Forever Jones "Amazing (So Amazing)"

-This band is refreshing.

The Lexi Show - Minister Brenda Burton: clip 3

-God is still saving & delivering...ain't nothin' changed.

The Lexi Show - Minister Brenda Burton: clip 2

-God is still saving & delivering...ain't nothin' changed.

The Lexi Show - Minister Brenda Burton: clip 1

-God is still saving & delivering...ain't nothin' changed.

WHAT is wrong with this picture???

-Scratchin' my darn head

Let's preach the Gospel.

So. Baptist Pastors Told to Preach Christ, Not Themselves

By Audrey Barrick | Christian Post Reporter

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Southern Baptist pastors were given a simple yet poignant message Sunday to preach Christ and not themselves.

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  (Photo: SBC via The Christian Post)
  Bob Pitman, dean of the Adrian Rogers Center for Biblical Preaching at the Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis, Tenn., speaks to Southern Baptist pastors at a two-day pastors conference in Phoenix, Ariz., Jun 12, 2011.

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Citing what were likely familiar words from the late A.T. Robertson, Bob Pitman reminded them that preaching of one's self was "surely as poor and disgusting a topic as a preacher can find."

Dean of the Adrian Rogers Center for Biblical Preaching at the Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis, Tenn., Pitman directed his message to hundreds of pastors gathered in Phoenix, Ariz., for a two-day conference, held just ahead of the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting.

He pointed out that many Southern Baptists try to make church about themselves, though they might not admit it.

"I'm going to have it my way" and "this church can't survive without me" are some of the lamentable attitudes of some SBC pastors, he noted.

"Some pastors see themselves as CEOs of an organization."

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Bringing them back to Scripture, Pitman reminded the church ministers why it is that they are called to preach Christ and not themselves.

"We're not the chief shepherd. We're the under shepherd," the long-time evangelist emphasized.

"God is not interested in any sand castles that we may build. God is not interested in any personal agendas that we may push. God is not impressed as we climb the ladder in the denomination. The only thing that really impresses God is when we live for Jesus' sake."

"It's not important that they know our name. But it's important that they know his name," Pitman highlighted.

He called pastors to true humility – where one comes into grips with their nothingness and Christ's “everythingness.”

"Preach myself? I cannot preach myself because I did not speak this world into creation but I know someone who did .... I was not conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of a virgin girl but I know someone who was ... I have not lived a life without sin but know someone who did ... I was never crucified on the cross for the sins of the world and raised again the third day but I know someone who was!" he exclaimed.

Pitman's message was received enthusiastically from conference attendees. Though a basic and obvious call to preach Jesus, the message came off as refreshing and straightforward especially at a time when pastors are worried that the Gospel message is becoming increasingly muddied.

The pastor's mandate, Pitman outlined, is to preach.

"We must preach because of the presence of false prophets," he said.

"False prophets use trickery and deception to draw men into their way of thinking. ... They twist Scriptures with the desire to ensnare people so that they might be corrupted."

The presence of false prophets isn't the only reason pastors must preach.

"We preach because of the mercy of God," he added.

Just as they were once lost but shown the mercy of God, pastors must extend that same message of grace and mercy to the rest of the world.

"There are pimps, and prostitutes, and homosexuals, and murderers, and thieves, and rapists, and child molesters and all of them need to know about the mercy of God," he underscored.

"We preach because people without Christ really are lost," he added. "They may be nice people but they're lost."

Pitman is among a host of well-known and lesser known speakers at the 2011 Pastors' Conference for SBC pastors. Other speakers include John Piper, Louie Giglio, Rick Warren, Johnny Hunt and Bartholomew Orr, among others.

Organizers took up an offering, 100 percent of which will go toward taking the Gospel to unreached people groups and hosting pastor training conferences on three different continents where the believers have no access to training.


_Relieved (that I'm not the only one who thinks the GOSPEL is missing in the sermons)

In Your Presence

_It's where I belong

"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate...."

_Not just for the sinner man.

Churches...Fast Food...?

Churches More Like Fast Food Restaurants? One Pastor Thinks So

By Eryn Sun | Christian Post Correspondent

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Are churches becoming more and more like fast food restaurants today?

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Megachurch pastor Brady Boyd asks readers the tough question that has plagued many pastors and congregations alike, touching upon a rather sensitive subject for most religious leaders.

“Have we, as American pastors, given up our calling as shepherds and unknowingly become fast food entrepreneurs who are building a religious business and not a church?” the Colorado pastor posed on his blog.

Witnessing the ever-growing trend for pastors to be focused primarily on the numbers – number of people attending their church – Boyd desired to shift the internal conversations happening among leaders and spark some honest debate on the subject of church marketing and mass numbers.

“Church is not a product to be consumed like a gym membership, but rather a holy gathering of sinners who are becoming saints because of grace,” he penned. “We want to be what Eugene Peterson calls ‘a company of pastors’ and not a company of shopkeepers.”

In efforts to refocus church leadership, Boyd outlined three key questions, supplied with his own answers, to evaluate the state of the church: Is it wrong to use marketing for our church? What do we really want? And do we really know the stories of our people?

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Attempting to answer his first question, the New Life Church senior pastor wanted to clarify first that marketing was not “evil or carnal” in itself, “as long as [leaders were] not solely leaning on worldly principles while forgetting the primary disciplines that truly build the church.”

Emphasizing personal witness and prayer as the “engine of the church,” not marketing itself, Boyd reminded leaders that it was the “unseen work of the Holy Spirit birthed in prayer that really [gathered] the lost.” He did not, however, discount the effectiveness of banners and local media to gather people as well.

While the gathering of people was not in any way damaging or misguided, the former English teacher wondered if leaders were only focusing on the number of attendees, rather than the growth of existing members.

What is it that leaders really want, he asked.

“I know what most church leaders would tell me if I asked this question. They would say they want to make disciples, reach the lost, and help the hurting. And they probably do. But what I hear leaders talk about most are attendance numbers and because our mouth always betrays our hearts, I suspect we have focused too much on how many are attending rather than how many are growing.”

Boyd stated that his church in particular, which was formerly led by the Ted Haggard, stopped focusing on overall weekend attendance numbers about 18 months ago.

Instead of obsessing over attendance numbers, leaders at his church in Colorado Springs are concentrating on a different type of number – the number of baptized members for one, as well as the number of people partaking in mission trips, the number of people joining small groups, and the number of people becoming servant leaders.

The result? “A liberating release from the temptation to compare [themselves] to other churches and a freedom from the impulse to perform solely for numbers sake.”

What Boyd desired was not for people to tell him about attendance numbers, but to tell him about stories, i.e. “accounts of redemption, healing, restoration and rescue.”

To the 44-year-old pastor, how many members were thriving was much more important than how many were attending.

“In a neighborhood restaurant, there are lingering unhurried conversations about stories,” he shared. “In a fast food restaurant, there is a hurry to get to the next customer with short blurbs of discussions about a numbered meal on a well-organized wall menu.”

“Everything in a fast food restaurant is about efficiency and excellence. Time is the master and we are the slaves.”

Revealing that church for the past 2,000 years has been centered on the story of Christ, Boyd challenged leaders to continue to do so, “pausing to remember [Christ] in the sacraments and interludes to celebrate the stories of a persecuted but joyful people.”

Church, he concluded, has always been about the gathering of the called out ones, not the gathering of potential customers, who leaders hoped would have a great consumer experience.

While Boyd did believe in excellence and efficiency, which fast food restaurants epitomized, it should not, he stressed, be at the expense of relationships and stories.

“We can do both – tell stories and build relationships in an environment that is warm and inviting.”

Currently, New Life Church is undergoing a series entitled “This Is My Story,” where over the next six weeks, pastors and leaders from around the world will share their story.

This week, Jimmy Evans, a pastor, Bible teacher, and bestselling author, is scheduled to share his own testimony.

-Relieved