Archive for the 'Meet a local church' Category

One of my concerns for the church in North America today is that local churches are too disconnected from one another. While there are several highly visible churches, many of the people in our local churches have relatively little awareness of what is going on in modest congregations like the Red Brick Church in Stillman Valley, IL.

In the coming weeks, I have asked several pastors to introduce us to their churches.  Today I am introducing Jeremy Carr and Oxford Bible Fellowship.  It is Jeremy’s good fortune to be married to one of the loveliest young ladies on earth, our niece Michelle McWilliams Carr. 

In addition to the fact that our niece is the pastor’s wife, another exciting aspect of Oxford Bible Fellowship is that it is located adjacent to the campus of Miami.  The church has an exciting ministry with college students.

Tell us where your church is at geographically and give us your web site.

We are located in Oxford, Ohio, 30 minutes north of Cincinnati.  Our church is on the corner of the campus of Miami University.  www.obf.org

How long have you been the pastor there?

Two and a half years.

Tell us about your family.

This March, celebrating 9 years of marriage to Chris Brauns’ niece Michelle.  She’s beautiful and loyal like crazy.  We have 3 little girls: Lexys (5), Sydney (3), Quinn (1).  We don’t sleep.  We do watch a lot of princess movies.  I’m trying to talk Michelle into a dog or an SUV.

Is there a blog or web site where we can read more about you?

Well, blogged like a dying man for 3 months, then I guess I said everything I know, but here is the address: http://jeremyacarr.blogspot.com/

What is the theological or denominational heritage of your church?  Is that identity changed?

The church was started by a group of Miami professors and their wives, including Edwin Yamauchi, who is still at the church.  It started with a Brethren model of no paid pastors, but as it grew hired pastors. I’m just the third senior pastor in 40 years.  In 2001, the church joined the EFCA.   I’m pretty reformed theologically, so that has been a change in the past couple years.  Probably not as much of a change as an increased emphasis on theology and the Bible.

Are there any other pastoral staff?

We have staffed more with support staff and directors (children, youth, worship) that are mostly part-time.  But we are about to hire a Pastor of Community Life.

Briefly, what is your approach to preaching?  Do you topical series?  Book by book?

Exposition through books interspersed with series (relationships, stewardship, etc.), but typically the series focus on an exposition of a particular text.  I try to balance OT series with NT series.  In 2 1/2 years I have done Daniel, Nehemiah, Colossians, and Ephesians.  God needs to speak.  He uses me as a preacher, but he speaks through His Word by the power of the Spirit.

What is currently being preached on at your church?  Can we listen online?

"Walk Worthy" Ephesians 4-6.  You can listen by visiting www.obf.org and clicking on Messages.

What style of music do you use as a part of your worship service?

Full band with a mix of main stream songs and hymns.  Hymns are usually set to modern music.  Our criteria has more to do with content (God-centered songs) than style, although style is also important.

Why should someone who lives in your area and is looking for a church home think about visiting your church?

By God’s grace we are doing our best to faithfully teach His Word in a relevant way.  We emphasize Christ, the Gospel, and relational Christian living.  We seek to minister to every member of the family.  We long to change our community and world for Christ. 

Tell us about one memory or incident from your church in which you believe God was glorified and you and your flock experienced joy.

Being in a college town, one of my deepest joys is baptizing students who have given their lives to Christ.  Our church really responds to this, and it builds our faith.  I just baptized 4 students a few weeks ago and hearing their excitement is contagious. 

One of my concerns for the church in North America today is that local churches are too disconnected from one another. While there are several highly visible churches, many of the people in our local churches have relatively little awareness of what is going on in modest congregations like the Red Brick Church in Stillman Valley, IL.

In the coming weeks, I have asked several pastors to introduce us to their churches.

I met Matt Mitchell through the Internet.  And, I have appreciated stopping by his blog.  It is so exciting for me to read an interview like this one and know that all over our great country, there are pastors raising families and churches that are all about Christ.  Notice that Matt has been the pastor of his church for over 12 years.  Congratulations! There is a great story at the end of this post.  You can read more about it over on Matt’s blog.

Make no mistake: faithful churches like this one are the backbone of our country.

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Tell us where your church is at geographically and give us your web site. 

Lanse Evangelical Free Chuch is located in Central Pennsylvania parked along Interstate 80 about 130 miles from the Ohio border.  We’re just up over the mountain from Penn State University.  A lot of our folks work in the trucking industry.

How long have you been the pastor there?

I’ve been the pastor at LEFC since 1998 (a dozen years!).  I’m the longest serving pastor that this church has had in its 118 year history.

Tell us about your family.

My wife is Heather.  She is an amazing woman, full of wisdom and beauty.  We’ve got 4 kids: Robin (age 9.5), Andrew (age 8), Peter (age 6), and Isaac (age 5).  You read it right.  That’s 4 in 4 years!  We homeschool, live on 5 wooded acres, heat with wood, keep chickens, and play a lot.  We also love to read.

Is there a blog or web site where we can read more about you?

My blog is matt-mitchell.blogspot.com.  It’s called "Hot Orthodoxy" and it’s about loving the Lord with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength.  And there are pictures of our family up there, too.

What is the theological or denominational heritage of your church?  Is that identity changed?

We’re a part of the Evangelical Free Church of America.  Originally a merger of Swedish (like our church) and Norwegian/Danish churches in 1950, it has truly become an "all-people" association of churches.  Our mission statement is : glorifying God by multiplying healthy churches among all people.  We are gospel-centered and own the seminary called Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in the Chicago area.

Are there any other pastoral staff?

I’m it!  We’ve had some great ministry interns here over the years, but I’m the only pastor for about 130 worshipers on a Sunday (more than that call this church home).

Briefly, what is your approach to preaching?  Do you topical series?  Book by book?

I try to vary the diet of preaching, but the main course is book by book expositional preaching. 

I take breaks from that to preach topical series (even those are expositional, though!).  This last Summer we did one on Money.

I’ve got a long-term plan of preaching through the Big Story of the Old Testament.  In odd numbered years, we do the next big book that carries on the narrative.  Genesis (2003), Exodus (2005), Numbers (2007), Joshua (2009), etc.

My goal is to feed my people the solid food of the Word and watch them grow!

What is currently being preached on at your church?  Can we listen online?

We’re in the Gospel of Luke right now, have been since September.  Will be all year.  Then we’ll go to Acts.

You can read the manuscripts on my blog:  matt-mitchell.blogspot.com and we podcast the audio here:  http://www.sermoncloud.com/lanse-evangelical-free-church/

What style of music do you use as a part of your worship service?

We have a worship team that leads us in contemporary music and traditional hymns which are projected on a screen up front.  We also have a song leader who leads us in hymns from the hymnal.  We’re not that exciting–no drums!  But we do have guitars, bass, keyboard, and a number of voices in the worship choir.  We sing popular songs that are playing on Christian radio (Chris Tomlin), a lot of Sovereign Grace Music (Bob Kauflin), and almost always an older song or two.  My favorite is when we sing "voices only!"  That’s the best instrument of worship.

Why should someone who lives in your area and is looking for a church home think about visiting your church?

We are trying to follow Christ.  Our church exists to glorify God by bringing people into a love relationship with Jesus Christ through worship, instruction, fellowship, evangelism, and service.

We’re nothing too fancy, but we are real.  And we’re a loving bunch of folks–loved by Christ and learning to love others.

Tell us about one memory or incident from your church in which you believe God was glorified and you and your flock experienced joy.

I never expected to share the gospel with Craig “Tiny” Older. Tiny, a professional tattoo artist and a biker, weighed more than 500 pounds and came from a Jewish background. Needless to say, Tiny and I didn’t have much in common except that his wife attended our church.

When Tiny was in the hospital a few years ago, I went to visit. I thought it would be a quick “in-and-out” because he had never shown signs of spiritual interest. But Tiny knew that his condition was serious, and he surprised me by asking for the gospel. That began an adventurous relationship for me—making friends with and making a disciple of a Jewish biker tattoo artist.

When my friend Tiny finally died in 2006, I had the privilege of speaking at his memorial. His entire biker gang, a scary-looking bunch, showed up for the service. But our people never missed a beat. They opened their arms wide. They made our visitors a meal, sat right next to them and welcomed each one.

Standing behind Tiny’s Harley®, up front in our church, I had the opportunity to share the gospel. That was the highlight of my ministry year.

-Matt Mitchell

Monday is for meeting other churches and pastors.  One of my concerns for the church in North America today is that local churches are too disconnected from one another. While there are several highly visible churches, many of the people in our local churches have relatively little awareness of what is going on in modest congregations like the Red Brick Church in Stillman Valley, IL.

This week let me introduce you to Andrew Ford of Grand Ledge Baptist Church.  I was the senior pastor of this church for six years and Andrew joined the staff when we were there.  Our involvement in Andrew and Jill coming to GLBC is one of the things we are most thankful for when we look back on our time in Grand Ledge. 

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Tell us where your church is at geographically and give us your web site. 

Grand Ledge is in the middle of Michigan.  In between Grand Rapids and Detroit on the I96 corridor that shoots East and West across our fine State.  Our people live in the Lansing capital area, but we meet in a building in and a good chunk of our people come from Grand Ledge, MI.  Our facilities are located just south of the Grand River on Willow Highway near downtown Grand Ledge.  Our website is www.glbc.org .

How long have you been the pastor there?

I’ve been a pastor in Grand Ledge for ten years.

Tell us about your family.

I am married to Jill.  We met at Moody in chapel – well, that’s when I first saw her. We were married in 1990 and we are both thankful for the years we have had so far and we look forward to the years ahead as well.  We have three children:  Caleb – a 14 year old who plays a sweet sax and has a sweet personality, Noah – a 12 year old who’s sharp in Math, loves to read, and a good thinker, and Abby who is 9 – she’s all girl and knows how to keep up with her big brothers – she’ll make a good wife some day.

Is there a blog or web site where we can read more about you?

I blog lightly with my fellow co-pastors at Triangular Christianity. 

What is the theological or denominational heritage of your church?  Is that identity changed?

We started as a Free Will Baptist Church back before Calvinists were allowed in our town, but now even though we carry the name Baptist, we minister to a wide variety of people will various theological backgrounds.  The Pastors lean towards Reformed theology but we love all kinds of believers! 

Are there any other pastoral staff?

There are three of us: Brian, John and myself.  We share the preaching and leadership responsibilities while specializing in our own areas of ministry.  We love to work as a team and work hard at it – we think we have found the sweet spot for church leadership models, and appreciate our fellow elders and congregation’s graciousness to let us lead in this manner.

Briefly, what is your approach to preaching?  Do you topical series?  Book by book?

We primarily preach through books, but at times we preach topical series in an expository way.  Recently we have preached through Revelation, James, Exodus, Malachi, Colossians, 1 Peter, 1 John, and Matthew with a few topical series here there such as Prayer, Idols of the Heart (from Ecclesiastes), God’s Help for Relationships, Covenant Keeping, 2^nd Story Essentials (the upper room discourse) and Jesus & His Kingdom.

We each preach about 1/3^rd of the time, and find it a wonderful way to do pastoral ministry.  We each have different styles and our congregation enjoys the variety.  We discuss the direction of each book early on in the sermon calendar and often spend Monday afternoons talking about the text for the next Sunday.  It is helpful and keeps us on track together.

What is currently being preached on at your church?  Can we listen online?

We just finished Colossians!  We start a sermon series on vocation on February 7^th called:  Your Work Matters to God.

You can listen to all our sermons online at www.glbc.org .

What style of music do you use as a part of your worship service?

We aim for a blended style under the direction of our qualified and creative worship leader – Tim Vandlen.  We recognize that our body is made up of young families, senior citizens and everyone in between, therefore, we aim for the middle: keeping old solid hymns fresh and trying new songs that are sing-able and biblical.

Why should someone who lives in your area and is looking for a church home think about visiting your church?

We are all about Jesus Christ.

We preach the Word in relevant ways. 

We seek to move outward to reach our community by being the message of Jesus Christ and proclaiming Him.  We know they won’t come to us.

We have wide opportunities for people (young and old) to connect and grow to be more like Jesus Christ.

We are a true community church – seeking to make a difference in Grand Ledge and the surrounding area for Jesus Christ.

Tell us about one memory or incident from your church in which you believe God was glorified and you and your flock experienced joy.

Every week during the school year 12 of our people walk into Willow Ridge Elementary School and mentor an at-risk boy or girl.  We are involved in the Kids Hope Mentoring program, and our church has embraced it as a vital connection with our school system and an important investment of time with kids who need love and help.  We think God wants us to love little children.  We are pleased to do it for His glory. 

Andrew Ford, Grand Ledge Baptist Church