC area. I’ve appreciated several of the songs SG has produced and have enjoyed some helpful correspondence with CL’s music minister Bob Kauflin. Also, I’ve learned much from the [...]

What I’m Reading: The Elder and His Work

There are a number of books available on local church leadership. In answer to a recent question regarding my favorites, I recommended Dever’s The Deliberate Church (which I blogged on here) and Strauch’s two books Biblical Eldership and The New Testament Deacon (which I blogged on here) as among the most helpful. I’m now glad [...]