Saturday, September 30, 2006

Ouachita Baptist University

On Thursday I attended the Pastor's Conference on the letters of John at OBU. It was a good experience. Dean, Scott Duvall, put together a good conference for those who will teach the January Bible Study. There were two highlights, one was expected.

The first highlight was a presentation by Barbara Pemberton on comparative religions. She shared a unique way of discussing beliefs of other groups. She was extremely clear that salvation is only through the Christ of Scripture. She shared several firsthand opportunities she had experienced sharing the Gospel. She also displayed a genuine heart for students to be well grounded in doctrine so they will not be vulnerable to other religions.

The other highlight was the session on Preaching from the Letters of John. It was led by the new president of OBU, Rex Horne, previously pastor of Immanuel Church in Little Rock. I am glad he is at OBU. I believe that our Baptist schools are positively impacted when they are led by qualified men from the ministry.

On a Scriptural note, it was repeated by several of the conference speakers that when John says "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another" (1 John 1:7), he would have been expected to say "we have fellowship with Him." That is true, but John is emphasizing that we cannot be right with God and wrong with the brothers. Our horizontal fellowship is an indicator of our vertical relationship.

All in all a good day, enjoyable, informative, and reassuring.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Fellow Traveler

SIMPLE IS GOOD
Do you remember your first computer? If it has been a while, let me refresh your memory. First, you may have had to make decisions about "text card" or "graphics card," color or monochrome, which operating system, will this monitor and this printer work with this system. Then there was software. You had to get it all separately, load it, and spend hours in the manuals to make it work. It was not uncommon to spend time on the phone with techs for a few days, call in friends, and deal with glitches for a long time.

The last computer I bought, I brought home, plugged in the color coordinated cables, plugged into power, turned it on, and started using it. Printer worked first time. Software already there. Simple. As a matter of fact, if IBM had not gone simple, we would all have Apples today.

Here is the deal. I am afraid that our churches are more like the old computers. Difficult. Not because of people's attitudes as much as our structure. Thom Rainer offers this definition of a simple church: "a congregation designed around a straight-forward and strategic process that moves people through the stages of spiritual growth." I struggle with how to simplify the church I presently serve. We move about as fast as the Federal government to a disaster area. We have to work through layers, committees. I want to move like Baptist Disaster Relief teams. They don't have to wait for lots of red tape, they see a need and move. Church really should be simple. Simple is effective. Simple is efficient. Simple is also dependent on God's leadership.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Got Jesus?

Do you ever get the Spiritual blahs, or am I the only one? There are times when I just seem a little dry. I am reminded of the Gospel account of Mary and Joseph losing Jesus. How did they do it? Where did they do it?

They lost him during a very Spiritual time (passover) at a very Spiritual place (Temple). That reminds me that doing Spiritual "stuff" is not a replacement for walking with God. As a pastor I am at the church building a lot, almost everyday. I read the Bible and pray everyday, but often times working on messages, etc. Activity is not Spirituality. How did they lose Jesus? They were too casual with Him and spent one day without Him. They assumed He was there when He wasn't. How often do we assume His presence and we spend a little time without Him. We need to be conscious of intentionally walking with Jesus.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

His Church

I started a series of Revival Services at FBC in Hartford, Arkansas. If you do not know anything about Hartford, look in the Baptist Hymnal at the name of the tune to Victory in Jesus. There was a time when Hartford was the home of Gospel Music. That was just a little history lesson.
As I preached in this church today, fellowshipped with the people, ate with them, spent the afternoon with their pastor, Dr. Tom Harris, I realized again what a great gift the church is to us. FBC is not a mega church, or even a big church, but it is a great church because it is Christ's. I really enjoyed being with people I had never met. What a privilege it is to be a part of a local church. I listened to a man's testimony at lunch. He had lost his wife a few years ago in an auto accident. He is now the single dad of three teenagers, but there were tears in his eyes as he spoke of his church family and how they ministered to him. Lord Jesus, thank You for Your Church and help me to be a better part of it.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Walk With Me

What does God really want of us? We focus so much on what God wants us to be, what He wants us to do, but we focus to narrowly. First - What does God want me to be? HIS. It is not that He primarily wants me to be a pastor, missionary, teacher - God wants me to belong to Him. If I will focus a little more on relationship the other things will fall in line. Second - What does God want me to do? Walk with Him. God is calling us to a journey, the journey is the blessing. We are taught to be goal oriented. Like my Dad on vacation. The goal was to get "there." Mom wanted to stop along the way, but Dad was afraid we would not get "there." God wants me to enjoy the journey. I will get "there" as I walk with Him, and I do not even have to know where "there" is. I am trying more and more to learn to hear God's voice that says "Walk with me a little while and see what happens."

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Traveling Through

This is my first post, although I have been following some of the blogs for a while. I do not consider myself to have all the answers, but enjoy being a fellow traveler in the Christian life.