December Update

December 30, 2006

Church life
Much has changed since we sent out our November prayer letter. We held our church business meeting on the 25th of November as planned and it was a bitter-sweet experience. The meeting started out with two families announcing that they had decided to leave the church. These were both families who had differences with our church leadership and so after quite a long and difficult time of trying to work through some issues they decided it was best to leave. At the beginning of our meeting both families read letters to the congregation explaining why they had decided to leave—it was certainly a sad moment. Some of our members are young in the faith and they had never seen someone leave a church under such circumstances.

Nonetheless, the Lord is good and although it took quite some time to recover from the initial saddening effect of the two departures, eventually the meeting took on a more joyful tone. I was ratified for another 5 years, and the church chose to recognize the group in Barcelona as an official church plant overseen by our church in Vilassar. It was comforting to know that the church approved both of these proposals almost unanimously.

We now feel like we have the freedom to really get down to business in terms of creating a vision for the future. One of the things I feel most passionate about is leadership training. Due to some of the tension in the church, leadership training took a backseat to putting out fires. Now we sense that it is an opportune time to invest in the present and future leaders of our church. We also really look forward to Matt and Núria coming back and for Matt to play a key role in helping to train leaders. Please pray that the Lord would give us a clear vision for the future.

Outreach
On the 25th of January we will be holding a conference in the local library on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe entitled “The Truths Behind the Fantasy”. I have invited a good friend of mine by the name of José Moreno to come and give this conference. José is a big C.S. Lewis fan and I am sure he will do a great job of presenting both the life of C.S. Lewis as well as the meaning of the book in a way that should be culturally interesting while at the same time pointing to Lewis’ faith in Christ. The Lord has opened up the possibility for us to hold this talk in our public library and it will be announced in a bulletin sent out to every home here by our local government. Please pray with us that the Lord would use José Moreno to present the Gospel clearly in his presentation.

Family
Our children are on their Christmas break now. They have enjoyed spending time with the Leighton’s boys (Dan and Jon) who are also here from Salamanca for the holidays. It’s kind of funny to listen to the children mix Spanish, English and Catalan when they speak to eachother.

My wife Naíme has been working on an editing project for four months now, and she’s almost done. She is editing a series of sermons by an Argentine preacher. These sermons will form the third volume of a series published by the Banner of Truth. Naíme will also be temporarily coordinating the Sunday School ministry at our church as our former coordinator was among those who have left our church recently. Please pray that the Lord would continue to bless the Sunday school ministry and that he would raise up more godly and committed teachers.

Miscellaneous
Naíme’s verse of the month: “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13, 14.
Naíme’s book of the month: “The Knowledge of the Holy”, by Tozer.

Steve’s verse of the month Psalm 32:10: “Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.”
Steve’s book of the month: J.C. Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (St. Mark).


Thanks again for your prayers. We believe that the Lord is answering them.

Yours in Christ,
The Phillips’ family