This coming Sunday we are having a Solemn Assembly. What is a solemn assembly? A solemn assembly is when God's people gather to publicly confess their sins, both corporately and individually.

In Nehemiah 9:2, we find that after all the Israelites gathered together, "They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors." When we gather together this Sunday, it will be to put a "stake in the ground" and take back the "territory" we have lost due to unconfessed sin.

When the CB Assessment Team gave us prescriptions to enable us to be the church God wants us to be, they included the process that your leaders have been prayerfully engaged in now for months.

Your leaders gathered to learn and to move toward seeing that CBC becomes a church categorized by an atmosphere of peace.

We have…

• identified our corporate sins and confessed them to God.
• released our hurts to the Lord and purposed to forgive all who have hurt us.
• determined to seek forgiveness of those whom we have hurt and sinned against.
• asked the Lord to protect us from the influence of the evil one.
• determined to renew our commitment to being a church that is totally dependent upon God.

This Sunday, April 25th we'll be asking our congregation to join us in these commitments. Perhaps our Lord will put something on your heart that needs to be made right with God or a brother or sister in Christ. That's what our leaders are praying for our church family.

Please join us in prayer.

Read Nehemiah 9 in preparation and may our Lord truly have the preeminence in our assembly this coming week.

--Dr. Roger Haber

"It's a different church!" That's what someone whispered to our regional executive director, Randy Keeley, when he was here! I agree!

God has truly been working. Our transition team has done a marvelous ministry to our congregation. I believe our Solemn Assembly was a turning point! The celebration service was another one! We began our teaching series on Nehemiah. REBUILDING WALLS!

The prayer action plan our leaders developed with the help of Ted Brewer (New Peace Network) is a plan we're not simply filing, but we're seeking to make part of the fiber of our church--a core value if you will!

We are committed to the mission and mandate of Jesus. As Randy put it, "We're here to make more and better disciples!" Exciting!

At the end of June, our congregation will come together to affirm and commend three godly men who have agreed to serve with me, as elders of the church! We have been meeting and I am humbled and delighted that these godly men will be serving--first of all the Lord Jesus Christ--and then His people here at CBC! Please keep these three men, Rich, Dave, and Carl (and their families) in your prayers!

I'm not sure what God has for us, but I've already seen some miracles! People have been healed! People have been rescued! There's a godly and positive spirit at CBC! We must remain vigilent and diligent. The enemy of Christ and His church will seek to divide and conquer. But we are getting stronger! We have confessed and continue to renounce those sins that hindered us from the mission God has always had for us.

"It's a different church!" Amen!

Dr. Roger Haber (5/24/10)

Our church has been on quite a journey these past nine months. On September 27, 2009 the Lord gave us a great gift--a wakeup call. Although there were some painful days, I consider this a gift because it taught us to be totally dependent on Him!

Rev. Stan Reib, of CBAmerica and Rev. Randy Keeley, of CB Mission Northeast, helped us assess where we are and where we needed to be. The prescriptions they recommended were overwhelming adopted by our courageous congregation.

In the subsequent months, our Transition Team members prayed together, worked together, planned together so we could truly rebuild broken walls. Rev. Ted Brewer, from New Peace Network, guided us through a process that resulted in a Solemn Assembly and our Prayer Action Plan.

Randy again came helped us start working on our structure and then on our vision, values, and mission. We will continue working on these important prescriptions during the months ahead.

This past Sunday, June 27, 2010, another milestone was reached. Nine months after our wakeup call, our congregation affirmed a new elder team of godly, trustworthy, humble men who will serve our Lord together with me, for the honor of Christ and His church here in Middleborough. Please be in prayer as Rich, Dave, Carl and I begin our service together. There will be great joys and great challenges. I trust we will remember the lessons we've learned and give this assembly courageous and faithful leadership.

I am excited brothers and sisters. For several weeks now we've seen people come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. We are rebuilding! Trust and humility are already characteristics of our new pastoral leadership team. We will remain vigilent and diligent as we move to better align our church with values, vision, and mission.

A new day is here! Thank the Lord for the precious gift He's given us!

Dr. Roger D. Haber, Pastor

This coming Sunday, January 17, 2010, I begin a teaching series on prayer, Praying as Jesus Taught Us to Pray! I believe we truly need to become a House of Prayer this year and in the years ahead.

English Puritan, John Owen, said that prayer should be like breathing for the child of God. "The neglect of prayer", says Owen, "is a sufficient evidence of atheism. It is the unalterableness of our union to Christ which does secure our salvation, yet our own diligent endeavour is such an indispensable means to that end that without it our salvation will not be brought about."

So many times, so many Christians have talked about getting prayer back in the schools. I liked what Pastor Jim Cymbala of the Brooklyn Tabernacle said at a pastors' conference at Moody Bible Institute a few years ago. It went something like this, "Why worry about getting prayer in the schools when we should be concerned with getting prayer back in the church!"

After this past week's fantastic and powerful prayer meeting, which I'm calling The Furnace Room, based on Charles Spurgeon's label for his power house of prayer in London, one person emailed me and said, "I'd be happy to be a spokesperson for the power of our prayer time on Wednesday evenings.

I am trusting that we will fill the room every Wednesday at 6:00 pm each week. Some of us are fasting! Some are bringing their children so they will also make this part of their family core spiritual values!

I cannot get through the day without breathing! I believe our church can't get through 2010 (and beyond) without the breathing of prayer. Let's keep the temperature up in the Furnace Room this year!

See you Wednesday!

Pastor Roger