Rolling Fork Baptist Church: November 2014

Saturday, November 29, 2014

WE HAVE SO MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR AT RFBC

In spite of the green vegetables, we had a great time at last week's Thanksgiving dinner at church. It was great to hear the laughter and eat lots of good food. We truly have been blessed as a church family.

It is crucially important that we are praying for each other's needs and thanking God for our church family. We need to make the most of opportunities like last week's meal together. Sitting together and enjoying each other is how we develop stronger relationships within our church.

I would definitely encourage you to read November 5's post, YOU CAN'T OBEY THE 'ONE ANOTHER'S IF YOU ARE NOT WITH ONE ANOTHER to see the importance of being together. We truly need each other.

Another post that I would recommend to you to read is July 7 entitled DOES IT REALLY MATTER IF YOU "GO TO" CHURCH? which begins like this, "How important is your church attendance? Before you answer, let me clarify that question. I am not asking you how important your church attendance is TO YOU. Instead I am asking how important is your church attendance to God, to your family and to your church family?"

So please remember that we have been so blessed with our church family and we need to gather together on a regular basis and obey God's Word together. It not only affects us but also everyone around us. So lets' get together this Sunday. I will meet you there. Ok?

Friday, November 28, 2014

I THANK GOD FOR THOMAS NELSON'S FCA

Like you, I have so much to thankful for and Thomas Nelson High School's FCA is definitely on that list. To see these students discuss their faith in Jesus Christ and answer questions after our lessons each week really excites me.

I am very thankful for the group's atmosphere and we have some students that are always ready to share God's Word in our Wednesday morning "huddles" or meetings. Some of these students have been in our FCA for over two years now.

Casel Billings has been one of our teachers since our first year.

We also have some new folks this year who have been very active in our group as well. Although the name of the group is "Fellowship of Christian Athletes", all students are encouraged to join us each Wednesday morning.

Senior Shelby Bales

Praying during "See You At The Pole" 2014

Illustrating Galatians 6:2

Galatians 6:2 (ESV) Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

To find out more about our FCA group, visit https://www.facebook.com/tnfca and find updates and more photos.

FCA's first meeting this year

9MARKS IN MINDANAO by Matthew Spandler-Davison

Here is an recent article about our mission trips written by my friend and fellow pastor, Matthew Spandler-Davison, as shown on the 9Marks website, http://9marks.org/ [also check out the other articles and resources on the 9Marks' website to help your church become more healthy]. I invite you to read his article and imagine being there with us and seeing what we saw.

9Marks in Mindanao

"Looking down at the dusty streets, gazing into the bamboo shacks many call home, noting the bare hillside once covered by coconut trees, its baldness a chilling reminder of the relentless typhoon winds that hit these island shores – I found myself feeling insufficient to speak. Only 100 or so had gathered for this seminar; many walked, and some arrived in overcrowded jeepnies and motorbikes. The 100 consisted of pastors and pastor wives, church planters and church leaders—all from the far-flung tropical island of Mindanao. It’s an island that has been devastated by poverty, natural disaster, and militant Islam seeking to bomb the island out from the hands of the Filipino government.

I found myself asking, “What am I doing here?” Sure, a medical clinic or a food distribution would seem to make sense. But it felt utterly inadequate to come all this way to present a workshop on expositional preaching, biblical leadership, and meaningful membership.

But if I closed my eyes and listened to these men talk I might well have imagined myself in a pastor’s fellowship meeting back home: deacons publicly attacking pastors, church attendance below membership, the church refusing to act when a worship leader moves in with his girlfriend, church splits over the pastor’s pay, an anemic diet of topical sermons. Poor church health is an epidemic that is not contained by borders. It is a contagion that even the unlikeliest of places has been infected with, leaving in its wake weak churches, false converts, distressed pastors, and a poor witness.

For three days, myself and Bruce Nichols, a fellow pastor from Kentucky, led a workshop introducing the 9 Marks of a Healthy Church. And what I found were some of the most appreciative and humble pastors I had ever met. I was reminded that the nine marks are universally applicable and timeless. Just as they were applicable in first-century Jerusalem, they are applicable in rural Kentucky and tropical Mindanao.

These pastors on this troubled island were hearing these truths for the first time. For many years, they have been acting within a church paradigm taught by missionaries fifty years ago. The gospel took root—but so did unhealthy church polity.

A strong gospel witness is the greatest and most urgent need no matter where we are. There is a place for crisis intervention during times of disaster, and there is an ongoing need to feed the poor and build homes for the displaced.

That said, the work of building healthy churches helps to create real change that will not be destroyed when the winds start blowing again and the storm surge returns. We must not underestimate the power of healthy churches to bring about real transformation. It is to the cross we cling, so building healthy, gospel-centered churches that display the glory of Christ to the perishing is itself a mission of mercy.

I left the island struck by many sights and sounds and smells, but none more striking than the beauty of the church. There were moments—I’m afraid to admit—that their voracious appetite for gospel truth, their humility, and their passionate worship felt as foreign to me as their food and language. As one battle weary pastor in his seventies asked at the close of the workshop, “Why have we not heard this before? We have been victims of bad church government, but it is all we have ever known to do.”

Pray for the health of the churches on Mindanao Island. Pray for their pastors living in extreme poverty and with little training. Pray for the witness of the church as they seek to proclaim the gospel against a backdrop of militant Islam, indigenous cults, syncretistic Catholicism, and the prosperity gospel, which gets beamed in through their TV stations. Pray for healthy churches."

Our conference in Cateel

Our conference at Aloha

[I am very thankful for Matthew's partnership and encouragement throughout these trips. Please pray for us as we prepare for the spring conferences. Thank you.]

TAKING THE GOSPEL TO ASIA AGAIN SOON

I am often asked why we keep going back to the Philippines each and there are several answers to that question such as an on-going partnership with Pastor Joe Fernandez and his family. Another reason would be because of the location of the Philippines since they are centrally located in South Asia. By teaching them the gospel of Jesus Christ, they can spread out to the countries around them and teach them. One more reason that I want to make at this time is the fact that they are very supportive of us coming over to their country and teaching them church leadership and theology.

Paul said in Romans 1:15a (ESV) "So I am eager to preach the gospel to you..." which is another reason why we keep going back to the Philippines. To make sure that they are hearing the real gospel of Jesus Christ instead of a prosperity gospel or something else. We focused on teaching what the gospel is on my first trip as shown in the photos below.

Teaching pastors at Mt. Carmel

Pastor Joe Fernandez interpreting for me

Each time we go over, at some point we will be teaching what is the gospel and what is not. Paul continues in Romans 1:16-17 (ESV) For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Edmund Ytac interpreting for me at Seaside Baptist Church during my third trip

In the passage from Romans above, Paul said that he was not ashamed of the gospel because it was and still is the power of God to bring forth salvation to everyone who believes and puts their trust in Jesus Christ. There are four thoughts I want you to see in those verses.

1. The word "power" is the driving force of the gospel. The gospel is powerful. More powerful than anything else. What else do you know has the power to take a sinful man and recreate him in a new creation that is in right standing with God?

2. The word "salvation" is the purpose of the gospel. "In the New Testament [salvation] is specially used with reference to the great deliverance from the guilt and the pollution of sin wrought out by Jesus Christ". Easton's Illustrated Dictionary

3. The phrase "everyone who believes" is the target of the gospel. The aim of the gospel is to penetrate the hearts of those who are lost and become the new creations as shown in #1.

4. The word "righteousness" is the result of the gospel. Those who believe and put their trust in Jesus Christ are made righteous, which means they are in right standing with God. Their sins are forgiven and they are His children.

In just a few months, we will be taking the gospel to Asia once again. I don't know who all is going yet, but I do know there is so much work to do. I am very thankful for everyone who has helped us raise funds in the past and I hope to have a great response from people like you again this time. There are two easy ways that you can help us financially...

1. If you wish to send us a check of any amount, you can mail it out to Rolling Fork Baptist Church and send it to 615 Rolling Fork Church Rd, Boston, KY 40107.

2. If you would like to use your debit or credit card, please visit our fund-raising page, http://www.gofundme.com/hmd2p8 and make your donation.

I want to thank you in advance for your prayers and your financial gifts. It means a great deal to see my friends and family take part in this evangelistic effort.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

IF YOU LOVE KIDS, CHECK THESE OUT

Here are some of the kids that gathered the night that I preached the first outdoor meeting of our last trip. After the service, we had porridge for the kids and as you can see, they were quite happy with that.

I saw this little guy at another street revival we did. Watch the video and see if you can move like that!

Umbrella Man sitting in my lap. He was pretending that his binoculars was a camera and he was 'taking pictures' like me.

Some more kids posing during the street revivals

These children live in a remote area outside of Cateel.

When was the last time you rode a water buffalo through town?

Or rode a motorcycle with 5 people on it?

Darlene loving on one of the babies from the medical camp.

Sue and Judy surrounded by kids and a Filipino soldier.

I may not speak their language yet, but high fives and hugs are universal languages, it seems.

In this last photo, I am using these children to illustrate an important lesson. What is that important lesson?

The lesson is very simple. None of these little children are married yet. None of these little children can drive yet. Why? Because they are little kids. Grown-ups get married and drive. The same is true with Christianity. We start out as babes in Christ and we are supposed to grow up to be like Christ.

1 Peter 2:2 (ESV) Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—

Hebrews 5:12 (ESV) For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

This is where you and I come in. Ever since my first trip to the Philippines under the leadership of Greg Cochran, I have felt a strong calling to work through our Nelson Baptist Association to train Filipino pastors and help develop strong biblical churches. Churches that will preach and teach the one true gospel to these kids and their families.

There are many churches in the Philippines that are not preaching the one true gospel. In addition to those who are teaching the Muslim faith, you will find churches that are teaching a prosperity gospel or other false gospels. The next trip, which will be in the spring, will be my fifth trip since the beginning of 2011. We are partnering with Pastor Joe Fernandez and his family to cover as many different areas of the Philippines as we can. And we need your help.

Your part may or may not be to go with us but any of you can help us by making a donation of any size to our fund raising campaign for these mission trips. If you wish to use a debit card or credit card, you can visit http://www.gofundme.com/hmd2p8 which is a secure sight that has an "A" rating with the Better Business Bureau. If you are wanting to make a donation using a check, please make it out to Rolling Fork Baptist Church and send it to 615 Rolling Fork Church RD, Boston, KY 40107.

Please share this information with your friends. The more funds we raise, the more we can do for our Filipino friends.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

SO THANKFUL FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO SERVE IN THE MINISTRY

In November of 1995, I came home from work and told my wife, Rhonda (posing for me in the pic above), that I was convinced that God was calling us to begin a new church in Russellville, KY. After much prayer and discussion, she was convinced that we needed to start this work in our garage so after days of cleaning it out, we began to paint it and you see the finished product above. The "Bible stand" (as my friend, Marvin Stratton called it) and the folding chairs were donated by Marvin and his church family. We had our first service the last Sunday in December of 1995.

I am very thankful to be used as a preacher, teacher, pastor, and worship leader for the last 20 years. I know that I am not worthy of such a calling and I also know that every good thing that has taken place in my years of service is because God enabled me to take part in His work.

We began serving the Rolling Fork Baptist Church's family in January of 1999. Above is our float for the Iron Horse Festival that year. Here are some photos for you throughout the years...