| Author | Message | ||
| Tony Russo |
All of you know that this text is found in Acts 16:9. We are a small group (45) of former Adventists in Grants Pass, Oregon. We celebrated our first year as a fully organized non-denominational church this past June. Our common denominator is the everlasting gospel. Praise God that all of us have finally shaken off the last of any Adventist mentality among us! "You shall know the truth and the TRUTH and the TRUTH will set you free!" We are in our 21st discussion on the book of Acts. The one question we keep asking ourselves is, "What is a NT church?" We are learning and growing in Christ. Just recently the entire church voted that we should also include services on Sunday for the community. I know this sound like heresy to some but the point is, why can't we all share together in the only message that takes us to the kingdom of God? We have pooled our resources together and we will be getting our permit to break ground and start building a new 200 member capacity church! Our group has encountered a good number of other Christians who would like to attend a smaller church on Sundays. So if some have a question as to why we would meet on Sunday, I would simply say, I pray that we could hold meetings everyday of the week! Sabbath keeping is not saving, only Jesus is saving! When my wife and I left the Adventist church we sent out tithes and offerings to other former SDA pastors who had experienced the same problem of preaching the gospel. By the way, you can read about the run in I had with the Oregon Conference in Adventist Today. Just do a search on my name to read the article. Colleen Tinker Moore wrote it. In pooling our resources to build a new church, the county told us that we have to put in a new commercial two lane road to the tune of another $30,000! In fact, we can't get our building permit until this amount is secured by a letter of credit from a bank that would guarantee that the county can pull the money out any time it wants to build the road should we hesitiate in doing so. We don't have the extra $30,000. Wish we did. Would any of you care to help us in this? We are more than willing to give a receipt for tax purposes. If you care to ask any questions about where we stand in our teachings, feel free to e-mail me or call at (541) 471-2980. Perhaps this could be the beginning of uniting together in Christ to help like small groups getting started. I am sure that my church group would be happy to make donations to further the gospel wherever it may be found. "Come over and help us!" Thank you in Christ. | ||
| Lynn W |
"What is a NT church?" One thing you might consider, send some of your leaders to visit local churches where they can learn from other churches. See what works, what can be used in your church, and most of all, make sure it lines up with scripture. Also see if there if a Pastoral Association where the Pastors from local churches meet. You can learn from other worship leaders, Youth directors, children's ed. department, etc. "you can read about...in Adventist Today." Now I'm confused about something, is Adventist Today an Adventist paper, anti-Adventist, or what? | ||
| tony russo |
Dear Lynn W. You can find my response to you by e-mail. Lord bless! | ||
| Lydell |
Tony, we attend a small but growing church here in Alabama. Any chance you can find facilities to rent for awhile to give you some time to save up money for building later? The idea being to build the church before you build the building to put the church in. | ||
| tony russo |
Thanks Lydell. Renting a building is at a premium in this small city. A pastor friend of mine has 80 members that are renting a store front to the tune of $5,000 a month. Their church can't come up with the down payment they would like to have for the building they want. We tried to rent from many local churches but none have responded. One church group that is renting another store front have 50 memebers. They pay $2200 per month and would rent out Saturday's to us for $1100 per month. However, they have full use of it during the rest of the week. With the money we have raised for our church building our monthly payment would be about $1300 per month. Not bad for a new building as opposed to paying that much rent for a rental. We were just caught off guard by the county that said we have to put in a two lane commercial road. We have to have that amount on deposit before we can get our permits. My family and I were happy to give to missions so churches and schools could be built in far away places. We can all have the same opportunity under our particular circumstances of leaving Adventism. I am not saying that we have a fund that anyone can draw from to put up an entire church building. But a fund that help finish off a building what small congregations like yours in Alabama and mine in Grants Pass are doing. There are many former SDA pastors that have left denominational work to preach the gospel elsewhere, the gospel that is leading us to have freedom from legalism. The only reason I have referred to Adventist Today is to give anyone who wanted some background information on myself and other ministers who are fighting the good fight of faith. A central fund could easily be set up any number of ways. Perhaps the sponsors of FAF would be willing to handle the funds for the this purpose of helping one another. There would be guide lines for those wanting financial help to build churches. We've all given much financial help as Adventists to build their organization, why couldn't we do it now for the sake of the gospel? Lydell, we are presently paying interest on the loan which included the cost of the land, plans, permits, etc. At this point, unless help comes we will have to pay interest on the loan until we can raise the money. It can be done, but under our present situation it will take awhile. I am sure there are a lot of good ideas like yours out there. Believe me, we have tried them all. | ||
| Colleentinker |
HI, TONY! I'm so glad to see how your congregation is finding the gospel! By the way, Lynn asked what Adventist Today is. It is an independent Adventist publication dedicated to telling the news within the church that the official church won't publish. I resigned from my position as managing editor last April. In spite of the magizine's commitment to discussing what's really happening in the church, it is loyally Adventist. I could no longer represent Adventist Today with a clear conscience, even though I respected the people with whom I worked on the magazine, because I cannot pretend to be Adventist when I interview people and because my commitment to the gospel and to being identified only with Jesus precludes my immersing myself in Adventist politics any longer. | ||
| Lydell |
Man Tony, that's some steep rent! But if God wants you guys to grow, He's going to make a way. Our church (a Vineyard) was started 4 years ago. Back in March our pastor had just started thinking about the need to begin looking around for places to rent in case our landlord decided not to renew our lease. Then one day, out of the blue, he got a call from someone telling him they were a church that had dwindled away to almost no members and were going to have to disband. They had some of their folks quietly visit our church and had been impressed and wanted to basically give us their building. They turned over $40,000 in equity and we picked up the loan for $500 per month less than what we were paying in rent. The sanctuary has exactly the same measurements as where we had previously been meeting. There was a house trailer that went with the deal that is now used for the children's meeting rooms. We already have some money saved up in the bank and are praying very soon to begin building on a new, double the size sanctuary. Our goal is to do this with no additional debt incurred. So, like I said, if God wants your group to have a building, He will! make a way. Keep praying and staying open for ideas of His that you might have never considered. It helps to consider the holding time as, like I said, God's time to build the church before He builds the building. And Tony, the answer to your groups question of "what is a NT church?" is what you are already studying. It is the church you read about in Acts...but I suspect that is what you were saying there. Right? |
