This article was originally posted at Exploring the Faith. We’ve looked at some of the benefits of interactive teaching. So let’s consider some of the challenges of teaching this way: “It takes a lot more time.”This is true. If you’re studying a passage of Scripture, and you have people respond to you and invite them to raise their hands and ask questions,…

This article was originally posted at Exploring the Faith. In the last post, we saw that Scripture doesn’t call pastors to preach, in the familiar sense of delivering sermons, but there is a repeated call for pastors to teach the church. I noted that—contrasted with preaching—teaching has different priorities, a different focus, and different expectations. So we should want to see this kind…

This article was originally posted at Exploring the Faith. The preaching of the Word has traditionally held a preeminent place in most evangelical churches. This is no accident. Young pastors and leaders have been taught how vital sound preaching is for keeping a church faithful and healthy. Quotes from noted leaders reinforce to us the crucial nature of preaching to the life…

Since our church body is considering adding another pastor to our pastoral team, it might be helpful for us to post these qualifications for elders/pastors compiled from 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9: Desire to serve: The desire to serve as a pastor is an honorable one from God (see 1 Peter 5:1-3). The pastor who serves without a God-given desire will…

Our church is led by a team of pastoral elders. Because these elders share together in the shepherding of the church, we refer to these church leaders as “pastors.” Our pastors lead the church as a team, with no senior or lead pastor. (To see more about why we have this kind of leadership structure, click here.) So, if the church isn’t…

Our first Digging Deeper seminar will be February 2 and will begin a series examining the current political division within evangelical churches. Our conviction is that evangelical Christians should be modeling a different way of engaging one another, discussing even issues about which we passionately disagree with love, grace and mutual respect. The church should be showing the world another way, rather…

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…