September 17, 2017 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

Guest Speaker We want to welcome John Cooper and his wife, Holly, to our church family this morning. John is a missionary to Russia and Guam and a co-worker with the Does God Exist? ministry. John has been with the church in Grand Junction, Colorado, for many years. John and Holly are visiting with the Claytons this week. We are discussing the future of our work together, but we are also going to show them the wonders of Michigan while they are here. It is a treat to have them with us.

Tuesday, September 26: Devotional at Claytons' 7:00 PM.

Saturday, September 30: Highway cleanup at 10:00 AM. We need everyone here to make this go quickly.

BLOOD BANK PLANS: The blood bank visit this past Saturday was a huge success. Our thanks to Tracey Brewer for planning, organizing, and supervising thus event. We had 16 successful donations, and 7 who were rejected for one reason or another. We are checking into doing this again in a few months. It brings the community into our building and serves the community. Let us know your thoughts on doing this again.

TODAY'S LESSON

FOUR PHRASES THAT CAN CHANGE OUR WORLD
John Cooper

The four phrases are:

1. I was wrong.
2. I am sorry.
3. Please forgive me.
4. What can I do to make things better?

THE BACK PAGE

TRANSACTIVE MEMORY REACTIONS

I am always surprised at the reactions I get to sermons. This past Sunday the lesson on Transactive Memory produced more reaction than usual, and I am always thankful to know people are listening and thinking. We saw in the lesson how God triggered memory devices for ancient Israel, and we discussed how the first century church of Christ provided memory support and encouragement to one another. We then discussed how we defeat God's plan, and the first point we made was that we cannot equate entertainment with worship, and that having a megachurch mentality defeats some of the purposes of congregational worship.

What triggered all of this was Gerry Bundle's sermon some time back in which he quoted an article, “Megachurches are not churches?” by Michael Frost in which Frost quotes Dr. Eugene Peterson who claims that megachurches are not churches at all. The basis of this claim is that congregations, according to the Bible, have a collective knowledge about God and the Bible, and a shared knowledge about how to serve. When one reads 1 Corinthians 12 one gets Paul's conception of what God intends for the church to be. Every individual in the biblical concept of the church has a role, and is blessed by the Holy Spirit with a gift to fulfill that role. The roles are infinite in number, and over the 20 years or so of this bulletin we have listed many roles that are needed.

How does this happen in a congregation of 12,000 people? How do you pray for one another? How do you rejoice with others at blessings and weep with others at loss? How do you know when someone is having a spiritual war and is desperately hanging on? Peterson says “I think the nature of the church is relational. If you don't know these people that you're praying with and talking with and listening to, what do you have? … I'm just upset by the fadism of the megachurch, but I just don't think they're churches.”

Frost goes on to say “I yearn for the deep, abiding intimacy that's possible between a group of neighbors who share history, values, vision and direction, and who store their best and most beautiful memories, as well as their theology and doctrine, in each other's minds for safekeeping.” Megachurches can provide many things people want. Pooling finances allows many services to be offered to the community. Being able to hire people who are talented speakers, who can entertain us and our children, and can bring special services to us is useful. We have had people leave us or refuse to be a part of us because we cannot do these things. The question is not that good cannot be done by people who work to do good in any religious group. The question is what the church means to us and how much a part of our lives the church is.

We work hard at this congregation to build transactive memory together. Much of our Bible class time is devoted to the needs of members, the struggles we are having, or that we know others are having, and the plans we as a group have for the future. A disproportionate amount of the sermons we have been having have been devoted to encouraging everyone to get involved. Our projects have all been things that everyone can do. If you could not give blood, you could work with the set up, the teardown, and the hosting of the Red Cross effort. All of us could be at the Cass County Fair. We can all get involved in the Coats for Kids project that is coming up. Most of us can sit on the hay wagon and sing to the city of Dowagiac as we participate in the Christmas parade. We still need people for the food bank, and we desperately need people to work on sending cards and checking on people who are ill or in need. We continue to make announcements about the sick and those who have lost loved ones, and special classes continue to be added that we can all participate in.

The model of the church given in the Bible is what we are following. Be a part of it! Make the church a major part of your life. Come to Bible classes at 10:00 AM and 6:00 PM on Sunday and Wednesday at 7:15 PM. Not only do we grow in knowledge, but we grow in love for each other.

— John Clayton

Our sign by the street!

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