Thank you so much for reading! I am so blessed that so many of you read this blog. I pray that It will encourage you. This week it has been one month since I started my own self-hosted blog.
I have learned a few things and there is more planned for the future
A husband comes home from work. He is greeted at the door by his wife. She is wearing a poodle skirt and pearls, the house is clean and smells nice, dinner is ready and on the table, his clothes are washed, ironed, and put away, and his clothes for the next day are even sitting out over a chair. He sits down to eat and looks across the table at his wife and he says “I love you…” to which she responds with a blank stare with empty eyes and says… nothing.
Hopefully this is an illustration that a relationship is much more than a “check list” of things to do. All of those things might be what some men might want in a wife, but if the passion and genuine joy (even if only every once in a while) of being together isn’t there, it’s a miserable failure…
Are you the kind of person who makes checklists? I know that a lot of people live by lists, I am not one of them. Don’t get me wrong, they are extremely useful and I do use lists to be sure I get everything done (actually I use Producteev and think it’s a very good program, and it’s free, get it), but for me, I have to force myself to put the list together.
The life that God intended you to have through His Son Jesus is much more than a “checklist” of dos and don’ts.
When I was younger, I had the privilege of growing up with a great pastor, Wayne L. Allen, but I called him “Bro. Allen” I became a Christian on May 21, 1985 and was baptized by Bro. Allen the following Sunday, May 26. It was through Bro. Allen’s leadership and direction while I was at First Baptist Church Carrollton, TX that I was “Licensed to Gospel Ministry” Continue reading
Yesterday I preached a sermon titled “why are we here?” The “what” answer is to love God and love others (from Matt 22), but the “how” answer is, I think, to reach people, teach people and love people. The place where this is best accomplished (at least by design) is in regular ongoing small group ministry, which at my church is called “Sunday School” Listen to Johnny Hunt talk about the importance of Sunday School:
How important is a “small group” to you? If you only come to church for one hour, do you come to worship or do you connect with people in Sunday School? You should, I think, do both, but if you can only do one, pick Sunday School.
If you wonder what Adult Sunday School is, or should, be all about, I would highly recommend two books to you:
These, and other resources by Allan Taylor, are available at EmberToBlaze.org
Many of you will know that I am the Pastor to Adults at FBC Maryville. Part of that job means that I’m over our small group discipleship ministries (for adults). For us, this is primarily “Sunday School” (Connect Groups), but we do have in-home and on-campus studies throughout the week as well. Solid preaching is important for a church, but without an ongoing small group ministry, people just will not “stick” and grow as a church.
There is a saying that begins my training for new teachers “if it is going to be, it’s up to me.” I want them to realize that their class has to function like it’s own small business. Just as a small business owner does not look to the government to get them customers or run their store, the teacher of the class has to run their own shop. But also, church leadership will set guidelines and stipulations (maybe not exactly like the government, but you get the idea).
So, why do some classes make it and some don’t? Continue reading
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