Pastoral Letters

Letter to the Church, From Pastor Chad

Letter From Pastor Chad

October 18, 2023

10/18/23 Hi ἐκκλησία (ekklesia: church, assembly of the called out ones) I wanted to write for four reasons: 1) To encourage everyone from both the KCA and Calvert campus to come to our church campout/retreat this weekend, 2) To Give you an quick report on our church planting endeavor at the Calvert Campus, and 3) To Provide a brief update on our Pastor search for a new KCA youth Pastor/Campus Pastor for Calvert. 4) To spur you a bit towards joining a home group and the practice of the Biblical one anothers. First, we are excited to have our annual church campout/retreat at no cost this weekend (thank you for your faithful giving). It will be held at Taylor’s Cove (49592 Freemans Rd, Dameron, MD 20628) from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon (Oct 20-22). If you haven’t been there and don’t know what to expect or how awesome it is check out http://taylorscove.http://gilgalretreat.com or especially our church app https://subsplash.com/truthbiblechurch/media/ms/+qcdm4sc that has all the info you need including camp map, camp schedule (campfire singing, devotion, and smores/hot drinks every night), and singing lyrics, sermon notes (I’ll be finishing our Church Foundations series – the Foundation of Church Shepherds/Preachers – importance of expository preaching), and announcements for this Sunday’s outdoor service at 11a at Taylor’s Cove (no Sunday School, worship service, or Awana/youth at Calvert or KCA this Sunday). If you haven’t registered – the retreat is free but please do register soon as possible via the TBC website https://http://www.truthbiblechurch.com/events or on the TBC app under the events tab at the bottom. This will help us with a count for Sunday’s BBQ after the service at 12:30p (the church is providing this meal free, but all other meals for the weekend are left to each individual family). By the way if you are not the camping type, there are nice 5 hotel-like rooms with their own full bathroom in the retreat house that are free and first come first serve – just contact Hillary at the church office. And if you can only come for a part of time, want to go home at night, or just come for the Sunday service and fellowship lunch to follow – that’s fine, come for what you can as sometimes relationships are grown/deepened more with an extended time of fellowship like this than throughout the year via many shorter church times. Why come? Come to worship Jesus and enjoy His creation (Colossians 1:18 - He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy), come to edify others and enjoy His church (Philippians 2:3-4 - Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.) and come for you and your family have fun together, make good memories, and be encouraged! (1 Thessalonians 5:11 -Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.) Lastly, don’t forget to bring your own food (except Sunday lunch) and camping gear - including ponchos (as of today’s forecast looks like some rain late Fri night through early Sat. morning), as well as chairs or blankets for the outdoor service (weather looks good Fri. afternoon, Sat afternoon/evening, and all day Sunday but it will be a little breezy so bring coats/hats/gloves and a good sleeping bag to stay warm:). Second, a month or so into the launch of our Calvert Campus – I wanted to thank everyone who worked so hard to make it happened as well as encourage everyone that in addition to the 13 core families (around 65 people) who started Calvert, we have had lots of visitors and at least 4 additional families are coming regularly there… also I’ve seen a good number of visitors and several new families at KCA during this time, so I wanted to encouraged everyone to keep PRAYING especially for God to bless our church plant endeavor as it is a real sacrifice with lots of change and growing pains, but I believe will ultimately produce what God desires from us and what we are asking God for – new coverts, regular baptisms, faithful members, and overall for both locations to be pleasing and successful in His eyes – especially in the priorities of evangelism and discipleship. Third, we did conduct over the last 6 months a through internal search for our open Youth Pastor/Campus Pastor full time position and now are looking outside the church. To date we have received around 20 resumes in the last couple weeks for our Pastoral position. Our next step after carefully reading and screening all of them for conversion, character, calling, family, education, experience, and doctrine is to narrow the field to those we will conduct phone interviews, and then from there we will Lord willing narrow to one and set up a candidating visit for him to teach, preach, and be interviewed in person by the Elders as well as Q&A and with youth parents and the congregation. Fourth and last, please don’t forget the importance of Sunday School or our five home groups as we have recently seen a small dip in our members participation in Sunday School and Home Groups. Graciously recall members that at your membership interview we gently ask of you 5 commitments as part of your TBC membership responsibilities: 1) Come consistently as possible to the main worship service (Acts 5:42), 2) join at least one small group (either a Sunday School Class or Home Group …or best/ideally both) (Acts 2:46, 20:20, Romans 16:5, 1 Cor. 16:19, Col. 4:15, Philemon 1:2), 3) Give regularly, generously, and cheerfully as we cannot pay our bills or have full time Pastors or Missionaries without your faithful support (2 Cor. 9:7), 4) Serve/volunteer in at least one ministry as your part to help build/make beautiful this local church (Eph. 4:12-16) and 5) Support the Elders in their evangelism and discipleship plans/strategies (Hebrews 13:17)… please hear me as your Pastor, home groups are vital to the TBC’s Elder’s discipleship plan especially to be devoted to prayer and to grow in deeper love/fellowship (Acts 2:42 42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…1 Peter 4:8-11 8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.) May the Lord drive us to our knees (Power in Prayer), move us to hunger and thirst for righteousness (Wisdom in the Word), encourage and build us together in greater practice of the one anothers (friendship in fellowship), and grow a greater love and ONE PASSION (Acts 1:14, 2:46, 4:24, 5:12, 15:25, Romans 15:6, Philippians 1:27) in our church to glorify Him (Romans 11:36). (ὁμοθυμαδόν homothumadon: with one mind/one accord/one passion from ὁμοῦ homou: together/same AND θυμός thumos anger in negative sense/passion in a positive sense) (Phil. 1:27 ἑνὶ πνεύματι, μιᾷ ψυχῇ is literally “one spirit” and “one soul”) Blessings, Pastor Chad (1 Timothy 4:12)