We’re excited to announce that Greg Smit is the newest addition to our leadership team. Greg will serve as the ministry leader of our care ministries, including such vital areas of service as discipleship counseling, hospital visitation and prayer groups (for both our church family and also for the community around us). Greg has extensive training and experience in these kinds of…

Chris Brackett has been appointed to serve The Orchard as part of our pastoral team. We’ve very excited about this for a couple of reasons. Chris is a man of real spiritual maturity and appropriate gifting who has shown a genuine desire to serve the church family. And this is an incredibly significant point in the church’s development. We are now beginning…

Saturday, April 6, Ray Wehri was officially appointed as a ministry leader for our facilities ministry. We deeply appreciate Ray’s commitment and his desire to serve God and the church family. We also asked the congregation to be prayerfully considering Chris Brackett to be part of our pastoral team. We’re excited about the leaders God is raising up in our church and…

This is a post from the EFCA Now blog. If you haven’t yet, please read our post: The Gospel, Racism and the EFCA. An Open Letter to Those Who are Struggling Aiming for the kingdom of God through racial strife. Alejandro Mandes Dear EFCA family, This is an open letter to all who are struggling to figure out what comes next or how…

The Bible makes very clear that certain practices are right and others are wrong. Murder and adultery are always wrong; loving God and loving each other are always right. But there are many practices that aren’t clearly endorsed or prohibited in Scripture. The 14th chapter of Romans warns us not to argue about matters of personal conscience. (And, surprisingly, it’s the believer…

Does the Bible teach distinct roles for men and women in the church? This debate is a frequent and sometimes heated one in the church today. We recognize the sensitive nature of this question. It’s understandably an emotional issue, and one that touches people deeply. Naturally, this subject affects women in ways it doesn’t affect men. But most men under a certain…

Christians receive the Holy Spirit when they place their faith in Jesus Christ and become his (1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9). Every believer is baptized in the Holy Spirit. We also see in Scripture that God may, at times, specially fill us with his Spirit (Acts 4:8, 31; 13:9), and that we are to continually seek for our lives to…

When a person in the first century converted to a new faith, a common way they would publicly demonstrate to everyone their conversion was through baptism. First century Jews saw this as something Gentiles did to show they were converting to the Jewish faith. So for the Jewish people to be baptized by John demonstrated real humility. They were confessing they needed…

Curt Parton Since Kelley and I came here in January, some have been surprised that I prefer people to not call me “Pastor” or “Pastor Curt.” For people who are accustomed to using this kind of title, it’s a little odd to call a pastor by just their first name. So I thought I’d explain my reasons for preferring this approach. It’s…

The Orchard doesn’t have a senior or lead pastor as many other churches do. To some people this might seem a little odd. Why don’t we have a senior pastor? It might be helpful to look at this question from a slightly different perspective: Why should a church have a senior pastor? Specifically, is there any biblical basis for this special leadership role…