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- QUESTION & ANSWER
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- With new churches everywhere and old
churches too, how are you all different? Why would one want to
fellowship with you rather than any other church in town?
- Thank you so
much for writing. It's an intelligent question ... and a fair one.
We are a group of
people who want to worship God together with other people who love
Him, and we would enjoy making your acquaintance. However, if you're
unsure about which church to attend, let me answer you this way: why
don't you ask God to lead you to the people He wishes you to worship
with? I'm content to trust your sincerity and His wisdom.
At the same time, I do want you to feel most
heartily welcomed and invited to come and visit us. You'd be a
blessing to our services and your presence would be an encouragement
to the congregation. I have every confidence you'll find friendship
and a welcome and a genuine interest in extending to you the
fellowship of God's love.
Have you seen our web site? It's located at
www.churchofgodoutreach.org ... if you have time, please visit that
site and listen to some of the taped services ... read the words ...
ask God if He'd like for you to visit with us ... and take it from
there. Frankly, I appreciate your caution. That's one of the reasons
we built the web site; this way, you can "check us out" at
your convenience.
If/when you come, introduce yourself, won't
you? I'd love to meet the person who e-mailed me.
:-)
-- Grace
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- What are your services like?
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Let me tell you a little about the services. The presence of the
Lord is there. The singing is wonderful and full of enthusiasm.
Oh, they sing with joy. The children sing. People testify whom I have
never heard before. Prayers with tears are being sincerely offered …
you would rejoice to hear them.
The atmosphere is so … so … heavenly. Love is there. Its presence
is felt strongly and is so real that tears flow. We don’t speak ill
of those whom we feel do not understand. And we talk about equality of
the brethren. And we strive to understand what the will of God is
concerning our lives and our testimonies. And the freedom of the Holy
Spirit is there. He really is.
-
I anticipate every worship
day going to service. Different ones testify. We’re learning how to
pray in public. Why, we had service the other day with those wonderful
people, and they didn’t want to leave. We started service at 7:30
and testimonies went up from that very small group until 8:30, and no
one wanted to leave … so we sang and sang and sang until 9:00 …
rich, anointed special singing … and still no one wanted to leave
because the presence of the Lord was so strong and so real.
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And anyone who comes to the service is welcome there. Anyone who comes
is loved and treated courteously and respectfully. And sometimes when
they come they testify with tears and say, “I finally feel good
enough to be loved.”
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We don’t do anything strange. We’re not introducing strange
doctrines or damnable heresies. We preach and teach the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
- Division
is not a word we use in conjunction with what we are doing. We do not
speak evil of those who disagree. The spirit of Christ and forgiveness
and true mercy and love are all manifested at every one of our
meetings. If people doubt or wonder or have questions about coming to
our services, we counsel them to wait upon God and let Him tell
them what He wants them to do. The messages that we preach are not
pointed or malicious in nature.
- Did you
know that for the first 150 years the morning church folks met in
people’s living rooms? All Christian living rooms were open to all
Christians in the local areas. If I wanted to meet this week at Bro.
Fred's living room, why I went there and was cordially welcomed.
And if I decided next week that I wanted to meet at Bro. Richard's
living room, why I went there next week without fear of reprimand and
I was welcome there. And if the week after that I went and visited in
Sis. Sue's living room, there I was welcomed as well. No one
told me I couldn’t meet anywhere I chose … so long as it was in
the Lord and that the same doctrine was preached. All living rooms
were open to all Christians. And if someone wanted to open up their
living room this week, why that was fine, too … the more living
rooms open, the better! Because the more living rooms that were open,
the more opportunity there existed for the spreading of the gospel of
Christ, and after all, wasn’t that the most important thing? We are
actively trying to create a "living room" atmosphere in our
services ... and the Lord is blessing our efforts as we yield to the
moving of His Spirit.
- THAT
kind of unity and love, brethren, is what caused the rapid growth and
spread of Christianity in the morning age of time.
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