Announcements - October 1, 2017

Worship Location Update: By the grace of God, we will be moving back to the Handke Family Center next week! While this has been a challenging time, we are grateful to the Lord and the staff at the Elk River School District, especially Colleen Sweet.

Glory of Christ Fellowship 10th Anniversary Celebration Today: We praise God for 10 years of ministry as of today! We’re grateful for His past grace and we look forward to His future faithfulness. We welcome Kenny Stokes, Joshua Whetstine, and Gerardo Tony Antivero who have come to celebrate with us today, and we thank those who have worked hard to put our Agape Meal and Silent Auction together as well. All glory to Christ!

Charles Simeon Trust Workshop October 4-6: Please be in prayer for the 35 pastors and leaders who will be gathering at Bethlehem Baptist Church’s north site to improve their skills in the interpretation and proclamation of the Bible. For more information, see simeontrust.org.

GOLD Team Meeting Saturday October 14: The “Glory of Christ on-going Leadership Development” team is meeting at the church office on October 14 from 8:00-10:00 a.m. to pray and plan for the remainder of the fall. This is an open meeting, so all are welcome to attend. For more information, contact Pastor Charlie (charlie@gcfmn.org).

Annual Men’s Retreat October 19-21: Men, we look forward to gathering again at Miracle Bible Camp near Longville, Minnesota for a time of recreation, meditation on the Word, prayer, and fellowship. This year we’re adding our first annual GCF fishing tournament, so bring your gear and prepare to be “fishers of fish” for the glory of Christ! For more information, contact Pastor Charlie (charlie@gcfmn.org) or Pastor Kevin (kevin@gcfmn.org).

Next Week's Fighter Verse

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.

God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability,

but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape,

that you may be able to endure it.

1 Corinthians 10:13

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The Secret of all Failure is our Failure in Secret Prayer

“We may be assured of this—the secret of all failure is our failure in secret prayer” (12). So writes the anonymous author of the classic little book on prayer entitled, The Kneeling Christian (Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids: 1971). He means that the reason we so often fall into sin or live in discouragement or fail to bear fruit is because we do not cling to God in Christ above all things. We do not diligently seek him or lean on him or plead with him or draw on his strength. We give ourselves to busyness over communion with God and in this way we seek to accomplish in our flesh what can only be accomplished in the power of the Spirit. Giving first place to what our dear author calls “secret prayer” is indeed a key to the Spirit-filled life but let’s be clear: prayer is not magic, rather, it’s a relationship. It’s not as if we simply have to file requests with God, being careful to use just the right words so that we can get him to respond as we wish. God is not a vending m

Deacons - How They Serve and Strengthen the Church (Part 1)

One of the next important priorities for GCF is to establish deacons in the life of the church. On March 14, 2021 we were able to establish an elder team. Currently, we have a team of four elders overseeing the congregation of GCF. However, there is more work to be done. I have come to see that establishing an elder team was the bare minimum that needed to happen for GCF to survive. I believe GCF now needs to turn our attention to raising up a team of qualified and willing deacons to serve the congregation so that it will not only survive but thrive. I would like to begin a series of blogs on deacons to help us understand who they are and what they do in the life of the church. In this blog let me provide three reasons why I think deacons should be near our top priority. Number 1: It is Biblical. Paul instructs Timothy to install elders who will help him pastor the church. For whatever reason, it seems the churches in our circles treat the installment of elders as non-negotiable

Does the Doctrine Divide? by Patience Griswold

“Oh, I try not to talk about doctrine. It’s so divisive.” This is a sentiment that I’ve heard expressed, as well as implied, on many occasions, and one that raises the question, does doctrine divide? In answering this question, we must keep in mind a very important truth and that is that everyone holds to some sort of doctrine . “Doctrine” is defined as “a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a church, political party, or other group.” Regardless of whether or not someone publicly holds to a statement of beliefs from a particular church, every Christian, by definition, holds to a particular set of beliefs. As Carl Trueman observes in his book The Creedal Imperative , [W]hile Christianity cannot be reduced to doctrine, to mere teaching, it cannot be meaningfully separated from it, either. Even the most basic claims, such as “Jesus is Lord,” carry clear doctrinal content that needs to be explicated in a world where, as we have noted before, every heretic has his text and n

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