Never too old to be a camper!

It has been a great week. I had the opportunity for the 9th year to lead worship at Camp Jubilee in Tennessee. There were over 100 students there and over 20 saved! How awesome to see lives changed. I had a pretty busy schedule on Friday so I came home late Thursday night in order to get a jump start on it. We ended our VBS at The Creek by having a worship service for the parents and community Friday night. There were 3 saved, one of those being a parent of one of the kids. We also baptized 17 during the service making a total of 41 this month alone. It has been a great month and I am looking forward to the months to come. There are more lost parents, more lost children, more un-churched and more people that need the love of Christ. In fact, there are enough people that if ever church would be passionate about sharing the gospel, our sanctuaries and worship centers would not contain the numbers, but heaven would definitely have space for them and more!

Family, Fun and Faithfulness

Melissa and I had an opportunity to go and spend some time with my immediate family and wish my grandmother a Happy Birthday! During dinner we sat and talked about the past and old family stories, from old traditions to new stories of times not so long ago. What an awesome thing to listen and see the thread that ties my family together, a thread of faithfulness. Faithfulness to God, each other and morals and values. It reminds me of passage in Hebrews that talks about the "Hall Of Faith", being surrounded by a "great cloud of witnesses". My prayer is that Melissa and I will continue to pass that on to future generations of family, having fun, while remaining faithful!

Go team go!

Envision Update (Building): No word today, but things still look good. Pray that God will grant favor to HCBC, and continue to guide leadership as decisions are made.

Alright, so what team do you cheer for? For me, of course I cheer for Kentucky Wildcats, and various hometown teams. But what about in the church world? First of all what would you consider a team in the wide world of faith? Would you consider your church in itself as a team? What about your denomination? Would pitting one student ministry against another be categorized as teams? I believe that God has placed all of us who name the name of Christ to be on the same team, and further more, do whatever it takes to make sure the gospel reaches the most desolate places on earth. It breaks my heart when I hear of one church degrading and trying to undermine another gospel preaching church. Yet more and more it seems that congregations all around the country become distraught when another fellowship begins to gain "points" or pull ahead in "the game". This is not at all what Jesus had in mind when he told us to "Love the brethren" or to "serve one another". My prayer is not that Hawk Creek become the "best team" or the biggest church, but it is that our vision and heartbeat remains the heart beat of Jesus, to reach the world with the gospel! If we will do that, then our lifestyle of worship will be consistent with the great commission! To borrow a phrase from Ronnie Floyd, "It is more important to remember who you are in the kingdom, that what you do".

It's not about an opinion but about integrity!

In life, we sometimes have opinions about things that matter, other issues are not that important. There are some matters that demand not just an opinion, but a decision, and the decision that is made, will reveal the integrity that we hold. In many of our churches today we have a large number of opinions popping up, some over music, some over style, others are still trying to decide what color the carpet should be in the sanctuary. It has been my observation that too many times we decide to take issue over difference of opinion when dealing with small things and substitute opinion, sometimes mistaking it for conviction over issues that should be forefront. For example, I recently had the opportunity to be a part of an event in which I led worship for a diverse congregation of several denominations. The speaker that night was of a different denomination than I, and that is something that I think should be celebrated as unity in diversity. However, when the speaker began to share something that he stated was "what the bible says", I was prompted to find the scripture that he was referencing. The so called scripture did not exist, nor does the bible give reference to this so called "scriptural truth" that the speaker was adament about. The speaker continued on by giving the congregation a perscibed ritual of how to obtain this scriptural truth. Now, please do not think that I want all christians and people I worship with to be Baptist, or to worship in the same manor as I, but actual scripture should be used, not just opinions. Some denominations intepret different scriptures in different ways, and that is understandable, but that was not the case in this instance. By standing on the same platform as this speaker, I felt as though my integrity was in question, that others felt I went along with him. When somebody declares "Thus says the Lord", the Word of God should back him up, and the Spirit of God should confirm it in your heart. If scripture does not support the teaching, then my friend, the speaker has no integrity, authority or place to preach, and should be labeled a false prophet. In love, Gods people from Pentecostal to Presbyterian, from Baptist to Apostolic, should preach the Gospel loudly, without reserve and to the world without personal agenda or doctrine. Praise God for diversity, and for giving me friends of other denominations who preach the truth, and love people enough to have a kingdom mindset! It's not about spiritual gifts and if you believe in them enough. It's not about how much of the bible you know. It's not about taking comunion every weeks or once a quarter, but it is about Jesus and by always preaching Jesus, our integrity will speak much more loudly than our opinion.

A New Home for Hawk Creek

It seems that God has been up to something for a couple years, and we are now feeling the downpour of His blessing. We recently received a call about a building that was origionaly built for industrial use, with 65,000 sq ft of empty space. What kind of awesome things could God do there? The possibilities are limitless. We have seen the hand of God move in a mighty way even in the small place that we are currently. I am so greatful that God uses the small things to do some enormous works. I will try to keep everyone up to date as information becomes available!

Summer Is Here

With summer in full swing, that means alot of extra time for some, and less for others. The temperature of our worship should always be hot, no matter what the temperature outside. At Hawk Creek, God is definitely keeping the fire hot. People are coming from all over to serve God, and some to give thier hearts and lives to Christ! What a time to give praise to God! We have several awesome ministry opportunities coming up. Mission trips to Bosnia, Argentina, and Las Vegas. GROW outreach ministry to reach the 13,000 people within a 4mile radius. The student ministry that reached students from 4 schools, and a childrens ministry that has overflowed its banks! Oh Lord, keep it coming!

Touchdown at HCBC

Sundays services were so amazing! Two were saved and 4 joined the church! We baptized 2 Sunday night and that was another wonderful time of worship. Even though worship happens on an individual and personal level most times, it is great to come together for corporate worship and celebrate together what God is doing in the lives of his people, and the resurection of Jesus! Are you celebrating anything when you go to church? I hope so! My prayer is that your worshipservices are not boring but full of life, after all, Jesus came so that we could have life and have it to the full!