“I will build My Church . . . “
(Jesus in Matthew 16:18)
I came to this church in June of 1991. At that time it was more of a traditional Southern Baptist Church with a single pastor, a music leader, a board of deacons and a Church Counsel that included anyone who held a position in the church. To be honest, we hadn’t given a whole lot of thought to how a church ought to be structured. We just wanted to serve Jesus. And to the best of our ability we did. And despite our lack of understanding, God graciously used us anyway.
But as time went on, we began to study the Scriptures more closely. That study led us to understand that the Bible does, indeed, have some important things to say about how a church ought to be organized and led. So we began to make changes between the year 2000 and 2003 that we hoped would bring us into a more biblical practice as a church. Those changes included moving from a solo pastor to a plurality of elders, with the deacons committed to serving the needs of the congregation and the whole church seeking to use their gifts together to minister to one another, proclaim the Gospel, make disciples and exalt Christ.
Since then, this has been the structure most of you have known here at Rockport. And yet, you may have noticed we haven’t really taught on this much lately (I think the last time may have been in January 2016). So there is value in going back again and thinking through why we do what we do as a church. We need to make sure we understand what the Bible teaches and how we can apply it to our lives in obedience to Christ. Lord willing, we’ll do that this morning.
As we do, I hope you will do two things. First, that you will pray that God gives us a clearer understanding of His word. And, second, that we’ll see how our Good Shepherd, cares for us and helps us grow in grace as we seek to apply His word into every area of our life and community as His church.
May we seek to honor Him in all that we do.
Pastor Scott