We’re excited to announce that Greg Smit is the newest addition to our leadership team. Greg will serve as the ministry leader of our care ministries, including such vital areas of service as discipleship counseling, hospital visitation and prayer groups (for both our church family and also for the community around us). Greg has extensive training and experience in these kinds of…
Fair Oaks, CA
Fair Oaks, CA
Posts by The Orchard (Page 5)
Chris Brackett has been appointed to serve The Orchard as part of our pastoral team. We’ve very excited about this for a couple of reasons. Chris is a man of real spiritual maturity and appropriate gifting who has shown a genuine desire to serve the church family. And this is an incredibly significant point in the church’s development. We are now beginning…
Saturday, April 6, Ray Wehri was officially appointed as a ministry leader for our facilities ministry. We deeply appreciate Ray’s commitment and his desire to serve God and the church family. We also asked the congregation to be prayerfully considering Chris Brackett to be part of our pastoral team. We’re excited about the leaders God is raising up in our church and…
We recently changed our tag line, and I know some people are wondering why. Are we just trying to be trendy? When we changed the name of the church to The Orchard, it was important to to us that we identify ourselves as a church (since our name doesn’t have something like “Church” or “Christian Fellowship” in it). We didn’t want people…
EFCA ReachGlobal Crisis Response is uniquely positioned to bring the hope of Christ following Hurricane Harvey. YOUR HELP IS NEEDED The full extent of Hurricane Harvey’s impact on families and communities served by local EFCA churches across the Texas coastline is still unknown. Our goal is to raise $1 million for initial response efforts. Early assessments show almost every EFCA church in…
This is a post from the EFCA Now blog. If you haven’t yet, please read our post: The Gospel, Racism and the EFCA. An Open Letter to Those Who are Struggling Aiming for the kingdom of God through racial strife. Alejandro Mandes Dear EFCA family, This is an open letter to all who are struggling to figure out what comes next or how…
The Orchard is part of an association of churches known as the Evangelical Free Church of America. This is an abridged version of a statement released by the EFCA: We in the EFCA are grieved by the events last week in Charlottesville, Virginia. The EFCA stands firmly on the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are committed to uphold the truth of the…
The Bible makes very clear that certain practices are right and others are wrong. Murder and adultery are always wrong; loving God and loving each other are always right. But there are many practices that aren’t clearly endorsed or prohibited in Scripture. The 14th chapter of Romans warns us not to argue about matters of personal conscience. (And, surprisingly, it’s the believer…
Does the Bible teach distinct roles for men and women in the church? This debate is a frequent and sometimes heated one in the church today. We recognize the sensitive nature of this question. It’s understandably an emotional issue, and one that touches people deeply. Naturally, this subject affects women in ways it doesn’t affect men. But most men under a certain…
[Updated July 29, 2021] Sexuality is a gift from God. We’re wonderfully created with a capacity and desire for intimate relationship and companionship. We’re able to unite with another person in a way that affects us physically, emotionally and even spiritually, and God invites us to be part of the very creation process through reproduction. But Scripture also teaches that the most…