One church two campuses
Central Christian is an East Valley mega church. Founded in 1959 as a non denomination bible believing church it has grown to over 8000 members. Cal Jernigan has been the senior pastor since 1999. The primary campus is located at University and Lindsey in Mesa. We attended the newest campus which is located 10 miles due south on Lindsey and Germann.
You can’t miss the Gilbert Campus. Its architecture is a modern southwest motif that fits beautifully into the new Gilbert look. Once on campus we followed the signs to visitor parking and were able to park near the worship center. Plenty of smiling faces and warm welcoming greeted us upon our entry into the worship and visitor centers.
The campus buildings are spaciously laid out in community style. One visitor shared that it is like a village inside of a village. This hi-tech facility even has a kiosk in the middle of the campus to check children into the various activities and the visitor’s center has its share of PCs.
The church has numerous outlets for doing and receiving ministry for everyone in the family. There is something for all ages and stages. And children of all ages are welcome in the main service. There is no reason to be bored or uninvolved at this church.
Once in the worship center big guys will quickly notice how easily you can navigate down any row without bothering the seated saints. Tom especially loved the room. The squished feeling gets old quick.
We sat near the rear of the facility in order to see what would transpire during worship. Lights were subdued and two large projection screens at the front of the church afforded close ups of the worship team. The worship comes with a strobe and haze effect. The bulletin has a Surgeon General type of message informing you that the haze fluid is water based and safe for you and the environment. We chuckled! We must be getting old. Although the worship team is polished we found the complexity of the songs difficult for us to sing; we were tempted to spectate rather than participate in the worship. However, the post-message worship did draw some of the congregation out with expressions of raised hands.
After the worship, the youthful Corey Bullock, Gilbert Campus Pastor of evangelism, took to the stage to welcome all and to tactfully direct our minds to Jesus and the gospel of salvation. He then had us greet one another, which was followed by Communion. We were served at our seats with the bread which you dipped into the common juice container. Finally, in a low key manner the offering was taken.
As time for the sermon came, a large screen, the width of the stage, was lowered. Then Cal Jernigan, senior pastor, was projected live in HD from the Mesa Campus. As we stated previously in our blogs, projecting live is surprisingly easy to adjust to. The speaker is much easier to see. Being in HD, Pastor Jernigan, appeared crisp, clear and slightly bigger than life.
We liked his style, a melding of emerging church no pulpit and with the traditional podium approach. This was accomplished by positioning Pastor Jernigan beside a small, round, elevated, hip, Starbucks-type coffee table. Here he would stand or sit during the message with notes on table accomplishing an open inviting and relaxed approach. Wow! Tom could envision himself doing this – being free of the podium safety net and going emergent.
Pastor Jernigan’s sermon this Sunday was the last in a series of nine messages under the heading of “Repulsed – Confronting the Sins of the Church.” The specific topic of this message was, “The Sin of Presumption.”
Pastor Jernigan is a gifted, easy-to-listen-to speaker. Starting with the story of the freakish death of Steve Erwin the Australian Crocodile Hunter, he brought out how little of life we do control. He followed the story with a simple definition, “presumption is when we seek to assume the place of God in our lives.” He topically demonstrated the definition from Daniel, Acts and James. All this flowed seamlessly with the sermon outline provided in the bulletin. We were moved by the sermon with our souls running the gambit from encouragement to conviction.
The service was concluded with worship and a very effective HD video mosaic that pieced together all nine sin’s definitions covered by the former sermons. This church knows how to use technology to more powerfully proclaim the truth.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
On Spiritual Holiday - Praxis
Think. Love. Live.
These are the three pillars of Praxis Church. And this three fold cord is amazingly strong.
Praxis, like the Second Mile, is a missional church networked with Acts 29. Both churches are vibrant with sound bible teaching. Praxis has more singles, while Second Mile is more geared to families; but both have all ages. Praxis also seems a little more open to the charismatic – though that is just our sense, and you would need to check with leadership to confirm.
Praxis has been around for a while and they are negotiating a permenant location. Currently they use two different churches for their meetings. Check their website for locations and time. We predict when they have their own place they will grow even more.
Worship on Sunday is vibrant and passionate. The worship band has incredible talent – even wowing our son-in-law who is a musician and is very discerning. And they impressed us as well – not only with their talent, but with their heart towards God and their ability to lead us into worship. And we worshipped with new songs, old songs and ancient songs. These young men led us from God of This City to a remix of the old Jesus People standard, I’ve Got Joy Like a River to Great is Thy Faithfulness. All in one service… and it was seamless… and fantastic.
And we were wowed by Pastor Justin Anderson sermon – both content and presentation. Pastor Justin, like the other missional pastors, doesn't use a podium. Scary! How do they do that? He preaches expositorily. The morning's text was Mark 1:14. For 45 minutes we listened attentively as Pastor Justin teased out this verse and provided ample application for today's living.
We loved the approach of looking at the verse in context. Pastor Justin took us back to verse one, reminding his hearers to take note of what these eye witnesses saw and heard. Often he stated we create our own Jesus that looks nothing like the eye witness account. So he went on to exhort that our goal is to understand what the eye witnesses say about Jesus, not necessarily what a professor might say about Jesus. Good advice! We remember from our college days the professors questioning everything like God, the Bible, and family, but never encouraging us to question them.
From verse 14 Justin talked about repentance, which he defined as changing direction when we "re wrong. Then he unpacked the idea of the Kingdom of God: It is more than fire insurance from hell or Sunday night church attendance. The Kingdom is gigantic. It covers all aspects of life, including family, work, school, community, country, the world. It covers attitudes, actions and beliefs. The cross was the turning point of all history. Pastor Justin highlighted this portion of the sermon talking about Act 17:6, 'these men who turned the world upside down.'
So after worshipping with this flock and listening to this young, animated, on-fire-for-Christ pastor, we could not help but think that this congregation was in capable hands.
The services allow children in the service – in fact they encourage parents to get their little ones for the closing song and weekly celebration of the Lord’s Supper. This congregation is heavily young adults. The church is strategically and purposefully located in Tempe – and though most of the congregation is college/ young career age, there are some young families, some teenagers and even some of the more mature crowd.
But let’s move on to the second cord or pillar.
Praxis has small groups - called missional communities. We have not visited any of them, we were invited to attend - and they are not age segregated. In fact when I asked about it they were puzzled that anyone would want to divide up by age.
And, finally, the pièce de résistance: The Learn Pillar. Praxis has Live Training courses. One can sign up for a class on Tuesday or Thursday evenings, or perhaps both. The courses are oh so appetizing: Gospel Centered preaching – with lecture, discussion and practice. Hermeneutics, Church History, Foundations of Christian Theology (using Dr. Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology), New Testament Survey: Epistles, Biblical Marriage and a “Pop-In” class on the spiritual disciplines on each night. We were not only impressed, and hungry to sample these delightful offerings, but all of our (grown) children were equally intrigued. Wow – a church that is serious about equipping their people for the work of the ministry.
Are you hungry to LOVE God passionately, to LIVE in missional community and to LEARN. Head on down to Praxis and enjoy the feast.
These are the three pillars of Praxis Church. And this three fold cord is amazingly strong.
Praxis, like the Second Mile, is a missional church networked with Acts 29. Both churches are vibrant with sound bible teaching. Praxis has more singles, while Second Mile is more geared to families; but both have all ages. Praxis also seems a little more open to the charismatic – though that is just our sense, and you would need to check with leadership to confirm.
Praxis has been around for a while and they are negotiating a permenant location. Currently they use two different churches for their meetings. Check their website for locations and time. We predict when they have their own place they will grow even more.
Worship on Sunday is vibrant and passionate. The worship band has incredible talent – even wowing our son-in-law who is a musician and is very discerning. And they impressed us as well – not only with their talent, but with their heart towards God and their ability to lead us into worship. And we worshipped with new songs, old songs and ancient songs. These young men led us from God of This City to a remix of the old Jesus People standard, I’ve Got Joy Like a River to Great is Thy Faithfulness. All in one service… and it was seamless… and fantastic.
And we were wowed by Pastor Justin Anderson sermon – both content and presentation. Pastor Justin, like the other missional pastors, doesn't use a podium. Scary! How do they do that? He preaches expositorily. The morning's text was Mark 1:14. For 45 minutes we listened attentively as Pastor Justin teased out this verse and provided ample application for today's living.
We loved the approach of looking at the verse in context. Pastor Justin took us back to verse one, reminding his hearers to take note of what these eye witnesses saw and heard. Often he stated we create our own Jesus that looks nothing like the eye witness account. So he went on to exhort that our goal is to understand what the eye witnesses say about Jesus, not necessarily what a professor might say about Jesus. Good advice! We remember from our college days the professors questioning everything like God, the Bible, and family, but never encouraging us to question them.
From verse 14 Justin talked about repentance, which he defined as changing direction when we "re wrong. Then he unpacked the idea of the Kingdom of God: It is more than fire insurance from hell or Sunday night church attendance. The Kingdom is gigantic. It covers all aspects of life, including family, work, school, community, country, the world. It covers attitudes, actions and beliefs. The cross was the turning point of all history. Pastor Justin highlighted this portion of the sermon talking about Act 17:6, 'these men who turned the world upside down.'
So after worshipping with this flock and listening to this young, animated, on-fire-for-Christ pastor, we could not help but think that this congregation was in capable hands.
The services allow children in the service – in fact they encourage parents to get their little ones for the closing song and weekly celebration of the Lord’s Supper. This congregation is heavily young adults. The church is strategically and purposefully located in Tempe – and though most of the congregation is college/ young career age, there are some young families, some teenagers and even some of the more mature crowd.
But let’s move on to the second cord or pillar.
Praxis has small groups - called missional communities. We have not visited any of them, we were invited to attend - and they are not age segregated. In fact when I asked about it they were puzzled that anyone would want to divide up by age.
And, finally, the pièce de résistance: The Learn Pillar. Praxis has Live Training courses. One can sign up for a class on Tuesday or Thursday evenings, or perhaps both. The courses are oh so appetizing: Gospel Centered preaching – with lecture, discussion and practice. Hermeneutics, Church History, Foundations of Christian Theology (using Dr. Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology), New Testament Survey: Epistles, Biblical Marriage and a “Pop-In” class on the spiritual disciplines on each night. We were not only impressed, and hungry to sample these delightful offerings, but all of our (grown) children were equally intrigued. Wow – a church that is serious about equipping their people for the work of the ministry.
Are you hungry to LOVE God passionately, to LIVE in missional community and to LEARN. Head on down to Praxis and enjoy the feast.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Spiritual Holiday - City of Grace
Thirty five years ago we attended Gospel Echoes Bible Church in northwest Phoenix which planted a church in Mesa in 1980. We then attended this fellowship from 1986 to 1995 as it changed names to Word of Grace. Work of Grace has now transformed to City of Grace under the leadership of Terry and Judith Crist. We still have a lot of friends there and so decided to visit a few weeks ago.
City of Grace meets in a large and well known facility near downtown Mesa. The spacious auditorium was only about half filled the Saturday night we visited, but the large worship band filed the auditorium with vibrant and enthusiastic music. Many talented singers and musicians on a variety of instruments were led by the outgoing worship leader, Daniel Stringer. This is classic and sophisticated charismatic music which encourages and inspires the listeners.
The congregation is very mixed – youth, families and a large number of mature saints. And it does seem to be a “city church” with a great socio-economic as well as racial mix.
The senior pastor Dr. Terry Crist has an easy to listen to style. Rather than expository teaching he is topical in his approach. He mixes plenty of scriptures that are consistent with the context with personal and practical and often humorous stories to make his point.
His message on our visit was, “Living with a Sense of Humility,” which is part of a series titled, “Live Like You are Dying.” The key passage was Micah 6:8 “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what the LORD requires of you. To do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Pastor Crist did a good job of explaining that humility is not weakness but dependency on God.
In true fashion of the modern day missional minister, he delivers his message without a pulpit. This aids in connecting with the congregation. No pulpit, Wow! How do they do it? Judging from the congregation’s size, active involvement, cross generational and cultural makeup, Pastor Crist connects. The other claim to fame for this church family is Kurt Warner, quarterback for the NFL champion, Arizona Cardinals attends the church.
Afterward we spied the Pastor and his wife mingling with the people of the congregation. One can tell that they love the people and connect well, even in such a large church.
City of Grace seems to be a great place to be able to just blend into the crowd and grow in God… and it also seems to have a lot of programs and friendly people when you want to find and connect with a community.
City of Grace meets in a large and well known facility near downtown Mesa. The spacious auditorium was only about half filled the Saturday night we visited, but the large worship band filed the auditorium with vibrant and enthusiastic music. Many talented singers and musicians on a variety of instruments were led by the outgoing worship leader, Daniel Stringer. This is classic and sophisticated charismatic music which encourages and inspires the listeners.
The congregation is very mixed – youth, families and a large number of mature saints. And it does seem to be a “city church” with a great socio-economic as well as racial mix.
The senior pastor Dr. Terry Crist has an easy to listen to style. Rather than expository teaching he is topical in his approach. He mixes plenty of scriptures that are consistent with the context with personal and practical and often humorous stories to make his point.
His message on our visit was, “Living with a Sense of Humility,” which is part of a series titled, “Live Like You are Dying.” The key passage was Micah 6:8 “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what the LORD requires of you. To do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Pastor Crist did a good job of explaining that humility is not weakness but dependency on God.
In true fashion of the modern day missional minister, he delivers his message without a pulpit. This aids in connecting with the congregation. No pulpit, Wow! How do they do it? Judging from the congregation’s size, active involvement, cross generational and cultural makeup, Pastor Crist connects. The other claim to fame for this church family is Kurt Warner, quarterback for the NFL champion, Arizona Cardinals attends the church.
Afterward we spied the Pastor and his wife mingling with the people of the congregation. One can tell that they love the people and connect well, even in such a large church.
City of Grace seems to be a great place to be able to just blend into the crowd and grow in God… and it also seems to have a lot of programs and friendly people when you want to find and connect with a community.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Spiritual Holiday - Heritage of Faith Family Church
Heritage of Faith Family Church (HFF) is a wonderfully unique church. It describes itself as a covenantal, multi-generational body of believers and a "family of families."
HHF was started on June 3rd 2007 in the living room of Dave and Valerie Monk. Although desirous to be a home church, it was hugely popular and quickly out grew the Monk's home and is now located at Greenfield Junior High, 101 S. Greenfield Rd in Gilbert. They have one Sunday service that starts at 10:30am.
Arriving at the church you quickly notice the vans and SUVs: usually a sign of families, large families. Approaching the church meeting area, the school cafeteria, you are warmly and enthusiastically welcomed by age integrated greeting teams. In addition to the adult greeters, the children and teens are not shy, but shake your hand and quickly involve you in conversation that makes you feel like you’ve met before.
Inside you will find the culture warm, casual and friendly. There is a sense of heritage here - while there were many casually dressed, there were also a few men in ties, a number of women in dresses, and children spruced up for church. No need to ask if children are welcome in this church; they are everywhere and well behaved, but not stifled. There are no nurseries or Sunday schools. That’s right! HHF encourages and expects parents to care and train their own. And this group is not nervous - babies and toddlers are in the back, making some, though surprisingly little, noise. There is patience with little ones, but also some wonderful modeling from the other more experienced families. And we saw many teens and other adults willing to step in and help those families with small children.
After the church service the motif of the area quickly morphs back into the cafeteria, just in time for you to partake of their potluck luncheon. These people love to eat, fellowship and get to know each other. Don’t be concerned if you didn’t bring a dish, they enjoy sharing from their abundance.
We liked the church's doctrinal statement, although they are not reformed. They are unabashedly charismatics who have found the balance of Paul’s exhortation of “doing all things decently and in order.” The music is upbeat, but conservative. Even the worship team was multigenerational - with teens and adults playing instruments and singing together. There were some hymns interspersed with the more modern choruses.
We also appreciated the balance they struck within the church government. They are led by a plurality of elders. The elders are primarily responsible for teaching, training, and shepherding of the congregation. New elders are recommended by the congregation and the elders and are voted in by the congregation. Preaching is mainly by the elders. They have a manifold approach in teaching style that traverses from expository to topical. Sermons run from raising godly children, to Christian courage, to studies on books of the bible such as 1 & 2 Timothy. At this time they do not have a full time pastor - but these godly, mature elders are doing a wonderful job teaching and leading the congregation.
Although this is a relatively small group of believers, they are involved in civic and faith ventures outside their church. They had sent a group to do missions work in Mexico, and had taught on supporting the Biblical view of marriage as between a man and a woman. Very healthy signs! We sensed no legalism, control, or doctrinal hobby horses but lots of empowerment, love of the scriptures, and fellowship. Although they announced from the pulpit that they are not a home school church, it seems that most people do. We met at least one single college student who attends because he likes to be around the families, and we noticed a few empty nesters as well. So if you like to be with families and people of all ages this could be a good place for you.
If we were rating this church as far as a safe and healthy place to raise a family and to participate in sharing the Heritage of Faith multigenerationally, we would give it four out of four thumbs up.
HHF was started on June 3rd 2007 in the living room of Dave and Valerie Monk. Although desirous to be a home church, it was hugely popular and quickly out grew the Monk's home and is now located at Greenfield Junior High, 101 S. Greenfield Rd in Gilbert. They have one Sunday service that starts at 10:30am.
Arriving at the church you quickly notice the vans and SUVs: usually a sign of families, large families. Approaching the church meeting area, the school cafeteria, you are warmly and enthusiastically welcomed by age integrated greeting teams. In addition to the adult greeters, the children and teens are not shy, but shake your hand and quickly involve you in conversation that makes you feel like you’ve met before.
Inside you will find the culture warm, casual and friendly. There is a sense of heritage here - while there were many casually dressed, there were also a few men in ties, a number of women in dresses, and children spruced up for church. No need to ask if children are welcome in this church; they are everywhere and well behaved, but not stifled. There are no nurseries or Sunday schools. That’s right! HHF encourages and expects parents to care and train their own. And this group is not nervous - babies and toddlers are in the back, making some, though surprisingly little, noise. There is patience with little ones, but also some wonderful modeling from the other more experienced families. And we saw many teens and other adults willing to step in and help those families with small children.
After the church service the motif of the area quickly morphs back into the cafeteria, just in time for you to partake of their potluck luncheon. These people love to eat, fellowship and get to know each other. Don’t be concerned if you didn’t bring a dish, they enjoy sharing from their abundance.
We liked the church's doctrinal statement, although they are not reformed. They are unabashedly charismatics who have found the balance of Paul’s exhortation of “doing all things decently and in order.” The music is upbeat, but conservative. Even the worship team was multigenerational - with teens and adults playing instruments and singing together. There were some hymns interspersed with the more modern choruses.
We also appreciated the balance they struck within the church government. They are led by a plurality of elders. The elders are primarily responsible for teaching, training, and shepherding of the congregation. New elders are recommended by the congregation and the elders and are voted in by the congregation. Preaching is mainly by the elders. They have a manifold approach in teaching style that traverses from expository to topical. Sermons run from raising godly children, to Christian courage, to studies on books of the bible such as 1 & 2 Timothy. At this time they do not have a full time pastor - but these godly, mature elders are doing a wonderful job teaching and leading the congregation.
Although this is a relatively small group of believers, they are involved in civic and faith ventures outside their church. They had sent a group to do missions work in Mexico, and had taught on supporting the Biblical view of marriage as between a man and a woman. Very healthy signs! We sensed no legalism, control, or doctrinal hobby horses but lots of empowerment, love of the scriptures, and fellowship. Although they announced from the pulpit that they are not a home school church, it seems that most people do. We met at least one single college student who attends because he likes to be around the families, and we noticed a few empty nesters as well. So if you like to be with families and people of all ages this could be a good place for you.
If we were rating this church as far as a safe and healthy place to raise a family and to participate in sharing the Heritage of Faith multigenerationally, we would give it four out of four thumbs up.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Spiritual Holiday - East Valley Bible Church
Wow! We never would have thought that less than a mile from our home as the eagle flies is a bible teacher of the caliber of Tom Schrader.
East Valley Bible Church has been around since the mid 90’s. Its campus is situated on a 22 acre footprint. This large church has multiple Sunday services held in two different buildings. A couple of amenities there immediately caught our attention: The book store and adjoining free Wi-Fi coffee shop. We split a delicious nine grain chicken salad sandwich after our first church experience at EVBC. The only drawback on the coffee shop is its hours. It is closed Friday and Saturday. Dang! So Tom continues his early Friday morning Bruegger's walk and devotionals.
EVBC services have two venues. The Chapel provides a contemporary polished worship team with songs that we found somewhat difficult to sing, thereby tempting us to sit back and be entertained. Others in the congregation appeared to drift into the same temptation. In the Chapel you see and hear Tom Schrader live. Children are welcome in any of the services, but the Conference Center was the venue of choice for most parents.
The Unplugged worship found in the Conference Center (CC) provided upbeat, contemporary, and easy to sing uplifting choruses. Most of the congregation seemed to be actively involved in the worship.
The CC has Tom Schrader projected from the Chapel. What we thought would be a drawback actually is a plus. So rather than see an 8 inch high guy from the back of the chapel, Tom is colossus on the three big screens easily viewed anywhere and from behind anyone in that CC.
Whether you choose the Chapel or the CC, there are warm friendly people to greet and hand you a program as you near the doors. And if you are early enough, there is free coffee.
A couple of other items that stood out: NO offerings were taken. Now that takes faith! They did mention the offering receptacles at the front and rear of the facilities. Also communion is celebrated every week. It is always good to “remember.”
The other item, though a bit intangible is perceptible to one’s spirit within the very ethos of EVBC. It resonates through the sermons, people, and verity of clergy lead ministries: “liberty.” Tom alluded to it when unpacking 1 Sam 8:10-18 and noting how centralization can be destructive to the human spirit. He further developed the thought when attributing America’s greatness to “its system”. He stated that this system encourages individual freedom, entrepreneurism and puts fewer restrictions on the individual. And this is not only true with government, but also with all organizations. It was brought home to our weary spirits when he stated, “Take something as simple as EVBC. The more we centralize it the more we kill your spirit’s potentially for ministry.” EVBC is a place that not only believes in grace but practices it by empowering the saints for the work of the ministry.
Now we come to the main course. Personality wise and looks, Tom Schrader reminds us of a cross between our good friend Mark Lassiter and Frances Schaffer, minus the knickers. He is a smart, loquacious guy’s guy.
Tom’s title is Pastor of Teaching which appropriately acknowledges this man’s gifting. He is reformed, expository in teaching style and has no apparent doctrinal hobby horses. Praise the Lord! In addition he does not narrowly focus the gospel, but sees it from a kingdom prospective where God plants and uses his saints in their capacity from housewife, to businessman to statesman. In this scenario the church can speak to the conscience of government, business, education and family.
The three sermons we’ve now heard demonstrate Schrader’s amazing ability to layer the scriptures. These are the types of sermons you can listen to over again, and discover something new each time. His expository approach gets you immediately into the history, the players, the thinking, the desires and the specifics of what God was saying in that day. When appropriate, principles are drawn from the text and teased out and presented in gems to live by. The sermons are full of Tom’s earthy humor, conviction and faith. In three different sermons we heard more practical advice on raising children than might be heard in a decade from other pulpits.
Definitely this church will be among the top contenders vying for our association at the end of our spiritual holiday.
East Valley Bible Church has been around since the mid 90’s. Its campus is situated on a 22 acre footprint. This large church has multiple Sunday services held in two different buildings. A couple of amenities there immediately caught our attention: The book store and adjoining free Wi-Fi coffee shop. We split a delicious nine grain chicken salad sandwich after our first church experience at EVBC. The only drawback on the coffee shop is its hours. It is closed Friday and Saturday. Dang! So Tom continues his early Friday morning Bruegger's walk and devotionals.
EVBC services have two venues. The Chapel provides a contemporary polished worship team with songs that we found somewhat difficult to sing, thereby tempting us to sit back and be entertained. Others in the congregation appeared to drift into the same temptation. In the Chapel you see and hear Tom Schrader live. Children are welcome in any of the services, but the Conference Center was the venue of choice for most parents.
The Unplugged worship found in the Conference Center (CC) provided upbeat, contemporary, and easy to sing uplifting choruses. Most of the congregation seemed to be actively involved in the worship.
The CC has Tom Schrader projected from the Chapel. What we thought would be a drawback actually is a plus. So rather than see an 8 inch high guy from the back of the chapel, Tom is colossus on the three big screens easily viewed anywhere and from behind anyone in that CC.
Whether you choose the Chapel or the CC, there are warm friendly people to greet and hand you a program as you near the doors. And if you are early enough, there is free coffee.
A couple of other items that stood out: NO offerings were taken. Now that takes faith! They did mention the offering receptacles at the front and rear of the facilities. Also communion is celebrated every week. It is always good to “remember.”
The other item, though a bit intangible is perceptible to one’s spirit within the very ethos of EVBC. It resonates through the sermons, people, and verity of clergy lead ministries: “liberty.” Tom alluded to it when unpacking 1 Sam 8:10-18 and noting how centralization can be destructive to the human spirit. He further developed the thought when attributing America’s greatness to “its system”. He stated that this system encourages individual freedom, entrepreneurism and puts fewer restrictions on the individual. And this is not only true with government, but also with all organizations. It was brought home to our weary spirits when he stated, “Take something as simple as EVBC. The more we centralize it the more we kill your spirit’s potentially for ministry.” EVBC is a place that not only believes in grace but practices it by empowering the saints for the work of the ministry.
Now we come to the main course. Personality wise and looks, Tom Schrader reminds us of a cross between our good friend Mark Lassiter and Frances Schaffer, minus the knickers. He is a smart, loquacious guy’s guy.
Tom’s title is Pastor of Teaching which appropriately acknowledges this man’s gifting. He is reformed, expository in teaching style and has no apparent doctrinal hobby horses. Praise the Lord! In addition he does not narrowly focus the gospel, but sees it from a kingdom prospective where God plants and uses his saints in their capacity from housewife, to businessman to statesman. In this scenario the church can speak to the conscience of government, business, education and family.
The three sermons we’ve now heard demonstrate Schrader’s amazing ability to layer the scriptures. These are the types of sermons you can listen to over again, and discover something new each time. His expository approach gets you immediately into the history, the players, the thinking, the desires and the specifics of what God was saying in that day. When appropriate, principles are drawn from the text and teased out and presented in gems to live by. The sermons are full of Tom’s earthy humor, conviction and faith. In three different sermons we heard more practical advice on raising children than might be heard in a decade from other pulpits.
Definitely this church will be among the top contenders vying for our association at the end of our spiritual holiday.
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