Announcements

In my previous post, I introduced BaylyBlog readers to a few of the new features of the site. In this post, I will introduce a few of the technical details:

Christ the Word, Toledo, dedicates its new church house to the Lord this Sunday evening, June 17, at 6:30 pm.

Our new church house is located on twenty acres across Central Avenue from the 600-acre Secor Metropark, and it features:

• Over 3,000 square feet of nursery space, with two children's bathrooms (instead of two tiny rooms)
• Private offices for each staff member (instead of multiple individuals shoehorned into every available room)
• 75,000 square feet total floor space, 45,000 developed 
• 4,000 square feet of junior and senior high meeting rooms
• 14 classrooms, in addition to youth and nursery spaces
• A shower for those who ride their bikes to work...

On Thursday, February 21^st and Friday, February 22^nd, Clearnote Fellowship is holding its 2^nd annual pastors conference titled "Preach the Word" at Clearnote Church, Bloomington, IN. If you are (or aspire to be) a pastor, elder, or deacon, I hope you'll come. And if you're not an officer, would you please encourage your own pastors, elders, and deacons to attend? In fact, pay for them to go. It will be a wonderful gift to them and your church. Register now.

Here is the line-up...

Last night Niek and Therese Schreuder hosted a party in celebration of the engagement of their daughter, Réze (pronounced reesa), to our son Taylor. What Christmas joy!

In Calvin's Geneva, couples were banished if their engagement lasted longer than six weeks. We held a family council some years back and decided the Bayly limit would be six months. A summer wedding is planned.

Clearnote Fellowship is excited to announce that registration is now open for the 2013 Summer Conference, "She is Our Mother," to be held July 5th and 6th in Bloomington, Indiana. The theme of this year's conference builds on the 2012 Summer Conference, "I Believe in God the Father Almighty."

Christians in America today reject the fatherhood of God by gagging His word and those who proclaim it. They also scoff at the truth that any true son of God must have the church as his mother. When elders are diligent in their care for the sheep, we often refuse their care, bleat, and run off—away from our mother!

In the 3rd century AD, Cyprian of Carthage wrote: “You cannot have God as your Father unless you have the church for your Mother.” In his Institutes, Calvin writes: "But because it is now our intention to discuss the visible church, let us learn even from the simple title of 'mother' how useful, indeed how necessary, it is that we should know her."

Useful and necessary, indeed! Christ's church is the mother of all those chosen by God for salvation so join us as we sit under preaching focussed on what our relationship should be to this Mother God has given us, and what it means for her to be reformed in our own age.

The Clearnote Summer Conference is like none other! Our habit is to preach the Word of God rather than to give lectures and talks. We welcome children...