Between the Proverbial Rock and a Hard Place!

I am absolutely loving all that is happening in the 40 Days of Prayer campaign. We have heard wonderful stories, and are seeing some amazing friendships form. We ordered 450 of the 40 Day Prayer Devotional Guides. We just ordered 50 more! Who knows, we may even try to start a group or two after the 40 Days of Prayer are over.

Here is the rock and the hard place story. Your Pastor has not figured out a way to end the 9:00 Worship service on time or early to give the Sunday Connection Groups long enough to watch the video and then to enjoy discussion. Pastor David has done a great job or keep the worship side of the program as tight as he can possible do. It is your long-winded preacher who is gumming up the works! Lol Our church staff is working with him (me) to see if adjustments can be made to just ever so slightly adjust the length of the sermons.

Of all the problems we could have, that is one that I really don’t mind. We absolutely want to have you be in two places at one time! Since that is not possible, we want you to be at both the worship service and the Sunday Connection Groups. So, we will gently remind our good intentioned pastor of the 5 B’s of good preaching: Be Brief Brother Be Brief!

Did you hear about the pastor who was wearing a band aid on his cheek one Sunday morning? The old deacon asked his pastor what happened to your cheek? The pastor replied “While I was shaving this morning I was thinking about my sermon and cut my face!” To which the deacon replied “How about next week think about your face and cut the sermon!”

OK, I cannot promise cutting either, but I can promise we are trying to allow time for the Holy Spirit to bless each person that attends. I love this material and I am so thankful for our leaders best efforts to make it all happen in such a short amount of time.

As one of the theme songs says “Don’t stop praying, don’t stop believing”. See you Sunday, good Lord willing,

Pastor Tom

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