Teaching Series Recap

We just finished a teaching series on worship. I thought it would be more than just symbolic to start the New Year off with a series helping us focus or refocus on worship. I took the title of the series from our January memory verse, John 4:23-24, “Worship Him in Spirit and in Truth”. My goal was to take four of my favorite Bible passages about worship and build a series explaining what it means to worship our Father in spirit and in truth. We started with the classical passage of Isaiah 6 and his vision of God high and lifted up. It is a passage to be familiar with in that it speaks of the Holiness of God. Worship here is both vertical…directed up to God and vertical having an impact on us.

The second passage was from Psalm 100. It is a psalm that was read and sung as Israel gathered together in Jerusalem going to the Temple to worship. It is not exactly what we would call a template for worship. It is however a good guide for how to prepare ourselves to enter into worship. Psalm 100 is a favorite psalm. I hope you will become familiar with it if you are not already.

The third of the passages was from the Revelation, chapter 4. Once again, we get to peek inside of Heavens door to view worship. It is easy to get lost in the symbolism and miss the beauty of the main event…worship.

And then last Sunday we took a look at John 4 and Jesus’ own teaching about worship. An encounter that looked like a chance encounter turned out to be one of consequence. The Samaritan woman, like those of us who read this story, had opportunity to learn from Jesus Himself about true worship. Worship is too important for us to be sidetracked by customs, rules and regulations that seem to distract. There are traditions we love, like observing the Lord’s Supper. It leads us to experience Our Father and Lord Jesus in a very intimate way. But the details of how we observe the Lords Supper, how often, bread or wafer, weekly or monthly, passed or at stations….those are just traditions that are designed to help us. In other words, let’s make sure our worship stays God focused and God directed and not toward our traditions or rules.

I loved this definition of worship: Worship is all that I am reacting to all that God is. I pray that you will react to Him with praise, adoration, thanksgiving and confession. I am so thankful for our praise team that helps lead us to worship every week. To God be the glory.

See you this Sunday, good Lord willing!

Pastor Tom

NOT TOO EARLY TO PUT THIS ON YOUR CALENDAR

We have a prospective staff member coming February 15 and staying through Monday, February 18. Terry Candler, his wife, Denise and one of their children, Simon, will be with us for an extended weekend. Terry is being considered (and considering us) for the position of Associate Pastor. He will be preaching for us on Sunday, February 17. I am so excited about his being here and I feel sure you will love him and his sweet family. The staff and I have had multiple conversations with Terry and we all liked him a lot. Janie and I flew out to visit him and see him in his church community. We loved what he was doing and what his church family was all about. We flew Terry into meet some of our leaders to make sure he passed what I called the “likability” test…which of course, he did. We also wanted to make sure he liked what he saw here at JIBC and in our community. So now, we are bringing in momma! That is a big deal. As we all say, jokingly yet seriously….if momma ain’t happy, nobody will be happy. We want the entire family to love JIBC the way Janie and I do. So, they will see our community, our schools, visit with more of our church family, be with us in worship, etc. All important steps in making a decision to relocate your family and ministry.

Terry is from Union, South Carolina and Denise’s family is from Atlanta. So they are looking forward to moving from the West Coast to the East Coast to be closer to family. I don’t think they will miss the harsh snowy climate either! At any rate, it is not too early to get this on your calendar. Please try to arrange your calendar to be present. I would be thrilled to see the church packed on that Sunday. We will be sending out more details about Terry and the ministry he could have here at JIBC. Until then, let’s do something kind for someone in need, attempt something great with God to bring God glory.

See you Sunday,

Pastor Tom

WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH

Sunday mornings I am teaching a series on Worship. It is based on the John 4 passage where Jesus says two very important things about worship. First, our Father is seeking you to worship Him. He wants you, desires you and is waiting and expecting you to come to Him in worship. Far from being a fearful experience, He looks for us as a long awaited family member or friend coming to visit and spend time. That changes our perspective. We don’t “have to” worship; we don’t just “get to worship”…we love to worship; we long to spend time with Him who longs to spend time with us.

Second, we worship Him in spirit and in truth. We worship him with our head and our heart, with emotion and well as logic. We express our love to God with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our strength. Some may be a little intimidated by worshiping God in spirit, with emotion. I grew up in a church tradition and time when we were taught the following verse about worship: “the Lord is in His Temple, let all the earth be silent”. So speaking out, clapping hands, raising hands, saying amen or hallelujah was all but forbidden. The problem is that is not the majority of worship as portrayed in God’s Word. We are not just a mind, a brain or just purely logical. We are also emotional, expressive, and spiritual. We need to clap, shout, sing, dance and be fully engaged. If you have ever seen Jewish people at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, you see them swaying back and forth, rocking with abandon. They are praying with their minds and worshiping with their bodies, their whole being. 

I am taking my four favorite Bible passages about worship and using them to show Biblical worship…in spirit and in truth. Worship cannot be optional for us, it must be primary. It cannot be a spectator sport, we must be full participants. It is not something we do only on Sunday mornings. Sunday mornings becomes the time we offer him all we did the previous week as a sacrifice of worship. Sunday morning is the time we seek to give Him the honor and the glory He is due. In doing so, by His grace, He can give us the power we need to face the week ahead. Join us as we continue to focus on the invitation to Worship Him in spirit and in truth.

See you this Sunday, good Lord willing.

BTW, you can still join me on Wednesday nights at 6:15 as we survey the Old Testament. We finished Judges on January 16 and will introduce the Book of Ruth on January 23. Great group, great study, come on and join us.

Pastor Tom

HARD NUMBERS TO LOOK AT

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency. Opioid related deaths exceeded over 42,000 in 2017. That is about 130 deaths every day, day in and day out, all year long. It is estimated that over 11 million people abuse prescription opioids and that 90% of those struggling with addictions are not getting any help. Many of have used and are using opioids as prescribed by our physicians. Opioids include legally prescribed drugs like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and morphine. It also can include illegal drugs like heroine. Heroin is sometimes mixed with Fentanyl which is so strong it has caused many overdose deaths. Fentanyl can be deadly even by just touching it. By the way, we keep a dose of “Narcan” in my office. This is a drug to be used in case of an opioid overdose. Trust me, they never went over this in seminary! Here is the reality: this is the world we live in. If you or someone you know needs help, this is a 24- hour hotline: 843.722.0100.

Thank you for taking on the areas of darkness. Celebrate Recovery is not the answer, it is a way to the answer. Only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can change and heal any of us. Those struggling with addiction are fighting on at least three different fronts. First, their addiction is a disease. I know that seems controversial to some. It is a complex disease of the brain and body. Second, it is very likely that many of us who struggle with addiction were self-medicating to deal with a known or unknown mental health issue. We were in pain and used our drug of choice to relieve the pain. Third, all of us are dealing with a sin issue. We are broken because of our sinful human nature. Some of us manifest and show our brokenness in more socially acceptable ways like overeating, controlling, perfectionism, etc. Some of us chose more harmful ways to deal with the pain. If you add all three of those together, it results in a pathway of pain. And so Celebrate Recovery steps up to join the fight. Last Sunday night we had 40 adults in Celebrate Recovery. Only about 1/3 of those attending come because of alcohol or drug issues. Others come for co-dependency, anger and control, pornography, grieving, etc. We are glad they come! Our goal is to introduce them to the Healer, the Higher Power we know as the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you James Island Baptist. Thank you for taking a chance, for reaching out, for providing resources, for donating food, for giving a bus for transporting from the Charleston Center, for volunteering to serve, for keeping the lights on, for buying Recovery Bibles, for training leaders, for praying great prayers. Thank you. The struggle is real and so is the healing.

Pastor Tom

Wow and Wow!

I can almost put on the proverbial broken record…this year’s Christmas Eve worship service was wonderful. I cannot say for sure that it was the best ever, but it would be very hard to pick one that was any better in any way. Wow. Well done praise band, youth praise band, security, greeters, chair stackers and un-stackers and the strong backs that brought and returned the chairs. Well done. And I was personally thrilled and grateful for the effort of the Hispanic Church leadership for coming over to join the JIBC service. Afterwards, they went to their Christmas Eve service that lasted until after midnight! Janie and I dropped in on their service at 10:00 pm and they were just getting the food cooked for their celebration. What a wonderful way to end the 2018 year. To God be the glory.

Staff Update

We are just about ready to announce some very good news about the Student Pastor position at JIBC. We went through dozens of resumes and had a few interviews. We worked with our Finance Team to come up with a new approach to this position. It appeared that we were stuck looking for a “part-time” Student Pastor. That was basically the salary we had to offer. That was a very difficult assignment. The decision was made to offer a full time salary and that seemed to open the door for a wonderful conversation. All along, I was sad about Frankie Gilmore not being able to stay on board with us. So…here is the wonderful announcement. FRANKIE IS BACK! We have not finalized all the details, but we do believe we were able to present a salary package that made it possible for Frankie to re-join our staff. I am very pleased. The students love Frankie, the parents trust him and I think he is a quick study and learns quickly. He is surely the kind of person I would want leading and mentoring my grandson! We will most likely have the details ready for official celebration this next week.

Now the next addition to our staff: We have been in conversation with a prospective staff member for quite a few months now. Janie and I flew out to visit him at his current church and we have brought him here to meet some of our leaders. In the old days we would have called this staff position an “Educational Director”. More currently they are called “Associate Pastor”. Some larger churches will call them the Executive Pastor. I think for our purposes, we will work with the title Associate Pastor just to make things easier. We will probably switch to something a little more 21st Century like Pastor of Discipleship and Ministries. Enough about the title. Sometime in January, we will start getting you information about the person and the position. He, his wife and one of their children will be here on the weekend of February 15-17. He will preach, have a meet and greet, talk strategies, answer questions and ask questions. I really like this prospective staff person. He and his wife are easy to talk to and quite easy to get to know. Even though he currently lives on the west coast, he is from Union, South Carolina. I am looking forward to their coming to visit.

Both of these positions were the main part of the budget increase this year. It is my prayer that God will continue to bless and a year from now, we will be writing about how God has blessed with such a wonderful staff! Again, to God be the glory!

See you soon, Pastor Tom