Vacation

Monday we returned from our trip to Springfield, Missouri and taking a few days vacation in Branson. It was a great trip!! I love going to the ABA National Meeting and it was great to spend a couple days as a family having fun. I'm slightly sunburned, tired, and glad to be back in Owasso.

Here are a few pictures from our time in Branson.

National Meeting - Day 4

I'm a little late getting this out but here are a few things that happened the last day of the meeting.

• The Mission Offering was $10,933.75 (this actually happened on Wednesday night during the missions service.

The Baptist Sunday School Committee gave their report. Four line items were approved by the messengers:

• A 5% literature price increase to keep up with rising costs
• A 10% increase in salary for the writers
• A 3% salary increase for Wayne Sewell, the Business Manager, and Larry Clements, Editor in Chief. Both men work at The Baptist Bookstore.
• An increase of 5 cents per literature unit sold to establish an equipment fund.

Next Year (2010) the meeting will be in Charleston, West Virginia, June 21-24. Reservations can be made beginning August 1st.

• Terry Parrish, Bryant, AR was elected to preach the Annual Sermon next year with Barry Carter, Vivian, LA as alternate.
• Alvin Dickerson, Scotland, was elected to preach the Mission Sermon with Eddie Williams as alternate.

The officers will remain the same:

• President: Roger Copeland
• Vice Presidents: Darrell Owens, Jim Crane, James Calhoun
• Recording Secretaries: Lonnie Wiggins and Terry Parrish
• Parliamentarians: David Robinson and David Buttimore
• Music Directors: Steve Allbritton, Bill Crouse, and Mike Paulk
• Director of Meeting Arrangements: Edgar N. Sutton

You can check out abanews.info or Pastor Matt Gholson's Blog (a good friend) for more information about the 2009 American Baptist Association of Churches Messenger Meeting.

National ABA Meeting - Day 3

Another action packed day in Springfield. Here is the low down:

• I attended the morning general session dealing with the mission report.
• Marnie, Collin, and I went to lunch with some great friends from Norman, Oklahoma. We ate at Lambert's Cafe.
• I'm on the Memorials Committee so I made sure I was back for the afternoon session. There was a lot of extra discussion about a few topics so the report was hours behind schedule.
  
• Talked to lots of people at the booth today.
• I always love the missions presentation. 6 Different missionaries spoke about their continent and the need for more churches and more missionaries to share the gospel. The continents were North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Really good information was shared. They shared some staggering statistics about the sheer number of souls and how we have very few missionaries working some of these mission fields. It make me want to cry when I think about the people who have never heard about Jesus and how few missionaries we have not in a city, or country but on a whole CONTINENT.
• A missionary in Kenya talked about going across the border to Sudan against the advice of the U.S. Embassy. While in Sudan they were restrained from returning to Kenya for a certain amount of time. He talked about how the churches in Kenya are now sending missionaries to Sudan doing foreign missions on their own. One word... AWESOME!!
  
• Twice during the day all the missionaries came up front and a prayer was prayed for them.
  
• The evening session was OUTSTANDING. I heard an incredibly challenging missionary sermon. It was delivered by Gerardo Carrion. He is a Missionary to Mexico. He kept coming back to how we don't need more churches in Arkansas and Texas. He talked about the need to plant churches in China, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, and Africa. He also talked about reaching cities in the U.S. like San Francisco, and New York. He gave an invitation for men who were being called to foreign mission fields. IT WAS AWESOME!!
• All in all a great day. Here are some pictures.

Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Psalm 2:8

ABA National Meeting - Day 2

The Messenger Meeting for the American Baptist Association started this morning. Here is a summary of the day:

• Went to the MBSF (College Ministry) Workshop this morning. Since I used to serve in college ministry it was exciting to see such a good crowd at the workshop. At least 2 churches were there to get information about launching a campus ministry at their church.
• Attended the Missionary Committee Meeting. By Missionary Committee I mean every church has one vote. I don't know how many churches are in attendance....but that is one big committee.
• Went to lunch with some good friends from Norman and Oklahoma City.
• Collin hit the pool in the afternoon with his Papa. Life is always good when swimming is involved.
• We set up the Lifepoint booth at 2:30 p.m. Talked to LOTS of people before and after the evening session.
• During the general session tonight Pastor Roger Copeland (Texarkana, Arkansas) gave the President's Address and Pastor Robert Myer (Gambrills, Maryland) gave the annual message....very challenging.
• Worked the booth again after the general session until 10:00 p.m.
• Met with some church planters from Arkansas, Texas, and Pennsylvania at Applebee's. Awesome conversations about what God is doing in these different fields. God is good!!
• Stayed up WAY to late.
  

ABA National Meeting - Day 1

We traveled to Springfield, Missouri today. It is the location for the American Baptist Association Messenger Meeting. After we arrived and grabbed some dinner we attended a couple events I really enjoy.

Reception Welcoming Messengers & Guest
The event is sponsored by Missionary Baptist Seminary in Little Rock, Arkansas. I love the reception because it gives everyone time to get together before everything begins tomorrow.

Missionary Share Time
There is also a time for any missionary who would like to speak to share a report. In Acts 1:8 we see the scope of outreach each church should have. God's vision is for churches to carry the gospel to the entire planet. However, every year I stand in awe of all the wonderful places the gospel is going. I left 2 hours into it and missionaries where still sharing stories of churches planted and people responding to the gospel. Please pray for the missionary families.

I'm praying for a great week of meetings and general sessions.

Sunday In Review

Great Sunday today. Here are the highlights.

• Took a break from our message series in 1 John. Preached a sermon titled, 4 Reasons God Made Dads.
• At first it didn't look like attendance would be very good. 10 minutes before 10:00 a.m. cars started rolling in. If we would have one more person we would have tied our attendance record - maybe next week.
• Showed a great video before the sermon.
• We had more volunteers in the children' environments - big help.
• 6 first-time guests in the service.
  
• I saw a couple of kids walking across the parking lot. They found our church website and walked to church. They came in and sat on the front row. I love their enthusiasm.
  
• Here is the sermon if you missed it.
• Received some positive feedback from a grandma about how much her granddaughter enjoyed her class.
• LIfepoint Kids made picture frames and pictures for all the dads. We also gave gift cards to QT to all our dads.
  
• Marnie Collin, and I took a guest out to lunch that has been attending the last few weeks.

Sunday In Review

I know I'm several days later than usual but here are some thoughts about Sunday.

• Jimmy called me at 7:30 a.m. and there was a problem getting into the storage facility to get the trailer. We didn't know you had to use the * after the code. He called Brian and got that sweet bit of information. Not having the trailer would be...well...a disaster.
• Continued the message series in 1 John. It's interesting how many times John uses the word liar in 1 John chapter 1 and 2.
• Marnie was taking pictures of all the kids individually. I'm guessing she is doing something with them next week for father's day.
• We had several returning guests.
• One family turned in a connection card requesting info on membership and serving. That always makes me happy.

Lake Texhoma Fishing Trip

A couple weeks ago Collin and I went on a fishing trip with a few others from Lifepoint to Lake Texoma. We went up the day before and got up in the morning and were on the water by 6:00 a.m. Here are some pictures.

Sunday In Review

Great day yesterday. Here are some thoughts.

• We continued our message series in 1 John.
• Brian Crockett preached for us yesterday. He preached a great sermon on how God should be #1 in our life.
• The 2 people who usually run the camera and presentation software on the computer were out of town yesterday. It's great to have people who are willing to jump in and help when people are gone...thanks Jordan an David.
• We moved the trailer to a mini-storage facility.
• FSN (First Sunday Night) was last night. We had a fish fry and played volleyball at the Mitchell's house. One of the best FSNs EVER.
• We had 12 first-time guests during the morning service and FSN.

Crazy Week

Right after church on Sunday Marnie's parents came and picked up Collin. The movers were arriving to move my mom to Owasso on Tuesday morning so we hit the road and just slowed down today. Here are a few happenings from the week.

• Sunday - After church we drove all day and arrived at 11:30 p.m at Huntsville, Alabama.

• Monday - Slept in a little. Packed..packed...packed some more...yes we kept on packing into the night.

• Tuesday - Movers arrived just after 9:00 a.m. We were expecting a semi but they came in a extra big box truck. I was concerned. With good reason, we had to leave a few things behind. One really awesome thing happened during the move. One of the movers grew up in Israel (in the settlements). He served in the Israeli Army for 6 years but is also a U.S. citizen. We talked off and on throughout the day about the end of the world, current events, ....and Jesus. He is still looking for the Messiah. I was able to ask him about Jesus. We talked about about Jesus being Messiah. It was a great conversation and I got to look at Christianity through a different lens this week. His final conclusion was Christianity makes sense if Jesus is Messiah. He believes Jesus was a Rabbi whose teachings got blown out of proportion. He did tell me he has been investigating though. After everything was loaded we drove straight through to Owasso. During the drive back we got a phone call that a new niece was born...yeah!! We arrived in O-town at 2:30 a.m.

• Wednesday - The moving truck arrived at 1:00 p.m. We got everything unloaded. That night I attended Life Group at the Crockett's house.
  

• Thursday - Unpacked alot of stuff and went to see my niece that was born on Wednesday morning.

• Friday - Trying to get caught up. Mom is in Owasso. All in all it was a great week.