Scenes From Senior Field Day

That’s Larry M. and Shirley- participating in the watermelon seed spitting contest.  Word has it, Shirley won!  And then there’s the whole Petros gang.

From This Week’s Bulletin

Saturday July 5 join us at 6:30 for ‘Dinner and a Movie’ in the Fellowship Hall.

The Midday Bible Study resumes July 8. Join us at 2 if you are free that time of day.

Pick up a copy of the July Calendar in the vestibule.

July 18^th at 6 p.m. everyone is invited to Union Baptist Church for the Big Emory Baptist Association Annual Fish Fry.

Vacation Bible School is July 21-25. Attend and bring someone with you.

From This Week’s Bulletin

VBS Workers- Please stay after the service Sunday morning (the 22nd of July) for a brief meeting.

Today is our fourth Sunday food drive. Please bring your non-perishables for the pantry.

The BEBA is going on Mission to Blaine, KY June 23-27. Pray for those who go.

Vacation Bible School is July 21-25. Attend and bring someone with you.

Prayer Request

Remember Dodie F.  She’s in the hospital.

Yes, Virginia, There Is A ‘Gay Agenda’

Folk who have various moral, ethical and religious / theological problems with ‘gay marriage’ have long been lampooned and lambasted for suggesting that there’s no such thing as a ‘gay agenda’. After all, what better way to prove your case than to caricature your opponents? Such caricaturing achieves its goal by demonizing and damning under the umbrella of ‘the truth’.

It may surprise some, then, to discover that there is in fact a ‘gay agenda’ and it’s been written down for one and all to see. And you can see it for yourself here. It was signed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal and the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD). Some of the highlights include, but are not limited to, the following.

“The fastest way to win the freedom to marry throughout America is by getting marriage through state courts (to show that fairness requires it) and state legislatures (to show that people support it). … We need to start with states where we have the best odds of winning. When we’ve won in a critical mass of states, we can turn to Congress and the federal courts. At that point, we’ll ask that the U.S. government treat all marriages equally. And we’ll ask that all states give equal treatment to all marriages and civil unions that are celebrated in other states.”

And

“As society gets more used to gay and lesbian couples being married, it will be easier to win cases in states that look iffy now. In a few years, the cases just won’t seem like such a big jump. If we plunge ahead and lose cases in those states now, the courts will have to overrule themselves later to go our way. That usually takes a few years at least, and often much longer. That means it is likely to take longer to get a good decision than it would have taken if we hadn’t brought a case early on and lost it.”

Sounds like an agenda to me…

When Your Faith is Less Important Than ‘Gay Rights’

NPR reports today a number of examples of how ‘homosexual rights’ are eclipsing religious rights: or, in other words, how homosexuals are using the government to twist the arm of the religious in order to legitimize their behavior. Read it. This is an important issue for everyone concerned for First Amendment issues. Soon enough, if the trend continues, the State will be telling the Church who can and who cannot use its facilities. Or at least they will try to.

Benefit Sale

For Alex H. is going on today (the 13th) and tomorrow (the 14th) at the Community Center.  There’s lots to choose from and lunch will be available today and baked goods tomorrow.  Help out if you can.

Time To Purge Those Exaggerated Church Rolls

One of the resolutions passed this week at the SBC Annual Meeting was On Regenerate Church Membership. It calls on churches to maintain accurate membership rolls and remove from those rolls unregenerate or non-participating persons.

One of the problems in the SBC is that numbers on the rolls have, for years, been inaccurate and incorrect. For example, persons who ‘join’ the church are maintained on the rolls no matter what until they die. They can move away, drop out, take no part, and essentially disappear, and they are maintained on the lists as ‘members’. They can move from the community, join another Baptist church, and now their names are listed on two church rolls and they are counted twice (unless they ‘move their letter of membership’, which few do). Or, in other words, lots of people have memberships in two and sometimes three or more churches, meaning they are counted two or three or more times on the ‘official’ SBC lists.

Naturally all this results in false counts. There may be 16,000,000 people on the rolls as members of Southern Baptist Churches, but there is no doubt at all that the number is considerably less when it comes to actual individuals participating in their local church.

I am in complete agreement with the Resolution passed which states

WHEREAS, The ideal of a regenerate church membership has long been and remains a cherished Baptist principle, with Article VI of the Baptist Faith and Message describing the church as a “local congregation of baptized believers”; and

WHEREAS, A New Testament church is composed only of those who have been born again by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Word, becoming disciples of Jesus Christ, the local church’s only Lord, by grace through faith (John 3:5; Ephesians 2:8-9), which church practices believers’ only baptism by immersion (Matthew 28:16-20), and the Lord’s supper (Matthew 26:26-30); and

WHEREAS, Local associations, state conventions, and the Southern Baptist Convention compile statistics reported by the churches to make decisions for the future; and

WHEREAS, the 2007 Southern Baptist Convention annual Church Profiles indicate that there are 16,266,920 members in Southern Baptist churches; and

WHEREAS, Those same profiles indicate that only 6,148,868 of those members attend a primary worship service of their church in a typical week; and

WHEREAS, The Scriptures admonish us to exercise church discipline as we seek to restore any professed brother or sister in Christ who has strayed from the truth and is in sin (Matthew 18:15-35; Galatians 6:1); and now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, June 10-11, 2008, urge churches to maintain a regenerate membership by acknowledging the necessity of spiritual regeneration and Christ’s lordship for all members; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we humbly urge our churches to maintain accurate membership rolls for the purpose of fostering ministry and accountability among all members of the congregation; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we urge the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention to repent of the failure among us to live up to our professed commitment to regenerate church membership and any failure to obey Jesus Christ in the practice of lovingly correcting wayward church members (Matthew 18:15-18); and be it further

RESOLVED, That we humbly encourage denominational servants to support and encourage churches that seek to recover and implement our Savior’s teachings on church discipline, even if such efforts result in the reduction in the number of members that are reported in those churches, and be it finally

RESOLVED, That we humbly urge the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention and their pastors to implement a plan to minister to, counsel, and restore wayward church members based upon the commands and principles given in Scripture (Matthew 18:15-35; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15; Galatians 6:1; James 5:19-20).

Baptists in Azerbaijan Still Face Potential Imprisonment Simply for Worshiping

Baptists in other parts of the world aren’t free to worship and so, when they can, they do. Many Baptists in Tennessee have free access to worship any time they wish, and in spite of that, they don’t. It’s really a striking indictment of our level of commitment when we read stories like this one, recently carried in European news outlets:

“Baptist former prisoner of conscience Zaur Balaev – freed on 19 March after being held for nearly a year to punish him for leading his congregation – was summoned and threatened with a new prison term in early May, he told Forum 18 News Service on 12 June from his home village of Aliabad in the north-western region of Zakatala [Zaqatala]. “Haven’t you learnt from your imprisonment?” Balaev quoted police officers as telling him. “Wasn’t one prison term enough for you?” And, in what Balaev says was a clear threat, one officer added: “You may not be afraid, but you’ve forgotten you’ve got a wife, daughter and a son.” Balaev said the threats came from Kamandar Hasanov, the deputy regional police chief, and two of his colleagues in Hasanov’s office in Zakatala. “They didn’t hit me but they were very crude.” Balaev said the police banned his church from meeting, a ban the congregation has defied. Police have continued to visit his church during worship services. “They realise they can’t drive us out,” he told Forum 18, referring to the fact that all the church members are local people. “But they observe us closely.””

I wonder how many Tennessee Baptists would attend worship if they thought they might be arrested for it? At today’s rate of decline, it’s hard to imagine that many would be willing to pay that price for their faith.

Remember These Churches in our Association

Please pray for the following churches:  Cardiff, Central, Chapman Grove,  Coal Hill, Crab Orchard,  Dyllis, Laurel Bluff, Orchard View, Shiloh, South Harriman, Union, and Wartburg First.  They are without Pastors.  The most recent addition to the list is Shiloh.