Dr. Stuart Bond
 | Dr. Stuart Bond
His passion is to see people meet Christ in a fresh way, whether they are new to the faith or have been a Christian for fifty years. Stuart and Cindy have four children.
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Stuart writes: During one of my first sermons here, I tried to answer a key question. What is it I dream of for Emmanuel five and ten years down the road? Here was the way I put it in May, 2007: I want to be part of a church that reaches someone who hasn't known God for years and still isn't sure but he heard there might be something here for him so he is sitting in the fourth pew on the right and he is wondering if he is in the right place and if the preacher will make any sense whatsoever and if any of the folks around him will say, "Hello." The church I want sits next to him and talk with him after the service and invites him to their home Bible study. I want to be part of a place where someone who believes they are no good at their life, who has paced her floor because she cannot figure out how things are going to work out - I want that woman to come here because she heard that there is a gentle shoulder here and God speaks to people with burdens in this place. The church I want listens patiently and tells her they've been where she is and it will get better and she is not alone. And I want to help create a place where someone who loves God can come and be thrilled that he or she is in the presence of other fishers of men, people who know that fish-fishing is their side job, like the Apostle Paul making tents. It is what we do, but it is not who we are. We are those who fish for others. We give hope and a new beginning. The church I want inspires us to reach out past these walls with the love and joy of Jesus Christ. I want to lead a church that is excited about that great vision for their life and for this ministry. That is the church I want to be part of. |