Saturday, June 24, 2017

VBS Update


I think I am supposed to give a decent update on VBS.  But I am worn out from all the awesomeness and I am not quite sure what to say.  So let me leave at this for now:

36 kids gave their lives to Christ at VBS yesterday.  God rained down blessings.

Thursday, June 22, 2017


VBS is almost over.  Maybe I should wait until tomorrow to write about it.  But I can’t.  It has been an amazing 4 days.  I don’t really want it to end tomorrow.  I know, I know, the volunteers will be spent.  They have really poured it out… working on decorations, crafts, writing and performing, music, singing, dancing, telling the story, playing games, cooking and preparing snacks, registering, being in the classes with the kids, being a listening ear… what haven’t they done?

I simply do not think there is an adequate way to thank them.  What could we say or do?  The amount of time, effort, and love has blown me away.

The crazy thing is, I get to run around and be crazy and soak it all in and sing and shout and answer serious questions about Jesus.  I put in the least but I get to have the most.  What a gift.  What a church to be a part of! You give us a place.  Money. You let your pastor take about 2 weeks helping and hanging out at VBS.  And then you pour out such creative energy!  I realized this VBS that I talk a lot about how cool it is that we write our own VBS, but there is no way it can happen without so many people who are so talented and dedicated.  Jessie has done an amazing job cultivating volunteers and casting a vision with energy that WE CAN DO THIS!

Tomorrow, I get to share Jesus plainly with kids who have been immersed in the Word all week long.  Will you pray with me that hearts are ready to respond?

After VBS today, my son John, Mike Adams and Michael Crouch went out and did some door to door evangelism before it rained.  Mike caught a huge bass when he was done visiting houses, while he waited for me and Michael.  We had a divine appointment… I’ll write about it later… but can you imagine? VBS and door to door evangelism in one day?

Thursday, June 15, 2017

Rollin With The Syndicate


I’d like to tell you about a great time we had today.  A few weeks ago, my evangelism study group decided to get out of the books and hit the streets.  We were looking to do some evangelism in ways that could really benefit our ministries, help hold each other accountable, and just make sure that we were really getting after it.

So we are making a circuit of our towns—Frenchburg, Salyersville, Morehead, and Camargo.  7 of us hit Salyersville—me, my son John, Mike Adams, Taylor Wilson, Jacob Wilson, Matt Ellis, and Andrew Donner, the pastor of Salyersville.

We met for breakfast and then we hit a neighborhood behind the parsonage.  With 7 of us, we really made short work.  Matt Ellis and I worked a section, and it was a good day, on a bunch of levels.  What ends up happening on a weekday is that you find a lot of people not home, and that’s ok… because part of what you are doing is getting the word out about your church and its services.  You can come back later of an evening or weekend and catch them at home, and they have already had some contact.

But you also find some people at home.  Three visits stick out.  We met a woman from the Church of Christ.  She was very happy that we were out talking to people about Jesus.  I find that happens quite a bit—Christians are happy to bless you in the work.  And I hope they are inspired to give it a try, to get out there and witness!

We walked up to a guy reading on a porch.  We saw pretty quick he had a Bible and a commentary out.  He is a Baptist Sunday School teacher, very committed to building up a small church in the country.  We had a good laugh because he thought we were Mormons. “Never been so glad to see some Methodists,” he said.  He offered us some cold water bottles.  It was getting hot.  He had a horse in his front yard.  It grazes a little in his yard then goes up to a cousin’s house and then to another house before it goes to the barn to sleep.  Ah, life in a country town.

I have to talk up Matt Ellis a little bit.  He took most of the visits and did a great job.  He wasn’t done when we left Salyersville.  He was still witnessing at a gas station when we stopped for drinks in West Liberty!  I have to say that some good ministry happened there with Matt, too.  I was able to tell him one of the secrets of evangelism.  One of my best buds Steve McKinney, if he hears me whining or complaining asks, “have you told anyone about Jesus today?”  It’s good advice, because as soon as my feet hit the street I’m a brand new man, telling people how good Jesus is to forgive us.  I get to pray for people who have it worse than me and at any rate I realize the Lord has been pretty good to me.  There will be a lot of hard fighting, but I’ve read the back of the book and we win. Pretty soon, my grievances and resentments are gone, and even my real sorrows fade away.

The visit that was the most important: we met a guy who told us that he had been hurt badly on  the job, showed us some wicked scars from surgery, and told us he lived in constant pain.  I was immediately transported to India, where I saw so many worn out bodies and heard so many stories of healings.  Why don’t we see it?  Probably because we don’t believe it, don’t know how badly we need it.  So we prayed right there for him fervently.  I am still praying that Andrew may get to visit him and hear a marvelous testimony of healing and the power of the presence of the Lord in our suffering.

The other two teams have their own stories to tell.  I think we are going to see a lot of fruit from this thing we’re doing.  I’m calling us “The Syndicate.”  If I am dreaming, we will expand this to a big team of other pastors and lay people and we will go out and hit the streets and country roads and byways.  How cool would it be if we prayed each other up and got together with our teams in each others’ towns and just blitzed it?! If 15 or 20 people handed out 100 flyers, tracts and door hangers, praying for the needs of people and sharing the Good News of Jesus?  I might be getting close to showing a critical mass of people that door-to-door evangelism is not weird or useless.