The elders met for their monthly meeting on Tuesday, November 14. Frank Barber began our evening by focusing on Article 10, the Effectual Call, from the London Baptist Confession of Faith.

We were reminded of God’s sovereign work in salvation. God, for His good pleasure, by His Word and Spirit, effectually calls the sinner who is by nature in a state of sin and death to grace and salvation in Christ. The fruit of this sovereign call of God results in the spiritual awakening of the mind to understand sin and salvation in Christ, the removal of the hardened heart and in its place giving a heart drawn to Jesus Christ.

What a way to begin the evening with the joyous thoughts of God’s grace to His church in Jesus Christ! Indeed, it is a great motivation for continuing in the gospel-ministry of thanksgiving!

Our discussion for the evening opened with a review of the financial reports for the month of October. Average attendance for the month was 328. General offering was 56,121 for the month against a budget of 56,563. We praise the Lord that so many were able to attend the preaching of the Word through the Gospel of John. We pray the body continues to be encouraged to see and savor the preciousness of the gospel of Jesus.

Regarding membership, Tim, Angie and Mason Starmer applied for membership to the church and the elders were pleased to accept their membership applications. The elders also acknowledged Bob and Joanne Gjere’s request to withdraw their membership as they are moving out of state.

We continued the evening by discussing plans for improving the security of the church along with some options for improving our internet service. Due to our location, we do not have many options available to us without paying for construction work to be done that would involve running cable under the interstate. For now, we are continuing to look for other solutions.

Our evening closed with an opportunity to share in the financial burdens of one of our church family members. We are thankful for the ministry of bearing one another’s burdens as it uniquely illustrates the grace of God in Christ who stepped down to bear our burden of separation from God to reconcile us to God.

What a ministry of thanksgiving that we have as a church! We proclaim the good news that Christ has born our guilt and satisfied God’s Law for us so that we might enjoy fellowship with God for eternity and we have received the privilege of displaying God’s love in our ministry to one another’s needs in the name of Jesus.