No matter where you sit on the “vitamin” debate, I think my misunderstandings of those neanderthal shaped sweet tarts and consequentely, being skeptical of my parent’s intentions, is not far from a popular understanding of baptism. Baptism is often misunderstood today as ‘additional’ in the life of a local church body, particularly referring to the ordinances; baptism and communion. I want to take the rest of this post to specifically refer to baptism, let’s call it- Vitmain B, eh eh?

Every local church is an outcropping, a smaller unit, of the larger universal big “C” church. In many places in Scripture, the apostle Paul refers to the Church as a body
(1 Corinthians 12:12-31). We are the body of Christ: with hands, feet, arms, hands, unity amongst diversity, body. Now, I’m not insisting that Paul ever used this to convey the consequences of not eating your vegetables, but I do think we can have some insights about the health of our local church body in comparison to our physical bodies. We need the essentials of food, water, and oxygen. The body of Christ, without the essentials of the Gospel through the means of preaching, teaching, praying, fellowshipping, etc. withers into a cold and frail figure. Much like breathing oxygen versus toxic fumes, eating food versus starving, and drinking water should be encouraged or more lovingly commanded, for the health of our bodies. The same is true for what brings health, purity, and vitality of the body of Christ. So what about baptism? Is it just an optional vitamin- good when you do, but not a bad thing when you don’t take it? Like my Flintstone vitamins, water baptism may get shoved under the furniture and between the cushions of misunderstanding and thought best to be forgotten- throwing the believer out with the bath water (my attempt at a baptist joke). Or, we take it obediently and celebrate it as good kids, but we completely miss the point of what it was even given to us for and why we are celebrating it.

So what is baptism’s role in the local body of Christ?

Water baptism is a beautiful thing that God has given to the Church. It is worth celebrating when someone comes out of the water during one of our gatherings. It is worth studying and knowing. The reality, though, is that water baptism is only going to be as beautiful, celebrated, studied, and known as the Gospel is beautiful, celebrated, studied, and known in the life of a church. Yes, it absolutely provides an opportunity to convey commitment, pursue membership, and the like for a local body of believers. However, we forget it as primarily a means of celebrating and remembering the grace of God in the life of believers in your local church. I don’t want to discount the miracle of a person’s obedience in getting baptized, but I hope you’ll see where this goes. Today, it is popular to teach our people and kids that first and foremost baptism is what you are saying about God. Baptism is understood rightly as an initial and primary way of saying; I love God, I trust God, and I’m obeying God. Nothing wrong with that; I totally agree. Where I think our understanding goes a little undercooked is forgetting the “priority of grace” in baptism. We can forget awfully quickly that our abilities of even having the capacity to love God, trust God, obey God, is a sheer act of God’s grace in us.

Let’s look at how Paul addersses baptism in Romans 6:1-4. It’s worth saying first, that Paul here doesn’t seem to be trying to give us his thorough theology of baptism in this passage. Instead, Paul is answering the question and critique of God’s grace from the end of Romans 5 and the question is re-stated in 6:1. Essentially it asks, “if there is grace when you sin, why not sin more?!” (antinomianism; or without law, for the bible geeks). In answering the question, Paul goes on to explain the grace of the believer’s union with Christ. This is where, through faith we are brought into the death of Christ, freeing us from sin’s reign and into the new life of Christ, living alive to God for God in the forgiveness of sins. Paul brings up baptism in verse 3 not to say that it was in your water baptism that you were united to Christ. Rather, he is wanting to draw their minds to their baptism to think on what is true of them in Christ, as symbolised in baptism. With the Gospel events of Jesus’ death and resurrection and our union with them in mind, when we hear or ask the question, “Can’t you just sin more because there is grace?”, it shows there to be a misunderstanding of grace and is answered with “No!!- you died to sin’s unchallenged influence when you were united to Christ’s death and resurreciton and raised to new life!” Now, our understanding of grace helps us say no to sin…not enable it (Titus 2:11-12). We gather from the way Paul refers to water baptism that baptism plays a signficant role in picturing and reminding the church of the grace of God in the events of Christ’s life on our behalf and our union with them.

Baptism is about the Gospel.

The Gospel is about Jesus.

Baptism is about Jesus.

In part 2, we’ll see more of what is celebrated specifically when a brother or sister is brought through the waters of baptism and how it blesses a local church.

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Interested in learning more about baptism?  We encourage you to check out Apex’s White Paper on baptism.  You can find it here.

Want to take the step of obedience in baptism?  Our Baptism Info Packet will guide you through the steps.  Check it out here!

in Kettering…

We celebrated baptism with Tim & Chelsea, who will be married next week.
One of our elders, Chris Brown (no, not the the pop-artist), shared a great sermon on God’s Faithfulness from Genesis 17.
Our band joined us together in reading from Ephesians 2:4-10 and then led us in some great anthems of praise:

• One Thing Remains by Jesus Culture
• Your Great Name by Natalie Grant
• All I Have is Christ by Sovereign Grace Music
• Amazing Grace / My Chains are Gone – arrangements by the Apex Band and Chris Tomlin
• Rock of Ages arranged by the Apex Band

in Xenia…

Our student ministry leaders, dressed as hand puppets,  invited all the students to be part of Elevate on Sunday nights.
Rob Turner took a week off of preaching through John, and challenged the Apex family from Philippians 2:12-18 to really “work out” our faith.
Our band helped us see God’s goodness and respond in singing with these songs:

• How Marvelous arranged by the Apex Band
• Blessed Assurance arranged by the Apex Band
• Give Me Faith by Elevation Worship
• None but Jesus by Hillsong United
• Stronger by Hillsong

• See His Love by Jesus Culture
• Stronger by Hillsong
• Revelation Song by Gateway Worship
• Before the Throne by Sovereign Grace Music
• From the Inside Out by Hillsong

In Kettering, we started the gathering by Skyping with 2 of our missionaries in Honduras, the Eldridges, about what God has been up to in the few months they’ve been there so far. It’s always great to have your perspective blown beyond the borders we tend to build up.  Talking with missionaries always helps with that.  :)
After that, Rob Turner preached on John 11:28-44 and our band led us in these songs:

• Let Your Kingdom Come by Aaron Ivey
• Desert Song by Hillsong
• Oh Our Lord by All Sons & Daughters
• All the Poor & Powerless by All Sons & Daughters
• We Will Run by Gungor

For both campuses, we were so grateful for the work God is doing in these gatherings.  We don’t know why He chooses to use them, but we are extremely thankful that He does.  Please join us in praying that our gatherings at Apex will reflect God’s heart for His church and the world.

• Be Still My Soul – this is an old hymn that Page CXVI re-arranged.
• Mighty to Save - by Hillsong
• You’ll Come – by Hillsong
• How Marvelous – this is another older hymn that the Apex Band re-arranged.

Then, Jason Wing preached on John 11:17-27. The challenge was for us to see that Jesus is our true hope; to not just know about Him, but to trust IN Him.
We closed by singing  Hallelujah, What a Savior – which is a hymn that Ascend the Hill re-arranged.

In Xenia, we started off with the “lowdown” and then dove into our time of reflecting on Christ and responding to Him in singing. Our songs were:

Our songs in Kettering were:

1. It’s So Sweet to Trust in Jesus – arrangement by the Apex Band (AGES album)
2. Love is Here – arrangement by the Apex Band (LIVE album)
3. Absent from Flesh – by Sojourn Music
4. None but Jesus – by Hillsong United
5. One Thing Remains – by Jesus Culture

In Xenia, one of our elders, Rennes Bowers, spoke about “zoe life” which is the abundant, eternal, Spirit-led life that God gives His children.

Our songs in Xenia were:

1. Nothing but the Blood of Jesus – just the verse & chorus of this classic hymn
2. Hosanna – by Hillsong United
3. Your Great Name – by Natalie Grant
4. How He Loves – by John Mark McMillan
5. None but Jesus – by Hillsong United
6. From the Inside out – by Hillsong United

In Kettering, we started out with our new announcement video called “the Lowdown” and then heard from one of our missions team leaders, Rita, about upcoming mission opportunities within Apex and how we can be praying with a more missional mindset.
After that, our band took us into a time of slowing down, thinking about the goodness of God, and responding to Him in song. Our songs were:

• Only You – by David Crowder Band
• Majesty – by Delirious
• Before the Throne – by Sovereign Grace Music
• Revelation Song – by Kari Jobe & Gateway
  *During this song, we read Psalm 145 together

Then Jason Wing delivered the message on John 10:31-42, reminding us that Jesus truly is the Son of God.

After the sermon, we sang:

• From the Inside Out – by Hillsong United

In Xenia, our gathering flow was very similar. We started out with “the Lowdown” as well and then heard from one of our other missions team leaders, Jesse Bowers, about how we can pray for the persecuted church. Then, we dove into singing. Our songs were:

• Solid Rock – arrangement by the Apex Band
• To Know Your Name – by Hillsong
  *Between these 2 songs, we read John 10:11-15 together.
• A Mighty Fortress – by Christy Nockels
• There is a Redeemer – arrangement by Zac Dixon

Rob Turner preached on John 10:11-21 – seeing Jesus as the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. After the sermon, we responded by singing:

• Hallelujah, What a Savior – by Ascend the Hill

In both Kettering and Xenia, we were once again reminded of God’s faithfulness to His children. We’re so thankful that we get to gather and reflect on that together!

God has been incredibly faithful to this community and we wanted our gatherings to reflect that well.  We did NOT want it to be a “look how cool Apex is” kind of day. We wanted it to be a “Wow, God is really REALLY faithful!” kind of day.

We started out the gatherings talking about the story of “Ebenezer” from I Samuel 7.  It’s a strong reminder to us all that we are only here by God’s grace.  All odds pointed to this “Apex-thing” flopping in a major way.  But God moved…and protected…and provided…and loved…and sustained…and so on and so on. That is the story in I Samual 7 and that is our story too.
After discussing Ebenezer, we introduced our new announcement video called The Lowdown. This video will be updated each week and will help you know what is coming up in the life of Apex.
This was a fun weekend as far as songs go. We did a couple that we were doing our very first year as a church as well as some newer ones.  Here’s our setlist…

Kettering:

1. My Glorious – by Delirious
2. Alive – by Sovereign Grace Music
3. The Greatness of Our God – by One Sonic Society
4. You Said – by Hillsong
5. You’ve Stayed – by the Apex Band

Xenia:

1. My Glorious – by Delirious
2. One Thing Remains – by Jesus Culture
3. God of Wonders – by City on a Hill
4. Before the Throne of God Above – by Sovereign Grace Music
5. You’ve Stayed – by the Apex Band

Throughout the gathering, we heard from various Apexers via video about how they saw God’s faithfulness to Apex since they’d joined the community. It was great to hear stories of our very first day, family members saved, relationships built, and the church being deepened throughout these past 10 years.

Both Rob Turner & Jason Wing preached on Psalm 36 which, again, just brings us back to the extreme faithfulness of God. The sermons reminded us to keep our attention on what God has done, be humble about where He has brought us, and never forget our great need for Him.

To close, we had elders & key leaders from Apex’s history come and pray over the church in each gathering. We thanked God for 10 great years and prayed for His wisdom as we approach the next 10.

So, Apex is 10 years old. My hope is that 10 years is only a drop in the bucket compared to the plans God has for our future.  No matter what, when the name “Apex” fades away, the name of Jesus will still be standing strong and that is why we worship HIM!

1. Your Love Never Fails – based on the arrangement by Jesus Culture
2. Hosanna – by Brooke Fraser
3. To Know Your Name – by Matt Crocker
4. Everlasting God – by Glenn Packiam
5. Be Thou My Vision – based on the arrangement by Ascend the Hill

In Xenia, our gatherings were formed around John 10:1-10. Jason Wing preached on that text and our band did an acoustic set with songs that fit that passage as well.
Our songs were:

1. Your Love Never Fails – based on the arrangement by Jesus Culture
2. It’s So Sweet to Trust in Jesus – based on the Apex Band’s arrangement from the new “AGES” cd.
3. Rock of Ages – also based on the Apex Band’s arrangement from the new “AGES” cd.
4. None but Jesus – by Brooke Fraser
5. Your Great Name – based on the arrangement by Natalie Grant

The Preaching and Teaching ministry of Apex has experienced significant changes within this past year. As I get older it seems like the scope of year goes by faster and faster and I do not realize all that has taken place until I do an activity like this blog entry to force me to observe what God has done. At the risk of sounding trite, I can only think time and again of God’s faithfulness so I type the following words with a heart that has been warmed and enlarged over God’s goodness to His children.

As many of you know, 2011 began our journey within our gatherings to preach through the Gospel of John in its entirety. This is not the first time that we have preached through a whole book of the Bible, but nothing to this magnitude. It is December 9th as I write this and we are going to finish John 9 at this weekend’s gatherings. That means it has taken us a whole year to preach through less than half of the Gospel of John! I will not speak to anybody’s heart except my own, but I have greatly needed this sermon series to anchor me deeper into the joy of the deity of Jesus. By His grace, I look forward to the next year and a half of walking through this important Gospel.

In 2011, we also saw the beginnings of what will be known in 2012 as the Apex Preaching Collective (APC). Over a period of a few months I met weekly with eight men who were exploring at varying levels the ministry of preaching. These were wonderful, challenging times as we explored together the character and competence of proclaiming God’s Word. The outflow of that experience contributed to the first “official” round of the APC, which begins in mid-January. Please be in prayer for the thirteen men who have been selected for this five-month weekly endeavor.

More personally, this past year has altered my personal preaching ministry to Apex Community. In October, Apex launched another venue of worship gatherings in Xenia, OH. As of this writing I can safely say that this launch has been highly encouraging and challenging at the same time. The participation in these two new gatherings has been numerous, which creates leadership challenges that we are entrusting to the Lord for wisdom, dependence, and perseverance. Practically this new venue has contoured my Apex preaching schedule that is now divided between Apex Xenia and Apex Kettering. Within that rotation is a veteran Apexer in Jason Wing. The preaching gifting in this brother has been growing exponentially within the last three years and I am enjoying how God is using him as he preaches at both Apex sites. It is a good thing if you are reading this to pause and pray for Jason and his precious wife, Rachel, as they experience the weight that can accompany a preaching responsibility.

One of the convictions of the Apex elders has been the continual emphasis on leadership development throughout the Apex network of house churches. To aid that end, Jason Zastrow was brought on staff this past Fall to help with network solidarity and to teach head (knowledge), heart (affections), and hand (practical) principles to our wonderful house church leaders in order that they may lead more effectively. I have known Jason for three years and am confident that God will use him to infuse further health into the house church network. He has a daunting task but God is faithful and I again exhort you to pray for Jason Zastrow.

I want to conclude by saying that our family has been lavished with grace to be a part of the Apex Community. There are countless moments, seasons, and years where the Lord used this body to draw me time and time again to the well of Christ. It is always an honor and grace to serve you, and my family is reaping the benefit of your collective pursuit of our precious Christ. Merry Christmas and let us pray that this year would be the year where we can see our Jesus face to face!

Needing Him, Rob

God has brought us to and through a lot in 2011. Even just in the Gathering “G” we experienced quite a bit. (Go here if you don’t know what the G’s are).

Here are some of the highlights of Gathering:

•We saw many people come to know Jesus! This is such an honor. It’s a front row seat to the best show on earth…God saving people!

•We celebrated with around 40 people who were baptized in our gatherings and countless others who were baptized in their house churches.

•We moved from primarily using a single preacher to starting a preaching team. This fit our overall Apex vision much better as it utilized shared leadership, not relying too heavily on one personality, raising up others to do the work of the church, etc.

•Our elders and preaching team decided to change from a topical type of preaching (themed sermon series’) to an expository type (going verse by verse through books of the Bible). We dove into the Gospel of John in January 2011 and it has been awesome! We will likely still be in the Gospel of John for most of 2012 as well.

•Our bands hosted two great Nights of Worship where the Apex body came together to sing, pray, and just respond to God.

•Our bands wrote more songs than we ever have before in order to give our church family an opportunity to sing songs that come from our family and speak on behalf of our family.

•Our bands also committed to a renewed emphasis on re-arranging older hymns for use in our gatherings. See this video for more explanation.

•Following our passion to write new songs and to rearrange older hymns, we recorded the music from our September Night of Worship and were able to make the Apex Band’s 3rd album, “AGES”, which released in December.

•Almost every ministry area of Apex was able to take some time in our gatherings this year and cast vision for why they do what they do. Many ministries did this multiple times. We call this “Big Picture” because it helps keep the vision in front of us at all times.

•We were able to pray over and “send out” many missionaries and short-term mission teams. We call this “Dispatch Prayer” because it is simply Apex dispatching it’s missionaries to other parts of the city, country, and world.

•For the 2nd year in a row, we took part in Orphan Weekend. All of our gatherings that weekend were aimed at helping the church see God’s heart for the lonely, broken, and needy. It was not meant to increase pity, but to equip us for “religion that is pure and undefiled”. Go here for more info on why and how to get involved in caring for orphans.

•One of the biggest undertakings of this past year was launching a brand new gathering in Xenia! This was a HUGE venture for Apex but God has been working in big ways. Having gatherings in 2 parts of the Dayton area (Kettering and Xenia) increases our ability to carry forth our mission of really reaching people with the Gospel, right where they are.

•Between Kettering and Xenia, we have seen a lot of new leaders rise to the surface. From new band members & band leaders, to new setup & tear down crews, new Frontline team members (parking, greeting, help desk, safety, etc), new Family Ministry leaders, and many others. Seeing people jump in and serve or lead is one of the most energizing things to see!

There are many other things worth mentioning…like our Easter gatherings, or having the Target Dayton Choir join us for a couple weekends, or our collection weekend for Operation Christmas Child (which I’m assuming will be talked about in another blog post), or…or…or…you get the idea. There are a lot of highlights. More than I can even mention here.

Plain and simple, God has been so faithful to us this past year! Thinking back on it makes me extremely excited for what God may have in store for 2012.

“oh for grace to trust Him more!”