Men's Breakfast Report, May 13, 2017

 

Men's Breakfast, May 13, 2017

The Men’s Breakfast Group met Saturday, May 13th with Eric Ramsey, pastor of the New Life Church.  Eric was raised in Bryan but moved here as a young man.  He got a call for the ministry several years ago.  He works for a contractor at BASF as his income earning job.  He has gone to a couple of different Bible colleges. 

The New life Church is loosely associated with various other churches but not part of a large denomination.  The church has about forty members including several children.  The members are primarily black.  They have both Sunday services and Wednesday night Bible study.  Wednesday night is also taken as an opportunity to provide tutoring for students.  Pastor Ramsey’s wife is a teacher and other members have expertise to help with the tutoring. 

The building that they had been renting for a church has major structural deficiencies and finally was considered unsafe by the congregation.  Thy found a place in Clute that they could lease very suitable for their purpose; it had been used as a church recently.  They leased it but were denied use of it on request for an occupancy permit.  Churches in Clute need a specific use permit. The landlord did not realize that the previous church’s specific use permit expired with the congregation leaving the facility, and was not transferable.  Because of state and city law, it takes at least a month to get a specific use permit.  Therefor they needed to find a place to hold services for the duration.  Our church made an offer, but a different church that pastor Ramsey was cooperating with provided space that he decided to use. 

The men had an interesting discussion and a good breakfast.  The next meeting will be June 10th.