Troubled

I really am in a strange frame of mind today. Church members are falling back into thier old life styles and it appears that nothing I say or do seems to matter. Things have gotten so bad that I have considered calling for the churches disolution but evrytime I think about that or pray about it I get no response in the affirmative from God so I keep hanging in and trusting that God, at least, knows what he is doing even if I don't.

One thing that has me very puzzled is the total lack of response not just from my church but also from all who visit this blog, my website, and my message board. Sometimes it feels like I am a pastor cut-off and completely alone because no pastor, church or even christian brothers and sisters say anything or show any concern about this or any other small church that is in trouble. This kind of burden is very draining both spiritually and emotionally.

Then just when it seems I cannot go any farther I meet a catholic builder who says he will help because it is a house for God. Then I meet another pastor that says he will bring his menfolk over whenever we are ready and they will also help. Now how can this be if God had really decided to close this little church? What is happening when people that could solve this problem overnight are silent while those with almost nothing are willing to commit what they do have?

God in heaven I pray for understanding and guidance. I pray that your will be done to bring honor and glory to your name. And God, I ask for forgiveness where we have failed you and strength to continue in your calling. In the name of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ your Son I pray... Amen...

God's Blessings

The vacation I took a few weeks ago was a real blessing from God. See, when I made the commitment to leave the job and church behind I knew I would be losing money every day I was gone. Still, I had to do something to relax or I would have ended up in the hospital, or worse. So my wife and I went to Florida and had a great time for almost two weeks. When I returned I found the church was still here and so was my secular job. New Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church as a group had been praying for my wife and I the entire time we were gone for God to make a way for us to afford the fall out of zero-income from the trip. My God has made a way, our utilities were less than half what they normally are and the repairs we had to have done were paid for my someone else "just because."

This past Sunday I was very suprised to see Sister Mosley, a 83 year old widow who has been sick for almost 5 years, walk into the church under her own power. This is truely an answer to prayer and a wonderful blessing from God.

Resting Time

And he said unto them, Come ye yourselfs apart into a desert place and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. - Mark 6:31

In Luke 9 we are shown where Jesus sent the twelve apostles out by themselves to do the work he had given them. I don't know how long they were gone but when they got back they wanted to share everything they had done and taught with Jesus. Now in this scripture Jesus doesn't start but correcting their teaching or telling them what a good job they did, he tells them to withdraw from the work for a while. They may not have known it but they needed a chance to get away from everything. Maybe Peter thought about fishing but Jesus said go into a desert place, get a real change of scenery, take time to be alone with God and think about it, sometimes God wants time alone with you!

It was with thoughts like these that I finally decided to take my first vacation in over four years. God has blessed me and kept me safe but I was getting so worn down with secular work, house work and church work that I had lost my joy in living. This "worn down" feeling is not good for anyone but I believe it is really bad when it happens to a pastor. My wife set all the plans for my vacation and for eleven days we had a wonderful time playing all over the state of Florida.

Blessed Assurance

Since April things have been like a roller coaster both at home and with the ministry. At home I find appliances like my AC and refrigerator breaking down. They are under warranty so it mainly comes down to a major annoyance more than anything else. I was very happy to get at least one of my lawn-mowers working again though since it was starting to look like a jungle had invaded the lawn:)

At the church the contractor we hired to build the new study and porch really messed up and built the supporting walls over two feet away from where the plans call for! After several attempts to get him to fix his mistake we finally ended up dismissing him and hired a couple of people to correct his mistakes. The re-build took all the money we had to get the job done so now we have walls and door opening but no joists and no roof so its back to fund-raising.

I was very happy though to meet a young man that has volunteered to take care of the church grounds for us. That is a big load off my mind since we have had no one to do the yard work for months now. I am also happy to see some people are starting to use our message board. Last on the blessings side this month we have picked up the support of two new companies that are helping us with our recycling project (so far this year we have managed to make over $150 from this source).

Even with all the troubles we have seen over this past month I fell a blessed assurance in my spirit and know that we (It's The Bible, New Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church and all who support us) are still in the will of God and doing what he would want us to do.

It's The Bible Church Work

It's The Bible is attempting to follow the word of the LORD:

Hag 1:7 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.
Hag 1:8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD.
Hag 1:9 Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.

This is not as easy as it sounds! Consider our first project which is the restoration of a 60 year old church that has been destroyed by fire and vandalized over a dozen times. Can you imagine the struggle of christian brothers and sisters making less than $10k per year as they work to even collect materials to restore this church? Some ask why and all I can do is point to the Bible, God said to do this, Elijah did it, Haggai did it, James, John and Paul did it and so we can but try and follow their example. It does get hard though when we attempt to do even little things sometimes. For example, we have four lawn-mowers that we use to take care of the church grounds in need. Now just consider how it must feel when a christian brother says he will help a church and mow their grass for them only to have ALL FOUR lawnmowers break down before even getting a chance to start! Please pray for us...

The dog did it!

One of the challenges a bi-vocational pastor faces is finding time to visit not just the members of his church but other people in the community he serves. This week I had a strange idea and instead of washing my van I wrote the website address on it hahaha. I really didn't expect to much but I have received several positive remarks on it instead of the usual "wash the ....". One comment came from a young mother of four who lives less than 5 blocks from the church, she doesn't like being so out of place in the big church she is in now and said she may drop by for a visit. What really encouraged me the most though was this little dog that ran up to me while I was at the church checking the mail. A family of six showed up looking for this little dog and asked if we were rebuilding the church. Well you know I said yes, we really hope to get the sanctuary finished by Christmas but it takes money... the family was very nice and they live just 3 blocks away. Just imagine, if the little dog had not come by it would have been months before I made it by for a visit and they would not have seen what God is doing just around the corner from their home!

Worship with a hammer!

Sunday when we came to church we found out that two of the new walls and all but one of the new roof rafters had been blown down by the 50+ mph winds of this past Saturday! Well you know we couldn't leave things like that, it is way to dangerous for not only our children but for other people in the community. So first we tried calling the contractor but found out he had hurt his arm on another job so that left three men attending church (myself and two visitors) to try and fix it. The ladies sang songs of encouragement and we used ropes and crowbars to pull the walls back into place. Once that was done we had prayer and then nailed some crossbraceing to the walls to hold things in place till our contractor can get someone over and make sure everything is ok before attempting to move the new roof rafters into place. Now I had planned a very different service for Palm Sunday but you know what, sometimes God really does want us to worship him with a hammer in our hands:)