Born and raised a Lower Bucks County guy, Kevin Belmont tells his story of working through anger and the loss of loved ones to eventually find new hope in Jesus and way through the brokenness this life had to offer.

As is our tradition, we provide an overview of our church ministry leading up to the annual Member's Meeting. In addition to the strengths and weaknesses of our church ministry, Pastor Tim invited Marla Ashton and Charlene Earle to provide an overview of our Women's ministry and our Family ministry areas.

Paul issues a great warning and an equally great encouragement as his letter progresses in chapter 4 -- flee false teachers and pursue, with all one's ability godliness.

As Paul continues to instruct Timothy on how a local church should be organized, he comes to the topic of deacons -- those servants of the church. Today, Pastor Tim applauds the servants of our church and warns us to be careful of our motives, that our service can never win favor with more favor with God than that which he gave us when He adopted us into His eternal family.

Today, Kevin Reilly, the Chairman of our Elder Council, announced that Colin Earle had successfully completed the interview process with the Elder Council and was being nominated as a new member of the Council. As part of our practice, all new elder candidates share their testimony so our people have a glimpse into the character of the candidate.

In a letter that is addressing the problem of false doctrine, Paul provides guidelines for appointing elders for the local church -- the first line of protection against false doctrine!

Does Paul teach that women are not equal? No.
Does he teach that women must be under authority? Yes
Does he teach that women have less value in church matters? No.

But Paul does teach that even among the Trinity there is a hierarchy, and an authority structure -- and that extends to our families as well as to the local church. We all -- men and women -- have important roles to play in our churches.

As Paul opens up this letter to his young protege, he immediately jumps to the topic of doctrine, specifically false doctrine. He outlines false teachings that were prevalent in the Ephesus church and pointed out what true doctrine was and how to adhere to it.