Sunday Recap

• Good worship during AM service.
• 50 in attendance with many “regulars” MIA.
• Sermon series It’s time to . . .”  Title: Glorify God by Giving. Text: 2 Corinthians 9.  God is glorified when: Giving demonstrates righteousness, Giving demonstrate equality while caring for others, Giving sets an example.  Why?  When the church does not use God’s resources properly and never gives to those in need, God’s Image is at stake.
• Sunday school was full of younger people.  47 in attendance.
• PM service; Wesleyan Men and Wesleyan Women met.
• Wesleyan Men want to be on mission to serve the community and made real plans to do so.  This is what Jesus desires His church to do.  Take care of those in need so that He is glorified and those who receive His care through us are built up in faith.
• It was important Sunday to know that when we give in response to what is laid upon our hearts that God is likely answering prayer for the person needs it.  As a matter fact,  it may simply be a need being for the person who does not even know that he or she has a need.  God knows what we have need of before we even ask for it.
• Our nursery was full again Sunday morning.  Praise the Lord!  We rapidly becoming shorthanded for nursery attendants and Sunday school teachers.

Sunday Recap

• Good morning and evening worship.
• We had 44-45 people for AM worship.  I hope this is not going to be the norm untile Easter.  We are still missing 15 or so people each week.  It may be sickness, vacations, or good old fashioned cutting service. 
• I started a new series called It’s time to . . . and the title of the message was Develop a New Attitude toward Giving.  The Scripture was 1 Chronicles 29:8-18.  There were three principles that needed to be understood to develop a new attitude toward giving; joyful giving, everything is God’s, and God tests the hearts. 
• It was very quiet in the sanctuary during this sermon.  Why is so hard to give to God’s work and back to Him what is already His?  I believe that this is the closet in our hearts that needs to be cleansed by the Holy Spirit.  We are fine following other Christian disciplines except when it is time to give.  We don’t like it.  We don’t enjoy it.  We think we can’t afford it.  Yet, we cannot afford not to give. 
• In our PM service we had a great discussion about this article.  Questions to ponder were what should we pass down to our children?  A building or faith?  What is more important to God?  People or a church building?  What is the church?  A building or those who have surrendered to Christ?  Are churches supposed to be monuments or lives that are sold out to Christ?  Does it matter who builds the church?  Should the church be built by humans or God?  And, do those who build the church run it? 
• One of the points in our discussion was whether or not God wants His churches to flee urbanization or stay and minister to the community.  I wrote about the modern day Rapture of the Church a while back.  It was about churches who flee their responsibility to the people. 
• If you attend church, you should know that I believe that we will give an account for what we did not do for the Lord.  In other words, if we do not minister to the “least of these,” this will be a problem.  Jesus said, “Depart from Me, for I never knew you” to those who do not do this. 

Sunday Recap

I need to change the title of these updates on Mondays.  I know. 

• I preached about the presentation of Christ in the Temple Sunday.  I think it went well.  It is not a Scripture that most Protestant churches use.  I thought it was important to note that Christ will divide people.  He always has and will until He returns.  Those of us who serve Jesus find out fast that our friends and families generally take the opposite view of Jesus and reject Him.  I also noted that the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus through God’s Word and obedient people and that those who seek Redemption should be told the Good News. 
• We had 53 people again!  Praise the Lord!  This is significant because we have been averaging over 50 since the November.  This is also tough since our sanctuary only seats approximately 48 comfortably! 
• At some point we will have to do something about the seating if we intend to grow.  And, I do. 
• Smith Chapel continues to be the norm by weekly demonstrating that “regular” attendees come 2 Sundays a month.  I heard that stat from a peer and cannot verify it.  But it sounds about right. 
• Our nursery is still going well and has been in use since we opened it up a couple of months ago.  It reminds me of the movie Field of Dreams, and the famous line, “Build it, and they will come.” 
• It was mentioned by a couple of treasurers that if anyone is looking for a place to donate a large sum of money that he or she can give to our church.  I know that this sounds like we are money hungry; and I struggled with it too.  Nevertheless, it is true.  “You have not because you ask not.”  We do have needs at our church and it seems that we should say something once in a while.  I will be preaching about Stewardship next Sunday, but it was already planned.  It should be remembered that God’s people are supposed to be givers.  So if there are needs we need to do our best to take care of them.   
• I continue to be grateful for our Assistant Pastor Jon Brady.  He does well organizing our services and creating our power points.  Good job Jon!
• We ended up Sunday night at Taco Bell with some of our youth.  I miss being a youth pastor sometimes.  Teenagers are fun, but can also be a handful.  Yet, if this ministry is going well it is the most rewarding. 

Sunday Recap

This was the first Sunday that we were under 50 since October.  We had 45.  Again, this was with 15-18 “regulars” out.  We are gaining ground as a church.  This was our 4th Sunday of Advent.  We have been reading Scripture from the Lectionary that follows the Church calendar.  It has been good to have formal worship during this season of Advent.  It is a nice change. 

We had modern special music today.  In other words, the solo music was modern.  This was a nice change. 

My message was about Pure Faith.  It came from Luke 1:26-44.  I wanted our church to know that this passage was about a young lady who surrendered to God’s will.  So many Christians today choose to focus on their appearance as those who are Holy.  In other words, we just want to look like we are good Christians.  Yet, God wants to teach us about trust in Him.   

We Christians put a ceiling upon our growth in the Lord when simply focus on looking like good Christians.  God wants us to learn to believe in Him and His supremacy.  Not many Christians are willing to step away from the plans that they have to take part in God’s salvific will for humanity.  What a risk it was for Mary to say yes to God’s will to have the Child while only engaged.  Not many would accept that hard road that God marked out for her! 

Pure Faithdemands obedience and trust.  It is allowing ourselves to be used by God as He desires because He has been given Lordship over our lives.  I wonder how many would give up their goals to allow God to put them in a tough spot so that they would learn to live by faith in Him, and so that He could demonstrate His salvific will through them at the same time? 

Living by faith is where all gimmicks end.  It is where getting to know God starts.  All masks are taken off, and transparency is left.  Trust in God is the true hope of the soul.  Trust in God leads to salvation.

Some more truths in this passage but not all.

• A woman is used by God to take part in God’s great salvific plan.
• A young person throws caution into the wind and agrees to yeild her life to God. 
• Human plans are changed so that God’s become more important and expedient.
• God did major work outside of the Temple in an unlikely place. 
• God did not use a rich girl to accomplish His will.
• The Virgin Birth is affirmed.
• A desire for God’s will to be done is seen instead of a desire for human will to be done.
• The Deity of Christ is established along with His Humanness.
• The Spirit’s coming on people who surrender to God’s will is seen. 
• God is not limited in what He can do.

Let’s allow God to have His way with us as we take part in plan to save and redeem everyone and everything in the world.

Sunday Recap

We had another good service this morning.  Our choir and worship leaders did well this morning.  There was a sweetness in our service this morning. 

We put out our information rack this morning and were able to present our information and other literature in an organized way.  It looks good in our foyer.  This makes our newsletter and bulletins, which look very up to date courtesy of Pastor Jon, look snazzy.   

We had 50 in attendance this morning.  Again, if all of our people were not sick, or missing in action, we would be around 65.  This is good. 

Our nursery is still going.  Plus, we need to figure out how to minister to the children better; because we actually have a need to now!  We are going to have to put some money out to get our facility up to snuff for our kids; period.   We are slowly coming to life with younger people. 

If our attendance was around 65 every Sunday, believe it or not, we would likely have to move out to our fellowship hall or go to 2 services.  We have a small sanctuary if you have never been to our church. 

Our evening service was good too.  Not only was I able to avoid watching the Dallas Cowboys defeat by the Steelers, but we had a special speaker who came and reminded us that we Christians must continue to stand against abortion.  It is true that there other issues that should be focused on, but this is still important too.  All sin and disobedience to God needs to dealt with. 

Our speaker, Wesley Wilson of Let Her Live Ministries, talked about some of his experiences of counseling with young ladies who are pregnant and are seeking an abortion.  Some are not only brought in, and pushed to get an abortion, but are strongly influenced to by their boyfriends, parents, and grandparents!  Listen, this is unfair!  Those young girls have to live with that decision for the rest of their lives! 

While we attempt to grow our churches it is important that we do not lose sight of our call to confront sin.

Sunday Recap

We had another good service Sunday.  We took part in the first Sunday of Advent.  I love celebrating Christ’s birth while knowing that He will return again.

• 51 in attendance!  However, at least 15 “regulars” out again.
• A lot of people were sick.  There is a virus going around.  My wife was sick too.
• We had 3 babies in our nursery!  We just started our nursery a couple of months ago!  This demonstrates that sometimes we have to get ready by faith and God will do the rest.
• We had a younger group in Sunday school.  The ages for our class was 18-27.  There 5 people who are this age who were there.  This is part of that missing generation that we have struggled to reach.  Praise the Lord!
• Our worship format was good.  But we are going to have to tweak it a little to fix some holes.  It was different.  We had readings from the Lectionary and songs that went with the theme of Expectation.
• It was the last worship service that I will take part in while in my thirties. 
• Sunday night we had singspiration with another church and some other Christians.  After this service, we had fellowship and snack food in the fellowship hall. 

Things are rolling at Smith Chapel Wesleyan

Sunday Recap

We had another good turnout Sunday.   We had 50 show up.  However, we were missing over 10-12 regulars.  When you are a small congregation, people missing from service has a way of deflating a good day. 

What is troubling is that we had such a good Sunday service last week and young families showed up.  The good news is that these young families want to learn about Jesus.  The bad news is that there were 67 people at our church which caused us to struggle to accomadate these people.  Plus, we found that we struggled to provide services to these young people such as kid’s ministry, kid’s Sunday school, and enough people to take care of the nursery. 

So, if you attend my church, or, if you attend another small church.  If it is possible, your pastor and church needs you.  The only way that we can provide services in a small, but growing church, is with our regular attendees.  Do not allow yourself to have the philosophy that the pastors will take care of everything.  Realize that God calls all to be involved in serving.  In a small church, everyone has to chip in and sacrifice.  Sacrifice may simply start with giving up every Sunday for God’s Kingdom.  Now, this does not mean vacations too.    

God has been sending us steady visitors.  Plus, it looks like some are hear to stay.  Praise the Lord! 

Pastor Jon has a good young adult group coming to our church too.  I am so happy. 

One of our newer Christians has been praying for God to send people to our church.  They have been coming.  Awesome!

We joined other churches at the Thanksgiving Community Service Sunday night.  This was a good experience.  It was good to mingle with other Christians and worship together.  Pastor Larry Burke of Golden Grove Wesleyan delivered a good sermon.  The choir, made up of different churches, sounded great! 

I believe that God is growing our church.  Likely, He is shaping all of us to be usable by Him for His purposes.  There is hope; we all have to hang in there and not lose sight of Jesus and His mission.

Sunday Recap

• Last week was Homecoming and we had 87.  We currently run around 45 on average.  I have pointed out that although 87 was a nice number most of those who were at our church attend their own churches.  So that means almost all of those who were visitors will not be back.  However, this week we had 67 in attendance!  Now I am getting a little more excited!  Some of these may be back! 
• Pastor Jon preached a great message about taking Christ out of Christmas.  Relax, he was not serious.  He reminded us of what we had to do to accomplish this.  First, we must ignore the historical fact that He came.  Secondly, we must ignore the fact that He is returning by continuing to live our lives thinking that we can put off living for Jesus until later.  Finally, Jon challenged us not share the Gospel with anyone; especially at this time of year when we are celebrating Advent.  Obviously, this was sarcasm and not serious instruction. 
• Here are some nice problems to have for a change: We don’t have a big enough nursery.  We don’t have enough help for our nursery.  We fixed up a nursery by faith and now small children have actually showed up.  Thank you Lord.  Seating in our small sanctuary is tight.  Some were in our overflow rooms today.  I feel overwhelmed and incapable of solving any of these issues.  This means that if these issues are solved it will be the Lord who did it. 
• Tonight’s service with the men dealt with the normalcy of discouragement.  God works through discouragement.  This is how He seems to mold and shape us into who He wants us to be.  Plus, we discussed that individual effort for God is disrespect for Him (Oswald Chambers).  Finally, we are to have one message as missionaries for Christ, Jesus takes away the sins of the world.  It is not about what He has done for us.  It is not about healing or finances.  Instead it is about salvation through His Sacrifice for us on the Cross (Oswald Chambers).  What message about Jesus are we sharing everyday? 
• Our choir began to prepare for Advent.  I know, some of you are thinking that this is too late.  Yet, things are slower in a smaller church.  However, that last statement may still not be an excuse. 
• Some of our newer people have been inviting people to come to church!  This is a huge deal. 
• Some of our newer people have been praying for more people to come to our church!  Listen, I can’t begin to say how important those types of prayers are.  Yet, I know how happy I am when I hear someone say, “I prayed for God to send another big crowd to our church today, and He did it!”  This is how faith is built in the person who prays this.  What is more, this is ownership in the mission of the church!!!  This is grabbing hold of responsibility and gladly doing what is humanly possible so that God will do what is Super humanly possible. 
• It seems like the Holy Spirit is at work.  Stay tuned!!  

Sunday Recap

This morning was our Homecoming service at Smith Chapel.  Here are some thoughts about our service today.

• We were not organized.  My fault period.  We are simply going to have to work on structuring our worship time while allowing the Holy Spirit opportunity to work.
• Technical difficulties too.
• It was a good time of fellowship after the service because we were able to enjoy the company of many who had attended our church in the past. 
• The food was great.  This is bad for me because I don’t lose weight as easy anymore. 
• Our special singer Bobby Massengale was outstanding.
• Our regular singers did great too. 
• Pastor Key challenged our church to look to impact the future while being thankful for the past. 

So, what do we, as a church, take away from our Homecoming service? 

• We had 87 people!  It is nice to see our church full. 
• Before we get too excited it is good to be reminded what Homecoming means.  These people won’t be back period!  They attend other churches.  So while we were, and continue to be, frustrated when our regular people don’t show up every Sunday, so were the churches that these people came from to worship with us today. 
• I fear that everyone feels as if we now can say that our year was successful because we had a decent turnout for Homecoming. 
• Homecoming was the most that we invited people to attend our church this year.  ?????  What if we pursued lost people like we pursued those who will not come back to our church until next year? 
• Our church can make it happen when we believe in the goal.  And, today it was Homecoming.
• Strange that Homecoming is our number one draw. 

Sunday Recap

This morning I spoke about the Lord being near to us when we are in tough situations.  Isaiah 55 is part of a prophecy that the prophet gave to Israel about finding God during their captivity in Babylon.  His formula for finding God was for His people to seek and call the Lord, forsake their wicked lives that led to their trouble to begin with, and then they will be found and God will be found.  

The good news for the Jews during this time was that even though they would be taken from their land and homes, and even though the Temple would be destroyed and left behind, God would go with them.  He would not be in Babylon to condemn during their time of distress, but He would be there to bring them hope and help them to become like Him.

God continued to call on the Jews to be Holy.  It is interesting that when God allows hard times, He also expects that while we navigate those times that we strive to become Holy; no matter situations are faced. 

I also shared a story about the time that I was in Boys Scouts and another kid wanted to fight with me.  Well, he was bigger than I was so I told him that I did not want to fight.  He told me that he did.  While telling you the outcome of that fight will not help anything, telling you the point will.  Christians, we may not want to take part in spiritual warfare and we may not want to think about it.  But, whether or not we want to fight, Satan does.  We are in a fight whether we want to admit it or not. 

Our church is in the middle of a spiritual battle.  Too many things are happening at once.  However, this means that God is working at our church.  If you attend my church, or if you attend another church, you should know that attending because it is the right thing to do on Sunday morning will not due.  You must stand with your brothers and sisters in Christ.  Because whether or not you like it, we are in a fight together.