Sanctity of Life Sunday and Relief of Haiti (Jan 25, 2010)
Yesterday, we were privileged to celebrate Sanctity of Human Life Sunday by conducting our annual baby dedication service. Ten families of Grace were blessed with new babies in 2009, and it was our joy to parade these children across the platform and pray for their parents as they face the daunting task of raising children for the glory of God in this wicked world. My sermon yesterday morning, from Proverbs 4, focused on the home. There were some solid decisions by parents at the altar asking for God's help to be the right kind of mother or father. You can listen to the sermon again by logging on to our website.
Children are an important part of Grace Baptist Church. This is why we run buses to underprivileged neighborhoods every Sunday. This week another three children prayed to receive Christ as personal Savior in the counseling center of bus church. We praise the Lord for these decisions.
We also praise the Lord for another child, Uriah Barfield, who accepted Christ in Junior Church yesterday. His mom and dad are recent new members of our church. We praise the Lord for Uriah's sensitivity to God's Spirit. He followed the Lord in believer's baptism yesterday and became the newest member of Grace Baptist Church. Amen!
In our zeal to continue to help children, the congregation of Grace Baptist Church voted to underwrite two scholarships for bus kids to attend Grace Christian School each year. Bus kids who feel called to ministry will be our first priority. We are hoping to train missionaries from our own ranks. Amen again!
Yesterday was also characterized by Grace taking special offerings for disaster relief in Haiti. Numerous children and adults have been hurt by the recent earthquake, and we wanted to do our part to hurt this struggling people. The people of Grace opened their wallets in a great fashion. These collected funds will be sent to BIMI who will funnel the funds to veteran missionary Don Dryden who is working closely with national pastors in Port au Prince. In addition, we showed a missionary presentation in the evening service of Don's son and co-worker, Benji, who has been a good friend to this pastor for several years. The church voted to add Benji to our missionary family, making him the 163rd missionary of the Grace Baptist Church family.
Bob Ingram and I were able to attend the annual board meeting of the Christian Servicemen Centers last week. This year's meeting was held in Lawton, Oklahoma just outside of Fort Sill. What a blessing to be able to report that 1055 servicemen stood to receive Christ last year through the Freedom House here in Columbus. As I toured the Artillery Musuem at Fort Sill, I was reminded of the power of proper weapons. What a blessing to pack the Gospel Gun and fire away at the demons of hell. What a privilege to be in the Lord's Army! We have already seen 39 soldiers stand to receive Christ this year, and we are praying that God will give us 1200 before the year is done. Pray that God will give us one new couple to volunteer to sit the center on evenings when Bible studies are being conducted and that our two assistants to Brother Ingram will grow and assume more responsibility as new Bible studies are added to our already growing schedule.
Missions Conference is just a little over two weeks away. Missionaries to Australia, Ecuador, Egypt, Grenada, Norway, and Nebraska will be featured. Dr. Fred Moritz, General Director Emeritus of Baptist World Mission, will be our featured speaker. It should be a great week! Pray that God will grant us our largest Faith Promise commitment ever!
The boys varsity basketball team concludes their home schedule today. Is it wrong to pray for a victory?
Anyway, do pray for the ministries of Grace Baptist Church this week as the Lord lays us upon your heart. Your interest in this ministry means much to us.
Goals for the 2010 ROUTE (Jan 18, 2010)
At this time of year our thoughts turn to the sanctity of human life. The most recent edition of the Sword of the Lord contains my editorial against abortion, and we here at Grace Baptist Church are gearing up for our annual baby dedication service, honoring the parents who had babies in 2009.
Our associate pastor and his wife, Greg and Karen Powell, dedicated their newest arrival, Olivia Grace, to the Lord yesterday during the morning worship service. Both sets of grandparents were in town for the occasion, and we are thrilled that God is blessing the stellar families of our church with what Dr. Jennings used to call "little chunks of heaven."
We also praise the Lord not merely for physical life, but also for spiritual life that He imparts through the new birth. Yesterday morning, McQuetta Carter, walked the aisle to trust the Lord as her personal Savior. She immediately followed the Lord in baptism and was back last night in church. What a blessing to see people who are serious when they trust Christ. Praise the Lord for the difference He makes in the lives of people.
We also saw the Lord breathe some life into our bus ministry. Attendance figures jumped about 20 from the previous week, and three precious children prayed to receive Christ in the counseling center of bus church. Amen!
Our Fort Benning Bible studies also were rejuvenated last week as soldiers returned from their Christmas breaks. 108 attended our various Bible studies last week with 15 of them praying to receive Christ as personal Savior. Amen again!
Our annual leadership retreat was conducted last week where we put the finishing touches on our goals for 2010. These goals were then presented to our congregation during last night's service. You can listen to the entire game plan by logging on to our website and listening to last night's service.
Our theme for this year is "Route - Movin' on Down the Road." We presented broad goals which were based on an acrostic of the word "route." The first is riders. We want to improve our bus ministry with more riders. To do this, bus church will be moving to a new time, new location, targeting new areas, and soliciting new personnel.
The second goal is to reach our outlying areas. We are aggressively recruiting an African American intern to help us provide a positive role model for the African American children of Grace Christian School and bus church. Eventually, we will be planting a church in South Columbus with an African American pastor. We are also targeting Fort Mitchell and Valley, Alabama, as well as Manchester, Georgia for new churches in our chapel ministry.
The third goal is concerned with the uttermost parts of the earth. We will be aggressively expanding our missionary outreach to include 500 missionaries by the year 2030. In addition, we will be providing scholarships for bus children to attend Grace Christian School, with a priority given to those kids who are considering the mission field.
Our fourth goal is tunes. We want music in the car as we move on down the road. During 2010, Grace will produce its fourth CD. This one, however, will be an eclectic CD of various artists within our congregation. Ed Russ, from Faith Music Mission, along with our own Greg Powell, will be working to make this a reality.
Our final goal is expansion. The leadership team is exploring the possibility of breaking ground on a new fellowship hall and gymnasium facility within the immediate vicinity of our main campus. Pray that God will give us wisdom and financing as we pursue these options.
We had over ten different families visit our services yesterday. We are thankful that God keeps bringing people our way. Pray for us as we follow up with these visitors and seek to preach the Gospel here and around the world.
Bob Ingram and I will be traveling to Lawton, Oklahoma later this week for the annual board meetings of the Christian Servicemen Centers, Inc. Pray that we will be a blessing and an encouragement during our presentation times.
May God's richest blessings be yours as you labor in the harvest this week. Please keep us in your prayers.
2010 Rolls On, Gearing Up for Missions Conference (Jan 11, 2010)
The Lord gave us a good Sunday yesterday. Temperatures were very chilly by Georgia standards. Wind chill factors were hovering in the teens, but attendance was good. We are thankful this morning for some significant highlights that we would like to share with you.
Yesterday at 9:30 AM, we began a new quarter of the Soul Winners Club. Several new couples, an adult man, and a teenage girl all signed up for this quarter. One of our new membrs, Phil Shuler, was loading his kids into the mini-van after church when a boy from the neighborhood came up and just started watching. After Phil finished loading the kids, he talked to this boy about the Savior, and within a few minutes this young man was praying to receive Christ. Amen! As Phil was finishing up, the boy's father approached, and Phil was able to lead the father to Christ as well. Amen again! Pray for Phil (and us) as the discipleship begins. Pray with us that we will be able to get them baptized soon and on the road to productive Christian living.
At 10:45 AM, the buses began to pull in. Three buses had mechanical problems due to the chilly temperatures, but all routes were handled by the excellent flexibility of our bus workers. We had 111 riders yesterday with six of them praying to receive Christ as personal Savior. Amen!
At 11:00 AM, I continued our January sermon series on "Roads" from the book of Proverbs. This Sunday we talked about Guardrails, and there were a good number of decisions at the altar. Several people joined the church yesterday. We thank the Lord for Jason and Cassandra Belford joining by letter from their church in South Shore, Kentucky. Paul Nichols, also in the military, joined yesterday by statement. Praise the Lord!
One of our most "turned around" RU families, the Allens, brought relatives to church yesterday. Pray for us as we follow up with these local visitors.
At 6:00 PM, we were privileged to feature Paul Hostetler, missionary with BIMI to the field of Madagascar. Paul did an excellent job of presenting misisons and his particular field. We were excited about adding him to our missionary family - the 161st missionary of Grace Baptist Church. Amen! This is the first time in our 63-year history we have ever had a missionary to this field, and we are excited about having fruit in this ripe part of the world.
Do pray for the leadership team of Grace as it travels to Northeast Georgia this week for its annual retreat. We will be laying the ground work for 2010's agenda.
Baby dedication is coming soon - January 24. We are excited about this annual celebration of life. More babies than ever were born in 2009, and we are excited about honoring them and their parents.
And then our world missionary conference is less than one month away. Missionaries to Australia, Ecuador, Egypt, Grenada, Nebraska, and Norway will be with us. Begin praying now about your financial commitment.
Thank you for your continued interest in this ministry.
Great Start to 2010 (Jan 04, 2010)
Sometimes attendance figures (both Sunday morning and evening), along with financial figures, are hard to decipher. For example, yesterday morning's attendance was significantly down. Yet, Sunday night attendance was significantly up, and finances were up a little bit. I guess we are supposed to praise the Lord for the victories, and pray harder when our work doesn't seem to yield the fruit that we desire.
There were a couple of milestones achieved yesterday. Let me highlight a couple of them for you. On January 1, Karen and I were able to visit a family that had been visiting the church. A mother lives in the house with her adult children. We were able to lead one of these children, Wanda, to the Lord. Yesterday, Wanda walked the aisle to follow the Lord in believer's baptism. Praise the Lord.
We were also able to baptize Jacob Ratliff yesterday. Jacob is the son of Mike and Kelly Ratliff, our Master Club commanders. The Ratliffs are a great asset to our church, and it was a great joy to plunge their son beneath baptismal waters and welcome him as the newest member of Grace Baptist Church.
Also joining yesterday were Bryan and Whitney Miller. Bryan is the younger brother of Richard Miller, our Junior Department Coordinator. Bryan and his wife Whitney moved to Columbus several months ago, and we are excited that they officially decided to make Grace their church home yesterday. We praise the Lord for these new additions.
It was also my privilege yesterday to dedicate the son of our youth pastor. Noah Riley Chambers was officially turned over to God. We are thankful for the arrival of this joyful baby. The doctors told Pastor and Mrs. Chambers that they would not be able to have children. We are thankful that God overruled the doctors.
During the worship service yesterday, one woman raised her hand for salvation but did not come forward. Please pray for us as we follow up on this precious lady. Pray that the Holy Spirit will bring conviction to her soul and that we will be able to see her trust Christ as Savior in the near future.
We are off to a good start to this new year, and trust that God will continue to use us to see souls saved in Columbus and around the world. Please continue to pray for us.
