About a month ago, Eastside Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho planted our first international church. New Horizon Baptist Church is located in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
I’ll share more about the new church plant soon, but for now enjoy the pictures of the gathering of the Lord’s people last Sunday.
Today was a day for harvesting my giant sunflowers. I had two plants grow to full maturity (others suffered early demise due to strong winds).
Throughout the process I’ve had Matthew 13 on my mind, the parable of the sower. In this parable, Jesus talked about the sower who sowed his seed. Most of the seed suffered early demise due to birds, weeds, and shallow roots. But the seed that fell into good soil produced an abundant yield. So, I’ve been meditating on this principle all day. It’s actually a very visual lesson.
Here’s the visual lesson with a little number guessing contest…
General contest objective: Guess the total number of sunflower seeds I harvested from the two sunflower seeds I planted back in June. (HINT: they are all pictured below)
Contest rules: You are allowed to enter a guess up to 10 times.
Winner: the winner, who is closest to the exact number (according to my math) will win a copy of Scott Brown’s book, A Weed in the Church.
Feel free to ask for hints, but all guessing to be considered will conclude at 7PM (mountain time) on October 13, 2013.
In his Thoughts on the Revival, Jonathan Edwards considers the difference of the sufficiency of Scripture and the senseless efforts of man to create emotional movements of men without the work of the Spirit. This short excerpt is for consideration for those interested in reading the entirety of this treaties (HERE).
But these gentlemen, I cannot but think, labour under great mistakes, both in their philosophy and divinity. It is true; distinction must be made in the affections or passions. There is a great deal of difference in high and raised affections, which must be distinguished by the skill of the observer. Some are much more solid than others. There are many exercises of the affections that are very flashy, and little to be depended on; and oftentimes a great deal appertains to them, or rather is the effect of them, that has its seat in animal nature, and is very much owing to the constitution and frame of the body; and that which sometimes more especially obtains the name of passion, is nothing solid or substantial. But it is false philosophy to suppose this to be the case with all exercises of affection in the soul, or with all great and high affections; and false divinity to suppose that religious affections do not appertain to the substance and essence of Christianity. On the contrary, it seems to me that the very life and soul of all true religion consists in them.
I read this hymn last week while in Greeley, Colorado.
Words by Hugh Braham Sherlock.
Lord, Thy Church on Earth is seeking
Thy renewal from above;
Teach us all the art of speaking
With the accent of Thy love.
We would heed Thy great commission;
“Go ye into every place;
Preach, baptize, fulfill My mission,
Serve with love and share My grace.”
Freedom give to those in bondage,
Lift the burdens caused by sin;
Give new hope, new strength and courage,
Grant release from fears within.
Light for darkness, joy for sorrow;
Love for hatred, peace for strife.
These and countless blessings follow
As the Spirit gives new life.
In the streets of every city
Where the bruised and lonely dwell,
We shall show the Savior’s pity,
We shall of His mercy tell.
In all lands and with all races
We shall serve and seek to bring
All the world to render praises,
Christ, to Thee, Redeemer, King.
This past weekend Eastside Baptist Church hosted the Master’s Plan for Fatherhood. This was two full days of examination from Scripture on the doctrine of Fatherhood. I’m grateful to the Lord for the teaching of Scott Brown, pastor at Hope Baptist Church in Wake Forest, North Carolina.
The conference began with the doctrine of fatherhood from Genesis to Revelation. Following are some of the notes I wrote down…
It is important for me to get these thoughts processed soon before too much time gets by and I forget how they are connected to the doctrine of fatherhood. Essentially, the language of Holy Scripture uses fatherhood throughout to communicate the gospel and to even describe the church of the Lord Jesus. The story of redemption should rule homes. It is the work of a loving father (God the Father) to bring his children and the fatherless children into his home.
Biblical language is easily lost when society loses the imagery of fatherhood. But what happens to a land when the Lord’s people lose the imagery and language of fatherhood? If fathers don’t know how to lead their own households to the promised land how can the church of the Lord Jesus Christ expect to lead anyone to the promised land? This language of fatherhood must not be lost from the Lord’s people. And, we must not treat it as simply ‘language’, it is not wasted language.
Broken fatherhood leads to broken churches. How can broken churches reach the nations? If the church has a mandate to the nations, then fatherhood must be reclaimed.
Over a decade ago I began a long journey asking this kind of question. At the time I was still in a church as a ‘youth pastor’ and beginning to notice some uncomfortable trends among the students in our church youth group. In early 2011, the church I now pastor, Eastside Baptist Church, took a major risk and framed a formal statement, repenting before the Lord for neglecting the sufficiency of Scripture by employing a secular method of educating the children in our church when there was a clear directive in both the Old and New Testaments concerning the spiritual training of children. (Read HERE)
The National Center for Family Integrated Churches is currently conducting a national survey on the topic of church youth groups. Would you be willing to participate in this short survey? Click on the link HERE to begin the survey. For taking the survey, the NCFIC will give you a free e-book, A Weed in the Church and free movie Divided.
Share this with your pastor/elders and deacons in your church. Warning, this is not a comfortable path to begin. Your traditions and philosophy will be challenged. I argue that this journey is worth taking. It is less a journey of age-integration and more a journey of the sufficiency of Scripture.
In just a few short days, the men of Eastside Baptist Church will gather with other men in the region to seek the face of God to help them answer an important need in our day, godly fathers.
“All is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down” this weekend. Unless the Spirit of God visits us in our hour of need we will have gathered in vain.
“Brethren, pray, and holy manna will be showered all around.”
What ever happened to the gathering of the saints called ‘the prayer meeting’?
Many (I should really say most) in the church in America would be quick to blame the downfall of America on the removal of prayer from public school. I think there are legitimate and historic parallels to how America was in general before 1963 (50 years ago) and how things are today. But what would a believer from another country think has happened to prayer at the church house if he were looking for a place and time to gather to pray tonight?
When I examine the attendance at nearly any prayer meeting in many churches, it might even appear as if freedom to gather to pray has been removed from the church house. Not from the state, not that it’s illegal, not that there is danger of attendees losing property if they show up to pray, it’s really like many professing believers have abandoned this beautiful privilege altogether and replaced it with Wednesday night school sponsored events, network and/or cable programming, or the internet forum debating the doctrines of God while we disobey His command to be devoted to prayer.
The western church has largely replaced her mid-week prayer meeting with burdensome programming that puts a strain on church budgets and performance expectations on staff members if numbers drop from the event.
If there is anything that is most alarming to me since the supreme court abolished state sponsored prayer in 1963 is that the church has exchanged the power of God for a fan powered bounce house.
Did you hear what I just said? Not about the bounce house; What evangelical Christian would want a state sponsored prayer anyway? Isn’t that part of why America became America, so we would not be forced to participate in state sponsored religion?
Don’t get me wrong; it is a tragedy that the American public rarely humbles themselves for prayer. That 1963 supreme court ruling has been a battleground issue for many conservative Americans while at the same time the church house began hearing crickets during the prayer meetings of the free church.
American Christians have forgotten to anticipate God’s pouring out of His Spirit among us. He may just decide to pour out His Spirit tonight for the last time in our land… You don’t want to miss that, do you?
Oh, if only God’s people would humble themselves…
The Master’s Plan for Fatherhood conference is just over two weeks away. Call today for more information or register here.
Eastside Baptist Church
204 Eastland Drive North
Twin Falls, ID, 83301
208-734-7041
