Our New Weight Loss Plan

Guess what? CBS News has decided that Katie Couric, their new news anchor wasn't thin enough... so they digitally made her smaller for her publicity photos for CBS News.

Here's the link for the story http://www.comcast.net/tv/index.jsp?cat=TELEVISION&fn=/2006/08/31/466562.html

Apparently the digitalized photographs made her 20 pounds lighter. I am not looking to be made thinner.... I want to be made taller. If I was 6'6'', my weight would be perfect!

The Way It's Supposed to Work

For the last 2 years, the Southwest Florida Baptist Association has been without a Director of Missions (DOM). During that time, we have talked about the following possible scenarios:

• Merger with another Association in order to provide enough finances to pay a DOM and have money left over to do ministry.
• Looked into a part time DOM who was in the area.
• Search for a full time man who might be retired so as to supplement a less than adequate salary.

But then God worked a miracle. The Florida Baptist Convention contacted us to team with them for a new opportunity. They would supplement the salary we would pay a DOM on a sliding scale starting at $25,000 the first year over 3 years. He would be our DOM, but he would also be trained by the state Convention to be a church planting strategist.

This was a brand new thing.

Local associations are in trouble throughout the Southern Baptist Convention. Associations used to be a place of fellowship and a safeguard to the doctrinal polity of the convention. But over the years, pastors have gotten their fellowship among pastors who serve in churches that may not be SBC but who 'do' church more like them. More churches were doing their own local mission projects, so money was not coming in as before.

Now Florida under the leadership of Dr. John Sullivan, Executive Director-Treasurer, Dr. Cecil Seagle, Director of the Missions Division, Dr. Craig Culbreth, Director of the Partnership Missions Department, and Dr. Rick Lawrence, Director of the Church Planting Department, has forged a new road. A road that might just make associational ministry work again.

For the last 6 months, a team has been working to collect resumes, sort through them and put before our association a man who will be a "pastor to pastors" in our local area and help strategize to start new churches in our area. As a member of that team with Chairman Wayne Briant, Moderator Gary Roy, Pastor Jose Canes, Dr. Rick Nations and Pastor Walt Reynolds, I have watched the Lord director us after much prayer and work to, what we believe is, the right man.

His name is Dr. David Montalbano from Riverview. He has experience as a DOM in New England and has pastored throughout our country. He speaks English (of course), fluent Spanish and a little Italian (which was a major selling point for me). The Executive Board of the Association voted unanimously on August 24 to join with the Search Team to recommend Brother David to the Association as our new DOM. This meeting will be on Tuesday, September 12, at the colonial Oaks Baptist Church at their new location on Bee Ridge east of the interstate.

I've gone all this way to make this point. Our local association has provided a model for how Southern Baptists ought to do ministry.

• We see the problem.
• We develop a solution together.
• We partner together to make that solution work, even if it means breaking that basic Baptist mind set of "We've never done it that way before."

The churches and people who make up our local association are as diverse as the rest of our convention. But we worked together. The tension that sometimes exists between state conventions and local associations sometimes happens here. But we worked together.

That's the model the SBC ought to hold up. And just think, it started here first!

Dead Like Me

I am probably going to get in trouble for this but I have been watching on Tuesday nights a show on the SciFi Channel entitled "Dead Like Me" Here's the link http://www.scifi.com/deadlikeme/

This is from the website:

Georgia "George" Lass (Ellen Muth) is an 18-year-old college dropout who has no job skills and seems unable to take an interest in anything, including her own life. She projects an air of cynicism that infuriates her mother, baffles her father, and intimidates her younger sister.

When her mother, Joy (Cynthia Stevenson), insists that George get a job, she applies to a temp agency that sends her out as a file clerk. Her lunch break — and her life — are cut short when a toilet seat from the Mir space station drives her into the pavement.

George does not realize that she is dead until Rube (Mandy Patinkin), the kindly leader of a team of "grim reapers," points out her remains. Rube takes George under his wing and introduces her to the other members of his undead group: Mason (Callum Blue), Roxy (Jasmine Guy) and Daisy (Laura Harris). In addition, Rube explains to George that in order for her soul to move on to its next level, she has a quota of souls she must help remove from those on Earth who are about to die.

The members of Rube's team of reapers are all, like George, people who died with unresolved issues. They still have lessons to learn that — for one reason or another — they failed to learn in life. They move about the Pacific Northwest in the full light of day. They walk the city streets and eat at all-night diners, just like anyone else. They have to find their own places to live, cook, eat and do their laundry. They look just like everyone else, but as "un-dead" grim reapers they appear physically different to the living than they did when they were alive.

Dead Like Me revolves around George¹s adventures as she comes into contact with an eclectic group of people who are about to meet their maker, and as she learns to interact with her fellow reapers, with Rube, and with her new/old boss, Dolores Herbig. She also looks in on her grieving family and must cope with how things continue to change without her. All of these interactions lead her to ask: What if death is not the end? What if it is not even an escape, but an opportunity to accept responsibility? … What if death is a wake-up call?

Obviously from a Biblical point of view, this is entirely wrong. But it is - to me - a fascinating look at death.

In last night's episode the characters had to catch up on their paper work. They had to file the death's they had overseen by their last thoughts. The thoughts were about regrets.

• "I wish I had said..."
• "I wish I had done..."

Well, you get the idea.

So many people live life with regrets about what they said or didn't say, what they did or didn't do, what they gave their life to and what they wished they had given their life to.

I don't want my last thoughts to be regrets. I want them to be like Paul: "... time for my departure is close. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

I can't choose the time of my departure. I can choose not to live with regrets. I can choose to live like Paul.

Forgetfulness of God

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said:
“In our members there is a slumbering inclination towards desire which is both sudden and fierce. Satan does not here fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God.”

Hudson Taylor said:
"The Lord Jesus received is holiness begun; the Lord Jesus cherished is holiness advancing; the Lord Jesus counted upon as never absent would be holiness complete... "

I was arrested by those insights. It is the source of all my problems. It's not that I hate God. On the contrary, I love Him deeply. It's that I have at times been forgetful of Him. I have not realized His constant and abiding presence in my life.

That's probably your challenge, also. Let's work on it together. What's the best way to "practice the presence" of Jesus? Let me know your ideas.

What's in a Name?

You have got to read this blog by Dr. Alvin Reid. He writes well all the time. But his article about "What's in a Name?" is right on. Here's the link: Books, Culture and the Gospel

I have wondered what would be the name of our church if we changed our name to fit our personality. Tell me your ideas!

I’m Glad I’m a Recent Southern Baptist

This is the first of a series concerning the SBC

In 1992, I became the Interim Pastor of a Southern Baptist Church. Because I was coming from an Independent Baptist background, the Search Team asked me to meet with the Director of Missions. I know they trusted me, but I think the DOM had his questions, with good reason. There had been a number of SBC churches being pastored by non-SBC pastors who had un-ethically and sinfully tried to get them to leave the SBC because of the “liberalism” in the Convention. I think he wanted to make sure that I was not going to do this.

From that point of view, it was an easy interview. I asured him that I wanted to be a part of the SBC. From my study of Scripture, I believed that there was a wider fellowship among churches than I had seen in the Independent ranks. So I was ready to become a card carrying Southern Baptist.

It was easy from another perspective because the good people God had called me to serve with were every bit as Bible believing as the Independent Fundamental Baptists that I had pastored.

Although I had been trained to believe that there was a liberal under every Southern Baptist rock, I discovered this wasn’t true at all. I found pastors who were talking about winning people to Christ, starting new churches and helping existing churches to become effective. I head them talk about the inerrancy of Scripture and in conversations found that they were absolutely Biblical.

This wasn't true everywhere. There were, at SBC seminaries and colleges, leaders who denied the inerrancy of the Bible. But more importantly, I discovered that something was being done about it. The SBC was unalterably committed to becoming an inerrantist denomination.

I was not involved in those conflicts. I knew better than to get in the middle of a family dispute. A few of the battles were vicious, no-holds barred, nasty and unchristian. Both sides used political maneuvering to gain power. This was not true of every situation but all too often.

Gradually the lines were drawn. Those who were labeled “moderates” including liberal and some inerrantists left and began the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. I cannot speak for what they believe. But I was clearly and proudly aligned with the Southern Baptist Convention, both as a pastor and in my doctrinal position.

I am the recipient of the blessing of those victorious conflicts. I now go to local, state and national meetings where I know that the Bible will be upheld. I have been involved with our local association and state committees. I have enjoyed the kind of fellowship that I never knew before becoming a Southern Baptist.

I am grateful for those people who did what needed to be done so I could enjoy a denomination that, while imperfect, loves Jesus and His Word.

He's Back

Just when they thought they had a wide open highway to winning majors, other golfers will have to go back to the practice tees.

Tiger Woods ran away from the pack in winning his 12th major championship yesterday. When the day began 22 golfers were within 2 strokes of the lead. By the back 9, it was "Who's coming in second?"

Tiger Woods is a stone cold killer on the golf course. He just doesn't lose when he's at the top. He doesn't make the mistakes that others make, mistakes that lose tournaments. Since missing the cut at the US Open, he has been in 3 events and won all 3.

And all of this after a 2 year period in which people were saying that the playing field was leveling off. But they had forgotten that Woods had, in those 2 years, gone through 2 major and 1 minor change. Think about it:

• He changed his swing again. This was the minor issue. He felt in order to get to the next level in his own game, he had to change. So he did. Even in the midst of those swing changes, he was still the best.
• He got married. Now that in itself would be enough to change your focus, as it ought to.
• His father's death 3 months ago after a long battle with cancer was the worst. This is the sad rite of adulthood that all must pass through, but to do it so publically, would change anyone's perspective. Yesterday in a Sportscenter interview, he was asked about winning the PGA Championship, his statement was "I wish my father was here."

But he hasn't lost that killer instinct. On the 18th hole yesterday, when he could have 4 putted from 40 feet and still won, he backed off the putt and glared at someone trying to take a picture at the wrong moment.

Commentators are now having to say stupid things like, "He's never had to make a last day charge to win." or "Jack Nicklaus didn't have a goal to shoot for or he would have won more." I watched Nicklaus in his prime, he was as much of a stone cold assassin on the course as Woods is today.

For golf professionals there's good news and bad news: The bad news for golfers is Tiger's back. The good news is that he can't play in every tournament.

Lord, Keep Reminding Me

Do you ever think about what you were like before you became a believer? I try not to because, honestly, there were alot of things that I did in the BC days that I am ashamed of now. But when I start to get self-righteous and holier than thou in my friendships with unsaved people, I ask the Lord to remind me about those days.

They are not happy memories. Lonliness, confusion, poor choices and sinful acts were the hall mark of my life. My life was a reflection of the fact that even though I was surrounded by godly poeple and influences, I was a sinner, a sinner by nature and by choice.

So when I see my unsaved friends - and they are my friends - have messed up lives and marriages I understand that it is because they have no connection with our heavenly Father. That's what Paul was getting at when he said in 1 CORINTHIANS 6:9-11:

Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be deceived: no sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, thieves, greedy people, drunkards, revilers, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom. Some of you were like this; but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

That's was why Paul kept telling people what he was like before he met Jesus. He was not bragging about his past, he was reminding himself and his listeners about what he was truly like before he took that trip to Damascus.

Our unsaved friends are like the first part of these verses. They may be "bad" sinners or "good" sinners. The common denominator is sinner. The only difference between my unsaved friends and me and your unsaved friends and you is that we have been washed, sanctified and justified.

God's reminders keep me doing 3 things:

1. They keep me wanting others to know the same Jesus I know.
2. They help me keep a right attitude towards my friends.
3. They motivate me to preach sermons and have a church that wants to reach those friends.

So, keep reminding me, Lord.

The Name Changed to Protect the Guilty

Someone sent me this picture this week. I've seen my share of these signs. But this one really caught my old nature and fired it up. I wanted to visit the church and "accidentally" crash my car into the sign.

If that sounds unspiritual and below the dignity of a pastor... First of all, you don't know me and my "dignity" as a pastor. Secondly, Christians are our own worst enemies when it comes to presenting who Jesus really is. And sometimes it begins with our church signs.

There is a website that is devoted to church signs that ought not to be. Here's the link: http://www.crummychurchsigns.com/

The idea that church is for those who love Jesus is both a good idea and a bad idea.

• It's a good idea because people who love Jesus ought to meet and worship together. Church services ought to celebrate the love that Jesus has shown to us when he died on the cross.
• It's a bad idea that only those who love Jesus ought to come to church. Church ought to be a place for those who don't yet love Jesus.
• It's also a bad idea because it says that the church is some sort of club. We have a secret handshake, speak in a secret code and listen to weird music.

We are not a club. We're here to serve and love Jesus as well as serving and loving the people around us until He comes back. We exist not for ourselves, but for others.

I don't care why people come to church. I just want them to come, hear about Jesus who has changed my life, and learn to trust and love Him.

If You Don't Love Jesus,

Come On In!

WOW!

What do you get when you combine great worship in both services, people responding in faith to what Jesus did for them when He died and rose again and baptizing a teenager before she goes away to college? You get a great day at Osprey.

What do you get at a Deacon's Meeting that centered on what we're doing, how we can do it better and what we will do in the future? You get a church leadership that understands why we exist as a church.

What do you get when you ask the people at church how God has been good to them and they say "I've been sober 6 years", "He gave me a great church family to be with" "He kept 10 planes from being bombed" "He let me know Jesus as my Savior"? You get a service in which people caught a glimpse of God's glory.

What do you get when you have people sitting around tables talking to each other, discussing what is meant in Colossians 3 and laughing with and at each other? You get a Sunday evening worth coming out to.

What do you get when you combine all of this into one day? You get a sense that God is in heaven and He's smiling.

A Thought From David

Psalm 131:2 says, "... I have calmed and quieted myself like a little weaned child with its mother ..."

Although outwardly stoic, I am at times an inward caldron of mixed and confusing emotions and feelings and thoughts. Much of it is personality. Some of it is cultural and societal.

Regardless of its cause I am responsible for stopping it. The writer said "I have calmed... myself. So how do I do that? Here's some ideas that have helped me.

1. At various times throughout the day, turn off all outward noisemakers and sit quietly.
2. Read/remember/think about a promise from the Bible for 5 minutes.
3. Spend a few moments talking with the Lord. Don't use the same words you might use when you are called on to pray in church. Just talk with the Lord. Tell Him how your day is going. Talk to him about a concern that is bothering you. Thank Him for listening.
4. Then ask, "Is there something you'd like to tell me?" And listen, really listen. You won't hear an audible voice. But you might hear Jesus remind you that He really loves you. He might even whisper that He really enjoys the time you spend with Him. He might tell you not to do something because it's wrong. But listen to what He says.

Now what have you just done? You've calmed yourself. You've gone quiet. And in those 10 minutes you will have developed the child-like spirit Jesus told us all to develop.

Right now, you're saying "I'm too busy." Then you're just too busy. Too busy doing everything except the most important thing with the most important person in your life.

He' waiting for us right now.

Terrorism Front and Center

With the arrest of at least 21 suspected terrorists in London, 11 Egyptian "students" going missing in the United States and the admitted funding by Iran of the Hezbollah Terrorists, the upcoming anniversary of the September 11th attacks becomes ominous.

There must be no equivocation here. We are at war. Our way of life and our freedom has been under attack for many years.

• The murdering of over 200 marines in their barracks in Beirut over 20 years;
• The attack on the USS Cole;
• The bombing of our embassies in Africa;
• The first World Trade Center bombing

These were all carried out by the same Islamo-fascist terrorists.

Here's a couple of news sources that you can use to keep up:

http://counterterrorismblog.org/
http://www.threatswatch.org/
http://www.jpost.com - This is the Jerusalem Post

Let me warn you against a couple of extremes:

1. Don't dive into the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation and attempt to coordinate them with the news accounts. God will take care of the end times in His own way and time.
2. Don't get scared. Our kind, loving, powerful Heavenly Father is in control of this world. His plan is underway. Be informed. Stay alert. But don't panic.

God's word to us is that He is not concerned and worried. Neither should we!

2 Chronicles 20:12 comes to mind. Jehoshaphat is facing a terribly powerful enemy. He seeks God. He calls on the nation to seek God and then he prays. He ends his prayer with this:

Our God, will You not judge them? For we are powerless before this vast multitude that comes to fight against us. We do not know what to do, but we look to You.

May that be our prayer today!

The Smugness Disease

Miriam Webster defines “smug” as “highly self-satisfied; having too high an opinion of oneself”.

Did you know that’s a spiritual disease also:

• 1 Corinthians 1:11 - For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers, by members of Chloe’s household, that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I am saying is this: each of you says, “I’m with Paul,” or “I’m with Apollos,” or “I’m with Cephas,” or “I’m with Christ.”
• 1 Corinthians 5:1-2 - It is widely reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even condoned among the Gentiles—a man is living with his father’s wife. And you are inflated with pride, …

There are other examples: Peter’s boasting that he wouldn’t cut and run when Jesus was arrested; Elijah’s complaint that he was the only faithful person left in Israel…

But smugness is not an ancient disease. It hits us today.

• “I’m a Southern Baptist. The other denominations, while good, don’t interpret the Bible correctly.”
• “I’m a 5 point Calvinist, the others just don’t understand the doctrines of grace.”
• “I’m not a Calvinist. Those 5 pointers aren’t evangelistic.”
• “I preach relevant sermons… the others preach irrelevant sermons.”
• “I preach the whole counsel of God… I only care what God wants, not people.”
• “I sing the great hymns of the faith because this modern stuff repeats everything and leaves out the blood of Jesus.”
• “I sing only the recent music because those old hymns don’t touch people of today.”

The list could go on and on. The problem with being smug is that we never see it. We always cloak it in spiritual terms like convictions and correct Biblical interpretation. All the while failing to know that … gasp … we might be wrong. God might have truth that others see that I have failed to see or understand.

Spiritual Smugness inflates us and deflates God. It makes us think that we can completely understand everything that the God of the Bible is doing and thinking. It brings our omnipotent, revealed God down to a set of doctrinal statements.

If I sound too passionate about this, it’s because I see it so often in me. I am so quick to judge everyone else… so quick to think that I have it all down pat. At those times, I have made God too small and Tom too big.

It was deadly in Corinth. It was deadly in Peter. It’s deadly in Tom.

What Exactly is Salvation?

We talk about it in church almost every Sunday. But all too often we don't understand it. I am talking about salvation.

This next Sunday, we begin a 5 parter about Salvation. Here's the breakdown for the series

• Week 1 - What is salvation?
• Week 2 - Past Tense Salvation - "I have been saved from the penalty of sin."
• Week 3 - Present Tense Salvation - "I am being saved from the power of sin."
• Week 4 - Future Tense Salvation - "I will be saved from the presence of sin."
• Week 5 - Perfect Tense Salvation - "If I am really saved, I will always be saved."

I know that sounds like the English Grammar class you always hated, but it will be a good study. It won't be a theological treatise... you know me, I gag at theological terms. Hebrews talks about our 'so great salvation' . If we will discover what it really means when we say, "I am saved", it will change our lives.

CATCH UP STUFF:

• I quoted David Wilson last week. He recently emailed me that his father is dying of cancer. Pray for David and his father.
• Jesus said that a mark of a follower of Jesus was loving other believers. We challenged people to start loving 1 person who was previously an enemy. One of our teenagers told me that she restored a relationship with someone this week!
• Next Sunday, we will be baptizing a teenager. She is getting ready to go away to college and had been putting it off.
• On August 2o, we will be baptizing 2 children. They received Christ as Savior in our children's ministry.
• This morning we had 4 on our prayer walk. We divided up into teams of 2 very hot groups to pray as we walked.

We had a great last Sunday of VBS. Since our change to Sunday VBS, we have seen a dramatic increase in children and their families.

I love what God is doing here at FBC, Osprey!

Friendship

"Home Improvement" used to be one of my favorite shows. I still watch the reruns when I am able. In one episode, Tim and Wilson were talking over the back yard fence about a friend of Tim's. They had gone through college and had been best friends. But now that Tim was married and with kids they didn't see each other often and priorities had changed.

Tim said to Wilson, "He's been my best friend for 20 years." To which the always wise Wilson replied, "Or was he your best friend 20 years ago?"

God has blessed me with both kinds of friends. Guys who were my best friends 35 years ago. And peole who are my best friends right now. Some I keep in contact with. Some I have lost contact with. Others the friendship will be re-established only upon death.

• I remember guys I lived with at Philadelphia College of Bible who were my best friends back then, wild men named Butch, Gary and Kenny.
• There were guys in Knoxville, Tennessee like David and Billy. People at Tennessee Temple like Jerry and Doug.
• Then in Fort Myers and Englewood with pastors and co-workers like Jack Gamble, Don Strange, Paul Tucker, Gary Clark and the late Wally Metts.
• In Sarasota, I am friends with some great pastors like Wayne Briant, Gary Roy and Mike Landry.

But I also count many people here who have blessed me with the gift of friendship. They are too numerous to name: Our Deacons, both past and present; Staff members, both past and present; Sunday School and small group leaders, both past and present.; and Church members both past and present.

Every name brings the warm glow of memories. I am thankful beyond words for all. They have been in their own way and in their own time the presence of God in my life.

I didn't realize it then. I realize it now.

I Never Thought of This Before

My friend, David Wilson, wrote this in his live journal http://davethepastor.livejournal.com/

How it began

It's late, and I'm about to head off to bed. Tomorrow is a full day for us, and I'm already rehearsing it in my mind.

But out of everything I read today, one thing stood out.

I was reading Luke's gospel after finishing Mark's. I got into the familiar "Christmasy" passage of Luke 2 and then it hit me.

It all began - this way of life - this world view - Christianity.

It all began with a Jewish teenager in prayer.

If God chose Mary to be a part of His plan to change the world, why can't He use the young people that I know, that we have among us at New Hope?

The short answer I keep coming back to is, He can, but are they willing to give themselves away like Mary did?

That is one lesson I had never seen in the Christmas story. But it hit me as hard as it hit David. What would happen if we just prayed.... if we prayed privately, corporately, in our small groups, as families?

Now Jesus wouldn't come again if we prayed -God has His own timing on that. But God would do something miraculous with us. He would make us as willing as Mary was to do whatever God asked.

I am going to take up that challenge. Would you join me?