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.
For just $20/mo, we'll host, maintain, and update this website for you.
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
Street evangelism every Wednesday in October weather permitting noon-1 PM in the city square of Lewisburg
10-5-24 - Allegany Association of Baptist Churches presentation of the Greenbrier Pregnancy Center (GPC)
10-6-24 - Collection fund for Christ In Action as they serve to help the folks of SC, NC and GA from the hurricane disaster. More than $5000 will be sent.
10-7-24 - Soup canning fundraiser for GPC Monday - Wednesday
10-11-24 - all church family picnic and outdoor movie at the Brdlik farm 6:30 PM. All are welcome!
10-17-24 - Right to Life of WV meets at the church 6 PM
10-26-24 - Greenbrier Pregnancy Center yard sale fundraiser here at ECC
11-16-24 - Grand Opening for GPC 11 AM - 1 PM Governor of WV has been invited to attend
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 .
See all posts here.
Do we need to be reminded again who Jesus is!?!
• rescued us from the authority of darkness, and transferred us to His kingdom
• image of the invisible God
• in Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities
• He is before all things,
• in Him all things hold together
• made peace through the blood of His cross
(Colossians 1)
Like Dr. S.M. Lockridge preached…”That's My King.” But is He really your king…my king? We like to say He is…but is He really? We often don't live like it. We often don't really trust Him with our lives. We refuse to obey His word because of our pride…our feeling too vulnerable…our lack allowing His word to speak to our own hearts and minds. When we understand who our Lord and Savior is…how can we ever have reservations about obeying Him completely…how can we neglect a committed, intense relationship with Him? There is no one greater than Jesus. There is no one who provides us with eternal life than Jesus. There is no one who loves us more than Jesus. There is no one who can protect, deliver, safeguard, guide us through life more perfectly than Jesus. And yet…we live with doubt, anxiousness, defeat, without trust, without hope. In the words of President Biden, “come on man!”
Today's My Utmost for His Highest also confronts us with a similar, “come on man!”
We have to battle through our moods into absolute devotion to Jesus Christ, to get out of the hole of our own experience into abandoned devotion to him. Think about what the New Testament says about Jesus Christ, and then think about the trifling, inadequate faith many of us have. Yet we base our faith not in him but in our experiences. We complain that this or that hasn't happened to us, and we talk about all our difficult things.
We have to continually move beyond our experiences into faith in Jesus Christ. We have to seek the New Testament Jesus Christ—not a prayer meeting Jesus Christ or a book Jesus Christ, but the Jesus Christ who is God incarnate, the Christ whose majesty so overwhelms us that we fall at his feet as if dead (Revelation 1:17).
No wonder the Holy Spirit has such a rugged impatience with unbelief. He knows that all our fears are wicked, and that we fear because we won't nourish ourselves in our faith. How can anyone who is identified with Jesus Christ suffer from doubt or fear! Our lives in him should be psalms of irrepressible, triumphant belief.
When thinking about President Biden's “come on man,” I think about this stinging rebuke: “then think about the trifling, inadequate faith many of us have. Yet we base our faith not in him but in our experiences. We complain that this or that hasn't happened to us, and we talk about all our difficult things.” Knowing who we serve and follow, we should be the most confident, joyous people on the planet. We have to keep reminded ourselves of Jesus' power, love, provision, and direction in our lives when our faith falters and Satan attacks. My prayer for me and you this day is this: Lord, help us to “take up the shield of faith with which we will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one.” Remind us often Who we serve! Amen.
Walk with the King today and be a blessing.
One of the supreme dangers of giving oneself to the exegetical details of the biblical text and doctrine is you can become an expert on the Bible, but not realize what the Bible is saying to you personally. This next Sunday I'll be preaching from Colossians 3:19 where the text tells husbands to love their wives and not to become embittered against them. I can delve into the text with precision and accuracy, which I do, without realizing that God is talking to me personally. I came to realize the text was exposing weaknesses in me as a husband that need repentance and correction.
I think a lot of us are like that. We agree with the admonition to be “workmen&women that need not to be ashamed,” but we don't pay much attention to the next part “rightly dividing the word of truth.” I think the phrase “rightly dividing” means more than just accuracy…it also means coming face to face with what God is saying to us personally. Sometimes it might be because we don't like the personal confrontation with God…sometimes because we want to “straighten out” someone else…but many times we need to be reminded again and again—my Lord Jesus is speaking to me and no one else in the room…it's not primarily about accuracy, it's about what is God saying to me.
Today's My Utmost for His Highest reminds us this very thing:
Martha believed in the power at the disposal of Jesus Christ. She believed that Jesus could have healed her brother, Lazarus, if only Jesus had been present when Lazarus was dying (John 11:21). She also believed that Jesus had a unique relationship with God and that whatever Jesus asked of God, God would do. But Martha needed a closer personal intimacy with Jesus; her program of belief was entirely focused on future fulfillment. When Jesus told her that Lazarus would rise again, she replied, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (v. 24). Jesus wanted her belief to be rooted in the present moment; he wanted her faith to be a personal possession, and he asked a question that led her to a new understanding: “Do you believe?”
Is there something similar in the Lord's current dealings with you? Is Jesus educating you into personal intimacy with him? Let him drive his questions home: “Do you believe? What is your ordeal of doubt?” Have you, like Martha, come to some overwhelming moment in your circumstances, a moment when your program of belief is about to become personal belief? This can never take place until a personal need arises out of a personal problem.
To believe is to commit. If I have a program of belief, I commit myself to a certain set of ideas or principles and abandon all that is not related to them. In personal belief, I commit myself morally to confidence in the person of Jesus Christ and refuse to compromise. I commit myself spiritually to the Lord, and determine that, in this particular thing, I will be dominated by him.
I was reminded of the passage from James 1:23-24 -- 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he looked at himself and has gone away, he immediately forgot what kind of person he was.
My prayer for you and me this day is this: Lord we don't want to be those who just study and hear but then walk away from our study not realizing You are speaking to us to reprove, critique our hearts, instruct us personally. We want to be accurate, but more than that, we want You to dominate our lives. We love Your word. Amen
Walk with the King today and be a blessing.