Fair Oaks, CA

Posts from 2021

New Forum Series: Evangelical Views on Creation

Beginning Thursday, November 11, we’ll begin a 6-part series exploring issues related to creation. We’ll be examining the different views evangelical Christians hold on creation and the early chapters of Genesis, and why. The Forum meets every other Thursday at 6 pm Eastern and 6 pm Pacific. For more information, please contact us at info@orchardefc.org.

New Forum Series: A Survey of Western Thought

We begin Part One: Ancient Philosophy of a new Forum series: A Survey of Western Thought, this Thursday, 6 pm Eastern and 6 pm Pacific.  We’ll be discussing introductory matters, such as what constitutes thought, what is philosophy, and does it matter, among other things.  This will also be a good opportunity, as a group, to begin discussing some of our particular interests and emphases that we may like to, at…

Hope for the Future Annual Dinner

Hope for the Future is one of our long-time partners in ministry. They’ve had a wide-ranging ministry in Romania for more than 20 years, and do a tremendous work there. Each year they raise most of their operating funds through a dinner and silent auction. It’s not only a worthy cause, it’s a lot of fun with a chance to visit with…

Interactive Teaching, part 3: Challenges of Interactive Teaching

This article was originally posted at Exploring the Faith. We’ve looked at some of the benefits of interactive teaching. So let’s consider some of the challenges of teaching this way: “It takes a lot more time.”This is true. If you’re studying a passage of Scripture, and you have people respond to you and invite them to raise their hands and ask questions,…

Interactive Teaching, part 2: Why Teach Interactively?

This article was originally posted at Exploring the Faith. In the last post, we saw that Scripture doesn’t call pastors to preach, in the familiar sense of delivering sermons, but there is a repeated call for pastors to teach the church. I noted that—contrasted with preaching—teaching has different priorities, a different focus, and different expectations. So we should want to see this kind…

Interactive Teaching, part 1: Preaching or Teaching?

This article was originally posted at Exploring the Faith. The preaching of the Word has traditionally held a preeminent place in most evangelical churches. This is no accident. Young pastors and leaders have been taught how vital sound preaching is for keeping a church faithful and healthy. Quotes from noted leaders reinforce to us the crucial nature of preaching to the life…

New Addition to Our Pastoral Team: Jack Foster

We’re excited to announce that yesterday we publicly appointed a new addition to our pastoral team — Jack Foster. Jack and his wife, Damaris, live in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico with their two grandsons, Ivan and Jetxiel. Jack is especially passionate about diligent and thorough study of the Scriptures, theological reflection, and faithfully applying biblical truth to the church and to our…

Different Views on the Nature of Hell

Updated May 15, 2022 There’s an old saying that the church should be “reformed and always reforming.” This means that we’re “reformed” in the sense of holding to the authority of God’s Word above all else, and we’re “always reforming” by not assuming any doctrine is true simply because it’s traditional for us. Instead, we seek to be good Bereans (Acts 17:11) by searching the Scriptures to see…