I thought it was ignorance...

I have learned something pretty profound I think, and so today I am sharing out of personal Perspective. I have been in pastoral leadership at Franklin Baptist Church for twelve years. I first moved to Franklin from my home church, Nottingham Missionary Baptist Church, to be the Youth Pastor in the year 2000. It's easy to remember because my wife was pregnant with my son. My first celebration of Graduates' Day at Franklin was in the summer of 2002. I had no graduates in 2001. However, in 2002, I had seven graduates from high school, and ever since then, I have carried a burden, a burden to see a ministry tailored to fit this new group of young people in Franklin. I carried on with my youth pastoring and even grew to ignore the burden, or push it away, which caused me to completely avoid interaction with this new group as some went to college and others went to work. Over the next several years, several more Graduates' Days came and went, as did several more graduates. I realized the trend, or rather the bleeding, of this important group. They were falling off of the church scene like flies and for a decent reason. They had no connection to the church. Youth group and Sunday school were things they did as "kids" because they were brought by their parents. Of course, upon graduating, you remember, all the kids stuff is put behind you and you move on to what has been important to you, but squelched by "church stuff". I began talking about it with my pastor and he would agree with the truth of the issue, but offer no real help or solution. "You're the Youth Pastor, handle it." So I tried to do the leadership thing and find (read delegate) someone to teach the college and career age young adults. Ever burdened by this need in our church, I would gladly engage anyone in conversation regarding how important it would be to get this started. I have lost count of how many times I have told someone, "I know. Our church is bleeding young people and we can't seem to stop it."

Fast forward to the here and now. I have since gone through one legitimate effort to get a class started with a willing vessel and it never got off of the ground and quickly dissolved. And recently, I tried again to coerce yet another unsuspecting vessel to pick up my burden and carry it, not with me, but for me. A week and a half ago, while in my study praying, actually about the next victim of my burden, my heart began to break. The tears started to flow as I realized that I had been going about this all wrong. Names and faces went through my mind as I realized how much time I had wasted trying to pawn this burden off to someone else who should have had the vision and decency to care for this wayward bunch. But then the tears that started as regret and sorrow began to turn into a deep relief in my heart. Problem solved. Prayer answered. There does need to be a college and career group and there is already someone with a burden for these young people. There is already someone with a vision to see them integrated back into the local church ministry and given a sense of home and belonging. It is me.

As soon as I opened my heart to what had been weighing on my mind for so long, the ideas came rushing in. I'll send out personal invitations. I'll serve breakfast and coffee. We'll call it "Connections" and we won't call it a Sunday school class because it will be so much more. I started a Facebook to connect them all. We'll have a social outing at least once a month. I'll enlist church families to host a movie night or game night. I found appropriate subject materials to use in our Sunday morning Bible study. It starts this coming Sunday and my materials came in this morning from Striving Together Publications and that prompted me to Tweet my excitement. That's when it came to me; the relief, the excitement, the vision. It's not ignorance that is bliss. It's obedience. Obedience is bliss. That unexplainable inner peace and joy that comes from being right in the center of God's will. I tell you, there is nothing like it. I can not imagine a more effective way to free yourself of discouragement and dissatisfaction, than to truly pray and seek God for His will and then obey it. Many of you already know His will and you are not doing it or not doing it yet. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Partial obedience is total disobedience. And you are missing out. I will tell you again, "Obedience is bliss." I am so thankful today for God's providential direction in my life. The center of God's will...what an awesome Perspective it gives.

Camp Meeting...Old School

Yes it has been a week since my last post. Please accept my apologies. I do appreciate your interest and I hope I did not discourage anyone from checking back regularly. This past week was Camp Meeting at the Eastern Pennsylvania Baptist Fellowship campgrounds. It was a week of great preaching, singing, eating, and fellowshipping in a setting that is a bit of a throw-back to days gone by, including the main preacher for the week, Dr. Tolbert Moore, Pastor Emeritus of the Galilean Baptist Church of Lawrenceville, Georgia.  This is no disparaging comment made to disrespect the age of this esteemed man of God, but at 83 years old, he certainly is a different breed of preacher than that we are accustomed to in this day. And I am thankful for it. Our day lacks the spiritual and scriptural insight of anointed preachers who would not withhold the truth of God's word in an effort to build a name for them self and/or a following for their ministry. We have traded the no-nonsense exposition of the Bible with its practical application, for a warm, buttery, watered-down sample of self-help advise tainted with half of a Bible verse to add a religious spin. We have lost the desire for real improvement in our life, satisfied to feel good about us as we dress up, carry our Bible, and go off to church for Sunday morning service. Dr. Moore's kind of preaching is not only appropriate in this setting, reminding us of the days of Billy Sunday as he would challenge people to "hit the sawdust trail", but necessary in every setting where people are gathered to hear the word of God preached. It is certainly especially enjoyable under the old time tabernacle, but it truly belongs in our pulpits. I am challenged in my spirit to strive to keep the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ as the central theme of my preaching, to keep the main thing the main thing, knowing that is where these great men of God received their power and influence. Romans 1:16 tells us that the gospel is the "power of God, unto salvation".

I am not paying lip service to a man or men. I am confessing the truth of the adage, "There's no school like the old school."  Sadly, these men are fewer and fewer. Born and raised in a day where life was simple and character mattered, they are fading from view regularly. There just aren't many left and I want to glean all that I can from those that remain because what they have to offer is not just valuable, it's priceless. So I thank God for, not just the blessings of His presence in our meetings this past week, and it was sweet, but also for the presence of the man of God, Dr. Tolbert Moore, with nearly 70 years of ministry behind him; years of study, prayer, service, and a lot of funny stories. When I grow up, I would be glad to be just like him. But that's just my Perspective.