VBS Wrap-Up

Some statistics from VBS 2008

- Averaged 290 children and teachers (up 50+ from the last two years)

- Saw 31 children make professions of faith and 15 more express interest

- Had over 300 people at the Friday Night Family Luau.

Overall, it was a great VBS. It will be hard to top next year but I know that God will be faithful if we are faithful to Him. It’s amazing to watch what He can do when we pray, plan, and produce to the best of our abilities. To God be the glory!

VBS Day 3

It is really awesome to see how the Lord works. We had over 35 children make faith professions Wednesday morning at VBS. These children responded to a gospel call by raising their hand (with their eyes closed) and helpers took them outside the room and met with them individually. We expected a few children to make decisions this morning but we did not expect 30-40 hands shoot up immediately when the option was given. Each VBS leader has incredible stories at how God has worked through these kids’ lives this week. Many of these children have never heard the Gospel before and are either unchurched or barely churched. Confronted with the ‘no-brainer’ decision to believe in Jesus’ forgiveness of their sin, these children were eager to taste that sweet forgiveness.

I have heard stories of children sincerely convicted of their sin and ready to accept Jesus and eager to tell their friends and family members about Him. I’ve even heard of children having complete personality changes once the Holy Spirit came to dwell in their life. What an amazing encouragement to all Christians everywhere! God is still on His throne and He is still working through the tender and accepting hearts of children. It is no wonder why Jesus often used children to teach his disciples and others about following Him.

During the remainder of the week we will systematically go through each of the many decision cards and counseling packets and get in touch with every parent. Pray that some of these unchurched parents will be as receptive to the Spirit as their children have been.

VBS Day 2

We had yet another record-breaking attendance day at VBS on Tuesday. We broke the 300 barrier – 312 total participants. Also, we had three fifth grade boys accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior in their small group time as Dr. Estep led their closing Bible study lesson and issued a call to salvation.

On Wednesday I will be giving the children a chance to respond and make the choice to believe in and follow Jesus. Pray that lives will be convicted of sin and that many will turn to Jesus for eternal life.

Here are some pictures from Tuesday’s VBS events:

Here is “Wave Rider Wes”

Anne Marie our Worship Leader

Me

294

294. That is the number of children and adult volunteers that we had today for the first day of Vacation Bible School. This number is about 30 more than the average over the past two years. This number is important for several reasons:

1. This number means that there well over 200 children will clearly hear the Gospel presented this week multiple times. Around half of these children are either unchurched or not affiliated with First Baptist in any way.

2. This number marks a substantial increase since last year. In ministry, we need to celebrate our victories that God has blessed us with. Like most years, this number should increase and cap out by Wednesday.

3. This number means that close to 300 people are either involved in or participating in a Gospel-centered activity at one time in one place for one week. Wow!

4. Because this is the highest number FirstKids has had in a while, the excitement that this number creates energizes all of our leaders. God has blessed us with fabulous leaders this year in VBS – a good mix of first-timers as well as long-term servers.

5. This number also represents the number of little egg salad sandwiches that I ate at the WMU leader snack station. WMU – we you love and your cooking (especially the egg salad, sausage balls and poundcake).

Keep praying that God will bless this week through VBS!

My Way or the Highway

Throughout my experience being involved in young family ministry (a whopping six years!), I have noticed that there are several major “hot button” subjects among Christians. These topics, if discussed in a certain atmosphere and/or spirit, can lead to extreme and emotionally-charged discussions. In fact, some of these discussions between brothers and sisters in Christ can become simply embarrassing to the occasional third party listener. For some reason, these topics create a firestorm of controversy and sibling rivalry among members of the body of Christ. Theses discussions do nothing to unite the body but, in fact, tear down the body of Christ because the spirit with which the discussions are made are nothing short of demonic.

Over the next several weeks, I intend to blog about each of these topics which will comprise a series of posts. Some of these subjects may garner more attention than others. Some of these posts will no doubt attract blog lurkers and surfers to comment whom I’ve never met. Additionally, your comments and interaction may help steer the direction of any future posts in the series. Furthermore, it will be interesting if those commenting will be able to do so in a loving spirit. The title of the series will be, “My Way or the Highway” and will focus on how there are areas of family life that may seem to be the right way (indeed, the only way) of doing things but in actuality, the ‘right way’ is not so clear. The first post will be on the subject of “Natural Birth.” Future posts will deal with such ‘clear’ topics as breastfeeding, spanking, and schooling. I will say that some of these topics deal primarily with the woman’s body and so I may not be speaking from first-hand experience, however, I have a wife who is a mother and, together, we have been through these things together – even if I did not physically deal with the same things that she has dealt with.

Pray for VBS this week – we have over 200 children signed up!

10 Principles for Effective Parenting

Dr. Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC, recently posted a series on when Christ is lord of your home. He gives 10 principles that he and his wife used for parenting their four boys:

1. Always try to see life from their perspective

2. Work at being good partners

3. Discipline your children

4. Love your children with your eyes and your tongue

5. Love is a beautiful four letter word: T.I.M.E.

6. Make it a habit to hold, hug and kiss your kids appropriately

7. Make life and your home fun

8. Appropriately push them out of the nest at the proper time

9. Say consistently, “I am sorry. Will you forgive me?”

10. Pray for their salvation and continually talk to them of Jesus.

For the full article with explanations click here.

Sick

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last few days. I’m trying to get over a sinus infection. I’ll have something up soon.

On Christian Radio

Has anyone noticed a trend in Christian radio over the last few years? It has become downright fluffy. As far as I know, the city of Columbia has one Christian radio station and the overwhelming majority of the time the content on the station is so fluffy it almost floats away. A few years ago it was not like this. However, I have noticed that Christian radio stations in three different metro areas that I have familiarity with in the Southeast have been becoming increasingly sappy. The reason for this is fairly simple: the target audience of these stations is a mother in her 30’s that drives a mini-van. I spoke with a representative of a Christian radio station and this person openly admitted to that person being their target audience. I have nothing against Christian women in their thirties that drive mini-vans, but I am not one of them.

Additionally, I do not always want to be fed content that is “positive and encouraging.” Sometimes I need to be convicted of sin and draw close to Jesus. Sometimes I need to hear some intelligent conversation about Christian topics. Sometimes I need to hear old Christian hymns of the faith. Sometimes I’d like to hear Christian rock that is not mainstreamed. In short, a Christian radio station that is consistently programmed towards “positive and encouraging” sappiness with talk shows that include a twenty minute story about the host’s “build-a-bear” experience is missing out on a very large segment of believers: men. And those men are turning their dial to sports talk or Fox News on their way home to and from work and turning off the Christian sappiness.

The point of this rant is that Christian radio that is “positive and encouraging” is a good thing. However, it does not encompass the totality of Christian life. In fact, it alienates a large segment of its potential listener base and gives a very “pansy” vibe to those unbelievers that may tune in interested in what a Christian radio station is like. In a world where men are consistently being feminized and domesticated, it does not help that our Christian radio stations are not far behind. The only answer to this problem is for radio staions to (a) diversify its target audience or (b) listeners to start new and supplementing stations.

Again, I’m all for being positive and encouraging. But the Christian life is not a walk in a park on a sunny day. It is full of real issues that cannot be pushed under the rug. And the more we push and hide real Christian issues the more men will be turning the station.

The Holy Spirit is God (June 1)

During the month of June, 5th graders at First Baptist will be learning about the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, the Holy Spirit is one of the most misunderstood doctrines in all of Christianity. Hopefully, through this lesson fifth graders will grow to understand the Holy Spirit better.

The truth that your children will be learning this Sunday is that the Holy Spirit is God. In fact, He is the third person of the Trinity. Don’t worry about trying to exhaustively explain the Trinity to your children because you can’t. However, explain to them that the Spirit is 1/3 of the Holy Trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. All three members are equal in essence yet different in function. When a person becomes a believer in Christ and is regenerated, He or she has the Spirit dwelling inside of them and directing their paths – literally, God in them! What an amazing thought and privilege this is!

This week, let your fifth grader know that the Holy Spirit does the following things:

- Helps Christians know what to say
- Helps you pray
- Convinces people they have sinned
- Helps you know God better

The Reason for God

One of the books that I am currently reading is The Reason for God by Dr. Tim Keller. Dr. Keller is the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan which he started in 1989. He is one of the foremost pastors that intertwines cultural relevance, sound theology, and apologetic philosophy into his messages. As a result of this approach his audience is composed mainly of Christians, atheists, skeptics atheists/skeptics turned Christians, many more intellectuals and learners that make up that great city.

The Reason for God is written primarily to skeptics of religion and Christianity, however, all Christians would do well to read the book. This book is being hailed by some as the Mere Christianity of the 21st century. However, instead of systematically ‘proving’ that Christianity is the most reasonable religion (as Lewis does), Keller opens his work by answering the top seven questions about God and Christianity that skeptics have and concludes by giving his top seven reasons for his faith. In the coming weeks I’ll be commenting on this blog from time to time on certain chapters. In the meantime, I would recommend picking up a copy of this book. It would be a great one to recommend to those skeptics in your life.