snode news

I want to ask you all to be in special prayer for Mark Stewart and his family.  I just go the following from Austin Gardner’s blog.

Mrs. Sandra Stewart just went to glory. She was a very young lady with two small children. She was a very dedicated lady of God. Her husband, Mark Stewart, is the Middle East Field Director for Macedonia World Baptist Missions.

She has been suffering with cancer for a long time and is now in glory but you can only imagine the pain her family must be in right now. Please pray for them.

Thank you to Dr Dean Hamby for calling me to let us know and to ask you to be in prayer for this great family.

Please pray for the family of preacher McHoyt Moore, retired pastor of Old Suwanee Baptist Church, which has supported us for many years, and former board member of Macedonia World Baptist Missions for 30+ years.  He was taken in the hospital earlier in the week with pancreaitis and had taken a turn for the worse.  I just got word via email 20 minutes ago from Josh Ewing that he passed away.

Trent and Stephanie are good friends of Teri and I.  We went to Bible college with them, and have worked together on many camps and projects.  Trent is the youth pastor of Vision Baptist Church and is doing a great job.  You can check out his blog here.

Their son, Thatcher, was born yesterday at 5 pm EST!  You can view pictures here.

Please pray for a good friend of mine, Mark Tolson, and his wife, Natasha, as well as their baby on the way.  They are beginning part-time deputation in August and full-time deputation in January to go to the field of China.  I am real excited about how God is going to use them.  They have already had a great ministry in Ohio and Georgia.  Mark started the International Bible Fellowship at Vision Baptist Church and has already led to many to Christ, baptised, and discipled them.  I know he is going to a great job in China.  If you would like more information about them, go to their website www.projectchina.org.  They are sent out of our home church, Vision Baptist, in Alpharetta, GA.

Sunday was Darci’s birthday, and I wanted to wish her a happy birthday.  I praise God for blessing us with a wonderful daughter.  You can view pictures of her on her first birthday by clicking the picture below.

Darci's Birthday

This post came from my pastor’s blog and thought it was a good explanation of what world evangelism is.

What do we mean by the term “evangelize!” I believe that it is Biblically incorrect to state that we are going to win the world for Christ or win a city!

First the Bible indicates that that will never happen!

Secondly, we can be faithful in the “process” or doing the work but only God can deliver the “product” or actually save or win anyone!

In spite of this I speak constantly of evangelizing the world in our generation. What do we mean by that!

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary says that evangelize means: To instruct in the gospel; to preach the gospel to, and convert to a belief of the gospel; as, to evangelize heathen nations; to evangelize the world.

As I use the term when we speak of evangelizing the world it would mean that we will be responsible to get the gospel to the world. We will not convert them but we will preach or announce the gospel to them.

When I say that we want to evangelize the world in our generation what I mean is to get a gospel preaching church planted within the reach of every people. To get the gospel where they will hear and have to reject.

The way it is currently is that the majority of the world doesn’t have a church that preaches the gospel within reach or even trying to reach them. Many parts of the world are without any true gospel witness via television, radio, church, or anything.

Please understand that I do not consider the “prosperity gospel” to be the true gospel. I do not believe that much of the feel good preaching that goes on in the USA or around the world is the true gospel.

We must work until there is a church in every area that is attempting to get the gospel to those that have never heard.

So we will not win the world but we would like to warn them. We will not save all but we will try to get the message to them about one who can save. I think it is our Biblical responsibility to get the gospel where they can hear it and then it is up to God to convict them and them to respond.

The sad reality is that the majority of the world does not have anyone preaching to them. I ask you to pray and help us to do all in our power to send men and women across the globe to preach the gospel and plant gospel preaching, practicing churches.

I wanted to recommend a couple of books to you that I have read recently.

“If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat” by John Ortberg.  This is a good book taken mostly from the story of Peter walking on the water.  Has some great principles about faith and trusting God to do big things.

“The Terrestria Chronicles” by Ed Dunlop.  These are children’s books that are similar to Pilgrim’s Progress, but very fascinating for adults to read.  My pastor, Austin Gardner, gave them to me while he was here.  I have really been enjoying reading them and have gotten alot of sermon illustrations from them.  I highly recommend them for every Christian and every family.  The cost is only $48 for the whole set of 7 books.

A very exciting meeting is going on at Vision Baptist Church in Georgia called the Our Generation Student Leadership Conference. Please pray for the staff of Vision, the missionaries who have flown in from around the world to be a part and to help, and for the young people who are there.  Pray for God to do great things for God’s glory and the cause of Christ.

I am actually up right now at 1.00 AM waiting to talk over the internet.  They sang happy birthday to me while I was on the phone.  You can watch the conference live here.

I have been putting alot of updates of last weeks events on our other blog, but I wanted to also update this one for the those who read it.

This past weekend, we officially organised Northwest Baptist Church with a church charter and church membership.  We have 10 members in the church right now.  You can see a video of the entire service below, with Pastor Austin Gardner of our sending church preaching.

Four of the people who joined the church did so by baptism on Sunday afternoon in a local swimming pool.  You can see a video of that service here.  The man’s name is Bobby, and the three girls (Rebekah, Victoria, and Sophie) are his granddaughters.

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers as we go forward for the honor and glory of God!

Tomorrow is a very special day for our church, as we will be organising the church with our charter service.  It is a blessing to have the pastor of our sending church, Austin Gardner, with us to preach for us.  He has been preaching for us since Wednesday.

In the evening service, we will have a time where we commit ourselves to form a new church and sign a charter document.  Please pray for the church.  Several will be joining by statement of faith and a few by baptism.  This is an exciting step for us, as we move forward for the honour and glory of God.  Thank you for praying for us.