Читать книгу Email "Messages" - Steven A. Crane - Страница 3

Fifteen years ago, I had the privilege of planting Eagle Christian Church. From humble beginnings in my living room, the church has since grown significantly. During that time I discovered an interesting correlation: as the congregation grew—so did the number of questions I received—some through snail mail, some voice mail, but primarily through email.

About two years ago, I realized that many of the questions I was being asked, I had been asked before—and had previously answered (at least once). Upon this realization, I searched frantically in my file cabinets and on my computer to see if I had stored any of my previous correspondence. I found very little. “Oh,” I thought, “if I had only saved the questions and answers in an electronic format!”

Since that time, the questions have continued to come in, and this present work began to take shape as I have faithfully attempted to respond to each—and faithfully saved them as well. These pages are primarily a compilation of answers to questions I have received from folks within the community of believers at Eagle Christian Church.

In keeping with the original genre of the writing (email messages), I have intentionally tried to keep my answers brief and to the point. Understand that with brevity often comes incompleteness. There is always much more that could be said, and often there are many different ways one might attempt to answer a particular question. I have tried to include Bible passages and other resources to help the reader to gain more complete answers to their questions when necessary.

My prayer is that this “question and answer” format will help you on your journey to be able to defend your faith. I believe, as a minister, one of my primary tasks is to equip people with tools necessary to help them answer not only their own questions, but to help them provide answers for others as well. For Scripture tells us, “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).

Steven A. Crane