Ukulelemike

I am a Trump supporter, and thought, as a President, he was one of the best, and was never given the chance to really do for the country what he hoped to do. I also believe those who opposed him and hounded him continually specifically to not let him work for the country will pay one day. 

That being said...

I agree that the Lord ordains the powers that be. Trump wasn't a perfect man, he wasn't the messiah and possibly isn't even born again, as he seemed to approach Christianity much the way he does secular success. I believe Biden is president now, that even IF they cheated to get him in, the Lord allowed, or even ordained it so, and it is HIS reasoning as to why He did so. If they cheated to get Biden in, I am comforted when I consider what happened to Athaliah in Israel, who murdered all the royal seed, (except for missing one, preserved by the Lord and His priests) and usurped control of the throne, but only for a time, and was eventually taken and put to death, even as she screamed that it was treason.  So, knowing the Lord ordains, and we are to pray for those he has ordained to the powers that be, I ray for him and the administration, for their salvations, for their blessings, and their wisdom to be of God.  

I am not a Calvinist by any means, but i DO believe that through even our choices, which God knows beforehand, His will shall ultimately be accomplished, so I need not worry for the future, no matter who is President.

I saw that all restrictions have been lifted off of all churches in California, though it took FOUR chastisements from the SCOTUS about the restrictions being unconstitutional.  Here's an article:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/California-lifts-coronavirus-restrictions-on-16095962.php

17 hours ago, Jim_Alaska said:

People will be people and some very bigoted. That is not reason to drop the name Baptist. Regardless of what some people may think, the name Baptist is a description of a form of doctrine as well as a hard statement of a church's Polity. Baptists have always been defined by their doctrine, history proves this to be true.

Many that have gone before us willingly gave their lives rather than compromise what they believed, or change their doctrinal stance. I, for one, would never discount their blood and abandon the doctrinal stand they gave their all for.

Agreed. I have, in the past, considered dropping the "IFB" label, because there are an awful lot of awful IFB's out there. However, there are an awful lot of awful people who claim the title "Christian", but it is a worthy title, so, in consideration, I maintain the title of IFB because I hold to what IFB actually means, and my church is not defined by the harm some do to the name, because of their bad behavior. 

On 5/31/2020 at 11:31 AM, E Morales said:

Aqua Man Returns...   

Pretty much all (of the few) in our church are of the millennial persuasion, so I can speak a bit on this.

I have, for instance, twin brothers, 28, who seem to love the church and the Lord, but tend to be in and out, for family events, occasionally getting caught up in a video game, working so any hours of overtime they sleep most of Sunday, spending the day working on their yard or truck. So there seems to be a certain ADHD, of sorts, that they are going so many directions they tend to just...forget. We find that often if we text and remind them of upcoming service, probably 90% of the time they make it. But they are too mindful of other things. They haven't learned to fully put God first. I am patient with them, because I see myself there, too, when I was their age. 

It is nothing new really-we must remember the Bible says that few will find the narrow path.

As addendum to my earlier post, I now livestream onto facebook-get a few people watching, not many.

In our little country church, maybe we will just bring in our guard dogs. 

9 hours ago, Jim_Alaska said:

And so it goes and has gone that way for many years now. This is the reason that when and if Deacons are chosen they must be deeply spiritual men, well versed in Scripture and with a Godly understanding of what the office of Deacon consists of. Even more important is what the office does NOT consist of.

When I first became a pastor, there were no deacons, just 'trustees', because we were small, and they were there for business purposes. I have since done away with the official state business aspect, got rid of the 501C3 aspect of the church, and so no trustees. While still too small to worry about deacons, once I had considered it, and they balked at the idea that, A, they weren't going to be a board who decided what did and didn't go on at the church and run the pastor's ministry, and, B, that their primary job was to take things OFF my shoulders and take over in various duties like visitation and the like, so I could put my focus on the word and prayer for the sake of the church. Even when I showed them in scripture what the deacons were hired for, basically waiting tables, they didn't like it, and so no deacons.

On ‎3‎/‎19‎/‎2019 at 12:07 AM, Guest spdowney said:

I visited my old home church a couple of years ago, and left after the close with a tear in my eye.

in the 60s the church was running around 250 and had a pretty vibrant youth group. After a lot of thought, prayer and planning, we approached the deacons wanting to start a bus ministry. Well, after 6 months we had a lot of both kids and seniors riding in on three busses. There were a few families that joined the congregation thru the ministry. It was successful. Except....

About two years into it the deacons decided there were some problems. First, the ministry was costing. It seemed the children weren’t giving enough. And secondly, since few of the kids had ever been in a church, they misbehaved, they were, in many instances unkept and smelly, and they were disruptive. 

So, wham, the bus ministry was terminated. And it seemed the entire church began to slide downwards. A few families left because the deacons seemed to have lost sight of a church’s mission. Many of the youth group moved on to other churches for the same reason. Attendance dropped, and dropped, and dropped.

Asfer high school I left as well, to join another church that had taken up the “bus” mantle, and was fully committed to going out to the highways and hedges. 

My home church began renting out space to pay the bills. A Montessori school rented the fellowship hall. Some small businesses rented the Main St building. And a variety of evening meetings like AA, Yoga and others would rent space on a weekly basis. Evening services were abandoned. Sunday school was dropped in favor of home groups, which shrank to nothing. Today you can “have coffee with the pastor” on Tuesday and Thursday.

my last visit was in a once full auditorium that sat 600, with about 30 in attendance. The worship team played their instrument and sang songs no one knew..... a performance called “worship time”. The sermonette was spoken by a pastor who seemed to have long lost his enthusiasm. I believe the church was dead, but no one had buried it yet.

My home church died in the 60s when they counted poor children unworthy to dirty the carpets. They had left their first love. They were neither hot nor cold, and Almighty God had spewed them out of His mouth.

The clear initial problem here is that deacons ran the church. Deacons are there to assist the pastor, to take certain responsibilities off his hands so he can minister in prayer and the word-when deacons boards began to run things, that's when church leadership went awry.

My old church in San Diego, fortunately, hasn't gone through this, though I've seen they are starting to use some contemporary music, carefully recrafted to a more conservative sound. Unfortunately, this is often the first step down. Once the current pastor, who is holding things together, passes, the trip down will be much quicker.

We video record the sermons and I download them to Facebook and YouTube. I would like to livestream but I don't know how, and my resident techie moved away recently. Being a very small church I tend to have to do everything, include keep the webpage current, (when that happens), do the recording and uploading to the net, etc. I used to do powerpoint with a lot of my sermons but I have kind of slacked off from that recently due to some life changes that keep me busier than before.