The Church in Scripture

By popular demand from the sermon this week, here is the list I ran through about the Church found in the Bible. Hope this helps you in your search to understand the one church Christ created. Grab your Bible and go through these statements one by one. You may find it helpful to write these in the back of your Bible for a quick reference.

The Church is…

-       Built by Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:13-18)

-       Purchased by the blood of Christ (Acts 20:28)

-       Built on Jesus Christ as the only foundation (1 Corinthians 3:11)

-       Not built on Peter, Paul, or any other man (1 Corinthians 1:12-13)

-       Composed of the saved, who are added to it by the Lord who saves them (Acts 2:47)

-       The churches of Christ (Romans 16:16)

Jesus…

-       Loves the church (Ephesians 5:25)

-       Shed his blood for the church (Acts 20:28)

-       Established the church (Matthew 16:18)

-       Added saved people to the church (Acts 2:47)

-       Is the head of the church (Ephesians 1:22-23; Ephesians 5:23)

-       Will save the church (Acts 2:47; Ephesians 5:23)

The Church is to…

-       Worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24)

-       Meet on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7; Hebrews 10:25)

-       Pray (James 5:16; Acts 2:42; 1 Timothy 2:1-2; 1 Thessalonians 5:17)

-       Sing and worship (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16)

-       Eat the Lord’s supper on the first day of the week (Acts 2:42 20:7; Matthew 26:26-30; 1 Corinthians 11:20-32)

-       Give, liberally and cheerfully (1 Corinthians 16:1-2; 2 Corinthians 8:1-5; 2 Corinthians 9:6-8)

The church today…

-       Is guided by the same word (1 Peter 1:22-25; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)

-       Contends for the one faith (Jude 3; Ephesians 4:5)

-       Pleads for unity of all believers (John 17:20-21; Ephesians 4:4-6)

-       Is not a denomination (1 Corinthians 1:10-13; Ephesians 4:1-6)

-       Is faithful to Christ (Luke 6:46; Revelation 2:10; Mark 8:38)

-       Wears the name of Christ (Romans 16:16; Acts 11:26; 1 Peter 4:16)

A Letter to DCC

I’m excited to share with you some answers to prayer. We (the leadership) at Dassel Church of Christ want to follow the Lord and His direction for us in all we do. We pray and fast over decisions that need to be made because we want to hear clearly from the Lord. In that spirit we would like to share three things with you that have have decided. Please carefully prayerfully read through this letter.

By now you’re aware of our plans for Wednesday nights here at DCC. We have an awesome team of leaders to make our program here top-notch. We have poured countless hours of praying into the success of our Wednesday night ministry. There is definitely an excitement in the air as we approach our kickoff next week! We want to see Wednesday nights and our small groups throughout the week thrive! To make sure Wednesday night groups and weekly small groups have the resources and manpower they need, we have decided to not offer Sunday School at DCC this school year. I know that may be a big change for you, but we ask you to pray and understand our decision as we seek the success and maximum potential of our ministry here.

After careful evaluation, we have decided to not change our service times for the school year as we usually do. We see many benefits to keeping our ‘summer schedule’ all year long. An earlier service allows people to not ‘split’ their Sundays with their families – to come earlier to worship and have more of the day to spend with their families. An earlier service allows people to fellowship longer before and after services. An earlier service allows people wanting to check out our church an opportunity to do so without conflicts from other churches or their Sunday schedules. We think it’s an ideal time for our visitors, our church family, and our ministries. We will still have fellowship lunches every first Sunday, and they will begin at 11am rather than 12pm.

We are very excited to put forth a candidate for our pastoral position here at DCC. Some have been a little unclear about what exactly we have been looking for. You can click here to read the ad we put forth in March on our website and many church staffing websites. In short, the position is geared towards family ministry – for children, teens, and parents. We have reviewed a great number of resumes, conducted interviews, and we are now entering the time where we would like to present to you a candidate for your feedback. On September 18th, Brandt Johnson (currently pastoring in Des Moines, IA) will be visiting our church and sharing God’s Word as a candidate for the  position. You will have a chance to meet Brandt and his family in an informal setting at the Herring’s house on September 16th. Details will be in the bulletin.

Please take a moment to pray for DCC as we enter our next phase of ministry. There are so many good things happening here. God is moving through His church in powerful ways. If you have any questions, contact Dave or the elders and we will gladly sit down and clarify or discuss any of these decisions with you.

May God continually bless our ministry in Dassel.

Fall Kickoff!

Welcome back! We’ve got a lot of great stuff planned for this school year, and it all kicks off September 7th / 11th!

September 7th is the kickoff for our Wednesday night groups. We will have a FREE dinner every Wednesday at 630pm, followed by groups for all ages. Specifically, there will be 3 kids groups (Pre-K, K-3, 4-5), the youth group (6-12 with split Jr/Sr High), and 3 adult classes (Love and Respect, Practical Theology, and The Story). We will be doing a study through all of the stories of the Bible throughout the school year. It’s gonna be awesome.

The following Sunday on September 11th we will have our kickoff worship service at 930am at the park across the street! That’s right…an outdoor service followed by a picnic! We hope to see you there in the beautiful Minnesota weather. Bring a lawn chair or blanket.

With so much happening right around this time of year, it’s easy to get connected somewhere. With small groups starting up and all sorts of events happening, you really don’t have an excuse!

Any questions, contact us! See you at the kickoffs.