Pastor Trent published an article on Vision News that will bring you up to date on what is going on at the church. You know that we are moving in just a couple of weeks. There is a lot to be done.
The team has been working so hard. I thank God for them. They are the greatest. For some pictures of all the fun and to read the article please click here.
I just added the following to my calendar:
February 18, 2010 Ordination Service for Missionary Mark Tolson at Vision Baptist Church
We thank God for Mark and Natasha Tolson. They will be serving as missionaries in China. I hope you will mark your calendar to be with us for this very special service.
What is ordination?
Ordination is an act of worship by which the congregation, representative of the people of God, acclaims the one being ordained as chosen and empowered by the Holy Spirit to exercise gifts for ministry within the church.
Ordination is not to a holier ministry than those given to other baptized believers.
The laying on of hands with prayer invokes God’s blessing upon the one ordained and signifies that he or she is set apart as a servant to the servants of God.
Ordination is a gift to the church as well as recognition by the church of the minister’s inward call.
In the ordination service, the church receives the ministry of Christ in its midst through the grace of the Holy Spirit in the calling of the ordinand.
Ordination for Baptists is a service of thanksgiving for God’s love revealed in the minister’s calling, a service of petition for God’s continued blessing upon the one called, and a service of submission to God’s authority revealed in the gifted one set aside for ministry.
I wrote the following on January 14, 2008 and thought it was good to remind me of my purpose again.
I thought that I might share with you some things that God is working in my heart about right now! I just made a trip to Boston and was very excited about the ministry of Arabic Bible Outreach Ministry.
The good thing about these trips for me is that when I am locked in that aluminum tube for so many hours, have no one to talk to, and no distractions I can really do some thinking. It is so easy to get off track!
I came back to the states to start a church to do more for missions than I had ever done before. It had nothing to do with thinking that other pastors weren’t great men or that they weren’t doing a great job! It was that I realized that the most important person and role in world evangelism isn’t the missionary but it is the pastor.
He decides how much to push the cause of world evangelism. He decides how many men and women to train and send off and how many to try and keep with him.
Well starting Vision Baptist Church has been and is great fun. I love it. I am having the time of my life but it is easy to let Vision get in the way of the vision! I know that I have to be a pastor. I know that there is a lot of work to do but sometimes we get so caught up in the day to day that we forget our target, lose our focus, lose our dream, and the vision grows dim!
I am just trying to stay alive. People are pulling on me and they want me to take care of the church, to not get to caught up in world evangelism–they are busy and there is so much to do. God doesn’t seem to grow the church fast enough–do you really need me to tell you more for you to see the problem that quickly comes up!
If you go to Vision News you will see that we are busy–you will even see that God is blessing! That is not the question! The question is am I staying on target?
I came back to train missionaries! Are they getting enough ministry experience? Am I focusing them on the world and what God wants them to do?
It is easy to get off target! It is easy to feel the pressure of the financial, the urgent, those near at hand! I prepare to preach each week! I pray! I talk to people and if I am not careful I will develop tunnel vision! I only see what is happening right where I am!
I get Bunker Mentality! I am just trying to stay alive, pay the bills, keep everyone happy! There is so much more–Wake up Austin! Get on target
Ahasuerus the king was an abusive husband. His story is found in the book of Esther. As we look at the abuses he committed I want to challenge you to not fall into the same abuses.
The story starts with Ahasuerus getting drunk or at least enough to be happy Esther 1:10-11. He then decides to make a spectacle of his wife, Vashti, in front of his friends. She was pretty and why not have her come and show off her beauty for the men he was partying with.
Instead of talking to his wife and taking into consideration how she felt about being paraded in front of the men the king talks to his counselors (friends, people who find it very convenient to do what they think will make the king happy). Esther 1:13
The king’s advisors begin to tell him how what Vashti has done is not only bad for the king but for the entire kingdom. They want her made an example of so that their wives will learn to obey and respect them. Esther 1:16-17
Rather than earn the love and respect of their wives these men wanted it legislated from the top down, the government was going to make a law. Esther 1:19-20
The king and his friends wanted to be honored and obeyed in both small and great matters. Esther 1:20
So the end of the matter is that men will rule in their house and every body better know it. Esther 1:22
Several thoughts come to mind.
First, some of you just might think that Betty made me write this. Others might think it is about time that I learn the lesson but that is not the point of the study.
Second, some will think that I shouldn’t undermine the authority of husbands and that I am taking the side of the ladies!
But can I say that your wife should love, honor, respect, and submit to you because you are the kind of husband that any woman would want to follow.
Embarrassing our wives in public is never right! Showing off in any way that belittles or demeans her is completely wrong.
Getting her to do what she should by command or threat is totally out of place in a godly marriage.
Discussing what to do with your wife among your buddies is ridiculous.
So there are here maybe some things that you could consider so as not to fall into the trap of an abusive husband.
The God hating world already takes pot shots at His people due to our hunger to do what He says in our families. Submission is a bad word just about any where and many of us have helped the world draw that conclusion.
Let’s be loving and kind husbands.
I just added the following to my schedule for this next year:
September 23-25 Mount Pisgah Baptist Church Spanish Ministry, Mission’s Conference, Oliver Springs, Tennessee, Pastor Adolfo Bourde
I look forward to being with this wonderful man of God.
Vision Baptist Church Baptists Committed to World Evangelism