I've told you in the past about my good buddy, Kary Oberbrunner. He and I pastored together for over seven years at my mother church and were workout buds three times a week for 5 1/2yrs. Well he's got another book coming out and I just saw the promo video for it and wanted to share it with you. The book is titled, "Your Secret Name" and comes out in September. It will be his fourth book. I'm so proud of my friend for using so well the gifts God has entrusted him with.
Enjoy:
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
ALL IN
This Sunday we start a new message series on membership called, "ALL IN". It's a little longer than most series (10wks.) we do at Encounter but should prove to inform our people about what we believe, what they can expect of the leadership and what the leadership can expect from them. 
Part of me could give or take even having a formalized membership process. The biggest reasons why I am leading us down this road is so that people may be shepherded better. In order to shepherd, one needs to know the sheep: in this case the sheep choosing to align themselves with the mission and vision of Encounter. The plan is to yearly have everyone inform us of whether they're still, "ALL IN" or not. We're calling it an annual covenant commitment.
The requirement for membership is that a person is a true follower of Christ - having submitted themselves to His love and authority, believing that He died for their sins, was buried,rose again and is coming back for His church. That's the only true requirement.
It makes sense that if someone is wanting to fully join themselves to this body of believers, that they will want to spend time with its people. So we will, as we have from the beginning, stress the importance of joining a small group or Bible study and serving in a ministry at Encounter. i.e. Sunday morning.
Having gone through the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke & John) recently and going through the book of Acts in a men's Bible study I attend, it is clear that our Lord's command is for His people to be baptized and to participate in communion. We do both at Encounter Church.
So we will, as we have from the beginning, stress the importance of believers baptism and communion.
Thanks for taking the time to read this pre-Sunday morning message from your pastor:-)
Hope to see you Sunday.
Part of me could give or take even having a formalized membership process. The biggest reasons why I am leading us down this road is so that people may be shepherded better. In order to shepherd, one needs to know the sheep: in this case the sheep choosing to align themselves with the mission and vision of Encounter. The plan is to yearly have everyone inform us of whether they're still, "ALL IN" or not. We're calling it an annual covenant commitment.The requirement for membership is that a person is a true follower of Christ - having submitted themselves to His love and authority, believing that He died for their sins, was buried,rose again and is coming back for His church. That's the only true requirement.
It makes sense that if someone is wanting to fully join themselves to this body of believers, that they will want to spend time with its people. So we will, as we have from the beginning, stress the importance of joining a small group or Bible study and serving in a ministry at Encounter. i.e. Sunday morning.
Having gone through the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke & John) recently and going through the book of Acts in a men's Bible study I attend, it is clear that our Lord's command is for His people to be baptized and to participate in communion. We do both at Encounter Church.
So we will, as we have from the beginning, stress the importance of believers baptism and communion.
Thanks for taking the time to read this pre-Sunday morning message from your pastor:-)
Hope to see you Sunday.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Teaching alongside my sweetheart
Yesterday was a special privilege for me. Melissa joined me in speaking to the congregation about Crazy Love: basically how a man should love a woman. I figured it would be good to have someone other than me tell men how their wife needs to be loved. Who better than the woman God has given me to love, cherish and care for. We read from Ephesians 5:21-33 about how crazy love is supernatural and expresses itself in action.
I really enjoyed preparing and presenting that message with Melissa. She is one smart lady:-)
I really enjoyed preparing and presenting that message with Melissa. She is one smart lady:-)
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Encounter Women's Brunch
This morning while I slept in, 
my sweetheart was w
orking hard 
on the last minute details of our second women's brunch. Last year they had approx. 35 in attendance and this year was close to 
double that. The speaker was Chery Boehm. She has been coaching Melissa for the last two years in light of her being a church planters wife. The ladies used the same location as last year: Bridgewater Banquet & Conf. Center, which did a great job taking care of many of the details so our ladies could connect with the large number of visitors. Melissa read some of the things women wrote on the comment cards and it sounded like they really enjoyed themselves.
my sweetheart was w
orking hard 
on the last minute details of our second women's brunch. Last year they had approx. 35 in attendance and this year was close to 
double that. The speaker was Chery Boehm. She has been coaching Melissa for the last two years in light of her being a church planters wife. The ladies used the same location as last year: Bridgewater Banquet & Conf. Center, which did a great job taking care of many of the details so our ladies could connect with the large number of visitors. Melissa read some of the things women wrote on the comment cards and it sounded like they really enjoyed themselves.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
North Central Ohio Pastors Fellowship
This morning I had the opportunity to spend some quality time with a bunch of fellow pastors. We meet once every two months in one of the church buildings. Today was up in Marion, OH. We heard updates on what's going on in a few of the guys lives. It was neat to hear from some of the other church planters that started around the same time Encounter did. There's also a handful of new plants still in the early formation stages. It's exciting to see so many people being on-mission doing Kingdom work. I also got to reconnect with Jeff, Tim, Dustin and Ed, some of my past fellow pastors from Grace Church.
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