Amid all the buzz about the corona virus, school closures, limits on the size of public gatherings, quarantines, etc., I wanted to remind you all that every Sunday we stream and post the Sunday School Class and the Worship Service of Christ Reformation Church here in Tillamook. No need to close down! Guaranteed virus free!
We livestream on Facebook at the Christ Reformation Church fb page, beginning about 9:30AM. The worship service livestreams, starting about 10:55AM (“about,” – hey, we are informal here). The entire service is streamed. Sometimes glitches occur if the wifi is tempermental but as soon as we see any break we restart it. Facebook saves the broadcast too and it can be viewed later at any time.
Also, you can go to the Light for Dark Times blog (lightfordarktimes.com) and every Sunday morning the order of service for the worship service is posted there as a blog post. Links to hymns are included. Numbers of people utilize this and CRC has become their church.
We put the video of the sermon on sermonaudio.com and on our Unholy Charade youtube channel. Those sites are posted generally by Sunday evening though on occasion upload speeds are slow and the post isn’t available until Monday morning.
We are very pleased that we can provide these broadcasts and along with the Unholy Charade blog where you can comment, ask questions, and generally interact with other believers, most all of whom have been through the very same experiences of domestic and spiritual abuse.
Someone asked me once if this format is not in fact “forsaking the assembling of the saints” (see Hebrews 10). My response is, you don’t have to be physically together in order to gather together in this day and age of the web. Furthermore, the fact is that going to a local church on the street corner does not mean that you are gathering together with the saints necessarily. To gather together with the saints requires that there be real believers there!
All of this is by way of reminder. Many blessings to you all in Christ,
Jeff
Debby Seguin
Thank you for ALL you do to provide for us a “gathering of saints” hub. You are the modern version of meeting in the catacombs.
Jeff Crippen
Thank you Debby. It’s true, isn’t it? I have often thought of that.
IrisJane
Yes, thank you Pastor Crippen, for all. And I’ve thought the same as well Debby, the ‘underground’ church, and I’m very grateful for it.
freedom123joy
I am appreciative of the availability of the wonderful, reverent order of worship, songs that minister to your heart, sermons that enliven your spirit, and posts that help you feel somewhat connected. However, I was wondering if there could be more direct interaction. For example, personal emails, FaceTime, etc.. Somehow, i would love to get to know individuals for a growing personal relationship where we could share burdens and encourage one another. Likewise, I was wondering if people in this online church could somehow be able to communicate directly with the pastor at times. I would not know what to be able to participate in the sacraments long-distance.
Just a few thoughts. Another thing , I wonder how many Crippen followers are in local communities around the country. For instance, I live in Knoxville, Tennessee and would love to fellowship with other ladies that are going through have gone through abusive relationships. I know caution would have to be exercised, but I wonder if other women are wondering the same thing.
We live you Pastor Crippen, I have grown so much with your wonderful teaching through the years! It has helped me to deal realistically, with an unbelievably long-term abusive situation of 26 years. Unfortunately, I am still in the home with my husband. We have been separated in the same home- I received my Bachelor degree in business, I am looking for a job at 60 years old. I would have no other way of leaving. A job would allow me hire an attorney ( my husband knows I want a divorce, but let me know he won’t give me one). I need to be able to live on my own.
Thank you for your ministry!
Jeff Crippen
Freedom123joy- me email is swordtrowel@gmail.com. I can be contacted there and people do so often.
We are very cautious about connecting blog followers with one another outside of the blog comments as you can understand.
And you can send cards and pictures to the CRC resident congregation at 7450 Alderbrook Rd, Tillamook OR. 97141
Thank you very much for your encouragement.
freedom123joy
Thank you very much for your quick response and for more info of your availability. I will do just that and enjoy being part of the larger body of Christ through your ministry!
Cara
Me, three. I love it as well and greatly appreciate it.
It’s so nice to have that piece of one’s identity back.
No longer unchurched.
frankiesmith2064
So true I agree with all of the comments. When I sit in church and listen to another sappy, inapplicable, fluff sermon. Or I hear a sermon that once again hammers in how we are to love and forgive and embrace with mercy and understanding the reprobate, or more false teachings on submission, or I’m reminded that in relationships it takes two to tango and we must examine ourselves, or I pass more than one fake christian who I know are fake because they’ve treated me horribly and don’t have the fruit of the spirit. Or I’m trying to worship when the 30 something youth pastor wouldn’t allow me in the praise team—because he wanted young attractive naive women that worshipped him. (I’m a professionally trained singer that has sung with orchestras.) The worship minister told me I needed to brush up on my harmony. No one sings harmony on the praise team. I actually get paid to sing at other venues and the worship minister at my own church wouldn’t allow me to join the praise team!!! Blessing in disguise. I don’t want any part of it!!
When I’m at my church and am bombarded by these things I go to the lobby of the church and open up my phone and listen to the sermon or I replay Pastor Jeff’s sermon on how god stands against the wicked and with the righteous and I’m encouraged. Thank you Pastor for helping me articulate what I couldn’t. You are loved and so appreciated.,
Cara
I’m with you, Frankiesmith!
Those very teachings are what sets girls and women up to be prime pickings for abusers. And those very same teachings keep girls and women in abuse longer, and shame/blame and brainwash victims into thinking it is their fault they are being abused, much like the abuser, himself, tells them.
CRC is my church. And I don’t listen to popular ‘c’hristian radio programming anymore and I am mindful of any supposed Christian movie or Christian author’s books. Too long have I been led astray and kept naïve and misguided and brainwashed.
Abusers, like their devil father, are watching. I’d bet Satan is laughing at the state of so much of the pulpits’ teachings and instruction and brainwashing of the masses. I especially loathe the ‘love them to Jesus’ brainwashing that occurs. It’s so oft-repeated in many variations but the core attitude is one of rigid expectation that we Christians are to ‘love everyone to Jesus’ and if we don’t, we’re the bad guys. Seems the Law has fallen out, but both Law and Gospel are needed for the Law shows us who God is and how we have failed Him and our need for Jesus and thus the wonderfulness of the Gospel. But it seems so many are shamed into forgoing the Law and then condemned if they don’t go about ‘loving everyone to Jesus’.
I want to burn so many ‘marriage help’ books by supposed Christian authors. I want all bookstores to be emptied of such things. Things like the Pearls’ books and whatnot else. Desperate, abused, suicidal women buy such things and desperately put into practice whatever those books for Christian women’s lives/marriages tell them in hopes of stopping the abuse. It doesn’t work. It keeps them entrapped. And it helps pile on the shame they feel when the abuser continues and they can’t seem to appease the abuser despite their best efforts. And said ‘c’hristian authors with their innumerable ‘c’hristian living books collude with abuser husbands, in telling battered wives how they are failing their husbands in all new ways. Same goes for any of the mental health self-help books, as they all should contain multiple pages at the start, even a warning on the cover and back cover, asking potential readers if they don’t just have an abuser in their lives, and if so, nothing in the book is meant for them.
Interesting thing about the praise team. Seems men love to have naïve, young women around them without any older woman around, to put a stop to the fawning and increased vulnerability. And it’s for church, no less! For a church choir! Blessing in disguise, as you said. Shake the dust off the sandals! Wise woman of discernment, I appreciate you sharing your experience.