What to do with those college students!
One of the great things about working with college students is that they are so very full of energy and great ideas! I sometimes feel like I could give them a class project to “change the world” and they would figure out a way to do it. If you are a pastor or church leader, remember this group. They don’t often give much monetarily, but they have very much to give to the church! You might find your church busting wide open with creativity and energy if you can harness their creative powers and help them find how GOD wants them used! And remember that most of the great revivals began when students got on fire for GOD! I am constantly inspired in my own walk with the Lord by the college students in my life.
If you are one of those students, thanks for all you guys do to make this world a better place and for everything you do to make Jesus famous!
Those Great Moments!
Filed under: Encouragement, Random Thoughts, Wonderment, accountability, healing, ministry, personal growth, praise, thanks, worship
Sometimes in ministry, it seems as if all is going great! GOD is working beside you and accomplishing great things through you! Those are the Great Moments! Those moments are when hundreds of people pack the altars asking God to forgive them and take over their lives! Those are the moments when you lay hands on a cripple or even a dead person and they get up and walk! Those moments when you are seated next to someone on the plane and before you touch down there is a new name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life! So what about the other times? Those moments when our spiritual walk with GOD seems stagnant? What about when we don’t even feel like reading God’s Word and even praying over meals seems like a forced exercise instead of time spent with our best friend? As is clear from my taking some months off from writing on this blog, I just went through a time where my passion for ministry if not even my passion for the Lord was in a very low place. The great thing I learned is that GOD is the same in both places! HE still walked beside me each day even when I didn’t pick up the Bible to start my morning. HE still wanted to spend time with me. That was incredible! So, enjoy those GREAT MOMENTS, but realize that GOD is the same even in the not so great moments.
Altar Calls
Filed under: Body of Christ, Repentance, Wonderment, ministry, praise, salvation, thanks, worship
Yesterday, the music was good, the sermon was well preached, but the amazing thing was the altar call. Some of you come from churches where it is very normal to see most of the congregation go forward at the end of almost every service. We aren’t one of those churches. It was amazing! Not sure exactly how many salvations we had in the mix as some were coming forward for salvation, others for re-dedication and others just to deal with something in their life. It was incredible to see the altar(Actually, we don’t have an altar, but the area up in front of the platform in the theater) so full of people that there were people in the isles! Just wanted to share a great day with you all! God was moving in some incredible ways!
July 4th Freedom Fest
Filed under: Body of Christ, Family, Random Thoughts, Service, fellowship, praise, thanks, volunteering
Yesterday at 5 Point Fellowship, we celebrated the 4th of July by having sort of a community party/festival that we give to the community for free. There were inflatable rides, bungee slingshots, a rock wall, music, popcorn, cotton candy, sno cones, face painting, hotdogs and most of all, lots of smiles for free! I, along with many other volunteers, was able to share the love of Jesus Christ with people in word, but also through what we were doing. I was really proud off all the people from the church that started setting up about 1:00 and didn’t leave until the parking lot and church were cleaned up at almost 11:00 at night! It was great to have so many hands pitching in, and when asked to do anything, no one said, “That’s not my job.” Every single volunteer pitched in where they saw a need! I love working with this bunch! For those who may read this who have never even heard of 5 Point Fellowship or even Easley, SC…Sorry the blog is a little off my normal fare…I just had to brag on my people!
A HUGE God!
Filed under: Random Thoughts, Wonderment, thanks, volunteering
Our God is so BIG! This is really a random thoughts type blog post today, but I have a lot of thoughts about all that God is doing in this world that I know about…He is doing so very much that I have no clue about! (That is your cue to post comments about things you see God doing!) Many times, he works through people! Yesterday in church, Pastor Dean asked the church to step up and buy 200 chairs for a growing church in Africa. The chairs are simple plastic $10 chairs. It was great to see the congregation give above and beyond what they were asked for with a cheerful heart! Now the church in Africa will not only be able to have chairs under their tarp, but they will be able to buy a piece of land they were looking at and will be able to build a church! God is incredible!
I blogged last time about going to my Aunt’s house to help her out with some house projects. It was not only great to work with my dad again, but seeing the joy that doing that list of simple projects brought to my Aunt was wonderful! God knew that she needed help, and through an odd series of events, brought my dad and mom to this part of the country at this time. I couldn’t have done the projects myself, but with Dad’s help, they went smoothly, and we had a good time working together.
Seeing new believer’s growing in the Lord never gets old! God is doing some incredible work in the lives of many new believers in our church!
There is a camp in Honea Path, SC that has been having a great affect on kids and teen’s lives over the years. This year, a group of retired people got together to go work on the camp before it opened. This year was also the first year that the camp director was able to feel like things were ready when the first day of camp came around! (Note to retirees, you have worked hard and can spend your retirement years as you wish..but I want to put a bug in your ear to investigate one of the many groups that volunteer to work and help out volunteer organizations. Most denominations have a ministry that helps match up retirees with jobs around the country. It is a great way to travel, meet new people and also lend a much needed hand at the same time.)
God is using youth to reach out to the community as well. In our own area of the upstate of South Carolina, Youth are helping out with groups like Meals on Wheels, Miracle Hill(children’s home), Soup kitchens and many more…
I am amazed at the things God is doing through people and I am praying for magnificent supernatural things to happen that can only be explained by giving credit to God! Have an awesome day! We serve a HUGE God!
Godly Parents
It is a week before Father’s Day, but it got me thinking about my parents. No parents are perfect, but I got really lucky! Both of my parents are serving the Lord and have been great examples for me since I was little. I heard many horror stories from other kids as I was growing up about how their perfect deacon dad wasn’t so perfect Monday-Saturday, but while their parents may have been coming home drunk and beating them, my parents were daily having family devotions with my brother and I. They couldn’t force us to become Christians, but they certainly gave us every opportunity. The biggest thing is that they weren’t fake. Kids know! They had flaws, and I saw them, but they loved Jesus and shared Him openly with everyone they came in contact with. They weren’t pastors, just people who loved the Lord with all their hearts! Now, they travel the country in their RV serving with a group called MAPS/RV. They build churches, children’s homes, Teen Challenge Centers (Drug rehab), Church camps…Needless to say, I am very proud to call them my parents. Burl and Karen Lee Walker, if you are reading this, Thanks for being great parents!
Out Reach stuff
Filed under: Body of Christ, Events, community, evangelism, salvation, thanks, volunteering
A guy I talked with last night just made my week! Maybe my month! April 4th, our church put on “Easley Egg Drop 2009″. The concept was simple. Drop a bunch (about 180,000 or so) plastic eggs from a hot air balloon. We gave away prizes, cotton candy, snowcones, popcorn, drinks…everything was free and open to the community. About 200 volunteers from our church helped put on the event. From a numbers perspective, it was a success, somewhere around 10,000 people or more came and participated. Kids had fun, lots of smiling faces etc. Now, back to the guy I talked to last night. He was sharing his testimony with me in a parking lot. He and his wife both got saved after coming to the Egg Drop! They couldn’t believe that everything really was free! They interacted with people from our church and found them to be friendly and helpful. So they decided to check out our church. A couple weeks later, the wife asked Jesus into her heart! Then a week after that, this man had asked Jesus into his heart! God is now working in both of their lives! So what does dropping a plastic egg with a tootsie roll in it have to do with bringing people to know Jesus Christ in a very personal and wonderful way…absolutly nothing…unless it is accompanied by people who are sharing the love of Jesus Christ with others while not expecting anything in return. That selfless love is what brought this man and his wife to the Lord!
PS. Thank you to all the volunteers who helped out! This family’s salvation is in a large part due to your actions!
Easter was an Awesome Sunday!
So, like most churches across the world, Yesterday was a larger than normal service for us at 5 Point Fellowship! Like I mentioned in my previous blog, we had added a Saturday evening service to take care of some of the extra seating. We still had more on Sunday morning even with the 250 people who gave up their Sunday morning seats to come on Saturday night! The greatest number isn’t the number of bodies who showed up, but the 20 people who gave their hearts to Jesus! Integrating new believers into the body of Christ is messy work! It just so happens that I love it! Surprisingly, I don’t much care for real babies and changing diapers and all that, but I love baby Christians! They are so full of energy and haven’t gotten their theology all screwed up yet! They just believe what the Bible tells them. And those who get saved often begin pouring over the Bible like a college student cramming for final exams! I love that! There are a million questions. Sometimes you laugh at the questions, but many times, those questions will really make you think! This blog is just to praise the Lord and say thank you to Him for all the baby Christians that were born in churches across the world yesterday! And a shout out to New Spring Church in Anderson, SC!(Where my brother in law attends.) Somewhere around 350 people gave their hearts to Jesus there! Praise the Lord! I would love to hear comments from readers on the great things God is doing in your church!
Easter Egg Drop
Filed under: Body of Christ, Wonderment, church growth, creativity, thanks, volunteering
As April 4th comes closer and closer, it is amazing to me to see how many people are stepping up to volunteer time, money and possessions to help make the event happen! One of the things that really is amazing is that people who just got saved and/or just started attending our church are jumping in with two feet and signing up to help out! This morning, I got an e-mail from a man who saw the ad in the paper and wanted more information. He is new to the area and is just looking for something for his 5 year old daughter. I look forward to meeting him. And even if I don’t get to, it is great to know that he will get to meet many of the wonderful people from our church and I pray that he will feel the love of the Lord as he has a great free day with his daughter. For all of you who are volunteering, I can’t thank you enough!
Reflections on Sunday
Filed under: Body of Christ, Encouragement, Events, Random Thoughts, Sunday Reflection, church growth, creativity, leadership, ministry, personal growth, thanks, volunteering
This last week we had over 600 again! It is great being a part of a church that is growing by leaps and bounds! People are giving of their time and money which is allowing this church to do some crazy things for God! As we gear up for the Egg Drop on April 4th, it is great to see how the church pulls together for an event. Everything from stuffing eggs with candy to picking up supplies to doing advertising campaigns. At last count, we have between 150 and 200 volunteers signed up to help with the event!If you think of an old saying that 20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work, it is great to see about 40 percent doing the work. (If you remember that 200 of the 600 people in our church are in our children’s ministry.)Wherever you are reading this from, if you aren’t involved in your local church ministry, I encourage you to do so! It is amazing, even in a small church how much it will encourage your pastor to find he has someone volunteering to help out before he even has to ask!
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