2010 Missions Conference Reflection

In the collection of essays entitled Lectures to My Students Charles Spurgeon wrote, “Examine what you have the abilities and gifts to complete and set your plans broader than that lest you grow confident in your own strength and forget the necessity of trusting God and glorifying His strength in light of your weakness.”

There was definitely an aspect of this mantra running through the preparation and festivities associated with the missions conference this past week. This was New Life’s second missions conference, and as opposed to last year’s one-night service we tried to stretch this year’s conference into a five-day event. Unfortunately, due to the weather Jon and Sarah Pfeil, missionaries from Japan (more on them later), had to cancel their meeting with the AWANA kids, but we still had the pleasure of their company Thursday through Friday. However, we still had the pleasure of hearing from the Pfeils at one of the Life Groups on Thursday, and they also gave different presentations at the Friday night missions dinner and the services on Saturday and Sunday.

It was such a blessing to meet Jon and Sarah and their children. They both share a strong passion for missions and a deep conviction to minister, plant churches, and form relationships with the people in Japan. It was so encouraging to meet a couple that is so Kingdom minded. They are faithfully serving God in Japan, but are just as eager and excited to hear what He is doing at New Life and in our Presbytery. In one of his presentations Jon explained that their plan for ministering to the Japanese people takes place primarily through forming relationships and raising up people and communities to plant churches and reach out to others around them. If you would like more information about the Pfeils and their ministry, please pick up a copy of their prayer letter in the magazine racks in the foyer.

Thank you so much to everyone who helped make the conference this year possible. There were so many people that donated their time and resources to help with the dinner on Friday and the service and desserts on Saturday. Many of our high school and college students

volunteered their time and

resources to prepare food, decorate the church, and participate in various parts of the service. We had several volunteers who read scripture verses in foreign languages, and Jason Leist gave an incredible message on the need for missions and a charge to respond to our call to serve the Kingdom on a global level.

Throughout the conference we were reminded that we have a calling to serve God and reach out to the lost all around us. We heard about several missions trip opportunities such as Campus Crusade working in East Asia and New Life’s trip to Mexico this coming July. God uses these trips not only to reach out to the lost in other areas, but to strengthen the church and our relationship with Him. I have been extremely blessed through the missions trips I have gone on in the past. They are visual and physical reminders that God is in control and that He is my strength, and not only that but they are unique experiences that bind you together with the people you share them with. If you have a desire to see the Kingdom grow and become more connected and involved at New Life, coming on the missions trip is an incredible opportunity that cannot be passed up.

Overall, it was an extremely encouraging week serving and focusing on missions and all that God is doing. Throughout Jason’s message on Saturday night and Chris Sarver’s message on Sunday we were charged to support missions and be willing to serve the church and our Christian Body around the world. There is really nothing I can add to what we heard other than to encourage all of you to experience the joy, excitement, and growth that come from getting involved in our call to missions. To quote Spurgeon once again, “Forward! In God’s name, FORWARD!”

In Him,

Adam

Jim Spiegel’s New Book on Atheism Now Available at New Life

New Life member, teacher and former elder Jim Spiegel has written another book. It’s called, The Making of an Atheist: How Immorality Leads to Unbelief, and it was released this week by Moody Publishers. In the book, Jim shows that “unbelief is a psychological projection, a cognitive disorder arising from willful resistance to the evidence for God.”

Jim, who is professor of philosophy at Taylor University, is a clear, engaging and thoughtful writer, and we are rejoicing with him in this most recent achievement. He has also written the following titles: Gum, Geckos and God; How to be Good in a World Gone Bad; and The Benefits of Providence.

Check out our book table and pick up Jim’s new book.

Join the New Life Google Groups

Are you looking for opportunities to get to know your New Life family better? Do you have activities and events you would like to invite your friends from New Life to? Join the New Life Google Groups! This internet group is made to connect people in a community together. Anyone can join, and anyone can suggest an activity. You can inform the New Life community that your band is playing at The Living Room or invite people to a birthday party or a movie night. To join, send Jessy Delaplane an e-mail (jdelaplane@newlife-pc.org) and she’ll send you the invite.

New Life Offers a New Testament Greek Class

Pastor Brian will be offering another free class on New Testament Greek that will meet on Tuesday mornings from 9 to 11:30am. The textbook will be Machen/McCartney’s “New Testament Greek for Beginners” (second edition). If you are interested or have any questions, please contact Pastor Brian at BJAllred@newlife-pc.org.

A Global Calling New Life Missions Conference: Feb. 10-13

“Can you just explain to me why this is important?” “Well, it’s part of our calling as Christians and as a church.” “Yes, I understand that, but there’s so much work to be done right here.”  “Oh don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that this should be the first or only priority of the church. I’m just saying that our church should place a high value on missions, sending teams and individuals on short- and long-term trips and supporting missionaries around the world.” “Yes, I understand that, but I don’t agree!”

It may surprise you to know that this type of conversation is rather common for churches like ours in a rural area and closely connected with their community. Perhaps even worse, this conversation might not surprise you at all. In fact, you might even agree with it.

Right now you may be getting defensive, or you may be thinking to yourself “Preach it, brother!” Regardless of how the concept of foreign missions causes you to react, we as Christians must come to terms with these facts: 1) recent statistics show that the Christian church in United States is stagnant and starting to decline, 2) the Christian church in United States is losing an average of 3,000 churches a year, and 3) the Christian church in other countries is becoming so vibrant that they are starting to send church planters and missionaries to the United States to evangelize and to start revival.

The Francis A. Schaeffer Institute conducted a survey where they studied the growth of forty-four churches over the course of fifteen years; and while many factors influenced the churches’ growth and failures, all the churches in the top 40% were heavily missions minded.

With this in mind, I would like to strongly encourage you, brothers and sisters, to come to New Life’s second annual missions conference, February 10–13. During the conference we will have the immense privilege of getting to hear from the Pfeils, a missionary family we support working in Japan. We will hear from some of the Campus Crusade staff from New Life about their experiences with (and the importance of) missions, and we will get to enjoy foods and displays from various countries and missionaries.

There will also be a special program for the children where they will get to experience what it is like to travel to other countries and learn about what God is doing there as well as play games and activities related to that culture. It will be a really fun and exciting time of celebrating the universality of the gospel and the God we worship, as well as fellowship with our congregation and brothers and sisters serving Christ from all around the world.

It is important for us to realize that while we have a duty and a calling to our people and our communities, we also have an international calling and role as the bride of Christ. Kingdom work is a global calling not just an individual role.

In Him,

Adam Delaplane

Why Would Anyone Want to Pray?

It’s time consuming, it’s boring, it’s hard to know how to do it, and it really doesn’t seem to matter all that much.   These are just a few of the more common attitudes amongst Christians concerning prayer. The truth is, all of these grumblings are for the most part warranted depending on how a person understands what prayer is. If prayer is understood as merely folding your hands, bowing your head, using impressive words, all to do nothing more than to get God to do something, I’d say it would definitely make sense for that person to think of prayer in this way.

But…if prayer is understood to be the way we personally communicate with the Creator of the Universe in a way that expresses our trust in and dependence on Him, prayer begins to mean something different. When prayer is seen as a gift from the Lord, an undeserved gift of grace, prayer begins to become not so boring. When prayer is seen as something Jesus died for, the “how to” of prayer becomes something a person pursues, instead of an excuse. If prayer is understood as being possible only by the blood of Jesus being shed on the cross removing from us the holy and just wrath of a holy and just God, prayer begins to seem a whole lot less time consuming. When prayer is understood as a gift God has given us because
He wants us to be involved
in what He is doing for His eternal kingdom, prayer more than matters — it becomes crucially important.

God desires and demands that we pray. Jesus told us to pray privately, and instructed us to pray together. There is no “I” or “me” in the Lord’s prayer, but “us” and “we” are found throughout. Praying together, as a Church body, increases each individual’s faith and increases the effectiveness of our prayers. Believers find strength in praying together.

New Life, let us pray. Let us do so privately in our homes and together on Sunday mornings and outside Sunday mornings, because indeed,

prayer is not a burdensome tool, it is a desirable gift.

Every first Sunday of the month we are holding a prayer service at the church. We do not want any hindrance to prevent people from attending the prayer meeting. For those who have children, we know how difficult finding a babysitter can be, so we will begin to offer childcare on the nights of the prayer meetings. Our next meeting will be a week from today, the 6th of December. Please join us as we come before the throne of grace and speak with our loving Heavenly Father. New Life, are we dependent on ourselves or on God? Nothing acknowledges and speaks more clearly or profoundly a dependence on Him and not on ourselves, than prayer. Let us pray.

Sermon Series: the Book of Philippians

When I first arrived at New Life back in 2004, I began to preach through the book of Genesis. After reaching chapter 21, we decided to switch gears and move to a New Testament book. By God’s grace, we were then able to begin and complete a study of all 28 chapters of the book of Acts. From there, we moved to the book of John, and spent many months going through the 21 chapters of that Gospel.

Since the completion of the series on John in February of this year, we have been spending time in a number of topical sermon series, including apologetics, the fruit of the Spirit, our annual Q&A series, and the church. So, I think it’s high time we get back into a study of a book of the Bible. Since we have not given any extended attention to any of Paul’s epistles, the elders have given approval for me to begin a series on the book of Philippians. We will start in verse 1 and work our way, one passage at a time, through the entire book.

By the way, let me comment briefly on both kinds of sermons (book studies and topical studies). Book studies are good because they allow us to chew on certain passages within the context of the broader flow of an entire book; they force us to tackle passages we might not otherwise consider; and because we know that all of God’s

Word is inspired by the Spirit and therefore useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.

But topical studies are valuable too, because they allow us to get a more thorough understanding of a specific Biblical or theological topic by moving our focus beyond one Bible book to consider the teaching of the whole counsel of God on the topic in question.

Thank you for your attention to the topical series on the church. If this has sparked any interest in you for further study, I would highly recommend that you visit our Book Table in the foyer and pick up a copy of Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion.

I encourage you to be reading through this book on your own so that together we can sit at the feet of Jesus and be encouraged by His Word.

My love to you
In Christ,
Bob

Youth Update: A Call to Prayer

“These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.”  This verse from Isaiah 29 is aclear depiction of a danger that many people fall victim to, the danger of a false assurance of salvation. It is possible to attend church, understand the Gospel, and read the Bible but still fail to have a heart truly regenerated by Christ. This danger can be especially acute for youth growing up in the church.

At New Life we are committed to providing a strong Christian education for our children. We have Sunday School classes, Children’s Worship, AWANA, and Youth Group.

However, as important as all of these programs are it is still possible for our children to grow up in our church and develop a false assurance of salvation. One of the ways we are trying to combat this is by teaching our youth to ask questions and not just memorize answers. It is true of both youth and adults if we are asking the questions we are 75% more likely to pay attention to the answer. The Youth Group is currently working through three books that encourage the kids to take ownership of their relationship with God.

The Girls’ Bible Study is discussing a book called Lies Young Women Believe and the Truth that Sets them Free. This book discusses the nature of lies and various lies propagated by our culture about God, Satan, relationships, and faith. The purpose of the book is to attack the lies young women are confronted with but also cause them to ask questions about their faith and identity as a follower of God.

The Guys’ Bible Study is discussing a book called Growing up Christian. This book is designed to help youth recognize the many blessings and dangers of growing up in the church. It encourages the youth to produce godly fruit as a result of their salvation rather than the source of it.

Sunday nights at Youth Group meetings we are discussing a third book called Awesome on the Inside. This book teaches the importance of having a heart consumed by Christ. It encourages spiritualdisciplines like prayer, devotions, and witnessing but stresses the importance of these things coming from your heart rather than your background.

Charles Spurgeon asked the youth of his congregation this question “Is your soul resting on the Gospel or have years of tears, prayers, and sermons been wasted on your barren heart?” That may sound a bit harsh, but he was making a charge not only to the youth of his church but also his congregation. Our youth have the responsibility of responding to the “years of tears, prayers, and sermons” afforded them by their Christian upbringing, but this also assumes that tears, prayers, and sermons are being offered up for our youth.

On behalf of the youth at New Life I urgently seek that you would be daily lifting up our children to God in prayer. Pray for our Sunday School and Children’s Worship, pray for AWANA, and pray for our Youth Ministry. Pray that God would be working in the hearts of our children and drawing them to Himself. Pray that our youth would be filled with questions about God and how to truly take ownership of their faith. Pray that they would be drawn into the Word for answers and direction.

It is only through God’s grace and effectual calling that these children will develop a true assurance of salvation; please partner with us in this by offering up your prayers on their behalf.

In Him,

Adam