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[0:00] All right. We can talk more after, but next up budget and finances. So we've got a slide.! It's a bit of an eye chart, but just the purpose of this is to say that we will be transparent! With our finances, with our spending, as you would like. So if you want to dig into this more, you can see our mortgage and payroll is like 50% of our budget, and then a variety of miscellaneous other things go into our budgetary process. But we'll just be transparent. Obviously, we want to operate with integrity as a church, financial integrity. And so that's there for you guys, if anyone's interested in seeing and talking more about this. All right, next up, mission support. Mission support. So we do support a number of mission opportunities. We talked in the community, but also globally. We support pastors in other countries, like in the Middle

[1:05] East. And then also, Chris was just in the Philippines teaching through Sovereign Grace churches. He had the opportunity to go and to teach and provide pastoral equipping for a number of pastors in the Philippines. So that was a really great opportunity for him. And for us as a church to support him and go and do that, that was really cool. So we do support pastors in the Middle East, pastors in the Philippines, throughout the world, really, and through our partnership with our denomination. All right, last thing before we get into the expectations of minister, and this will conclude the first third of our class. I think we're doing decent on time. What's really important or distinctive about providence? Yes, reformed theology. Yes, continuationist pneumatology. Yes, complementarian values in the home and church. But what also is really distinctive or important about our church? We believe, and Chris talked about this in the sermon, every member is a minister.

[2:15] I remember is a minister in the sense that God has given all of us responsibility and time and talents and treasures to build up the rest of the body. So we are not, we not believe in a consumeristic approach to church. We believe that everyone is here, yes, to be fed. Yes, to be cared for. Yes, to be served. But also to care for and serve and minister to other people. So we believe that every member is a minister here at Providence. Second, we really value being a leadership factory. We want to build and invest and develop all the men and ladies that God gives us to be leaders. And again, leaders of themselves, leaders of their homes, leaders in the workplace, leaders in the church, leaders in the community. We want to be a leadership factory. And so we intentionally invest in the men and ladies in the church to be leaders. And so we're going through the or the eldership qualifications. We believe that's a way to build leaders. We have book studies for ladies, we were we have the discipleship huddles, the men and soon for the ladies to cultivate and develop leadership. All right, third marriage and parenting sport. We really, so we, we really value marriage.

[3:51] And we really value our children in this church. We dearly love our single folk and who aren't married or aren't married yet, or whatever God's calling you to. We also do really believe that we want to invest in and care for and bless the marriages in this church and the kiddos in this church.

[4:19] So we believe in giving marriage and parenting support, whether it be through the teaching from the pulpit, whether it be through, um, through personal counseling, whether it be through, um, community group ministry, whether it be through the huddles, we want to build strong, healthy marriages.

[4:37] And we want to, um, raise up our children to know and love and follow the Lord. So yeah, marriage and parenting support. And then fourth, um, which is kind of like an oddball, like base camp, you know, distinctive of our church, but I think it's a really neat little microcosm of what our church is like. It's just that we like to live in community with each other.

[5:05] And base camp is a way that we can stay connected, uh, in community with each other. Um, so base camp is an app, uh, that we just, that we utilize in our church. Um, and we've built a community, like an online community essentially, uh, using base camp. So you can see, uh, you get messages ranging from, um, we've got an Easter egg hunt coming up to hear some prayer requests for the church over the next month to, I need a new couch. Uh, does anyone have any spare couches or microwave or then we know how to paint houses real well. Like you can, you can post whatever on there. And then we have teams.

[5:45] So we have like the Johnson County, uh, evangelism team. We've got a parent youth group. Uh, so we've got a team for that. Um, really anything within the church that you can think of would most likely have a team on base camp, uh, that you can, that you can connect with people through. Uh, and so if you're, if you're not on base camp yet, or you're interested in being on base camp, uh, just come and talk to me, give me your email address. I won't use it for anything other than getting on base camp.

[6:11] Um, but, uh, we'll, we'll get you on base camp. We'll get you connected and I'll set you up so that you can follow along and you can start to see what's going on within the life of the church. So regular connection to base camp. So every member minister, leadership factory, manager parenting support, regular connection through base camp, a couple of distinctives about province community church. All right. Are you guys good to move on to expectations?

[6:36] Cool. All right. So expectations of member of province community. What do we expect? I got four things for you guys. Uh, first of all, worship services. We believe in the gathering of the saints, uh, to worship the Lord and glorify him because he's worthy. Uh, and we worship through song.

[6:58] We worship through the preaching of God's word and listening application to God's word. And we worship through our fellowship as a community. Um, so today we had to, you probably saw, we had to like tell people, you got to get out of the sanctuary. We're having a class today.

[7:13] We're having a class today. Um, because we love as a church, I mean, you guys know, it's just, there's a buzz after the church to fellowship and to talk and to connect. Um, so we, we really, um, believe that members should attend service regularly. And if you can't try to walk through, like why and try to understand why and try to help you guys and whoever is a member to be here, uh, on a Sunday morning, and then also, especially to engage sincerely and passionately. Um, so Chris talked about like, it's our job to worship the Lord. And it's also our joy to worship the Lord and to engage, um, to engage sincerely and passionately in, in singing, in listening, in applying, in fellowshiping. Uh, so we, those are some expectations for the worship services. Um, second, small groups or community groups. We really encourage you guys to get involved, find a small group, find a community group to be a part of serve and be served, serve and be served at community group. Um, to get to community group and I can, uh, afterwards I can give you the information about all the different community groups. We can talk about, um, you know, where they meet, when they meet the specifics of logistics we can talk about right offline. Um, but let's, let's connect on that. If you're not in a community group yet. All right. Third, ministry involvement, super encourage you guys to find one or two, maybe three ministries to dig in, get involved in and serve. We have AV, we have security, we have children's ministry.

[8:56] We have this evangelism team. We've got parent youth group, like find a ministry that you can serve and, uh, and be served through. And it's just a great way, like serving in the church is just a great way to connect with other people, meet other people. In addition to adding value and serving the Lord and, and bless this church, it's just a great way to meet other people and get connected. Um, so I would, if you remember, really encourage you strongly on one or two, maybe three ministries to get involved in and serve and contribute in that way. And then fourth, uh, financial stewardship. Uh, we encourage, we encourage all of our members as a church to tithe, uh, to give your first fruits, uh, to the Lord, to give generously, to give sacrificially, and to give joyfully to the church. Uh, because by doing that, it will support the work of ministry. It will support, um, the gospel being preached.

[9:56] It will support the Bible being learned and applied and just the kingdom of God expanding. Uh, and so we really, and then also just the value of giving, uh, that God will bless you, um, in doing.

[10:11] So there's a million reasons we can talk about. We got books on the bookshelf, um, talking about, about, about giving and about, um, sacrificial, generous, joyful giving. Um, but yeah, encourage our members as a starting point to tithe. Um, and we can talk about what that means and the implications of that and, um, and exceptions to that, like, like, you know, excessive debt and things like that.

[10:35] Um, but that's really where the starting point where we'd, we'd start out with. So those are expectations of a member. Any questions on that? Good. All right. Then attitude, attitudes of a member of Providence. Um, so you can find this on the website, but these are really some of the, the core values of our church as a, as a local body. What do we, what makes us distinctive in terms of our values, um, our shaping virtues? Where, where do we really like to emphasize? So we like to emphasize humility over pride, humility over pride. Um, so Paul says, I'm the greatest sinner. Cause I'm the foremost of sinners, but I have the greatest savior.

[11:28] That's what we want to operate out of in this church. Being aware that thank God, I think God, like that we're saved. We don't ever want to lose that whenever that become familiar to us.

[11:41] That's humility. And then considering others needs as significant as our own, um, serving a Jesus wash the disciples feet. We are here to serve other people and serve the members of our church. Um, so humility over pride, courage over cowardice, courage over cowardice. Um, we, as a church, we love to do things. I mean, you heard the sermon today. We love to do things for the Lord.

[12:14] We want to pursue, um, the expansion of God's kingdom in and through our church. So we, to do that, we need to be courageous. We need to sometimes push through fear, uh, push through cowardice. And we need to, uh, all of us need to apply and live in courage. And sometimes courage is, uh, guys, I need prayer for this. Or sometimes courage is, um, Hey, have you noticed that?

[12:46] Like, like how are things going in your marriage or in your parenting and asking what could be a sensitive or hard question, but caring and loving. So it takes courage to live as a Christian. And we believe courage over cowardice. Third celebration over envy celebration over envy. Um, we love, to celebrate when things go well for people. Like if you're on base camp and someone has a kid, you're going to get notifications for like the next three days because everyone's going to be like, yes, what a beautiful child. So happy for you, thrilled for you. Um, you'll see that on base camp.

[13:22] We celebrate that when people get married, uh, when people get a job, a new job or a job promotion, we will celebrate that. And we, we certainly will fight against envy or, or anything like that. We don't, we don't want that. We want to be happy for people. We want to rejoice when things go well for people. Um, we want to weep with those who weep and we're, and rejoice with those who rejoice. So we, we believe that here, Providence, uh, fourth facts over feelings, facts over feelings. We talked about the Bible is God's truth.

[13:59] The Bible is God's truth. So we want to know and apply and, and live the Bible. Our feelings, you guys know, like feelings can be fickle. We can feel one way and then five minutes later, another way, whatever. The Bible is God's truth. The Bible is God's standard. What's true about God, salvation, and life. So we want to, we want to live the facts of this world, which is what's in the Bible. All right. Fifth, honesty versus spin. Um, at a church, we will say what we mean and mean what we say. We'll say what we mean when we say, I think a great example of this is how, especially Chris has handled, uh, our, our building expansion and kind of capital campaign. We're not up here every week saying, you know, guys like we need more money or anything like that. We'll just tell you once in a while, straight up, we want to expand and it's going to take this much money to do it and pray about it. We're not going to try to manipulate. We're not going to try to spin anything. We'll just be honest with you guys. Um, that's just one example of how we sought to approach this value of honesty over spin, but also it's like, we'll be honest with each other and we'll say, Hey, like it looks like you could be struggling in this area.

[15:29] How can I pray for you? What do you, what kind of insight can I provide? How can I help you? We'll be forthright, um, in a caring, speak the truth and love with each other. Obviously within the context of relationships and getting to know each other and, um, things like that, but honesty over spin and then freedom over guilt. Uh, again, we will not guilt you. We don't believe in the church about manipulation through guilt, guilt you into doing something that you don't want to believe or want to do. Uh, we want everyone to live, um, within the realm of God's word and, uh, thinking through their conscience and what would God have someone to do? Uh, so we really want to let people operate out of a spirit of freedom, um, within under the Lord, as opposed to a spirit of guilt.

[16:23] Does that make sense? Okay. All right, good. Those are the values. Any questions or anything on, on those values? I think so. Okay. Yeah. Good. All right. So how do these values play out in the church?

[16:45] So, um, five ways these values play out. We've got functioning followers. This is very much in line with what we've talked about a lot already today. Um, we want to pursue the Lord personally, pursue the Lord personally. The best thing that we can all do to help build up this church is to pursue our relationship with the Lord personally and grow in our love for God, grow in our love for his word, grow in our application of his word. Uh, so we want to pursue the Lord personally, be a functioning follower of Christ, and then come to minister and be ministered to in all activities. So whatever we do, we want to be here to minister to people, be ministered to by people, um, and, uh, and be a functioning follower. We want to, we really want to follow Christ in this church. Um, second, when we unified, we talked about celebration over envy. Uh, we want to be unified as a church. So we do not, we do not tolerate gossip in the community. We're not, we want to hold ourselves to a standard where we don't gossip about people. Um, we, we really desire to see all people flourish.

[17:59] Your profits. We want everyone here to flourish in the relationship with the Lord. And then within the church, within the workplace, everywhere, we want everyone to flourish. We want to be happy for each other. And again, fight against envy, celebration over envy.

[18:13] So we're going to be united, unified as a church. Third, uh, we, we would like all of our members to pray, uh, for the leaders of the church. Uh, God knows we need it. You know, like the leaders of the church, we are, um, we've worked hard, I would say to, to know and love the Lord, but we are sinners, sinful guys that need God's grace just like everyone else and the enemies, the world, the flesh, the devil, leaders of the church, the church, the church, the church, the church, the church. Uh, and to, and to grow in godliness and to have wisdom for leading the church.

[19:08] For sure. We ask people to pray for the leaders of this church. And, um, we do post, uh, monthly post prayer requests for the church on base camp.

[19:19] If you get on base camp, uh, on the Providence HQ section, there's a place where you can, you can see prayer requests for the church, uh, and you can post your own prayer requests.

[19:29] All right. And then fourth, um, fourth way that our values play out is really encourage people, especially, uh, the men who have a family, uh, to be leading their family.

[19:45] Well, but yes, marriage is total partnership between husband and wife, but we do, uh, call on the men and put an emphasis on the men, uh, to be leading their families. Well, and what does that look like? Um, you look at a lot of things, but have a vision for your family.

[20:02] What is God calling you to? What are your family strengths, weaknesses, area of opportunity? Um, where, where does God want you to take your family in terms of spiritual development and growth? We want men to be leading and have a vision for your family, uh, marital and family devotions.

[20:17] We encourage couples to read God's word together and pray together and talk and go to the coffee shop and, you know, and connect and talk about what's going on in your lives and administer to one another.

[20:28] Um, especially for the men to be initiating that and leading that, uh, we feel strongly about that. And then bringing children up in the discipline and instruction to the Lord. So we call it, we, we really want to, uh, call on, um, obviously couples together, but a special little emphasis or not little, but emphasis on men.

[20:48] We lead in their family, bring the children up in the discipline instruction to the Lord, raising children up to know and love God. Yes. It's a work of God's grace. The work of God's grace.

[20:59] Our kids won't be saved apart from the work of the Holy Spirit and their lives. We want to, God calls us to invest in them spiritually and hand them the lightning rod of the gospel, which hopefully, you know, God's lightning strikes and God saves them.

[21:17] So, um, we call on men to lead their families, have a vision, uh, lead in marital family devotions, bring up their children to discipline instruction to the Lord and any of this stuff.

[21:29] You want to grab coffee, talk, we can explain, uh, and help you apply all this stuff. We have to do that. There's any areas. So, and then fifth, um, fifth attitude of a, you know, kind of attitudes applied or values applied will be viewing church as a gift.

[21:49] Viewing church as a gift. Um, we are so blessed. Christ shed his blood for us to form this church.

[22:05] And yes, the church universal, but then also this specific church. We're so blessed. And we love, we have wonderful people in this church.

[22:18] And we are so blessed to get to minister to be ministered by people in this church. Church is a gift. We never want to lose that.

[22:31] Mentality. That, that attitude. That we are just blessed and grateful for this church. The church is a gift. Uh, it was a wonderful book, uh, called I'm a church member.

[22:44] I just got taught by this guy, Tom Rainer. Uh, so if you want to learn more about that kind of, you know, church attitude, I totally encourage you. I think there's, there are copies on the book shelf over there.

[22:54] Just grab a copy of any of those books, grab them, take them. We want to see them disappear and we'll replenish the book shelf with more book. You don't have to buy them or anything like that. They're just there for, for us as a church.

[23:05] But that one, uh, I'm a church member, uh, is especially a good one for thinking about church being a gift. I'm being grateful for, for church. Thank you.