Pray for Harley Snode & North Pointe Baptist Church

Today is the opening day for North Pointe Baptist Church in Wooster, Ohio.  North Pointe Baptist Church is a compassionate, conservative, independent Baptist church for the entire family.  Their services could be described as “traditional,” though not stiff or formal.  You are encouraged you to join with their church family in experiencing the absolute truth and love in Jesus Christ.

This church is being started by my brother Harley.  This past week they had “Getting Acquainted” services with Pastor Dale Adkins from the Mansfield Baptist Church preaching.  I am told that they have a good core group of 25-30 and maybe 30-40 other visitors from the community who attended the meetings this past week.

Please pray for them that God would really bless and do great things today and through this new church plant.

Missionary Mistakes

A very good friend of mine, Jeff Bush, is a church planting missionary to Argentina.  God has greatly used him there to start two church, see many souls get saved, and a Bible insitute started.  

I met Jeff my first day at Crown College.  He had just returned from seven months in Peru and was very fired up about serving God and reaching the world.  He took me under his wing and spent alot of time with me.

I can remember often praying over the world together, reading the Proverb of the day in his car on the way to class, talking about what God was giving us in our devotions, and sitting together on the front row listening to preaching.  His love for God made a huge impact on my life.

Jeff has and is being greatly used of God.  He has written a series of posts on his blog called, “Missionary Mistakes” that took alot of candor and courage to write.  I have made all of these mistakes myself and tons more.  Here are the links to the posts.  I think you will really profit from reading them.

Missionary Mistake #1 – Building Churches Rather Than Building Men

Missionary Mistake #2 – Always Giving And Never Receiving

Missionary Mistake #3 – Getting Frustrated With Cultural Differences

Missionary Mistake #4 – Not Being Self Disciplined

Missionary Mistake #5 – Hiring Is Easier Than Raising

Missionary Mistake #6 – Not Listening To Advice

Missionary Mistake #7 – Preaching Poorly Prepared Sermons

Please Pray for My Brother

My older brother, Harley, and his wife Heidi are starting a church (North Pointe Baptist Church) in Wooster, OH, which is 45 minutes from where I was born.  I would like to ask you to pray for them.  Their opening service will be March 29, 2009.  

Here are some prayer requests from their latest prayer letter:

We praise the Lord for the local church that He is going to build in this region of great spiritual needs and opportunities.  As with any new church, there is a great need for a team of mature believers to provide the foundation upon which to build an indigenous work.  It is essential to immediately present to this community services that are well-attendedand ministries that are well-staffed. 

 

We are praying that the Lord will initially provide us with:

 

1.  Families to Attend/Serve for several months

Note:  These would come from surrounding churches with the blessing of their pastor.

2.  Musical Help (Pianist, Songleader, Specials)

3.  Groups to canvas our city with promotional materials and the Gospel.

 

 

If you are pastor, please join us for our Pastor’s Luncheon hosted at Mansfield Baptist Temple on February 19, 2009 at Noon.  This event will provide an update on the church plant and specific opportunities that may allow us to have further help from your church.

If you would prayerfully consider joining with us during the initial months of reaching Wooster, please contact us at your earliest convenience (248-459-2090).

20 Characteristics of a Church Planter

source

1. Am I a Christian? (John 3:16)
2. Am I passionately in love with Jesus, and is He the Lord of every area of my life? (Personal spiritual dynamics is the second most important area.)
3. Do I believe His word, and does it affect my life deeply?
4. Am I Spirit-filled, Spirit-directed, Spirit-led, and Spirit-controlled? (Acts 1:8)
5. Am I qualified as an Elder? (1 Timothy, Titus)
6. Do I love the local church as the expression of a gospel community on mission? (Matthew 28:18-20)
7. Am I a missionary to the city? Am I sent for the advancement of the gospel in the city? (John 20:21)
8. Do I have a clear vision for this new work? (Nehemiah 1:3-4; 2:11-18)
9. Am I willing to pour myself out in obedience to the vision? (Phil. 2, Romans 6)
10. Am I healthy—physically, emotionally, financially, spiritually, relationally, maritally?
11. Am I the kind of leader many people will follow? Have I served as a church leader successfully? (1 Tim. 5:22; 3:6)
12. Can I preach effectively?
13. Can I guard the doctrinal door with Biblical clarity and tenacious confidence?
14. Can I architect a new work with entrepreneurial skill?
15. Am I called to plant a church at this time and in this place? (Acts 17:26; 1 Peter 5:2)
16. Have my church leaders commended me for this calling? (Acts 11:22-26; 13:1-4; 16:1-2)
17. Am I a hard worker? Am I persevering? (2 Thes. 3:10; 1 Tim. 5:17-18; 2 Tim. 2:3-6)
18. Am I adaptable to new people, places, and concepts?
19. Can I raise the funds necessary for my family’s needs? (1 Tim. 5:8)
20. Am I humble enough to learn from others—particularly those who have gone ahead of me in different areas?

The Results Are Up To God

I just read this post and though it made a good point about how we need to serve God and do the best we can and then just leave the results up to God.  I don’t think we should let this be an excuse for laziness and lack of diligence, but I think that we also need to realise that things may not always turn out the way we want them to.  The important thing is that we are obedience, faithful, serve God with all of our heart, and not blame God for our laziness, lack of prayer, lack of study, or lack of soul-winning and discipleship.  Lets focus on the process and let God worry about the product whatever He chooses that that will be.

Been thinking a lot about how we pastors tend to make idols of our churches and of the results we’re supposed to achieve with them. And there’s no problem with that except that we’re not supposed to make idols of anything and I can’t find the place in the Bible where we’re promised results. (So why do we expect them?)

Recently I was reading Hebrews 11 and here’s a few thoughts I had:

Heb 11:35, “Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.”

The results of “having God” are not consistent. Sometimes you get a resurrection, sometimes you get tortured and die and have to wait for resurrection (but it will be a better one!). So, if that’s true, why do we pastors expect consistent results. If I do what this other pastor did, the same thing will happen for me that did for him. And If our church acts like that church we’ll see the same results. Or even If we do what we did before we’ll see the same impact as last time. Where does God promise consistent results?

Heb 11:36, “Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38the world was not worthy of them.”

“Having God” and serving God does not guarantee that you’ll get your best life now, if anything it means the opposite. For most, the result of serving God is suffering.

Heb 11:39, “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”

What God smiles on is not “results.” Our pastor ancestors served hard, had no results but suffering, and God commended them for their faith. If I really want God’s commendation it won’t come through achieving big results but through serving even in the face of suffering.

For some of you (and maybe even for me) this should set you free!

Pray for Wayne Cooke – Middletown, NY

My good friend Wayne Cooke is starting some pre-launch Bible studies for their new church on Sunday, 23 March at 9.00 AM for people in the Middletown, NY area.  If you are in the area or know someone who is looking for a good church in that area, I encouraged you to attend services.  If you are a long ways away from there, then please pray for them.  I am very excited to hear about what God does up there.

Great Advice from Charles Spurgeon

In enlarging upon my text, let me say first, — when you commence your

ministry make up your mind to begin with a clean sheet; be deaf and blind

to the longstanding differences which may survive in the church. AS soon

as you enter upon your pastorate you may be waited upon by persons who

are anxious to secure your adhesion to their side in a family quarrel or

church dispute; be deaf and blind to these people, and assure them that

bygones must be bygones with you and that as you have not inherited your

predecessor’s cupboard you do not mean to eat his cold meat. If any

flagrant injustice has been done, be diligent to set it right, but if it be a mere

feud., bid the quarrelsome party cease from it, and tell him once for all that

you will have nothing to do with it. The answer’ of Gallio will almost suit

you: “If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason

would that I should bear with you: but if it be a question of words and

names, and vain janglings, look ye to it; for I will be no judge of such

matters..” When I came to New Park-street Chapel as a young man from

the Country, and was chosen pastor, I was speedily interviewed by a good

man who had left the church, having, as he said, been “treated shamefully.”

He mentioned the names of half-a-dozen persons, all prominent members

of the church, who had behaved in a very unchristian manner to him, he,

poor innocent sufferer, having been a model of patience and holiness. I

learned his character at once from what he said about others (a mode of

judging which has never misled me), and I made up my mind how to act. I

told him that the church had been in a sadly unsettled state, and that the

only way out of the snarl was for every one to forget the past and begin

again. He said that the lapse of years did not alter facts, and I replied that it

would alter a man’s view of them .if’ in that time he had become a wiser

and a better man. However, I added, that all the past had gone away with

my predecessors, that he must follow them to their new spheres, and settle

matter with them, for I would not touch the affair with a pair of tongs. He

waxed somewhat warm, but I allowed him to radiate until he was cool

again, and we shook hands and parted. He was a good man, but

constructed upon an uncomfortable principle, so that he Came across the

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path of others in a very awkward manner at, times, and if I had gone into

his narrative and examined his case, there would have been no end to the

strife. I am quite certain that, for my own success, and for the prosperity of

the church,! took the wisest course by applying my blind eye to all disputes

which dated previously to my advent. It is the extreme of unwisdom for a

young man fresh from college, or from another charge, to suffer himself to

be earwigged by a clique, and to be bribed by kindness and flattey to

become a partisan, and so to ruin himself with one-half of his people.

Know nothing of parties and cliques, but be the pastor of all the flock, and

care for all alike. Blessed are the peacemakers, and one sure way of

peacemaking is to let 4he fire of contention alone. Neither fan it, nor stir it,

nor add fuel to it, but let it go out of itself. Begin your ministry with one

blind eye and one deaf ear.

The blind eye and the deaf ear will come in exceedingly well in connection

with the gossips of the place. Every church, and, for the matter of that,

every village and family, is plagued with certain Mrs. Grundys, Who drink

tea and talk vitriol. They are never quiet, but buzz around to the great

annoyance of those who are devout and practical. No one needs to look far

for perpetual motion, he has only to watch their tongues. At tea-meetings,

Dorcas meetings, and other gatherings, they practice vivisection upon the

characters of their neighbors, and of course they are eager to try their

knives upon the minister, the minister’s wife, the minister’s children, the

minister’s wife’s bonnet, the dress of the minister’s daughter, and how

many new ribbons she: has worn for the last six months, and so on ad

infinitum. There are also certain persons who are never so happy as when

they are “grieved to the heart” to have to tell the minister that Mr. A. is a

snake in the grass, that he is quite mistaken in thinking so well of Messrs.

B and C., and that. they have heard quite “promiscuously” that Mr. D. and

his wife are badly matched. Then follows a long string about Mrs. E., who

says that she and Mrs. F. overheard Mrs. G. say to Mrs. H. that Mrs. J.

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should say that Mr. K. and Miss L. were going to move from the chapel

and hear Mr. M., and all because of what old N. said to young O. about

that Miss P. Never listen to such people.. Do as Nelson did when he put his

blind eye to the telescope and declared that he did not see the signal, and

therefore would go on with the battle. Let the creatures buzz, and do not

even hear them, unless indeed they buzz so much concerning one person

that the matter threatens to be serious; then it will be well to bring them to

book and talk in sober earnestness to them. Assure them that you are

obliged to have facts definitely before you, that your memory is not very

tenacious, that you have many things to think ;of, that you are always

afraid of making any mistake in such matters, and that if they would be

good enough to write down what they have to say the case would be more

fully before you, and you could give more time to its consideration. Mrs.

Grundy will not do that; she has a great objection to making clear and

definite statements; she prefers talking at random.

When You are Not Failing You are Not Growing

I read that quote on this blog, and it really helped me.  I have failed so many times that I am ashamed.  I have struggled alot in my life with failure because I am a perfectionist and want people to think I am perfect.  (I know, I know, you already knew that I am not perfect!)  The problem is that when I am so afraid of failing I won’t take risks or attempt great things for God. 

Moving out of our house and meeting in the hotel was scary.   It meant that maybe no one would come, we could lose people who used to meet with us, and many other things; but God undertook and has helped our church to grow as a result of the move.  Every step of faith that I have taken for God has involved fear, the risk of failure, and sometimes the realisation of those fears, but every step I have taken for God that was according to His will He has been there to help me, to teach me, and to prove Himself strong.  I never want to get to the point in my life where I am not willing to fail because that will be the moment I stop to grow, to learn, to attempt great things for God, and to have to cry out to God for help.

 Pr 24:16 For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again…

 Mic 7:8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.

Control Freak

This article  just had a major impact on me.  I am definitely a control freak at times and need to enable, empower, and release other to grow and do the ministry.

The Next Level

Last night, we had a good time looking at Genesis 22 and how Jacob wrestled with the angel of God.  12 folks were out for the service with 1 first time visitor.

The lessons we looked at from Jacob were very helpful to me as we praying, plan, and desire to go to the next level.  The only way for the church to grow, to be able to take care of its own bills, and to be able to be a hub for evangelism in this country and around the world is for God to take us to the next level.  We can struggle and wrestle, but it is only through dependance and submission to God and the need for His power that this will be accomplished.

Below is the outline of what I preached last night:

The Struggle (32:24-25)

What is the struggle?

• Between man and God; my will and His will

• It seems to be between us and other people, us and the Devil, us and circumstance, but it is between really us and God.

Why the struggle? (James 4:1-5)

• We don’t want to surrender and trust God.

• We want to do things our own way.

• We think we know best. (Gen. 3:17-19)  Life was never a struggle until sin entered.  When man rebelled, the struggle came.

• God brings a man to wrestle with us.  God is more concerned with what we are to become than what we want.

• God wants to break us of our pride. (32:25)  He uses the struggle to do that.  God broke his body but more importantly He broke his pride.  Just about the time we think we have it beaten, we find out that it is hopeless.  (32:25)

The Submission

• The only way to blessing was through submission. (32:26-27)
• Jacob had to confess who he really was.  Jacob = The cheat, the trickster.  Had to be humble before God would bless (Ja 4:6-10)
• Jacob had finally met his match.  He could not outsmart God.  Had had to bend and bow to God.  What will it take before we will be broken. Better to judge ourselves (1 Cor. 11:27-32) 

The Blessing

Comes not through wrestling but through humility and mercy (32:28)

How did God bless?

• A new name –Israel (prince with God) (32:28)

• A new power – through God not self (32:28).  We prevail with men through God.

• A new reverence – awe of God (32:29-30)

• A new life – of dependence upon God not self.  “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13:15). 

• A new maturity (32:31-32)  1Pe 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishet

Out of terror and pain come blessings and faith.

Some terribly terrifying experiences in which you have to fight with everything in you can be an opportunity to discover new truth, to come to know God more fully, and to be made by Him into a more whole person.

Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my 75 years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my experience, has been through affliction and not through happiness.  Malcolm Muggeridge, in Homemade, July, 1990