What We Believe
Our congregation is composed of biblically hungry men and women who want to make a difference in this community for Christ and His kingdom. We affirm the 1689 London Baptist Confession, and are a part of the G3 Church Network.
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We are a community of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. We hold to the inerrancy of the Scriptures both the Old and New Testaments. We believe the Bible is the word of God. Our church life and individual lives are committed to following Jesus Christ as revealed in Scripture. Pastor Dean is an expository Bible preacher and teacher. We are here to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with our community and around the world.
Our congregation is composed of biblically hungry men and women who want to make a difference in this community for Christ and His kingdom. We affirm the 1689 London Baptist Confession, and are a part of the G3 Church Network.
We believe God is spreading the good news through His church. As such, evangelism is a primary focus in our ministries:
• We are presently developing a pregnancy center to service four surrounding counties;
• We are very active in sending out our people for short term and long term mission trips and financial support to missions in Nicaragua, Senegal, the Philippians, and Papua New Guinea;
• We are active in street evangelism in Lewisburg being out there 3-4 times every week proclaiming God's word.
• ECC has supported home-schooling and most of our families are home-schooled.
• We are active members and the center for WV For Life, Greenbrier County, WV.
• Men's and Women's Bible studies;
• Women's weekly sewing ministry for local hospitals and resource centers (Sonshine Quilters)
• Weekly all church fellowship supper and prayer;
• Pastor Dean's daily "Truth Matters" devotional sent via email.
• Weekly "Moms in Prayer" prayer group
12-16-23 - Neighborhood Canvassing meet at ECC 12 noon
12-17-23 - Christmas, The Deliverer Has Come 10:30 AM
12-24-23 - Christmas, The Birth of the King 10:30 AM
12-24-23 - Christmas Eve The Story Unveiled 6 PM
1-6-24 - Greenbrier Pregnancy Center Board Training 9 AM-4 PM at ECC
1-15-24 - Greenbrier Pregnancy Center Committee Meeting (election of officers) 6 PM
Pastor Dean has served as Pastor of Emmanuel Community church since 2000. He is committed to expositionally preaching and teaching God's word. His passion is what is expressed in Colossians 1:28-29 ---"28 Him we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. 29 For this purpose I also labor, striving according to His working, which He works in me in power."
Pastor Dean was married to Jane Ann Pringle for 40 years, until she passed away in 2009. Together they raised four children: Heather, Laura, Amanda, and Clint. Currently, he is married to Gloria June Harper. Although he initially considered pursuing veterinary medicine, he felt called to follow God's leading to a preaching/teaching ministry.
Pastor Dean has worked as a college and university manuscript representative for Prentice Hall Publishing Company, he served as an assistant dean in the School of Business at the University of Wisconsin for 3.5 years, he also served as the Administrator of a Cleveland region Christian High School for 5 years. He has 35 years of pastoral experience.
His educational background includes a B.S. from the University of Illinois in Behavioral Neurology, an M.A. in Counseling from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and an M.Div. from Grace Theological Seminary.
Pastor Brdlik has been affiliated with various church organizations, including: Conservative Baptist, Independent Fundamental Churches of America, Southern Baptist Conference, and presently the G3 Network .
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Sunday morning I'll be preaching on the subject “Perseverance of the Saints.” You might recognize that phrase coming from the acrostic associated with Calvinism's TULIP. When it comes to the permanence of our salvation and the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives resulting in becoming more like Christ, I prefer to use the word “Preservation” because the word reminds us sovereign, omnipotent God is the one that makes it happen. “Perseverance” has an additional component to it...that is, our lives are to take on a “light” and “salt” quality that we are responsible for (see Matthew 5:13-16). This kind of “perseverance” is hard...very hard. Trials and people come in to our lives to test our “perseverance.” We will need to call upon the Lord for us to be gracious and humble and allow His heart and mind shine through us no matter how difficult the circumstance or person. The Apostle James put it this way: “2 Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith brings about perseverance. 4 And let perseverance have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (1:2-4).
Today's My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers deals with this “perseverance:”
“Do you remember why you have been saved? So that the Son of God will be manifested in your life. Now you must harness all your powers to realize your election as a child of God; rise to the occasion, every time.
You can't do anything for your salvation, but you must do something to manifest it in the world. You must work out what God has worked in. Are you working it out with your mind, your tongue, your body? Or are you still the same miserable, cranky person, set on having your own way? If you are, it's a lie to say that God has saved and sanctified you.
“With my God I can scale a wall” (Psalm 18:29). God is the Master Engineer. He allows difficulties in order to see if you can overcome them. Because you are his child, he will never shield you from his requirements. Peter says, “Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you” (1 Peter 4:12). Rise to the occasion. Do the difficult thing. As long as a trial gives God the opportunity to manifest himself in your body, in whatever way he wants, it doesn't matter how much it hurts.
The aim of the disciple's life is to let the Son be manifested so that the Father can do whatever he wants with us. We are not here to dictate to God. We are here to submit to his will, so that he may work through us, using us to feed and nourish others.
God never has museums. We have to keep ourselves ready, so that the Son of God can be manifested in us here and now. May God find the whine in us no longer. May he find us instead full of spiritual pluck and daring, eager to face anything he brings.”
I can't add much to Chamber's insights today. He's spot on. Only two things come to mind: 1) Remember...we're not building a comfortable nest for ourselves during our time on earth. This life is only a testing ground for our faith and proving ground demonstrating the power of Christ. 2) Our dependency on God should drive us to His word and praying that the Holy Spirit would work His word into our lives.
My prayer for you and me today is this: Lord, thank you for the trials that You put in our lives. They force us to grow and that's what we want. Help us when we are weak, but we resolve to be the “light” and “salt” humbly committed to putting aside our personal agendas for Your name sake. Amen.
In 2 Corinthians 13:5, the Apostle Paul admonishes us to take inventory on our commitment to Jesus Christ. The Spirit prompted Paul to write: “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” One of the clearest “tests” is how you respond to the “obnoxious characters” (OC) in your life. The caveat might be the person you consider to be an OC is not obnoxious at all...it's you that has a problem, not them. But let's say that our OC really is an OC...maybe treating us unfairly, maybe they have an irritable mannerisms or personalities, maybe they are unkind or ungrateful or hateful toward you. This is where the test of “Jesus Christ in you” comes to play. The OC will test us as to whether Jesus Christ is truly living in and through us. Maybe a review of 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 is the order of your day.
Today's My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers speaks not only to our OCs but how we respond to any of the obnoxious things that come into our lives:
“It isn't a question of being saved from hell, but of being saved in order to reveal the life of the Son of God in our own lives. We know whether or not we are revealing his life when we come up against disagreeable things. When I meet with a task or a person I find unpleasant, what do I express? Is it the essential sweetness of the Son of God or the irritability of my self apart from him?
The only thing that allows us to enjoy the disagreeable is the bright enthusiasm of the life of the Son of God. If we get into the habit of saying, “Lord, I am delighted to obey you in this matter,” the Son of God will come to the forefront, and we will glorify him by revealing his life.
There must be no argument or debate. The moment we obey, the light of the Son of God shines through us. The moment we object, we grieve the Spirit. We must keep ourselves in good shape spiritually if we want the life of the Son to reveal itself, and we can't keep in shape if we give in to self-pity. Our circumstances are opportunities for demonstrating how wonderfully perfect and extraordinarily pure the Son of God is. The thing that ought to make our hearts beat is a new way of revealing him. This doesn't mean choosing the disagreeable; it means embracing the disagreeable when God places it in our path. Wherever God places us, he is sufficient.
Let the word of God be active and alive inside you, so that the life of Christ will reveal itself at every turn.”
“4 Love endures with patience and serenity, love is kind and thoughtful, and is not jealous or envious; love does not brag and is not proud or arrogant. 5 It is not rude; it is not self-seeking, it is not provoked [nor overly sensitive and easily angered]; it does not take into account a wrong endured. 6 It does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices with the truth [when right and truth prevail]. 7 Love bears all things [regardless of what comes], believes all things [looking for the best in each one], hopes all things [remaining steadfast during difficult times], endures all things [without weakening]. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 amp). Next time you come across an OC in your life ask yourself 3 questions:
1. How can the love and light of Jesus Christ be seen in me?
2. Is my response to my dear OC in synch with the 1 Corinthians 13 passage?
3. Am I really the OC in the relationship? Robert Burns wrote this poem directed to a lady who kept seeing others as OCs:
Oh, would some Power the gift give us
To see ourselves as others see us!
It would from many a blunder free us,
And foolish notion:
What airs in dress and gait would leave us,
And even devotion!
My prayer for you and me this day is this: Lord You bring folks into our lives that test how much we know You and follow You. Let the love of Christ flow from us. We're not looking for a positive response; we're looking for the power of Christ to be manifest in and through us. Help us here Lord. This is not easy. We need Your strength and wisdom. Amen
Walk with the King today and be a blessing.