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
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 .
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Common sense or faith? This is the dilemma we all grapple with in the Christian life. We want God's will to prevail in our lives, but where do we start? Do we wait for some unmistakable sign giving us direction? And if so, how can we be sure the “sign” is from God?
“Common sense” is the ability to make sound judgments and decisions based on simple perception of the situation or facts. It's often about practical, straightforward thinking that's rooted in basic human experience and logic. When trying to discern what direction to go, I think it starts with “common sense” constrained by God's word. That is, we decide based upon our perceptions of the situations, our experiences and facts we know, but we can never go with “common sense” that leads us outside of scripture parameters. But, “common sense” is where we start.
Then…we go. We pursue our “common sense” decision. A rudder can't steer a non-moving ship…neither can God direct us unless we “go.” What happens next is that in our pursuit, God comes into the picture. That's what Romans 8:28 is about. We pray that God blesses our “common sense” decision, but inevitably He works within our decision to draw us to Jesus. Sometimes God brings in factors that cause us to change our “common sense” decision and we change course. Sometimes God tweaks our decisions in directions we never considered. But in every case, God will use our experience and logic to point us to Jesus Christ. Sometimes painfully, regretfully…sometimes through increased discernment given by the Holy Spirit and our spiritual maturity, but in either case, God will work through our decisions (whether good or bad) to draw us to Christ. (Romans 8:28-30)
Today's My Utmost for His Highest hits upon this important issue:
“Faith in antagonism to common sense is fanaticism; common sense in antagonism to faith is rationalism. The life of faith brings the two into a right relationship. Common sense isn't faith, and faith isn't common sense. They stand in the relation of the natural to the spiritual, of impulse to inspiration.
Faith must be tested before it becomes real. If we love God and are called according to his purpose, we can rest assured that no matter what happens, the working of his providence will transform the object of our faith—Jesus Christ—into an active, vital force in each of our lives. The whole purpose of God is to make faith real in the lives of his children. He does this for each one of us personally, working through our individual circumstances.
God brings us into certain circumstances in order to test and educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make its object real. Until we know Jesus, God is a mere abstraction; we cannot have faith in him.
Faith knows that for every commonsense situation, there's a revelation fact that can be drawn upon to prove in practical experience what we believe God to be. Faith is the whole person rightly related to God by the power of Jesus Christ.
A very wise, “common sense” guy made this statement:
We can make our plans, but the final outcome is in God's hands.
2 We can always “prove” that we are right, but is the Lord convinced?
3 Commit your work to the Lord, then it will succeed.
4 The Lord has made everything for his own purposes
Proverbs 16:1-4 TLB
Having to make a decision? Here's the sequence: 1) Before you “go,” evaluate your decision based upon God's word. 2) “Go,” that is, use the “common sense” God has given you 3) Commit your decision to God's glory 4) Know that your experiences, logic, facts God will use for His purposes 5) Know that God will direct your decisions to bring you to Christ-likeness.
When it comes to making decisions, may our prayer today be expressed in this song:
Give of your best to the Master;
Give Him first place in your heart,Throw your soul's fresh, glowing ardor
Into the battle for truth.
Jesus has set the example,
Dauntless was He, young and brave;
Give Him your loyal devotion;
Give Him the best that you have.
Give of your best to the Master;
Give of the strength of your youth;
Clad in salvation's full armor,
Join in the battle for truth.
Walk with the King today and be a blessing.
Such a distorted view we often when proclaiming the gospel. We often give the impression that God was moved with sympathy toward us. God knows we'er just sheep gone astray…and out of sympathy and love for such vulnerable folks like us, He sent Jesus to give us a chance for eternal life. That is a distorted view of what salvation is.
1. We never were just wayward “spiritual goofballs.” We were all deliberate, hopeless “enemies” of God and Christ. (Romans 5:10; Romans 3:10-18)
2. God did not send His Son because He wanted to show sympathy. Jesus came for expressed purpose of dying in our place. (1 Timothy 1:15 -- It is a trustworthy saying and deserving full acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; Luke 22:42 - “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me, yet not My will but Yours be done.”
3. God takes the initiative in our salvation. (John 6:44 - “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Yes we like to talk about the “love” of God as if the gospel was about some sympathetic celestial grandfather, but often missing are the facts about who we are and what it took to save us rebellious sinners.
This is what today's My Utmost for His Highest points out:
“The modern view of the death of Jesus is that he died for our sins out of sympathy. The New Testament view is that he bore our sins by substitution: God “made him . . . to be sin.” Our sins are removed because of the death of Jesus, and the explanation of his death is his obedience to his Father, not his sympathy with us. We are acceptable to God not because we've obeyed or promised to give up things but because of his Son's death.
We say that Jesus came to reveal the loving-kindness of God. The New Testament says that Jesus came to take away the sins of the world. Jesus never spoke of himself as one who'd been sent to reveal the Father's sympathy. Instead, he spoke of himself as a stumbling block, as someone who came to erect new standards and place new demands on all who heard his word: “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin” (John 15:22). The great stumbling blocks in modern spiritual life are our Lord's character and the demands of the Spirit. We think we'd be happy if only God would stop demanding personal holiness. Maybe so, but we'd be happy on the way to hell. It is God who puts the stumbling blocks in our path, and the stumbling over them awakens us.
The idea that God died for me and therefore I go scot-free is never taught in the New Testament. What is taught is that “he died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:15) and that, by identification with his death, I can be freed from sin and have his righteousness imparted to me (Galatians 2:20-21). The substitution taught in the New Testament is twofold: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” It's not Christ for me unless I am determined to have Christ formed in me”
The gospel tells us who God is…who we are…what God has done…and what our response must be. Never let us forget that order. It's an amazing love that God has, but that love is manifest on His terms not on our warped view of sympathy.
Thank You Lord for dying for me. Now I can better comprehend better Your amazing love. As Lehman wrote in 1953:
The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled
And pardoned from his sin.
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints' and angels' song.
Walk with the King today and be a blessing.