"Church Birth Control"

Title got you didn't it, it got my attention as well.  It was an article that Ed Stetzer did for Outreach Magazine that was published in their March/April edition.  It got the article off of Ed Stetzer's Blog.

I thought it was very thought provoking, read it for youself.

"Get your church off birth control & start having babies-- churches need to birth churches," Ed Stetzer.  Below is the article:

Church Birth Control

Seems to be that churches must be on some powerful birth control. They are not reproducing. And I don't get why.

It's natural. It's normal. It's essential. And we all know how to do it. But somewhere along the way, church reproduction and multiplication became unusual or strange in North America. And I am not happy about it.

The Church is the most powerful institution in the world. Where no electricity and running water exist, you will still find a church that is planting churches. When governments grow corrupt and economies crash, the Church still stands and plants more churches. Nothing in the world and nothing in the last two millennia of history can compare to the Church. It advances best by exponential and explosive multiplying. But not here.

The Church matters. It is God's agent of change for the hopeless. It is how He delivers transformation to a hurting world. Through the Church, God unfurls the banner of mercy and announces the kingdom of grace. He has assembled the Church to tell and model the most important issue in life--how to spend all of eternity with God Himself.

God has chosen the Church to make known His multifaceted wisdom to all in authority (Eph. 3:10). Whether a power in the heavenly realm or an authority on the earth, the Church is where God rolls out His message. It is used by God to speak to the weak and the strong, the poor and the rich, the hopeful and the hopeless.

We believe in the Church not only because of what we have seen, but because of what Christ can do next. He constantly amazes us at how lives are changed through the Church.

That is why church multiplication is so vital, and why I love church planting so much. Depending on how you count, I have personally planted five. Each time I learn about a church being planted, I get ready to witness lives changed. I prepare myself to hear about cities touched by God's grace. I feel assured that entire nations will be transformed by the Gospel. Church planting is almost the most effective evangelistic strategy in the world.

What's the most effective? Church multiplication movements. When churches plant lots of other churches, our witness advances exponentially. The Gospel goes viral. We need that kind of movement today. One that cannot be controlled, confined or contained.

[Church researcher and author] Warren Bird and I have a new book coming out in May called Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers (Jossey-Bass). By our definition, a church multiplication movement happens when churches:

-Multiply at a 50 percent rate (100 churches one year become 150 the next year) -Reach 50 percent of their new people through conversion (they are reaching the lost)
-Multiply to the third generation of churches (parent, child, grandchild)

Yet I feel like a tired husband in yet another round of false labor. Everyone is talking reproduction, but not enough churches are having babies.

I hope and pray to see a church multiplication movement in North America during my lifetime. I love local churches and know that God is moving in them. But we need more churches that want to see more churches planted.

Conferences, books and articles can point the way, but only God can change the heart. We have a lot of right information, but we haven't made enough application. It will take a passion for reaching people far from God and a willingness to sacrifice for multiplication. It will even require a new kind of surrender. But I challenge you to take up the work of supporting, cheering and even boldly leading what becomes a viral church.

As Posted on www.edstetzer.com

Sunday @ Beech Street

For the past several Sunday's I have had the priviledge of baptizing a teenager.  God has been moving in our students lives and weekly we are seeing student accept Christ as their Savior and Lord.  As a result we are seeing these student follow through in Believers Baptism.  This past Sunday was no exception as I baptized one of our teenage girls that had accepted Christ.

This Sunday I also had the opportunity to preach, Pastor Craig was away preaching a revival.  I always appreciate him giving me this opportunity.  My sermon was based off of James 2:26, "Faith without works is Dead," then I used Peter walking on water to illustrate a Faith that's Alive.  If you want a Faith that is Alive you will be Called, then you must put it in Action and finally Worship Jesus.  God used the Word to draw another man to accept Jesus. 

God is doing some neat things in people's live and I'm glad to be apart of it. 

h2o live -Wed night

I finished up my series, "Becoming a Champion for God," this past Wednesday night.  I spent 3 weeks walking through David's encounter with Goliath.  It was very effective in students lives.  To conclude the series I preached on David killing Goliath and talked about how it's time to kill the Giants in your life.  So many times we sincerely want to defeat a Giant in our life, yet we do like the Israelite Army and march out to the battle lines, the Giant comes out again and we give into in and live in sin.  Why not just kill the Giant?  I ended the message by handing each student a small stone and asked them to kill their Giant with this stone.  The Spirit of God moved in and we had 4 students accept Christ and many others defeat Giants in their lives.

The stories I've heard from students since Wednesday night are simply amazing.  We were at one of the local High Schools on Thursday and several students walked up to me, pulled their small stone out of their pocket and said, "I'm killing my Giant."

I heard stories of students going home and talking with their parents about Giants in their lives that they were ready to kill.  Other students left things at the alter, some handed them into our adult leaders.  It one of those nights that students allowed God to move in their lives.  God is able to help us defeat & kill the Giants in our lives.

Adult Volunteers @ h2o

I believe one of the key to having an effective Student Ministry and a successful ministry is the Adult Volunteers that serve with you.  I love our adult volunteers that are apart of h2o student ministry.  This fall alone we have almost doubled the number of adults that volunteer with our Student Ministry. 

This always begs the question, "What do they do?" 

For me the #1 key for all our volunteers is that they love teenagers.  Our adults here at h2o have strong relationships with the teenagers, they love on them and they build relationships with them.  Our students know that the adults they see each week are there not because they have to be, not out of duty but because the care about the students.

Another key is for me, as the Student Pastor, to give them clear direction on what they are to do.  Volunteers want to know what their job is.  We meet with all our volunteers regularly and go over their responsibilities and where, when, what and how.  I have overall expectations and rules I provide to every volunteer and then I have individual job descriptions that I give to a volunteer based on the area/task they are assigned.  On Wednesday nights I assign our volunteers to areas of our building.  We have cafe workers, area monitors, door monitors, registration desk, recreations leaders for after our worship time and security.  Plus, we train people on counseling students that make decisions during the Worship time.

I encourage all our volunteers to build relationships with the students.  Even while they are serving in the area they are assigned to I encourage them to engage students.  Our adults here at h2o are very good at this part.  There are very few students that walk through our ministry that don't connect with an adult.  This may be the thing I appreciate most about our adult volunteers here, there desire not to just be there to help, but to invest in student lives.

As a Student Pastor I can't do all the ministry, care for all the students, organize and run all the events by myself.  That equals burn out and a small ministry.  My desire is to empower our adults.  The more volunteers I have engaged in our ministry the more students we can reach and the more lives are changed by Christ.

If you are one of our h2o volunteers and your are reading this, thank you for the job you do each week!

Dnow '10 "Live Love" (Video, Pics & Recap)

 This past weekend was Disciple Now weekend for h2o student ministry.  Our theme and focus for this year was "Live Love" from John 13:35, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."  I stand in awe of God and His Spirit that moved with great freedom.  This weekend ranks as one of the best Disciple Now's in my 13 years of ministry.  What made it so incredible?  The movement of God in students lives!  Saturday night the Spirit of God moved in and in the silence of the room students just started praying over one another, others accepted Christ, others hit their knees.  It was one of those indescribable God moments.  (watch the video below)



I believe a big key to a very successful and spiritual growth Disciple Now is the quality of college leaders involved.  The leaders we brought in this year had a deep passion and walk with God.  They were spiritually ready before they arrived.  All weekend long they loved on students and poured into these students to Word of God.

Another key to a successful Disciple Now is the Speaker and the Worship Band.  This year I brought in Pat Cammarata to speak to our students.  Pat spoke with great authority from the Word of God and challenge students to "Live Love" everyday of their life.  As he spoke the Word of God changed lives.  Our band was led by Mark Bartels who brought in several college students with him to lead us in worship.  I appreciated how they focused us upward in worship, it was moving to watch as students were drawn to passionately worship God.

 

  

Disciple Now..."Live Love" this Weekend

 This weekend is our annual Disciple Now Weekend.  This year our theme is "Live Love."  The focus is loving other people as Jesus does.  This is always a weekend that we see students lives radically changed by Christ.  Our speaker this year is Pat Cammarata, he is a man that has a passion to communicate God's Word.  This year we are using college students from Ouachita Baptist University (OBU) led by Mark Bartels as our worship band.

We have so many people that have been great in volunteering their homes for us to use and many other adults that have volunteered to help this weekend.  We have the greatest adult volunteer workers here at Beech Street!  They love teenagers and love seeing lives changed for Christ.

This is going to be a great weekend!

A day at Barksdale Air Force Base

A week ago Craig and I got invited to Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, LA for clergy day.  We were invited down by one of our church members, Ken Wooley, who is in the Reserves and also works full time on the base.  Ken does some pretty amazing work on B-52 bombers.  While we were there we ate lunch at the officers club, toured the base and got up close with at B-52 bomber and A-10 Thunderbolt II.

The Reserves are hero's, these guys work in the civilian workforce and then give up their time to train and defend our great country.  I'm proud to know several of these guys.  I hope you will join me in constantly telling these men and women thank you for their service.  Below are some pictures from the day.

Thank you to Ken Wooley for the invitation.  I love spending time around our military and especially the Reserves.

Barksdale is home to the 917th wing:
The 917th is a composite wing which operates both the A-10A Thunderbolt II and the B-52H Stratofortress. Located at Barksdale AFB, La., the Wing employs approximately 1,600 Air Force Reserve personnel. The mission of the 47th Fighter Squadron is to train students to fly the A-10. The primary mission of the 93rd Bomb Squadron is to conduct strategic heavy bombardment and maritime operations in the B-52. (from their website)

 

B-52 Bomber...these planes are massive and bring the thunder

 Bombs dropped from the B-52.  The one on the right has a larger case to go down into the ground.  You're in trouble if you see one of these things coming your way.

 

Another bomb carried on the B-52.  This one is so smart it can literally be dropped from over 8 miles away and go through the window in your house.  Amazing the technology our military has!

 

This is the bomb bay of the B-52.  They can carry a lot of bombs like pictured above.

 

Cockpit of a B-52.  I got to sit in the pilots chair on the left.

 

Call-sign of the B-52 we looked at

A-10 Thunderbolt II

 

This was a fun day.  Hope to go back again.

What and amazing Sunday!

Our "Super Sunday" had a huge impact on lives.  Every year we take Super Bowl Sunday and create a church wide event called "Super Sunday."  We take the excitement created by our culture and in-turn create excitement for our Savior and Church.  We make the day all about getting people plugged into a Small Group from Children through Adults.

I'm so proud of our church and how people got excited, not about a ball game, but about inviting people to church.  All across our church, in every Small Group, there were new faces.

Our Sr. Adults had a neat get-together before their classes.  They used one of their rooms as a place to serve finger type foods before Small Group.  There was great excitement and joy among them.  Great job to all who worked hard in our Sr. Adult area to pull of this great morning.

In almost all our Adult classes we had to bring in extra chairs.  I love it when I'm having to run down chairs because a class has run out.  There were several classroom bursting at the seems.  It was neat to see them bringing in friends and neighbors and introducing them to their classes.  I'm so proud of how they made it their mission to invite people to be here.  Then they all had parties Sunday Night to watch the Super Bowl and build relationships.  Great job to all our adult classes.

Our Teenagers (h2o student ministry) blew it out of the water by inviting their friends.  We had well over 100 teenagers in Small Groups.  Not to mention they almost took up the entire center section of the worship center.  God is continuing to bless this ministry.  Plus they did an all day event ending with watching the Super Bowl (read more about it here).  Thanks to all our great adult volunteers that served tirelessly all day.

The Children's Ministry also has a big day in Small Group.  All their classes were filled with kids. It was fun to walk around and see all the groups as they taught these kids about Jesus.  They also had a huge event after Worship for the kids to go to Chuck E. Cheese.  Great job to Emily and all our Children's Volunteers and teachers.

This was a great day all about building relationships with people.  I believe God used it and will continue to use to in the days ahead.

Super Outreach on Super Bowl Sunday

Every year for Super Bowl Sunday our Student Ministry does a huge outreach called, "Super Sunday."  Our goal is to see a lot of students connect with our Small Groups that morning.  We developed an event that takes a lot of work but is very successful.  Here is what we do.

For weeks prior to the event we do lots of promotion with mailouts, social networks, phone calls, etc.
Super Sunday:
It all begins with Students arriving for Small Group at 9:15am that morning.  We have a great free breakfast for them, and energetic/engaging Small Group time in God's Word.  Next we attend or worship service.  After worship we load student on buses and take them to a local city park.  There we grill burgers, have chips, drinks & snacks.  While at the park we play ultimate frisbee, some students just hangout and talk, others play other games.  We stay at the park about 2 hours in all.  From the park we load back on the buses and go to bowling alley.  We bowl for 2 hours, this is the only part of the entire day that cost the students.  We leave the bowling alley in time to return to the church for the Super Bowl.  We have pizza for all the students, free, and they can play games, talk, and/or watch the game.  At then end of each quarter we give away a nice prize and at half time I do a brief devotional.  It all ends when the game is over.  This day is all about building relationships.  Here's what the schedule looks like:

9:15am-Small Group
10:30am-Worship
11:45am-Go to the Park for Lunch, Ultimate Frisbee, etc
2:15pm-Go Bowling
4:30pm-Return to the church and eat dinner (pizza)
Go home after the game.

It's a lot of work, but every year God brings us a lot of students for this day.  We usually more than double our normal Sunday Morning attendance.  We have seen God save students here, connect them with our group and finally we have seen several families come as a result of their teenager getting involved.  This has been a very successful outreach for us.

It is very worker intensive.  We have some of the greatest adult volunteers of any church I have every served.  We have parents cook cookies, bring bags of chips for snacks, drive, provide supervision and more.  We have a group of adults that takes care of the food, others that help with the recreation at the park, many other adults that come along to interact and provide supervision.  Without our great adult volunteers this day would never happen.  I appreciate them and value the service greatly.

I can't wait until Sunday to see what God does this year!

s

Baptism, Top 10

The picture you see above is an award I received for our church being in the "Top Ten for student baptisms."  Over the past two years God has allowed us to impact a lot of lives for Jesus.  I'm humbled by how God has chosen to use our ministry in such a powerful way.  We have so many great adults that serve week after week that pour into students lives and as a result we see many come to Christ.  I'm so thankful for the adult team of workers we have that want to see teenagers lives changed by Jesus Christ.  I pray this year will be another great year of reaching students for Christ.  I pray this year we will once again see many students follow in believers baptism.

Awards are always encouraging to get, but there are still 100's if not 1000's of lost teenagers with in 10 miles of our church.  Join with me in praying for us to reach these students.

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Super Sunday is Coming

Super Sunday is an event we do every year on Super Bowl Sunday, which is February 7th.  Super Sunday is all about impacting lives and connecting people with a Small Group.  All our Small Groups are working hard to invite people to be in their Group that Sunday Morning at 9:15am.  Then we have an exciting Worship service at 10:30am, where we pray even more lives are changed for Christ.

We end the day with all our Small Groups having a Super Bowl Party at one of their class members homes.  These parties are a lot of fun!  This is a great way for new people to build relationships and get connected.  I hope if you live in the Texarkana area you will come and join us for "Super Sunday" on February 7th here at Beech Street.  Not sure where your Small Group meets?  We will gladly help you find the one that fits you the best.  Plus, we want to invite everyone to join there Small Group for a party that Sunday Night.  Even if you're not into football or the Super Bowl, just come enjoy the fellowship. 

God's Movement is Amazing

Last Wednesday night at h2o we had one of the God moments.  As our worship band was leading us to focus on Christ we began to sing "Jesus Paid it All" and the spirit of God feel.  It's hard to even described what God was doing.  Students were worshiping and as the band was bringing the song to an end God impressed on my heart that there were some in the room that needed to accept Christ right then.  I stood on the stage gave a simple explanation of what it means to accept Christ and 5 students did so right then!  Other students were on their face before God worshiping. 

I was just one of those God moments in a worship service.  I thank God for the 5 lives that were changed and for the many others that were challenged.  God is moving in our church in many different avenues and I'm excited to be apart of it.

Haiti Earthquake

It's hard to grasp all that has happened in Haiti due to the 7.0 earthquake that hit there on January 12th.  I do know this, God calls all of us to help in some way or form.   

Matthew 25:35-36, ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'" 

So how can you help, who can you trust?  Here are two groups that I strongly believe in and trust to spend money given to them completely on the Haiti people.

Here is a link to some pictures from Haiti (click here) WARNING some of these are on the graphic side.

Group #1
The "International Mission Board (IMB)."  This is our Southern Baptist Mission Organization.  They are taking all their funds through "Baptist Global Response (BGR)."  You can read about the actions they are taking and give by clicking here:  (IMB-click)  (BGR-Click).  Both of these links take you to the same place to make a donation.

Group #2:
The other group is "Samaritan's Purse", which is run by Franklin Graham.  This is the organization that does "Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes" and many other mission works across the world.  When you click on the give link on their website a pop-up window with "Haiti Relief" comes up for you to put you donation in.  (Samaritan's Purse-click).

I'm sure there are other organizations that will do a great job, but I have been personally involved with both of these and completely trust them.

Ty is 6!

This past Saturday Ty turned 6 years old.  I remember the day he was born in the metropolis of Warren, AR.  God has blessed Sara and I with a great son who is very full of energy and life. 

This year he wanted to do a bowling party for his friends.  He had several of his buddies come and they had a blast bowling together.  Then on Saturday we did his family party.  This year his one big request was a basketball goal, of course he got it and some other stuff.  I thank God for the blessing of Ty and look forward to the plan he has for him. 

Standing for Christ at all times

I'm not a Texas Longhorn fan at all, but I am a fan of Colt McCoy.  As I watched the end of the NCAA BCS Championship game last night I saw and heard Colt make an amazing statement.  He had been knocked out/hurt in the biggest game of his life and the final game of his college career and here is what he said when asked about that...(watch video)



Here is Colt's Testimony.  That we would all strive to live this powerfully and give God the credit.

A plan?

I'm a guy by nature that likes to plan and have structure in my life and ministry.  We all have responsibilities and we all seem to be "busy."  Many ministries seem to just run from one event, one worship service, one weekend to another.  God led me a long time ago to be a person with purpose and a plan. 

The past several months I've been evaluating our ministry here at Beech Street.  After 2 1/2 years God has allowed a lot of incredible things to occur.  We have added a lot of structure to what we do both in the Student Ministry and in the Adult Ministry.  I have now set some new bench marks for us as a ministry over the next 2 years. 

For our Student Ministry I've been working on a sequence that takes a student from one point when they enter in 7th grade to another point when they Graduate.  This plan has already begun, but we are only 2 years into the process.  God has been giving me a lot of direction in this area over the past couple months as we move into the next 2 years.

Our Adult Ministry is well on the same track.  Our guiding direction as a church is:  Believe, Belong, Become.  I am now working hard to see us incorperate this into our Small Groups and Faithworks (discipleship) ministries with great intentionality.  I believe we will be helping adults deepen their walk with God, which translates down to the families.

This is going to be an exciting year as God continues to mold the plan he has for us in me.  I look forward to reaching more people for Christ and growing others to serve Him more.

A look back at my 2009 New Years Resolutions

New Year Resolutions...everyone seems to make them, yet few keep them.  I thought for fun I would look back at my 2009 Resolutions/Goals and see how I did.  Here were mine from '09:
1)Improve our family devotion time
2)Continue my financial plan
3)Eat healthier
4)Exercise Consistently

So how did I do?  1)We have worked hard to be consistent in our family devotional time.  I believe it's my responsibility to disciple my kids so we are still working, but had a good year in this one.  2)We have done excellent with our Financial plan.  We went through Financial Peace University (FPU) and have followed this plan and it has helped us be very responsible financially.  3)As for eating healthier, I have cut back my portions and eat less food at each seating.  I need to still improve on eating healthier foods.  4)I have Exercised Consistently all year.  I set a goal to run a 5k in early 2009 and did.  I have keep running and started other exercises as well.

As a whole I would say I did very well with my 2009 Resolutions.  So what are my 2010 goals?  That post is coming soon.

The Real Meaning of Christmas Charlie Brown Style

13th Wedding Anniversary & 33rd Birthday

December 21st is both my Birthday and my Wedding Anniversary.  The best birthday present I ever received was my wife.  I'll never forget that day that occurred 13 years ago today.  God blessed me with an amazing woman that shares this great life with me.  She is encouraging, uplifting, supportive and loving of me.  She is an incredible mother to Ty and Haley.  I can't imagine life without her.  We are a perfect fit for each other.

I remember seeing her walking down the isle of the church and thinking WOW!  As I look at her today I still say WOW!  I thank God for blessing me with Sara and the 13 years we have now shared together.  Each year seems to get better and better.  I love you Sara and Happy Anniversary!

 

Missions @ Beech Street

In December of each year Beech Street takes up it's annual Mission Offering.  The "Acts 1:8 Offering" is structured with this verse in mind, "...you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Many people have given to this offering over the course of the entire year, while others give a lump sum on the actual day in December.  Last Sunday was our "ingathering" for the Acts 1:8 offering and we have received $97,000 to go toward missions, PRAISE THE LORD!  I fully expect it to go well over $100,000.  This money is divided up in to 4 categories and a percentage goes to each:  International Mission (IMB), North American Missions (NAMB), State Missions (ABSC) and Local (BSFBC).

It's exciting to be apart of a church that has a huge heart to see people won to Christ.  Thank you for your obedience to God Beech Street!

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

I always enjoy attending our Small Group Christmas Parties, it's one of the benefits of also being the Education Pastor side of my job.  This past Saturday our "Threads Too" Small Group had an "Ugly Christmas Sweater" party.  As you can see from a few of these pictures there were some really ugly sweaters.  Lots of people went all out and did the entire outfit.  This group know how to have a lot of fun.  Sara and I had a blast hanging out with them Sunday night.

Sara & I

 

Burns, Neil & I

Sr. Adult Christmas Party

Thursday our Sr. Adults had their Christmas Party in the Fellowship Hall at the church.  They did a great job of putting a great event together.  The tables were decorated very nicely, the food was excellent and the entertainment was fun.  They had Roasted Pork Loin, dressing, sweat potato caserole, green beens, salad, rolls and some amazing deserts...I personally had the Apple Pie and Ice Cream cake...it was all very very good! 

For entertainment they had a "Illusionist."  He performed all kinds of illusions and did a great job of entertaining the crowd.  At one point he brought Pastor Craig up front and tried to teach him a trick.  He had Pastor Craig tear up a napkin is several of different squares then wade them up and put them in his mouth.  This idea was for it all to come out in one piece...of course it didn't work for Pastor Craig and it did for the Illusionist guy, it was  pretty funny.  (the picture below is of Pastor Craig with the napkin in his mouth.)

I always enjoy spending time with this age group in our church, they are such a big encouragement to me.  So many of them send me cards and offer many words of encouragement.  Plus they are some great prayer warriors.

New...

We had a great Thanksgiving with our families last week, now it's back to the ministry at hand.

Monday morning I hit the ground running, mostly planning for 2010.  Part of our staff team spent most of the day Monday meeting with "Worlds of Wow" about the design for our Childrens area.  Two of their team members came down Reagan, President, & Wayne, Project Manager.  Our team was very impressed with them and looks forward to partnering with them.  Emily, our Children's Minister, shared her vision and direction with them and this area is going to look simply amazing.

Tuesday I went to the monthly Super Summer Leadership Team meeting in Little Rock.  I am priviledged to serve on this team of Student Pastors from across the state in planning Super Summer for 2010.  For those of you that don't know, Super Summer is a camp for teenagers that takes place each summer at Ouachita Baptist University (OBU).  Super Summer does two camps, a Jr. High Camp & Sr. High Camp, with each one having  over 1000 students. 

Serving the Homeless & Struggling with Ty & Haley

Since our kids, Ty & Haley, are out of school for this entire week Sara and I decided to have them serve others.  I believe it's important to teach your kids and give them hands on experience.  We took Ty & Haley to the Friendship Center to serve lunch.  The Friendship Center serves lunch everyday to anyone in need.  The Friendship Center also does a variety of other services to help the homeless and those that might be struggling.  It's led by a great man, Bryan Bixler, who does a phenominal job.  Check out their website to find out more about what them.

Ty & Haley helped set up the food line and then they put food on the plate as the people came in.  They helped get ice in the glasses, pour tea and water, put rolls on the plate, put the desert on the plate and then handed the plates to those coming through the line.  They were both smiling and engaging to those that came through, which in turn brightened the day of many of these people.  (you can see Ty on the left putting the desert on the plates)

After it was over we set down as a family and talked about the morning.  I asked them what they saw and heard.  We talked about how we need to be grateful for the things that God has blessed us with.  We also talked about how we need to care and serve others.  This is only the beginning of many more service projects we will do as a family. (you can see Haley on the right putting rolls on the plates)

h2o live -Wed night recap

It was a good night at h2o and lots of fun.  Our worship band did a great job of leading us to focus on Jesus.  I appreciate them and their dedication and passion to led others to worship Christ.  I preached on Thanksgiving.  I talked about being thankful for what God has blessed you with and being thankful for what Jesus has done for us.  I had students write down five things they were thankful for in their lives, then I had random students share one of the things they wrote down.  It was neat to hear the different things students shared.  Then I challenged them to thank God more often for the blessings of life.  I concluded my message with being thankful for what Jesus has done for us...He Redeemed us.  We had a neat prayer time at then end where students spent time Thanking God for what he has blessed them with in their lives and for Him redeeming them.

After h2o and we were closing down for the night I was talking with two students.  As I was talking with one about following through in baptism the other students said she wanted to be baptized to, I asked her to tell me about when she accepted Christ and she had no answer.  I sat down with the two of them and walked her through what it meant to accept Christ.  She said, "I want to accept Christ tonight," so she prayed to receive Christ right there.  I love leading people to a personal relationship with Christ!

The most important thing we can do as believers is tell other people about Jesus.  It's exciting that God blesses us with the opportunity to see student accept Christ very frequently here.  May we never grow tired of telling people about Jesus!

Youth Baptisms falls from 140,000 to 75,000

I read this report on my brothers blog, Brian Mills, and thought I would share it with you.

Check this out:

1971 Southern Baptist Church Youth Ministries baptized around 125,000 students.  

The next year, 1972, that jumped up to almost 140,000 students.

Watch this –

1973 - 120,000 – pretty big drop from that 140,000 the year before.

Each year it has gone down.

1980 (7 years latter) – 109,000

1985 – 88,000

1990 – 90,000

1995 – 93,000

2000 - ??????

2001 – 83000

2005 – 83,000

2008 – 75,000

It's sad to see that we are reaching fewer and fewer teenagers every year with the message of Jesus.

When I came to Beech Street the end of 2007, I came with a passion to see the Baptism numbers here changed.  It broke my heart that no teenagers had be baptized that year.  For the past two years God has used our efforts and drawn many in to a personal relationship with Jesus.  Each teenagers that follows through in baptism represents a life changed by Jesus.  Here's a look at the last 10 years in the life of Beech Streets Youth Baptisms:

2000 - 8

2001 - 5

2002 - ? (no record)

2003 - 6

2004 - 12

2005 - 6

2006 - 3

2007 - 0

2008 - 17

2009 - 18

Praise the Lord for what God has done here over the past 2 years.  I pray God will continue to allow us to reach teenagers for Christ. 

Source: Annual Church Profile, Lifeway Christian Resource Center, Nashville Tenn. Compiled by the center for Missional Research of the North American Mission Board, Alpharetta, GA

Ty & Haley's heart for others...

 As I told you in my last post, our church finished up our Operation Christmas Child boxes this past Sunday.  The Saturday before Sara and I took Ty & Haley shopping to file the boxes we had gotten.  We allowed Ty to chose for the boy and Haley for the girl.  They put a lot of thought to what they chose to buy.  We talked a lot about the kids that would receive these boxes and what would make them smile and joyful.  Sunday morning before Ty & Haley brought their boxes to church they prayed over them and prayed for the kids that would open them. 

As Ty was finishing up with his box he decided he needed to add a Football, but we didn't buy one.  Ty went to his room and pulled out one of his favorite soft footballs that he and I play with a lot and put it in the box.  He said, "I've got more footballs, but this little boy doesn't have anything.  I'm giving this to him."  I must say it brought tears of joy to my heart, that my son was more concerned about giving to someone else, someone he will most likely never meet, that he was willing to give up one of his favorite balls.  (you can see the ball in the box he is holding)

I'm so proud of Ty & Haley both and the heart they have to give to others and to serve others.

What a Sunday!

This was just one of those Sunday's that you really since God's presence.  Sunday Morning I baptized two more of our students, God has given us the priviledge of seeing lots of students accept Christ and follow in baptism.  I love baptizing, it's just one of those major God moments in an individuals life and in mine.  As our worship time continued we had a neat time of praying over the Operation Christmas Child boxes, I will blog tomorrow about how God preached a sermon through Ty (my son) with this.  Then Pastor Craig preached a powerful message on the 10 lepers out of Luke and how only 1 of the 10 came back to Jesus.  At then end of the service we had 8 people join and one by salvation.  Just an amazing morning.

Immediately following the worship service we had a Operation Christmas Child (OCC) box packing and lunch.  It was neat to see so many parents bring their kids to this and teach them the importance of blessing other people.  It was also neat to see so many different ages of people represented.  It was a beautiful picture of what the church should look like, young and old working together for those in need.  I appreciate greatly the leadership of our Adult 4 Small Group in spear-heading our OCC mission.

Sunday night Sara and I finished up our discipleship class, "The Five Love Languages."  We have had a great group of people in their for the past 8 weeks and have had some great discussions.  As we concluded one of the couples, Jason & Sherri, brought in a small wedding cake and punch to celebrate the end of our class.  It was a lot of fun, I will miss meeting with all these people each week.

I am so thankful that God is at work here at Beech Street.  On a weekly basis lives are being changed for the kingdom of God, may we never take for granted what God is doing!

h2o live - Wed. night

We had a solid night at h2o Wednesday night.  The band did a great job of leading us in worship.  It fun to watch and hear them improve week after week.  I gave Rob the night to preach.  He preached on allowing God to use.  He talked about how Moses thought he couldn't be used, but God used him.  He encouraged students to allow God to use them.

It was a solid night, nothing fancy, but solid.  We had a large crowd of students again.  It still amazes me how God continues to use us week after week to impact lives for him, I hope I never grow tried of this. 

Recap on Friend Day

We had a very effective day of touching lives on Friend Day here at Beech Street.  The day began with our Small Group hour at 9:15am.  We encouraged people to invite their friends to attend their Small Group with them and we also encouraged our Small Groups to reach out to people. 

h2o student ministry had Kingsdown, a band from Little Rock, do a free concert during the Small Group hour, plus we feed all the teenagers a free breakfast of biscuits, gravy & bacon.  Over 100 teenagers showed up on a Sunday morning.  Kingsdown put on a great concert, we are still hearing how our students enjoyed the morning.  After the Small Group hour our students attended the Main Worship service at 10:30am.  (pictures below)

Our Children's Ministry had BOZ the Bear during Children's Church, 4yr olds-2nd grade.   They were excited to get meet BOZ upclose and personal.  He put on a program that all the kids enjoyed.  Many of them walked in Sunday Morning with a look of great anticipation, they were ready to see BOZ. (pictures below)

Finally, we had Dr. Grant Ethridge, Pastor of Liberty Baptist in Hampton, Virginia, as our guest Preacher for the day.  He preached out of Acts 2 and how lives were changed by Jesus.  Many people came down front to pray and some to make decisions.  It was a powerful morning of God moving in peoples lives.

Friend Day's are always exciting and encouraging to everyone.  They are a lot of work to pull of from but well worth it when you see what God does.  I look forward to seeing how God continues to use this Friend Day and the spirit from it in the days ahead. 

BOZ performing @ Beech Street

 

Landon & Ty (my son) with BOZ

Kingsdown in Concert @ Beech Street

 

 

Friend Day, THIS SUNDAY @ Beech Street

This Sunday is "Friend Day" at Beech Street.  We are offering a lot of things for different age groups this Sunday Morning, Nov. 8th.   The goal is for all of us to invite our Friends to come with us.  Everyday we interact with people that attend no church this Sunday is about them.

For our Children's Church, "BOZ the Bear" will be here to present the Word of God to them.  I believe all of our preschoolers will be facinated with Him and have an exciting morning.

For teenagers, the band "Kingsdown" will be performing during the Small Group hour, 9:15am, a free concert.  They are a rock style band that will engage the crowd.

The Highlight of the day will be our 10:30am Worship Service where Dr. Grant Ethridge will be preaching.  All our age groups will come together at 10:30am, with the exception of Children's Church, for a great morning of Worship and hearing the Word of God preached.