Category: Newsletter

I love words. I fell in love with words early, through the venerable medium of comic books. The pictures caught my eye, but the words told the story. In fact, the words made all the difference: the same picture could mean something entirely different, depending on the words (e.g., Lois could be saying, “Superman! Thank goodness you saved me!” or “Put me down, you big lug!”).

Words are powerful. Speech writers labor long and hard over just the right words. They know that saying something the right way can win your argument, while saying even the right thing in the wrong way can mean ruin. The right words have stirred men’s hearts and been remembered by history. The wrong words have cost elections, ruined careers and destroyed families. Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue…”Read More

Vance Havner was an evangelist and Bible conference speaker, who was also sort of the “Will Rogers” of the evangelical world.  He died in 1986, but there are so many wonderful quotes from this old preacher still circulating. I think my favorite is this: “I’ve never heard a sermon where God didn’t speak to me…but I’ve had some very close calls!”

Most people think the word sermon is synonymous with boring. Too often their opinion is based on sad experience. It is a tragic thing when a preacher takes the world’s most amazing book – the Bible – and makes the world’s most wonderful truth – the Gospel of Jesus Christ – seem boring.

Sometimes it’s because the preacher doesn’t really preach from the Bible. I’ve always wondered how liberal preachers-those who do not believe the bible is God’s Word-can get up to preach, Sunday after Sunday. I mean, what do they have to say? They will usually read a portion of Scripture, but then embark on a series of remarks that have little or nothing to do with the text they just read.Read More

I used to have a book titled How to Spend an Hour in Prayer. I think it was by a man named Dick Eastman. Over the years I’ve lost the book, but I still have the notes to a lesson I wrote, based on that book. So I thought I’d pass on the gist of the lesson (and the book) to you.

Don’t be intimidated by the title. It doesn’t have to be an hour. Mr. Eastman pointed out that the clock-face was divided into 12 five-minute segments. (That’s on the old analog-style clocks…for you youngsters, clocks used to have faces, not just digital readouts.) A different way of praying was assigned to each segment. If praying for an hour makes you balk, try praying for 12 minutes, using a different way of praying for every minute. Or pray for 24 minutes, and change the way you pray every two minutes. You get the idea.Read More

The first time I tried to read the Bible was when I was a boy, probably in the first or second grade. My parents had a big black leather Bible they kept on our coffee table. I knew this book was important to my parents and grandparents, and to the preacher at our church, so I became curious to know what was inside it. I opened the front cover and began turning pages, trying to read here and there. I had no idea who King James was (the old rascal), or what King James English should sound like. After a few fruitless minutes trying to understand something of what I could read, I closed the Bible and put it back in its place on the coffee table. My initial exposure to God’s Word left me feeling that the Bible was a mysterious and difficult book.

The Bible is a mysterious and difficult Book. But it is also meant to be read and understood, at least in its main message. The fact is, when the Bible is translated into their native languages, the Story of the Bible can be understood by people all over the world.Read More

Occasionally I find something that is so good I just have to share it. Our former Associate Pastor Aaron Knapp forwarded this article to me with a note saying he thought I’d like it. He was right! I can’t say it any better, so I’m not going to even try. I hope you like it as much as I did.Read More

The Thursday after Easter we did something we’ve never done before, at least not since I’ve been here. Several of us set up a booth at the Senior Health Fair held right next door at the Armory, and we spent three hours meeting and talking with scores of people. It was a grand success, a lot of fun…and an awful lot like work!

The idea came from Dan Holtsclaw, Pastor of Switz City Baptist Church and the new representative for WQTY, the radio station that airs our Sunday morning broadcast. He came to see me and said that the radio station’s parent company was sponsoring a health fair next door, and wondered if we would like to set up a booth of our own there. He said, “It occurred to me that we’ll have all these booths for their physical health, but nothing for their spiritual health.” I told him I’d run it by our leadership and see what they said.Read More

We just had a weekend full of music. Our friends Emily and Kelly Thompson came to do a concert for my wife’s music students last Saturday night. Then they stayed with us and came to our church the next day. I was thrilled when they offered to play and sing Be Thou My Vision in the service Sunday morning. Emily Ann Thompson is an accomplished Celtic fiddler who performs accompanied by her husband Kelly on guitar. As they were warming up before the service, I couldn’t help but grin at the sounds they were making together. I told them, “I’m going to hide your car keys so you have to be here every Sunday!” And I loved how they played and sang the hymn.

Be Thou My Vision may just be my favorite hymn of all. It’s over 800 years old, and when it’s played and sung in the traditional Celtic way, it does something down deep to my soul. When I hear it, or play it myself, I want to laugh, cry and shout for joy all at the same time. (I blame it on my Irish ancestors.) Music is powerful.Read More

When our son Josh was about five years old, he announced to us in a very serious voice, “I hate change!” And I thought, “Then you’re going to have a tough life, kid, because change is inevitable!” Not everything changes, but most things do.

I don’t know whether you’ve noticed, but church has changed. It isn’t like it used to be.

The first thing that probably comes to your mind when I say that is the style of worship music. And that’s true. Even in our very traditional church, we’re singing a lot of songs we didn’t sing a generation ago. That’s a good thing (if they’re good songs). It’s not like God blew a whistle in 1962 and said, ‘Okay, that’s it. I don’t want any more new worship songs written from here on!” I’ll bet some of your favorite Gospel songs have been written after 1962. But, despite the churches that have fought and even split over the type of music to be played, worship music style is really a fairly superficial issue. And too many churches thought that if they switched to contemporary worship music, people would come flocking in. It didn’t happen. It really doesn’t matter if you half-heartedly mumble hymns, or half-heartedly mumble contemporary worship songs. Either way, your heart is on display.Read More