Weekly Announcements

Weekly Announcements - May 31

Announcements – May 31, 2015

Sabbatical Prayer For Pastor Charlie: Pastor Kevin is organizing a church-wide prayer agenda for Pastor Charlie and GCF while he is away on his sabbatical. Contact Pastor Kevin if you would like to participate.

Nursery Volunteer Appreciation: We are honoring the faithful nursery volunteers who served in 2014-2015 this morning. Please enjoy coffee or juice from Panera and be sure to thank the volunteers personally (listed on the back side of this sheet) for their faithfulness to our children.

Summer Sign Up: Please be sure to sign up for some of the upcoming summer activities such as the Father/Son Quest (July 23-26) and the Student Ministries Camping Trip (August 9-12). Contact Pastor Kevin to reserve your spot on these trips. More information on family related summer activities can be found in the Family Ministries monthly newsletter (available on the table and on the GCF website).

Sermon Discussion Questions: The sermon discussion questions can be found each week on the GCF website (resources, sermons).

Thursday Morning Prayer Meeting: Please join us for an hour of prayer on Thursday mornings from 6:00-7:00 a.m. at the church office. Women should bring at least one other person with them so that we can honor the Lord by maintaining appropriate boundaries. If you are unable to stop by the church office, feel free to join in wherever you are.

Summer Picnic, June 28: Mark your calendars for Sunday, June 28. Following the worship service there will be an all-church picnic at the Ryks home. More details will be coming in mid June.

Stay Connected: All of our announcements are posted on our blog at our church website (gcfmn.org). If you would like to receive our weekly electronic newsletter please contact Traci Veek (traci@gcfmn.org).

Next Week’s Fighter Verse:

“The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes…”

Psalm 19:7-8

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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)

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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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