Category: Newsletter

This month we have a guest columnist. My wife, Rae Anne, has been promoting her “What’s Your Story?” project, to encourage us all to remember and tell our own personal testimonies. She wanted to start it off by telling about how she came to Christ. Here’s her story:

Many of you have heard me talk about how I came to Christ.  It is really important to me that you know my experience with God for three reasons.  First, my story ties me to you in a way that nothing else does. In 1966, Rev. Heinbaugh said it very well in the introduction to the church pictorial directory, “We hope you will find this publication to be more than a way to become better acquainted with your church family.  The book of Proverbs 27:19 says, ‘As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.’  We who have been born anew (John 3:3) into the family of God are ‘bound in the bundle of life’ (1 Samuel 25:29) with the Lord and each other! Rejoice with me because of it.”

This month we have a guest columnist. I had an article in mind, but when I read this letter from Kim Collins, I thought it was too important to bury in the inside pages. So, to quote the Lord Jesus, “He [or she] who has ears to hear…”

Dear Church Family,
I have a story and a confession to make to you. The story is about the 23 kids we served last year during the school year… every day of the week for the whole 37 weeks they were in session. These kids ranged from kindergarten through 8th grade, they come from all types of backgrounds and with a wide variety of needs but they all have one thing in common. They all need attention and love. Some days they didn’t have much homework so they just needed an adult to play a game with, some days they needed encouragement to get through tough homework assignments that just didn’t seem like much fun. We taught them everything from cooking, painting, pottery, to how to build a fire, build a wood bench, or plant flowers. It was loud, and a little chaotic but we there one place they knew they were safe and loved. We have even gone to play board games at the nursing homes on a regular basis. They’ve grown over the past three years while we’ve been doing this and it’s been a privilege to watch.

Now for the confession…we’ve decided to cut back to just two days a week this year. We have a faithful group of volunteers that can cover easily two days and be able to help the kids well… each day needs a “in charge person”, a cook, and three helpers. So, for two days we are good… and honestly, I’m OK with that but the kids are not. They will come the two days (everyone’s coming back even for the two days) but the comments I get are we so want to be here every day. So, I’ve been arguing with God. I truly believe there are some of you also having those thoughts pop into your mind… I should get involved… I could make a difference…that sounds like fun…you know those God nudges. I am still open to having the club at least 4 days a week if we have the volunteers step up that can cover the other two days. This is a once a week commitment, to cook or help with homework or to lead a workshop, play games, just hang out with the kids. So, if you’re ready to stop arguing with God then give me a call, text, email… you won’t regret it. I’ve had each of the volunteers make comments on how much they love those kids… and I know you will too.

Thank you for your love and support,
Sincerely,
Kim Collins

This year, for various reasons, my wife and I really didn’t go anywhere for our vacation. We made several one and two day trips to various places around central Indiana, spent a lot of time with our grandsons, and went to two family weddings.

While we didn’t have any exotic destinations, I was glad not to have days of driving for eight or nine hours. We mainly enjoyed the break from our normal routine, and time spent with each other and our family. And, believe it or not, one of the high points of our vacation was a trip to rural Bloomfield.Read More

Even after all this time it always surprises me when people tell me they listen to our church services on the radio. I suppose about once or twice a month someone will tell me that they listen, or a church member will tell me of a friend or neighbor or co-worker who listens to our broadcast. Many people have told me that they listen to part of our church service on the way to or from their own church.

I was kind of intimidated all those years ago when the deacons told me that the morning worship service was broadcast live on a local radio station. This was about three days before I preached in the morning service for the first time. I did my best to forget about the radio broadcast. I wanted to focus on the church service, and just let people listen in.

I’m glad we broadcast it live, “warts and all”. I have no interest in delaying it a week or two so we can edit it and make it “slick” and polished. When I have the rare opportunity to listen to a Sunday morning church program, I’m much more interested in live broadcasts than in the ones that are “produced”. No offense to those who go to the effort to edit; I just think hearing a live church service on the radio (or watching one on television) is much more compelling. Even with mistakes, or the occasional few moments of “dead air”, or the “holy hubbub” that’s heard when we greet one another (or when listeners can hear how off-beat we are when we clap to songs!), I still think its best. We are who we are, and we do what we do. Of course we want to try to be our best and to do better, but this isn’t a sales presentation. It’s a worship service. And I’m glad that people want to listen in.Read More

Last week I went to a pastor’s conference at Highland Lakes Baptist Center near Martinsville, Indiana.

Highland Lakes Baptist Center is both one of the nicest camping facilities you’ve ever seen, and also the headquarters for the Southern Baptist Convention in Indiana. It is 400 acres of rolling, wooded hills that contain a wonderful Worship Center, a rustic Welcome Center that looks like a lodge in a state park, a large cafeteria facility, various cabins and bunkhouses (heated and air-conditioned, thank you very much), an outdoor swimming pool, an obstacle course, a Frisbee golf course, and various trails for hiking.

This isn’t a commercial for Highland Lakes, and I didn’t really take advantage of any of those wonderful facilities. I saw them as I drove in and out of the property. They looked very nice.

I spent the majority of my time at Highland Lakes sitting in a room with fourteen other pastors from around the state. We spent our time being taught by, conversing with and being prayed for by seven other men, former pastors all, now working out of the state organization to do all they can to encourage pastors and strengthen churches. In fact, that’s pretty much their mission statement.Read More

I love Easter. We’ve just come through what for pastors is the most wonderful and exhausting time of the year (along with Christmas). But I love it. I love sunrise services, shared breakfasts, and the increased crowds on Easter Sunday. But most of all I love the Truth that Easter celebrates.

I don’t love the view of Easter that equates it with springtime, the yearly cycle of birth-death-and rebirth, and some vague sentiment of “what Easter means to us all”. I especially don’t love the claim that Jesus’ resurrection was a myth.

I’m with the Apostle Paul: if Jesus didn’t really rise from the dead, “we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Cor. 15:19) If I didn’t really believe that Jesus rose from the dead, I’d quit the ministry and go get an honest job.

There are what are called “minimal facts” about the death of Jesus and what happened next. That means that even disbelieving, skeptical scholars admit the following:Read More

It’s the end of an era. We all knew it was coming. Billy Graham has finished his race and is now at Home in Heaven with the Savior he has preached about for all these decades. There are all kinds of retrospectives and news segments rehearsing the details of his life, so I’m not going to do that here. Let me just give you some random thoughts I have as I think about Dr. Graham’s passing.

I first became aware of Billy Graham through my grandparents. Whenever a Billy Graham Crusade would be broadcast on television, it was always on in my grandparents’ home. My earliest memories of him are in black and white, because that’s the only kind of television anybody in our family had until the mid-1960s.

My grandfather came to faith in Christ when he was fifty years old, and it radically changed the direction of our family. The truths of the Gospel became precious to my grandparents, and they loved it when anybody would boldly proclaim those truths. They loved to hear our pastor preach the Bible, but they loved to listen to Billy, too. Ironically, our pastor didn’t support Dr. Graham or his crusades when he came to Indianapolis. But my grandparents didn’t care. When Billy was in town, they would always attend a night or two of his Crusade.Read More

I have always loved being in a band.

Well, let me amend that: most of the time I have loved being in a band.

The idea has appealed to me ever since one fateful night in the fall of 1966. My father came in the room to change the channels on the television, saying, “Hey, Dave, there’s a new show on I think you might like. It’s supposed to be funny.” He switched it over to the The Monkees, and I was hooked.  The show was funny, but for me it connected on a whole other level. It made me want to play guitar. And not just play guitar: it made me want to play guitar in a band.

There is much to be said for one person playing solo guitar, accompanying themselves as they sing. I like the singer-songwriter genre, and there are a handful of artists who play and sing solo that I have listened to over the years. I enjoy singing and playing by myself, too. But there’s only so much you can do with one voice, six strings and ten fingers.Read More