40 DAYS OF PRAYER IS UNDERWAY!

“Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, 

and Thou has not withheld the request of his lips. For Thou dost meet him with the blessings of good things.”

Psalm 21:2-3

I am praying and hoping for the day when Jesus so fills my heart, my soul, my mind and my life, that my heart’s desire is what Jesus’ heart’s desire would be if He were me! Imagine being so close to our Father in Heaven that He would not withhold any request that came from your lips. And then His wonderful promise that our Father would meet you with the blessings of good things. Wow. It is possible and I believe it is part of His plan for all of His children. May our heart’s desire be the same as His heart’s desire and may you experience His blessing of good things.

We are underway with 40 Days of Prayer. We have already heard and seen some very exciting results even though we have only entered the second week. We have groups that started from zero people to now having 8! We have some classes that are full and some that have room for one or two more. Our Connection Groups that meet on Sunday and during the week have started out with a bang. Way to go.

I am so excited about those who want to participate and be a part of the 40 Days of Prayer Study even though they are not in a small group. We do realize some cannot be in a small group at this time; others may simply prefer not to be in a small group just yet. Not a problem. We are wanting you to reach out to us so we can get you the materials you need to join in. IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO START. Please feel free to reach out to any of our staff and let us know you want to participate. You can still greatly benefit from the group worship time (either in person, live stream or recording). You can still do the daily devotionals. You will miss the small group experience. My mom taught me that half a loaf is better than none. So two-thirds of a loaf is even better!

I love it when we see the Father working, lives changing, people praying, and disciples growing. To God be the glory! What if the Father was using this 40 Days of Prayer to get us ready? Amen.

See you Sunday, good Lord willing

Pastor Tom

AND JUST LIKE THAT

And just like that the 40 Days of Prayer has begun. We talked about it two years ago; we started working on it one year ago, we announced it to our leaders almost 6 months ago; we officially launched it this past Sunday, April 7. I am hoping many people will look back at April 7 as one of the spiritual highlights of their journey as a believer and a follower of Christ. We have had some terrific stories already.

Here are some of the high points for us so far. We ordered 450 of the Prayer devotionals and are almost out! Wow. We absolutely love that and will gladly order more. We have 30 participants in the “Still Worthy” recovery ministry. They have 25 residents and 5 leaders that have said they want to join us! We have a men’s softball team; we have members in Michigan joining us; we have Sunday Connection Groups that are completely full; I am offering a class during the weekday if there are those who want to be a part of a group but cannot meet at night or on Sunday; some are trying to start a class for homebound...I will be announcing more about that this Sunday.

I started back in February going through the daily devotional and watching the videos. I am staring all over again so I can be on track with all of our church family. I love the idea of everyone being on the same page…literally and figuratively. If you have not signed up or joined a class, it is certainly not too late. You can join in open classes for the next two weeks. Since the sermons and the video lessons by Rick Warren are all online, you can access them any time! You gotta love that.

So, here we go, deep into the first week of 40 Days of Prayer. Come on and join us. If you absolutely cannot be a part of a group, but would still like to fully participate, you just have to let us know. Call

the church office at 843-762-0244. Or call Pastor Kyle. We will get you squared away.

See you this Sunday. Good Lord willing.

Pastor Tom

WHAT A DAY, WHAT A GLORIOUS DAY!

We have been blessed and highly favored by our Father in Heaven. Amen? Amen! Here is a verse from God’s Word that seems so appropriate. Psalm 16:1 says , “ The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; indeed my heritage is beautiful to me. Thou wilt make known to me the path of life; in Thy presence is fullness of joy. In Thy right hand there are pleasures forever.” It truly seems like our Father has blessed James Island Baptist in such pleasant ways. There is indeed fullness of joy. Even when we have difficulties and even extreme challenges, we find the blessings of God present and providing hope. May you continue to experience the pleasure of God!

There have been so many wonderful events in the life of our church: a community wide Easter egg hunt, a Resurrection Party, Palm Sunday with over 40 children waving palm branches, the beautiful Good Friday service led by Pastor David and his talented team and over 400 people attending worship on Resurrection Sunday! To God be the glory. As the verse says “…indeed my heritage is beautiful to me”.

40 Days of Prayer has been Officially Launched! Pastor David and the Worship and Tech Team put together a moving Concert of Prayer for Good Friday. It was a musically moving service leading us to the 40 Days of Prayer. Well done! Then Resurrection Sunday was our first Church-Wide introduction to the 40 Days of Prayer study. We have already had some great stories of how the Lord is moving to make this happen. This coming Sunday, April 7 will be the “first” Sunday with the coordinated sermon, Bible Study Video and daily devotional time. Here is a little secret: any Sunday you actually start the 40 Days of Prayer can be the “first” Sunday. Everything will be online and available: my sermon series on prayer; the Bible Study by Rick Warren; and all the testimonies. In other words, April 14th could be the second week for some and at the same time be the first week for those who start on the 14th. The same can be said for those who start on the 21st! The goal is to get you to go through the 40 Days of Prayer… not necessarily to go through it all together day by day. Does that make sense? We know some will not be able to start on April 7th or or April 14th for that matter. That is ok, we can make it work. Just hope in. We would rather you be a couple of weeks late in starting that to miss the boat altogether.

What a day, what a glorious day!

See you Sunday good Lord willing!

Pastor Tom

HOLY WEEK/PASSION WEEK

Starting this past Sunday, Holy week began with Palm Sunday, sometimes referred to as the Triumphal Entry. This past Sunday was a wonderful day of worship. Attendance was up, singing was joyful, the preschoolers and children did a fantastic job with the parade of the Palm Branches. Celebrate Recovery had a good night supporting one another.

Two of our events will be over by the time you read this. Wednesday night will be our Children and Family Resurrection Party. I know it will be a wonderful event. Our Day School Spring Sing will be Thursday morning. It is always an over load of cuteness! Great leaders put together great teams! Way to go.

Perhaps you will get this newsletter in time to be reminded of this year’s Good Friday service. We will have a Concert of Prayer from 7:00 to 8:00 pm. Pastor David and his talented team have planned a very beautiful service combining the Passion of Christ and the ACTS of prayer. I hope you will be able to join us. We are scheduled to have Communion at the Good Friday Concert of Prayer.

And then…HE IS RISEN…HE IS RISEN INDEED. We celebrate Resurrection Sunday. It looks like this year’s weather will favor our Flowering of the Cross. Each year we take a cross specifically built to be decorated with flowers and cover it with beautiful flowers…most of which come out of our yards. You are invited to bring your flowers to the worship center/sanctuary Sunday before the 9:00 service and before the 11:00 service. We will have volunteers there to help put the flowers on the cross. It is really beautiful once it is completed. The old rugged cross is transformed into a wondrous attraction to me!

Sunday will also be the pre-launch Sunday for our 40 Days of Prayer. The 40 DOP is an intentional, church-wide study on the power of God and the power of prayer designed to help us grow closer to God individually, deeper in our connections with each other and wider in our outreach to family and friends.

There are 3 basic parts to the 40 Days of Prayer. First, will be the Sunday gathering for worship. For the next 6 weeks, my teachings and our worship will all be centered around prayer. Second, you can join a small group/connection group to journey together. You will be led by Rick Warren on video. The third part of the 40 DOP will be your daily devotional using the 40 DOP Daily Devotional guide. I think you will really enjoy it!

Let’s start practicing: “He is risen! He is risen indeed!” See you Sunday, good Lord willing.

Pastor Tom

North American Missions: Annie Armstrong Easter Offering

There are approximately 371 Million people living t in the United States; there are over 350 languages spoken (I did not know there were that many languages anywhere!); there are 281 Million people in the U.S. that are without the Gospel. That is why we support the North American Mission Board. A few weeks ago we put the “Make Jesus Known” North American Missions Prayer Guide in the worship bulletin. This is a wonderfully helpful guide to help us pray specifically for a few of our missionaries. Here is a number that will thrill you…O.K., at least make you a little impressed. This year we help sponsor 6,300 full time missionaries. Out of that number 3,300 are chaplains and 3000 are of various type of church planters, Evangelists, etc. That is why I do not hesitate inviting you to consider a financial gift to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions. You can give on line at our church website or bring an offering any Sunday. If you do not have one of the Week of Prayer guides, please pick one up. The missionaries would love to know and believe they are being lifted to God in prayer.

HOLY WEEK STARTS THIS SUNDAY
I know it seems so incredibly quick, but this Sunday is Palm Sunday. The Children will help start our service with a praise and palm branch processional at the 11:00 service. Friday, March 29 at 7 PM we will have a Concert of Prayer. This will be a lovely and meaningful service a little different from our usual Good Friday service. It will include some interactive time for all who attend. And then Sunday, March 31 is Resurrection Sunday. Easter Sunday is a day of hope, a day of assurance, a day of rejoicing!

This Easter message will be “Do You Really Want To Grow Up?” It will be the official launch of our 40 Days of Prayer Campaign. We are thrilled that we have 20 small groups: our 9 Connection Groups that meet every Sunday and 11 (so far, but more are coming) new groups that will be meeting.

Listen to this. One of our volunteer Hosts is targeting several neighbors inviting them to participate. Perfect! Another Host has enlisted 11 from his ball team to form a group! Wow. I cannot wait to hear the stories of all He is doing!

I love our church family. What a privilege to work with our staff, our leadership teams and our church family and friends. See you Sunday, good Lord willing!

Pastor Tom

40 DAYS OF PRAYER…JUST AROUND THE CORNER

For the next few weeks you should be hearing your staff praise, promote and ask for participation in 40 Days of Prayer. This will be 40 Days of INTENTIONAL, CHURCH WIDE-STUDY ON THE POWER OF PRAYER to grow us closer to God individually, deeper in our connections with one another, and wider in our outreach to our friends and community.

Why do we choose 40 days and not 60 Days? For some reason, the Holy Spirit of God led the saints and heroes of the Bible to choose 40 days. The idea of 40 Days appears 24 times in the Bible. Noah was on the ark for 40 Days; Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the 10 Commandments for 40 Days; Jesus was in the wilderness praying and fasting for 40 Days. Perhaps staying at something for 40 Days is a good way to start a new habit and to stop a bad one!

When Jesus’ disciples asked him to “teach us to pray” that was a golden ask! They had watched Him do mighty miracles and wonders…often first led by prayer. They saw many breakthroughs related to Jesus’ habit of prayer. “Teach us to pray” is a pretty good request. So, for the 40 Days following Easter, we will be echoing the request of the disciples: Jesus, teach us to pray. In 40 Days Nineveh had the chance to repent and was not destroyed. In 40 Days the spies of Israel were able to go into the Promised Land and see what God said would be their own land. What could God do with a people who spent 40 days asking Jesus to teach us to pray? Is there a breakthrough coming? Is there a trial or test like Jesus faced? Is this the next step of your spiritual journey of discipleship? I am so excited about the possibilities.

LET ME BREAK IT DOWN. There are 3 basic parts to this campaign. First, our worship service beginning the Sunday after Easter will all focus on prayer. I will have 6 sermons related to prayer in my teaching series. Second, there will be a teaching series, taught by Rick Warren, that you will work through with your small group. We will have over 10 brand new small groups meeting! We will provide, free of charge, one of the nicest, most helpful books on prayer that you have ever seen or used. You will get your prayer devotional book from your group HOST. Third, that prayer book will also have a daily devotional for you. It will consist of one verse a day for 40 days. It will ask you questions that will help you meditate and think about what these verses mean to you. We will provide you, free of charge, with a key ring with 6 verses and a few other free resources for you.

Imagine, the entire church family, all on the same page for 40 days. I think it will be fabulous. I hope you will consider joining a group if you are not in one already. Or perhaps you would be willing to open your home serving as a HOST.

See you this Sunday, good Lord willing!

Pastor Tom

HOW EXCITED AM I?

With the full and total support of our leadership team, we are in full on preparation mode for the upcoming Church-Wide 40 Days of Prayer. Starting March 31, Easter/Resurrection Sunday, we will be launching a 40 Day Prayer Campaign. Here is the mission statement for the 40 Days of Prayer Campaign: “40 Days of intentional church-wide study on the power of prayer to grow closer to God individually, deeper in our connections and wider in our outreach.

How will we do this? First we are praying for church wide alignment—as many people as possible participating. I will be preaching a series 7 sermons on some of the most often asked questions about prayer. Pastor David Martin will be building our worship services around each of the sermon topics.

Second, we will all be invited to be in a Connection Group for these 40 Days. We will be led in our lessons by Rick Warren. Each person in a small group will receive free of charge, a daily devotional book that you will use daily on your own and weekly as you meet with your group. Pastor Kyle will be coordinating that for us. We are praying for and working toward starting as many new Connection Groups as we currently have. That is a BHAG...a Big Hairy Audacious Goal!

Third, we will be asking each ministry team to put aside their regularly scheduled activities to make sure everyone can participate for 6 weeks in a Connection Group. So, individually, you will have a daily devotional guide focused on prayer. In your group, you will have a video presentation. The outlines for these presentations are found in your 40 Days of Prayer daily devotional book. As a congregation, we will be hearing 7 sermons all related to prayer.

There is more, but this will serve as a good introduction.

I am very excited about seeing our church family and friends align our effort and purpose that will help us be equipped and better prepared for prayer! We are going all in to make this a spiritual breakthrough event. Please join us in prayer for a moving of the Holy Spirit across our church family.


See you soon, good Lord willing


Pastor Tom