Dear Berean Family,

“Cheer up. Things could be worse,” he said. “So I did. I cheered up, and sure enough things got worse.” Maybe you feel that way as you read how Paul in 2 Timothy 3 describes the “last days.” He uses a particular word to describe them in verse 1. Some versions translate it as “perilous.” Others translate it as “difficult” and “terrifying.” The Greek word is only used one other place in the New Testament to describe the demon-possessed men who met Jesus coming out of the tombs. There we are told they were “so fierce, no one could pass that way” (ESV). In other words, the last days will be dangerous. Paul goes on to describe with bleak detail what exactly that means, but he also had some last days counsel for young Timothy. We will look at this Scriptural counsel this Sunday.

Here is our normal schedule of services:

Sunday morning: 10:00 AM service, live streamed and broadcast to the parking lot

11:15 AM Sunday School 

Sunday evening: 5:45 PM AWANA

6:00 PM Service 

Wednesday evening: 7:00 PM Prayer Meeting and New Life Teens

Don’t forget some special things that are coming:

Saturday, October 30 Trunk or Treat 

Sunday, November 14 Church Lunch with East Band playing

Christmas events are coming soon. Invite your friends and neighbors.

Lord willing, I (Steve) will be preaching from 2 Timothy 3 this Sunday. On Sunday evening, we will be having coffee, refreshments, singing and a message. Pray for our AWANA workers, children and young people.

Keep praying. Please continue to call, encourage and pray for one another.  Phone a friend or write a note. It will encourage you both. Also, invite friends and family to come this Sunday. We love you and are praying for you.  

In Him, 

Pastor Steve

Dear Berean Family,

Francoise Sagan, the French playwright, wrote, “Money may not buy happiness, but I had rather cry in a Jaguar than on a bus.” That may make us chuckle, but even a brief look at the life of Francoise Sagan cautions us against focusing on temporal, material gain that leads to bankruptcy of a different kind. Ironically, she nearly killed herself in a car accident speeding in an Aston Martin. She was in constant pain afterward. Her life was racked by immoral relationships, drug addiction and gambling. She wrote her own two-sentence obituary. “Appeared in 1954 with a slender novel, Bonjour tristesse, which created a scandal worldwide. Her death… was a scandal only for herself.” Paul in 1 Timothy 6 calls us to invest, not in worldly riches, but in godliness “which is great gain.” 

Here is our normal schedule of services:

Sunday morning: 10:00 AM service, live streamed and broadcast to the parking lot

11:15 AM Sunday School 

Sunday evening: 5:45 PM AWANA

6:00 PM Service 

Wednesday evening: 7:00 PM Prayer Meeting and New Life Teens

Don’t forget some special things that are coming:

Saturday, October 30 Trunk or Treat (We still need folk who will bring their cars for this event with a castle theme)

Sunday, November 14 Church Lunch with East Band playing

Christmas events are coming soon. Invite your friends and neighbors.

Lord willing, Phil will be preaching from 1 Timothy 6 this Sunday. We will also have communion. On Sunday evening, we will be having coffee, refreshments, singing and a message.

Keep praying. Please continue to call, encourage and pray for one another.  Phone a friend or write a note. It will encourage you both. Also, invite friends and family to come this Sunday. We love you and are praying for you.  

In Him, 

Pastor Steve

Dear Berean Family,

During the Great Depression, a Texas Rancher named Mr. Yates was on the brink of bankruptcy. An oil company came to him and asked permission to drill on his land. With nothing to lose, he agreed to let them drill at a shallow depth. The workmen struck the largest oil deposit found at that time on the North American continent. Black gold. Texas Tea. Overnight he became a billionaire—yes, almost like the fictional Jed Clampitt. Ironically, days before he had been desperately poor, but all along he was sitting on untold wealth. The same can be true for us spiritually as we will see in Ephesians.

Here is our normal schedule of services:

Sunday morning: 10:00 AM service, live streamed and broadcast to the parking lot

11:15 AM Sunday School

Sunday evening: 6:00 PM service and AWANA

Wednesday evening: 7:00 PM Prayer Meeting and New Life Teens

Lord willing, we will be having communion, and I (Steve) will be preaching from Ephesians 3. On Sunday evening, we will be having an informal time of refreshments, singing and a message in order to welcome AWANA parents who might come.

Keep praying. Please continue to call, encourage and pray for one another.  Phone a friend or write a note. It will encourage you both. Also, invite friends and family to come this Sunday. We love you and are praying for you.  

In Him, 

Pastor Steve

Dear Berean Family,

WARNING: Get ready for it… James tells us that the Law is like a mirror to help us see ourselves. We are not to just look at ourselves in the mirror, walk away and forget. If I look at the mirror in the morning, I can see that I need to shave, but the mirror doesn’t help me shave just like the Law doesn’t help us change. The Law only exposes our faults. Get ready for it… We are shaved by grace (OK. You can groan now). This Sunday, Lord willing, we will look at Galatians 3 where Paul talks about these same things.

AWANA started last Sunday evening. Lord willing, this weekend, we will see even more kids coming. This year it will be on Sunday evenings. Our hope is that as parents bring their kids, they can come into an evening service and find a welcome into our church family. Of course, AWANA requires lots of workers. “Many hands make light work.” If you can help, please see the sign-up sheet in the lobby.

Here is our normal schedule of services:

Sunday morning: 10:00 AM service, live streamed and broadcast to the parking lot

11:15 AM Sunday School

Sunday evening: 6:00 PM service and AWANA

Wednesday evening: 7:00 PM Prayer Meeting and New Life Teens

Lord willing, I (Steve) will be preaching this Sunday morning from Galatians 3. On Sunday evening, we will be having an informal time to welcome and AWANA parents who might come.

Keep praying. Please continue to call, encourage and pray for one another.  Phone a friend or write a note. It will encourage you both. Also, invite friends and family to come this Sunday. We love you and are praying for you.  

In Him, 

Pastor Steve

Dear Berean Family,

My wife loves camping. Her family vacations were always spent in tents (with 10 kids, it was all they could afford). To her camping is reminiscent of good times. On the other hand, my one memory of a family camping vacation involved a miserable night of lightning and pouring rain spent on the edge of a lake that crept ever closer and threatened to wash us away. About 3:00 AM, Mom decided it was time to call it quits. We packed our soggy stuff and left. For Caroline, family camping was happy, for me, misery. Paul, the tent maker, in 

2 Corinthians 5, likened our earthly bodies to tents. As long as we are camping, we are away from Christ—our home. Most of us have enjoyed our time in this world, but when the time comes to go home, we’ll be ready. 

AWANA will be starting this Sunday evening, September 5th. This year it will be on Sunday evenings. Our hope is that as parents bring their kids, they can come into an evening service and find a welcome into our church family. Of course, AWANA requires lots of workers. “Many hands make light work.” If you can help, please see the sign-up sheet in the lobby.

Our Fall ministries will also reboot beginning September 5th. Please pray for our children’s and youth work.

Here is our normal schedule of services:

Sunday morning: 10:00 AM service, live streamed and broadcast to the parking lot

11:15 AM Sunday School

Sunday evening: 5:45 PM AWANA

6:00 PM service 

Wednesday evening: 7:00 PM Prayer Meeting and New Life Teens

Lord willing, I (Steve) will be preaching this Sunday morning from 2 Corinthians 5. On Sunday evening, we will be having an informal time to welcome and AWANA parents who might come.

Keep praying. Please continue to call, encourage and pray for one another.  Phone a friend or write a note. It will encourage you both. Also, invite friends and family to come this Sunday. We love you and are praying for you.  

In Him, 

Pastor Steve

Dear Berean Family,

Gregory Elder tells this story: “Growing up on the Atlantic Coast, I spent long hours working on intricate sand castles; whole cities would appear beneath my hands. One year, for several days in a row, I was accosted by bullies who smashed my creations. Finally I tried an experiment: I placed cinder blocks, rocks, and chunks of concrete in the base of my castles. Then I built the sand kingdoms on top of the rocks. When the local toughs appeared (and I disappeared), their bare feet suddenly met their match. Many people see the church in grave peril from a variety of dangers: secularism, politics, heresies, or plain old sin. They forget that the church is built upon a Rock (Mt. 16:16), over which the gates of hell itself shall not prevail.” 

AWANA will be starting soon (Sunday evening, September 5th). This year it will be on a Sunday evening. Our hope is that as parents bring their kids, they can come into an evening service and find a welcome into our church family. Of course, AWANA requires lots of workers. “Many hands make light work.” If you can help, please see the sign-up sheet in the lobby.

Our Fall ministries will also reboot beginning September 5th. Please pray for our children’s and youth work.

Here is our normal schedule of services:

Sunday morning:         10:00 AM service, live streamed and broadcast to the parking lot

                                        11:15 AM Sunday School

Sunday evening:          6:00 PM service and New Life Teens

Wednesday evening:  7:00 PM Prayer Meeting

Lord willing, Phil Minich will be preaching this Sunday morning. On Sunday evening, we will be continuing our study in Ephesians 1.

Keep praying. Please continue to call, encourage and pray for one another.  Phone a friend or write a note. It will encourage you both. Also, invite friends and family to come this Sunday. We love you and are praying for you.  

In Him,

Pastor Steve

Dear Berean Family,

So on the golf course the other day, Joe met a giant eyeball crying. It turns out he was going through a rough patch. What did one eyeball say to the other eyeball? “Between you and me, something smells.” In 

1 Corinthians 12, Paul doesn’t descend into eye-rolling jokes. He does present the “eye-ronic” (Somebody stop me!) picture of what the body would be like as one big eye or an ear. His point is that the body of Christ has many parts. Each functions differently, and each is crucial to the overall function and good health of the body. This Sunday, we will be taking a look at every-member ministry in the body.

AWANA will be starting soon (Sunday evening, September 5th). This year it will be on a Sunday evening. Our hope is that as parents bring their kids, they can come into an evening service and find a welcome into our church family. Of course, AWANA requires lots of workers. “Many hands make light work.” If you can help, please see the sign-up sheet in the lobby.

Our Fall ministries will also reboot beginning September 5th. Please pray for our children’s and youth work.

Here is our normal schedule of services:

Sunday morning: 10:00 AM service, live streamed and broadcast to the parking lot

11:15 AM Sunday School

Sunday evening: 6:00 PM service and New Life Teens

Wednesday evening: 7:00 PM Prayer Meeting

Lord willing, I (Steve) will be preaching this Sunday from 1 Corinthians 12. On Sunday evening, we will be continuing our study in Ephesians.

Keep praying. Please continue to call, encourage and pray for one another.  Phone a friend or write a note. It will encourage you both. Also, invite friends and family to come this Sunday. We love you and are praying for you.  

In Him, 

Pastor Steve

Dear Berean Family,

On April 10th, 1976 President Gerald Ford was in San Antonio, Texas campaigning for a second term of presidency. He was running against Jimmy Carter. While in San Antonio, they served him a food common in Texas-- tamales. If you’ve ever seen one, it is corn dough called masa that is spiced and sometimes contains meats. It’s wrapped in corn leaves or corn husk. While in that wrapper they steam them, or they boil them. They gave the president a plate of tamales, and he grabbed one and bit straight into it, corn husk and all. Anyone who has ever eaten a tamale before knows that you can’t eat the tamale with the wrapper still on it. In fact, as one political reporter there recalled, the president nearly choked as he was trying to eat it. You have to remove the husk or the wrapper in order to get to the good stuff inside the tamales. This was such a big deal that Texas showed this on local television news over and over again during the next several weeks. It became something of a symbol of how out of touch the president was in that state. “He doesn’t even know how to eat our food.” President Ford lost Texas in his bid for re-election, which left him short of Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter won the presidency that year and some pointed to this particular incident as the turning point in the campaign. Now why am I talking about tamales? In 1 Corinthians 6, we have a question raised about the human body. For the Christian, is the human body a wrapper just to be thrown away? Or is there more to our bodies? We will look more at this on Sunday.

Here are some things to remember:

·       August is full of interesting events:

o   August 20- Ladies’ Poolside Fellowship (at the Manns’)

o   August 21- Church Work Day

o   August 22- Church in the Park (Sunday evening 6:00 service in the Park beside PNC Bank)

Here is our normal schedule of services:

Sunday morning:         10:00 AM service, live streamed and broadcast to the parking lot

                                        11:15 AM Sunday School

Sunday evening:          6:00 PM service and New Life Teens

Wednesday evening:  7:00 PM Prayer Meeting

Lord willing, I (Steve) will be preaching this Sunday from 1 Corinthians 6.

The Lord is at work at Berean. It is exciting. Keep praying. Please continue to call, encourage and pray for one another.  Phone a friend or write a note. It will encourage you both. Also, invite friends and family to come this Sunday. We love you and are praying for you.  

In Him,

Pastor Steve

Dear Berean Family,

I have said recently that the Gospel is not just the diving board into the Christian life from which we swim away. It’s the pool in which we swim. Another analogy is that the Gospel is not the station on which we board the train and then pull away. The Gospel is the train we ride all the way to our heavenly destination. The Gospel carries us to heaven, and it is also where we live and eat and move on the journey. You can see it in our Romans reading this week. Paul didn’t talk about the Gospel and then depart from it when he started talking about practical things. The Gospel infuses us with life that transforms all our everyday thoughts, speech, and actions.

VBS week was a good week. We made some really good contacts. Please continue to pray that the Lord will work in hearts.

This past Sunday morning, the church made two decisions: (1) The constitution was changed to allow versions (such as the New King James and the English Standard Version) to be used in teaching and preaching in our services; (2) The church decided to support Isaac and Kacie Mann as missionaries for $75/ month.

Here are some things to remember: 

• August is full of interesting events:

  • August 13- The Block Party

  • August 20- Ladies’ Poolside Fellowship (at the Manns’)

  • August 21- Church Work Day

  • August 22- Church in the Park (Sunday evening 6:00 service in the Park beside PNC Bank)

Here is our normal schedule of services:

Sunday morning: 10:00 AM service, live streamed and broadcast to the parking lot

11:15 AM Sunday School

Sunday evening: 6:00 PM service and New Life Teens

Wednesday evening: 7:00 PM Prayer Meeting (led this week by Harry Ramsey)

Lord willing, I (Steve) will be preaching this Sunday from 1 Corinthians 2. On Sunday evening, we continue in the series “Thinking Biblically.” 

The Lord is at work at Berean. It is exciting. Keep praying. Please continue to call, encourage and pray for one another.  Phone a friend or write a note. It will encourage you both. Also, invite friends and family to come this Sunday. We love you and are praying for you.  

In Him, 

Pastor Steve

Dear Berean Family,

Last week a young 25-year-old woman in Columbia went bungee jumping with her boyfriend. They were to jump from a 130-foot-high bridge. As the workers were getting them harnessed and secured to their bungee cords, one of them gave the signal to her boyfriend to jump. She mistakenly thought she was also secure and that they were jumping together. Her cord had not been connected. She tragically plunged to her death 130 feet below. That horrific story made me reflect on our connection with Christ. In Romans, Paul talks about his struggles with sin and the question hangs in the air: “Does my struggle with sin mean I am disconnected from Christ?” Paul ends the chapter with a long list of all the things that might possibly detach us from Christ, but he firmly assures us:  “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

VBS this week has been exciting. We are seeing some new children coming, and we are getting to know their parents. Please continue to pray that the Lord will work in hearts.

Here are some things to remember: 

• This Sunday morning, we will have a church business meeting after the service to decide on two items.

• We have restarted our Sunday School. Sunday service will be from 10-11 and Sunday School from 11:15-12:00. 

• August is full of interesting events:

  • August 2- The East Back-to-School Carnival

  • August 13- The Block Party

  • August 20- Ladies’ Poolside Fellowship (at the Manns’)

  • August 21- Church Work Day

  • August 22- Church in the Park (Sunday evening service in the Park beside PNC Bank)

Here is our normal schedule of services:

Sunday morning: 10:00 AM service, live streamed and broadcast to the parking lot

11:15 AM Sunday School

Sunday evening: 6:00 PM service and New Life Teens

Wednesday evening: 7:00 PM Prayer Meeting (led this week by Harry Ramsey)

Lord willing, I (Steve) will be preaching this Sunday from Romans 8. On Sunday evening, we continue in the series “Thinking Biblically.” 

The Lord is at work at Berean. It is exciting. Keep praying. Please continue to call, encourage and pray for one another.  Phone a friend or write a note. It will encourage you both. Also, invite friends and family to come this Sunday. We love you and are praying for you.  

In Him, 

Pastor Steve

Dear Berean Family,

C.T. Studd wrote a booklet called Chocolate Soldiers. I know some people who will fight for chocolate, but this is not what he had in mind. We are in a spiritual battle. Having peace with God does not mean we have a peaceful life. The Bible doesn’t say we have peace with the devil, peace with the world, peace with the flesh or peace with sin. Life is still a battle for the believer, but instead of fighting against God, we fight with Him. Some Christians come to believe that the Christian life should be one of ease, so when the battle comes, they melt like chocolate soldiers in the heat of trouble. Romans tells us the person who understands the Gospel will actually endure and grow in trials. By the way, you don’t have to be an angry, hateful Christian to fight these battles. Our weapons are not carnal, fleshly weapons like guns, propaganda, and hate, but love, truth, and kindness. We have the joy of knowing we do not fight in our own strength, but in God’s, and His Gospel overcomes the hardest heart with grace.

There are several special days coming: 

• We have restarted our Sunday School. Sunday service will be from 10-11 and Sunday School from 11:15-12:00. 

  • An adult class will meet in the auditorium

  • The Ladies of Excellence will meet in their classroom

  • Teens will meet in the New Life Teen room

  • Children will meet in the Junior classroom

  • A nursery will be available for babies and toddlers

• All this week, is VBS setup. If you can help, please contact Phil Minich (630-247-8601).

• Next week, July 26-30 will be VBS each evening. Please, pray that the Lord will work in the hearts of children and families. This will mean that we will not have our regular prayer meeting on Wednesday because of the VBS going on, but please still pray that the Lord will work in families and children.

Here is our schedule of services:

Sunday morning: 10:00 AM service, live streamed and broadcast to the parking lot

11:15 AM Sunday School

Sunday evening: 6:00 PM service and New Life Teens

Wednesday evening: 7:00 PM No prayer meeting this week due to VBS

Lord willing, I (Steve) will be preaching this Sunday from Romans 5. On Sunday evening, we will have a shorter service following the series “Thinking Biblically.” Then we will have a time to help set up for VBS.

The Lord is at work at Berean. It is exciting. I personally am so glad He is working here. Keep praying. Please continue to call, encourage and pray for one another.  Phone a friend. It will encourage you both. Also, invite friends and family to come this Sunday. We love you and are praying for you.  

In Him, 

Pastor Steve

Dear Berean Family,

Following Jesus was many things, but boring was not one of them. The disciples (and everyone else) were constantly astounded. He is resurrected, and how does He reveal Himself to His disciples? With a great catch of fish, but while broiling the fish, He gently probes the depths of Peter’s heart. If there was a pattern to Jesus’ ministry, we might say it was an astounding revelation of Who He is, and then an exposure of who we are. 

There are several special days coming: 

• We have restarted our Sunday School. Sunday service will be from 10-11 and Sunday School from 11:15-12:00. 

  • An adult class will meet in the auditorium

  • The Ladies of Excellence will meet in their classroom

  • Teens will meet in the New Life Teen room

  • Children will meet in the Junior classroom

  • A nursery will be available for babies and toddlers

• July 19-25 will be VBS setup. If you can help, please see Phil Minich.

• July 26-30 will be VBS. Please, pray that the Lord will work in the hearts of children and families.

Here is our schedule of services:

Sunday morning: 10:00 AM service, live streamed and broadcast to the parking lot

11:15 AM Sunday School

Sunday evening: 6:00 PM service and New Life Teens

Wednesday evening: 7:00 PM Prayer meeting and KIT (Kids in Truth)

Lord willing, I (Steve) will be preaching this Sunday from John 21. On Sunday evening, we will have another in the series of “Thinking Biblically.”

The Lord is at work at Berean. It is both exciting and scary. I personally am so glad He is working here. Keep praying. Please continue to call, encourage and pray for one another.  Phone a friend. It will encourage you both. Also, invite friends and family to come this Sunday. We love you and are praying for you.  

In Him, 

Pastor Steve

Dear Berean Family,

I am not a mechanic. I am in awe of mechanics. They can do things that mystify me. Several months ago someone was having car trouble in the church parking lot. It was a battery problem. One of them told me to go get a can of diet Coke. I had no idea how diet Coke was going to help. I was feeling a little thirsty. Maybe a jolt of caffeine might help, but they knew something I did not. Corrosion had built up around the battery posts, and when I poured it on the battery cables, that diet Coke dissolved the corrosion like magic. I couldn’t wait to tell my wife this new trick. She was not nearly as impressed as she should have been. The key thing from this story is not the magical powers of diet Coke, but the power of connection. The disciplines of the Christian life (Bible reading, prayer, church attendance, etc.) have absolutely no power in and of themselves. Don’t get me wrong. I’m NOT saying they are unnecessary. They are vitally necessary, but, like electric cables that are disconnected, they have no power in and of themselves. But if they are connected to Christ, they can be conduits of spiritual life. Has corrosion crept in and disconnected you from Christ? The answer is NOT to disconnect from the spiritual disciplines, but to see if sin or something else has interrupted the power. 

There are several special days coming: 

• July 11 we will restart our Sunday School. Sunday service will be from 10-11 and Sunday School from 11:15-12:00. 

  • An adult class will meet in the auditorium

  • The Ladies of Excellence will meet in their classroom

  • Teens will meet in the New Life Teen room

  • Children will meet in the Junior classroom

  • A nursery will be available for babies and toddlers

• July 19-25 will be VBS setup

• July 26-30 will be VBS 

Weekdays this summer, various things are happening at the church building. A volleyball camp has been helping girls from various local schools. This coming week, July 12-16, some local Christian music teachers are developing a Gospel Choir for high school young people. Each day, Phil Minich will be meeting with them during their practice time to explain the Gospel. On Friday night, July 16 at 7:30 pm, these young people will put on a concert where the parents and community are invited. Please, come to support these young people, and pray that the Lord will work during this week.

Here is our schedule of services:

Sunday morning: 10:00 AM service, live streamed and broadcast to the parking lot

Sunday evening: 6:00 PM service and New Life Teens

Wednesday evening: 7:00 PM Prayer meeting and KIT (Kids in Truth)

Lord willing, I (Steve) will be preaching this Sunday from John 15.

Please continue to call, encourage and pray for one another.  Phone a friend. It will encourage you both. Also, invite friends and family to come this Sunday. We love you and are praying for you.  

In Him, 

Pastor Steve

Dear Berean Family,

Happy 4th of July! Not only is this Sunday the celebration of the founding of America, it is the anniversary of our church.

In 1878, at the end of the reconstruction era after the Civil War, an Ohioan, Rutherford B. Hayes, was president. It was during this year a Baptist Church was organized by a Reverend Isaac Fullerton and Uriah Chabot in a town on the banks of the little Scioto River called Sciotoville. A small group (not numbered) met in a frame building known as the Marshall Hall. By 1880 Sciotoville suddenly prospered with nearly 1,200 residents. Most residents found employment in the various brickyards or lumber mills in the community. At this point the Baptist Church erected a frame building without a basement on the corner of Winchester and Bloom Streets. It was dedicated on July 4, 1880. The church has a long and colorful history covering 140 years. This Sunday, we want to celebrate with a service and a cookout afterward on the grass by the parking lot. If you can help with setting up tables, chairs and canopies, please meet us at the church at 8:30 AM Sunday morning. It promises to be a beautiful day and a good time.

There are several special days coming: 

• July 11 we will restart our Sunday School. Sunday service will be from 10-11 and Sunday School from 11:15-12:00.

• July 19-25 will be VBS setup

• July 26-30 will be VBS 

• and much more 

Here is our schedule of services:

Sunday morning: 10:00 AM service, live streamed and broadcast to the parking lot
Followed by a cookout on the grass by the parking lot

Following lunch we will have a short time of singing and testimonies.

Sunday evening: There will be no evening service this week.

Wednesday evening: 7:00 PM Prayer meeting and KIT (Kids in Truth)

Our son, Isaac Mann, will be preaching on Sunday morning. Isaac is a missionary to Papua, Indonesia, and is home on furlough. Isaac and Kacie’s children happen to be some of the most beautiful children in the world (said the grandpa with not a hint of bias). 

Please continue to call, encourage and pray for one another.  Phone a friend. It will encourage you both. Also, invite friends and family to come this Sunday. We love you and are praying for you.  

In Him, 

Pastor Steve