APEST simply refers to the leadership gifts God has given to the church to help us become mature in Christ.

A - Apostles focus on unreached people groups, frontiers that need the gospel and the church to thrive;

P - Prophets focus on those blind to God’s glory and righteousness;

E - Evangelists focus on the lost;

S - Shepherds want people to be provided for and for all to have a caring, holistic community;

T - Teachers focus on teaching the Body of Christ to become rooted, growing, and trained in the Word. (See Ephesians 4:11-13)

(FBS#4)

Sprinkling water onto a person's forehead or immersion in water, symbolizing purification or new life. Being baptized shows others He changed our lives and symbolizes our identification with the death and resurrection of Jesus(Romans 6:4-5);

it affirms that God will/has save(d) us by His grace through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

All of Scripture revolves around Jesus Christ (66 Books)

• The Old Testament – the 37 books in the Hebrew Bible – reveals God’s plan for creating and relating to humans. It reveals the struggle humanity has had knowing God, believing God, being in relationship with God, and how God planned to restore what has been broken.
• The 29 books and letters in the New Testament reveal God’s plan to enter into our broken world in the most humble of ways to bring us back into a good relationship with Him. It reveals the depth of God’s love and the extent of suffering He was willing to go through to restore humans to a close, peaceful, loving relationship.

Agreeing with God about your sin. In prayer, we first agree with God that we have sinned. Second, we agree with God that Christ’s death paid for that specific sin. And last, we agree with God to turn away from that sin and ask Him to empower us to do so (this is called repentance).

(FBS#2)

The experience of life in relationship with God and His community - the church

(FBS#13)

Dedicating or offering something or oneself to others or to God. Scripture stresses the importance of giving. The generosity and love of God in giving his only Son to die for his people is understood to lead to an obligation, on their part, to love God and others in return. Giving manifested in various forms in Scripture, most commonly is through honoring God from our financial resources by giving back to Him supporting His Kingdom’s cause and helping the needy. God commands His people to express their faith and thanksgiving by tithing and giving special offerings.

(FBS#9)

Each of these individuals becomes a believer and multiplies. They represent a profile of the Fourth-Soil Person mentioned in the Parable of the Sower. According to the Parable of the Sower, a Fourth-Soil Person includes the following: believesthe gospel, perseveres, and makes new disciples.

The good news of Jesus. The main points of the gospel are

1. God loves you and created you to know Him personally
2. All have sinned, and our sin separates us from God
3. Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for our sin. Through Him, we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives
4. We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord by faith; then we can know and experience God's love and plan for our lives.

(FBS#3)

God is three distinct persons who are one in substance. God is unique in this way. The Holy Spirit lives in perfect unity with the Father and the Son. He is God. The Holy Spirit equips people for ministry, gives people specific insight and wisdom, teaches people how to interpret God’s Word, communicates with the Father on people’s behalf, and empowers Christians to live according to God’s design.

Who is Jesus?

• Many say He was a “good teacher”. Most historians believe He existed. Eyewitness accounts, seen by 500 after His resurrection. New Testament letters were written to record what happened, what He taught, what He did to heal and feed thousands. He revealed to humans His true nature as a loving, compassionate, humble God who allowed Himself to be crucified to take the sins of the world upon Himself. He is forgiving, extending to all who believe in Him the free gift of grace and eternal life. Many found it hard to believe that a man could be God and rejected Him and His teachings. And this despite the many miracles He performed, as recorded in the New Testament. But He was more than a mere man, and He took on flesh to relate to us and to take our place on the cross. This event was so real that thousands of people believed He was the Son of God and placed their faith in Him. In the face of persecution, many died believing what they knew to be true. Who would die for a lie?

Why did Jesus need to die?

• He chose willingly to die so that humans could be restored to a right relationship with the one true God who created us. Jesus became the bridge between us and our imperfections (our sin and lack of real love toward God and our fellow humans) to lead us back into fellowship with a morally perfect and just God Creator.

• Key Passage: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

  ²³ For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread,²⁴ and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”²⁵ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”²⁶ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

• The Gospel is revealed in Communion, as it demonstrates His love for us in while we were yet sinners Christ died for us; that none are righteous, not one; all are guilty, will be judged & need forgiveness; that in His sovereign mercy “through faith in Christ, His righteousness becomes our righteousness and all that he has becomes ours.”
• It represents the sign and seal of the covenant of grace
  • SIGN, meaning that the physical elements POINT to/SHOW us something – it points to the person and work of Christ and His presence in our midst (not in the bread, but here spiritually here, with us!) In the Bread we see Christ as the Bread come down from heaven, the perfect God-man, God’s gift to solve our sin problem. 1 Peter 2:24: “He himself bore our sins in His body on the cross” In the Cup (juice of the vine) we see Christ as the Lamb of God who came as the God-man to die and shed His blood to forgive us of our sins (Hebrews 9:22).

    ²² In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

  • SEAL meaning that we know Jesus’ death secured our salvation, bought our peace with God because He rose from the dead. So today at this table we rejoice in the GUARANTEE His blood gives us.
• In taking communion we affirm by faith we are forgiven be/c of Jesus’ love, mercy and death. We agree with God at this table that the new covenant states that mankind “is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 2:16).

  ¹⁶ know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

  It is a time to:
  • REMEMBER / RELFECT on his death...his sacrifice
  • WORSHIP in fear/With unhurried thought RENEW our love, respect, devotion. All should be reminded to declare Him as Lord, to repent of sin, and to covenant once more to live as followers of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Neighbor: In the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10,

Jesus shows we are to love like He did, everyone - both near and far from us culturally. It’s more about being a neighbor like the Good Samaritan, expressing the love of Jesus to all He created - people everywhere.

the Greek word best translated “household.” Because households in the NT context were normally much larger than just a nuclear family, the term can well be applied as “extended family”, “people with whom you do life” or “circle of influence.”

Explained here.

(FBS#6)

Prayer is talking with God. It is an opportunity to express to the Lord what is on our heart and mind, to seek wisdom and guidance, and to ask for needs to be met. It is also a way to express our praise and adoration of who He is. It includes our asking on behalf of others and praying for what is on God’s heart, as well as for His will to be done. Finally, prayer is one way we express our dependence on Him.

At its heart, the PCS lifestyle is a gospel lifestyle of demonstrating the gospel by loving our neighbors (care) combined with the proclamation of the gospel as the Lord gives opportunity (share), all undergirded by prayer.

anything that is contrary to the will of God. Sin, as defined in the original translations of the Bible, means "to miss the mark." The mark, in this case, is the standard of perfect conformity to the laws established by God and evidenced by Jesus. Mankind was created to have fellowship with God; but, because of our own stubborn self-will, we chose to go our own independent way and fellowship with God was broken. This self-will, characterized by an attitude of active rebellion or passive indifference, is evidence of what the Bible calls sin.

(FBS#12)

Sometime is an experience dedicated to exploring the back-stories of our friends. During this experience, you will be asking friends, “Sometime, I’d like to hear about your spiritual journey... would you be up for that?”

(FBS#12)

An interactive, coffeehouse experience. Using art, film, music, poetry and other media, we explore the stories the soul of mankind is and has always been telling. Each event centers around a universal theme that seeks to answer common questions every human soul wrestles with. Through guided discussions around film clips, songs, poetry and art, we discover how our wounds can be healed and how our longings can be satisfied through the Gospel.

(FBS#10)

The story about how you came to have a personal relationship with God and how He has changed your life.

(FBS#11)

A witness is someone who moves toward people and creates opportunities to talk about Jesus in a wise, clear, direct, and gracious way . Witnessing is simply taking the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God.

(FBS#13)

Individual or corporate expression of reverence and adoration for God