Tomorrow we kick off our Men’s early morning Bible study at 6:15 a.m. I invite you to come if you have the time and can get out of the bed. It’s a challenging time together, in spite of the donuts and coffee.

This semester, we’re going to be studying from the book Because We Love Him by Clyde Cranford. It’s all about “embracing a life of holiness.” Frankly, it’s one of the single best books I’ve ever read on what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Cranford was a personal disciple-maker and spent untold hours pouring his living beliefs into young Christians.

He died prematurely, but not before making a mark on many believers and leaving behind this great work. I’d encourage you to get a copy (click the photo) and dive in. It’s life-changing.

Today we handed out a survey at church asking people to indicate which service they would attend if we did decide to offer a second service as an overflow solution. The answers were all over the board. It’s going to prove difficult to chart because so many made multiple choices - which is actually a good thing. The question the survey answered was, if we offer a second service, will anyone actually show up? I think they will.

Now comes an even more intense time of praying and weighing this difficult issue out. It’s not an easy decision. Going to multiple services will cost us, but the big question is, will it help us reach more people for the Kingdom. If so, then that pro outweighs all the cons on the board. Would you mind saying a quick prayer for us?

I’m excited about the work that our new Pastor of Youth and Outreach is doing already, and now you can keep track of him too at www.refugeministry.net.

Refuge Youth Ministry

It’s been a while since we’ve posted new sermons on the Bible Journey site, but there are at least 4 from the past two weeks now. We had a lot of issues when we upgraded some of the scripts that run the site, and those issues are now fixed, so spread the word. We’ll be adding a lot more sermons from 2008 in the very near future. By the way, how do you like the little Bible reader guy?

That’s a lyric from an old gospel song about needing new shoes to walk around heaven someday. Well today, we gave away almost 500 pair of shoes at Bethel Baptist Church. Two news crews even showed up and we’ll be on the evening news on 2 channels (and I wore horizontal stripes!) - KNWA and 4029. I’ll see if I can find news stories about it later to post, and I’ll also be posting a couple of photos on Bethel’s web site in the next day or two.

This happens to be a difficult time economically in Northwest Arkansas (everywhere in the USA for that matter) and with school starting back, families were in need. It’s an exciting thing to watch kids put shoes on and run around in circles. Read the rest of this entry »