The RightNow Conference

Thursday, Pastor Edgar, Shawn, and I went to the RightNow Conference in Dallas Texas.  I was introduced to a new speaker that has truly blessed my heart.  His name is Matt Chandler.  If you are at all web preacher savvy, I’m sure you have heard of Matt.  His topic yesterday was “The Enduring Gospel.”  And I must say,  he articulated the gospel message better than I even heard in my life.  I felt so overwhelmed with the truth that I began to swell up with tears.  It was so much of the things that I have been preaching and teaching, wrapped up with a pretty bow on top.  I was not under conviction, but just felt like I found a new friend.  If you have heard my preaching on the gospel at all, you know that I believe there are many people sitting in the pews that have prayed the sinners prayer some time during their life and are just as lost today as they were before they prayed.  The problem is, you can’t find a sinners prayer in the Bible.  It doesn’t exist.

I was approach by a married couple that didn’t attend our church and asked If I did marriage counseling.  I said, “Yes.”  So we set up the time.  The first question I as then was, “Do you know the Lord as your personal Savior?”  They, without hesitation, said, “Oh yea.”  So I said, “Let me rephrase the question. Are you a follower of Jesus Christ?”  The couple both stopped for a moment bowed their heads and said, “No, not like we should be.”  So I clarified, I said, “Lets say that God didn’t exist as all.  Would there be anything that changed in your life.”  They again bowed their heads and said, “No.”  I said, “Than why would you say your a Christian.”  One thing that Tim Ross, from the Potter’s House, said was, “I am just a fruit inspector.  If your life is thrown up on the dock and they tell me your an apple, but you smell like an orange and you have the texture of an orange, I have to call you an orange.”  The blessing was that before we left that night.  The couple bowed their heads and entered into a covenant relationship with the Lord.  I remember early in my message preaching, “Why would you call yourself something that you are nothing like.”

I challenge you to take the time to examine your own heart.  Are you a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.  When you read John 10:27,  are you a sheep that follows the lord or did you just simply bow your head and pray a prayer one day.  God is seeking true worshipers, those that will worship him in Spirit and in truth.  True disciples follow the Lord.  That doesn’t mean they don’t sin or make mistakes but they do take the necessary steps to make things right with their Lord.

The Church is the Missionary

On the morning of Halloween, Fellowship Baptist Church hosted a seminar facilitated by E.P.I.C. International called Finishing the Task.  It was so wonderful to have Mike Jackson and John Hall with us as they shared their hearts on how we can reach the entire world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

For many years in many Churches we have been trained to support missionaries that are going to the field (somewhere besides home).  I remember when I gave my life the Jesus back in 1981 for full time service.  I walked down to the front of the church as a 12 year old boy.  The man receiving people at the front ask me, “What did you come for this morning?”  I said, “I want to give my life to Jesus for full time service.”  Before I knew it I was on the front roll with paper work being filled out.  They handed the paper to the my wonderful Pastor and he said, “Billy is going to be a preacher.”  The whole congregation said, “Amen.”  The pastor dismissed the service and I stood at the front as people rolled by this tears in their eyes telling me how proud they were of me. In all honesty I wasn’t coming forward to be a preacher.  I was just coming forward to give my life to Jesus for full time service.  It turns out that the preacher was prophetic that day, and that Jesus had given me the gift of pastor/teacher.  But I know there are a lot of people that have done that exact same thing and they were also told they were going to be a preacher or a missionary.  You see, as much as I can remember those were the only two choices for being in full time service for the Lord: Pastor or Missionary.  The problem is that both of these positions, if done properly, require a special gift from the Lord (Ephesians 4:7-12), and not all men and women that come forward in a church service have been given these gifts. 

The Bible teaches that everyone that comes to Christ is called into the ministry of God.  Now the way that God uses you in his ministry is a different as the people he calls.   We have got to get this idea out of our heads that ministry is done by the professionals and start to see what God has for each and every one of us.

We have adopted a people group in which we are going to pure our lives into reaching.  This means that we will us any and all recourses to see this people group come to the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We are not sending a man from the congregation to go and do the work amongst this people group.  The Church is the missionary.  First we pray with extraordinary prayer.  We know that God wants to do big things and we are ready to join him in his activity.  There will also come a time that we help with projects that we can do on this field.  Maybe we plant trees, or build a playground, or put in a soccer field, or take over medical aid, or teach English as a second language, or teach some ladies how to sew, or teach personal hygiene.  They sky is the limit on the things we can do to introduce the gospel to these people.  The point is simply this.  We are not sending someone else to do our work.  Some of these places you can’t send anyone.  So we will go as a Church, and we will share the gospel with these lost and dyeing people.  We will be the missionary.

Oh, but it is so easy to write a missions check and call it good.  But we never partake in the blessing of joining God in his mission or reaching the world.  More to come!

In Remembrance of Ruby Stanton

I remember nine years ago on October 27, 2000 rolling into Borger, TX to start a new ministry as the Pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church.  This was my second pastorate and I was still pretty fresh in the ministry.  I don’t care how long you’ve been doing something, a new place, with new people, is always an intimidating thing.  I had told the Church board when I came that we would need to bring the Church up to speed on some things and it was going to cause some of the folks to be uncomfortable and I suspected some would leave.  That’s just the way it goes!  So, we hit the ground running and God begins to bless the work.

It wasn’t too long after we had got here that Ruby Stanton said, “Brother Bill, (I can still hear the soft tone of her voice when she said my name) I would love for you to come over and have coffee with Ray and me some time.”  That was the beginning of a loving relationship between Ruby and me.  Kim and I would go over and sit on their front porch and watch the neighborhood traffic.  The yard was immaculate.  The house was spotless.  The coffee was good and the donuts were fattening: just the way we liked it.  That was our treat with the Stanton’s for the years to come. 

But, of course, we couldn’t stop at donuts.  The next to come was a fish fry.  It seems their son Larry is quite the fisherman and had filled their freezer with some wonderful catfish.  So Kim I would come over on a Friday night and we would eat like kings.  When we walked in the table was preset with all the fixings that would go with catfish.  And the out come the sweet breaded juicy catfish with hush puppies on the side (my mouth started watering just thinking about it).  And we would eat, and eat, and eat.  Ray would say, “You gotta eat another one or it’s going to waist.”  Here I am in my 30’s sitting at the table with some people in their 80’s and you would have thought we went to College together or something.  Ray and Ruby would start telling stories, funny stories of their life, and of their kids, their adventures, and some heartaches.  My point is they shared their life with us.  And in turn we shared ours with them.  I guess you could say, “We became friends.”

As the years went by, Ruby wasn’t quite able to cook the big meals.  We would still come over, but the hush puppies were store bought, and the dissert was something from a box.  All good mind you, but a little embarrassing for Ruby at times.  Course, Kim and I didn’t care because we didn’t come for the homemade hush puppies or the homemade pie.  We came to spend time with our friends, and we did just that.

These last 9 years have not been easy years in the ministry.   People have come and gone.  Problems have come and gone.  But it seemed that in the lowest times Ray and Ruby were there cheering me on.  Telling me what a good Pastor I was.  Telling me how proud they were of us.  They got me through some rough spots.  If you know me at all, you know I work with my hands.  Ray would always ask me, “What are you doing down there at the Church house?”  I would say, “We building this and changing that…”  He would say, “Don’t let it take you away from your studies.”  I believe he loved to hear me preach.  Not that I’m all that good of a preacher, but he loved receiving a message from the Lord.  When Ruby began to get sick.  Ray would come to Church without her, and he hated it.  I can just see Ruby at home saying, “Ray, you goon now.  I’ll be alright.  They’ll be looking for us, and one of us needs to go.”  And she was right.  I have no idea what heaven is like, but I hope my house sits right next to the Stanton’s.  I miss them.  I love them.