And so does the annual Christmas Program, held each Christmas Eve at 7 PM as long as anyone in the Church can remember. Folk worked diligently on Monday to get the tree set up and since then a couple of folk (and more) have worked to decorate the Auditorium. Here are some photos of the process:
Categories: Announcements · Church Life
Is the commentary on the last part of the Old Testament, the second half of the ‘Minor Prophets’, Nahum-Malachi.
The entire list is available here.
Categories: Announcements
Our Church is again participating in the Christmas Gift Prison Bag ministry, providing 75 bags. The Bags MUST be assembled by Wednesday, December 5th, and they MUST be delivered to the Storehouse Ministry Center by Dec. 7th. The Children in Action are organizing this ministry and they will assemble and deliver the bags. Thanks for helping!
Categories: Announcements · Church Life
A Baptist Pastor and Theologian from New Zealand has written a very fine devotional book titled “Making Life Decisions: Journey In Discernment.” You can read it online and follow the spiritual exercises that way or you can download the entire document and have it on your hard drive to print out at your leisure.
Learning to make decisions, guided by the Holy Spirit, is so very important in the Christian life and so terribly neglected. I recommend this very highly.
Categories: Church Life
I’ve taken a bit of time today to upload the newest flyer with the publication schedule of the “Person in the Pew” commentary series I’ve been working on, and will be working on, for a number of years. You can access the published volumes directly here. They make the perfect Christmas gift… 
Categories: Announcements · Church Life
Remember to join us tonight at 7 for our Annual Community Thanksgiving Service!
Categories: Announcements
Channel 5 in Nashville has reported
Belmont University and the Tennessee Baptist Convention reached a settlement in a lawsuit filed by the Baptists. The Southern Baptist organization and the Nashville university have been at odds for more than a year over Belmont’s efforts to diversify its board with more Christian trustees who aren’t Baptists. The convention filed a $58 million lawsuit against the school it has supported for 56 years. Belmont officials said the settlement agreement will end their relationship. Belmont will pay the convention $1 million next year and $250,000 for each of the next 40 years.
So now for the next 40 years we Tennessee Baptists will have to bear the label “the group that sues their brothers in Christ.” How very, very sad.
Categories: Church Life · News
The family of Ashley Paine. She’s the 12 year old girl that died today from the school bus accident of Friday.
Categories: Prayer Request
This year a friend of the Church, who wishes to remain anonymous, is going to match, dollar for dollar, the amount we collect in the Lottie Moon Offering, up to $1500.
Our hope is that this will motivate everyone to give sacrificially so that we can not only meet our goal but exceed it.
This year, too, we are focusing on the sacrifices that missionaries make to take the Gospel around the world. One such Missionary was Bill Hyde who died on the mission field in 2003 of a bomb blast. You can read a bit about him here. And there’s more here.
If you can’t go- won’t you give to support those who are every day sacrificing themselves for the Gospel.
Categories: Church Life · News
I had my hotel reservation made. I had my plans set. I was looking forward to attending a meeting that I had hoped would aim at glorifying Christ, bind believers together in his cause, and be a period of encouragement. After all, we Pastoral types can get discouraged from time to time so we get sort of excited about the possibility of attending a Convention meeting that will lift us up.
But I’m not going because, alongside news reports that Baptists at the TBC will be bickering over Belmont (and the immoral suit entered into by segments of the TBC leadership); there will also be bickering over the appointment of committee members who may not wish to sign on board with the Baptist Faith and Message of 2000.
The Annual Meeting used to be about Christ, but now its about power. And I have no interest in power aside from the power of the Spirit to live the Christian life. So I’m not going. I’m not going to participate in fussin’, fightin’ and feudin’ under the guise of powerplay.
When the Annual Meeting returns to being an event whose only purpose is to exalt the Lord and encourage the Denomination, I’ll go back. Till then, I’m not wasting my time, our Church’s money, or energy on it.
Categories: Church Life
