PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “Avoid the reefs of the New Year!”\ Let’s say that your phone rings tomorrow morning, and it’s a call from the manager of your bank. He tells you, “I received a very unusual call the other day. Someone who loves you very much and is quite wealthy, has given you a large…
PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “SLOWLY GROWING WISE ABOUT THE FUTURE” Tri Valley Baptist Church has completed its first twenty five years of ministry. Over the years we have had many men of God lead us in the ministry of winning our community to Christ. I believe it has been the measure of every Pastor to lead…
PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “CHRISTMAS-GOD HOOKING AN EXTRA ON THE FRONT OF ORDINARY” Thanksgiving is now past. The major post-Thanksgiving sales are on. Black Friday-Small Business Saturday-Cyber Monday. Then all the adds that remind us exactly how many days to Christmas. The Christmas season is suddenly on us! Every year each Pastor is faced with the…
PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: BE A CHILD NEVER BETTER THAN AT CHRISTMAS. In his book Whistling in the Dark, Frederick Buechner tells how one young Pastor had the real message of Christmas brought home to him in a real way. This is what Buechner says, “The lovely old carols played and replayed until their effect is like a…
PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “The unedited Christmas and the Perfect Tree” It’s the king of all classic TV Christmas specials: “A Charlie Brown Christmas“. It first aired in 1965. We know the familiar scenes of Charlie Brown looking for the real meaning of Christmas; receiving no cards from anyone; Snoopy decorates his doghouse; Lucy has her…
PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “Can Christians be Indubitably real ever again?” The Wesleyan revival of the eighteenth century was one of the great outpourings of the Spirit, and the secret to retaining the fruits of revival was the class meetings that were held by the Wesley’s. They emphasized Bible reading, prayer, holiness and dedication to be practiced…
PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “THANKSLIVING: It’s better than THANKSGIVING!” I am not sure when, where, or who first used the term “thanksliving”. Peter Gomes, renowned preacher of Harvard University in the 20th Century, (though not one I am particularly able to embrace the theology he embraced), wrote that he had a friend who kept an old Sunday…
PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “The little difference that makes a big difference”. Howard W. Ferrin, President of Providence Bible College, used to exhort his students often with the following words: “There is little difference between men, but that little difference makes a big difference!” He told them that to encourage them to pay the price; to…
PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: The Church-A blood-washed hippopotamus? One of my favorite professors was Earl Radmacher. Dr. Radmacher was the President of Western Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary in Portland, Oregon. I was introduced to him through my Greek professor/ Mentor Dr. John A. Burns. Dr. Radmacher, as his doctoral dissertation, wrote the best book ever written,…
PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “Helping Each Other Become Everlasting Splendors or Immortal Horrors!” In 2004 a Documentary Short Film was nominated for an Academy Award for Short Subjects. It was a film titled The Death of Kevin Carter: Casualty of the Bang Bang Club. As a member of the Bang Bang Club, Kevin Carter was a…