[Bess Shepherd]

My family & I have attended Stone Bridge Christian church for many years. Even before it moved and became Stone Bridge. I wonder where the person received his information on Mark & our congregation. This is a church that takes the teachings of the Bible & Jesus Christ very seriously. There are five reasons we strongly support this church.
1. Mark teaches directly from the Bible. We are encouraged to bring our Bibles & follow along. The scripture is also placed in the bulletin so that if you do not have a Bible or forgot yours you can still follow along. He makes the sermons very interesting & helps us to convert their use to modern day times. He very much makes the Bible come alive. The service is kept so interesting & co-ordinated that you can hardly believe You have been there an hour.
2. It does not discrimanate. It reaches out to help everyone to find the Lord. Black, White, hispanic, Asian. Rich, poor, middle class, married, divorced, unwed mothers, single, old, young and inbetween. We simply do not care who you are or what your past is. We want you to have access to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that you too might learn to accept & love Him. It is our desire that you find the Grace that is so freely given by our Savior.
3. We try to find ways in which we can help our Omaha & surrounding area's become better places to live. We have small groups that look out for each other and search for ways to help others in need. Some of the programs consist of a food pantry, grief sharing, taking meals to the Ronald McDonald house. This is just a few of the programs that I am personally aware of. There is also the Easter Celebration, The October 31st & 4th of July as well as Christmas activities that are set up for everyone to enjoy.
4. There are Sunday morning classes for all ages. There are also classes that can be attended during the week. We support many missions. Our people go into Mexico to build homes for the less forunate there. Recently, some of our young people went to South Africa to help the poor & the needy there. Again this is just the ones that I am personally aware of.
5. I must not forget the music. It is wonderful. God has blessed us with much talent & Calvin encourages all with talent to seek him out and he finds a place for them in our services.

It is truly beyond me why anyone who ever attended our church would consider it a joke. I am also stunned that anyone would want to delibertly hurt someone by criticizeing Mark on the web instead of confronting him face to face & discussing their issues. I suggest that my friend give Mark a call at the church and set up an appointment to talk to him. I believe he or she will be amazed at what he or she discovers. In the meantime, I will be praying for my friend. It's true, I don't know who he or she is (that doesn't matter) God knows and will attend to the situation in His way & in His time.

May God bless everyone who reads this & accept this as your invitation to come & check us out. We'd love to have you & I believe you will find it a very rewarding experience.

Bess Shepherd

[kdbrich]

Do you know for a fact that anyone that has criticized the church or the pastor HASN'T tried to speak to him about it directly?

[Dave1215]

Originally Posted by ehenningsen

Where did I read this, it is a statement in the old testament I believe in either Psalms or Proverbs that if you attain perfection you become an enemy of him?

If we are thinking of the same one, it was actually a quote by Voltaire and not from Scripture.

"Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien."
"The perfect is the enemy of the good." or
"The best is the enemy of good."

[Electrophile]

Instead of this asking "what can the church do for me?", why don't we become red letter Christians and ask "how can I best serve others who need to hear it most on behalf of the whole body of Christ?" I hear a lot of bickering over theological nit picking and not much on service...

[Todd4]

Originally Posted by Electrophile

Instead of this asking "what can the church do for me?", why don't we become red letter Christians and ask "how can I best serve others who need to hear it most on behalf of the whole body of Christ?" I hear a lot of bickering over theological nit picking and not much on service...

how do you determine who needs to hear it most?

[kdbrich]

I was curious what "red letters" have to do with serving others.

[Electrophile]

Red letters meaning going back to what Jesus actually said.

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." Mark 10:45 (NASV)

[kdbrich]

He also said to go forth and make disciples, baptizing and teaching them to obey what he commanded. I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Jesus told us to evangelize and make disciples. Are you suggesting that we shouldn't, but instead just do nice things for people?

[billiefan2000]

Originally Posted by kdbrich

Do you know for a fact that anyone that has criticized the church or the pastor HASN'T tried to speak to him about it directly?

kd makes a good point

I have tried to talk to some pastors here in Omaha about the problems with the purpose driven church movement but some wont return my emails or calls

a few dont seem to care about the disturbing direction many of our churches are going



SWRC radio show: Who or What is Driving the Purpose Driven and Seeker Sensitive Church movements?


http://srcwm.webcastcenter.com/src/src_072308.wma

http://srcwm.webcastcenter.com/src/src_072408.wma

and:

http://srcwm.webcastcenter.com/src/src_072508.wma

[ehenningsen]

The worst direction I have seen lately is where the church is trying to establish their religeous laws into our nations or states laws..

They need to understand that while it is great they have their life and they aid the lives of other people according to their beliefs, but why are they trying to tell people who are not in the church how to live?