February 14, 2010-Bulletin.html

February 14, 2010

TO OUR VISITORS

The family of God here at Dowagiac Church of Christ wishes to extend to you a warm welcome. If you have questions about our worship services and why we do what we do, we will be glad to give you a biblical answer. The uniqueness of the church of Christ is that we are trying to restore to the best of our ability those things that we see the first century church doing. We are also working hard at building the spirit, unity, and love that Jesus taught and prayed for. We have no clergy, but are working together as equal co-workers trying to serve one another and the area in which we live. Come study with us, grow with us, and serve with us as we strive to do God’s will in all things.

FAMILY NEWS

LAST SUNDAY'S MEETINGS. A lot of good things came out of our meetings after the potluck last Sunday. We are committed to having our booth at the Cass County Fair the first week of August. Since we can save a significant amount of money by re-using the banners and display boards from last summer, we plan to have a very similar booth to last year. Please mark off August 2-7 as time to be at the fair. We will need everyone to take some of the booth work times so it does not all fall on one or two people.

We will begin recording worship services today, so that people who are teaching the children's worship and people who are ill and miss services can hear the lessons and participate in the worship. For the time being these recordings will be on cassette, because we already have the equipment. Hopefully we will be able to change to CDs in the near future, and perhaps make the recordings available on our church Web site.

The ability to serve special needs in both the community and our membership is being worked on. There is even the possibility of making up a cookbook that has special needs recipes in it. Our food pantry continues to expand and serve more and more people. We urge everyone to look out for people in need and bring their situation to the attention of the Church. The past two weeks has seen us serve a number of families with food.

TODAY'S LESSON

THREE GREAT MISUNDERSTANDINGS OF THE MODERN DAY CHURCH OF CHRIST

INTRODUCTION--We always have room to grow. The Church never "arrives", but constantly needs to strive to be closer to what God wants us to be.
#1 THAT BAPTISM IS THE ONLY MAJOR EVENT IN OUR CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.

Baptism is important--Acts 16:29-34 shows urgency.

Our study of Romans 6-8 shows its true role.

1 Corinthians 1:14-18

In verse 2 Paul refers to them as "The Church of God."
Verse 9 says they were in the fellowship of Christ
In 3:3 he says they were "yet carnal."

We are carnal if our attitudes are not tempered by belief.
We must be fruit bearers--a major event in our lives.

John 15:5-8, 16
It is not possible not to bear fruit if we are saved.

1 Corinthians 3:6-7

Everything we do--God gives the increase.

#2 THAT LEADERSHIP IS CONFINED TO MALE LEADERS

1 Timothy 3:4-5--what does it mean to "rule your house well."
Leaders function as fathers do in the home.
1 Timothy 5:1
How does a father lead in his family?

What roles do other family members have?

The Church is not made up of robots any more than a home is.

#3 THE BELIEF THAT UNITY MEANS IDENTICALNESS

1 Corinthians 1:10--Preacher worship was the issue
John 17:21--the only other time this language is used is in reference to man and woman being one in marriage.
Ephesians 4:3
Paul and John Mark--Big fight--Acts 15:37-41

2 Timothy 4:1

1 Corinthians 12--See article below.

The solution to unity problems--involvement.
Doing what God has called you to do.

2 CORINTHIANS 8:5 - WHAT HAS TO HAPPEN FIRST?

YES--BUT ...

I am sure that many of you had the same sentiments as were expressed to me in response to last Sunday's message "For Such a Time as This." That response was "Yes, we all should be called by God, but not everyone can do everything." Jim Harasewicz said it this way "Clayton, I love you as a brother, but I don't want you doing a paint job on my car." Some of you may not know that my klutziness is of legend proportions, which is what prompted that response. My wife reminds me of it every time the subject of cleaning something comes up. Some of you may wonder why you are stuck with me as the preacher a disproportionate number of times, when it is obvious that there are a number of men who can present wonderful lessons.

I want to take you back to 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. Paul is talking to Christians about being involved--the same subject that is a part of what we have been and are discussing. To get the concept across, Paul uses the human body as a model for what Church is all about. In verse 17, Pau1 points out that if the whole body was an eye, the body would be unable to hear. If the whole body was set up for sound, smell would be useless. Every time I am away and Jim preaches I hear great things about how good his lesson is. Why do we not have an excellent Harasewicz lesson every Sunday and not have to tolerate Clayton's lessons? The problem is that it takes a lot of time to prepare a good lesson, and Jim is working fulltime, taking care of David, helping Brenda, and has been using his talents to help work on our facility--like the recent paint job around the baphstry. I talked about "Murder in the Church" last Sunday and used Bill Gibson as an example, but I could just have easily used Jim. Jim cannot do everything.

Verse 24 tells us "God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it ... Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it" (NIV). There is nothing in your body that does not have a function. Even hair has a few minor uses. Some people honor hair way too much, but we all pay some attention to it. We have some excellent workers here in this congregation, and some are more visible than others. The point of last week's lesson is that we need to each search out what we can do, and allow ourselves to relieve brothers and sisters who are doing a disproportionate share of the labor here. We need people to make calls, send letters, deliver communion, pray with others, etc.--vital work that we can all be a part of.