Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We had a great turnout at our information meeting last Friday with 14 adults and 4 children in attendance. The Lord has seen fit to do more with less, and less with more, so our numbers don’t matter, but it is good to know that the Lord has other people also interested in planting a reformed baptist church in Mariposa!
I lectured for about an hour on the history and theology of Reformed Baptists, and what Mariposa Reformed Baptist Church plans to do locally. Afterwards we had a time for questions and discussion followed by cookies and coffee. I hope that everyone in attendance came away with a greater enthusiasm for our new church.
I pray that I was able to accurately express that the most important function of our church is the preaching of the Gospel.
Though the church has many “services” it can provide to its members, the community, and the world, nothing is uniquely its own except the proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ and the reconciliation he has brought to the sinner and God.
Though we will undoubtedly engage in many worthy deeds, both as a church and individually, the church will, above all, and if necessary to the exclusion of everything else, preach the Gospel. We will preach it to the unbeliever and the believer alike, to those who are far away, and to those who are near. Our Gospel is not a therapeutic gospel, or a social and political one, but the saving one of Christ and him crucified.
Dane Carlson
Five Things To Be Praying For
- Wisdom, humility, patience, and vigor for the core group
- Opportunities for evangelistic outreach
- That God would raise up elder-qualified men
- Rest in the freedom of the Gospel
- Protection from our own sinfulness, Satan’s attacks and spiritual wolves