Good Friday Speakers

Details on Good Friday Together: There will be a mass community choir, and guest speakers from local WNY churches and the Christian community such as Pat Jones, Marty Macdonald, Roderick Hennings, Jill Kelly, Darius Pridgen, Angel Gautier, and Jerry Gillis. Along with all of these speakers and churches gathering together, an offering will be taken to help fulfill needs in the city of Buffalo, in areas  such as education, sustainable housing, healthcare, and teen mentoring.

Elim Buffalo Announces Fall Schedule

Elim Bible Institute's Buffalo campus this week announced their fall schedule including a 2 day Homiletics seminar taught by Dr. Rev. Jerry Gillis and Bishop Tommy Reid taking place in January. Other classes include Hermeneutics I taught by Rev. Tom Baldwin, John’s Writings taught by Rev. Darlene Long, Hebrew Poetry and Wisdom Literature by Rev. Paul Edwards, Foundations for Life and Hebrews by  Rev. Darlene Long. 

Classes start Tuesday, September 6. For more info call 716-675-3070.

Jerry Gillis responds to Rob Bell's New Book

Pastor Jerry Gillis, lead pastor at The Chapel at Crosspoint in Getzville responded graciously on his blog, www.jerrygillis.com to the controversy surrounding Rob Bell's new book, Love Wins. In the thoughtful post he points out the positive, "I found myself saying “yes” a number of times when reading the chapter on heaven and the reality of heaven’s 'already/not yet' tension," and the bad, "I just struggle a bit with where he is landing (again, predominately on his perspective of hell which comes from his overemphasis of one attribute of God)," and the in between, "So, what are my thoughts on the book? Well, let’s just say that a “tug of war” would be a good metaphor to describe my thoughts – both in how I feel, and in what I read."

Gillis breaks down the book into four main "tug of wars" as he calls them, finally concluding that Bell has allowed God's incredible love to trump all his other characteristics like justice, truth, holiness and tells readers that God's love will conquer all and give everyone a chance to know God without suffering hell.
The four controversial points Gillis breaks down about the book are:

Tug of War #1 – Biblically justifiable vs. Biblically indefensible.
Tug of War #2 – Evangelical vs. Liberal theology.
Tug of War #3 – Rob Bell vs. Rob Bell.
Tug of War #4 – God vs. God.

Read the full post at jerrygillis.com