Holy Land Trip June 2008

First Baptist Church
2336 Buena Vista Ave
Walnut Creek, CA 94597

Phone: (925) 934-2139

 
   


F
or many people, going to church doesn’t seem to be something they would enjoy. Part of the reason is because of what they hear about church. But at First Baptist Church, however, it is our vision to enjoy God.

We invite you each week to come and see for yourself. Our pastor, David Miller, is not like the image you may have a pastor. If your image is that of a pastor being mean, negative and judgmental, you will not find that at FBC. He believes that we need to be enjoying God as one of our chief ends to living.

This attitude of enjoying God is reflected in our pastor’s messages each Sunday. Instead of emphasizing the negative, he sets the truths of Scripture in a positive tone as something we should aspire to and incorporate into our lives. Interestingly, it is the people who come on Sunday who determine which truths the pastor chooses to speak about! And this is what Scripture would desire of pastors for it says that we are to “speak only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Ephesians 4:29).

In addition, pastor uses humor to relax people, always gives a picture after making a point by the use of stories, uses terms that people understand, makes points of the outline application points, uses a soft-sell rather than a hard-sell, is transparent before his people, uses translations of the Bible that people can understand and as said earlier speaks to our felt needs. This helps the people who attend to feel relaxed and start their journey of enjoying God.

To some people all of this sounds like a new wrinkle. But is it? The Westminster Confession of Faith written in the mid-1600s had this question, “What is the chief end of man?” The answer? “Man’s chief end is to magnify God and to enjoy God forever.” We need to get back to this way of viewing God and we are trying at FBC.

 

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