Overcoming Evil with Good

At the end of Romans Chapter 12, Paul states that the church should overcome evil with good. How can the church accomplish this audacious task? In an outline form look at the way Paul lays out the pattern of ministry that can bring victory to any church.

Offer your bodies as living sacrifices

• Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world
• But be transformed by the renewing of your mind
• Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment
• In accordance with the measure of faith God has given you

So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts

• Prophesying
• Serving
• Teaching
• Encouraging
• Contributing to the needs of others
• Leadership

Love must be sincere

• Hate what is evil
• Cling to what is good
• Be devoted to one another in brotherly love
• Honor one another above yourselves
• Never be lacking in zeal
• Keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord
• Be joyful in hope
• Patient in affliction
• Faithful in prayer
• Share with God's people who are in need
• Practice hospitality.
• Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse
• Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn
• Live in harmony with one another
• Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position
• Do not be conceited

Do not repay anyone evil for evil

• Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody
• If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone
• Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary:
  "If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
  if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."
• Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Take a few minutes and slowly read down the outline and see how evil is defeated when Christians give themselves to God and allows God to renew their minds. Finding and using their gifts I the love.

Romans 12: Pattern for Ministry

It seems that God has given the Dayton Bellevue Christian Church another chance. Why has God brought us here? This is a question that we should think about. The church needs to find a pattern of ministry that will lead us into the future. In Romans, chapter 12, the apostle Paul sets forth a pattern that I believe we can follow. Join me in this ongoing study.

Romans 12

Living Sacrifices

1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual^[a] act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his^[b]faith. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

They Didn’t Want Their Church to Close

For more than a hundred years the Dayton Bellevue Christian Church (originally called First Christian Church) has held services at the corner of 8^th and Walnut streets in Dayton. In the fall of 2005 that seemed to be over. The church leadership decided to close the church and donate the building to another ministry. The attendance had steadily fallen since the church had merged with the Bellevue Christian Church in the late 1990s. It made sense to close the church because of the pressing need for repairs and the dwindling congregation.

That is, it made sense to everyone except for a group who had been at the church since the 1940’s.To Barb Gibbons, Hobe Milner, Annice Wilson, Alma Campoamor, Shirley Bishop and her daughter Debbie Willman it was a devastating blow. This had been their church for too many years to see it come to an end.

The church began back in 1899 when Rev. R.D. Harding moved from Bellevue to start the church at 8^th and Walnut. Rev. Harding sent out 60,000 letters requesting a small contribution to every state. In the letter Rev. Harding asked members from Odd Fellows and Masons to “… [have] at least as many as ten of your members give 10 cents or more each and send it to us at once.” In this novel way the church was paid for and the first service was held in the sanctuary on September 28 1902.

The small group that wanted to keep the church going contacted Mike Sweeney the minister at the Latonia Christian Church for advice on keeping the church open. Rev. Sweeney arranged for Dave Wells one of the elders of his church to hold services until the group could decide what to do. Dave Wells is an enthusiastic ex police officer who directs the Criminal Justice program at ITT Tech in Norwood OH. At the time the Dean at ITT Tech was Tony Hayes. Tony had served as a minister at various churches for more than twenty-five years. In 1998 he left the fulltime ministry to work as a college administrator working at a number of colleges including Southern Ohio College in Ft Mitchell and Thomas More College before working with ITT. In the fall of 2005 Tony and his wife Linda had decided that it was time to go back to the ministry. So when Dave Wells told Tony about the church in Dayton the wheels began to turn. Tony met with the group that wanted to save the church and was invited to become their new minister. Since then the church has grown from the original six to nearly sixty. The church services are: Sunday Morning 10:30 and Wednesday Evening at 6:30. Every first Friday night of each month the church holds a free concert at 7:30. To contact the church, call 859.431.7711.