I love being the Pastor of Bethel Baptist Church. This past Sunday marked three years that my family and I have been serving here and as I said from the pulpit last night, God has blessed us so far beyond what we deserve! We’ve come to love and know the people here and we’ve built a trust-relationship with them. They appreciate the Word of God and they show appreciation for their leadership. I am so humbled by them!

Yesterday was an awesome day. We closed out our Sunday School class called Marriage Matters and I think all the couples were challenged to deepen our love for each other. We had a great attendance as both morning services felt fairly full and Sunday evening was a great crowd as well. The music in all three services was probably the best I’ve experienced since coming here.

Before church a boy named Wesley came with his Mom to tell me about how he’d asked Jesus to be his Savior on Thursday night and that he was ready to be baptized. When I asked when, his Mom said, “aren’t you baptizing today?” So yes, we baptized two in water much warmer than the week before when a valve issue caused our baptistery to be 53 degrees.

As an added bonus, I ate “chicken over the coals” at the historic AQ Chicken House in Springdale. By day’s end, everyone kept talking about how they had really felt the presence of the Spirit of God in our services. I pondered the fact that we use that term sometimes without explaining it. We believe that the Holy Spirit takes up residence and lives personally in the heart of every believer, so when we gather together in corporate worship and we are all mutually submissive to God and to each other, His presence may be felt in a very real way by believers. It is this powerful presence of God that makes the difference in a winning Sunday and a normal one.

I thank God for all the winning Sundays we’ve had at Bethel, and I look forward to experiencing more of them for the years to come!

This morning, we welcomed the Stephens’ to our church family, making the 49th and 50th new members to join Bethel in these last twelve months. We love setting extra places at the table!

Today we handed out a survey at church asking people to indicate which service they would attend if we did decide to offer a second service as an overflow solution. The answers were all over the board. It’s going to prove difficult to chart because so many made multiple choices - which is actually a good thing. The question the survey answered was, if we offer a second service, will anyone actually show up? I think they will.

Now comes an even more intense time of praying and weighing this difficult issue out. It’s not an easy decision. Going to multiple services will cost us, but the big question is, will it help us reach more people for the Kingdom. If so, then that pro outweighs all the cons on the board. Would you mind saying a quick prayer for us?

Okay, Bethel has hit a tight spot in a very good way. We’re growing… quickly right now. We’ve obviously hit kind of a ceiling on how many people we can hold in our auditorium. Last Sunday we had 240 souls present, 206 of them in the auditorium and it was crowded. What are our options?

1. Build a new building - the price tag will be hefty no matter how efficient we try to be.
2. Expand our current auditorium - this means knocking out roof and walls and widening it, changing its shape from a box to a fan, which will also cost a lot.
3. Move to 2 services - lots of pros and cons on this one, more volunteers needed, possible divisiveness, but also an opportunity to free up space and reach more people without the million dollar price tag.

Our Leadership Team has discussed the issues repeatedly and we’re about to have to discuss the issues even more urgently. So I’m looking for feedback. You can offer feedback through my contact form, or by leaving a comment (click the title of this article and scroll to the bottom). We’re praying hard for God’s direction and I’d love to hear your thoughts. The greatest goals I have are

1. We keep glorifying God.
2. We keep serving and reaching people with the gospel.
3. We remain true to God’s Word.
4. We retain a close fellowship.
5. We do what is most wise and follow the Holy Spirit.

I just wanted to praise God for an awesome Sunday! Camp had such an impact on me that I wanted to challenge our people to line up behind me as I repented of small-mindedness, self-centeredness, and short-sightedness. I want to have the mind of Jesus and see people as He sees them - in need of Him, in need of healing, and in need of life change.

At the end of the day, two couples joined by letter (one was our new Youth Pastor and wife), two kids were received for baptism, and another indicated after church he wanted to be baptized as well. Though I can’t wait until next Sunday, I REALLY can’t wait to meet a need this week!

Various Scriptures

ONE GREAT TRUTH: God inspired His word to define the church in such a way that our greatest goal becomes to draw together around a common mission. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »

In this new Wednesday evening message series, I’m going to be talking about a very misunderstood subject - the church - in light of what God’s Word has to say about it. What a privilege it is to be a part of a local church family! WAIT! There is more to read… read on »

I’ve thought this before, but I really think this past Sunday was one of the greatest Sundays of my life! We had a near record crowd and three new additions to our church family. I got to baptize one and receive another for baptism, in addition to watching someone re-commit her life to Jesus. I also preached a message consisting of only one point and it worked! God blessed it. Even more than that, we enjoyed having people in our service who are not accustomed to going to church. That, more than anything else, made my day! WAIT! There is more to read… read on »

Bethel is a member of the Baptist Missionary Association of America, which is a wonderful group of churches who cooperate together to share the gospel around the world. I love the BMA and am personally quite loyal to her work. Nonetheless, as many leaders in the BMA recognize, we no longer look like a healthy association.

The problem is not numbers, in and of themselves. Sure we’re baptizing less, adding less members, and starting fewer churches, but that could result from a variety of surrounding cultural factors. The problem has a lot to do with how we define ourselves. Whether we realize it or not, we typically define our association by what sets apart from others - often referred to as our “distinctives” or our traditions. There’s nothing wrong with celebrating a great heritage, unless that heritage becomes a replacement for the movement of the Spirit of God afresh today.

I don’t have all the solutions to our shortcomings. Neither does our denomination, generally speaking. Nonetheless, I’m excited about a new movement in the BMA called “The Network for Church Vitality.” It’s a group of Pastors, many of them young guys, who are deeply concerned with our loss of biblical moorings. Did I say that right? Have we lost our biblical moorings? I believe so.

I love many of the things that set us apart from every other Baptist group out there, but we have often substituted those distinctions in place of the more important issues - namely the primacy of preaching and of the gospel itself. We need a revival, but not a revival of fresh ideas so much as a revival of true biblically-centered proclamation. We need a revival of hope that Jesus can be glorified in today’s world.

I want to plug a conference for any Pastors who may happen upon this blog. Check out Garrett Memorial Baptist Church’s web site for information about the upcoming conference Biblical Preaching. The conference is October 29-30 in Hope, Arkansas and will feature Dr. John Mahony and Dr. Charlie Holmes. It’s a great step in a movement that I hope will sweep our association.

Even if you’re not a Pastor or just can’t go to this conference, would you say a prayer as you read this, that God would use it in a mighty way and that God might pour out His Spirit upon our leaders in a fresh way?

What does that mean, anyway? Actually, it means “come by here.” We didn’t sing Kumbaya at camp this week, but God definitely showed up! This was my first experience with church camp… ever! I’d been to Conservation Camp in elementary school and hated every minute of it. This week was vastly different. For one thing, thirty-six people got saved!

As I reflect on camp, let me just share the highlights… The quiet mornings by the lake while the kids slept were great. Waking up by singing the song “Climb, climb up breakfast mountain” was quite nice too. Teaching the college-agers brought about some good discussion. I enjoyed watching activities such as human foosball and playing softball. I was encouraged by fellowshipping with members of other churches. Most of all, I loved the worship time. It was awesome to watch kids “own” the service and take their needs to the altar, many of them inviting Christ in as Savior or rededicating themselves to a thoroughly Christian walk.

What did I not enjoy? Only the noises and odors that are the natural result of sharing quarters with a bunch of boys!! Nonetheless, the cabin was comfortable enough and we really weren’t in it much anyway. I’m definitely going back next year, the Lord willing, and I hope to take twice as many campers with me!