What I have Learned at PRBC!

March marks my anniversary at Pea Ridge Baptist. I just completed my eighth year as pastor of this wonderful congregation. What an incredible journey it has been for me and my family. I have enjoyed serving the people and love bing part of God’s work through you and this community. As I have reflected on my time here as pastor, I have learned many lessons. I am a different person today than when I began my ministry here. Let me share some of the things I have learned.

1. Reading God’s Word for my growth in essential. Many times it is easy to just read for study and preparation for sermons, etc. I must read God’s Word for my OWN spiritual growth. I have grown more in my personal relationship with God in the past 4 years and it is so refreshing.

2. Evangelism is a part of everything I do. There is never a time when I stop sharing the love of Christ with those around me. Every sermon I preach, every visit I make, every step that I take is an opportunity to tell about God’s love for me.

3. Growth as a disciple is hard to measure. While our mission and vision as a church is to “make disciples”, it can be a very difficult process to measure. It is not in numbers, but in the depth of commitment of the individual believer.

4. Change is inevitable. One of the things that I have been reflecting on is the change that comes naturally in the church or in any organization. New people come in, others leave, systems change, demands are different, the economy fluctuates, knowledge of scripture and God’s will are deepened in the individual and congregation…things don’t stay the same. This has actually been very freeing. When we realize that things change, it demand that we need our eyes fixed on the purpose rather than the process. Sure process is important, but being open to God’s plan for our lives and our church must never take a back sit to the “way to do things”. Traditions are no longer kept for sake of keeping, but we are challenged every day to live and serve in a way that is pleasing to God.

5. One church can have an impact in the world! This has been lived out through our partnership with Hope Church in Ryazan, Russia. I have been so blessed in this partnership and I have seen how we can join hands with a church in another part of the world and have a tremendous impact for Jesus Christ. My involvement with the Russia Mission Partnership since 2001 has changed the way I look at the global church. God is doing amazing work in the world and we are so privileged to be part of His work. This year, we will be sending mission teams to Costa Rica (July 2011) and Russia (Dec. 2011…details soon). With the ease of global travel, easy translation on the internet and services like Skype, we are able to keep in contact with our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world. These relationship that form are wonderful and will encourage our lives on a day to day basis. In addition to our personal work in places like Russia, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic (July 2009), we are been supporting the work of through missionaries in Bolivia, Japan, India and more. What a joy to be part of God’s work in the world!

6. God meets our financial needs. I have been blow away to see the generosity from my church family. We have taken HUGE steps of faith through our annual budget and even through over an above giving and God has always provide. It is good to see the people of God respond to help accomplish His work through the ministry of PRBC.

7. Leadership is more caught than taught. I know that we have leaders in this congregation and I many of you stepping up. And the I see you stepping up, the more people I see getting involved. BEING the leader that God wants me to be and you to be will ultimately mean that others will follow you. We are called to be God’s worker for His kingdom…carrying out the ministry He has called us to do. Ephesians 2: 10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” What I high calling we have as leaders!

8. Relationship are key to a healthy church. Our relationship with God is the most important. Our spiritual life begins with God, but I believe it is hard to be a Christian lone. We need other people, so the relationships with have with are vital to our Christian lives. When we live in relationship with others, we have systems of accountability that begin to emerge. And when I am held accountable to how I live my Christian life, I am more apt to grow and be stronger as a result. Relationships with new people in our church are also very important. I believe that people are really desperate for quality, purposeful, meaningful relationships. If a person visits a church, they are probably looking for someone to connect with. That is way it is SO important that we relate on a personal level to anyone who is a guest in our church. We need each other and can do so much more together than we can do alone!

9. Reading is fun! I have read more in the past 2 years than I ever have. I have learned to enjoy a good book and love to read a variety of things. My favorite things to read are history, John Grisham novels and what I call “church books”. I have developed a great love for books and have grown in so many ways as a result of increasing my reading.

10. We must live intentionally! As an individual, I must have a commitment to live my life with intention toward God. I have responsible for my own relationship with Christ, I am responsible how I lead this church and my family. And that kind of responsibility demands that I live intentionally. I set aside time for my spiritual growth and prayer live. I spend time with my family. I have an exercise plan to keep me healthy,etc. The same is also true in the church. It is much easier to go on autopilot and just keep things running in the church for all the members, but God has called us to be salt and light…to keep a focus on evangelism and bring new people into the kingdom of God. We keep to intentionally move beyond the walls of the church and reach out in the name of Jesus Christ. We have to care about people who might be dying without Jesus and take intentional action in bring the good new to them. I love the quote from Rick Warren from his book, The Purpose Driven Life…”The church does not focus on evangelism is saying to the world you can go to hell.” We must be intentional about our relationships and ministries outside this church wall.

This list is not at all complete. It has been good to reflect on the past eight years. God is good. But let me say one more thing.

I can’t imagine being any place else! I am so confident that God has called me to be your pastor at Pea Ridge Baptist. I can’t imagine being any other place right now in my life. I am committed to helping us continue to grow as disciples and committed to reaching beyond the walls of this church a world who needs Jesus. I look forward to many more rewarding years and ministry and I can’t wait to see what lessons God will send my way in the years to come. Thanks for being committed to our Lord. Let’s keep our eyes focused on Him, let’s keep our hearts totally surrender, let’s keep our hearts tuned to the ways of God! I love you all!

Reflection on Persecution

Yesterday, my sermon was from Matthew 5: 10-12. Jesus is concluding the section of the Sermon on the Mount known as the beatitudes. This particular passage deals with persecution. I don’t know if I fully understand the ways that I am persecuted in my Christian life. In fact, I don’t think that I have even spent much time thinking about being persecuted. For the most part, my life has been relatively calm and easy going. Raised in a Christian home, I always was involved in church ministry and was very active in all the church had to offer. I was involved in a music ministry called the Continental Singers and had the privilege of leading groups of young people around the world to sing praise the Lord and invite people into a life changing relationship with Jesus Christ. This was a tremendous experience and I would trade any of it….but in these areas of life and ministry I don’t remember feeling persecuted.

I married Leigh Ann in 1989…our family has grown in the years since to include our wonderful boys. We have been in ministry at Pea Ridge Baptist for the past 8 years and I don’t think that I have thought about ways that persecution has come. Sure there have been some difficult situations and times in our family and ministry, but I have not seen them as persecution. When Paul wrote to the young pastor Timothy is said, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted“ (2 Timothy 3:12, ESV). Jesus told the disciples just before he was crucified, “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15: 20, ESV). So as I look back over my life, I am wondering if I have experienced persecution and just did not recognized it as persecution or perhaps I have not faced any at all. Either way, I am becoming keenly of whether or not there is persecution in my life.

Perhaps the greatest lesson that has come in this study and reflection on suffering and persecution is simply the truth that how I live my life really does matter. Jesus said it best: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8: 34-35, ESV). God is calling me to abandon my life to follow Him. When I do this…I will walk in the ways of God, not man…I will pursue the goals God places before me and not my own…I will seek to please God with my life and not worry about what people around me are saying. I have to rise above the temptation to “do the right things” so that people will like me and instead “do the right things in God’s eyes.” When that becomes my focus, then there will be resistance and hardship and conflict (persecution). People might wonder way I am doing certain things and acting in certain ways, but it will not matter. My focus and desire must be to please God…to be totally and complete sold out to him in every way! What a difference this will make in my life!

The Bible says, “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1 Peter 5:10-11, ESV). Since suffering and persecution are going to be part our lives, it is comforting to know that we will receive God’s strength and protection as we go. Christ himself will “restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you” in all ways for His glory and His honor. What hope and comfort these words bring to one who are will endure all kinds of suffering for the sake of the gospel!

So my objective in the days to come, live for God…completely, totally and without reserve. Give myself fully to the work of the Lord, knowing that I will receive my strength and comfort from Him and knowing I will be rewarded someday for being faithful! Praise be to God!

Watch the full sermon

Daily Provisions

I am just amazed at the provision of God for my life and my family. Too many times I don't trust in God's provision for my life. I begin to do what so many people do and trust only in themselves and what they are do to provide. I think about what I can do, how I can work and what I can create in the way of provision and they I weary myself in trying to accomplish the tasks of provision. Yes, I do have a responsibility to work and provides, but I also need to have an element of faith in as I look at my life and needs.

God will not place me in a situation without making full provision! Take the Israelites for example. God led them out of Egypt...out of the bondage of slavery and placed them in the wilderness for many years. They learned many lessons in the wilderness for those 40 years...and one was about provision. Exodus 16: 12 says:

"I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, 'At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread.
Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.'"

God heard their voice and then provided for them. Notice how the provision provided at God's timing and not theirs. It was exactly what they needed for the day and evening. Nothing more and nothing less. In fact, the scripture tells us that if they did take too many, it would spoil and be of no use to them.

What great lessons on provision...God provides exactly what we NEED, not too much and not too little. He provides WHEN we need it, and if we think we need more, there will be consequences...trouble might come if we gather with a sense of hoarding.

I am learning to DAILY rely on God's provision. This is not easy for a type a personality, but I am learning to loosen my grip and trust more in the all powerful, all knowing, all loving God.
And as provision comes, I am going to honor the one who provides. There needs to always be acknowledgment of God's gifts to us. To see these on a daily basis will only increase our ability to trust and know God WILL provide. How much freer life will be as I place my complete trust in the provision of God!

Total Commitment

Yesterday was an amazing day in Ryazan. I was privileged to preach once again at Hope Church to my Russian Church family! They truly have become a family to me. When I come into their worship, I see people I have been acquainted with for nearly ten years...I give and receive hugs from them (a universal symbol of love and acceptance)...I pray with them and we share each others hearts. Yula is a lady in the church. A couple of years ago we were told she was home bound and wanted to have communion, so I traveled to her home with Pastor Pavel and we had communion and prayed for her. It was a great time of fellowship and ministry. Yesterday, I learned that Yula's mother died just recently. I was able a talk with Yula and offer continued comfort and care. This is my family and I love them with all my heart.

The church in Russia has experienced growth in the past years, but they still are faced with many challenges. On Saturday evening I spoke with Pavel and his family about the needs of the church in Russia. They spoke of the need for youth people to connect personally with another person...allow them to see Jesus in their lives. They spoke of the need for commitment to the church and they have a very high expectation of what he means to be a member of the congregation and more important, a high expectation of what it means to be a christian. Yesterday I spoke from Luke 14: 26-27, 33.

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple...So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple."
Luke 14:26-27, 33 (ESV)

I talked about three main points that Jesus made about being a disciple...
Wholehearted Devotion to Jesus (vs. 26), Total Submission to Jesus (vs. 27), and Complete Surrender of Everything (vs. 33). As I was speaking I pondered the difference between the church in Russia and the church in America. One of the most crucial issues in the church (in my understanding) is the need to be completely committed and surrendered to Jesus. One of Pavel's daughters, Alyona said "A christian should not question whether or not they should serve God...it is our responsibility and part of our commitment in being a christian." That was a powerful statement for me to heart. As a disciple of Jesus Christ, we are to be completely devoted and surrendered to him. That is what Jesus asks of us in his statements from Luke's gospel.

It is easy to say I am a christian and to come on Sunday's and hear a message from God and then reflect on that all week...It is another thing to come to church and be filled to overflowing and spend the rest of our week "being" the person God calls us to be. Our christian lives need to be defined by our service and giving and very life...not just by our church attendance!

I am constantly challenged by my Russia brothers and sisters in Christ. What privilege to be part of this ministry and to have the opportunity to be part of God's worldwide kingdom!

Faith Giving

What an incredible day in ministry here in Ryazan, Russia! We traveled to two different cities today and met with pastors of churches...Ryazhsk with Pastor Oleg Yeponichnikov and Korablino with Pastor Dima Mikava. Both churches are very active in social ministries such as meeting needs of food and clothing and other practical expressions of love, as well as youth and children's ministry.

The highlight of the day for me was hearing from Pavel Jirov and Dima Mikava sharing the collective vision for the churches of the Ryazan Baptist Union (RBU). Let me give you some details about Ryazan. Ryazan is an called an oblast (equivalent to a state in the US) and is divided into 25 districts (or counties). There are presently 14 churches or small house groups in the RBU that meet in 9 different districts. As the church in the RBU have been coming together and doing ministry and planning as a group, they are laid a vision before the 500 members of these churches to reach the entire region of Ryazan. They are a vision to see a church or small house group in all 25 districts of Ryazan! What an incredible vision the Lord has given to them.

In order to care this out, they knew they would need the help of missionaries from other oblast of Russia or other countries. So they proposed to all the churches of the RBU to pledge faith gifts over and above their regular tithes to the church. In January 2011, they asked every church member who was interested in giving to this special ministry expansion...of the 500 members of the churches of the RBU...380 made a faith pledge in the amount of 880,000 rubles (approximately $29,000)! We were blow away by this amount and so where Pavel and Dima. They are sacrificing so much for the furtherance of the gospel here in Ryazan. Most of the people who are giving don't have much money, but they are committed to helping people in this oblast hear the gospel message. The 880,000 rubles will be enough to invite 4 families to come and begin ministry here in Ryazan. They are so excited to see the work of God among the people of Ryazan and so am I.

As I heard this...my only response was WOW and Praise the Lord! It is such a tremendous testimony of setting a God sized goal and then seeing God meet that goal. I know that they will continue to take the same steps of faith in this area and other areas of ministry.

These verses came to mind as soon as I heard this story today:

We want you to know, brothers,^£ about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own free will, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.
2 Corinthians 8:1-5 (ESV)

The people of Ryazan have places their lives first and foremost in the hands of the Lord. They want to see the kingdom of God expand and grow and they are giving sacrificially to make that happen. What a testimony!

I have been reflecting on my own steps of faith for the Lord. It is so easy to life out of my comfort zone and have the nice things I have and rely on my own strength and ability to provide...and I have to ask the question...do I live by faith? Do open up my life to what God is doing around me and see the work of God take place. I want to be a person who walks by faith and not by sight. I want to set God sized goals in my ministry and see God provide and guide and direct. I want to be part of God's work in me, through me and around me.

I guess it begins with my surrendered heart!!! With my willingness to give and live by the provision of God and nothing else. Thank you God for the reminders of how you want me to live for you!

Giving My Life

Today was my first full day in Ryazan, Russia. I am traveling with three other people...David and Jeannie Bess from First Baptist, Nitro and Jon Viller from Philippi Baptist. We are here for one week to do some training and encouragement of pastors in the region. I have been here in Ryazan most every year since 2001. What a joy to be connected to my brothers and sisters in Russia.

Today, we had lunch with Pastor Valery Severin from Novomirchurinsk. This is a small town about one and a half hours south of Ryazan. Pastor Valery has been in Novomirchurinsk for several years and has been working to make good connections with leaders in the community. Doing this gives him much credibility and stability in the work of ministry. I listened to his story of their ministry and marveled at all that they can do with so little resources. He spoke of there needs and wants in the ministry and he also spoke of God's constant provision for their needs. They are trusting God to provide what they need.

As I listened I couldn't help to think that we have the opposite problem in the United States. We tend to lean too much on our resources of money and programs, etc. and get lazy in our approach to ministry. We have to learn to give away and put away what can be a distraction and learn to trust and depend only on God. When you boil to down, we both must trust in God and God only in our ministry.

In the end, we both have the same resources...the Holy Spirit that lives and moves in our lives and our very lives. We are called as believers in Jesus Christ to give our very lives for the gospel. No matter where we live....what language we speak...we are called to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ through our lives.

The Apostle Paul wrote:

There is one body and one Spirit—
just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all,
who is over all and through all and in all.
Ephesians 4:4-6 (ESV)

I am compelled by our God...encouraged by the example of our brothers in sisters in Ryazan and energized by the presence of the Holy Spirit to continue in giving my life to the Lord's work.
What a joy to serve my God in this world. Thanks for your prayers for our continued safety and fruitful ministry here in Russia.

The Master Plan of Evangelism

I am reading a book entitle The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman. This has been a wonderful study of the ministry and evangelism approach of Jesus. One of the ideas that has really stood out to me is the personal investment that Jesus made in the lives of the twelve disciples. He invested a great amount of time with them, being an example to them and instructing them on the ways of the kingdom. He said with conviction and passion, "I am the way, the truth and the life; and no one comes to the Father but through me" (see John 14: 6).

As a pastor, I am constantly looking for ways to better equip the church to do the work of ministry. I am bombarded with so many programs and studies on all topics, including evangelism. Each one promises to help bring people into the kingdom of God. I know that many have proven to be effective in leading people to Christ and for that I am grateful. But the church does not need another program. Jesus, and the disciples after Him, did not have a program…they gave of themselves. They took their experience with Jesus and introduced people to the kingdom of God.

As I have studied the early church in the book of Acts, I have noticed the same thing. They didn’t have a program or tool they used…they were the tool that God used to introduce people to Jesus Christ. And it did not stop with evangelism…it continued in the lives of new believers in Jesus Christ as they began to mature as Christians. Coleman writes:

“There is a lot of talk in the church about evangelism and Christian nurture, but little concern for personal association when it becomes evident that such work involves the sacrifice of personal indulgence. Of course most churches insist on bringing new members through some kind of a confirmation class which usually meets an hour a week for a month or so. But the rest of the time the young convert has no contact with a definite Christian training program, except as he or she may attend the worship services of the church and the Sunday school. Unless new Christians, if indeed they are saved, have parents or friends who will fill the gap in a real way, they are left entirely on their own to find the solutions to innumerable practical problems confronting their lives, any one of which could mean disaster to their new faith. “

The Master Plan of Evangelism, Robert Coleman

I have really been convicted by this simple understanding. I don’t need anything new…I don’t need a program…I just need to make myself available to share my story, my testimony, my experience in Christ with those around me. Beyond introducing them to Christ, I must help them to grow in Christ. I must be intentional in how I disciple people.

I don’t know about you, but I am at a point in my life where I want to do the important things for the Lord. I don’t want to waste any more time…I want to pour my life into my family and others around me to make an impact on the Kingdom of God.