Among the Edlers (12/28/09)

As always, it remains a privilege for us to serve our congregation at Rockport Baptist Church. We humbly ask for your prayers and your patience with us. We are mere men, fallible, weak, prone to failure. And yet we have been called by God to serve Him by shepherding you, His people who gather as Rockport.

This week’s meeting included only three of us, Scott, Will, Bob. Kurt is visiting relatives for the holiday. We began our time by giving counsel to a brother in our church who is considering missions service. This is always a joy and we will be praying as he seeks the Lord in this regard. We then spent a considerable part of our time talking about the needs of our congregation, who needs special care at this time, who needs encouragement, etc. Paul’s words to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:28 always bear a special weight in our meetings:

"Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

As do Peter’s words in 1 Pet 5:2

Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God;

We are all too aware of our many shortcomings in this regard, and seek God for His faithful aid in making us faithful, Christlike shepherds for your good.

After considering the needs of our individual members, we then turned our attention to the needs of the body as a whole.


Prayer Week
The upcoming Prayer Week was discussed (1/3-1/10) during which time we hope to encourage our flock to set aside ample time to seek the Lord for the coming year. This year’s Prayer Week will begin on Sunday evening (1/3) with a special video presentation of a message by J Edwin Orr on The Role of Prayer in Spiritual Awakening and will culminate on the following Saturday (1/9)and Sunday evenings (1/10) with special prayer gatherings at Rockport. In between, there will be our regular home prayer meetings (C-groups) and Saturday Men’s Breakfast. Members will also be encouraged to set aside special times of prayer daily in order to seek God. Lord willing, a prayer guide for the week will be made available on Sunday. Some of the many things needing to be placed before the Lord concern faithfulness in our finances, our regular support of missions, our building needs, the need to strengthen and support our families, and our need for more clear and direct outreach in our community with the Gospel of Christ. We are grateful for the efforts that are ongoing, like the Jail Ministry, but see a real need to expand our outreach efforts.

Sunday Mornings
Time was spent evaluating our weekly gathering for worship and how we can encourage regular participation from our membership, balancing this with our need to plan well. The need for regular Scripture reading in the public service was also discussed.


Miscellaneous
Since Kurt was not present, we were not able to do much concerning our building needs, except keep the matter as an object of prayer.

Also discussed were the upcoming deacon ordination (tentatively set for Jan 24th); this year’s Camp Meeting (4/15-18); Gospel Outreach; Women’s Ministry; etc.

All was followed by a season of prayer for our congregation and the ministry of Christ through this church.

Respectfully submitted

Scott Lee; Will Jackson; Bob Schembre