The elders met for their monthly meeting on Tuesday, June 12. Our evening began in the sweetness of prayer exalting Christ for His sufficiency and beseeching His grace for the opportunities in the church for faithful gospel ministry.

Our discussion for the evening opened with a review of the financial reports for the month of August. Average attendance for the month was 375. We praise the Lord that He has continued to increase our attendance to the ministry of God’s Word.

We noted that general fund giving was approximately $65,413 for the month, against the June budget of $74,118. We are thankful that we kept our expenses closer to the general giving for the month.

We know that the body is continuing to pray together for God’s grace and we are so thankful for His continued care for the daily needs of ministry from Omaha to India and Africa through our missionary-pastors’ ministries.

Pray for the elders as we take the month to examine the topic of divorce and marriage. Marriage is a wonderful gift from God our Creator to his creation through marital covenant-love and familial love.

Marriage provides the unique God-sanctioned environment wherein a husband and wife images their Creator, reflecting His glory (Genesis 2). And we should add that Christian marriages uniquely portray the saving covenant of Christ’s grace to His bride, the church (Ephesians 5).

It is our prayer that marriage be held in high esteem both in society as it reflects the goodness of God’s gift to His creation and particularly in the Church as a Christian-marriage reflects Christ. Yet, notwithstanding, God has allowed divorce, as Jesus said, because of the sinfulness of sin and the hardness of the heart.

In short, divorce under certain circumstances that our Lord delineates (like adultery and abandonment) serves as a means of protection for the innocent spouse. It is a provision of God’s common grace in a sin-suffering world.

The challenge for the elders of a church is the need for biblical wisdom to discerningly evaluate family circumstances, promote the encouragement of the gospel, and apply God’s Word to the spiritual needs of the church family.

We would covet your prayers. We are indeed blessed to have our Creator and Redeemer’s revelation in the Bible as well as the rich resources of church history as pastors and elders before us have worked through these issues.

We are thrilled to be joined together with each member of the OBC body in the furtherance of the gospel!

Grace and Peace,

Chris Peterson on behalf of the elders