Many Thoughts!

Thoughts About Me:
Over the past 2 weeks, I've taking some time to reflect on my growth development has a husband, father, pastor, and Christian. The final analysis reveals that I have a lot of growing to do. Recent conversations with my wife, Tracy who love dearly has shown me that I cannot allow my work in the secular and church cause me to neglect my family. My work in both areas, as a pastor and buyer, is very demanding of my energy capacity. Therefore, I've neglected to mention and recognize my wife's accomplishment of finishing college in June of this year in which she received an Liberal Arts AA Degree and is a certified sign graphics maker. It is and was a huge accomplishment for her of which I am very proud. I could have done a much better job at recognizing her accomplishment. Great job, T-Baby.

Thoughts About Church:
Yesterday was a good day! Attendance was decent but it can always be better. My auntie and uncle is visiting from Dallas, Texas for the week and made it a point to come worship with us on yesterday. It was refreshing to see some visitation in our service and they brought their worship with them which made it easy to preach. I finally preached 1 Peter 3:15: "But sanctify the Lord God in you hearts and always be ready give a defense for the hope that is within with meekness and fear". I struggled for the last 3 weeks putting this message together but it finally came to me on Saturday. I pray God was pleased with the outline.

Sermon Series: Our F-I-R-S-T Essentials (5 Functions of the church: worship, ministry, evangelism, fellowship, discipleship)
Sermon Topic: Our Commitment to Evangelism
Sermon Text: 1 Peter 3:15

Thesis: No matter the persecution we face in life, we must stand up and be a witness to God's saving power:

Tranisitional Sentence: How we respond during times of trouble can affect the effectiveness of our witness.

The text provides three (3) principles for effective evangelism:

1. The Measure of our Witness
"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.."

Point: The effectiveness of our witness is based on the life that we live. In evangelism, your life matters.

2. The Message of Our Witness
"...and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you of the hope the lies within."

Point: The effectiveness of witness is based on the message that we speak in word and action. So the exhortation is this; let's get the gospel message right.

3. The Manner of Our Witness
"...with meekness and fear."

Point: The effectiveness of our witness is based on the attitude we display in evangelism.

I tried to keep it simple without being too technical and the church was very receptive. Now, I pray they be doers of the Word and not just hearers only.

Thought about Restore the Land Project:
I met with our loan representative on Friday for a discussion I was not pleased with at all. Our loan company is also in the business of general contracting. I informed him last week of our contractor selection and he was not happy. They submitted a quote just like everyone else and their quote was much less than others. However, it was not comprehensive enough for me to want to consider his company for the job. I understand that many times contractors bid on jobs and then when construction begins pricing starts increasing with "C.O. (Change Order Notices)" because they didn't factor in the unknown. He pleaded his case and I listened very attentively. When he finished, I let him know that I'm not in the business of signing and/or agreeing to unwritten, unclear, cloudy contracts with anyone. If his construction company wanted the job, he and his crew needed to spec out every detail possible with pricing but until then he will not get the job. I also said to him; "That all good contractors know the condition of a place based on it's structure. We're not changing our structure we're upgrading which should make it easier to spec out". He thought I was a little harsh being that I'm a pastor. I explained to him that I'm also a businessman and to use my position as a pastor to get the work may mean I need to go somewhere else for the loan process. Of course, he didn't want that. So, we made an appoint for him to come in today with his crew and spec out the work with pricing. I gave him a deadline for his quote for Wednesday of this week and no later. There's always going to be some red tape for the church in these types of ventures but nothing we can't overcome. I have to protect every area of our church especially the business aspect of our church. Please be in prayer for us, our goal is to start construction the 1st week of Sept.