I have not blogged nearly as much lately as I would like to. To be honest with you, I haven’t had time. I have been swamped with work and school and as the semester ends next week, I’m going to stay swamped for another week or two.

This coming week, however, promises to be an exciting one! If you are from Frederick Boulevard I hope you are planning to be with us at some point over the next 4 days as we meet our candidate to lead our Student Ministry, Brad Durham. Brad is a very exciting guy with a passion for students and I hope that you learn to appreciate him as much as we have. If you haven’t seen the schedule of events yet, please plan to at least be with us on Friday night for dinner with Brad as well as a Q&A time. It will be held in the new atrium and starts at 7pm.

Speaking of the new atrium, I’m also really excited that the last few pieces of work were finished this week and our new coffee shop is almost ready to open. Once we get the ok from the health inspector, we’ll be up and running for business. I was by there this evening smelling the fresh coffee beans and I’ll have to admit that even though I don’t drink coffee, I was really enjoying the aroma!

Also, we start a new sermon series this Sunday that should be very exciting and challenging. We begin “Letters of Change” as we’ll take a look at the 7 churches in the book of the Revelation. We’ll begin this week by looking at the verses immediately preceding the first church and we’ll describe what a God centered church looks like.

Finally, if you have some time, please pray for my youngest daughter Kessed. She’s been sick for 4 days and her fever keeps running close to 103-104. We’ve been to see the doctor, and we’re going back again tomorrow, but she is worn out. Please pray that the doctor would prescribe the right medication and that she can be restored to health soon! I really appreciate it.

HT: Timmy Brister

Most of you are aware that Tracy and I lived in West Africa for a year. During my time there I became deathly ill from Malaria. In fact, at one point the doctor told me I was “about 3 hours away from death”. It was one of the most frightening experiences of my life.

Beyond what Malaria meant to me personally, it is still devastating people around the world, particularly in Africa where 59% of the world’s cases are reported. I watched so many of our friends experience great pain and even death due to the existence of Malaria.

Today is designated as World Malaria Day. I would encourage to read this information sheet in order to be more aware of what Malaria is doing around the world.

We began having a number of freak thunderstorms today. The worst of it was that the wind was so hard, it uprooted a 30-40′ tree in my backyard. I’ve got to find a way to clean it up tomorrow! Unfortunately we didn’t realize that until it was too dark to take a picture. We did get some pictures, or I should say Tracy got some pictures, of the pond that my backyard has become as well as the hail that covered our yard today.

This is a good pictorial look at what Missouri can be like.

My wife has written a beautiful post about her Grandpa. It made me cry to read it. It is a wonderful statement of love. You would be encouraged, I believe, to read it.

Click here

New research came out today that highlighted a recent SBC trend away from baptisms. [click here] Oh, we still say that they are important, and we still communicate that we’re an evangelistic denomination, but the truth is that we are not. No, today we are more known for which side of the methodological fences we stand on than we are known for our passion for connecting disconnected people with the Gospel.

Ed Stetzer has written a great article detailing what these statistics mean for our convention. I would highly encourage you to read his thoughts. You can do so by clicking here. In his article, Stetzer makes a tremendous statement, but one which I predict will not be kindly received by everyone. He says,

The Conservative Resurgence failed to produce a Great Commission Resurgence. It restored our denomination’s value of Scripture but application is often absent, at least in the area of evangelism.

Stetzer is absolutely right. Our battle for the priority of scripture was absolutely necessary. If we are not a people who believe in the supremacy and innerancy of God’s word, we are nothing in my opinion. Having said that, right belief means nothing if it is not accompanied by right action. In other words, orthodoxy must be partnered with orthopraxy for it to be beneficial. Our convention, and the churches that make up her number, claim a great commitment to God’s word. We are proud of our positions. We are so strongly tied to them that the word “innerancy” has almost become our club’s secret password without which one cannot serve. Now, I do not want to diminish innerancy at all, but if our behavior doesn’t link hands with our belief, what good is our belief?

It’s time that we heed well the other words of Stetzer and rally around the gospel. Frank Page’s words from his initial election as SBC president should be embraced. It’s beyond time that people know us for what we are for, rather than simply know us for what we are against. We are for the gospel. We are for the sufficiency of Christ on behalf of those who are separated from the Gospel due to sin. We are for people experiencing grace, hope and forgiveness through the cross of Christ.

In my own town, here in St. Joseph, MO, we have a population of 105,000 in the metro area. Of that number approximately 80,000 are in a group that I refer to as “disconnected”. In other words, they are either unchurched, dechurched or are not involved in the church that they claim to belong to. My passion in life is to help connect those 80,000 disconnected people with the gospel. Our church specifically must do whatever it takes to accomplish that task. Up to this point, we are not fulfilling that task as we should.

Each person reading this post lives in a city or area where the majority of the population does not appear to have an active relationship with Jesus Christ. Our charge must be to somehow connect them with the Gospel. Beyond that, it is time we think creatively about ways to effectively do so. So many of our churches are convinced that if they can just hold another revival meeting, and beat on a few more doors, that will do the trick. Statistics are also bearing out that those methods are simply not seeing success. When we become desperate to fulfill the task that God has given us, we will throw off any unsuccessful efforts and continue to work until we find more effective ways to engage people with the Gospel.

Someone asked me the other day how our church, Frederick Boulevard, was doing. I told them honestly that attendance and finances are at an all time high but that I was disappointed right now. When asked why I shared that our baptisms are plateaued at the same place they were last year. We may have seen a few more, but not many. I’ve shared the gospel with a number of people lately, but I haven’t shared with enough. I’m afraid that too often it’s easy for us to become satisfied in our churches. We want to reach other people as long as we can continue to be happy. The truth is, maybe it’s time that we become uncomfortable for the gospel. Maybe it is time that we step outside of our usual pattern so that our neighbors who don’t know Christ can respond to His grace. Maybe it’s time that we get desperate to complete the task God has given us.

I’m afraid that if we don’t the downward spiral that we are seeing today, will only be the tip of the iceberg.

If you are a ministry leader Facebook for Pastors is an exciting new resource that you need to add to your library! Chris Forbes, also known as the Ministry Marketing Coach, has put together this short, 31 page book to walk pastors and church leaders through the process of using Facebook in their ministry settings. The best thing about the book is that it is available as a FREE download!

Chris is a friend who writes most of the book but also uses the help of a few other ministry personnel that are already using Facebook in ministry to add to his thoughts. I had the privilege of lending an article to the book.

I’ve been using Facebook for well over a year or two now and have found it to be an incredible resource in ministry.

Chris posted this description of the book on his site.

How to build relationships and connect with people using the most popular social network on the Internet. This 32 page e-book will help Pastors and other ministry leaders make the most of this great networking tool.

• How to make the most of your profile information
• Tips for Networking with People in Facebook
• All about groups, messages, poking, etc
• Brand Your Ministry
• Meet prospects for your church
• Learn more about the members in your church
• Fine tune your communication skills
• Testimonies from Pastors who use FaceBook
• and much more!

Get the e-book here free using this link: Facebook for Pastors E-Book
(PC users, right clink and select “Save As” for best results)

For those who haven’t read the comment thread from my last post, Tracy’s grandfather passed away early Wednesday morning. Please continue to pray for our family. It’s hard for me to really explain how important he was to us. It’s also hard to explain how important he was to me personally. Sorting through this loss has been, and will continue to be, very difficult.

Please pray specifically for his wife Mary Jane as she learns to live alone for the first time in her life. Please also pray for Tracy as she is really struggling with this loss. Finally, if you will, please pray for me. I will officiate at his funeral tomorrow and I am worried that I will not be able to make it through the service. It will be the most difficult funeral I’ve ever led.

To read his obituary, click here.