Austin Gardner

Church Still Works, An In-Depth Study of the Practices and Potential of Twenty-first Century Local Churches

I just finished this book by Paul Chappell and Clayton Reed. I found the book well worth your time to read it.

I read the book because Trent Cornwell encouraged me to do so. I enjoyed the material they gathered from the survey. I got help from the material presented that I could personally apply to our church, Vision Baptist. I was encouraged to see the spirit the book conveyed. There was a spirit of fellowship and working together that can be unusual in books by independent Baptists.

I love the emphasis on discipleship and church planting. We are definitely in a needy time in our country and the world. Maybe one of the most surprising findings was that the USA is now one of the most populous countries in need of evangelism. “Only China, India, and Indonesia have larger non-churched populations!”

You can get this book here and on the kindle here!

I just received the following email from Mark Coffey:

I just talked to Matt Allen on the phone and he wanted me to let you know that they got their Visas.  The PNG lady at the embassy didn’t want to go into the office on Black Friday so she went in last night (Thanksgiving) and to see if she received the email for approval.  It came through.  She shipped the passports with the Visas by FedEx this morning and it should be to his house on Saturday.

I am so thankful that God worked in this situation and it appears that the Matt Allen will be on the field on time. I will miss him here in the states and his heart to get people to the field.

I pray that others will rise up that will challenge young men and women to go to the mission field. Please continue to pray for the Allens.

I am studying, praying and preparing for Sunday at Vision. I love the Word of God. I love the opportunity that God has given me to preach and teach His book. This Sunday morning we will be in the last part of Ephesians. We will be learning about prayer. God has blessed us with the opportunity to come into His presence in prayer. You will love the wonderful truths that you are going to learn this Sunday.

Then Sunday evening we will have our Quarterly Youth led service. It will be exciting. Pastor Trent always does a great job and our young people are excited and looking forward to this opportunity.

Starting this Tuesday I am going to try to give out at least a thousand invitations a week in the surrounding neighborhood so if you have time we would love to have you help us get out the invitations to Vision.

I can’t wait to see what God is going to do in and through Vision before the end of the year!