Missions Update: July 2009

Short term missions has seen some changes from our January plans, but there is progress. See the missions display board in the lobby for pictures of the house foundation in Tijuana, and the house walls in San Quintin! Brian Smith will be leading a team to San Quintin around the end of July to help put the roof on. Teams from other churches will be completing the Tijuana house during the summer.

Other trips are proceeding as planned.  Taylor Smith will be leaving for the Philippines in mid-July. There is a fund raising BBQ after church on Sunday, July 12. Hope you can participate. If you have yard work, painting, childcare, or other work you need done, hiring Taylor is another way to provide funds for this trip. The Honduras team, consisting of Keith Telle, Dave and Julie Hicks, and Gary and Sue Rickman, will be leaving August 21st for ten days to work with MEDA missionaries, Carlos Montoya and Adrian Donato. Continue to pray for the preparation needed by both of these trips.

A few summer missions plans have been cancelled. The Cottonwood VBS won’t be happening. The San Quintin ministry trip was cancelled because school sessions there have extended into the summer to adjust for flu closures earlier in the year.  We understand that the San Quintin church will be running those ministry activities themselves at a later date, so pray for them. The Pleasant Hill CEF children’s clubs will not happen this year because of teacher availability. We are confident that this is all in God’s providence, and we remain enthused to see some new ministry efforts being successful. Praise God!

~The Missions Ministry

Church Picnic Ministry Opportunities

The second of three summer picnics will take place on July 26. We have once again secured a place at the Pleasant Hill City Park, just one block down from the church. Immediately following the second worship service we will make our way down to the park for an afternoon of food, fellowship and recreation.

The picnics serve as a wonderful venue to live out the gospel of Christ in our community.

1. We will need people to help buy food, prepare food, set up the picnic, clean-up the after the picnic and barbeque the food. Please contact the church office if you can serve in any number of these ways.

2. There is also an opportunity for you to contribute to the meal. Please bring a dessert if your last name begins with the letters A-G, or bring a salad if your last name begins with the letters H-Z.

3. This is a great opportunity to minister to your family and friends by inviting them to the picnic. It is here that they can see the gospel in action as we interact with one another.

Softball in the Summer!

Grace Bible Church now has a softball team that plays in the Pleasant Hill Parks and Recreation summer league. We hope you’ll mark your calendars this month to route us on and help us engage our community as we live out the gospel before, during and after each game.

The schedule for July is:

7/6 6:30 p.m. at College Park High School, 201 Viking Drive

7/13 7:40 p.m. at Valley View Middle School, 181 Viking Drive

7/20 8:50 p.m. at Pleasant Hill Park, across from the church.

7/27 7:40 p.m. at Valley View Middle School

Where is GBC in Regards to Church Planting?

Most of you will remember that our central theme during this year’s Mission Emphasis Month was church planting. One of the primary means of extending the kingdom of God in the plan of God is the birthing of new congregations. This is clearly the pattern throughout the book of Acts (Acts 14:21-23).

Through the ministry of Paul and various associates many new local assemblies were established by the power of the Holy Spirit in cultures and places very new and different to people steeped in Jewish culture. But their faithful confidence in the power of the Word and Spirit was richly rewarded by God in places like Thessalonica, Ephesus, Corinth, and Galatia.

They did not merely hold crusades or “outreach events” – they labored to give birth to new churches. There is a profound difference. Churches are the living communities in which discipleship and spiritual formation takes place. Jesus did not say “hold outreaches” but “make disciples.” This in- volves “baptizing them” and “teaching them to retain all that I have taught” (Mt. 28:18- 20). Churches are the God ordained context in which this takes place. They have gifted individuals, recognized leaders, pastors and teachers, and they practice the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. It is the local church that functions as the vehicle of God’s sustaining grace to nurture and promote spiritual maturity (Eph. 4:11-16).

As would be expected, church planting continues to be the most fruitful approach to building the church and extending the kingdom of God precisely because it is the biblical model. In addition, many practical advantages to church planting are self-evident. Pastor Timothy Keller of Redeemer \Presbyterian Church makes the case that new churches best reach new generations, new residents, and new people groups. (The entire article “Why Plant Churches” can be found at www.redeemer2.com/re- sources/papers).

In light of all this – where is GBC in the application of our commitment to see new churches planted?

Existing Commitments to Church Planting Most of our longstanding support of foreign and national missionaries is for church planters. Mark Christopher (South Africa), Scott Menez (Cottonwood), Dave Mikul- sky (South Indiana), and Pablo Ramirez (Baja Mexico) are all at some stage of church planting. We are also in the latter stages of evaluating two additional candidates for support who are both church planting.

Partnership in the Northern California Church Planting Network

We have spearheaded the formation of a network of churches committed to co-laboring in church planting in Northern California. The formation of this network is still in the early stages but is gaining momentum. West Hills Community Church (Morgan Hill), Redeeming Grace Church (Redwood City) and Calvary Community Church (Knightsen) are the co-founders of this net- work. There is a sweet spirit of fellowship as well as theological and methodological

unity between these congregations.

This network will allow other existing likeminded churches to co-sponsor, financially support and mentor church planters and new church plants throughout Northern California. It will also provide a forum for peer counseling and training church planters. The formalization of this network should be completed this summer and we

hope to hold an inaugural service here at

GBC.

First Steps in Church Planting in East Alameda County

The elders have recently determined that our first direct efforts at church planting should be directed at East Alameda County. We have several households that commute from the greater Livermore/Pleasanton/Tracy/Dublin area each Sunday. In addition, there have been others who made the trek for some time but have since stopped.

We have extended an invitation to these households to attend an informational meeting to see if there is enough interest and willingness to form a core group. I must emphasize that this meeting has yet to take place and there are no firm plans in place as of yet. Please pray for us as we seek the Lord’s will and guidance in this endeavor. We will keep our church family informed as this develops.

In the meantime remember that GBC is itself a 14-year-old church plant! We are still seeking to reach our surrounding communities with the gospel, as we ought to always. Prayerfully approach and develop natural relationships with unbelievers in your activities, occupations or education and see them as opportunities to influence for the gospel. Intentionally develop meaningful relationships with unbelievers that the light of Christ in your life may raise questions to which the only answer is the gospel of Jesus.

Ministry Opportunity: The City

“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven,” (Matthew 5:16 NASB). How might this church body as one people serve the community in which we worship and live? How might you serve as a light in the City of Pleasant Hill? Later this month we hope to help you answer these questions. We are presently working with representatives from the Pleasant Hill Fourth of July Committee and the City of Pleasant Hill in search of ways in which we can provide our people with opportunities to serve this community over the summer. We hope to make some announcements over the next couple of Sundays about these opportunities; so keep your eyes and ears open.

Missions Update

The following recently came from Craig & Lisa . Our missionaries in Southeast Asia, sharing one aspect of their ministry there. Let the beautiful scene they describe encourage your heart and remind you to pray that God would reach out with His love to the ladies mentioned here.  Pray also for Taylor Smith who will be working with Craig & Lisa for two months this summer on a short term missions trip.

Just above the equator in our part of the world, summer has been slowly turning already warm days into warmer days that drag down even a tropical pace of life. Lisa and I recently sat among a handful of women in the shade of a large, spreading Kamias tree, circled by tall, full coconut trees. Through the chatter of these ladies sitting in plastic chairs, their eyes would occasionally glance up to be certain the coconuts were as firmly attached to the top of the tree as they appeared to be.

As we caught up with each other, women began to trickle in as their morning work ebbed in the homes where they woke well before sunrise to find wood to cook their family’s meals and to gather water from a pump for cooking, cleaning, and laundry.  Our team was hosting a women’s gathering, a monthly event where these hard working women can sit together under the tree and talk with each other in peace, play games and laugh together, listen to a story, and share a simple meal together. These women, many the second or third wife of a shared husband, have been coming to our team to learn how to read and write, to make simple crafts like peanut butter, or jewelry from beads, to sew ethnic crafts for the market, or to find help when their children are in need.  On mornings like this, though, they come to be with us, to sit and enjoy each other where the smiles come quickly.

Just over fifty women sat close together dressed in brightly colored head coverings and wraps, adding color to the drab sandy landscape. Laughing all morning through the games and food, they listened quietly to the story of the Ustadz (Teacher) and of his message to two women we know as Mary and Martha.

The listening turned into energetic discussion about the story told by Lina.  The women sitting with us in the shade connected well to these sisters as they struggled to both feed and listen to this great teacher. A deep spiritual longing became evident as key women in our circle began to share of their deep desire to listen to the stories of the Ustadz and to seek to worship God.

We love being a presence of Jesus among these beautiful people, and strive for the opportunity to find people here with a longing to know God. Pray for our team as we bring the message of the Great Teacher.

Softball!!

We’re hoping to organize a men’s softball team to join Pleasant Hill’s ‘E’ League. The ‘E’ League is not a church league and is about as non-competitive as you can get. So dust off your high school cleats, oil up your glove and spend Monday nights during the summer encouraging one another and engaging our culture for Christ. We hope to accomplish a few things by forming a team. First, we hope to foster fellowship between the men of Grace. Second, we hope you’ll invite your friends or relatives who don’t know Christ to be a part of the team so the team can serve as a witness for the gospel of Christ to them. Third, and perhaps most importantly, we hope to engage our community as we live out the gospel before, during and after each game.  We have until June 19 to register our team with the City, so please don’t delay. You can register by calling Scott Denny at the church office or email him at scottdenny.gbcph.org with your intention to play.

Missions Update: Adrian Donato, MEDA

Last month we mentioned that Adrian Donato, missionary in Honduras with MEDA seminary, had been to Myanmar to bring a seminar to pastors there. Carlos Montoya, our other missionary in Honduras, will be in the Ukraine from May 2nd through May 12th bringing a conference to pastors in the city of Kiev. In addition, he will be teaching an expanded version of the conference to the students at the Irpine seminary there. MEDA is associated with The Masters Academy International (TMAI), and these trips are a part of a professor exchange program that TMAI promotes in order to expose the professors to what is being done in their sister seminaries around the world, to see how things are done differently and the same in different cultures, to be encouraged by what God is doing in many places, and to learn good new ideas.  Pray for Carlos as he travels, teaches, and learns.

The seminary in Honduras has 27 students this semester, with 10 more expected to start in July. The monthly pastor conferences are still drawing 80 to 100 pastors from all over Central America! The new distance learning programs that MEDA started this past January have good enrollment as well. About 40 men are participating in the Institute for Pastoral Ministries and about 20 ladies are participating in the Institute for Women’s Ministries. These 60 people attend the monthly conference and then have additional homework to complete on the conference topic during the month that follows the conference. When they complete 12 conferences and associated homework satisfactorily, they receive a certificate of completion and a set of reference books. Pray for all of these people working to improve their knowledge and skills in leading God’s people in Central America.

The Missions Ministry

VBS 2009: Mission Space

Preparations for a galactic adventure are underway with this year’s Operation Space VBS. Countdown has begun and involves assembling volunteers to serve in a variety of space stations including drama, skit backgrounds, snacks, crafts, teaching and leading teams of children through close encounters of the Biblical kind. Blast off for Operation Space is August 3-7th. Please contact Gayle Moussa, Janece Shellooe, Dawn Payne, Therese Menez or the church office (925-676-1584) to volunteer your gifts as we reach out to our community with the Gospel this VBS.

Ministry Opportunity

We’ve been offered the opportunity to minister to folks living in the Chateau senior housing community on Cleaveland Road, The Chateau III. Each Saturday morning a group of residents meet during a time called “New Life”. We’ve been offered the opportunity to visit one of those Saturdays and lead a worship and devotion time. If anyone is interested in participating in this kind of an outreach to the community, please call Scott Denny.