VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS BIBLE CHURCH

Our first service....

2/23/2020

Today marks the first day that we held our autonomous service under the name of "Voice in the Wilderness Bible Church"

The Episcopal church in our town was gracious enough to allow us to use their facility and most of us were taken back with the simple beauty of the church. I really liked the stained glass windows and being a sunny day today really let the light shine through in their magnificence.

The attendance was rather small, but I wouldn't judge that as a bad sign. This is because we held our service at 2 pm rather than the accustomed 10 or 10:30 am, as we did prior and also many other churches do.

As this isn't what we could call our permanent home so to speak and is just a stop-over in our new journey, I gave a sermon based on parts of Exodus 15, 16, and 17 and the Israelites journey into the wilderness to the promised land.

I think we could all agree that the "world" at large is much like the wilderness as described in Exodus and also in Matthew where Jesus was tempted.
Its so easy to fall prey to the things of the world and not give God His due.

Many of us have done our time in the ways of the world only to find disappointment and dissatisfaction with the ways life takes you, and until we put our trust and our faith in Jesus, it will remain that way.

Part of that process is putting the "Old Way" behind us and live a new way. Jesus' way.
Remember what the people said in Exodus 16:2-3

""Exodus 16:2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness,
Exodus 16:3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” ""

The people felt some hardship in their lives and used the excuse that the "Old Times" were better. They were inclined to go back to their old ways when things got tough.

My question would be is the oppressive slavery better than what they are enduring at the present time? And were your pots really filled with meats and bread, because my assumption was that the Israelites were the bottom of the food chain when it comes to the concern of the Egyptians. I would venture a guess that the food they received from their oppressors were meager at best, and only enough to sustain a person so that they could work for them.

As with our new church, we have to realize we are in that wilderness and we have to trust that God will create a path for us to follow.
We need to roll up our sleeves and get to work, Keep our ears open so we may hear what God is telling us, keep our eyes open to see what God is showing us, and most of all trust in the Lord that He will give us what we need when we need it most and on His time , not ours.

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One Door Closes as Another Door Opens

2/6/2020

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Our ministry has been holding services as part of a mainline denominational Church ( I won't name names) and for the last couple years I had been pastoring there.

I was informed a few weeks ago that the church would be shutting down and closing the church. About a week later I was informed that February 9th 2020 would be the last service held there.

For myself and the congregation this was a hard pill to swallow and seemed to be somewhat a surreal reality.
There were a number of reasons the state leadership teams decided on this I suppose, but it seemed to me the common denominator in all this came down to a money issue among other things.

We didn't have a large number count as what I would call it on the membership role. I would say about twenty five or so but the ones that attended are an extremely dedicated in the church, in their faith, and in their role within the church, but I would have to be the first to admit that the closing of the church would be in the "business aspect" a sound business decision.

The tithing that was given weekly was more than adequate in keeping the local assembly functions on tract. What I mean by this is that we were able to keep lights on, the furnace working, telephone and internet functioning, water and other utilities operational.

Where we fell short was in the denominational mission field. We have about a dozen missionary teams out in the world spreading the gospel that our church was suppose to be responsible for, but since we couldn't meet those needs adequately, the state leadership had to pick up the tab to keep these blessed missionaries in the field.

As a pastor, I believe we have to be able to look objectively at lifes hard truths. When informed of the news I had to ask if I have myself to blame. Could I've done something different or better? Or maybe did I do something to offend Jesus so that He decided to shut the church down? I had poured my heart and soul and finances into the church so the news of the closing was quite a blow. I wondered what I would do next as my passion to preach the gospel burns pretty strong.

But even more than my personal feelings was my empathy to the congregations. Many of them were dedicated to the church since they were young and having multi-generations attend. In fact more than one family, three generations attended. Many of them, like me, had poured their heart and soul and finances into the church only to see it come crashing down. Both the congregation and myself had the feeling we were family, each standing for the other, especially in times of personal life crisis, let downs and even the triumphs and the glory in each of our lives.

I was tasked to make the closing announcement three weeks before the closing. So I offered to write each member a letter of good standing for new membership reasons to whatever or wherever each of them may be going for their spiritual care.

That was on a Sunday, then on Tuesday following, one of the elders and one of our outreach leaders held a small group recovery meeting at the church as they did each Tuesday night. I happened to go to the church that night after work to start packing my stuff from what was going to be my former pastor office. The elder came into my office and said to me "You need to hear this". After the recent events my first thought was "Good Lord, what now?"

I went out to where they were about to start the group meeting and attending that night was the lead elder of another church in town and they had been informed of our plight and offered to bring the subject up at their annual meeting at the end of February to offer us use of their church as a place to hold our services. As it turned out the lead elder of the other church called an emergency meeting at their church with the main topic of us using their facilities and it was unanimously approved with such reasonable stipulations such as our functions , whether services or small group or Bible studies or whatever, didn't interfere with their functions, we take care of our own trash and clean-up and pay them a small percentage of our weekly tithes for the use.

My heart leaped for joy and said a quick prayer telling Jesus.."When you do it, you do it big time..and you pull it together in ways that just amaze me and blow my mind..."

So last Sunday I gave a sermon calling it "When one door closes another door opens" using parts of Isaiah 43 and Revelation 3 as the main scripture points. After the service, I made the announcement to everyone and suggest they take a vote on if this is what they should want to do and how to find a new pastor to lead them.

They took a vote and overwhelmingly (100%) decided to stay together as a congregation and they took a couple more votes on top of that. One was to keep me as the senior pastor and to pay me a percentage of the tithing as a token salary. (In the three years pastoring the current church I was never paid a single cent)

About three years ago the former pastor of this church felt called to change direction in his life and resigned. As an unofficial associate pastor under him I took the lead with the understanding that the state level denomination was looking for a pastor to take over on a permanent basis, but due to the fact it would be a bi-vocational ministry, they could only sporadically have one of their denominational ordained pastors fill in once in a while. Officially within the denomination on the state level I was considered the Lay Leader

My calling wasn't so much for being here long term but rather to plant a church. So for a number of years before this and while I ministered there I was planning and setting up a church plant and for the last six months or so that pull has been very strong, but I didn't want to leave this congregation hanging until they at least found someone to lead them.

This is another thing I find just mind blowing amazing. True to the fact I believe I was called to plant a new church, Jesus has made that happened . The different facets of what it would take to pull this all together is way beyond whatever I could imagine the perfect situation to make it happen. A place to have a service, a ready made congregation with some really good outreach ideas we can now make happen due to the restrictions that were set on us prior.

So as this coming Sunday we celebrate our last service with this church and have a potluck meal catered in, each of us as part of a unified local assembly know we are cared for, but also realize we need to roll up our sleeves and get to work on a number of fronts to make this work.

Tonight I got home from work, I was emotionally drained from recent events so I laid down to take a nap. I had a dream of driving down the road in the dark and my headlights didn't light the way but also knew if I stayed on the road without crashing my destination would be reached.

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Discipleship versus Leadership

5/11/2019

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Leadership versus Discipleship

I recently read an article by [i]Dan Spader and the title of his blog was “The confusion between making disciples and developing leaders” You can click on the title to go to his blog. Or go to https://www.biblicalleadership.com/ or type in Biblical Leadership.com and do a search on the topic.
I had never really thought about it in those terms but it makes complete sense to me. By reading and attempting to do what Jesus commands the Disciples (and all of us) in Matthew 28, my frame of mind was by making disciples , I am making leaders. I want to elaborate and give my two-cents worth on this article and subject, giving full credit to the original author, Dan Spader.

Mat 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Mat 28:20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Now Using 2 Timothy 2:2 as the key point to contrast Matthew 28:19-20:

2Ti 2:2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
Here Dan is separating Discipleship from Leadership by using this verse. To paraphrase Dan’s writing, the key focus in this verse is the word “faithful” and the word “able”. What Dan is saying that FAITHFUL is representing a mature Christian and ABLE is representing a God given gift.

The question then to ask ourselves is Paul mentoring Timothy in making of disciples or is he indicating to commit those that have been given the gift of leadership. Like I stated earlier I figured at first, glance 2 Timothy 2:2 is just following Jesus’ commission spoken by Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20, but Dan’s insight of the subject gave me something to chew on for a couple weeks and think about.

It’s always amazes me that a simple four letter word “ABLE” can have such a large impact on a verse, but we see this over and over again. It’s those little tidbits of information when reading we seem to just kind of fly by the word(s) without giving them much thought.

So I think a good place to start is to look at the difference in all three versions then to look at the few words in the original Greek. Im going to throw a couple three different versions of Matthew 28. I will bold and underline the key words we are looking at.

–KJV/King James Version
Mat 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: ---KJV/King James Version
2Ti 2:2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.

---ESV/English Standard Version
Mat 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,--ESV/English Standard Version
2Ti 2:2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.

---ASV/American Standard Version
Mat 28:19 Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: ---ASV/American Standard Version
2Ti 2:2 And the things which thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.

These are three versions of the same two verses Matthew 28:19 and 2Timothy 2:2
The four words we are looking at are typed in bold and underlined

TEACH
BAPTIZING
FAITHFUL
ABLE

A little exercise for you. Take a look at Matthew 28 and 2 Timothy 2 and look for the differences in meaning as an end result. I’ll give you a hint:

KJV/ESV/ASV -Matthew 28 key words are teach or make disciples and baptize
1. Depending on your version the word teach and make disciples seem to be interchangeable
KJV/ESV/ASV-2Timothy 2- words are “faithful & ABLE(to teach)

So the first thing we should look at are the meanings of each phase and at first go with your gut feeling. Lets use some common sense now in interpreting these versus and then compare them.
In Matthew 28 the KJV, It looks to me like its more of the spirit of what Jesus is saying. Don’t let the order of the independent clauses throw you for a loop.

But the fact remains the key word here is “BAPTIZE”. This is where our common sense and prior teachings come into play.
When you baptize someone, I would ask here “where are they at in their Christian maturity?”

Sometimes in certain circles we will call members recently coming to the faith as “baby Christians” This by no means a derogatory term or do we use it as such. In fact we thank God for it, and look forward to it. It just means someone recently coming to the faith. From this point we teach them so they can become more mature in Christ. As we teach them and as they soak up the Word of God they Mature in Christ. This is where we then make disciples of them.

As Paul writes in 1st Corinthians:

1Co 3:2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

Now if we compare Matthew 28 with 2 Timothy 2. The key word(s) here are “ABLE(to teach). Again I say lets look at with common sense. I would ask “Would some one recently baptized lead a Bible Study group?” or “Would they become a pastor of a church immediately after becoming baptized?”

My common sense is telling me Pauls’ letter to Timothy is fact advising Timothy what to look for in choosing leaders, not merely disciples. My common sense also tells me one must become a disciple before becoming leaders.

There are some examples in scriptures where it isn’t indicated that certain people had to become disciples before becoming leaders, but generally it seems God had appointed them from the git go to be leaders. The first name to pop into my head would be Moses or if you want to use the New Testament, John the Baptist.

We know that English isn’t the first language used in the writing of Scripture

[ii]During the thousand years of its composition, almost the entire Old Testament was written in Hebrew. But a few chapters in the prophecies of Ezra and Daniel and one verse in Jeremiah were written in a language called Aramaic.

[iii]The New Testament, however, was written in Greek. This seems strange, since you might think it would be either Hebrew or Aramaic. However, Greek was the language of scholarship during the years of the composition of the New Testament from 50 to 100 AD.
So my take on Dan Spader’s Article, I’m going to use Strong’s Strong Concordance and look at the Greek word and meaning of each of the above Bold typed face words. This is moving out of the “milk of the Word” and getting into “the meat of the Word.”

Matthew28
TEACH(TEACHING)=
G3100---μαθητεύω---mathēteuō---math-ayt-yoo'-o
From G3101; intransitively to become a pupil; transitively to disciple, that is, enrol as scholar: - be disciple, instruct, teach.
Total KJV occurrences: 4
G3101---μαθητής---mathētēs---math-ay-tes'
From G3129; a learner, that is, pupil: - disciple.
Total KJV occurrences: 268

BAPTIZING=
G907—βαπτίζω--baptizō--bap-tid'-zo
From a derivative of G911; to make whelmed (that is, fully wet); used only (in the New Testament) of ceremonial ablution, especially (technically) of the ordinance of Christian baptism: - baptist, baptize, wash.
Total KJV occurrences: 80

BAPTIZE=
G911—βάπτω---baptō---bap'-to
A primary verb; to whelm, that is, cover wholly with a fluid; in the New Testament only in a qualified or specific sense, that is, (literally) to moisten (a part of one’s person), or (by implication) to stain (as with dye): - dip.
Total KJV occurrences: 3

2 Timothy 2:2
FAITHFUL
G4103---πιστός---pistos---pis-tos'
From G3982; objectively trustworthy; subjectively trustful: - believe (-ing, -r), faithful (-ly), sure, true.
Total KJV occurrences: 67

G3982---πείθω---peithō---pi'-tho
A primary verb; to convince (by argument, true or false); by analogy to pacify or conciliate (by other fair means); reflexively or passively to assent (to evidence or authority), to rely (by inward certainty): - agree, assure, believe, have confidence, be (wax) content, make friend, obey, persuade, trust, yield.
Total KJV occurrences: 55

(shall be)ABLE
G2425---ἱκανός---hikanos---hik-an-os'
From ἵκω hikō (ἱκάνω or ἱκνέομαι; akin to G2240; to arrive); competent (as if coming in season), that is, ample (in amount) or fit (in character): - able, + content, enough, good, great, large, long (while), many, meet, much, security, sore, sufficient, worthy.
Total KJV occurrences: 41

TEACH
G1321---διδάσκω---didaskō---did-as'-ko
A prolonged (causative) form of a primary verb δάω daō (to learn); to teach (in the same broad application): - teach.
Total KJV occurrences: 97

After using some common sense in the interpretation and then reading the Greek words and their meanings and applying them to the Scriptures listed, does this make a convincing argument for the difference in Leadership versus Discipleship?

[i] https://www.biblicalleadership.com/blogs/the-confusion-between-making-disciples-and-developing-leaders/

[ii] https://www.biblica.com/resources/bible-faqs/in-what-language-was-the-bible-first-written/

[iii] https://www.biblica.com/resources/bible-faqs/in-what-language-was-the-bible-first-written/

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Introductions

5/5/2019

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Hi All

I thought a good place to start is by introducing myself.

I'm Greg. the founder and pastor for Voice in the Wilderness Bible Church. I'm married to a beautiful wife and have four adult kids and two grandkids (The newest is 2 days old at time of this writing)

I'm ordained and licensed in the state of Minnesota. I'm also lay leader with the A.o.G. church here in Windom Mn. I'm sort of an unofficial associate pastor there and lead service every other week. I also volunteer as a Hospice Chaplain I'm also working on my Associate of Divinity degree thru C.L,I. I work full time as a custodian in our local school district. I'm sure glad there is only 24 hours in a day.

My primary calling is to start a church, hence, Voice in the Wilderness Bible Church. We started as a home style church and a real-time online church. We haven't reached that point yet, but we have experimented with a couple different avenues of approach and may end up using 2 of them concurrently.

My theological stance is somewhere between Calvinism and Arminianism (I'll save that explanation for a later discussion). So as it goes I'm from the Protestant branch of Christianity. I was baptized and confirmed a Methodist and currently pastoring an Assembly of God church, which is Pentecostal. Sort of a wide gap there , huh?

My personal belief is the Bible is the Word of God, so that's where the heart of my theological belief stands.

It seems to me that most protestant churches have very similar core doctrines. I have no issue there, but then they seem to split off from there and include their own denominational doctrines. This is what I have a problem with. My thought is there is only one truth whether one wants to believe it or not and adding to the basic core doctrines ,individually are somewhat watering down the truth and is a cause of division amonst the church universal.

1Co 11:17 Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse.
1Co 11:18 For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it.

With that being that, my mission is to bring the Word of God as it is written without any man-made traditions, ancient or otherwise attached to it.

The 2 ordinances [DOCTRINES] I do follow:

Communion (In remembrance as written in 1st Corinthians 11)
Baptism

Most are taught that Jesus gave 2 commands that fulfilled the Old Testaments 10 commandments

Mar 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
Mar 12:31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

So it would be "love God" and "love your neighbor" as the two, but I think you could throw one or two more in there from Matthew 28

Mat 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Mat 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Mat 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

So I'm going to say there are 4 commands-[see the underlined words above]

Love God
Love your neighbor
Baptizing
Teaching (x2)

I hope this introduction is good enough to see somewhat where I stand as a person and my theological views

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Our first service....

One Door Closes as Another Door Opens

Discipleship versus Leadership

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