The Finishing Touches January 31, 2007
The final stages of the renovation of our sunday school rooms is at hand. Bill and Judy are finishing off the tile grouting (or whatever it’s called). By Sunday all classes should be back to normal!
From This Week’s Bulletin January 31, 2007
Feb 6th at 2 we will not be having our Midday Bible Study. But we will return to it next Tuesday, the 13th.
Be sure to come Wednesday Evening the 7th as Randy Roper will be leading our Bible Study. Come learn with us!
Friday Noon Prayer will not meet this week. Join us at noon next Friday.
Many thanks to all who provided food for the Hensley family during a terribly trying time. It was a selfless demonstration of the love of God and shows the depth of concern that our Church has for those in authentic need.
Upcoming Events
Sunday night (the 4th) Randy Roper will be preaching. Pray for him and invite someone to come with you.
February 19th- “Bail out the Pastor”. The Baptist Collegiate Ministry at Roane State is “arresting” the Pastor and the Church is being asked to “bail him out”. The funds raised will be used for a mission trip by the BCM to Boston. See the bulletin board for details. And please, bail the poor guy out. He will be “incarcerated” at noon on the 19th at the BCM building.
March 16th -17th: Youth Evangelism Conference. If you are 13-17, and regularly attend worship, Sunday School, or Youth Group, see Marianne or Barbara right away if you wish to go.
April 1st -4th: Revival!
April 6th: Good Friday Service, at noon. Join us for a solemn service of remembrance recalling the execution of Jesus on our behalf.
April 8th: Easter Sunday. Our sunrise service will be at 6:30 that morning.
Lifeway Christian Stores Response to Complaints January 30, 2007
In response to complaints received concerning Lifeway’s stocking pro homosexual and New Age materials Lifeway writes today:
LifeWaystores.com improving efforts
to filter questionable titles from third-party distributor’s list
LifeWaystores.com is enhancing its efforts to ensure that questionable books are filtered out of a massive list of titles available online through its third-party distributor. In fact, the third-party distributor makes 130,000 titles available to LifeWay, while adding sometimes as many as 1,000 new titles each week. Lifewaystores.com includes only about 100,000 of these titles, having eliminated nearly 25 percent of the books for a variety of reasons, most often because of inappropriate content, according to Mark Scott, vice president of the Christian stores division of LifeWay Christian Resources. In addition, LifeWay filters the titles electronically based on information from publishers and the reputation of authors and publishers for producing biblically-based material. Every week, dozens of inappropriate titles are removed successfully. And, says Scott, the electronic filtering and human-review processes are being improved to meet the high volume of new books hitting the Christian retail market.
“Even so, no system is perfect, and because we’re human and make mistakes, a few inappropriate titles occasionally make it through our filtering system and onto the online list,” says Scott. “When we become aware of these titles – often through an email from a customer – we investigate them, and if we confirm them to be inappropriate, we remove them immediately.”
That’s what happened this week as several Web logs reported that LifeWaystores.com was offering a number of pro-homosexual titles. “We checked it out immediately and found that, in fact, several titles did appear on our third-party distributor’s list,” says Scott. “We were unaware of these and removed the titles immediately. We appreciate it when such titles are brought to our attention and we invite our customers to contact us if they discover titles or authors about which they are concerned. Our customers place a high degree of trust in us to provide biblically sound resources. We value that trust and strive to maintain it.”
LifeWaystores.com also will be providing “Read with Discernment” tags on certain titles that are requested for scholarly study but may not appropriate for a broader Christian audience. ”Many of the titles available through the distributor are made available for critical study or research so that pastors, seminary students and ministry leaders have access to material that helps them understand and develop responses to the diversity of religious thought in a postmodern world,” says Scott.
I’m grateful to Scott for responding so quickly and so positively.
The Renovation Continues January 29, 2007
The renovations are almost complete now. In the next day or so all the tile will be laid. The rooms have all been painted, and only the finalization of the floor remains! It’s going to be quite beautiful when completed, befitting the place where God is worshipped and honored.
Why Is Lifeway Selling Homosexual and New Age Materials? January 29, 2007
Ethics Daily has a story today that should make Southern Baptists sit up and take notice. The Baptist Book Store (at least that’s what it used to be called, now it’s Lifeway Christian Stores) is selling books by homosexual and new age authors. Write them and ask them why.
Tennessee Baptists and Malta January 25, 2007
The following email arrived and may be of interest to folk:
The Tennessee Baptist Convention has been invited to partner with the International Mission Board’s Team Malta. One initial trip was made last August to see what we might be able to do together. After much prayer and discussion, we would like to move forward with this partnership.
There are several reasons that a partnership is needed. Malta, with close to 400,000 people living in 68 villages, has only one church that is affiliated with Southern Baptist. There are 14 Evangelical churches on the island. 97% of Maltese consider themselves Roman Catholic, with about 73% who regularly attend Mass.
Malta is located about 60 miles south of Sicily and 180 north of Africa. The official language is Maltese and English. Malta receives about 1 million visitors a year.
Through this partnership we will be working with IMB missionaries, Earl and Robin Pinkston. Robin is from West Tennessee and a graduate of Union University. They are praying that Tennessee churches and associations will adopt a village to pray for and possibility send mission teams. Team Malta is inviting Tennessee Baptist be apart of the “Village Adoption” strategy.
The first opportunity to serve in Malta will be May 14-21, 2007. Team Malta has invited Tennessee to participate in an “Adopt a Village Tour”. We would like 5 teams of 2 to travel to Malta leaving Tennessee on May 14 and returning May 21. Participants will be responsible for lodging, meals and airfare to Malta. Cost will be approximately $2000. A valid passport will be needed for travel. Travel arrangements will be made thru Phyllis Cobb at Wilcox Travel and Tours, 1-800-294-5269 ext 306. Please contact me at kmargrave@tnbaptist.org or 1.800.558.2090 ext 2021 if you are interested in participating in the “Adopt a Village Tour” by March 2.
Blessings
Kim Margrave
Pastors Who Hunt… January 25, 2007
If they do, they should be careful to do it legally, so that they aren’t arrested and charged with numerous crimes. Read about it here.
Kids in Church… January 25, 2007
Kids can say some amazing things. This list was sent my by Lois and contains some pretty fun ones… Enjoy
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I had been teaching my three-year old daughter, Caitlin, the Lord’s Prayer for several evenings at bedtime. She would repeat after me the lines from the prayer. Finally, she decided to go solo. I listened with pride as she carefully enunciated each word, right up to the end of the prayer: “Lead us not into temptation,” she prayed, “but deliver us from E-mail.
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A Sunday school teacher asked her children as they were on the way to church service, “And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?” One bright little girl replied, “Because people are sleeping.”
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A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin 5, and Ryan, 3. The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake. Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson. “If Jesus were sitting here, He would say, ‘Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.’ Kevin turned to his younger brother and said, “Ryan, you be Jesus!”
