CCC Gainesville | Blog
Stott & Keller: This short section is the classic text describing the very earliest church and how it lived its live corporately. It is extremely concise but also extremely complete. John Stott writes: “It is incorrect to call the Day of Pentecost ‘the birthday of the church’. For the church as the people of God goes back at least 4,000 years to Abraham. What happened at Pentecost was that…God’s people became the Spirit-filled body of Christ.” Thus this picture of the church is also a picture of what the church becomes when the power of the Spirit is in evidence. During times of spiritual revival and renewal, the church can return to some degree to this form. People studying this text seriously can discover an almost endless stream of important insights as to how Christians should live together in community.
Reading Acts together:
Tim Keller: Discussions of the nature of “glossolalia” (speaking in tongues) must not distract us from the main point of this miracle. On the first day of any church, a very important decision has to be made. What language (and therefore what culture) will he church conduct its worship and business in? When Redeemer Church held its first service, it did so in English, which automatically made ministry to other people (who did not speak English) of secondary importance for the church. Well, on the first day of Jesus’ church, he refused to choose one language or one culture to minister in! If the apostles had spoken in Hebrew or Aramaic or Greek–the signal would have been set that the gospel was primarily for just one people group. But the Lord on Pentecost shows the world that the gospel is for every tongue, tribe, people, and nation. The first “worship service” is multi-lingual, multi-cultural, multi-racial in the extreme.
Pentecost means that the unity of the Spirit transcends all racial, national, and linguistic barriers. For centuries, commentators have noted that Acts 2 is a reversal of the curse of Babel. Acts 2 provides a “Table of the Nations” as does Genesis 10. But in Acts 2, a miracle of blessing brings people together through understanding despite linguistic barriers. While in Genesis 11, a miracle of cursing breaks people apart through division despite original linguistic sameness. In Genesis 11, the people of the earth unite to “make a name for themselves” (v.4), and this leads to the disunity of racial and cultural alienation. In Acts 2, when people unite “to call on the name of the Lord” (Acts 2:21) and the result is racial and cultural healing.
Well she’s been with us all year, but I never had a picture so I never put her biography up. But then someone sent me a great picture of our one and only Clara Driebe.
Clara has been with our church since we began 15 years ago. She teaches the 4th and 5th graders during the first service. Thank you Clara for all your hard work!
If you have been in church in the past few weeks you have heard Rob preaching about “360 Apprentice”. This year part of our vision for the church is to become apprentice’s of Christ. We are learning what that looks like, how to do it and what it means to become an actual apprentice of Christ.
In children’s ministry this year we are also taking on the concept of apprentice. In the Spring we began to focus on 2 Timothy 2:1-3. But more specifically verse 2; And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will also be able to teach others.
In this verse we see Paul saying, I am now teaching you, and you are to take it to your faithful followers so they might take it even farther on to other people. This is a structure of apprentice’s. Timothy apprenticed under Paul, and now Paul is telling him to apprentice his faithful so they might continue teaching others about Christ. This year we have set up this very system. We have many many wonderful teachers in your kids class rooms. We love them, your kids love them. If you did not get a chance to read about them the links to their biographies are at the bottom of this post. Each of our teachers has worked very hard to learn how to teach children spiritual truths in concrete, imaginative, and age appropriate ways. Because they are so good at what they do, we want to spread their knowledge about teaching kids, their wisdom from experience, and their passion for Christ into others at CCC.
We spent the Summer asking God to give us at least five apprentices’, one for each class. And guess what? I’m about to introduce you to our five apprentices’ serving under all of our Core Teachers this year. Praise God!
Tonight I want you to meet Jami Lash:
How long have you been attending CCC? I have been attending CCC since Fall of 2011.
What do you do here in Gainesville? I am a sophomore at UF studying History. I’m involved with RUF campus ministry.
What do you like to do, any hobbies? I enjoy playing volleyball, swing dancing, swimming, hanging out with friends, and meeting new people! 🙂
What is your favorite part of teaching kids? I love being in the classroom with the kids! It takes me away from the college life, and I get to enter into whats going on in their lives a little bit each Sunday morning. Clara
is great and has so many great examples to demonstrate the lesson. I really enjoy listening to all her personal examples, and being reminded of the Bible’s powerful truths! I have just begun to get to
know her, but I can already tell she has lived quite a remarkable life for the Lord. I am blessed to be able to come be with the 4&5th grade class on Sunday mornings!
Meet the Teachers
Driebe
French
We are seeking to read through the Book of Acts together. This week’s readings are:
Mon Oct 22 Acts 1
Tue Oct 23 Acts 2
Wed Oct 24 Acts 3
Thur Oct 25 Acts 4
Fri Oct 26 Acts 5
Sat Oct 27 catch up/reflect/review
