Divine Hours

This a form of prayer at specified times to be used by individuals or groups. The Divine Hours includes morning, midday, vespers (evening) and compline (before retiring) offices, having roots in the biblical tradition from the period of Israel in the Old Testament to the church in the New Testament period and beyond. Coasters are encourage to utilize this ancient spiritual discipline to order their walk with God and to join with the whole church in offering to God praise and petitions. Go to www.annarborvineyard.org for guidance as well as the prayers for each period of the day.

Divorce Care meets this March 4, 2008

DC is a 13 week seminar/support group experience that covers the wide range of concerns for those going through separation or divorce. Those who attend are from a wide range of church backgrounds, including those who have no church background at all. There is a $25 charge for materials, and those who wish to just visit for the first session to see if this is a resource that would be helpful for them are welcome without charge.

”Dust to Glory” - meets Wednesdays

The Wednesday evening home fellowship group (meets at 7pm at the home of the Goldens in Rockland) is viewing the series by RC Sproul titled “Dust to Glory”, a through-the-Bible survey of each book of the Bible.  Dr. Sproul explores the major themes, events, and people in the Bible. Dust to Glory provides a panorama of biblical truth and a starting point to help you understand the content of the Bible. Each video is 20-25 minutes in length followed by a discussion and fellowship time.

"Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ" sent free by request

This book by John Piper is available from Coastal simply by requesting a copy. Email Coastal at coastal@coastalchurch.com and include your complete address so a copy can be forwarded to you. This offer is good as long as supplies last. As Piper writes, "This book has been written in the hope that all will see Jesus for who he really is and will come to enjoy him above all else." This is an excellent preparation for Easter.

Coastal Prays for the Nations each week

Each week Coasters pray for five nations. This week the nations are Thailand, Timor Lorosae, Togo, Trinidad & Tobago, and Tonga. As a guide to effective prayer Operation World by Patrick Johnstone is used.

Deep Church

     The Leadership Team, have been thinking. We’ve been thinking about going back in order to go forward. More specifically, we’ve been focusing on what some would call Deep Church. This is a phrase that has been used to describe churches that choose to be deep in history, rooted in the mindset, beliefs, worship practices and spiritual transformation paradigms that characterized the church of the first five centuries, the Church of the apostles, those who immediately followed from their apprenticeship to the apostles and the church fathers of the first five centuries. This part of church history is often called the Common Era or the era of Classical Christianity, that period of time before the church began to branch out into what was to eventually become the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant families of Christianity.
      In an admirable effort to remain relevant, today’s evangelical church is characterized by constant change to capture the attention of its host culture. But the ease with which the church slips over into faddishness can be a hidden danger. The church can cease to be God-driven and become audience driven. What’s even worse is that the church ceases to learn from the centuries of lessons available to it from earlier generations and is unable to resist the pressures of conformity. It seems apparent from reading and research that many evangelicals churches are going back in order to go forward. The classical tradition is sorely needed because so many people have come to the end of their patience with the modern versions of church and with current innovations that have no connection with the past. Every new trick in the book needs to be replaced by resur-recting old treasures that still have meaning and can offer direction into the future.
     The church can still benefit by models of spiritual transformation rooted in the apostolic tradition and the      reflection of the early church, such as: the church year as a means to relate the days of our calendar to the person and work of Christ who gave time a new significance and meaning, the office of the hours - a tool for daily practicing the presence of Christ and offering up to Father, Son and Holy Spirit the praises of the church - fasting, spiritual direction, the meaningful restoration of the Lord’s Supper to worship, and others. The church is finding out that it needs to listen to those who took the baton from the apostles and then passed it on to the next generations. While we know the names of the current trendsetters in church life, the names of those who nourished the root system of the church go unrecognized and their wisdom unheeded, those such as Irenaeus of Lyons, Tertullian, Gregory the Great, Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, Clement of Alexandria, Athanasius, John Chrysostom, Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna and many others.
     Many associate Deep Church with Roman Catholicism, but this would be a misunderstanding of this new interest in Classical Christianity. It’s an attempt to move beyond gimmicks, fads, denominational divisions and theological nitpicking to something that nourishes the church by virtue of its timelessness and nearness to the traditions passed on to us by the apostles. It is not an attempt to return to an earlier time but to be meaningful in our time.
     Coastal Church is exploring the many ways that we can integrate the practices and spiritual transformation models of earlier centuries so that we effectively mine the depths of church wisdom, while holding fast to the centrality of the Bible as God's timeless and unerring counsel.

Life in the Spirit

Life in the Spirit—During the days between Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday we think of the promise of the Holy Spirit and the church’s need for heaven’s help to fulfill our mission and bring true satisfaction to our restless hearts. During this time Pastor Don will be teaching on the ministry of the Holy Spirit, focusing on ten verbs from the Bible that describe the Spirit’s work. Seven verbs have an inward focus—Creating, Revealing, Redeeming, Indwelling, Transforming, Filling, Overcoming. Three verbs have an outward focus—Gifting, Sending, Glorifying. Ignorance of how God works is a luxury we cannot afford. That is why Jesus taught His disciples during the 40 days before He returned to heaven. He still teaches us through the writing and traditions passed on by those very same disciples who walked with Him all those days before He returned to heaven. Join with us in this fifty day adventure.

Ascension Thursday, May 1, 7 PM

Coastal Church invites you to celebrate the ascension of our Lord to heaven where He reigns and restores all things until the time He comes again to usher in the fullness of His kingdom. Ascension Thursday is observed on the church calendar 40 days after the resurrection in remembrance of the length of time that Jesus spent with His disciples teaching them before His return to the Father.
    By Jesus’ return to heaven He demonstrates His approval by the Father, as He demonstrated in the resurrection. By a spirit of holiness Jesus is lifted up high and is seated at the right hand of God.
The Westminster Larger Catechism reads: “Christ was exalted in his ascension, in that having after his resurrection often appeared unto and conversed with his apostles, speaking to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, and giving them commission to preach the gospel to all nations, forty days after his resurrection, he, in our nature, as our head, triumphing over enemies, visibly went up into the highest heavens, there to receive gifts for men, to raise up our affections thither, and to prepare a pace for us, where himself is, and shall continue till his second coming at the end of the world.”
In this service we will remember that we are fed from heaven by the Christ who died for us and in sympathy rules over all things for His own glory and our good. Bible students refer to this as the “heavenly session of Christ.” All who die in the Lord before His return enter into the presence of the glorified, reigning and returning Lord.
    As part of the Pentecost remembrance, we also recount that Jesus has sent to us a Comforter, the Holy Spirit, through whom Christ not only reigns in heaven but in the hearts of those who believe. Though Christ is gone, He is here. Though He is in Heaven, He is on earth. Though He is risen, He has descended. Come, let us remember the works of the Lord.

The 50 Days of Easter

In the Church Year we are in the Easter season for fifty days. The Bible reports that after Jesus’ resurrection He taught his disciples for 40 days about the kingdom of God and then ascended to heaven. Before his ascension He told his disciples to wait for power from on high. After ten days of prayer the Holy Spirit filled His disciples and gave to them the power for evangelism. During the 50 days of Easter the church traditionally thinks of its mission and of the gift of the Holy Spirit to give us the ardor and power for difference-making in this world. Let us join together to seek the refreshing from heaven that comes by the Holy Spirit and to renew commitment to reach others with the Good News of the gift of forgiveness of sin and eternal life.