June 2023 Update

It's hard to believe that we're nearly to the end of June already.  Some great things are going on that I'd like to share with you, and there are some items that I would like to ask you to pray about.

Continue to pray for me as I share the gospel at work and as we pray for the salvation of many friends and family members.  Discipleship starts with evangelism, but it doesn't end there.  That is why I've added a "What We Do" section to the website to covers evangelism techniques and describes a little bit about what we do to help with discipleship.  Discipleship is easier in some ways when you are living right alongside the person and have easy access to them, but harder in other ways when you are that close and don't want to jeopardize the relationship you have as friends, neighbors or coworkers.  We see that Paul had to mentor and disciple people over a long distance in the New Testament and used his epistles to do so.  He'd stay with one group for a while and work with them, then he'd move on to the next city, but he'd send the other cities letters as he remembered things he didn't get a chance to tell them, and they'd send letters to him with questions and concerns.  I've tried to set up the website in such a way that it allows for this kind of communication through the Contact Us form, and I now have a place to write open letters on topics related to faith, culture and apologetics when those questions are asked.

Things are progressing well for the church I attend in finding new land. We're at the point of getting plans approved by the city and county.  Since there was already an approved site plan that we haven't made any changes to, this process should be fairly straightforward.  We've also set up a building fund (the first time that we've ever had a fund separate from our General Fund for anything--typically we just allocated percentages of our General Fund to particular projects).  While decisions about the property and the exterior of the building are fairly certain, we will need to have decisions fairly soon about what kinds of things we want to do with the inside of the building so that we know what kind of spaces besides the sanctuary, Sunday School classrooms and fellowship hall are needed.  We then might need to designate certain items as "Phase 1" and others as "Phase 2" and maybe even come up with a "Phase 3."  It will depend on how the Lord leads us in whether we should only build with the money he has provided to us using the building fund and the designated funds for the building from the general fund, or if we should do something like mortgage the land to help build the building or get some other kind of loan to help us build the building (our local convention makes such building loans available sometimes where we are borrowing money from the convention and not from the bank, so the terms are much better).  Please pray for the elders and the members of the Facilities Oversight Group (I think that's still the name of the committee) that will help us decide how to lay out and maintain these new facilities to meet the needs of the church.  There will also be new needs in owning land and a building as we'll have to have people to help with buildings and grounds, maintenance, and basic custodial services that we've never really had a need to deal with before.  We're probably a couple years away from actually having a new building that we could meet in, but these are all issues we want to start praying about now as we are seeking for the Lord to lay it on people's hearts how they can use their gifts and talents with the new opportunities and challenges of having our own land and building.

Along that same line, I would like to ask you to continue to pray for God to make it evident to the congregation who we should be approaching to nominate as new deacons and elders as our deacons and elders are term-limited and many of them are reaching the end of their terms.  We can certainly go back to people who have served in these roles in the past and ask them if they would be willing to serve again, but the purpose of the term limits has been to give every generation the chance to listen to the call of the Holy Spirit when He tells them that He wants them to step up and serve as a deacon or elder.  As a sub-topic of this, I think we are looking for VBS workers and are praying for the children and their families who will be coming to VBS this year.  While we're thinking ahead of what things will look like in a couple years in what will hopefully be our new, "semi-permanent" home (we know that the new heavens and the new earth are truly our eternal and permanent home), there is still much that we need to do in the short-term with the resources we currently have available.

Those close to my family and those from my church are probably aware that my family is going to have to make some serious repairs to our home.  I won't go into all the details now other than to say that God has been good to us so far in taking care of the immediate need in a way that is beyond what we ever would have expected.  Now the major work needs to be done and we are trying to seek help from those who are qualified and will deal honestly with us.  We know it is going to be expensive and this is an issue of concern for my parents.  God has already shown us once in this process that He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and that He can do exceedingly, abundantly above all we can ask or imagine and we just need to trust Him again in this.  Please pray for us as we know God is stretching us beyond our means and abilities, but not beyond His means or abilities.

There are a couple of new members to our discipleship group.  I'm not sure I was able to tell you about them last time.  Again, I'll leave names for now.  One of them is a streamer who I have been watching play video games on Twitch for a bit and we are both members of a Discord server together.  He made it clear in his stream tags (things that identify and describe the stream and the streamer) that he is a Christian and that sets the tone for what kind of culture he wants to set for his stream.  He's also very open about that in his bio.  I reached out to him and let him know how encouraging this was as a fellow Christian and I've been able to give him access to online and printed discipleship materials (thanks to the support of my church).  This friend in particular has asked for prayer in udnerstanding what it means to call God Father,--I infer that this means he either has no father-figure in his life or has a father but they are not a good example to him of what it means for a father to love His children.  I believe this man has his own family now and desires to be a good father to his children and to let them see the love of God (though it be an imperfect representation) by the way he loves them.

Another friend of mine recently joined the weekly ZOOM Bible study for the first time.  he is the only Christian in his immediate family and he wants to be engaged in daily Bible study, regular church attendance, desires to be a member of a church so that there will be personal accountability and discipline, and he desires to become a man of God who need not be ashamed so that his words and his conduct speak in concert.  He also desires, after letting the Lord work on him, to meet a Christian woman so that he can be the husband and father that he believes that God is calling him to be.  Pray specifically for the salvation of his family members and for wisdom as he desires to be a bold witness for Christ, but is limited by rules about this where he works (I won't say too much about that).

I also got the chance to introduce one of the ZOOM Meeting members to many of the people at church who have been praying for him.  He came with some other friends to visit Busch Gardens and Kings Dominion and since the place I currently worship is pretty close to Kings Dominion and they were planning to go to Kings Dominion on Sunday, I offered to pick him up from his hotel, take him to Sunday School and church, and then take him to the park.  It's always good for people to be able to put a face with a name and get to know who they are praying for.  I hope for the opportunity for many other friends to not just get to come and visit me and my family so we can talk to them about Jesus, but get to come to church and see us worship together as that tells an even deeper story as we don't just preach the gospel, but we sing it, speak it to each other, pray it, and participate in it through the giving of our tithes and offerings.  It is also evident when people look at us and say, "See how they love each other" (not a direct quote, but just an impression that I believe many walk away with).  I pray for each of the men in the group, both young and old, to be able to be members of a church where they can say the same things and they feel comfortable inviting others to "Come and see" the gospel in action in the lives of those who worship Him and call Him both Savior and Lord.  "Back to Church Sunday" is not that far away and neither is the "Who's Your One?" campaign to be intentional to pray for just one person that you know who isn't saved for 30 days and pray that the Lord would show you how to reach them with the gospel.  We also know that Fall is the best time statistically to invite people to come to church with us.  Summer vacations are over, the weather is good, kids are starting new grade levels and are excited to be in Sunday School classes with new friends, and parents are looking to get involved and get their kids signed up for lots of additional extra-curricular church activities.  However, summer is really important with Vacation Bible School and Backyard Bible Clubs.  Hopefully all of you are already being intentional to reach out to your neighbors, but this is especially a time we focus on reaching children and parents whose children will be the next generation of members and leaders in the Church.