What happened in church today?

[Rebecca 664]

I thought it might be interesting to see what everyone did in church. Was it an average, interesting, funny, or momentous day? Is it missions conference time? Special services or special guest preacher?  Picnic on the grounds after services? You can talk about anything, share pictures, videos, etc, just keep it focused on what happened at your church (or a church you visited) recently. No controversy, please, I'd like this to be a positive thread. If you're worried about sharing too much personal things online, you can keep it simple, just post what scripture was preached from, the title of the sermon (if any), subject of the sermon, an interesting tidbit from the sermon, or a blessing you think we might all enjoy. It can be as short or as detailed as you'd like.

I'll start.

My church recently had combined services with a sister church in the area which  was celebrating their 32nd anniversary. The guest pastor preached on the topic of "Following Jesus". Afterward we had lunch and a good time of fellowship together. 

 

 

 

Edited November 24, 2019 by Rebecca

[Alan 3,520]

Great! Always enjoy hearing the songs of Zion in Chinese.

Thanks Rebecca!

[Salyan 1,932]

Regular Sunday services today... was supposed to have a baptism service (second this month!), but it didn’t work out for everyone so it’ll be next week. My Sunday school class took a break from their regularly scheduled lessons in Genesis to do a class on Christians and the government and write Christmas cards to Canadian servicemen overseas. All the kids got to choose the country of destination.  Lots of visitors in church this morning to hear pastor’s sermon on transgenderism (ha - sure that wasn’t intentional).  I’m trying to get a quick nap in before a senior’s service this afternoon, then back for evening service and a monthly fellowship (i.e. food!) after. The choir is practicing for Christmas, so it’ll be a long evening. 

[Jim_Alaska 2,387]

Since it is the Thanksgiving season our sermon and SS lesson was on thankfulness. This was in the context of the Apostle Paul preaching that we should be thankful in all things, the good as well as the bad. Paul wrote that he was thankful even in his bondage in prison, because he saw it as opportunity.

It also included examples of not being thankful, based on the murmuring of Israel in the wilderness, where they chided with Moses saying that it would have been better if they had died in Egypt. Moses, through God, had delivered them from bondage, but they were not thankful for this deliverance, they even wanted to go back into bondage.

A Thanksgiving potluck followed the main service. It was a good day to be in The Lord's house.

[Ukulelemike 3,832]

I was sick, and since I am the pastor of a very small church, there was no service, (a rarity, as usually I am able to push on through illness, but not yesterday). 

[Jim_Alaska 2,387]

Sorry to hear that you were sick Bro. Mike. I hope you are recovering by now.

[Alan 3,520]

We visited Tabernacle Baptist Church, Pastor Don Ball, in Lebanon, Missouri last Tuesday evening for a special Thanksgiving service. One of the songs sung that evening was a new song sung by the congregation called, "So Much to Thank Him For."

We never heard it before so I found the following YouTube video, "Rabon Creek," that sang the song. Hope you like it.

 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2019 by Alan

[Rebecca 664]

The first service of the new year went well. The first Sunday of each month, I travel to another city to attend the church I had ministered in for about five years before moving to where I live now and ministering in a local church there. So today I was at Victory Baptist Church, my old stomping grounds, which was a tremendous blessing as I can see that the truth of God's Word is working in peoples lives. From an outsiders perspective, the church is small and maybe boring. But from my perspective, it is thriving as God's Word is being boldly proclaimed each and every Sunday, regardless of who happens to show up. In today's culture of business type churches, this is counter-productive, possibly running off people who may get offended or bored. But it is a great blessing for me to see a group of Christians show up to church ready to serve and listen to what God has in store for them.

[Invicta 1,555]

This morning Pastor preached on Philippians 2 3:4-11 Pauls Testimony.  In the morning services he is going through Phillipans

This evening The Message was from Acts 2:37  "Brethren,What shall we do?"

It was the Lord's supper and we welcomed a young couple into membership.  

Edited January 6, 2020 by Invicta
spelling

[HappyChristian 3,684]

Hubs preached on being a living sacrifice yesterday. I taught the kids about Jesus' baptism and temptation. One of the girls took it on herself  to speak up and tell God that she accepted Jesus. When I questioned her, she didn't know why yet. So I told her we would discuss it more as time goes on. Neither of the two girls has any previous church experience, so they don't understand sin and salvation yet. But I think the older one is coming close! So that was exciting.

The first Sunday of the month we have lunch followed by an afternoon service (with no evening service). Then we head over to the nursing home.  Yesterday, after the afternoon service was over, a gentleman joined the church! Praise the Lord! It's been just over a year since the split, so this was exciting!

The nursing home service was good - one of the ladies asked me afterward if we could sing more songs during the service. I think it's a good idea - it seems that as we sing one or two wander in. We don't have many folks, but we're thankful for the ones who come out. The Sunday school girls went with us again yesterday (they went last month because they came home with me every Sunday in Dec. except the last one). They seem to enjoy it, and I'm glad. I want them to think of church/church activities as home-away-from-home.

 

[Rebecca 664]

In Sunday school we are finally back to our series on Moses, where we had left off after switching to a few weeks of lessons about the birth of Christ in December. Today we have started learning about the ten plagues. 

In the main services, the pastor taught on Matthew 25:34-40

After services, people like to stay and fellowship for awhile before heading home. These two girls decided to take that time to finish coloring and to chat a bit before their parents were ready to go. No, they don't sit on the table during class! 

 

[HappyChristian 3,684]

In our Sunday School, we are going on in to the life of Christ. Since this is the girls' first experience with church, I want them to learn as much as possible about Christ. Today we looked at the calling of the disciples.  I talked to the girls about inviting friends...so we may start to grow! =D

My hubs preached on giving ourselves to the Lord, from Romans 12:1,2. Our attendance was a bit lower, but praise the Lord of those who came out!

Rebecca, I cannot wait to be able to teach the girls about Moses. I had thought about going in to that after Christmas, but after praying and talking to my hubs decided to stick with life of Christ for this year. There is SO much I want to teach them; I have to restrain myself to make sure they are getting what they need! LOL

[Rebecca 664]

I agree, starting with the life of Christ is a must! I started with that as well.  I understand the need to restrain myself and slow down. I am already praying about what to teach after Moses. I may go back to the NT and teach about the early church. 

[Alan 3,520]

Always like to visit a soul-winning church. Tabernacle Baptist Church, Lebanon, Missouri, among other soul-winning efforts, has a "Free Day Away," program for soldiers in training at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO. the church uses buses to bus soldiers to the church in Lebanon, MO and provides a day away from the base with a meal, activities, and a church service. On this particular service I was able to lead one of the soldiers to Christ.

 

 

[HappyChristian 3,684]

We have only two little girls coming to Sunday School at this point. They knew nothing much about the Bible before they started attending. So I've been very careful about how I present salvation to them. And I've been praying quite a bit in the last few weeks for them. Well, Sunday morning the oldest girl accepted Christ as her Savior!! We were near the end of our lesson. The Bible stories have all been about the life of Christ. I also teach a practical application story. This past Sunday I divided the story of George Washington Carver in half and told it in Sunday School and Jr Church. Part of the story was how GWC was redeemed for a race horse when he'd been kidnapped by Night Riders. So I spent some time explaining what redeemed meant. 

At the end of the story, he, of course, died. But while on his death bed, he ruminated about Jesus preparing a place for him. That's when she spoke up and said she wanted to accept Jesus as her Savior. While her initial reason was to be able to be in Heaven with Jesus and have fun with Him when she dies, she did understand about sin. I told her she could, but that she would need to do it herself. I did not want to do what so many do and pray a prayer for her to repeat (not saying that's a wrong approach, but I strongly felt it was the wrong approach with her).

She got up from her seat and went over to the empty area of the room and got on her knees. She prayed, told God she was sorry for her sins (something I had NEVER mentioned needed to be said...) and asked to be saved. Woo-hoo! During snack afterward, I told folks she had an announcement. She told them that she took Jesus as her Savior. And that was the wording she used to tell two other people that day.

So very exciting! I told her that now that she was saved, she needed to learn all she can about the Lord, and how He wants her to come to church and invite others. She said, "He does?" So we'll see if she can start inviting others to come. 

Anyway, that is a direct answer to prayer! 

I was also concerned that her younger sister would want to "get saved" just because the older was. But she didn't even blink. That, also, is an answer to prayer. As the Lord continues to work, I believe she will get saved.

[weary warrior 554]

Had a pretty good service yesterday. Numbers were down a little, only had 13 present. But good freedom to preach.

One of my regulars is a 70 year old cowboy who was raised a catholic. He's rougher than a cob, but really supports us, listens intently to every sermon and keeps coming back. Every single Sunday.

We went out to his place to work some horses yesterday afternoon, and he told my son Will to flag a colt in the round pen while he and I went and visited in patio chairs against the barn. It turns out he had more questions that had been bugging him. Questions about the validity of cofessionals, rasaries and praying using written catholic prayers. He's seeing the difference between the simple grace and liberty of the gospel as I preach it, and the bondage he grew up with.

He not a practicing catholic,  hasnt been anything but a rough ol' sinner for many, many years. But until now, that was all he knew of God.

Seeds dont spring up and bear fruit overnight. They need to be nutured, watered and waited patiently for until God gives the increase.

[Ukulelemike 3,832]

Sadly, two of our regular members, twin brothers who have been coming for over 10 years, both saved with us, have for whatever reason to stop attending, just sort of dropped out. Both have gone back to video games most of the time, or lots of working overtime to fund their various interests. I suspect they may have gotten upset at my pointing out to them why they had left the video games in the first place, and now they have gone full back, so we never see them anymore. And in a tiny church as ours, that's a tough loss, after so long.

However, the Lord never promised an easy road. So we had four yesterday, taught on the subject of biblical judging in the morning, that after our discipleship class, and in the evening we have been doing a continuing study on wine and strong drink in the Bible, going over every passage in the Bible that mentions it, and considering each reference as neutral, positive, negative, service-connected, part of sacrifice, or a combination of those. The goal is, there is always such an argument from people as to whether wine is generally seen as good or evil in scripture, so I thought a full view of it completely, then make an assessment at the end.   

[Jim_Alaska 2,387]

Mike, I am sorry to hear of the loss of your twin brothers in attendance. I remember them from when I preached for you , but not their names. How are you handling their membership status, are they still members at this time?

I can sympathize with your concern and grief over this situation, to lose two when you only have six is very disheartening. Just hold the fort and wait to see if The Lord has something in store that we may not be aware of yet. I will also pray about this situation. Strengthen what remains and look to The Lord for guidance. Perhaps try to use this situation as a tool to prepare yourself and others in an effort to avoid this type of thing taking place again, or even to turn this situation around.

Just because the twins are gone doesn't mean they will stay gone, and it certainly doesn't mean that God will not work on their minds and hearts, so that they see their error.

[Ukulelemike 3,832]

17 hours ago, Jim_Alaska said:

Mike, I am sorry to hear of the loss of your twin brothers in attendance. I remember them from when I preached for you , but not their names. How are you handling their membership status, are they still members at this time?

I can sympathize with your concern and grief over this situation, to lose two when you only have six is very disheartening. Just hold the fort and wait to see if The Lord has something in store that we may not be aware of yet. I will also pray about this situation. Strengthen what remains and look to The Lord for guidance. Perhaps try to use this situation as a tool to prepare yourself and others in an effort to avoid this type of thing taking place again, or even to turn this situation around.

Just because the twins are gone doesn't mean they will stay gone, and it certainly doesn't mean that God will not work on their minds and hearts, so that they see their error.

They are still members-our membership policy (which they helped set, by the way, lol) gives 3 months of no regular attendance before we send a letter to them making official inquiry of their absence. Hasn't been that long. So we are hoping it will change, giving them time to figure out what's going on and what's important. 

We are getting ready to get out and do a big push in the area-you know how small our area is, so that won't take a long time-going to start with just getting something into every home about us. I have two tracts and a tri-fold called "What is an Independent Fundamental Baptist?" for those unfamiliar with us and what we believe-there are a lot of false stories about who we are ad what we do, and I thought I might quell some of those to make it easier for some to visit for a first time. We once has a lady telling people that we separated men and women on opposite sides of the church, (we did not). After this we will get more personal and direct-it has just been a while, I am ashamed to say, since we got out door-knocking. And no other church in town does either, and ew are all showing shrinking numbers, so time to get back to the basics.

[Jim_Alaska 2,387]

Thanks for the reply Mike. The three month non-attendance policy seems reasonable and fair. It could even be a restoration tool for the two brothers since they helped put it in place. If they are truly saved this point may be something that God can use to prick their conscience.

I will be in prayer regarding your church endeavoring to reach more people. Door knocking is difficult to begin with and even more so given the low population of the the area. I have never been much for an actual door knocking program, but am all for personal, one on one contact by church members with the community. I have always tended to favor the method of personal contact by just being friendly and getting out in the community to meet people and witnessing to them through the position of friendship. Offering help to those who may need an occasional helping hand goes a long way also, both as a church or individually.

Tracts and other literature are always good choices, even better if they don't sound like advertisements, but rather more like promoting friendship, community, and instilling a sense of curiosity and information. If I can be of any help please just say the word. 

[Ukulelemike 3,832]

2 hours ago, Jim_Alaska said:

Thanks for the reply Mike. The three month non-attendance policy seems reasonable and fair. It could even be a restoration tool for the two brothers since they helped put it in place. If they are truly saved this point may be something that God can use to prick their conscience.

I will be in prayer regarding your church endeavoring to reach more people. Door knocking is difficult to begin with and even more so given the low population of the the area. I have never been much for an actual door knocking program, but am all for personal, one on one contact by church members with the community. I have always tended to favor the method of personal contact by just being friendly and getting out in the community to meet people and witnessing to them through the position of friendship. Offering help to those who may need an occasional helping hand goes a long way also, both as a church or individually.

Tracts and other literature are always good choices, even better if they don't sound like advertisements, but rather more like promoting friendship, community, and instilling a sense of curiosity and information. If I can be of any help please just say the word. 

I will surely do that. Thanks, brother. And yes, before we hit the three month mark I will probably send off an early letter just as a reminder, see if something is bugging them, anything they'd like to talk about. Problem is, neither of them are much good at opening up with anything negative. Just not talkers. So that makes it tough to get to the meat of the issue.