Sunday Thoughts - 1/31/10

We had a wonderful day of worship Sunday! As well as, we entered into ministry partnership with a sister church in Pastor Reginald Payne and the Full Gospel Baptist Church which holds it's service at 9 am and First Goodwill Missionary Baptist Church services will be at 11:15 am. Sunday was the first official Sunday of two (2) churches worshipping in one building.

I will admit that during our very first pilot service in November that I had mixed emotions as well as many of our church members. Our second pilot service was not so bad, I stayed focused on ministering my church and leading them through the process from the pulpit. This past Sunday was a good for me and the church. The members came ready to worship and I was ready to preach. I will also admit that both myself and Pastor Payne don't have all the answers in this process. We've did our best to think it through as best we can. However, there is grey spots that require continued prayer, thinking, talking, and more praying. No transition is smooth and all transitions takes time.

This is a transition that I've committed to prayer every step of the way for both churches. My prayer is really simple: "Lord, let this partnership be a positive influence (good witness) on both churches, the world, and the Christian community. Just like everything in life, people are watching and hoping this venture fails so they can say those famous words: "See, I told you it wouldn't work!" There is a lot to gain and lose for both churches and we're now in the spot light. I've been hesitant to write or say much about it only because I believe the best thing for both churches is to submit everything we do in believing prayer. This past Saturday we had a combined prayer breakfast with both churches as well as with Praise Chapel that worships in our small building. The prayer breakfast was a success and God blessed the prayers of Pastor Calvary, Pastor Payne, and myself.

All is ask that the members, skeptics, friends, family, pastors, and the Christian community to do is prayer with us and not against us!

Sunday, I preached a pretty heavy message: God's Tips for Women - Proverbs 31:10-31. The message was challenging but I believe the members and our guest were blessed. I'm correcting some typing mistakes but as soon as that's completed I will post the manuscript. In the afternoon, we held our first women's minstry fellowship. I had planned to preach Titus 2:3-5 but Proverbs was still in me so I preached it again and the people were blessed. Thank you God for your word.

I was planning on starting a new series of sermon in 1 John but I think I'll put it off for a couple of weeks or so.

This Sunday was mission Sunday for us and I challenged the church to set aside a special offering to support mission work. Praise God for the positive response. It is our goal and prayer to fulfill the Great Commission of making disciples of all nations by supporting mission work in foreign and inland countries. As a church we're going to sponsor a child through Worldvision as well as join local churches in rebuilding Haiti.

I'm excited for 2010 and expect God to do some wonderful things for us! Please keep us in your prayers.

Sunday Thoughts - 1/17/10

How do I describe this past Sunday's worship experience? Long day. Good day. Informative day. Busy day. Blessed day. I made it through day.

Our worship was good but I didn't give 100% because I had no energy to do so. We continued our study in Matthew 28:18-20 with our focus on verse 20a - "teach them oberve all things that I have commanded you." Sermon title: The Assimilation of Fulfilling the Great Commission - Pt 2: Teaching. Good outline and study material but just no energy. It was my plan to compile this series in a CD package until I founf out that only the first message was recorded. So, it's my plan to go to my cousin's studio and record the sermons on CD. That's my plan but lately my plans have not been going the way I've planned. So we'll see.

I stayed at the church all day in preparation for the MLK Midnight Musical given by Favored By God Productions - George Johnson - CEO. As usually, it was a good time of worship. There was a skit done entitled "Distractions", WOW! I want to do it Easter Sunday.

One of the reasons why my weekend was so long is because as a Christmas gift to Tracy we went to hear Frankie Beverly and Maze on Saturday Night. No new material in 40 years but they still rocked the house. Tracy and I had a good time.

I still have not gotten used this new job of mine. New and trying experience!

Baptism!

All verses in Matthew 28:18-20 as one thing in common, “MAKE DISCIPLES! The power God declares in verse 18 is the foundation for us to make disciples. The mission of “going”, “baptizing”, and “teaching” are principles for us to “MAKE DISCIPLES”. The assurance Jesus declares in verse 20 is an assurance of presence while we, “MAKE DISCPLES”. The Great Commission is given to believers and the church to make disciples. This is what the church is called to do.

While the evangelistic method of the great commission is relatively an understandable method, baptism is not so easy for many people to understand. The reason for this is because oftentimes children and others are being baptized but not understanding what it is their doing. How many times do we see children being baptized not because they understand salvation or anything of that nature but because their parents/guardians forced them down the aisle with these words to follow; “You’re joining church today!” Some adults have come to join the church by being baptized and yet they don’t understand what it is they are doing. So, later in years after going back into the world they come down the aisle to recommit themselves to God through….baptism.

The ordinance of baptism has been, in my opinion, reduced to an initiation process of the church, like the initiation process of joining a gang. The reverence of a baptism ceremony has been loss in our worship services. We don’t celebrate the new life of a believer like we used to. We sing the song: “Wade in the water” so dry and monotone that baptism feels like a funeral service (and I guess in many cases it is a spiritual funeral).

My goal in this message is to help us understand the meaning, message, and manner of baptism in the truest since possible. Baptism is more than a ritual act within the worship service and in the life of the church. And while denominations have different opinions about the mode of baptism, baptism is an important step in the life a new believer.

In his book Baptism – Sign and Seal of the Covenant of Grace; Brian Russell says; “Though baptism is an act of obedience that is not its primary meaning. It is, essentially a sacrament of grace… a sacrament of divine initiative, not of human activity”. He goes on to say that “baptism signifies the union of the believer with Christ, the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Spirit, all of which stem from God’s grace and mercy towards undeserving sinners. It seals to us the blessings of the new covenant”.


Therefore, baptism is a symbolic act of God’s grace and mercy in the life of undeserving sinners such as you and I. Baptism is a gift from God!


Let’s look at three (3) essential principles of baptism – a symbolic act of God’s grace and mercy:

I. The Meaning of Baptism

Seeks to answer the following questions?

- Why should I be baptized?

It’s a command of Christ – Matthew 28:19

It’s a biblical pattern to follow –

B1. Christ was baptized – Mark 1:9
B2. John the Baptist was the baptizer – Matthew 3:13-17

It demonstrates that you are really a Christian – Acts 18:8

It illustrates Christ’s burial and resurrection – 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

It’s a picture of your new life as a Christian – Colossians 2:11-12


II. The Manner of Baptism

Seeks to answer the question, how should a person be baptized?

The Greek word for baptism is baptize which means to make fully wet. We as a church baptize by immersion. That is to say that we put your full body in under water.

Great teachers of church history agree:

“I would have those who are to be baptized to be entirely immersed, as the word imports and the mystery signifies”. – Martin Luther

“The word signifies immerse. It is certain that immersion was the practice of the early church”. – John Calvin

“Buried with him” alludes to baptizing by immersion according to the custom of the first church. – John Wesly.

˜ We baptize by immersion because it best symbolizes the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

˜ We baptize by immersion because Jesus was baptized this way – Matthew 3:16

Under the manner of baptism I also want to answer the question; who should be baptized?

- Every person who believes in Christ should be baptized – Acts 2:41

When should a person be baptized? One answer: IMMDIATELY! – Acts 8:36-38


III. The Message of Baptism

There is a lot of controversy over how a person should be baptized…

- In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as commanded in Matthew 28:19

OR

- In the name of Jesus as recorded in Acts 2:38

While I don’t want to spend a lot of time in apologetics, it is my conviction that baptizing according to Jesus’ instructions in Matthew 28:19 is because baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is a great depiction of our salvation story. Here’s how the bible tells the story:

- God, the Father: Planned our Salvation – Ephesians 1:2-6

- Jesus, the Son: Provided our Salvation – Ephesians 1:7-14

- The Holy Spirit: Protects our Salvation – Ephesians 4:30

Sunday Thoughts - 1/10/10

What a wonderful worship service on this past Sunday. God came through First Goodwill church and took control. I had everything planned out but God changed that and did what He wanted to do. One of the most refereshing and powerful reflections of Sunday was Deacon Loud's prayer of thanksgiving. For, I know, the past 6 months he's been in and out of the hospital and there a few times we thought we loss him but God spared his life.

Sunday, he prayed a simple yet powerful prayer of thanksgiving, thanking God for the simple things in life. I mean he said his prayers. When he finished the church and myself was done and burst into jubilant praise for about 10-15 minutes un-controllably. Reading this you may not understand why but for our church he's our answered prayer. He's walking with strength. He's breathing on his own. He's gaining his strength slowly but surely. Praise God for answering prayer!

I continued our study on Matthew 28:18-20 with our focus on v 19b: "...baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit..." I will post sermon outline later today.

After church I came home, ate and crashed. I was so tired! Friday night we celebrated with Pastor Barry Severe as he turned 50 years old. The party was extremely nice and so much fun. One segment of entertainment that had me on the floor was the rendition of the World Class Wrecking Crew and this one guy was killing with his performance, it was so funny. Happy B-Day brother!

Saturday, I helped my mother move out of the house and when we finished at 8 pm everything on my body was hurting.

It was long yet good weekend. On yesterday, I went to the Minister's conference to hear my Pastor R.D Sanders preach. His text was Luke 15:25-31: "An Empty Seat". He walked that text.

I will do better at posting but this new job has my schedule all off. But until next time be blessed.

Sunday Thoughts - 1/3/10

What a wonderful day to start the new year!

As a church, we celebrated a new year together by remembering the work of Christ during communion. A wonderful time of remembering. We had guest to attend our church. The messages out of Matthew 28:18-20 has given me a brand new charge and focus to fulfilling the Great Commission. I am excited about 2000 and 10 (2010)...lol

It was a long day, however! After morning worship we had our 2010 Church Conference. This year I didn't do my normal planning by outlining ministries, programs, services, budgets, and so forth. Instead, I reminded the church that the best made plans can go astray but our faithfulness counts for everything.

Our theme for the year is GOD IS ABLE - Ephesians 3:20-21! We are small congregation with big dreams and God has not failed us yet. But, we can focus so much on our realities that God's ability is forgotten and I don't want us to forget that our God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all we can ask or think...The meeting went extremely well and I'm looking forward to what God is about to do.

After our church conference, we ate lunch together before going to a vision service with my home church Bishop Richard Sanders and Mt Pilgrim Baptist Church. This was a wonderful experience for the life our church. The purpose of the service was to have each of his sons share the vision and plans of their perspective churches for 2010. As we shared our visions/plans with the mother and sister churches, it created a prayer list for pastors and members for the year of 2010. This is something not heard of for me but it was encouraging to know that others are praying for us as we are praying for them. As usual, the service was high spirit but I was extremely nervous because I was on to preach. I left my bible and manuscript at the church so I had preach by memory but God helped me to remember and really blessed the message.

I preached my message from last week; The Atmosphere of Fulfilling the Great Commission - Matthew 28:18. This message was still burning in my heart from last week and I had to preach it again. In addition, I was extremely nervous because this was the first time that Bishop Sanders, Mt Pilgrim, and sisters have heard me preach. So I had the anxiety of preaching my first sermon all over again. But praise God for strength, power, and opportunity. They received the message, me, my family, and our church very well and for that I say THANK YOU.

Overall, it was a good day!

I'm back now and looking forward to writing again in 2000 and 10...lol...why do we add the "and"...lol...I was corrected yesterday about it and I've been laughing every since...Thanks, Tracy...lol

See You In the New Year!

See you in 2010. Happy New Year and the best is yet to come!

It's Been A While

It's been a while since my last post because I'm still trying to adjust to my new employment assignment which has me with somewhat mixed emotions. I thank God for my job, especially in times like these, but I my heart, mind, and soul was set on full-time ministry. Now, I start as I finished with my last job, tired and stressed. Not a good feeling! I plan to write my own reality blog show entitled; "In the Life of a Bi-Vocational Pastor". It will be raw, real, and relevant. I'm not holding anything back in this blog segment. I believe people need to understand that the life of a bi-vocational is intense with many struggles that most of you reading this do not understand. My purpose in writing this blog reality "In The Life of a Bivocational Pastoring" is to people understand and appreciate their who is in bivocational ministry. My God increase our understanding and appreciation for such a difficult, yet, fulfilling assignment.

Today worship service was good. We had our second ministry partnership trial service that went extremely well for both congregations. I intended to start my 4 part series on Matthew 28:19-20 but did not. So I preached an "ain't alright message (I'll explain later what that means) out of Luke 2:8-15 entitled "We Have Much To Shout About". Our attendance was good and God really showed up in our service.

Friday night had the privilege of spending the evening with my pastor, Bishop R.D Sanders. The dinner was done with excellence as food and fellowship was the order of the day. The conversation gave me much to think about as well as pray about in my own public ministry and private life. Bishop Sanders is proving to be a pastor's pastor and pray that will continue to increase our fellowship and friendship. He and the members of Mt Pilgrim served us crab legs, cornish hen, sirloin steak, wild rice, green beans, and some other meat I'm not familiar with but it was good. Desert was peach cobbler and coffee. The setting was done with excellence! Thank you pastor for such a good time of fellowship.

I won't be attending Palm Springs this year for the Western Baptist State Convention's Congress of Christian Education due to my new employment and limited finances. I will be praying that all goes well for all those in attendance.

Ok, it looks like I will be blogging now on Sundays rather than Mondays but we'll see.

Until next time, may the Lord bless you real good.