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KEVIN PENDERGRASS
NOW AVAILABLE
FOR GOSPEL MEETINGS
AND TGOC PRESENTATIONS
In the August 5 edition of our newsletter, we introduced to you Kevin Pendergrass, who was scheduled to join us in mid-August. Kevin is now "fully on board" at TGOC and anxious to get to the work at hand. [If you happened to miss the biographical information that we placed in our last newsletter about Kevin, we hope you will take a look at it.]
For the past two weeks, Kevin has been in the process of traveling from Tennessee and settling in here at Ardmore. Fortunately, his trip was a safe one, and he has now begun the process of "conquering the learning curve" as he strives to learn about all the things we do at TGOC on a daily basis. Now that Kevin has arrived, we would like to encourage you to invite him to visit the congregation of which you are a member in order to speak to people there about the possibility of securing new funding for TGOC. As we mentioned in our last newsletter, we truly need such additional funding, and would appreciate any help you can give us—especially since most congregations will shortly begin planning their 2009 budgets.
If you would like to contact Kevin, you may do so by e-mailing him (kevin@thegospelofchrist.com), phoning him (580/223-3289), or sending him a letter (607 McLish Avenue, Ardmore, OK 73401). We know he would appreciate hearing from you.
TGOC ANNOUNCES
LESSONS ONE AND TWO
IN ITS NEWLY REVISED
"WORSHIP SERIES"
We are pleased to announce in this newsletter the availability of the first two lessons in our newly revised Worship Series, for which Ben Bailey serves as the speaker. In his lesson, "What Is Worship?," Ben opens with Psalm 95:6 ("Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker") in order to offer a definition of what true worship to God is all about. He then mentions two prevalent extremes in worship: (1) entertainment-based worship that is intended to appeal to human feelings and emotions; and (2) biblical-but-dead worship that, although doctrinally correct, is carried out in a purely robotic-type manner without any "heart involvement" on the part of the one offering the worship to God. Ben rightly observes that neither of those two extremes is acceptable. Rather, God insists that we worship Him "in spirit and in truth" (Jn. 4:24). In fact, Ben uses the text of John 4:24 to show that our worship must: (a) have the correct aim; (b) acknowledge the absolutes required within Scripture; (c) be offered to God with the proper attitude; (d) accede to God's authority; and (e) be carried out through the avenues that God Himself has sanctioned. Ben also discusses the five acts of worship: (1) praying; (2) preaching; (3) partaking of the Lord's Supper; (4) singing; and (5) giving of our means.
In his lesson on "The Lord's Supper," Ben concentrates on only one of the five biblically authorized acts of worship to God—partaking of the Lord's Supper. As he begins, he quotes Acts 20:7 where the Bible says, "On the first day of the week, the disciples came together to break bread." Ben then goes back in time to discuss the events recorded in Matthew 26:26-28 where Jesus first instituted the Lord's Supper. He then moves forward to 1 Corinthians 11:20-29 where Paul addressed certain problems associated with the Lord's Supper in the church at Corinth. Combining all of these passages (and numerous others), Ben brings to the forefront several important aspects of the Lord's Supper, including such things as: (a) it was authorized by the Lord Himself (Mt. 26:26-28); (b) it is intended as a memorial to "proclaim the Lord's death until He comes" (1 Cor. 11:26); (c) it is to be observed on the first day of every week (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:1-2); and (d) Christians are to partake of it in a solemn, reverent attitude (Heb. 12:28; 1 Pet. 2:24) as they concentrate on the death of Christ, which partaking of the Lord's Supper is intended to bring back to every Christian's mind. The material contained in this lesson cannot help but cause each person who views or listens to it to appreciate all the more the life and death of Jesus Christ, and to go through the intense process of self-examination that Paul obviously had in mind when he wrote in 2 Corinthians 13:5, "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith."
Both of these new lessons are now available on our Website, where you will find them in video, audio, and written transcript formats. We invite you to examine them for yourself, and to share them with others.
MORE BIBLE QUIZZES
NOW AVAILABLE FOR
TGOC'S "N.T. NUMBERS" SERIES
In the April 15, 2008 edition of this newsletter, we announced the first postings to our Website of a brand-new series of Bible quizzes on "New Testament Numbers." In this newsletter, we are pleased to announce the availability of the second group of quizzes in that series. These new quizzes can be found on our Website at www.thegospelofchrist.com/quiz. Take a look at them. We think you will find them to be as challenging as they are instructive. Plus, they are just plain fun!
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