A couple of weeks ago, our church had a "family chat" on Thursday night about a ministry partnership opportunity that Pastor Will Dudding and Pastor Bob Bixby have been discussing since Bro. Bixby was visiting with us in April for our Missional Mandate Conference. This partnership is really about building a working relationship with Morning Star Baptist Church of Rockford Ill. for the purpose of helping us building a pastoral team of elders at Mission Peak to work alongside Pastor Dudding as we pursue our vision of becoming an "Authentic Community of Disciples on the Mission of Jesus". This summer for the whole month of July and part of August, Pastor Bixby and his family will be coming all the way out here to be with us again. Pastor Bixby will be doing some personal mentoring for our pastor and together they will demonstrate the Biblical model of plural eldership as is the Biblical pattern for church leadership. They will be exploring various ideas along with the church membership about how we as a church can best contextualize in order to reach the city of Fremont most effectively with the gospel. In preparation for this, we would like to encourage you to read a short book by Mark Dever called "By Whose Authority? Elders in Baptist Life" which you can pick up in the church bookstore for $8.00 or you can read a PDF version of the book for free by clicking here.
A more Biblical leadership structure would be best for our church's present and future health and growth. It is our heart to continually be assessing what we are doing by the Word of God and take necessary steps to ensure that we are being as faithful to the pattern set for us in Scripture so we are an authentic church, not necessarily defined by tradition or what is popular. Please start praying for these special 5 weeks with Pastor Bixby to be fruitful and encouraging for both our church and his.
