Weekly Update from the Senior Pastor
March 8 , 2007
Dear Family and Friends,
Please pause for four minutes. Get your office or home Bible and compare two polar opposite pictures found in Revelation 6:14-17 and Revelation 7:14-17.
These two passages point to the exact same day, the same God, the same Lamb—the same event.
Revelation 6 pictures a group that would rather die [literally] than see God’s face.
Revelation 7 describes a group that joyfully presses into the presence of God to find life and fellowship eternally. God Himself tenderly wipes any tears from their eyes. Read both. Both happen on one day.
The key to their opposite reactions is, again, the key to the whole book, and to our entire Revelation series: who is Jesus to me? One group faces the wrath of the Lamb ( 6:16 ) and the others follow the Lamb as their Shepherd ( 7:17 ). But for both He is the Lamb—the One who died to take away their sins (John 1:29 ). He is the same. They are opposites.
So the decisive factor is the role Jesus occupies in my life. When He appears, will I finally see with my own eyes the Savior and Shepherd of my whole life; or will my whole life stand exposed and unredeemed before the Judge whose offer of life I have spurned?
The door into our eternal destiny is simply that day in which the house we’ve internally constructed our entire life becomes visible, and we are ushered into it. Build well—Homes of Light by the Power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Updates:
Daylight Savings Kicks In Saturday Evening: Ralph’s Red Team for Sunday set-up: it’s an early start. For everybody, wind the clock forward one hour this Saturday night, then set it for gathering in worship.
Baptism Service: This Sunday at 3:30 p.m. , come back for a special, short service at Tri-County Baptist Church , located on Route 108 and the corner of Long Corner Road east of Damascus . We will welcome six new members into the family of Christ and remember together again the wonder of Romans 6:1-4—that in Jesus we have died to sin and risen to a new life. The team at Tri-County, headed by Pastor Ken Cavey, has been wonderful in offering their facility to us.
Ring-Bearers: You are indeed a fellowship of the faithful. Close to 80% of our members committed to sacrificially find our part in following God’s heart to our future. Our local budget is staying strong, and over 17% of our total pledges for our new facility are already in, with 34 of 36 months of the pledge-time to go! As specific floor plans are finalized to share with our whole congregation, the vision will burn even hotter for our Light on a Hill. Thank you so much for staying faithful to your vows: “The Lord declares: ‘Those who honor Me I will honor” 1 Samuel 2:30
Senior Staff Defined: Last week, many asked good clarifying questions, especially questions relating to church personnel issues. Let me try to offer a beginning basic answer to two good questions:
Q. On what basis are the church’s senior staff chosen and evaluated?
A. When God birthed Damascus Road Community Church we hammered out ten Core Values, the unchanging values we believe in so much we would bleed for, values about the Gospel and Scripture, about community, about ministry. Ministry strategies change and evolve. Core values don’t. One Core Value directly defines the role of senior staff:
Core Value #9 : The church should be led by servant-leaders who are team-builders and team-players, whose passion is to recruit, equip and encourage people for effective service and growing fellowship (Romans 12:8; Luke 22:25-27; Hebrews 13:7, 17).
Q. Who has oversight over staff selections and changes?
A. The congregation as a whole votes on two things relating to staff:
- The selection of a new Senior Pastor
- Approving our annual ministry budget (a budget based on staff-directed ministry goals)
For other personnel decisions, the Executive Staff (Senior Pastor and Executive Pastor), both of whom receive annual performance reviews from the Human Resource Committee and Elders, have responsibility to select and evaluate the remaining senior staff. This means Rajendra and I carry out staff selection and evaluation with direct input and oversight from the Elders and Trustees, who participate in any interview process and have veto power over any decision.
I hope this helps a bit in clarifying: 1.) the core purpose; and 2.) the process for selecting and evaluating Senior Staff.
This weekend we’ll share an auditory/visual experience of a judgment song from Johnny Cash and explore the sounding of seven trumpets that signal God’s response to those four horsemen we saw riding last Sunday.
In His grace,
Richard
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