I am excited to share with you that as of this evening I have accepted an invitation to speak at the first annual Small Church Conference to be held at Lewisville Baptist Church in Lewisville, North Carolina in March of 2008. I am tentatively scheduled to speak on Friday night at 7pm on the topic of “Affordable Technology for the Small Church”. The use of technology has become one of the areas where God has gifted me and I am convinced that as our churches embrace the use of technology they will become more effective at communicating the Gospel message of Jesus Christ to our current cultural climate. I have also spent a significant amount of time researching resources that range from inexpensive to free in order to assist local pastors in smaller congregations. If you are the pastor of a small church, I believe this session, and certainly the conference overall, will be very helpful to you.

Additionally, Les Puryear (the host pastor) has received confirmation from some exciting individuals who will be speaking during the conference, and is awaiting confirmation from others. I am very excited about two of them in particular. As I receive permission to share more details, I will gladly do so.

I am passionate about my favorite worship song, “Amazing Grace.” In my opinion, there is simply no better song that captures the heart of the gospel than this great hymn of the faith. I love, however, our attempts to communicate this incredible song in a contemporary, relevant manner. Chris Tomlin’s new rendition of this song with his chorus added, is an exquisite effort in my opinion. We sing it often at our house, in fact as I type this and listen to the video, my 3 year old daughter (named Grace, appropriately) is singing the song verbatim in the background. This is good stuff. I hope it encourages you in your faith this weekend.

I’ve posted new pictures, and they are incredibly cute in my opinion. Click here to see them.

You should take a look at this article from Baptist Press. This is a great example of outside the box thinking which is leading people into the kingdom of God. I am excited about this story describing how one of our missionaries is working with passion and patience to reach forgotten people with the message of Jesus Christ. This is more than worth the read.

Another feature that I love is the fact that the article highlights the unlikeliness of the missionaries call. I think his humility and willingness to admit his need for God is a lesson most of us can sympathize with.

Finally, at the conclusion of the story, there are a series of prayer requests that assist to guide you as you pray for the work described in the article.

I’ve posted some new sermon audio, if you are interested. You can find this new message, entitled “Give”, by clicking here.

I am a registered Republican. I’ve never made that much of a secret. I despise, however, the sometimes blind allegiance that the right wing evangelical block gives to the Republican Party. We have often simply toed the line (status quo, if you will) without giving thought to the ramifications of our positions. Regardless of where the candidate falls, concerning their party affiliation, it has always seemed to me that we are obligated to vote based on biblical principles and expectations rather than traditional norms.

Just as I have been somewhat uneasy with the apparent selling of our collective evangelical souls to the Republican Party, I am equally unsettled by the recent overtures by those within the Democratic Party towards the evangelical voting block. In this recent CNN.com article, Claire Brinberg attempts to examine the importance of”religious” voters to the upcoming presidential election, specifically as it relates to candidates within the Democratic Party. Brinberg points out the many ways that Democrats are attempting to woo these voters. There is a quote, however, from Mara Vanderslice in the article, that highlights my trepidation in regards to the recent religious overhaul by these candidates. Vanderslice is a strategist working for the Democrats who is also an evangelical Christian. In regards to Democratic attempts to recruit evangelical voters she says:

“It has to be authentic. This is not about Jesus-ing up the party, so to speak … It just won’t work if it’s seen as a cynical ploy,”

In a nutshell, she has summed up my fears. Simply put, I don’t buy it. I don’t buy the Democratic candidate’s recent endorsements of faith in their personal lives. As I am an equal opportunity cynic, however, I also struggle to believe in the same faith endorsements from Republican candidates. The reason I struggle, you see, is that I find little practical support in the lifestyles of said politicians. I am reticent to accept the willingness of politicians to endorse religious conversions unless I can readily see a change in their lives. Endorsements are nothing more than verbal platitudes, in my opinion, unless accompanied by actual behavior that supports their claims. These recent moves simply smack of another in a long line of political strategies to prostitute themselves for the benefit of the upcoming election. It is difficult to convince me that this is legitimate, particularly in light of the almost wholesale commitment to religious outreach practiced by all of the Democratic candidates. Either God has worked miraculously, much like in Acts 2, bringing about regeneration in the lives of all the candidates simultaneously, or this is another feeble attempt to garner political support. Unfortunately, I am inclined to believe the latter.

John Kerry made the claim in the last election that his religious faith was important to him but also claimed that it would not influence his decisions. That is not the kind of candidate I am looking for. I want a candidate who will be honest about their predispositions and particularly transparent about the influence that their religious convictions have on their voting record. This kind of vote gathering is particularly offensive to me, as it occurs in both the Democrats and the Republicans, because it occurs at the expense of the Name and reputation of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I am almost convinced that the cavalier manner in which many politicians use Christ to stump for votes (much like they use their wives and/or children) is another example of slandering the Name of Christ, not to mention an example of possibly even taking the Lord’s name in vain.

In conclusion, I don’t need or want a candidate to convince me of his/her faith through their speeches, commercials, t-shirts or slogans. What I need, however, is a candidate to expose me to their faith through their character filled life which translates into moral, character based decision making which can lead our country forward.

That’s a good question to which I don’t have the answer. ABP, however, recently published a story considering that topic and their spotlight on Rick Warren was particularly enlightening, it seems to me. I’ve reproduced it below. You can see the story, in its entirety, by clicking here.

Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., became a reverse tither [living off of 10% and giving away 90% of his income] after the success of his Purpose Driven Life books. He detailed the motive for his decision in a 2006 interview with Beliefnet. He said he told God, “OK, God, I don’t need this money.… What are you doing with this? I don’t need this. I’m a pastor.”

Warren said he and wife, Kay, looked to Scripture for answers. Like [Joel] Osteen, Warren decided not to take a salary from the church. But he didn’t stop there. He added up all the money the church had paid him over the past 25 years and gave it all back. So the 10 percent the Warrens now live on is 10 percent of the income Warren earns from book royalties and additional ventures.

The Warrens have vowed never to change their lifestyle. They have lived in the same house for 16 years. Warren drives the same Ford truck he had before the book came out. And he owns the same two suits.

Warren told Beliefnet he’s aware of the stigma that pastors are in it for the money, but he said every pastor he knows would serve for free if possible.

“There are so many easier ways to make money,” Warren said in the interview. “Believe me, if you want to make money, don’t be a pastor.”

While I was in San Antonio for the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting I was approached by Don Hinkle who is the editor of the Missouri Baptist Convention paper entitled “The Pathway.” Hinkle asked me if I would be interested in working with The Pathway as a contributing author. I’m always excited to have opportunities to expand my ministry and I’m also thankful for the privilege of being able to highlight what God is doing among the churches of Northwest Missouri, and so I said yes to Hinkle’s offer. My first article is a short article on the exciting ministry of Fairport Baptist Church. It appeared in the latest edition of The Pathway and the original can be found here. I’ve posted the article in its entirety below.

 

 

Location doesn’t matter in Fairport

By Micah Fries
Contributing Writer

FAIRPORT—Church growth experts have told us for some time now that “Location, location, location” is a significant key to experiencing church growth.

To a Missouri Baptist church in the northwest corner of the state, that advice seems almost laughable. Located just seven miles north of Maysville, Fairport Baptist Church, led by Pastor David Kaster, has watched in amazement as God has blessed them with vibrancy, life and growth.

Kaster said with a laugh that they are “seven miles from the middle of nowhere.” Yet over the past seven years, in spite of what many would see as a handicap, God has taken the church from a hurting, small rural church of about 55 people to a vibrant, growing congregation of 150. While that, in and of itself, is remarkable, what’s even more amazing is that all of this has happened as Fairport is located in a town which has a population of just 50. In fact, according to Kaster, the combined congregations of Fairport Baptist and the other local Baptist church, First Baptist Church of Maysville, make up over 20 percent of the total population of the immediate area.

Kaster attributes the congregation’s growth to a heart for their community and a passion for students. When Fairport extended a call to Kaster in 1999, the church had recently experienced a troubling series of circumstances that cost the church a significant portion of their membership and left the church looking for direction.

“We recognized that it [Fairport Baptist Church] had to experience healing first,” Kaster said. “We had a series of meetings, and I spent a lot of time talking to the deacons saying, ‘We need to get back to what God wants us to do.’ So the first year we spent just trying to bring some healing to the congregation.”

After that time of healing, Kaster sat down with the church leadership and asked them to look at what the church was already doing well. After some reflection, the church recognized that they had a heart for children and enjoyed reaching them. This heart for students, according to Kaster, is a key piece to turning the church around.

“About 2001 we introduced an Awana club to the congregation. That proved to be a really important thing that we did. Children’s ministry was the strength of this congregation, always has been, and we envisioned then that we would grow up a youth group.”

He said 15 years ago there was only one child in the congregation. Today they regularly have 70 in Awana and more than 50 in Sunday School. Their youth group also grew to where more than 65 were attending, and the church knew it had to call a youth pastor—Bob Griffin.

Kaster said he is blessed with volunteers who consistently do more than they are asked to do. Some take breaks from their service, sometimes lasting a year, but they generally come back and ask for more to do.

Fairport had to admit it was outgrowing its sanctuary. The deacons came to Kaster in 2005 and told him so. With steady and consistent growth over a long period of time, the growth was viewed as legitimate and lasting, so plans for a new building led to the church breaking ground in July of 2006.

The new facility will have a 300-seat auditorium as well as an education wing that will be twice as large as the previous one. They moved into the worship center in December of 2006; the building is slated for completion this month.

Kaster rightly acknowledged that God deserves the credit for the unusual blessing that He is giving to Fairport Baptist Church. As such, God will determine the church’s future.