Faith Evangelical Presbyterian Church is proud to announce our next "Level 2 Adult Mission Trip"-- to New Orleans! The dates of this trip are October 30-November 6th. Applications are now available at the Church Office. A $50 deposit is required to hold your spot.

All applicants should have a willingness to serve as a witness for Jesus, a desire to be part of a team of obedient Christ-exalting servants, a spirit of adventure, and an ability to do light physical labor.

Please pray about this great opportunity!

Hernando Christian Academy is looking for missionaries that are willing to serve as a witness for Jesus Christ to international students (primarily Chinese).  This is an incredible opportunity to help house a student who likely has neither heard the gospel nor seen in lived out in their communist nation of origin.

The International Student Program is looking for homes for students for a period of ten months. Host families should be willing to treat these persons with warmth and compassion as they would treat their "own children." Ability to provide rides to and from school is essential. A stipend is provided to help offset some costs.

If you are interested, please contact Cathy McAllister (Elementary Principle) at 352-796-0616.

-Pastor Matthew

The Elders of Faith Church are pleased to annouce that Michael Horton, a much sought-after pastor, seminary professor, radio host, and conference speaker will be our guest preacher on July 18th at the 10:30am Sunday Worship service. It is a great honor to host Mr. Horton for this one-time event. Please make every effort to attend to listen to this extraordinarily qualified individual share the pulpit at our home church! 

As pastor, I would ask that the members of Faith Church "do their homework" on Michael by listening to several of his archived radio broadcasts: www.whitehorseinn.org or by picking up a copy of one of his books "The Gospel Driven Life" and/or "Christless Christianity."

More on Michael Horton:

B.A., Biola University; M.A., Westminster Seminary California; Ph.D., University of Coventry and Wycliffe Hall, Oxford.

Dr. Horton has taught apologetics and theology at Westminster Seminary California since 1998. In addition to his work at the Seminary, he is the president of White Horse Media, for which he co-hosts the White Horse Inn, a nationally syndicated, weekly radio talk-show exploring issues of Reformation theology in American Christianity. He is also the editor-in-chief of Modern Reformation magazine. Before coming to WSC, Dr. Horton completed a Research Fellowship at Yale University Divinity School. A member of various societies, including the American Academy of Religion and the Evangelical Theological Society, Dr. Horton is the author/editor of twenty books, including a series of studies in Reformed dogmatics published by Westminster John Knox, whose final volume (People and Place: A Covenant Ecclesiology) was published in 2008.
His most recent books are Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church and People and Place: A Covenant Ecclesiology. He has written articles for Modern Reformation, Pro Ecclesia, Christianity Today, The International Journal of Systematic Theology, Touchstone, and Books and Culture.

Dr. Horton is associate pastor of Christ United Reformed Church in Santee, California, and lives in Escondido, with his wife, Lisa, and four children.

Dear Parents,

This is the letter I have been waiting to write for months now. We are pleased to announce the release of our newest book: The Children’s Catechism!

This book is my brainchild that was conceived as I was striving to teach my own children, Soriah (age 8) and Elijah (age 5), to memorize Bible verses—a goal that you will probably agree is crucial for young believers.  

The Children’s Catechism is a tough, durable workbook for memorizing 150 of the most important passages in Scripture. Some verses are as short as a few words; other verses will take some work. All 150 are categorized into theological sub-headings such as Jesus Christ, the Sacraments, Salvation, Heaven etc.

Now, here’s the cool part!

Included right in the book are stickers that go with each question, color-coded to coincide with the sections. Whenever your child memorizes a verse, boom! He or she gets to take a sticker from the back and put it on the space provided, demonstrating that the verse has been committed to memory.

But wait, there’s more! Whenever a student memorizes a whole section (about 10-15 verses) he or she will get to chart their progress on a full-color poster in the Sunday School classroom…  Finally, when anyone completes the whole Catechism, that student will be brought forward in front of the whole church to receive a trophy!

We have decided to charge $5 each to help with the initial costs of printing this booklet. But on Mother’s Day (May 9^th) we will be giving them away absolutely FREE to all children who come to Sunday School at Faith Church that day!

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Matthew

P.S. I am so confident of this new book, that I am willing to guarantee that parents too will learn more verses by heart than they have in years!  

By Pastor Matthew Everhard


1) Definitions of Differing Positions Regarding Gender

•    Complementarian: Men and women are created equal in value; and yet distinct in role. God ordained that men and women would each have unique gifts and abilities; among them is the male’s leadership role in the church and home. This view holds that men alone are to hold the position of Teaching Elder in the Church.  This is the traditional position of Reformed Theology, and is espoused by the leadership and pastors of Faith Church.

•    Egalitarian: Men and women are created equal in value and equal in role. God created men and women as virtual equals in all things. This position can be summarized with the motto, “Whatever a man can do, a woman can do.”  Egalitarianism is non-traditional in Reformed Theology, but gaining ground.

•    Heirarchical: Men are created superior to women in value and/or role. This position is rejected in Reformed Theology.

•    Hyper-Feminist: Women are created superior to men in value or role. This position is rejected in Reformed Theology.



2) Several Main Points to Consider in Support of Complementarianism:
a.    God created men and women equal in value (neither gender is superior, per the hierarchical and hyper-feminist views). This is made explicit in the Creation account where Scripture says in Genesis 1:27,

So God created man in his own image,
       in the image of God he created him;
       male and female he created them.

This declaration is repeated in 5:2. It is important to note that 1:27 occurs before the Fall, whereas 5:2 is repeated after the Fall. In other words, the Fall did not change the equality of value between male and female.

b.    Nevertheless, males and females are consistently given different roles to play in the home and the Church;  specifically, the male is given headship (or primacy of initiative) in both Church and home. The account of Creation in Genesis 2 makes this explicit, where Adam is given the primary charge (Genesis 2:15).  We note Eve’s God-designated role as helpmate to Adam. This assumes Adam is on a mission of obedience already! Eve would not have anything for which to “help” Adam if he were not a man-on-fire for obedience to God!

c.    It is NOT undesirable or oppressive to submit to one who is being obedient to God already! This is true of course, assuming that the “helpmate” has already determined to follow Christ in her own life as well. Assuming both marriage partners are Christ-followers, they ought to be walking in the same direction and with the same conviction. If the husband is being obedient to God, a wife’s submission is therefore an extension of her obedience to God.

d.    The husband/wife covenant is to be modeled after the Christ/Church covenant as Ephesians 5:22-33 shows. If male headship and female support are compromised, the covenant of marriage fails to do what it was originally designed by God to do, viz. illustrate the authority of Christ over His grateful and joyfully obedient bride, the elect.

e.    Biblically, “submission” not at all a bad word as our culture suggests, but is rather a beautiful picture of honor. The Greek word hypotasso (submit, cf. Ephesians 5:22) is used several times to describe the wife’s obligation to her husband, but we must not forget that hypotasso is a verb that is used to describe the disposition of Christ as well. For instance Jesus was said to hypotasso to Joseph and Mary in Luke 2:51. Christ is also said to hypotasso the Father in 1 Corinthians 15:28. Obviously, this verb does not imply any sort of inferiority (as Christ is fully divine and worthy of all praise) but rather a loving inclination towards honor.

f.    Submission for the wife ought not to be a burden, but rather a joy. After all, the man is told to love his wife “as Christ loves the Church,” which means he ought to be ready to bleed, suffer, and die for her! We note that in Ephesians 5, after Paul counsels women to submit to their husbands, he does not tell the men “therefore subjugate your wives.” On the contrary, the parallel command is not to oppress them but to love them. He even says to do this “as Christ loved the Church,” that is, unto His own death by crucifixion. For this reason, a man ought to love his own wife, even if doing so should result in his own torture or death.
 
g.    Egalitarianism (see above) is in error because it robs BOTH genders of their God-given uniqueness. By minimizing the differences between genders, our culture is headed towards becoming an increasingly androgynous (asexual) society. Consider this example. The Navy has just changed its longstanding policy regarding women serving aboard submarines. While gender roles are obviously complicated within the Church, how much more complicated is social policy outside the Church! Christian sociologists are beginning to notice how the very idea of gender is being stripped down to nothing. Current trends such as homosexual marriages, same-sex couples adopting children, and the epidemic of the fatherlessness of American children further underscore an almost incessant urge to strip both genders of all intelligible giftedness and meaning, rendering one (or both) utterly inconsequential.
 
h.    On the other hand, complementarianism is written into our very DNA. For instance, if a criminal or wild animal breaks into the home of a married couple in the middle of the night, the course of nature suggests that a man should automatically rise to defend his wife and children, not push his wife into the way. This comes instinctively as he is created to lead and defend. On the other hand, women are uniquely gifted in other categories of life experience. For instance, a wife may be much better at tending to a child with an inconsolable earache, and may possess special gifts of tenderness, compassion, and mercy. This comes instinctively, as she is created to care and nurture. Obviously, while women can fight off intruders and men can tend to hurting children, nature itself dictates that each gender has unique and special properties given by God that cannot be extinguished without harming the human race in general.


3) Recommended Reading
For more information of complementarianism, please consult the exhaustive and extremely helpful work on this subject, entitled Rediscovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism (Wheaton: Crossway) edited by Wayne Grudem and John Piper. This comprehensive work defends complementarianism in a thoroughly Biblical manner.