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 Pastor’s Pen
Duke Jeffries
You are very welcome to our website!
I'm so glad you found us!
I wonder who is visiting and why?
If you are a member of the
COS
family, I trust you'll be able to find your way around the site and to
gather the information you are seeking.
If you have any trouble, please contact the ol'
Webmaster, whose e-mail address appears at the very bottom of the Home
Page.
If you are not a member of our
church family --
if indeed you've never even heard of
"the Church of the Saviour at
Myersville
,
Maryland
" – please allow me to introduce ourselves to you.
Our Sunday morning services are held at the
Myersville
School
: Sunday School
for all ages at 9:30; Coffee Fellowship at 10:25; Morning Worship at
10:45. This schedule changes
every summer (from the Sunday after Father's Day through Labor Day Sunday)
to a single Family Worship Service which begins at 9:30).
Our church motto is "...equipping the saints for the work
of the ministry..." At
COS
we believe that the primary work of the local church is not
to pay a "professional Christian" to do all of the "work of
the ministry," but rather to use the Word of God to transform
believers into disciples and to equip those disciples to
participate in the work of the ministry.
It makes sense, then, that our teaching pastor is part time (he
draws a part-time salary and is, in his "other life," a
Montgomery County school teacher ) and that it
is made necessary by design that
other disciples – the ones seated in the chairs on Sunday
mornings -- participate in the
ministerial work of the church – teaching, evangelism & outreach,
missionary support, prayer, visitation, leadership, service, etc.
So
COS
is not ruled by a pastor; COS is governed by an Elder Board (of which the
teaching pastor is a member, holding only his vote) and a Deacon Board.
And the stewardship of the "work of the ministry" of this
church is assigned to twelve Ministry Teams (or
"committees," if you prefer) each of which has elder or deacon
oversight but is chaired and operated by congregational members.
So, if you're looking for a church where you can serve,
you've found it!
We would love
to welcome you into
the
COS
family!
And, speaking of "family," here's what we do well at
COS
:
1 -
We preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we use the whole Bible to
do so. No frills, no politics, no weird theology; just the Good News
about Jesus, about the
Kingdom
of
God
, about God's desire that we live life to its fullest - all
the way up to the level of "abundance"
We don't care which "version"of
the Bible you bring (our pastor uses ALL of them!)
when you visit us, and we
don't care whether you wear shorts or jeans or a three-piece suit, a
formal dress or workout clothes (you might see
ALL of these on a given Sunday!).
2 -
We love each other. We
pray a lot for each other. We
write a lot of cards, we make a lot of phone
calls, we drop by for a visit, and we help each other out
whenever the need arises. We take our Lord's "Great Commandment"
to love God and each other without reservation very seriously at
COS
.
3 -
We like to hang out. Our
Small Group Fellowships are focused Bible studies, but they also
feature good food and lively conversations
about what is being studied.
After the COS
Book Club members read each of the four or five books* selected
for group reading each year, they get together to eat, to share their
opinions, and to "think Christianly" about the book.
Sunday evenings
during the summer months, the COS Videophiles
watch a great film, but they also eat, share
their opinions about the film, and "think Christianly"
about it.
The "Socials
for Six" fellowship (usually two three-event sets) provide opportunities
to get together with church folk you might not otherwise know so
well to plan three informal get-togethers over a two- or three-month span,
get-togethers which invariably include good
food and conversation.
So, yes, we like to "hang out" at
COS
– and hanging out, it would seem, always
includes eating and conversation – from friendly chit-chat to serious
"mind renewal," all of it fueled by hospitality and good
food. Anything in your life sound like that?
4 - One
of the very best ways to really get to know another person is to work longside
him or her on a Ministry Team, doing some "work of the ministry" shoulder-to-shoulder,
meeting needs together, expanding the boundaries of the
Kingdom
of
God
together, getting tired together, being refreshed
together.
We provide opportunities for everyone at
COS
to participate in the ministries of our church.
Our secret goal is to reach the point when our church
family members tell others not that they attend COS, but
that they serve there
5 -
We do missions well at
COS
, too. While we're talking
about Ministry Teams, we must acknowledge our excellent Missions
Committee, which stands as a Ministry Team
model for others to emulate. This
team oversees the financial and communications
support of a dozen local, national and international
missions; plans and facilitates a semi-annual Missions Conference
every other year; has members serving on the boards of
and/or performing volunteer service at several local missions; and has helped
to send some team members to far-off missions fields for short-term
service.
At
COS
we put our money where our mouth is: our
church designates a generous portion of its
annual budget to the work of missions.
You know, if you aren't attending church anywhere
these days, you really should check us
out for a few weeks. Check out
the rest of the web site, too. Then
come visit us Sunday. This
Sunday. Why not?
9:30 to 12:00. The
Myersville
School
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