Is the Emergent Church Doctrine Really Biblical?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OVmjLAvk690
http://youtu.be/OVmjLAvk690
125 Singers Observe 50 Years of the Lancaster church of Christ 1965-2015
Sunday August 30, 2015 marked the 50th recorded year of the church meeting in this location. The building is a hundred years old and there are some historical sources that say the church met here in the 1880's, but we only have pictures and church bulletins, letters and newspaper articles for the last 50 years. Here is what one of the songs sounded like
In the picture above, Stan Sherman leads the last song: When We All Get to Heaven.
One hundred twenty five singers from approximately 10 other small congregations came to share this 5th Sunday singing which included the 50 year commemoration. 10 song leaders lead the songs listed on the old chalkboard, and there were 10 preachers attending from various places in Oregon.
If you had never heard all age groups from one to ninety-one singing four part acapella harmony, you were in for a real treat. The building seemed to rumble with the intense vibration of the enthusiastic voices, and of course the acoustics of the old meeting place helped us all hear each other.
Above on the lower left is John Sherman, younger brother of Preacher Stan Sherman, who was one of the preachers who came in 1966. In his late teens, John was attending the University of Oregon and working at a sawmill in 1965 and preaching at Lancaster on Sunday's. Stanley Sherman also came to preach in 1967.
One of our members, Ernest Coburn, who was the first preacher here at its inception in 1965, opened the meeting with a short speech about how the church came to be planted here 50 years agp. The details are in this little history brochure. Contact stansherman@comcast.net for more information.
Lancaster takes its turn to host the 5th Sunday singing next May, 2016.
Above: the history brochure that was given to everyone who came.
Below: one of the articles in the brochure about the value and might of small churches.
Here is the list of songs that were put on the chalkboard, and each songleader that volunteered led two of them:
They That Wait Upon the Lord
It is Well With My Soul
Let Me Live Close to Thee
Sing On aye Joyful Pilgrims
There is Coming a Day
All Hail the Power
How Shall the Young Secure Their Hearts
Victory in Jesus
Redeemed
Have a Little Talk With Jesus
Sing and Be Happy
He Gave Me A Song
When We All Get to Heaven
Angry Words
I'll Fly Away
Anniversary Song:
Happy anniversary to You
To Jesus Be True
May Gods Richest Blessings
Fall Ever on You!
Preachers and Song Leaders present
Ernest Coburn
John Sherman
Stanley Sherman
Mark Tremarche
David Hetrick
John Banks
Lee Wright
Aiden Humphrey
Johnpaul Humphrey
John Dean
Jim Vise
Church of Christ in Lancaster (Junction City, Oregon)
The church of Christ meets in Lancaster at the following times.
Bible Study Sunday Morning: 9:45
Worship Sunday Morning: 10:45
Bible Study Sunday Evening in fellowship room 4 p.m. winters and 5 p.m all other seasons
Bible Study Wednesday 4 p.m. winters and 5 p.m. all other seasons.
Weekly Gospel Radio Program: Each Sunday at 3:30 p.m. on KORE 10.50 on the dial, Springfield, Oregon. This is one of the oldest running Christian radio broadcasts in the area.
Click here for information about the weekly Ladies Bible Class and fellowship.
Call 541-998-1944 for information, or Stan Sherman 541-998-8989 for directions, personal Bible Study, or other inquiries.
email: stansherman@comcast.net
Click here to read the preacher's Web-Log.
To study about the gospel and the Lord's church, go to World Bible School, This study is recommended for local people in the Lancaster, and Tri-County area. If, after going through a World Bible School online study you are interested in further information on obeying the gospel, please contact us.
HOW IS ONE SAVED TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN AND GO TO HEAVEN?
HOW IS ONE SAVED TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN AND GO TO HEAVEN?
A. This is the most important question in a person's life.
1. It is not a question that is left up for us to invent our own answer, as many people attempt to do today in religion.
a. JEREMIAH 10:23 says: “...The way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.”
b. Jesus said, “Not everyone that saith unto me 'Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (MATTHEW 7:21).
2. To answer the question of salvation, it only makes sense to seek out the answer from the one who originated the plan for salvation.
a. That of course is God, and He reveals His Will and Answer in His Word— the Bible.
b. PSALM 119:105 “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
c. PSALM 119:130 “The entrance of thy words giveth light: it giveth understanding unto the simple.”
B. In God's Word, the Bible, we learn from JOHN 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
1. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one cometh unto the Father but by Me.” (JOHN 14:6)
a. So if we want to go to heaven, we can't look to Mohammed, or Krishna or Buddha or anyone else.
b. We can go to heaven only by way of Jesus Christ.
2. It is by reading and studying the Bible that we learn of Christ and establish our Faith in Him.
a. ROMANS 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”
b. HEBREWS 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."
(1) From this passage we learn two important things about Faith: that
(a) First, that we must be convinced that Jesus is the Christ; believing He died for our sins on the cross, was buried in the tomb, but rose again on the third day. These are the great facts of the gospel.
(b) Secondly, that we must establish a commitment of trust in Him.
(2) This brings us to the third element of true faith in Jesus found in HEBREWS 5:8-9 “Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; And being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him.”
(3) Obedience implies trust, commitment and action.
(4) Obedience puts feet under our faith.
3. Faithful Obedience logically leads us to want to change from our old life in order to embrace the new life we want to have in Christ. This is repentance.
a. ACTS 3:19 “Repent, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”
b. 2 CORINTHIANS 7:10 “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”
4. Faithful Obedience through repentance naturally leads us to acknowledge our faith in Christ. This is the great confession of faith “Yes, I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
a. ROMANS 10:9-10 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
b. In MATTHEW 10:32-33 Jesus said, “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.”
C. If I sincerely believe in Jesus with trusting faith; and repent of my sins, and without any doubt can acknowledge, or confess my faith to others, I am now ready to put on Christ in my life. How does that happen?
1. GALATIANS 3:27 has the answer: “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
2. We know that it is the blood of Christ which He shed on the cross that cleanses us of our sins, because the Bible says:
ROMANS 3:23-25 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;”
a. We see everything coming together: God's grace, our faith, the blood of Christ, the remission, or forgiveness, of sins when we are baptized into Christ
b. When people on the day of Pentecost asked what they had to do to be saved, Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (ACTS 2:38)
3. Jesus died for our sins, and we die to sin in likeness of His death through our repentance.
Jesus was buried in a tomb, and our old sinful self is buried with Him in the waters of baptism, in the likeness of His burial.
Jesus was resurrected from the dead, and we are resurrected from Baptism to walk in newness of life—the Christian life.
a. That is how we obey the gospel.
b. The Apostle Paul summarizes the transformation very beautifully in ROMANS 6:3-5 “Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection:”
D. How important is it for us to make the decision to obey the gospel as soon as possible? What if I don't obey the gospel?
1. I PETER 4:17 “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?”
2. 2 THESSALONIANS l:7-9 answers this question: “And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God: and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.”
3. Do you want that to happen to you?
4. The Holy Spirit, who guided Ananias to speak to Saul His instructions, speaks to you today the very same thing, as we read in ACTS 22:16 “And now why tarriest thou? Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”
E. Once you have by faith repented and been immersed in baptism into Christ, and His blood, in that act of faith, has washed away your sins, Jesus adds you to His body, the church (Acts 2:47).
1. Now you have work to do.
a. JAMES 1:22 “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”
b. Jesus said in MATTHEW 7:21 “Not everyone that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.”
2. New Christians are referred to in the Bible as newborn babes. As such, you are expected to grow and mature, just as happens in nature. The Bible helps us to get a successful start...
a. I PETER 2:2 “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.”
b. 2 PETER 3:18 “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
F. In REVELATION 2:10 Jesus says to Christians, “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”
1. Again, the Apostle Peter tells us how we can walk the Christian life faithfully and successfully on the narrow road to Heaven:
2 PETER 1:2-11 (NASV) “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted unto us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply
MORAL EXCELLENCE, and in your moral excellence,
KNOWLEDGE, and in your knowledge,
SELF CONTROL, and in your self control,
PERSEVERANCE, and in your perseverance,
GODLINESS,
a. And let me interrupt this list to comment on Godliness.
(1) This word includes all that we do in WORSHIP.
(2) As the Lord's church, we assemble each week on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7), to pour out from our hearts our worship to God through PRAYER (1 Timothy 2:1-3); BIBLE TEACHING AND PREACHING (2 Timothy 2:15; 4:2); SINGING (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16-17); THE LORD'S SUPPER ( Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26); and GIVING (1 Corinthians 16:1-2; 2 Corinthians 9-7).
b. JOHN 4:24 “God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
c. Now let's return to the list of Christian duties:
“and in your godliness BROTHERLY KINDNESS; and in your brotherly kindness, CHRISTIAN LOVE.
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things are blind or shortsighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.”
2. Jesus sums it all up in REVELATION 22:14 in these words: “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”
3. Have a great journey!
Stanley Sherman
A. This is the most important question in a person's life.
1. It is not a question that is left up for us to invent our own answer, as many people attempt to do today in religion.
a. JEREMIAH 10:23 says: “...The way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.”
b. Jesus said, “Not everyone that saith unto me 'Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (MATTHEW 7:21).
2. To answer the question of salvation, it only makes sense to seek out the answer from the one who originated the plan for salvation.
a. That of course is God, and He reveals His Will and Answer in His Word— the Bible.
b. PSALM 119:105 “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
c. PSALM 119:130 “The entrance of thy words giveth light: it giveth understanding unto the simple.”
B. In God's Word, the Bible, we learn from JOHN 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
1. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one cometh unto the Father but by Me.” (JOHN 14:6)
a. So if we want to go to heaven, we can't look to Mohammed, or Krishna or Buddha or anyone else.
b. We can go to heaven only by way of Jesus Christ.
2. It is by reading and studying the Bible that we learn of Christ and establish our Faith in Him.
a. ROMANS 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”
b. HEBREWS 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."
(1) From this passage we learn two important things about Faith: that
(a) First, that we must be convinced that Jesus is the Christ; believing He died for our sins on the cross, was buried in the tomb, but rose again on the third day. These are the great facts of the gospel.
(b) Secondly, that we must establish a commitment of trust in Him.
(2) This brings us to the third element of true faith in Jesus found in HEBREWS 5:8-9 “Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; And being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him.”
(3) Obedience implies trust, commitment and action.
(4) Obedience puts feet under our faith.
3. Faithful Obedience logically leads us to want to change from our old life in order to embrace the new life we want to have in Christ. This is repentance.
a. ACTS 3:19 “Repent, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”
b. 2 CORINTHIANS 7:10 “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”
4. Faithful Obedience through repentance naturally leads us to acknowledge our faith in Christ. This is the great confession of faith “Yes, I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
a. ROMANS 10:9-10 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
b. In MATTHEW 10:32-33 Jesus said, “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.”
C. If I sincerely believe in Jesus with trusting faith; and repent of my sins, and without any doubt can acknowledge, or confess my faith to others, I am now ready to put on Christ in my life. How does that happen?
1. GALATIANS 3:27 has the answer: “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
2. We know that it is the blood of Christ which He shed on the cross that cleanses us of our sins, because the Bible says:
ROMANS 3:23-25 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;”
a. We see everything coming together: God's grace, our faith, the blood of Christ, the remission, or forgiveness, of sins when we are baptized into Christ
b. When people on the day of Pentecost asked what they had to do to be saved, Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (ACTS 2:38)
3. Jesus died for our sins, and we die to sin in likeness of His death through our repentance.
Jesus was buried in a tomb, and our old sinful self is buried with Him in the waters of baptism, in the likeness of His burial.
Jesus was resurrected from the dead, and we are resurrected from Baptism to walk in newness of life—the Christian life.
a. That is how we obey the gospel.
b. The Apostle Paul summarizes the transformation very beautifully in ROMANS 6:3-5 “Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection:”
D. How important is it for us to make the decision to obey the gospel as soon as possible? What if I don't obey the gospel?
1. I PETER 4:17 “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?”
2. 2 THESSALONIANS l:7-9 answers this question: “And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God: and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.”
3. Do you want that to happen to you?
4. The Holy Spirit, who guided Ananias to speak to Saul His instructions, speaks to you today the very same thing, as we read in ACTS 22:16 “And now why tarriest thou? Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”
E. Once you have by faith repented and been immersed in baptism into Christ, and His blood, in that act of faith, has washed away your sins, Jesus adds you to His body, the church (Acts 2:47).
1. Now you have work to do.
a. JAMES 1:22 “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”
b. Jesus said in MATTHEW 7:21 “Not everyone that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.”
2. New Christians are referred to in the Bible as newborn babes. As such, you are expected to grow and mature, just as happens in nature. The Bible helps us to get a successful start...
a. I PETER 2:2 “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.”
b. 2 PETER 3:18 “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
F. In REVELATION 2:10 Jesus says to Christians, “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”
1. Again, the Apostle Peter tells us how we can walk the Christian life faithfully and successfully on the narrow road to Heaven:
2 PETER 1:2-11 (NASV) “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted unto us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply
MORAL EXCELLENCE, and in your moral excellence,
KNOWLEDGE, and in your knowledge,
SELF CONTROL, and in your self control,
PERSEVERANCE, and in your perseverance,
GODLINESS,
a. And let me interrupt this list to comment on Godliness.
(1) This word includes all that we do in WORSHIP.
(2) As the Lord's church, we assemble each week on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7), to pour out from our hearts our worship to God through PRAYER (1 Timothy 2:1-3); BIBLE TEACHING AND PREACHING (2 Timothy 2:15; 4:2); SINGING (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16-17); THE LORD'S SUPPER ( Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26); and GIVING (1 Corinthians 16:1-2; 2 Corinthians 9-7).
b. JOHN 4:24 “God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
c. Now let's return to the list of Christian duties:
“and in your godliness BROTHERLY KINDNESS; and in your brotherly kindness, CHRISTIAN LOVE.
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things are blind or shortsighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.”
2. Jesus sums it all up in REVELATION 22:14 in these words: “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”
3. Have a great journey!
Stanley Sherman