Doing Everything to the Glory of God....

Most of the time when I put a link on my blog for you to go read, I will speak at length about it right here in my blog. But in truth, about the only thing I could do to this is mess it up. A week or so ago on a Wednesday night I referred to the Psalmist in Psalm 118 and how he made a decision - whether he was in difficulty or triumph, he was going to bring honor to God. I mentioned to you the article John Piper wrote about “Drinking Orange Juice To The Glory Of God.” I want to encourage you to read this short piece and I hope it spurs you as it has spurred me try with all our heart to do all we do for His glory alone!

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Articles/ByDate/1986/1489_How_To_Drink_Orange_Juice_to_the_Glory_of_God/

Correction to Previous Post

Please note the correction in the previous post - Bro. Jon Rushing will be presented to the body formally on June 7th.

Excited About The Rushing Family!

The first conversation I had with Bro. Jon Rushing was on the phone and we really discussed very little about music. We discussed books, authors we liked, our passion for the church and I will tell you, that at least on my part there was incredible excitement! After spending many more hours with he and his wife Suzanne, I saw something greater. I saw a man who had a heart to grow his family, a man who wanted to disciple other believers, I saw a man who loved the church. That is what I wanted above all else! From 2005-2008 Bro. Jon served at Two Rivers Baptist Church in Nashville, TN where he led in worship, led the choir and praise teams, as well as composing the music and lyrics of the Two Rivers Passion Play - but all those musical accomplishments paled in comparison to the passion Bro. Jon had for the local church! Every reference I called had something to say about his character and consistency. We have had some very good men lead us in worship, we have had some men who were certainly qualified to fill our position of Worship Pastor, but I must confess to you that Bro. Jon, went above and beyond what I knew we needed at Trinity.

By the time you read this the choir will know about Bro. Jon… the Personnel Team, Finance Team and our Deacons would have all heard Bro. Jon’s passion, testimony and love for our Lord. We will present him June 7th to be voted on by us as a body. What we are facing as a church, I pray will be a rarity, but with the number of new staff that have come in recently along with some that are on the horizon, we should be experts at loving them in and making them feel at home. Jon and Suzanne may feel at home very quickly but they have two boys (4 and 8)who will need our children to reach out and get to know them. They are moving away from grandparents just as our boys did and just as Bro. Jeff Summers' kids did - trust me they need boys and girls to be buddies but they need some of our older saints to be “fill in grandparents” - many of you are very good at that!

In closing I ask you to be in prayer for their house to sell (we have several members on our staff who have that need right now – hint, hint!), be in prayer for our choir and our congregation that the Lord will allow Bro. Jon’s family to bless us, and for Trinity to be a blessing to him. The best advice I can give - I have already given. Don’t do anything different than you have done with my family and Summers’ family - just love them in, show them your heart, and I can tell you from personal experience it will be impossible for him not to pour his life into Trinity. Thank you for your prayers, and encouragement during this process, you have been a great blessing to me!

Never Again....

"Never Again..." I uttered this statement when I sat back and looked at my calendar when we discussed cancelling evening services on Mother’s Day and Memorial Day… I was told that it is what had been done in the past. While some of you thought that maybe I was “going easy on you” and other such touchy-feeling stuff - I went ahead and did this simply because I felt this Heavenly Home series was so crucial for our families (especially our young families) to feed on. In truth, it is usually our young families that will travel on these days. So don’t get your hopes up of this happening again – enjoy it while you can! (smile)

While, there is nothing wrong with changing our schedule at times, I would submit for Trinity and where God is taking us, that there is not a service more crucial that Sunday nights. On Sunday mornings we have a great number of guests - on Wednesday nights we are spread out all over the campus - but Sunday night… that is the one true family time we have as a church. You at Trinity have caught this, we have almost tripled in our attendance on Sunday evening and that is outstanding! This is going to be the glue that holds our church body together through the years. We are not on a time schedule on Sunday evenings as we are on Sunday mornings and therefore some of our greatest worship as we study and as we sing will be on Sunday nights. Several of you have shared that you missed it when we didn’t have Sunday evening service on Mother’s Day (maybe just buttering up your pastor? Nahh…) so while there may be times we shift things around because of certain events, we will not be cancelling family nights too often. So be here this Sunday morning and expect God to move in a great way as we worship in Spirit and in Truth and then we will resume family nights next Sunday night with a GREAT worship service with Bro. Jon and Suzanne Rushing in a mini-concert before I preach.

Just as a note: on June 14th we will have our Sunday evening service at a very special time in order for us to have a big Vacation Bible School celebration. So come ready to worship, ready to sing, ready to celebrate! I will see you then.

As You Pray

God has richly blessed us at Trinity - our Sunday night resurgence has been nothing short of spectacular, we have people that are reading, book clubs that are starting up on their own from our “Pastor’s Picks Table” and, just before writing this Bro. Brian informed me that we are 134 people higher in attendance on Sunday morning than we were a year ago! All of this is incredibly good… but our goal is not numbers (although we can rejoice in that), our goal is not even to have a reading congregation (although, I am more excited about that than even our attendance numbers!). What I am most excited about is the number of people I have seen praying with one another, going to the altar to get things right with God, spending time in prayer over our Church (for instance -coming beside me as a man did last week to just pray with me before service began). I have watched as the number going out on outreach has increased. The prayer, the witnessing, the obvious hunger to read the Word and serious Christian books; this is all growth! If we have growth spiritually, it is God who will grow His church.

All of this to say - we have some staff changes soon. Bro. Jeff Philips will be preparing to go to Vancouver, Bro. A.C will be “going off” our staff officially, but will remain at Trinity as he prepares for mission work. As things change like this, be excited for Trinity and for these men as they prepare to carry the Gospel throughout the world. Please remember these men, our remaining staff and future staff as you pray! Let me just give you some specific areas where we covet your prayers:

1. Pray Psalm 119:36. Pray that the Lord will incline our hearts towards His Word. Not simply that we will study it but that our hearts will not become entrapped by other things, but that we will be arrested by the Word of God.
2. Pray Psalm 86:11 Pray our hearts as a staff will be united towards God and never towards personal agendas. Nothing can do as much damage to a church as a divided staff.
3. Pray Matthew 26:41. Pray for our purity - it is crucial that not only our bodies be pure but also our minds. When our minds our defiled it will dull spiritual insight. Pray that we will love our wife as Christ loved the Church. Pray that our children will walk with God.
4. Pray Acts 18:9-10 That we will boldly witness, that we look for opportunities to carry forth the Gospel in Southaven, and unto the utter most parts of the earth.

I suppose I could write one hundred ways to pray for us - but we will covet your time spent interceding for these things specifically. Thank you for loving us the way you have, thank you for allowing me the honor of being your Pastor. Know that I am praying for us as a Church and that our individuals and families will be strengthened.

With Love For You In Christ,
Bro. Chad

What To Look For In A College

Well, it may be a little late for our upcoming graduates as many of them have already chosen a college…but my prayer is by God’s wonderful providence He will put you in a place like I am going to discuss right here. If what we are doing every Sunday as we worship is really the most important thing in life, if Christ is truly number one, shouldn’t He be the determining factor as to where we go to college? Now, how do we determine this? Is it a feeling? Is it just some “inner peace” - not much different than the New Agers speak of? Is it that you just “know” when you walk on the campus? My answer to all of those questions is a resounding “NO!” As parents it is our responsibility to help our children, regardless of their age, turn towards the Word of God to find their answers. There is no place in our lives that is more important to our spiritual growth than the church we attend. Previously on this blog, we have looked point by point at Mark Devers’ book “What Is A Healthy Church.” I would challenge you, if you are looking at a college to make your determination based on a healthy church. If you go to a college town without a strong church and you are getting a continual dose of (as one dear friend puts it) “Babylonian Religion”, is it any wonder so many students leave the church during their college years? We all know the statistics, we have all heard how many college students fall out of church - why? I believe we all share in the blame. Pastors have been too intimidated to speak frankly about this… parents, while many of them are paying for the education, somehow have been made to feel that if their child doesn’t get in this particular school they may be doomed to failure. I want all of us to remember that just because your child has a degree doesn’t mean he will be successful. We must biblically define success for them! We must explain that no matter what they do, they must be passionate about it bringing glory to God. If we teach them by telling them, and by living out before them, that the greatest thing we can do is find our satisfaction in Christ alone and they sincerely believe this, they will be a success. So in short, if you can stay in your healthy local church – stay. If you are moving, base your college decision on where the healthiest church is. If there is a church that teaches the Word of God verse by verse every week, a church that will hold you accountable, that practices discipline, that has small groups that you can serve with, minister with and worship with, then chose that college. As a parent we can not be good stewards sending our children to a place where there is not a strong church, and contrary to popular Baptist thought, there are not great or even good churches just anywhere you go. There may be Baptist Churches, there may be large churches, but there are not too many healthy churches. Don’t sacrifice your walk to gain a degree - you could gain a job but lose your purpose. If Christ is supreme, He is supreme even in our educational decisions. If this is a radical idea to you, you have not thought enough about our responsibility as believers. As you go, remember that Trinity will be praying for you!

Differing Gifts

Every Sunday I have been called to handle the most important thing in all the world: I am called to preach the Gospel and I am called to get it right! In June I will be starting a series entitled “Terrorist In The Church” this will be a series on the book of Jude - I am so excited to go through this wonderful little book. Jude tells about people who pretend they are genuine but are in fact imposters. One of the main reasons we have had preachers in our pulpit like Bob Pittman, Sam Cathey - and others that we will have in the days and years ahead- is that it is important to hear a message with the same theme from the same book with a different voice. God uses a variety of people and personalities in Scripture: He uses John that spends a great deal of time with tender precepts, and then Paul who comes across very strong and to the point. He uses Peter who seemed to think Paul was little too tough or complicated at times. The point is God uses men with different personality types and different styles to enhance the growth of the church. This is the reason I have encouraged you - whether it is through preaching, singing, or playing an instrument, don’t get hung up on the style, get caught up in making sure what you are hearing is truth from the Word of God. I am sometimes amazed when you hear people speak about a teacher, pastor or spouse and they say: “Well, what they did was Biblical, I just don’t like how they did it.” (This is where we must be people who have grace flowing out of us - it is our differences that can be used in the body to glorify Christ the most) What they are usually saying is: “I don’t like the style.” Just as in our family, my wife interacts much differently with our boys than do I - We have the same rules, we discipline the same way, we love them with immeasurable depth, however we speak to them, correct them, converse with them very differently. The beauty of that is that there are some things that I can say to them and they will not hear properly or they will misunderstand it… but Michele can speak the same truth, or say virtually the same thing and they “get it.” There are other times that I have to step in and talk to them in “male talk”, more direct, giving direction that all of a sudden a light turns on in their mind! They need us both desperately and God uses both of us to aid in their sanctification - and uses both of our boys to aid in ours. All of this to say…thank God for the different gifts, thank God for the different personalities and styles we have in our pulpit, in our church and in our lives! There have been times that I have needed a swift kick in the spiritual pants and God has sent “professional biblical pants kickers” in my life… there have been other times I just needed someone to pray for me and not correct me but just listen to me, and God has sent those saints also to come along beside me. The wonderful thing about the Word of God is that it can correct us, rebuke us, but it can also comfort us. Take a moment and thank God for someone who God has used in your life to exhort, rebuke or correct you. Then thank Him for the Word of God that is always there for our every need!

Lesssons From The Little Ones

Last Sunday night we had a very interesting conversation at home. One of our boys told someone about a Children’s Church surprise that he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to say (it turned out he was never asked not to tell) - but this gave us a great opportunity to talk about guarding our tongue. We live in a day where everyone has a right to let their “voice” be heard and obviously their opinion is the only one that matters. They demand to have their say and, if no one will listen they can always go to the internet where no one knows anything about them or their character (or the lack there of). They secretly sit at home with their Superman footy pajamas, while mom serves them lucky charms, and they get to watch the Star Trek marathon on the Sci-Fi Channel while wearing their “Apprentice Jedi” cap. But as the song says… “They are soooo much cooler on line.” This is done on the internet, in our homes, even in our churches. This is one of those things that we must always guard everywhere we go. Look at some of these verses: Prov. 12:23 “A prudent man conceals knowledge, But the heart of fools proclaims foolishness.” Prov. 13:3 “He who guards his mouth preserves his life, But he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.” Prov. 18:2 “A fool has no delight in understanding, But in expressing his own heart.”
We have had the joy of watching God work in a great way at Trinity, but one doesn’t have to be a scholar to understand James 3:1-12 and notice what great damage the tongue can bring. I have learned through the years of being in the ministry that many times God’s people are much more open to applying the Word of God when it is given to them as a warning rather in the midst of correction. Basically what I am saying is the best time to preach, write, or teach about a potential problem is before it comes up, so we will stand on guard against it: this is what I am calling us to do now – be on guard! As I stated in the post last week, when we call a Worship Pastor or Youth Minister everyone will have an opinion, but we must ensure that our opinion does not become a demand or “a right”, as we heard preached this past weekend. We will seek God’s man based on Biblical standards and adherence to the Word of God. Our calling as people of God is to love and worship the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind. If we love the Lord we love His people - if we love the Lord we do what Paul has called us to do and “…strive for peace....” or literally WAR FOR PEACE. So, what am I asking? I need each of us at Trinity to guard, defend and uphold our unity and peace – when you see a spark – throw water on it and not gasoline! Let’s be sure that we do not let preferences, opinions, past experiences or generalities become dividing points…

The few people I have spoken with are excited for me to announce who our Worship Pastor will be and I am excited about him also - I truly believe as we are seeing, and will be seeing that our best days are ahead of us. But we must do things God’s way and in all we do glorify Him. Once everything is in place, I will be sharing with our choir, our leadership and all of our church the wonderful, Biblical, and musical qualifications our new Minister Worship has. God is doing great things, do all you to get in on it! I love you and count it a great joy and honor to be able to be called your Pastor!