IS VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL STILL WORTH THE EFFORT?

I know the question almost sounds blasphemous. It is a good question and my answer is “YES-ABSOLUTELY YES!”. Not because it is a tradition that goes way, way back. A hundred years ago when I was a child, I attended VBS at Dorchester-Waylyn Baptist Church in North Charleston. It was almost a southern ritual that churches had VBS and that neighborhood kids went. But that is not why I think VBS is still worth having.

Every year, just in Southern Baptist world, there are 2.5 million children that attend Vacation Bible School. There were 70,135 professions of faith/salvation experiences. Think about those numbers. Drug deals, child abusers, and others with evil intent are after those same children. And God gives us the opportunity to reach them before the devil does. It is so worth it.

For many churches Vacation Bible School is the most evangelistic mission event of the year. Last year Southern Baptist identified over 155,000 prospects as a result of VBS. Think of the families that number represents. And one result most of us would not think about: 1,383 children responded to God’s call to mission work. Yes, VBS is worth it. Children get a week of Bible Study, over 15 hours of discipleship, learn fun praise songs, food and snacks, and recreational games that get their faces out of screens. It is so worth it.

VBS could not be accomplished without the large number of volunteers. Many of our volunteers work all day in and out of the home and then come to serve. That kind of heart is hard to beat. By the end of the week, they are exhausted but are blessed knowing they have touched so many lives. All together, Southern Baptist Vacation Bible Schools gave over 6 million dollars to missions and connected the local church to families in the community. Is Vacation Bible School still worth it? Look at the numbers.

Start praying for next week’s Vacation Bible School, June 21-25. Pray for the volunteers, pray for the children, pray for those who will make professions of faith. This could be the best year ever. Let’s pray as though it all depends on God and let’s work as if it all depends on us.

See you this Sunday…don’t forget we are giving away 2, count them, one, two, grills this Sunday for Father’s Day. Mom…use this to encourage your husband to attend. The nine o’clock has about half the number of people…I would attend that service if I really want to increase my chances of winning a grill. Both will be given away hopefully in good natured fun. Thank you to our two members who donated the grills!

Pastor Tom

THERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU JUST CAN’T BEAT!

Would you agree with that? There are some things you just can’t beat. You can’t beat a good Sunday family dinner that includes a well made mac-n-cheese and banana pudding for dessert. You can’t beat a really good hot dog and a coke at a Braves Game. You really can’t beat the first hug from your church family after social distancing for over a year! Your list will be different, but we all have things you just can’t beat.

For three Wednesday nights in June, June 9, 16 and 30, the JIBC family is invited to gather at Folly Beach at the Folly Beach County Park. You can’t beat it! The beauty of the beach, the healing sound of the waves, the cool breeze of the evening, sitting around with friends, beach games…it is hard to beat.

Pastor Kent has put together three Wednesday nights in June for our church family to gather for fellowship and friendship. Janie and I are planning on being at all three. By the way, I know there are 5 Wednesdays in June. Two will have already passed by the time you read this, and one is the week of Vacation Bible School (June 21-25). That still gives us two to enjoy together. Janie and I take our chairs and a sub sandwich and sit and soak in the beauty of friendship as well as the beauty of the beach. There are some things you just can’t beat. It is not too late to join us for June 16th and 30th.

Just when you thought that was enough, we also have Wednesdays in July “UNDER THE OAKS” MOVIE NIGHTS. July 7, 14, 21, and 28 we will host our church family and community for a movie event. Again, bring your chair and enjoy a fun night under the oaks. There is a rumor we will have food trucks! This is a kid friendly event that will be lots of fun. We have upgraded our equipment so the movie looks great on the big screen!

What a great opportunity for us to catch up on the fellowship we have missed over the past year. Come on out, meet some new friends, see some fun movies and eat some popcorn. What is not to love!

Really, there are some things you just can’t beat!

Hope to see you this Sunday as we continue a new teaching series on Family Values Written In Stone. The Ten Commandments are just as important today as the first day God delivered them to Israel.

Blessings,

Pastor Tom

DISCOVERING MEMBERSHIP AT JAMES ISLAND BAPTIST

This Sunday, June 6, we will host another Class 101: Discovering Membership at JIBC. It is one of my favorite classes to teach. First, it helps me put names and faces together. We are blessed to meet new families and new people each week. Those passing moments usually do not allow us to talk at length and share stories. Second, Class 101 is a great next step for someone who has been attending the JIBC. If you have attended more than a few times, you are probably ready to go a little deeper and “look under the hood and kick the tires” so to speak. This is the perfect, no obligation way to do just that. Those attending have the opportunity to hear my heart about what we believe and why we believe it. We begin with the basics of salvation, baptism and Lord’s Supper; go onto our purpose and lifestyle statements; then we review our strategy…why we do what we do and how we do it; we conclude with our structure, our affiliations our ministry partners. I really do get excited about teaching this class and I am passionate about the benefits to those who participate. Did I mention we will throw in child care and a free meal?

Can you imagine having a baseball team with players who might be on the team or might be on another team? No, it is hard to imagine any organization or team not knowing who is on the roster and who can be counted on to help the cause. Church membership is important in that regard. It is a commitment to be in a relationship with a church family. Often this family is closer that our own biological family. Church membership gives us a place to love and be loved, to encourage and be encouraged, to pray for and be prayed for, to bless and be blessed.

If you have not been a part of Class 101: Discovering Church Membership, I really want to encourage you to be a part of this one. Like the old milk commercial that says “Milk...it does a body good”. I think it would make a great commercial: “Class 101: Discovering Membership…it does a Body good”. I really do believe it has done the body of Christ known as JIBC good. I would love you to be a part of the next one, this Sunday, June 6, starting at 4 PM. Contact the church office to register.

By the way, the restart for Celebrate Recovery went great Sunday night. Pastor David and the Student band were at their best. I almost went “bapticostal” with joy! Well done, well done!

Pastor Tom

WHAT A SPECIAL SUNDAY!

Celebrate Recovery meets every week, 52 weeks out of the year. There is very seldom a Sunday when we do not meet, even on holidays. That being said, there are some Sundays that are special. This coming Sunday will be one of them. We have been adding back to our Celebrate Recovery services piece by piece. First we added group meetings, then the celebration worship and then the fellowship meal. Now the last piece is being added…we will be meeting back in the Worship Center for our Celebration time. Pastor David has been leading worship in the fellowship hall, but it is just not the same. This Sunday, we will gather back in the Worship Center at 6:15 with the praise band.

Here is my request. Would you consider joining us for the first Sunday back? We will worship from 6:15 until around 7 when the CR small groups will divide up into their women’s and men’s groups. Before Covid hit, we were running around 45 people every Sunday night. The Charleston Center is not able to come back just yet. They may start back in June but we are not sure.

Some of the students from the Student Ministry are playing in the CR Praise band, so the youth will be joining us for the worship time, and then will exit for their own meeting! I am so excited and would love for you to help get us started with a good crowd, ready to praise the Lord. There is a fellowship meal at 5:30, a nursery is provided and there is a children’s ministry.

By the way, this Sunday morning, we will have one of our favorite events…the cardboard testimonies. I hope you will be able to be there in person or at least watch it online. It is always a highlight to see what God is doing in the lives of His children!

Blessings, keep on coming back!

Pastor Tom

WE’RE NOT JUST SOUTHERN ANYMORE!

You may have heard, or might hear soon, that the Southern Baptist convention is considering changing the identity of our name “Southern Baptist”. The new alternative is one that I really like. It is more descriptive… “Great Commission Baptist”. In fact, this year’s theme at the Southern Baptist Convention will be “We are Great Commission Baptists”. Now, let’s deal with some questions and concerns. First, I know that change is hard whether it is good or bad, wanted or needed…change is hard. Technically, they say change is not hard…it is the transition that is hard. Okay, whichever. I have found that change can be challenging. Second, this is not an effort to be politically correct or incorrect. It is not a part of the current day movement of removing our history or being “woke”. As far back as 1903, Southern Baptists raised the question of changing our identity as just “Southern” to something that better reflects our commitment to all of North America and the world. Nine years ago, in 2012, the Southern Baptist Convention voted to approve the alternate unofficial name change to the more descriptive “Great Commission Baptist”. That was years ahead of this crazy trend of trying to erase or re-write our country’s history. So do not associate the two of them. We embrace the strengths of our past and we should repent and seek to correct the sins and failures of our past. If we can do better and be better we should do better and be better. My goal is to lead our church to be spiritually correct not politically correct.

Years ago JIBC tried a slight rebranding and tried to add “The Church @Riverland Terrace” to our name. It had nothing to do with rejection our past or not embracing our past. We were trying to reach out to our community with a name that would not limit interest to just those who wanted to attend a Southern Baptist Church. The experiment came out as “The Church @Riverland Terrace, James Island Baptist”. I thought it was a worthy experiment. I cannot tell that it made any positive difference. I still think it was a good faith effort to help us reach our community.

The name Great Commission Baptist is a positive, biblically based name. I like it. It will take some getting used to and it will be hard to change and get it out of our DNA. If it helps us stay focused on missions and helps us break down unnecessary barriers to reach those who desperately need the Gospel of Jesus Christ…then bring it on. We are not just “Southern” anymore. By God’s grace we have expanded across North America and to the far corners of the world. Let’s pray together “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

The Charleston Baptist Association newsletter has written a great article on this topic with some helpful resources. To read more than my reflections on this article, check it out at www.charlestonbaptist.net.

See you Sunday, good Lord willing,

Pastor Tom

THE PRODIGAL HAS RETURNED!

Janie and I have been gone the last three Sundays. By God’s grace and goodness, we were able to fulfill a lifelong desire of seeing the Grand Canyon. We did see it…and it lived up to its reputation. We had never been out west except for business trips or conferences and we had never been to Nevada, Arizona and Utah. We talked about it for years and just never made the time. This year we pulled the trigger and went. We have as strong a staff as we have ever had and so I felt completely confident that our Father would bless them to do whatever might need to be done. I want to thank our staff for covering for me during our time away. Thank you.

By the way, I think you will understand why we do not ask our staff to advertise when they are gone. Social media is too easy for people with bad intentions to access. We do always try to let our leaders know when we will be out of town.

At age 65 our pace is a little different from the glory days. We would spend a day hiking and then the next day recovering! Our first week, we spent a day at each of the following areas: Red Rock Canyon, Valley of Fire State Park, Zion National Park and the Hoover Dam. Don’t get me started on the Hoover Dam jokes!

The second week we left Nevada and went to Sedona, Arizona. There we spent two days at the Grand Canyon. It really is awe inspiring. We would just sit and look and marvel at our Father’s creation. It looked like God made His beautiful world and then took all the left over beautiful pieces and made the Grand Canyon. We spent a day at Red Rock State Park and several other popular hiking destinations. We would carry our lunch and find a quiet place and just enjoy His beautiful creation.

All that being said…the prodigal preacher and his lovely wife have returned! I am back in town, in the office and looking forward to being with our church family this coming Sunday. I will be beginning a three part teaching series I am calling “You Have A Story To Tell”. This Sunday we have the Parent-Child-Church Dedication at the 11:00 Worship Service. And on Sunday, May 30 we are planning on Celebrating the Lord’s Supper and Baptism. If you would like to participate in any of these services, please let us know. You can call Neale at the church office at 843.762.0244.

To God be the glory! Good Lord willing, see you this Sunday!

Pastor Tom

PART TWO: WHY IS CHURCH MEMBERSHIP SO IMPORTANT?

Last week I wrote an article about the importance of Church membership. We live in a day when institutional importance and authority are challenged and even abandoned. For example, I grow so sad and weary when I hear someone say that the wedding license is just a piece of paper. A check made out to that same person for $100,000 is just paper, too…but I do not think they would take it so lightly. Some may take the institution of marriage so lightly because it carries responsibilities and commitments. That same feeling can be found in relationship to church membership as well.

The fact that something is a trend does not in any way make it right. That is a slippery slope and a very dangerous way to gather your values. “Let’s see how the majority polled and that will be my position” or “let’s see what all the people in this age group are doing and make that our value”. We have political leaders that seem to be entirely driven by polls and crowds. Their values seem to be the values du jour! What shall we believe today?

Followers of Christ have a foundation that is sure. We have the life and teachings of our Lord Jesus, the inspired Word of God, and the presence of the Holy Spirit and the fellowship of the saints. A church family and church membership is important to us because it is important to our Father. “Now you are no longer strangers to God and foreigners to heaven, but you are members of God’s very own family…and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian.” Ephesians 2:19 (LB) We are trying to build a church with members who have a sense of ownership with an attitude that they are all in! They are contributors, not just consumers of religious goods and services. We are family and belong to one another. The Bible has over 40 of these “one anothers”: pray for one another, encourage one another, admonish one another, etc. It is going to be very difficult to carry out these one anothers without one another.

In Class101: Discovering Church Membership we begin the discipleship process by teaching the basics of membership: Our Salvation, Our Statements of Purpose; Our Strategy and Our Structure. We want to make sure everyone is as on the same page as we can possibly be. That has helped to reduce and avoid some strife and division by making sure we all know, in advance, where we are going and how we are getting there. Not all churches do things the same way. Not even all Great Commission/ Southern Baptist churches do things the same way. Class 101: Discovering Membership lets you see how we do it. Hopefully, God is glorified, Christ is exalted and honoredand lives are transformed by His grace.

We love having family and friends attend to be a part of James Island Baptist Church. We know not everyone wants to join and not everyone will join. They are 100% welcome to come, attend and be blessed by the wonderful family known as James Island Baptist. When they are ready to move out of the stands as spectators to become participants, fully devoted followers of Christ, we will welcome them with open arms…and lead them through Class 101: Discovering Membership at JIBC.

I love being all in with James Island Baptist Church! If you are interested, the next Membership Seminar is Sunday, June 6. You can register now by contacting neale@jamesislandbaptist.com or text DISCOVER1 to 843-762-0244 or simply call the church office at 843-762-0244.

Pastor Tom