Today was a great day of worship.  We celebrated Harry Adkins 14 years of ministry here at First Baptist Church.  He has served faithfully, but has been called to the First Baptist Church of Kingstree, SC.  I’m sure that God will use his talents and gifts to establish a solid music ministry program among their church.  Here are some insights from today.

• About 10 men gathered to pray for me.  It was such a joy to hear their prayers and their hearts.
• The youth choir rocked today.  We are blessed to have such great teenagers.
• Several of you told me the message was for you today.  It was for me too!  Sometimes we get so busy that we miss out on a love relationship with God.  Revelation 2 is a wake up call for churches that are busy doing programs but forget about sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to what he has to say in his word and through your prayer time.
• Had lunch with Vivian and Jacque Ussery today in their home!  What a cool place.  It was built by his grandfather in the 40’s and has been completely renovated by the Ussery’s.  He has quite a collection of cool old stuff including many antique coffee grinders.  We talked about the marriage tune up at the Merge on Feb. 19-20.  It is going to be a lot of fun.  I hope you sign up.  Contact the church office today.
• It was great to see so many come and honor Harry at the reception.  There were several former youth choir members who came back.
• During our church council meeting today we heard several stories of how God is working through our ministries.  The jail ministry shared about the dad of one of our newest members, Art, who traveled from Spartanburg to perform magic tricks with a spiritual message.  The children’s ministry received a grant Trina applied for to bless the mentoring program.  The student ministry had a great parent/teen ski retreats.  The local missions group built a few wheelchair ramps.  The men’s ministry crew is gearing up for the Men’s Retreat on March 12-13.
• May God never remove our church’s lampstand from its place.  May our influence in the community and relevance continue to thrive.
• Saints win the Super Bowl!!  Sorry K.  She is a huge NFL fan and was pulling for the Colts.  I was pulling for the Saints.  Their name sounded more spiritual.
• God gets the credit!

I had the pleasure of having lunch with a church planter in Barnwell, Robert Altman.  He planted Bethany Baptist Church about 3 years ago that is running about 120 in attendance now.  It was such a joy to listen to his passion.  I asked him “Why plant a church in Barnwell?”  His response, “I believe there are some people that are being overlooked by our churches.”

His church is experiencing revival as lives are being changed.  This past year they baptized 85!  Wow!  He retold a story that one of his church members told him.  A lady from his church was talking with someone they worked with.  When the individual found out that they went to the new church on Hwy 70 she warned the girl that it was a cult.  The church member was confused and said, “Why do you say that?”  She then said, “I know of someone who started going out there, and when they came to work they were changed!  Everything about them changed including their dress, the way they talked, and the way they treated others.  Something bad wrong is going on out there!”

That’s what I want them to say about our church.  When people go there they come back changed.  Jesus calls us to be transformed.  Scripture teaches that we are a new creation when we come to Christ.  The old has passed away and the new has come.

We have had a blast at Conclave in Chattanooga, TN.  It is one of the weekends I look forward to at the start of the new year.  This is the first year that my entire family has been able to come along.  It Snowed almost 6 inches!  This is the first time Connor actually remembered seeing snow and they had a blast making snowballs and playing.  The exhibit hall was a lot of fun for them as they have gotten a bunch of cool stuff.  Caden spun the wheel and it landed on an xbox 360!  Of course that only meant that we got put in the drawing to win, but we received a call from the exhibitors and they drew our name out!!  I don’t think I have ever won anything except the jelly of the month club.

The worship has been great with Steve Fee band.  Ergun Caner is a powerful speaker and the first night he really encouraged those who have felt beaten down in the ministry and made a comparison to Paul in Galations 6.  Ed Stetzer spoke today and focused on the ministry of reconciliation as opposed to the false gospel of moralism.

I sat in on Dr. Richard Ross’ breakout session which challenged us to gather prayer partners around teenagers and engage parents to equip them to disciple and pray for their teenagers.  He is such a humble and intelligent guy.  I am always challenged by him.  I got to hang out with Clayton King a bit who is one of those guys you just want to hang around.  He is a trip and is MCing the event.

I led a breakout session entitled Changing the Scorecard and had some sharp student ministers in attendance.  We looked at the current scorecards in the church that we measure to define success: budgets, baptisms, and butts in the seats.  We then worked on developing matrices to count results rather than assuming results were taking place because people were in attendance.  Had a great time with them.

The boys and I spent some much needed time together tonight at the swimming pool.  We had the pool to ourselves partly because everyone else was at the worship service.  I hate to miss anything at a conference like this, but it was important to my boys for me to swim with them and chunk them around the pool.  I missed a good message as Ergun Caner talked about discerning what God wants you to do in your current ministry and if he wants you to stay or go.  I guess I’ll get the CD and listen to it.

Tomorrow we wrap up the conference and hopefully we will be able to make it home.  The roads are pretty iced over.

Bubba Johnson has had his life transformed.  This is his story.  I hope that it encourages you as much as it encouraged our congregation.

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So many times we cling to the things of this world that do not last.  In this message, Lee seeks to challenge people to look at who they are putting their faith in.  The text for this sermon is Mark 10:17-21.

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This sermon seeks to encourage people to use what God has entrusted to us for an investment that will last.  The only thing on earth that will last for eternity is the souls of man.  An investment in their soul, has the potential to last for eternity.  This message seeks to study Matthew 25:14-29.

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This sermon is the first of a series seeking to encourage people to make an investment in eternity.  The only thing on earth that will last for eternity is the souls of man.  An investment in their soul, has the potential to last for eternity.  This message seeks to study Matthew 6:19-24.

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What was going through Joseph’s mind when he found out his fiance’ was pregnant by another man, and oh yeah it’s God.  In this sermon, Lee looks at the unexpected events of the birth of Christ from Joseph’s perspective.

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In the last of this three part series, Lee Clamp shares a message about the leadership in the church.  Many times deacons serve the function of overseer and deacon.  What happens many times is that one of the two functions is normally neglected.  In this message, a biblical model of leadership for the church is visited.

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God’s timing is perfect, but from our perspective it may be unexpected.  In this sermon, Lee looks at the events surrounding the birth of Christ from Mary’s perspective.

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