Drs Danny Akin and Al Mohler have worked together to provide for us a wonderful resource that deals biblically with the topic of infant salvation. If you haven’t studied the topic before I would recommend that you do so now. When one loses an infant to death you will be ill equipped in that moment of extreme emotionalism to adequately research and understand the implications of infant salvation. This is a topic that you need to have a strong understanding of before that event occurs so that you can confidently answer questions and provide loving hope.

We owe a debt of gratitude to these men for this resource.

You can access the article here.

I am always impressed with churches that are creative in their attempts to worship. I think our emerging generations are more easily connected when we communicate to them using a multi-sensory approach. I also think that God is an incredibly creative God who loves the incredible diversity in His creation.

One of the Worship leaders at Fellowship Church with Ed Young Jr. recently posted a video highlighting a song they used in their Easter service. I thought you might enjoy seeing what they did in their service. I know it was encouraging to me.

**DISCLAIMER** This is an occasional series in which I offer some heartfelt cries to pastors in regards to issues that I see that are crippling the work of the gospel and the effectiveness of the church. These are areas that are particularly close to my heart. These articles are not intended to be academic treatises, but rather a reflection of current concerns that I am dealing with.

I couldn’t sleep last night. It was a difficult night of tossing and turning until almost 3am before I finally drifted off to sleep. I occasionally have nights like this, and when I do I try to read. As a general rule I try to read a few newspapers each day (Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times and the St. Joseph News-Press) to make sure that I am current with the climate of our culture. I grabbed my laptop, turned it on and turned to the sites for these papers. As I was perusing the Post website I noticed an article by Melissa Etheridge, the rock star, who has become even more well known for her lesbian lifestyle and activism for homosexual couples to have the right to adopt. I read the article that she wrote about her  “Awakening at Easter” and my heart broke. In the article Etheridge details a typical midwestern upbringing in which she attended church with her parents only about 45 minutes from where I live here in St. Joseph. Unfortunately, however, as she spoke about their times at church during the Easter holiday she doesn’t speak of a pastor who clarified the risen Savior and the purpose of His resurrection instead, in her own words, what she heard was:

“Jesus was crucified on the cross and put into the tomb and rose from the dead three days later, now go find some eggs that a bunny left in the yard.”

I sat back, after I read her quote, and I struggled with frustration and sorrow. To think that her experience in celebration of the risen Savior was devalued to some lesson about Jesus and the Easter bunny is truly disheartening. To be honest, it could certainly be true that as a young child she simply missed the point, but unfortunately I would not be surprised if this depiction were accurate, understanding the state of the modern church.

It is vital that we pastors lead churches that communicate in modern, effective ways the truth of the Gospel. I believe in the importance of contextualization and the need for understandable application.  If, however, in an effort to make the message understandable we somehow lose the message itself than we have nothing of value to offer those who are listening.

It may be encouraging and convenient to encourage our people with thoughts that they should believe in themselves and that they should know that God wants them to triumph. It certainly may be convenient, but the problem is that it is not biblical. Instead of teaching our people that convenient message, we should teach our people to believe in God, rather than themselves, and the fact that He can triumph for us, rather than our ability to triumph for Him. Instead of getting people to our churches with a good time and throwing Jesus at them in some fashion, Jesus must become the center of all that we do. Our hope for our culture is not a large number of people who believe in the power of what they can do but rather a group of people who are broken by what they cannot do and are dependent upon God for what He can do.

It is frustrating to me to hear Etheridge’s personal testimony of the unfaithfulness of her church. It is even more frustrating when I turn on my own tv and see the pastors who are misleading their own people just as successfully by teaching them that God wants them to prosper and to be happy and that God would never allow them to suffer. It is a ridiculous perversion of the gospel. The kind of theology that exalts those values will cause our people to scratch their head in wonder when they see that God can’t even maintain His own standard with His Son, whom scripture tells us was “slain before the foundation of the earth.” So much for prosperity, comfort and ease I guess?

No, we do not need to make our people comfortable, happy and thankful for how easy their faith is. We must challenge them, encourage them and attack every thought that would exalt man over God. So, in this short plea, Pastor please hear me beg you not to lose the gospel! Contextualize the message, make ready the application and by all means prepare to communicate His word creatively, but please, please don’t lose the gospel. The lives of your people depend on it.

What an amazing Easter service (or couple of services as it were)! Our music is always dynamic but Chad and the Worship Team really outdid themselves this weekend. The choir special was particularly powerful. I also really enjoyed having baptism in the 2nd service. It was special, I thought, to see a visual reminder of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus on the day in which we celebrate His resurrection! Although worship is generally one of my favorite things to be a part of, it seemed so much more vivid this morning, to me at least, as we worshipped together and thought intentionally of the resurrection and the life that was purchased for us on the cross.

The second service was also a bit of a challenge. It really seemed like spiritual warfare was at work when our cameras quit working halfway through the message and then my voice went out and I got a killer headache partway through the service. The message of forgiveness that can be found at the foot of the cross seemed to be one which Satan wanted silenced, but thankfully we serve a risen Savior who has conquered Satan and sin!

It was very exciting to see all the people that were with us today. Both services were almost completely full and, in what I think is an incredible blessing, we surpassed 1,000 in attendance for the first time ever at Frederick Boulevard! Wow! I can’t tell you how excited I am as I watch what God is doing among our church. It is a lot fun to be a part of this. It’s also humbling, to be honest with you, to think about God’s sovereignty as He blesses us in spite of our shortcomings. God grace is so good.

After the service the Fries family took off for the metropolis of DeKalb, MO (pop. 250) and enjoyed hanging out with Tracy’s family for the day. It was nice to take an afternoon off and relax with family this afternoon. We took a picture of my girls that I thought was very good. I posted it below.

All in all it has been a good Easter. What a privilege we have to worship the resurrection of our Savior! I hope your day was blessed as well.

…He has risen, just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay.

On this Good Friday it is only appropriate to celebrate the cross. The videos below highlight Chris Tomlin along with Matt Redman leading “The Wonderful Cross” from Passion One Day back in 2000. It’s an incredible song that sings of the wonderful love Christ communicated on the cross.

If you will watch the whole video you will be moved, I am certain, as a couple of gentleman carry a cross towards the front of the stage area. Watching as people throw themselves at the foot of the cross is always a powerful reminder, in visual form, of our need to throw ourselves at the cross.

I hope it reminds you today to think about and praise God for the wonderful cross. Have a wonderful Easter!

If you are anywhere in the St. Joseph, MO area and you are not already committed to a local church, you need to make plans to be with us at Frederick Boulevard this Easter Sunday morning! It is going to be one incredible day!

I listened in this evening as the worship team prepared and they sounded incredible! The service will mix a combination of dynamic music, baptism, multimedia communication and a message from Colossians 2:13-15 to celebrate the cross and resurrection in an unbelievable manner.

You can choose between our 8:30 and 10:15 services and also enjoy a continental breakfast served from 9:45-10:45 am in our new building that we’re opening up on Sunday! You will be able to tour the new building which includes our Biblical Counseling Center, the extension of our KidsLife Children Department and the new atrium area that I’m calling Frederick’s Living Room. It will feature comfortable sofas, chairs and tables along with free wifi and coffee.

This Sunday should be one of our most amazing worship experiences yet! I hope you will plan to be with us. 

This week, in lieu of music, I want to post a video that was uploaded today to the IMB’s new site, CommissionStories.com. The creator of this video emailed me today and alerted me to it and after watching it, I wanted to pass it on to you. It is a remarkable testimony of God’s grace in a very, very dark place. I hope it encourages you this weekend.   

For some reason, however, I am not able at this point to resize the video and make it fit here on MicahFries.com. So, it’s not posted here on my blog but I’d still like you to take a look at it. You can view it by clicking here.