Annual Theme: “GO”

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In all the years I have served as a senior pastor, I have never adopted a church-wide annual theme.  Oh, I thought about it lots of times when I saw others do it, but I just never felt impressed by the Lord to do so.  A few months back, God began to speak to me about adopting a theme that focused on evangelism and missions.

I thought of catchy themes, rhyming themes, and clever themes, but the Lord seemed to say “keep it simple.”  After prayer I chose a one-word, two-letter, church-wide theme for Shelbyville First Baptist Church this year.  It doesn’t get much more simple than that.  Our theme is “Go”!

This year I pray that we will mobilize like never before as a church and as individual Christians.  Personally, I am increasing my evangelistic efforts, I am scheduled to travel to Russia this summer to teach, and I am making plans to lead a trip to the Holy Land.

Please share your “Go” ideas here.

How Much Does It Cost to Follow Christ

Posted in Discipleship9 Comments

18Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side.  And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”  And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”  Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”  And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”  Matthew 8:18-22 (ESV)

Today I have been looking at this passage in depth.  As a result of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and a series of miracles that followed, Jesus had an enormous following.  Instead of embracing what many of us would have viewed as success, His words seemed to be aimed at weeding out some of the crowd.  He seemed to know that many of them were not sincerely committed. 

He then did something very unusual–He prepared his main disciples to leave the crowd behind by sailing across the Sea of Galilee.  Most “preachers” would stay with the crowd, but Jesus’ desire was simply to do the will of His Heavenly Father.  He did not let the crowd set His agenda.

What do you think about His statements in this passage?  What do you think He is saying about the cost of following Jesus?

Haiti Relief Effort

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Our hearts and prayers go out to the people of Haiti.  Please join me in praying for the people of Haiti daily and join me in asking God to show us what He would have us do to help.  As expected, we have people from our church who are gearing up to travel to Haiti to help with disaster relief efforts.  I will share information soon about opportunities to travel to Haiti and help if you are interested. 

I encourage you to consider giving a monetary gift to help the people of Haiti.  Here are a number of reputable ways you can give to the Haiti Relief Effort. 

Southern Baptist International Mission Board

Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief Efforts in Haiti

Salvation Army

American Red Cross

Edge Outreach Ministries

Book Review: “The Civil War in the Big Sandy Valley”

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I have always been a little bit of a Civil War buff.  I really don’t know much about the Civil War, but today I read John David Preston’s book called “The Civil War in the Big Sandy Valley of Kentucky.”  The Big Sandy region discussed in the book includes the following four counties:  Pike, Floyd, Johnson, and Lawrence.  Since I grew up in Floyd county and lived and worked in Pike county, I was particularly interested in this particular Civil War info.

You will find the book interesting if you are from the Big Sandy area.  You may find it interesting if you are from other parts of Kentucky.  One of the most prominent skirmishes took place near Prestonsburg on Middle Creek.  The two Civil War commanders involved were Col. James Garfield and Brig. Gen. Humphrey Marshall.

You can read more about this particular battle on the Middle Creek National Battlefield website.  You can also download an interesting brochure from their website about Eastern Kentucky Civil War battles and skirmishes.

If you know of other Civil War books that you would recommend, please share them here.

How Fat Are You?

Posted in Church Chat, Discipleship, Life Happens8 Comments

When I was a young man in my twenties, I decided to take up running.  I discovered that I not only loved the sport, but I was a halfway decent runner.  I built up my endurance to the point that averaged about 40-50 miles of running each week.  I was strikingly thin at 5′ 11″ tall and 145 pounds.  I often won my age divisions at local races and occasionally won the entire race at small events around eastern Kentucky.

Well, that was then and this in now! I’m still 5′ 11″ tall, but the rest is none of your cotton-pickin’ business.  Let’s just say, my waist size has increased three inches since those days.  Recently, I decided that enough is enough — I’m gettin’ in shape!

When I was in shape, I would often take long training runs up to 20 miles in length.  Now, it’s difficult to even jog around the block.  I realize that it’s going to be a long, slow process, but I’ve got to start somewhere.

Many times, our spiritual journey is a lot like my physical journey.  We fall off after a period of spiritual fitness and frankly, we know we’re not where we should be.  In order to regain our fitness, we have to become more disciplined in our spiritual lives.  Does that describe you?  I have committed to become more fit it all areas of my life and I invite you to join me.

Will you join me in this journey?  I’m writing about it here to build in some accountability.

Give me a shout-out here on the blog if you will join me to provide a level of accountability with your decision.  May God bless you in your efforts.  Keep pressing forward  Here’s a great theme passage….

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:1-3 (NIV)