Sunday Thoughts - 5/18/09

I was a little giggly yesterday during service but we had a good time in worship. I was a bus driver yesterday morning. One of our young adults and her friend wanted a ride to church so I picked them up in our church van, yes!

I was a little concerned about attendance because about 1/8 of our street was closed due to some stupid carnival. But we had good attendance, praise God! We saw new faces this week. Praise God for the passion of soul winning being restored in our church.

I closed out our three part series on soul winning: The Urgency of Soul Winning”. This was a little difficult because I took off a little more than I could chew with a text. Study text came from Genesis chapters 6-9. I attempted to attack text as a biographical study on the life of Noah. His story is rich and I had entirely too much information and thoughts coming from everywhere on outline, thesis, point, sub-points, etc. I had to explain a lot but wanted to stay away from symbolisms which so easy to do in OT narratives. I needed another week to gather my thoughts for clarity but with our family/friends day coming up, I wanted to finish the series to encourage our church to win the souls of family and friends by inviting them to church this coming Sunday (I pray it worked).

Here’s the outline:

Topic: The Urgency of the Gospel
Text: Genesis 6-9 (key verse: ch. 6:18)

Thesis Statement: God is committed to those who respond to Him in obedient faith

Here are four important factors of the urgency of soul winning that we should be aware of:

I. The Purpose of Soul Winning – Ch 6:1-8

To warn people of God’s coming judgment – v. 1-7

To share with people the grace of God – v. 8

Point: God’s grace is available to all who will receive it.

II. The Priority in Soul Winning – Ch 6:9-22 (key verse 18)

You (v. 18a) – “But I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall go into the ark…”

Your Children (v. 18b) – “…your sons…”

Your Spouse (v. 18c) – “…your wife…”

You Extended family ( v. 18d) – “…your son’s wife…”

You household (Ch. 7:1) – “Come into the ark, you and all your household…” I believe this to refer to being an household of influence (friends, associates, company, anyone living with you, sleepovers, etc)

III. The Protection in Soul Winning – Ch. 7:2-24 (key verse: 16)

Point: Once saved always saved (Ephesians 1:13-14)

IV. The Reward for Soul Winning – Chapters 8 & 9

-Worshipful living after salvation – Ch. 8:20-22

-Blessed living after salvation – Ch. 9:1

- Legendary living after salvation – Hebrews 11:7


I know seed was planted and watered. While none was caught in the net, the invitation was extended. Actually, I think the family of Pastor Richardson has come back to the church which is a blessing.

The next few months is going to be busy for First Goodwill Church as I looked at our calendar. Wow! Pray my strength in the Lord.

Before I leave this blog I want your opinion on something (if you don’t mind sharing).

A member had a question about the name of our church First Goodwill Missionary Baptist Church as to why I deleted “Missionary Baptist”. In the past few months I’ve been using “First Goodwill Church” as a strategy on all of what I consider to be marketing material (such as, bulletins, flyers, EBlast, brochures, etc). First, let me explain that I’m not ashamed of the Baptist doctrine and/or beliefs but it has been my experience that many people our turned off when they find out our denomination is Baptist. There’s a stigma on the Baptist denomination, legitimate or not, as being too traditional, fighters, BOD driven, and so on.

Right or wrong, I’m trying to teach our church to share with unbelievers and the un-churched that we’re the church of Jesus Christ first and a Baptist denomination second. I don’t want us to be rejected before we have a chance to share Christ because of a denominational affiliation.

Question, is this a right approach? Does it show a sign of embarrassment in regards to our denominational affiliation?