Family Meeting 2026

1. Opening Hymn

Blest Be the Tie that Binds

Pastor Beau

John Fawcett wrote it in 1772 while serving as pastor of a small Baptist church in Wainsgate, Yorkshire, England. He and his wife were preparing to leave for a much larger church in London, but the deep love and attachment they felt for their humble congregation made them turn around and stay. Fawcett penned this hymn to express his gratitude for Christian fellowship, mutual love, shared burdens, and hope of reunion, emphasizing the spiritual bonds among believers over worldly opportunity.

Lyrics

Blest be the tie that binds Our hearts in Christian love The fellowship of kindred minds Is like to that above

Before our Father’s throne We pour our ardent prayers Our fears our hopes our aims are one Our comforts and our cares

We share our mutual woes Our mutual burdens bear And often for each other flows The sympathizing tear

When we asunder part It gives us inward pain But we shall still be joined in heart And hope to meet again

From sorrow toil and pain And sin we shall be free And perfect love and friendship reign Through all eternity

2. Prayer Across Generations

Pastor Greg

As we start tonight we want to recognize we are a church family made up of many generations.

We will ask three different generations to lead us in prayer.

3. Reading of the Church Covenant

Pastor Trent with the help of kids reading

Our Church Covenant

1. Having been led, as we believe, by the Spirit of God, to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, and, on the profession of our faith, having been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we do now, in the presence of God, angels and this assembly, most solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with one another as one body in Christ.

2. We engage, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, to walk together in Christian love, to strive for the advancement of this Church in knowledge, holiness and comfort; to promote its prosperity and spirituality; to sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline and doctrines; to contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the Church, and the spread of the Gospel through all nations.

3. We also engage to maintain family and personal devotions; to educate our children in the Christian faith; to seek the salvation of our kindred and acquaintances; to walk circumspectly in the world; to be just in our dealings, faithful in our engagements, and exemplary in our deportment, to avoid all tattling, backbiting and excessive anger; to seek God’s help in abstaining from all drugs, drink, and practices which bring unwarranted harm to the body or jeopardize our own or another’s faith.

4. We further engage to watch over one another in brotherly love; to remember one another in prayer; to aid one another in sickness and distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and courtesy in speech; to be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation and mindful of the rules of our Savior to secure it without delay.

5. We moreover engage that when we remove from this place, we will, if possible, unite with a church of like faith where we can carry out the articles of this confession and the spirit of this covenant.

4. Renewed Pastoral Dedication

Pastors with help from the deacons.

Pastors publicly reaffirm their calling to guard doctrine at all cost.

"We reaffirm our willingness to guard the truth of the Gospel, the purity, peace, and unity of the church, even unto the giving of our lives."

Prayed over by the deacons; active and inactive.

5. Changing of the Guard: Active Deacons

Pastors pray over the deacons.

Recognition of outgoing and incoming deacons

The ministry of the Word; give and guard

Acts 6:1–4 “1 And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. 2 Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. 3 Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. 4 But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.”

6. Declaration of Continued Commitment to the Mission by the Congregation

The preparation, sending, and care for missionaries is vital to the mission of our church.

We must be willing to keep our eyes on the harvest.

We must never settle only for praying for those doing the work.

We cannot not allow a measure of success keep us from recognizing the growing need.

Read aloud together as a congregation:

Wherewithal the Great Commission is still binding,  we refuse to live lives unaware of the great need in this world.

Wherewithal there is still a great need in our community,  we will do what is needed to make sure that if there are still sinners in this community, there will be a seat for them beside us.

7. Explanation of the Annual Budget

Lead by Andrew Pearson / Treasurer

8. Family Ministry Update

Lead by Pastor Greg

Brief update with thanksgiving and statements to help with alignment for the new year.

9. Brief Sermon

What Heaven sees when we gather.

Grace changes what we love

I did not naturally love the church. God has taught me to love what He loves.

There was a time I thought of it as nice.. as long as I didn’t have a better option.

Love does not form accidentally. Love is shaped by what God opens our eyes to see.

We all begin somewhere

Most people do not begin loving the church deeply. They grow into it.

Some of us began indifferent.

Some of us began wounded.

Some of us began resistant.

Scripture shows us that journey clearly, because Paul lived it first.

Before Paul tells us what God is doing through the church, we must remember who Paul used to be.

Paul once hated the church. Paul once persecuted the church. And by grace, Paul learned to love the church.

Grace did not just forgive Paul. Grace reshaped what Paul loved.

Ephesians 3:10–11 “10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, 11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:”

1. Grace doesn’t leave you neutral toward the church. It moves you toward it.

Ephesians 3:8 “8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;”

A. Paul’s humility grows out of his past.

Paul never forgot that he once opposed the church.

Paul remembered his sin so that grace would remain amazing.

Paul knew he was changed, not self made.

B. Grace changed Paul’s relationship to the church.

Paul went from hunting believers to serving them.

Paul went from destroying the church to defending it.

Paul went from standing outside to suffering within it.

C. Paul’s story explains why he values the church so deeply.

Paul knew what the church cost Christ.

Paul knew what grace rescued him from.

Paul knew the church was not optional to faith.

Transition: Once grace changes what we love, it also changes how we see God’s design.

2. You don’t get to or need to redesign what God spent eternity revealing.

Ephesians 3:9 “9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:”

A. The church was hidden in God before it was revealed to people.

The church was not invented by strategy.

The church was not discovered by culture.

The church was revealed by God in Christ.

B. The mystery is not only salvation, but shared life.

God saves individuals into a people.

God unites what sin divided.

God forms one body through grace.

C. The Creator stands behind the church.

The God who created all things formed the church.

The authority behind the church is eternal.

The church exists because God purposed it.

Transition: If the church comes from God’s eternal plan, then its purpose must be larger than we imagine.

3. God is displaying His wisdom to Heaven through the life of the church.

A. God has a watching audience.

Paul points to principalities and powers.

Heaven observes what God is doing on earth.

The church is God’s chosen display.

B. God reveals wisdom through ordinary faithfulness.

Love practiced over time shows wisdom.

Forgiveness reveals grace.

Commitment displays the gospel.

C. This display rests on God’s eternal purpose in Christ.

The church is not Plan B.

The church is not temporary.

Christ stands at the center of it all.

Grace Is Still Doing This Work

If grace could turn Paul’s hatred into love, grace can reshape our indifference into devotion.

Distance from the church is not always rebellion. It is often fear, ignorance, or misplaced trust.

Grace invites us back into what God is doing.

A FAMILY COMMITMENT (THE CHAIR)

Tonight, there is a chair on this stage.

Right now, it is empty. But it will not stay that way.

That chair represents people like Paul once was. People who hate the church today but whom grace will transform tomorrow.

That chair represents people who are indifferent right now. Not hostile. Just unmoved. But one day, they will be here. Singing with us. Serving beside us.

That chair represents people who do not yet know there is a seat for them. They do not know they are welcome. They do not know grace has already made room.

And this time next year, they will be sitting here. And they will bring others with them.

So tonight, as a church family, we commit.

We commit to keeping a seat open.

A seat for the skeptic.

A seat for the wounded.

A seat for the indifferent.

A seat for the one grace is still pursuing.

Because God once made room for Paul. And God is still making room.

God is showing His wisdom through His church. And heaven is watching.

Let us love the church well. And let us always leave a seat open.

10. Closing Song and Offering Received