Bravely Onward!

This weekend we have a golden opportunity to share the good news of Jesus Christ with our friends and neighbors. Many of us will have trick-or-treaters on our front porches with their families nearby. Others of us may team up with fellow growth group members to handout candy, food, and water bottles to families in busy neighborhoods. Unlike so many other times of the year, we have a special opportunity to be in close proximity to people who need to hear about Jesus.  We also have a message to share. We want these families to have the opportunity to hear and respond to the message of the cross and resurrection. We want to clearly communicate how people can be saved and changed by Jesus. Some of us may get the opportunity to share verbally with trick-or-treaters. Some of us may simply include gospel tracts with other freebies (by the way, we have provided you with packets of tracts on a table in the worship center lobby). The best method for sharing the good news of Jesus is the on...

Last week, I pointed out that October 31st provides a rare opportunity to interact with our neighbors and community. Families, which generally keep to themselves, will likely come to your front door in order to show off their kids' costumes and get candy. Trick-or-treating provides a rare opportunity for you to rub shoulders with those whom you might not otherwise visit with. As a Christian, how can you use this occasion to fulfill Christ's command that we tell others about Him? In order to effectively share the gospel, you've got to be in close proximity to people who need to hear. Beyond this, you need to know what you want to communicate. If you were going to engage trick-or-treaters with the gospel, what would you say and how would you say it? Here are some tips to keep in mind: 1. Keep the focus on Christ and what He did. We might be tempted to talk to people about church or maybe even tell them our opinion about Halloween. But given that your communication will likel...

How many people ring your doorbell over the course of a week? Maybe one or two? Perhaps none? If someone does ring your doorbell, is it usually a neighbor or a sales person? How do you feel when someone is at the front door? Are you happy someone is stopping by or do you feel anxiety about the person out front? Things have sure changed in recent years. In the digital age, personal interaction on our porch has become rare. Unfortunately, the likelihood that the person ringing your doorbell is a neighbor wanting to share freshly baked bread is low. Therefore, many of us have become leery of guests at the front door.  In two weeks from Sunday, however, your doorbell may ring three dozen times, and you will be glad to open it. People will be on you porch, and you will probably give them all gifts. No, this is no episode of the Twilight Zone , but in two weeks it will be Halloween night. You might see Halloween as just dress-up fun and games for the kids or you might understand it as a ...

This weekend marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This anniversary reminds us of many things- like where we were when the first plane struck the north tower and the emotions we felt as our country was attacked. As our nation remembers, I hope we experience healing and keep motivated to keep our nation safe. However, I also hope that remembering 9/11 will remind us about our mission as a church.  Our mission is to lead people to become whole-hearted followers of Jesus Christ. This means that we work to give people around the world the opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel and we teach them to live for Jesus. The Bible teaches that the gospel is the only way to remove sin and evil from the hearts of people. When we witness atrocities like 9/11, the OKC bombing, and the Columbine High School shooting, we see the evil of humanity at its worst. It can steal, kill, and destroy in terrifying ways. These events confront us with the uncomfortable fact that the h...

 What does it mean to be a Southern Baptist church? This is a very interesting question. A short, albeit loaded, answer is that  Southern Baptists are a network of autonomous baptistic churches which voluntarily partner for the purpose of advancing the Great Commission.  Wow! That's a mouthful. Let's see if we can break this down? Autonomous-  means that each Southern Baptist church is truly independent and self-governed. Local Baptist churches do not receive directives from a centralized denominational government. Instead, the members of each church determine the course for their own church through a democratic process of voting. We do things this way because we believe that Christ is the head of each church and that the church members have the ability to know His will through prayer and the study of His Word. We believe that His specific will for each specific church is discoverable through the voting of its members (see Acts 15:22).  Baptistic-  This ter...

At the Southern Baptist Convention last month, the Executive Committee (EC) presented to the messengers Vision 2025 for adoption. This vision statement articulated five critical steps which Southern Baptist congregations must focus on over the next four years if we want to reverse the present decline in baptisms and membership in our churches. The fourth step listed read, to "turn around our ongoing decline in reaching, baptizing, and discipling 12 to 17-year-olds in the prime of their teenage years."  The reason why the EC listed this item is that our churches have seen a decades-long slide in youth baptisms. In recent years, we are not seeing as many students saved and discipled. Specifically, baptisms in this age group have decreased 38% since 2000. If someone were looking for a major reason why Southern Baptist total membership has dropped from over 16 million to just over 14 million in just 10 years, the best reason to suggest is that we are not winning our children to ...

  This week, I watched Keith Getty interview George Lowden of Lowden Guitars. Getty asked Lowden to tell the story of how he became a full-time guitar maker. He explained that in his early 20s, he sold clothing in several small shops in Ireland. One day, when Lowden was praying in church, he felt convicted that he was not doing what God had made him to do for the kingdom. Soon, he sensed a clear calling to make quality hand-made guitars. Immediately, he sold his clothing businesses and went into guitar making.  However, there was one small problem, Lowden didn't know how to make quality hand-made guitars! But this didn't stop him from following the Lord. Having no available mentor (and being decades before the advent of YouTube), Lowden learned how to make guitars through trial-and-error. When he got stuck with some technical problem, he learned to pause and pray through it. He said there were so many times that the God granted him the wisdom to work past the problem. When I t...