The Orchard BLOG
About The Author
The Orchard Blog is written by Steve Dusek, Founding Church Planter here at The Orchard Church. Steve is a father of two kids, both leading worship in the student band at The Orchard. He and his lovely wife, Sherry, celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary in January of 2010.





12 Ways you can serve in 2012

Dec/31/2011 10:29 AM Filed in: 2012
We serve God by serving others, right? And with the new year upon us, people are looking for new ways to be used by God in others’ lives. Here are just 12 ways you can serve God by serving in the church in the new year.

1. Bring supplies for children's crafts on Sun   
2. Join the Sunday Setup crew
3. Volunteer 1x mo in Kidmo or Lil’ K
4. Join the worship team (we need instrumentalists!)
5. Seamless Summer
6. Join the Hospitality team to serve coffee, greet, and smile.
7. Deliver clothes to schools with BRANCH Ministry
8. Join our Tech Team
9. Be a Disciple Now host home in March
10. Give regularly
11. Sponsor a kid for Camp
12.  Special event volunteer: Easter, Christmas, etc.

Choosing to Cheat

Dec/17/2011 10:55 PM
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Who are you cheating?

You love your family. You love the challenges of your job. But there’s not enough of you to go around. Somebody isn’t getting as much of your attention as they want or deserve.

This little book presents a strategic plan for resolving the tension between work and home—reversing the destructive pattern of giving to your company and career what belongs to your family.

But be forewarned...you will have to cheat.

Making Space

Dec/11/2011 04:34 PM Filed in: Christmas | Series | Message
You might have noticed that it’s been nearly two months since my last blog entry… Been really busy the last little while. You know how it goes, right? I just tend to get caught up in too much stuff sometimes.
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It’s kind of an ironic situation… MAKING SPACE is what our Christmas series is all about. Sherry told me this afternoon that “this series seems like it is for you as much as it is for anyone else.” She’s right. To be honest, this wasn’t the original series at all. In fact, I had been so overloaded lately, that I had intended to preach through a book about a different topic during these three weeks to reduce the load on my personal schedule. But God very clearly led me in a different direction. This is definitely a series about a topic that I haven’t fully worked out in my own life, and I suspect there are many others out there that struggle with the same issue. I hope this series is a blessing to you this season. You can get the series right here.

Shift your prayer life

Oct/16/2011 07:26 AM Filed in: rewritten | Ephesians | Message | Sunday
For this morning’s message in Ephesians, we’re looking at how Paul the apostle prayed for the church. I thought it would be helpful to link back to an older message on the basics of prayer, so here it is!

SHIFT: Prayer

Blessings Delivered in Christ!

Oct/08/2011 11:50 AM Filed in: rewritten | Ephesians
Isn’t it great to know that God has already delivered to us EVERY spiritual blessing?? IN CHRIST, we have been given ALL that we ever will need.

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Ephesians 1 describes these blessings very nicely… Among them, we are chosen, graced, redeemed, reconciled, destined, and sealed! I love the fact that in HIM, we have been given all we need, and in Him, we lack nothing.

It’s not like we have to hope or wish or pray or somehow earn every spiritual blessing. We HAVE BEEN GIVEN them ALL! Many Christians think that growing in Christ means earning more and more of these blessings over the course of their life. Nothing could be farther from the truth! Maturing as a Christian means GROWING INTO the blessings that I ALREADY HAVE in CHRIST!

Colossians 1:11-14 tells us that I have already been qualified, already been delivered, already been transferred, already been redeemed, and I’ve already been forgiven!

God doesn’t withhold his blessings for us. ALL are delivered freely in Christ.