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This Sunday we will have the annual Fall Festival at the church I serve.  This is probably the 20th consecutive year or so that I have participated in one of these as a pastor.  They have taken many forms, depending on the church and community context.  If you don’t attend Lakeside where I serve, your church is very likely having some type of similar event. While I have not yet heard this at Lakeside, over the years I have had numerous members at the churches I have served talk with me about how such events are “a waste of money” and “all they are is a bunch of people who will never come back to the church.”  Most of the time, they prefaced their argument with something like, “I don’t think our church should spend money like this during such uncertain times.”   While I am certainly in total agreement with scrutinizing how we use the Lord’s money given through our churches, please allow me to share why I believe a Fall Festival is a good investment for your church (and mine).

It is a good investment because you will get lost people to come.  I have personally met people who do not know Christ at every single Fall Festival I have ever attended.  A Fall Festival type event is something that everyone can feel comfortable bringing their family to.  There is great value in that.  While most churches do not have a “sermon” during the Fall Festival, many churches give out gospel tracts in with all of the “goodies” and attempt to register people so that they can follow up.  Personally, I am praying to have the opportunity to share the gospel with someone this Sunday at our Fall Festival.  It’s much more relaxed to strike up a conversation at the Fall Festival while the kids are in the inflatables or they are munching on popcorn!

It is a good investment because you will minister to people while they are there.  At an event like the Fall Festival, you just have conversations with people that do not happen in the mad dash through the atrium after the morning services.  It can be a family that have you haven’t seen at church in a while. It can be someone you haven’t had a chance to talk with in a few months. The opportunities are endless when so many people gather. Take advantage of them.  This is why I just walk around and talk to people all during the Fall Festival.  The chance to minister grace comes regularly.

It is a good investment because the whole church is working together. At the Fall Festival, you will see your entire church family all together doing the same thing.  There is great value in that. It builds unity and reinforces the church as the body of Christ.

So, go support your church’s Fall Festival.  Sign up to help, and, when your shift is done, go find someone you don’t know and strike up a conversation with them.  You will be glad you did and you will honor Christ.

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” (1 John 5:14–15, NKJV)

Today, God answered a prayer for me.  How grateful and thrilled I am to see His hand at work!   Truthfully, the Lord has answered thousands of prayers for me over the years, but it thrills my soul in a fresh way every time it happens.  Among those thousands of answered prayers are those that He answered immediately and some that he required me to wait for years before seeing it happen.  In some cases, the Lord answered my prayer, but He did it in a way that I never dreamed or imagined.   There have been a few prayers that God answered in such a quiet way that it took me a while to realize what was happening.  In a handful of instances, God has answered prayers for me even after I had grown discouraged and stopped asking. There have even been answered prayers that came out of the blue while I was dealing with difficult, unrelated circumstances.  Answered prayers take many forms – all of them great!

Answered prayers are a glorious thing. They work together for our good and God’s glory.  They build our faith.  They stretch our faith.  They convict us and shape us into more of what we need to be.  In God’s time and in God’s way, they come.  They remind us all over again that we are not the masters of our lives, but we are in the hand of the Sovereign One.

Perhaps God answered a prayer for you today. Why don’t you join me in giving Him praise and rejoicing in His goodness & faithfulness?  If no answer to your prayer came today, don’t give up.  Keep praying.  God can do more in a moment than you can do in a lifetime.  You just never know when that moment will come and it will be glorious.

On Monday, October 14, 2013 I walked into the offices of Lakeside Baptist Church for my first official day as Senior Pastor.  It’s been a good first year together as pastor & people.  It’s truly a blessing and honor to serve as pastor at Lakeside.  Rather than focusing on me, I would just like to take a few moments to share some of the things I appreciate most about Lakeside.  These are things that I have learned during my first year as pastor.

Lakeside loves Christ and exalts Him.  Lakeside is a Jesus church. Our faith is in Him, and we worship Him alone. Jesus is really what unites our church because we are all different ages and live in different neighborhoods.  For all of our staff, programs, buildings, and budgets, the only things we really have to offer at Lakeside is Jesus.  Every Sunday, I am blessed to preach after excellent, Christ exalting music from a choir & orchestra who love Him.

Lakeside is a  faith family. One of my first days in the office at Lakeside, I received a very kind letter from my predecessor, Dr. Breck Ladd.  In that letter, Breck talked about how Lakeside was such a family.  On more than one occasion, I have had staff members who have served in multiple churches tell me, “Pastor, there is more of a family atmosphere here than any other church I have served.”  During our first year here, my family and I have come to understand just how much this is true.  Lakeside is far from a perfect church, but we are a family.

Lakeside reaches out. Even though Lakeside is a faith family in a very real way, our church doesn’t just care about those who are already part of the family.  To be honest, even though I have been here a year, I continue to find out ways that members of our church are engaged in outreach all over our city. We haven’t had a big campaign to get people to reach out.  All of this happens from the hearts of our people with little and no promotion or recognition. From the UAB Medical Apartments downtown, to Rocky Ridge Elementary School next door to the church, to a local jail, to the bus station, and many other places, Lakeside lives on mission.

Lakeside has all ages of people faithful & engaged.   Like many churches, Lakeside has a large number of faithful senior adults. I view that as a great thing!  Their faithfulness gives Lakeside a great stability & wisdom.  However, we have people of all ages who are involved in all levels of leadership at Lakeside. We started a new Sunday school class for couples in their late 20’s/early 30’s and they have grown substantially in just a few months. We have faithful deacons in their 30’s & 40’s as well as in their 70’s.  One of our best Sunday school teachers is a college student.  All ages are represented on the platform on Sunday mornings as we involve children and youth on our praise teams along with the adults.  Lakeside is truly a multi-generational church.  It’s one of our strengths.

Lakeside can have a bright future.  Last month, Lakeside was 57 years old. That’s right, the church was started as a mission of Shades Mountain Baptist Church in 1957. God has blessed in so very many ways and the church has seen many great things happen. After serving in this area for a year, I am more convinced than ever before that the next 57 years at Lakeside can be just as exciting.

Lakeside is willing to change in order to embrace it’s future. Change is hard in every church.  In big ways and small ways, I have seen Lakeside adjust and be open to change.  In recent months, I have shared with many different groups at Lakeside about future directions I believe our church needs to take. The response has been nothing but positive excitement.  Just recently, our largest adult Sunday school class moved out of the room they had occupied for over twenty years – in order to make way for children’s ministry in that space.  Not a single complaint has come to the pastor’s office about this move.

You might say these are just the “Top 5” things I appreciate.  I could have listed 25 just as easily, but I won’t for space purposes!  The bottom line is that I am so grateful that God called me and my family to serve at Lakeside.  I love my church.

 

 

Today is a big day in our state.  Why do I say that?  Because college students throughout our state (and others) have committed to share the gospel today.  That’s BIG.  Some college students have been praying for 24 days leading up to this effort.  You can learn more here engage24.org and please join me today in doing two things:  (1)  Pray for this effort  (2)  Share the gospel with someone today.  As we look to this day to engage people with the gospel of Christ, please let me share a few important notes about sharing the gospel…

(1)   Sharing the gospel is sharing Christ and His work on the cross.  Certainly, it is good and important to ask someone if they go to church and to invite someone to church.  However, inviting someone to church is not sharing the gospel.  We haven’t shared the gospel unless we share Christ.  The Apostle Paul spelled out what constitutes the gospel…

“Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,” (1 Corinthians 15:1–4, NKJV)

(2) Scripture gives us the content of the gospel, not the outline or the method.  Over the years, I have been part of evangelism training that took many forms.  I have shared the gospel using “The ABC’s of Salvation” and I have shared the gospel using “The Roman Road” verses.  I have shared the gospel using the outline from Evangelism Explosion and I have shared the gospel using the FAITH outline.  I have given out gospel tracts and walked people through a gospel tract.  I have given out marked Bibles and showed people the gospel using highlighted verses.  Which method of sharing the gospel is best?  The one you will do.

(3)  People are open to hearing.  Occasionally you will meet a person who is closed and hostile to the gospel, but the overwhelming majority of people will listen if you approach them conversationally and with humility.  It’s true that people “don’t like to be preached to” but they are very open to being shared with.

(4)  Don’t be afraid to share with someone from another religion. Practically all religions believe in some type of “heaven” although they may use a different term.  Ask the person to share how their faith believes a person can get to heaven.  Then ask if you could share how your faith says a person can get to heaven.  Personally, I have had Hindus, Muslims, and Jews who allowed me to share the gospel with them using this approach.

(5)  Be humble, but be bold!  Boldness doesn’t mean we stand on a street corner and shout at people.  Boldness can mean a teenager speaking of Christ in the lunchroom at school.  Boldness can be a conversation with a co-worker on the way to a meeting.  Boldness can be engaging the waitress at your favorite restaurant.  It takes some courage to share the gospel in today’s world, but it is the most important thing we can do.

So, join me in praying and sharing today along with these college students.  May Christ be exalted and shared today!

 

For those who have been readers of this blog, let me apologize for not blogging more regularly. In the last two months, we have started our children into their new schools, purchased a home in the area where we serve, and moved in to that home.  Time to blog really hasn’t been there!  Now that life has moved into a somewhat “normal” phase, my intention is to begin posting each Tuesday and Friday on a regular basis that you can count on. Please subscribe to this blog so that you can receive an email each time a new post comes out.  Now, let’s talk about something really important…

Just this week I became aware of an emphasis that is taking place next week among many college students who are Christians.  Engage24.org is a great effort to encourage college students who are believers to share their faith in Christ with someone (or many someones) during a specific 24 hour period on October 14, 2014.  College students in Alabama have been participating in 24 days of concentrated prayer leading up to this day.  There are some very good and helpful resources on this website as well.  Our own Alabama Baptist State Convention has been actively promoting this effort, and I applaud it greatly.

Now, wouldn’t it be sad if our college students are sharing Christ on that day but the rest of us don’t?   Personally, I am committed to praying for and joining in this effort to engage the lost this coming Tuesday, October 14.  Just a few minutes before typing this blog post, I had the opportunity to share the gospel with a man who struck up a conversation with me in a restaurant.  People are open if we approach them with a humble spirit and let them know that we truly care about them. People are open to having a conversation about faith.  Romans 1:16 is a great reminder…

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” (Romans 1:16, NKJV)

The gospel of Christ just needs to be shared.  Personally, I share it to hundreds of people every week when I preach, but I am more committed than ever to engaging people individually with the gospel as I have opportunity.  I hope you will join me specifically in sharing Christ on Tuesday, October 14.

Last Sunday at Lakeside, I began a message series on the life of Abraham called “DEVOTED.”  In the first message, we talked about how Abraham’s tent represented his relationship with the world and his altar represented his relationship with God. In case you missed last Sundays message, below is a link where you can watch it…

http://lakesidebaptist.com/media/media-player.htm?2014_09_07AM

This Sunday we will talk about how devotion to the Lord is a series of choices every single day – “Devotion is a Choice” from Genesis 13-14.   If you read those chapters you will see that Abraham’s nephew Lot made some very unwise choices while Abraham made choices that honored God.  Both of these men have much to teach us about the choices we make every day.  In fact, Lot’s unwise choices started out with a single look at a city called Sodom.  Here is an excerpt from Sundays message…

Lot looked toward Sodom and that was the beginning. Have you ever stopped to think about how much power there is one look? One look at that person who is not your spouse. One look at that money. One look at that picture. One look at that website. Lot took one look – and it changed his life because it affected his choices.

I am praying this message series challenges and blesses our Lakeside church family as well as many others who connect via the internet.  In case you are wondering, here are the upcoming messages….

“Devotion is a Choice” Genesis 13-14

“Devoted to a Mission” Genesis 12:13, 15:1-6

“Devoted through Failure”  Genesis 20

“Devoted through Blessing”  Genesis 17:18-22, Genesis 21

“Devoted through Testing”   Genesis 22

“Devoted in Marriage”   Genesis 23

“Devoted till Death”   Genesis 25:1-10

“Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”” (Revelation 11:15, ESV)

Revelation 11:15 is one of my favorite verses in all of the Bible.  I quote it often when I preach because it has a great message of hope and comfort.  Please let me explain why.  Just last week, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel made this statement: “The world is exploding all over.”  He said so in reference to the horrendous violence, bloodshed, and problems facing our world today.  The savagery of ISIS in Iraq has shocked many in recent days. The terrible violence in the Gaza Strip has also been front page news, as well as the Ebola outreak, and, closer to home for Americans, the events that have taken place in Ferguson, Missouri.  It’s easy to see why few if any would disagree with Chuck Hagel’s assessment.

For those who take a secular worldview and believe in the ability of mankind to solve its problems, these are certainly frightening, discouraging days. I can remember the 1990’s when there was even discussion of a new world age of peace and prosperity after the fall of the Iron Curtain.  The events of the last decade have put to rest those predictions!  The headlines show a world spinning out of control with the situation growing worse rather than better.

However, there is an alternative: the Christian worldview.  The Bible clearly teaches that the world is headed to an inevitable, planned,  and choreographed conclusion – the culmination of all things in Christ for all eternity.  Bible believing Christians do have some different views of the particulars.  For instance, some believe the Bible teaches a literal millenial (1000 year) reign on the earth after Christ returns, while others believe that the millenium is symbolic for a period of time. Some believe the church will be taken out of the world (the rapture) before seven years of tribulation, while others believe the church will go through the tribulation.  However, there are some “big picture” truths about the end times that all Bible believing Christians agree on:  the literal second coming of Christ, the resurrection, the final judgement, eternal heaven for the saved and eternal hell for the lost, etc.  Nothing can stop or alter these events for they are ordained by the sovereign God of the universe.  Let me repeat…

The Bible clearly teaches that the world is headed to an inevitable, planned,  and choreographed conclusion – the culmination of all things in Christ for all eternity.

When looking at the headlines of our world today, there are only two options for interpreting them:  either the world is spinning out of control or it is headed for a conclusion.  I am staunchly in the second camp because I have read the Bible and I see how it ends. Our world is headed for the culmination of all things in Christ for all eternity, therefore I have hope and I share the hope of Christ with people each week. Our world is headed for the culmination of all things in Christ for all eternity, therefore I can go to bed and go to sleep even though the headlines look bleak.  Think about it.

 

Social media has been abuzz today with the decision handed down by the Supreme Court in the Hobby Lobby case.  Many conservative Christians (like myself) hailed this ruling as a great victory for religious liberty in our country.  Many of us in Christian leadership have prayed and followed this case very closely. Perhaps you have not “kept up” and you are wondering what all of the fuss is about.  Perhaps you are confused with why the owners of Hobby Lobby and so many others care so deeply about this case. As with most issues, the real issues run far deeper than just a particular dispute or court case.  It is only by understanding these issues that one can understand why so many of us care so deeply about the Hobby Lobby case.

(1)  The sanctity of human life. Lost in much of the reporting on this case is the fact that Hobby Lobby did not object to providing 16 out of the 20 required contraceptives in the ObamaCare law.  Why did the Green family, the owners of Hobby Lobby, object to those four drugs?  Because those four drugs actually cause a drug induced abortion. They work after an embryo (human life) has already formed in the mother’s womb.  Think about that for a moment. Hobby Lobby agreed to provide contraceptives to their employees under their company health plan.  They only drew the line when the government tried to require them provide drugs which they believed to cause the taking of a human life.  The Green family’s deep and decades long Christian faith would not allow them to be part of ending human life.  Make no mistake, this case is not about any type of “war on women” but at the heart of it lies the sanctity of human life.

(2)  Our constitution guarantees “freedom of religion” not just “freedom of worship.” It’s important to weigh very carefully the words that people use. They matter.  In recent years, there has been a trend among some leaders to talk about “freedom of worship.”  The position of some in our government today is to attempt to basically draw a line at the church door and say, “Keep your beliefs in there. Don’t bring them out here.”  The government’s arguments in the Hobby Lobby case made clear that it believed the Green family’s deep religious beliefs should be set aside because they operate a for profit business.  In other words, the government said that they were free to believe whatever they wanted to believe – when they were at church.  However, when they came to the company they started and owned, then their personal religious beliefs should be set aside for what the government thought was best or what some employees might desire to have.  Our constitution guarantees every person the right to the “free exercise” of their religion.  That means far more than just the freedom to worship where we choose in the way we choose. It means the freedom to express our faith and live out our faith.  In his concurring opinion, Justice Kennedy spoke to this issue…

In our constitutional tradition, freedom means that all persons have the right to believe or strive to believe in a divine creator and a divine law. For those who choose this course, free exercise is essential in preserving their own dignity and in striving for a self-definition shaped by their religious precepts. Free exercise in this sense implicates more than just freedom of belief… It means, too, the right to express those beliefs and to establish one’s religious (or nonreligious) self-definition in the political, civic, and economic life of our larger community.

(3)  Religious liberty is for all or it is for no one.  If the government can bulldoze over the rights of the Green family and ignore their deep Christian beliefs, then it can do that to anyone.  Think about it. For instance, I am certainly not a Hindu and it would be difficult to get much farther apart on the religious spectrum than a Bible believing, Christ following Christian and a Hindu.  However, I would fight for the rights of any Hindu to be able to practice their religion and live out their faith publicly even though I agree with none of it. Why is that?  Because the day the government says that a Hindu’s convictions aren’t legitimate will be the day before it says that my convictions aren’t legitimate.

(4)  Which definition of “tolerance” are we using now?  Until recent years, America has been a country where tolerance meant I could respect you as a person and your right to your views without sharing them.  A new definition of tolerance is now running rampant in America.  It says that I must see your beliefs as equally valid and even celebrate them or I am a bigot.  At the heart of much of the arguments against Hobby Lobby is the belief that they should not be allowed to hold these convictions because they aren’t legitimate in “the modern world.”  On one of the rare occasions that I have listened to talk radio recently, I heard one commentator make the statement that the Green family “doesn’t want to join the rest of us in the 21st century.”  That is barely concealed code language for “they better get with the program because their views are illegitimate.”  Who decided they were illegitimate?   Those who cry “tolerance” the loudest in our day tend to be extremely intolerant of anyone who will not go along with their agenda. Think about it.

(5)  Elections matter and Christians should vote their convictions.  This ruling was a 5-4 decision. Think about that. We were one vote away from the government requiring a privately owned company to violate its conscience and convictions.  One vote. Elections matter because they have consequences. The justices who ruled in favor were consequences of elections in years past.  However, so were the four justices who dissented.  Some of those elections took place many years ago, but they still affect our lives today.  We are privileged to live in a country where we get to participate in choosing our leaders by exercising our right to vote. Today should remind us all of just how serious we should take voting.

(6)  Christians should pray daily for revival to come in America. Today should remind all of us of just how much our country needs revival. Our hope is not in the Supreme Court.  It is the Supreme One! While we should rightly be encouraged by the ruling today, it does nothing to change the rapid decline of our country in so many important ways. We need a great revival and we should pray for it every single day.