I hope you were as blessed as I was by Pastor Rick’s sermon
series on the church the past two weeks.
If you haven’t heard these messages, please take the time to listen
here.
Let me echo something Pastor Rick mentioned on Sunday. As your elders, we ask that you devote
yourself to the gathering of the saints for both
hours each Sunday morning. This is
the only time during the week that our local body is gathered together for the
teaching of the Word. It is our
desire that everyone in the body would make attending Sunday School a
priority. We have never intended
for Sunday School to be something “extra-curricular”. Much thought goes into what we teach there, and each
particular series is taught because it is deemed necessary for the body.
This has never been more true than with the series Pastor
Rick is beginning this coming Sunday.
He will be teaching on the Nine Marks of a Healthy Church. In my opinion, this is the most important series we have ever done in Sunday School. I have been praying that the Lord would
impress upon everyone at Providence the importance of attending this
series.
As Rick mentioned on Sunday, our current deacons studied
this material last year. You could
say “the lightbulb came on” for them regarding why we do things the way we do
them at Providence. They urged
Rick to teach the material to the whole church, so that’s what we’re doing.
If you are accustomed to only coming to church for the
second hour to attend the worship service, please get up earlier and come to
the first service so that you can also attend Sunday School. If you are accustomed to coming to
church for the first hour worship service and then leaving, please plan to stay
for Sunday School. (You first-hour
people may be afraid that if you stay for Sunday School all the restaurants
will be filled up because it’s Easter Sunday. Put it out of your mind. It’s an urban legend.)
My prayer is that I will be preaching to a packed house during the first
hour and a ghost town during the second!
I truly believe that you will be blessed and our church will
be strengthened by this series. Please
be there!
Posted by Greg Birdwell
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