{"id":4985,"date":"2021-08-30T11:20:08","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T15:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michigancog.org\/?p=4985"},"modified":"2021-08-30T11:20:08","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T15:20:08","slug":"bishops-blog-fall-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/michigancog.org\/bishops-blog-fall-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Bishop\u2019s Blog: Fall 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">As we begin the new church year (2021-2022), we are always reminded of the changing of season.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Summer will turn to fall; leaves will change colors; school resumes, and football season starts.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Transition is a necessary part of life.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The Reyes Family transitioned to Ohio, and the Wright Family has transitioned here to Michigan this month as or State Youth and Discipleship Directors.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>We are thankful to have Pastor Ernie, Michele, Claire, and Lucas here on the Campground with us.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>They are doing a great job.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I am excited for the 2021-2022 church year in the Michigan Church of God.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Our theme for this year is \u201cFormation.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Noah Webster defined<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span><i>formation <\/i>as \u201cthe manner in which a thing is formed.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>In the church Jesus has given us the mission (we called it the Great Commission) of making disciples (Matthew 28:19 NAS).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Church, we are tasked with the job of forming lives.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>In salvation lives are transformed; God does this through Jesus\u2019 work on the cross.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>As churches we are to form lives.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>How do we do this?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>First of all, teach believers to be baptized in water in obedience to the command of our Lord; water baptism is a significant act of obedience in a believer\u2019s life.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Second, teach believers the beauty of righteousness, consecration, and sanctification.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Third, stress the importance of the baptism in the Holy Spirit (Acts2:4); Spirit baptism gives a believer power for service and is the gateway into the Spirit-filled life.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Finally, we need a systematic program for training believers in the Word of God.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>This must include how to live, how to build families, identifying a person\u2019s giftedness, clarifying the call of God on an individual\u2019s life, and placing people in service and ministry for the kingdom.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">As pastors and leaders we aren\u2019t building our kingdom.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>We are building\/forming lives; when we form lives on the Word of God, the Kingdom will<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>be built, the church will be healthy, and the body of Christ will grow.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Our task may be tough at times, but through the power of the Holy Spirit and the strength of Christ, we can!<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>God bless you as you make disciples and form lives!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As we begin the new church year (2021-2022), we are always reminded of the changing of season.\u00a0 Summer will turn to fall; leaves will change colors; school resumes, and football&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/michigancog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4985"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/michigancog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/michigancog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michigancog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michigancog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/michigancog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/michigancog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michigancog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michigancog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}