Grace and Truth Church of Athens

09/02/2026

Over the last two days I was finally able to upload all 7 videos of sermons and classes that have been given since Space and I left for Alaska a month ago! Only the videos are currently uploaded. Lord willing, I will get the audio recordings up later this week... but they might have to wait until Monday.

Check this one out... Last Sunday, my first ever worship leader and his wife (Jon and Julie Luken) came to visit us from Washington State. It was the first time we've seen them in 13 years! I prayed for them, then Jon prayed for us, then he closed out our service by leading us in the Doxology! It was SO beautiful, and it was SUCH a great honor to have them come worship with us! Here is the video...

Guests Being Honored: Jon and Julie LukenDate: 8/30/2026Address:...

08/29/2026

For those of you who have been asking about the uploads of our last few Sunday sermons and Wednesday evening classes... I apologize that I haven't been able to get to any of them since I've returned from Alaska. I've been very busy since I've gotten back, and I also haven't been around any internet that is much faster than the old "dial-up" internet service, making uploading virtually impossible. Lord willing, I will be able to start posting them on Tuesday. Thanks for your patience. God bless you all.

Ok... who remembers "dial-up"?

08/19/2026

Ephesians 5:23 says that Christ is the Head of the church. 1 Peter 5:4 calls Jesus the Chief Shepherd. And in Matthew 28:20 Jesus said, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

As a pastor, these verses bring me a tremendous amount of comfort, especially when it's time for me to leave town for a while, unable to do much at all to "shepherd the flock of God" which has been "allotted to my charge" (1 Pet. 5:2-3). With these truths in mind, I know the church is in the hands of the Almighty at all times, and that she is safe in His care, with or without me present. Oh, what comfort this brings!

But the Word also says in 2 Timothy 2:2 (as the Apostle Paul is instructing young Pastor Timothy), "The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." This is a reminder that God's design for His churches is that they would always be taught sound doctrine, looked after, and cared for by trustworthy, faithful men. And although GTC doesn't yet have a plurality of elders (which are the exact same as pastors), in God's providence, we are indeed moving in that direction.

For the last two weeks Space and I were out in Alaska visiting our son, and the whole time I had no worries about the well-being of the church, not only because I know who our Head and Chief shepherd is, but also because of His gracious provision of a few particular leading men at GTC whom I knew would faithfully step up and shepherd the church well during my absence... and they certainly did. These men are Forest and Simon Welch, and Mitch Young... all who either preached sermons, taught classes, led prayer meetings, or led the church in songs of praise.

I want to publicly thank these young men for rising to the occasion and making the many sacrifices they made for our beloved church family while Space and I were gone. And I want to also thank their wives (Claire, Alycia, and Brittany) and all their young children, because they all sacrificed just as much, simply by supporting the ministries of their husbands/fathers. May God bless all of you a hundredfold for all that you have done for Space and I, for the church body as a whole, and ultimately for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

GTC, I love you very much, and I can't wait to see you all this evening, as I climb back up in the saddle, teaching our next session on "The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity"!

(As we sing at the close of every Sunday worship service...) Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Praise Him, all creatures here below! Praise Him above, ye heavenly host! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Amen.

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08/04/2026

After my last FB post, a lot of people have been asking for this one to get uploaded. Here is the audio-only version, for now. The video is still being uploaded. The audio can also be found on pretty much any podcast site out there, and the video will be on YouTube as soon as it finishes uploading, which shouldn't be long.

You're probably going to either really love or really hate this one.

God bless you guys! May you be encouraged and strengthened by the Word of God!

Preacher: Smiles Welch Date: 7/19/2026 Address: 3374 Pleasant Hill Rd. Athens, OH 45701 Contact: [email protected] Sunday Services: 1:30pm Prayer; 2:00pm Sunday School; 3:00pm Worship. Potluck- style meal afterward every week! Wednesday Service: 6:30pm Prayer and Study

08/01/2026

This Sunday during our worship service we will be on Part 5 (of what I think will be 6 total, maybe 7) in "The Triumphal Entry", from John 12:12-19. This week's text will be, "...even the King of Israel."

Who is Israel anyway? Now, THAT is a great and VERY important question! And how timely in our culture for us to be looking at how the Scriptures answer this question! Come join us to see who's King Jesus is!

Prayer @ 1:30pm
Adult Sunday School @ 2pm
Worship @ 3pm
Potluck meal after worship (usually around 5pm)

God bless you all!

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07/24/2026

"But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." - 2 Peter 1:20-21

(I may be getting a little heady here, but this is very important. If you need to know the definition of "exegesis", just look it up real quick before you read on.)

This verse (and many others) is why being a faithful student of God's Word looks like exercising very careful EXEGESIS, as opposed to INTERPRETING the Word in such a way that we ensure that it conforms to our hearts' desires, or our traditions . If what we believe any given text means isn't actually what it says, than we need to be honest with ourselves and admit that our interpretation is wrong. We cannot change what Scripture says. And what it says is what it means, always. We don't get to DETERMINE what it means. We only get to DISCOVER what it means, which can only happen through faithful and careful exegesis.

There are many things to learn about how to do faithful exegesis (for example, learning the many different exegetical literary rules for different genres of literature), but nevertheless, careful exegesis is the only answer to discovering what any given text actually means.

Interpretation apart from careful exegesis leads only to one of two things: (1) All sorts of disunity within the church. (2) A unity that is founded upon another person or group's interpretation which is not in conformity with the authoritative truth of the whole council of God's Word.

Within what is called the Protestant church, that first problem that I mentioned above is completely out of control and desperately needs to be repented of. Within the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, the second problem is just as much out of control, and just as desperately needs to be repented of. At stake on all sides in this matter are two immeasurably important things: (1) People's salvation. (2) The glory of God being revealed through the people of God.

We Protestants say that we hold to Sola Scriptura, but few churches actually demonstrate that they do, as SOOO much of what is taught and done (both corporately and individually) is TOTALLY contrary to Scripture, and they deny it by applying interpretations to texts which clearly contradict what those texts clearly show themselves to mean once they are faithfully exegeted.

Then there are the Catholics and Orthodox churches. They both say that they esteem their traditions and Scripture equally, but whenever it's shown that their traditions contradict Scripture they both clearly demonstrate that they very much value their traditions over Scripture, which is something they deny by doing the exact same thing the unfaithful Protestants are doing, which is to apply interpretations to texts which contradict what the texts very clearly show themselves to mean after being carefully exegeted.

What it boils down to is that the entire church is in need of repentance when it comes to our reverence for, and faithful handling of, the Word of God. No one esteems God's Word to the degree that we ought... not me, not my church... not anyone, or any church. All of us need to repent in this matter.

There is a saint of old named Augustine of Hippo, who is highly esteemed by nearly all Christians who know of him (too highly by some). He once famously said, "Grant what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt." May this be so regarding how we handle the holy Scriptures! May we (as Psalm 96:9 says) "tremble before Him" every time we open up and/or meditate upon His Word. His Word is truth (Jn. 17:17). May we know the truth, and may the truth set us free (Jn. 8:32).

(And as we Protestants like to say, in accordance with the Scriptures...) To the glory of God alone!

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07/21/2026

Here is a golden oldy, from 1912...

Author: George Bennard, 1912 Worship Leader: Simon Welch Date: 7/19/2026 Address: 3374 Pleasant Hill Rd. Athens, OH 45701 Contact: [email protected] Sunday Services: 1:30pm Prayer; 2:00pm Sunday School; 3:00pm Worship. Potluck- style meal afterward every week! Wednesday Service:....

07/21/2026

Here is "Mediator", also from last Sunday morning. I think it's pretty cool that just the pulpit mic is picking all this up! Look forward to more of our praise and worship music being posted in the future, since many of you have reached out and expressed appreciation for it, requesting more.

Here is just a small glimpse of our praise and worship time at GTC. The camera was set up to record the sermon, with no intention of keeping this in the video... much less putting it online for the world to see. This audio is just what the pulpit microphone picked up. This was just a sweet few momen...

07/21/2026

Some of you asked for an audio file of the worship song I posted yesterday. Here it is. "In the Shadow of the Glorious Cross", led by Simon Welch. The entirety of this audio was picked up by the microphone that is mounted to the pulpit. It is by no means a professional recording. Enjoy.

Thank you, Simon Welch, for being such a faithful, loving, and humble servant at GTC, leading us in worship every week. You do SUCH a great job, and we are all so blessed by you and the giftedness that our God has given you, for His glory and our good. We love you!

Here is just a small glimpse of our praise and worship time at GTC. The camera was set up to record the sermon, with no intention of keeping this in the video... much less putting it online for the world to see. But it was just a sweet few moments of our worship unto our glorious Savior, right befor...

07/20/2026

Here was an accidental video capture from church, just before the sermon yesterday. Thank you, Simon, for always so humbly leading us in praise and worship to our great God! We sing, "Hallelujah!"

Here is just a small glimpse of our praise and worship time at GTC....