Plans Change, Mission Never does

Sitting in my office with Jake as we look at 18 calendars of the Fall. With Covid-19 and not being sure what Schools will be reacting makes planning a a semester a little tricky. What I do know is that the mission and commitment does not change. We still must strive to Know Jesus, Grow Together and Bless the World. Our methods may change, our plans may change, many, many times as we have seen this summer, but what we are charged with does not.

Please join us as we pray over the upcoming year, as we continue to seek God's will in those plans and commit to help fulfill our Church's mission to Know, Grow and Bless.

Proverbs 16:3 Commit your work to the LORD,  and your plans will be established. (ESV)

Wow, What a Summer

This next Winter I will be coming up on my 20th year in ministry and I can defiantly tell you this has been one of the most unique, difficult and stressful summers I have even been apart of. Seems like every two weeks since April there has been some sort of detour sign placed on the road and we have had to make some sort of change to planning. Whether it was Falls Creek, Super Summer, Vacation Bible School, Pre-teen camp, Weekly Sunday Worship, Sunday School, Mission Trips or Wednesday Youth Midweek nothing is what we thought and nothing went on without change this summer.

So where do we go from here, Every week I find myself praying not for normality but asking God to just show me the next step. We have tried every week to meet as church leadership and pray that God would guide our next steps. Not steps that we want but steps that he wishes us to go. This has not been easy, so many families,  so many different points of view, so many areas of concern.

The truth is we don't always know the full plan, we are not always given a 5 year plan. We do however know as the old Gospel song says, Lets just take this, One Day At A Time.

One day at a time sweet Jesus that's all I'm asking from you
Give me the strength to do everyday what I have to do
Yesterday's gone sweet Jesus and tomorrow may never be mine
So for my sake teach me to take one day at a time

We Can't do this Alone

Some days are hard, some weeks are hard, some months are hard. I saw on social media a lot of people talking about January being a long year. Not sure why so many people felt that way. To be truthful I sometime have a part of me that can bury my head in work or tasks and not always know that everything around me has changed. a few times that has been a good thing. From drama or difficult circumstances around me in many ways it has kept me from shuttling down emotionally. Sometimes we just plow through till we find daylight so we can breath. A few times when I finally come up for air I find myself alone. Many times though when I finally look up I find that there are a few people, a small group of encouraging friends that were actually there with me the whole time. I didn't always realize they were there but they were. Looking back through those times I remember that they where there encouraging me, when I didn't think I needed it, carrying me, when I thought I was doing it all myself, or protecting me, when I thought I was strong enough alone.

In the difficult moments hurting people don't always realize how much they need you, or Jesus, but they do, they really do.

Galatians 6:9 "And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up."

Fix the leak of sin

When you are fishing in a boat and you’ve been out there for a little while and all of sudden you you look down and there’s water in the boat. First you look around for a towel, I mean its just a little water not a big thing just throw a towel on it, cover it up.

You go back to fishing but soon you go to move and find that the water is now up to your ankles, you immediately put down your fishing pole and look for a bucket, a cup anything to begin to bail water out of your boat.

This might work for a little while but until you actually take time and find the hole and fix the hole then your fishing days are over. Now you might be able to patch the whole or even ignore it…maybe even just take you boat and put it on dry land and never fish again.

We are called to be Fishers of Men (Matt. 4:19) we need to be fishing and if something is stopping us from fishing or fishing effectively we must be focused on fixing the issue immediately so we can do what we have been called to do.

Wait For It...it's going to be Legendary

I was caught off guard last week as I sat down to study for our Youth Midweek message. We are currently going through the Fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23) and what that fruit loos like being produced in the lives of Disciples of Christ. Each week we have looked at two different fruit allowing Students to see what fruit God bears in us when we abide in him (John 15).

This past week we looked at Patience. Now many times I have just brushed by God producing patience in me as really just "tolerance". That God would produce this in me as I tolerate the things around me that irritated me. The more I dove into the scripture I found myself seeing that Patience in my life through Christ will be produces as I submit to his Sovereignty. That I must trust that God's timing in and around my life is perfect. Until His timing is perfect I must continue to trust and prepare my spirit and spiritual maturity to be prepared for that timing and the task that he will have for me. This will allow Christ to Bear the Fruit to be produced in His timing.

Romans 5:3-5 
[3] Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, [4] and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, [5] and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
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Connected to the Vine

For the past month I have been not only led but shoved into John 15. As we were praying through direction for the Student Ministry (Youth and College) I was lead to John 15, not only that but a few weeks ago when our Youth Ministry was on our Mystery Trip we worshiped at First Baptist Church of Joplin, MO as their pastor Jamie Tickle was finishing their Outcast Series from John 15. This past weekend we took students to The Call Conference at OBU and the first speaker of the day steps up and preaches out of (you guessed it) John 15.

This passage directs us to  Abide in Christ, to stay connected to him not only for information but for life giving, spiritual sustaining nourishment for our lives. We must grow deep into the word of God and connect with the Holy Spirit and allow him to lead us in his directions. Apart from him we can do nothing (John 15:5). it also leads us to know that when we are connected to Christ and lead by the Holy Spirit then Bearing Spiritual Fruit in our lives WILL happen. these is not a question about it, God as the vine dresser has planned out where he wants to produce spiritual fruit and Christ in those places and allows the branches (us) to bear fruit. Look around your (spiritual) life today are you bearing fruit? if you don't see any are you still connected to the vine daily? if your struggling with that know that our EBC Family is here to help you reconnect with Christ. You're not alone.

Prep Time is Important

Now I had owned one of the old upright red smokers for over 15 years before and even had used it a time or two but a few years ago I wanted to be a little bit more intentional on smoking meats. Now as a large family man on a budget I did what most do I watched online garage sale sites and Facebook Marketplace for a used one and found one. Now I love this thing, in the time I've had it I've smoked bologna, full chickens, briskets, ribs, tenderloins, chicken wings, jalapeno poppers, baked beans and even a peach cobbler. The thing is about smoking meat is it takes time. Not only the time inside the smoker but the prep time before. For Easter I smoked a Pork Butt and a rack of ribs that I started prepping 18 hours before ever putting heat to the meat. Then setting it in for 10 hours and allowing it to be tender and soft for a pulled pork sandwich.
In our walk with Christ there is so much time that God prepares us before he is ready to set us in the heat. Paul spent 3 years preparing for what God had in store for his ministry. When we are not in the midst of ministry opportunities we must be preparing ourselves so  that when we get placed in the heat of battle or trials we will not be hardened by it but be softened to God's intended purpose of his will.
Ephesians 2:10 "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Living Life on purpose and with purpose

Along the way over over the last year I slowly began to find a comfort zone...but not a good one. I was going through a routine that was really just about surviving. I was doing the Christian Checklist of things you are suppose to do but not really anything more than that.   the past few months some things within my life have made a change. Even within my life at home I was fulfilling the dad and husband checklist of what is expected but that was about it. From anyone on the outside you wouldn't have noticed anything even being wrong. Then 2 months ago things changed. Lisa and I realized we didn't like what that attitude was producing around us and we wanted something different. We wanted more than just surviving in our walk with Christ and in our marriage.

We have began doing things that we used to do spiritually and within our relationship that we have not done in a long time and some of these things we had never done. We have begun praying together before bed for each other, our kids, our church family and for people in our lives. We have started discussing our daily bible reading and devotionals with each other each night. We also have been holding hands and making sure that our affection for each other is us pursing each other and not just our of habit ore requirement. We are making sure that our relationship with Jesus and each other is on purpose and with purpose not just survival. 

John 10:10 tells us that "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" God wants us to not just to survive by doing the daily "checklist" he wants us to have life abundantly. He doesn't just want us to have a good life but the best life. Begin today to live your life on purpose in what you do.

Repurposed, Refreshed, Removed

As we were cleaning out the sound booth and many closets around the Sanctuary during the rebuilding/refreshing we found many things. Some of those things where dated and have outlived their usefulness. In their day all of these things were very useful and even produced fruit within ministry but as ministry, culture and technology advanced these things were put in a closet and forgotten. As we went through these things we had to decide a few things, are these things still useful to us, can these things be useful to someone else or are they not useful anymore. We took these items and cleaned them up and some of them that had just been forgotten have been put back into service or even repurposed and refreshed for a new use (i.e. See the Vintage Church Boards in the church office). Some of these items we sold or gave away to other ministries to be used and yes, some of them where discarded.

In ministry we always need to be reevaluating what we do in the same way. Not to change just for the sake of change but we need to ask ourselves and our church, "Is this still useful?" Somethings need to remembered and put back into service, some need to be repurposed or refreshed, some need to be given to other ministries or churches to continue and yes, some do need to be discarded. None of these things are bad things they are apart of church life and allowing us to build on the foundation that Christ has laid for Emmanuel Baptist Church.

[10] According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. [11] For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. [12] Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—[13] each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. [14] If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. [15] If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.  1 Corinthians 3:10-15 (ESV)