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We had two on Sunday.

Yeppers... many of us have noticed how over the past 50+ years Tom Turkey has been pushed off the road by the fat man in the bright red suit, flying around with his eight tiny reindeer! LOL The over commercialization of Christmas has gotten way out of hand! My parents Western Wear Store would NEVER allow Thanksgiving to be bypassed. None of the decorations for Christmas at their store came out until BLACK FRIDAY. I'm thankful for that.

Have we fallen short in baptisms? And why are baptisms being used as a measure for how strong churches are? Many pastors have seen the futility and falseness of dunking people just for the numbers? They've come to the realization that people need to understand what baptism is, and in the true discipling of people first. In the days of Christ people understood the implications of being baptized into this new religion called Christianity. They could be kicked out of the synagogues, lose their livelihoods, and even their lives. That's exactly what Saul of Tarsus was doing before he had his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus.

Who has stated that he can?

For we all fall short to His Glory. We are not Angels, but a little higher. Those that are Saved or born again.

Start managing your finances well, rainy days are coming. Trump cannot Save the World.

With winter approaching or already here, I imagine that there will be less baptisms. Definitely churches are no longer baptizing like 25 years ago. I’m not blaming anybody. It’s just an observation. I believe the only churches that are out there baptizing, are the Assembly of God (Works). We Baptist have fallen short in this area.

Reading and replying to this post today 11/20/24 makes me wonder, how can we go from Halloween to Christmas and bypass Thanksgiving? Christmas things everywhere and it’s not even Thanksgiving yet.

Uh, I am sad to hear this You know, goodness I never expected that something like this can happen. Condolence to you. In that period I pity you so much. May the Lord bless you, supply you with all the power of the new age, and fill the soul with happiness and expectation. Keeping you in my prayers

Yeah, that's real abuse of power. Its true I haven't experienced that kind. What I have seen is when the pastor meets with people during the week to disciple and they get dependent on the pastor.. rather than relying on the Word themselves..so the pastor may go overseas for training..or plant another church.. and those people leave or flounder. Sort of like youth going to a big christian conference.. getting hyped... They go home buzzed...buzz wears off and they were relying on the feelings rather than the key learning from the conference.

Here’s a plot twist to this story. The church that prompted this thread recently had their pastor resign. They have a building but no pastor, and we have a pastor who needs a bigger building. They approached me to ask if we could merge congregations. It's amazing how God works.

Unless you have ever been in an abusive IFB church or churches you will NEVER understand why someone would leave. I grew up in an abusive IFB church. I loved my pastor and his son, who was my youth pastor for a time. The Gospel was preached, and people were saved on a regular basis, but many things were covered up, especially if it was of a sexual nature. When offences were brought to the pastors attention they were dismissed or passed on to some other church. That was until several people, myself included, told the pastor that we were going to make public the dangers in the church. It was brought to a head when a youth worker and a school teacher were grooming girls, and boys, for sexual liaisons. One of those involved was my high school sweetheart. She finally confided in me. I also had been physically punched by my youth pastor. He grabbed me with one hand around my throat and moved me up the wall and punched me. He told my parents that I deserved it. The reason he did it? I had questioned some of the things going on in the youth group. I wasn't the only one who suffered such things. The school teacher was fired, but the incident was NEVER brought before the church. Neither was the youth worker. Thank the Heavenly Father that you've NEVER experienced unchecked pastoral power and abuse.

I know my wife and I were members of a church full of nepotism, hirelings, and people from off the street. These are some things that are very common in churches affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. It's not uncommon for them to have a secretary from outside of their own churches membership. It's also a common practice in many of their churches to hire people from the secular sector to play in their worship band, and to work in other areas of their ministry. It's hard to find faithful members if they're not allowed to function in the churches programs. There were also issues with the pastor only visiting people who were in his own age group. I know that many of us who are in their senior years were being overlooked and basically shut out. And the nepotism in the church was a real problem with an assistant pastor who was the brother to the worship leader, and whose father in law was the head Deacon for the church. After the worship leader left during the heighth of the pandemic because the pastor wouldn't require everyone to be vaccinated and wear masks, the assistant pastor, who was also the youth pastor, went and became pastor of another larger church in the area. His father in law left a few weeks afterwards. Then, instead of hiring another person to lead the worship portion of the service, the pastor installed his wife. Several months later one of the pastors buddies in the church became the assistant pastor. It wasn't good, and we and several other older families we basically frozen out. We've been looking ever since. People will only be faithful if they have a right heart and are truly seeking to please the Lord. They're the ones who should be working in the churches. The pastor should be looking for and working towards helping his congregation to find their spiritual gifts and helping them to utilize them.

Keeping faithful members is a hard thing to do these days. What are pastors doing differently to keep them, besides preaching the true gospel? I know some churches higher them as workers, but those that don’t work in the church. How do you keep them from leaving. Some pastors say it’s out of their hands, but I believe there is something you can do to keep them, coming back. I know this may sound weird, but have you ever visit them? How about asking them for their phone number and giving them a call once in a while, I believe this can help. Some might say my job is to preach the gospel and attend my sheep, but here only, in the church building. Some give up with members that stop attending services, and don’t even do a follow up. This is not my job to do. One time, a young man said to his father, my girlfriend don’t wanna see me anymore and the father said to his son, Son there is more fishes in the ocean. I guess this could apply to members also. TGL

Hey Josh, This is bro Jason and I noticed that some time ago you posted some messages from Evangelist Terry Pace entitled Traveling The Emmaus Road and I Can Not Come Down. I have been looking for these messages and a lot more from bro Terry for a long time. Is there anyway you could send me these messages PLEASE? I would be very grateful. Thanks bro Jason.

We once had an "Independent Baptist Tabernacle" here not far from where I live. My wife and brotherinlaw visited it once, years ago, and the folks were dancing around, babbling in "tongues" and all that nonsense. Then you have some with Calvinistic doctrine and other various things. I tried to find a good IFB church in my area but was unsuccessful. One of them even had a "pastor" who was divorced and remarried. Our SBC pastor is the "husband of one wife" and his 5 grown and married kids are active in church. He preaches the Gospel/word of God with no Calvinism or any other false doctrine that I've heard. I think I'll stick with that.

I think a big thing is people thinking they can have 'church' anyway they like. So they might leave an IFB church and then join an online ministry and call it their 'church'. IFB churches are usually very sure of what a church should be and maybe the person leaving wants to have it their own way. I cant imagine leaving IFB churches myself.. I dont know of any other kind of church that is as clear about what they believe and why, but I also have never been sure of KJVO.

Ezekiel 34 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? 3 Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. 4 The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. 5 And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. I can remember one sermon, from a young visiting preacher during the last camp meeting which was held before we left, preaching on giving to people in need outside the church setting, and I thought it was remarkable. Because. 99% of "giving" messages had always seemed to have been about giving to the pastor, or a visiting speaker, or a missionary when one was present. I personally was verbally abused, slandered and even struck on the face by a pastor. The last pastor and pastor's wife tried to set their son up with my daughter. I had already seen how that could turn out so I was cautious. I approved of the young man at first, but I told the pastor, from the beginning, that his son could visit our daughter at our home but she wasn't to visit their son at his. You know, like, the boy is supposed to court the girl? Anyway, they would have nothing of it and tried to bully and manipulate me over this one thing. The pastor finally had his son write my daughter a letter "breaking up" with her. He did so, which told me that the young man wasn't really interested her anyway. I finally had enough of it and left the church. We visited two churches and the second one we visited, we stayed. l felt the Spirit of the Lord there and sensed we were at the right place. (where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty). No one at that church has mentioned anything about why we left or said anything about it. We had one man who called himself a preacher, visit our new SBC briefly, and confronted me in the foyer one Sunday night about my former church and told me he thought they were "too legalistic". I heard what he said and answered him NOT ONE WORD. I figured he was fishing for more information but he got none from me. I don't think that guy ever came back; proably to sow discord somewhere else.. Still to this day, no one at my church, other than that brief visitor, has enquired to me or mentioned about our leaving the other church. No one has abused us there either. The verses I posted here are concerning Israel, but can apply to God's people in general. . People are people and the principle is the same. Where we are now, our pastor preaches the word and there is a spirit of love. (he preaches about Hell too) But no, no celebrating about our leaving, at least not that I have been aware. 17 And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats. 18 Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet? 19 And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet. 20 Therefore thus saith the Lord God unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle. 21 Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad;

His wife passed away.

I'm really sorry to know about the state of your wife. I Just pray the doctors start giving some answers soon, and she begins to feel better. I hope you both stand strong in the course of the coming difficult time. Praying for her recovery!

Ohio had a trifecta President Trump, Senator Moreno (R) replaced Brown (D), and NO on issue 1! From what I hear the nation also has a trifecta of republicans for president, senate, and house. I hope the opportunity isn't squandered.

Many years ago I came across a sermon an IB preacher named Gary Dice when he visited Australia, and from memory he was preaching on this passage, or at least referencing it. He sang a slightly silly song about this section of Romans 7, but I have never been able to find any reference to it anywhere else. I would appreciate it if anyone has heard of it and could give me a reference or link to it, or best case, the sheet music. I know there are many songs that come up when you do a google search, but none of them have been the one I am looking for. It has the words almost direct from the KJV, not just something loosely based on that text. Thanks folks.

I also noticed he seems quieter, perhaps more humble this time. But even last time I had come to view his particular tendency to boast as just having an immensely positive attitude. He's also careful to thank others and to offer credit where credit is due, while having no compunctions about calling out anyone who deserves none.

Just to clarify on the repenting God did when Israel turned from their evil ways. The thing here is that their turning from evil ways here is called... works. So since salvation isnt by works ..and turning from evils ways IS works.. hence the issue with repent meaning 'turn from sin'. So there is what I was meaning.