Glory of Christ Fellowship

The Bible offers us the simplest and clearest role description of an elder in Acts 6:4 "...But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” It is so simple and so clear that it is almost foggy and somewhat hard to understand. Well, I suppose prayer is easy enough. As elders we pray because we truly believe we need to hear from God. Come 6:00 a.m. every Friday morning, that is what we are doing.  Ministry of the Word, by comparison is a little less straight forward. What does this mean? Should every elder preach? Teach? Counsel? How do we fulfill this?  Let me tell you what I take it to mean. I think it means that one of the key ways the elders serve the church by prayer and ministry of the word is to discern the will of God for the church.  Let me explain.  This past week the elders of GCF began a project to discern our next leadership move (what will we do and where do we invest our time building?). We listed off 25 legitimate areas that cou...

I know I am a little bit overweight. My doctor tells me so. The mirror that I look into affirms it and the scale (that I mostly avoid) reminds me every time I step on it. All of that makes what I am about to say so much more impressive. I had the privilege of sitting on the beaches of Florida's Atlantic coast for 8 days on our most recent family trip. For me there is something magical about the beach, especially on the Atlantic side with the waves washing up against the shoreline. We have been lucky enough to find a sleepy beach town to vacation at. A nook, if you will, that typically features retired folks or families with kids. Out of the way of those who want to party, the beach is truly a relaxing place for me.  Let me tell you something that I gleaned this time around that never quite landed on me. This last week it landed on me, almost literally. My son Ben and I are the more adventurous specimens in the Feder five. We actually get into the salty water where there are jelly f...