 Who
and Why
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Our Home Church
Updated April 2, 2006
See Our Hurricane Katrina Update
Sid Galloway, B.S., M.Div., N.W.J. (Nothing Without
Jesus)
Forever working on God's Ph.D. (Doctor of Phatherhood)
Absentminded Professor - Church planter -
"Sheepdog"
www.soulcare.org
sid@soulcare.org
If our Father can
use us,
He can surely use you . . .
soli deo gloria - for God's glory only
"...[We] bow [our]
knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
from whom the whole
family in heaven and
earth is named."
Ephesians 3:14-15
A Personal Update:
 - After 20 years serving as a biblical family counselor and then planting
and pastoring "Family Bible Church" for five years, increasing medical insurance needs in
our family (please see
our "Soulcare Update"
page), forced the church to make the decision to merge with another
local church. The five years of life in "Family Bible Church"
were the most wonderful, difficult, and educational we have yet to
experience.
- We merged churches with a long-time
pastoral friend, Dr. Don Denton, Northside Baptist Church. A year or
so later, Don retired and I helped out for a year or so by preaching every
few Sunday's, and serving on the search committee until they found a new
pastor.
- At that time, a new opportunity arose to
help another local church, "Sovereign Grace Fellowship", where two old friends
were seeking to serve, heal and rebuild their fellowship. (http://www.sgfellowship.org)
.
- Due to Hurricane Katrina destroying much of
our city, Slidell, and our own home, my family has moved closer to where five of my children attend school and where I also teach
Biology ("Biblical Bio-Logic"), at Northlake Christian School -
http://www.northlakechristian.org ) in Covington, LA.
___________________________________________________
- Now (2006), we have joined the fellowship of Northshore Bible Church in Covington, pastored by Jerry Hobren, a long time
trusted friend who is committed to the inerrancy and sufficiency of
Scripture.
(http://www.northshorebible.com/about.html)
___________________________________________________
 The Lord did wonderful things, among
the families in Family Bible Church in spite of us, through the
simple ministry of His Word (preaching, teaching, and discipleship-counseling). From the very beginning, our new church
chose to take
no money from our denomination's resources, even though the local Association
graciously offered help. This decision was made, because of our plan
to build a small church family that was committed to reclaiming the neglected doctrines
of the sufficiency of God's Word for counseling (2 Tim 3-4), as well
as the practice of loving accountability and church discipline
(Mat 18:15-20). As was expected, the church grew in maturity
among our member families, but not significantly in size. We grew
numerically until it was necessary to rent space in a Christian school, then
financial difficulties, a number of pastoral families moving out of town,
and others to more traditional churches led us back to the intimacy of
house-churching.
Psalm 68:4-6 God desires to be a Father to the fatherless, through you and me.
** The following news about "Church Planting
Movements" overseas is exciting for us,
especially because it matches our own missionary prayers for hurting
families here in America!
We understand there are many different sizes, forms, and expressions for
"local" church families each of which can function for our Father's glory, to different degrees. We pray for them all, yet for us, we are
more and more convicted and committed to serve as a reminder to all of our sister churches that
our Father's "family" relationships are the purpose and plan for
His church - rather than buildings, budgets, and bodies. The purpose of the local church is to serve as a support network to help you
socialize your own nuclear family into the image and character of God. It is your
extended spiritual
family, designed by our Father to help you ©
L.E.A.D. your children to maturity for God's glory.
Most
folks in the modern, affluent American culture of absolute tolerance and
psychotherapeutic salvation are not yet ready to turn back to our Father's
biblical basics. Even so, we continue to pray and contribute our small
part, as the LORD works to ©
L.E.A.D. His churches to become better and better
witnesses to the World.
It's amazing how our Father's simple, New Testament model for church is spreading
world-wide, even though it is still too foreign for most folks with the
modern
American mindset. God's Bible-led, family-together, bi-vocational leadership,
homes-based model is now officially
called the CPM or Church Planting Movement by foreign mission organizations. It's spreading
exponentially to the glory of our Father. Across the world where people do not have the affluence or
political position to build Christian Country Clubs, God's age-old, time-tested CPM's are multiplying
into thousands of churches from house to house across Asia, Africa, etc. They
emphasize intimate family relationships, instead of physical buildings and entertainment, since relationships are basically
all they have. Please don't misunderstand. I'm not saying that
buildings are inherently bad, since they can be used as wonderful
tools. But they do tend to become the tail that wags the dog among most
churches here in America.
You can read more about the people, purposes, problems, plans, and practices of CPM's
at the following website: http://www.imb.org/CPM/default.htm
What about the short falls of Family Bible Church?
Two of the ten main characteristics of CPM's never functioned as they could
or should have in our church. They were prayer and evangelism. Possibly our evangelism
was not bearing the fruit it could have, because our
prayer effort was too little and too weak. However, we realize that another reason why
FBC did not grow numerically and then multiply into other intimate church families
as we had hoped is because Americans are so unnecessarily focused on buildings and therefore resistant to the CPM here in the West.
Even so, it is possible that a time is coming
when ©
Providential Pressures
could cause a shift in the minds of many more American believers, away
from an obsession on size, physical structures, and entertainment, toward God's priority of spiritual intimacy and
maturity. Persecution, tax law changes, severe economic collapse, natural or terrorists disasters
could and likely will make America ripe and ready for the necessity of the CPM,
New Testament, time-tested model. Until then,
there are plenty of people in our community right now, who are in desperate need of our Father's
family resources, who see the hypocrisy and inconsistencies of many modern Christian Country
Clubs, and
are therefore open to the simple family model of our Heavenly Father. So
brothers and sisters, please lets get on our
knees, pray for these lost and lonely orphans, and go out and find them for
our Father's glory :-)
____________
Thank you, to all of you who continue to pray
for our various ministries.
Acts 14:23
"So when they had appointed elders in every church,
and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed."
When God's "best" is done well (His Priorities),
but there's no time left for some "good"
things,
we've still succeeded!
When a lot of "good"
things are done well,
but there's no time left for God's "best",
we've failed!
The
Best = Personal
relationships with God, home & church family,
disciplined
discipleship, relational evangelism, etc..
The Good = Programs, activities, entertainment, buildings,
etc.
How
Can a Church
Improve Its Biblical Efforts to
L.E.A.D.
others to maturity in Christ?The
answer is "Family-Discipleship",
sensitively socializing one another into Christ's image,
for God's glory,
so that the Great Commission (Mat 28:18-20)
will not be hindered.
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©
L.E.A.D.
to Restoration & Maturity in Christ (Mat
18:15-20; 28:18-20)
- L
oving
(Mat 22:36-40; Joh 13:34-35; Rom 13:8-10; 1 Co
12-14; Gal 5:14; 1 Jo 3-4)
- E
quipping
(Rom 1:12; 1 Th 3:1-2; 5:14; 2 Ti
3:15-17) Teach, Convict, Correct, Train
-
A
ccountability
(2 Tim 2:1-4; Titus 2:3-5) Man to man,
Woman to Woman
-
D
iscipline
(Mat 18:15-20; 1 Co 5:9-13) One to One, Two
or More, Church, Public
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These are the ingredients of
true discipleship, the personal ministry of the Word adapted to
the unique needs of each individual and family. This is the full
scope of biblical counseling.
George Washington's thoughts
-
regarding Baptists and religious freedom:
"While the Baptists have always
defended the principles of religious liberty, they have never violated
them. They have had but one opportunity of forming a system of civil
government, and they so formed it as to create an era in the history of
civilization. In the Little Baptist State of Rhode Island was the
experiment first attempted of leaving religion wholly to herself, unprotected
and unsustained by the civil [government] arm. The principles which were here first
planted have taken root in other lands, and have borne abundant
fruit." [The History of Our United States, p. 77.
Abeka Books, 1990]
The central need of our day is for genuinely intimate, family
relationships. We believe
that God the Father is calling His children to return to His simple, family design for ministry,
both at home and gathered as His church. Our desire is to reach
the unreached. There is a need for 100's of new, small church
families in our area, where believers can know and serve one another
well. When this is the character of a church, then others are
drawn to be a part of our Father's family. (Psa 68:4-6)
Essential to the beauty & function of His design are the
hypotasso principles embodied in His Son, our Lord Jesus
the Messiah (i.e., humble submission
to God-ordained authorities: government, elders, husbands, parents,
etc., -- 1 Peter; Pro 30:2-6 ).
"New
Testament" Distinctive
Family Bible Church was established with the desire to serve
as a complement to other area churches. Our hope is not to grow
into one large church, but to spread these principles into many
other new as well as existing churches. One of our distinctive
is an effort to balance both public preaching as well
as the private ministry of God's sufficient Word. The
personal, practical application of God's counsel for real life
(i.e., personal evangelism and discipleship)
is too often neglected in many modern churches.
Husbands, wives, and parents not only need to know what,
but also how to successfully accomplish the roles and
responsibilities assigned in Scripture. And most of all, as the
family of our Father we must hold one another accountable to get
it done --- soli deo gloria. We emphasize intimate, knowledgeable koinonia,
and family-together worship.
Simplicity
- Reflecting God's image through providential
trials, biblical discipleship/counseling, and church accountability/discipline.
Jam 1:2-8; Mat
18:15-17; 1 Co 5:9-13
- Whole families worshiping & studying
together (parents modeling for little ones): especially
fathers leading at home &church.
Exo 12:26; 13:8,14; Philemon 2
- Each husband learning how to minister
the Spirit & Word of God to his own family, intimately
discipling his wife and each of his children (personally). 2 Ti 2:1-4
- Hospitality in homes as the hub of
ministry, more than a central building. 1 Cor 16:19
- Actively crossing racial barriers to
serve the oppressed. Jeremiah
22:16
- Each wife learning to become a helper
to her husband, a model of submission under authority,
for her children to see. Titus 2:3-5
- Parents learning to train/disciple
each of their own children as a blessing not a burden.
(No children's program or youth program is needed.) Respectful
children, joyfully submitting to parental authority.
Deu 6:4-9; 1 Ti 3:4-5
- Church elders equipping homes through
personal family discipleship and mutually sensitive accountability.
1 Ti 3:4-5; Eph 3-6
- Believers learning to walk in humble
submission to God's Spirit. Gal 5:16-24
* The Bible: One Bite at a Time
Sermon Exposition of Scripture (Gen - Rev)
*
Doctrinal Statement
Recommended book by my friend,
Wayne Mack, on how to choose a church and glorify our Father through it.
Life
in the Father's House: A
Member's Guide to the Local Church. Wayne
Mack & David Swavely,
This little book
is one of the best presentations of our Father's purpose, plan, and
practice for His family - the local church. It's written
especially for the members, not the leaders, and includes chapters on:
1. The importance of church vs. parachurch.
2. Why commit to official membership?
3. How to find and choose a good, biblical church.
4. Relating to church leadership.
5. Roles and responsibilities of men and women in church.
6. Why and how to participate in worship?
7. Using our spiritual gifts.
8. Confronting one another in love - maintaining purity for our
Father's honor.
9. Preserving unity in the Body of Christ (the family of the
Father).
10. Praying for one another.
** Plus, an appendix with a study guide and questions. |
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