1:1 "Why did God have to give us his son when he already had prophets to tell us his messages?"

1:4 "What name did he inherit? How do you inherit a name?"

1.   "So God created the Son to rule and the angels to serve?"

...a Samaritan, as he journeyed, cam to where he was,

and when he saw him, he had compassion        Luke 10.33

Pastor Mark Blair

January 2019

The risen Lord Jesus Christ commands his followers to be baptized. Through this symbolic act the believer is identified with the Lord and His Church. Baptism is a symbol of new life in Christ, a seal of the covenant of grace, and a sign of the forgiveness of sins. Water is an outward symbol for the inward work of the Holy Spirit. Baptism is for those who have repented and believed on the Lord Jesus.

We believe everything we have in life is a gift from God. Now is the time we worship Him by giving back a portion of what He has given us to support the work of this church and share God's love with the world.

We received an email forward from friends in Hawaii about government control of the church:

Pastors in China report that they've been forced to integrate (the) President....'s words into the(ir) biblical (messages)... the Chinese Communist Party increasingly pressures church leaders to infuse their sermons with political ideology...

They asked...

Dayna and I are so sorry to hear about .... your loved one's .... homegoing. I say homegoing because as far as we can know she is with the Lord. My confidence for this, and our only hope in life and death, is in Jesus. We are not saved because of anything we do, and we do not get to heaven by our good finish! When the Bible calls us sinners that never changes until we get to heaven. Only then and there will our sin be fully and forever removed. Yet even in heaven we will be forgiven sinners. That is why we will sing, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain! " Because it is only the blood of Christ that restores our relationship with God.

    We are God's children, we have been welcomed into His family. In Jesus Christ we have been made the objects of God's abundant mercy. "For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace." (John 1:16) We were really in bad shape. It's not just that we didn't know God - we were actively suppressing all knowledge of God. It's not just that we could not keep God's Law - in our rebellion we loved to break it. We, who because of our sin were such stench in the very nostrils of God, are now Beloved children of our Heavenly Father. We are clothed in Christ's righteous garments. Since His robes are royal we are made to be a Kingdom, and Priests unto His God. Our Father receives us with the love with which He loves His Son. God is hospitable. Once we were not a people, but now we have been made the people of God.

What Evangelism is Not

1. It is not the same as filling the pews of the church.

2. It is not an occasional raid by a visiting celebrity.

3. It is not repeated, impassioned, pleas for a decision. 

4. It is not a system - a packaged formula.

The Two-fold work of Jesus Christ:

CLEANSER OF SIN - The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said "Look, the Lamb of GOD, who takes away the sin of the world." John 1:29 

BAPTIZER WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT - "The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit." John 1:33

1. Find Them

Help them find you!

Regardless of the size of your church, a minimum of 1/3 of your time should be spent focusing on developing leaders.

Talking to them after Service / Section Shepherds

Visiting Small groups

Poll your leaders "who do you see as potential leaders?"

Multi-Cultural, Inter-Generational, Leadership Team: we're all biased / limited - culture, prejudices, theology, experiences.