May 19, 2013 WELCOME! WE'RE GLAD YOU'RE HERE We are a group of believers who simply try to follow the Bible as a guide for all we do. Everything done in our worship service is something for which we have a Bible basis. You are welcome to participate as much or as little as you wish. We will sing hymns together and we will observe the Lord's Supper or Communion together. We will also have an opportunity to give to the work of God in this area. This collection is for the members here, and if you are visiting you should not feel and pressure to give. Our lesson time will be divided into two groups. The young children will go to our classroom area in the basement where they will be taught the Bible at a level they can understand. The adults will stay in the auditorium for a lesson at an adult level. We do try to serve the community, and if you have some needs that we can help you with, mention it to one of the members. Thank you for worshipping with us.

FAMILY NEWS

THANKS: Richard Hoyt has been working on the yard and doing some spraying. We appreciate his time and effort. We can always use volunteer help on yard work around the property, so if you can help, see Richard.

IDEA: Steve Wysinger has suggested we have a free car wash some Saturday to make inroads and be of service to the neighborhood and the community. If you would be willing to help in a project like this, see Steve, and let us see how many workers we can muster.

NEW SHORT CLASS ON SUNDAYS: Karl and Julie will be going to Florida to visit grandkids in June and will be gone Memorial Day Sunday. So, we are going to take a break from our Sunday morning Bible study on Acts until June 30 and study Ecclesiastes and a study of Types and Anti-types in the Bible. That will begin next Sunday. John Clayton will lead the discussion, and if you have not been coming because of winter and time problems, now would be a good time to change your habit and join us.

TODAY'S LESSON

TAKE HOLD OF A LIFE THAT IS FULL

THE BACK PAGE

TEACHING THROUGH THE SIGN

The sign in front of our building has gotten a lot of attention from the community. We have tried to select sayings that challenge people to think. The message “Atheists can't find God for the same reason that a thief can't find a policeman” stirred up a lot of comments and a variety of phone calls. Atheists claimed that they did not know what the sign meant, and that gave me a great opportunity to discuss the fact that if say you do not believe in God because you know it will necessitate a change in your life style, you are going to do anything you can to avoid looking at the evidence for God's existence. From that, several of us got into a discussion about whether an atheist can really be moral. I have an advantage there, because when I was an atheist I loudly proclaimed that I was as moral or more moral than any preacher in town. I had no way of making that statement factually, but I also know that their reason to being moral and mine were completely different. They answered to God, and I did not want to be labeled as an immoral clod because it would interfere with my relationships.

If you are wondering how people are getting in touch with us, you might notice that the website is listed on the sign, and people can pick the phone numbers up from the website. Also on the website are copies of this bulletin and links to other materials which make our plea for New Testament Christianity. A number of questions from the community about baptism have come up, and I secured a good booklet on this subject which I have distributed to a number of the members here. If you did not get one and want to read it, let me know.

The first century church got the message out by going to the temple or local synagogue and speaking publicly to those who came there. Some evangelists like Paul spoke in public venues, like Mars Hill in Acts 17:16 – 31. We are working on ways to do that sort of thing here in Dowagiac, but the sign and the website are a pubic proclamation of our message and plea for New Testament Christianity.

— John Clayton