Monday, April 5, 2010

The Legacy That Will Be Left....

The Legacy That Will Be Left....through Family Worship and Financial Freedom!!

We have stressed the importance and biblical responsibility of having family worship, so we have tried to make numerous resources available to you on our book table on a regular basis. One of the greatest joys I have had as your Pastor is to watch so many of you begin leading your family in a time of worship at your home…but some of you have had questions as to what this looks like at my house or the houses of some of our staff. So, beginning Thursday I, along with each of our staff members, will blog about how this is conducted in our homes. We figured it would be easier to tell you how we do things – rather than just trying to instruct - and then you can see that there is not set pattern, length of time or particular way we conduct this. You will also find that we have some of the same struggles you have in doing this! I hope this will encourage, enlighten, and enhance the time you spend with your family around the Word of God. I also want to tell you what a joy it is to have a staff that opens the “curtains” of their home so you can learn from their triumphs and mistakes. This is the beauty of the Church, and the part of the joy of our sanctification and our journey together.

Last but not least, I want to take a moment (in case you have been under a rock, or sick, or out of town), to let you know that Trinity Baptist Church has a great deal to celebrate! On Sunday, March 28th our Church Body committed over 1.1 million dollars to our debt retirement campaign…between this amount and land that was given to the church, by the end of this campaign we could put more than 1.5 million dollars down on our debt! This will free money for Kingdom work rather than a building payment! Not only that…but, for the first time in SEVEN YEARS-(that’s right – not since 2003) we were “in the black” for the first quarter - January, February AND March! By guarding spending and through the obedient giving of His people, God has blessed us so much more than we deserve! We have seen people come to Christ and God has brought in some amazing families. The most difficult thing to do in the life of a church, or family for that matter, is to eliminate debt…but in these financial times it would seem especially difficult. Not only is it amazing that God would do this seemingly impossible task of getting people in a “financially strapped” economy to commit over $1 million to reduce debt, but to do this while maintaining operations in the black consistently is incredible. But, that is our God and what He is doing through His people. I want to encourage you that as summer approaches – STAY FAITHFUL! Continue to ask God to work in our fellowship and pray that we continue to see people brought to Christ by the power of the Gospel! It has been amazing to experience the turn around that God has done among our Body… let’s stay fixed on the Kingdom work at hand, and make a commitment not to “come off the wall” when the enemy sends Sandballat, Tobia and Geshem to us as he did Nehemiah. We must remember that God’s Kingdom work is too important to focus on the enemy… we are more than conquerors through Him. I love you and count it as one of the greatest joys of my life to be your Pastor.