LET’S CELEBRATE AND THEN CELEBRATE SOME MORE!

This Sunday will be the unofficial ending of our 40 Days of Prayer Campaign. Why unofficial? Like the old theologian Yoggi Berra used to say “It ain’t over til it’s over!” We have a few more things to celebrate.

First, this Sunday, May 19 will be Celebration Sunday #1. We will have a closing video, observe the Lord’s Supper, and recognize and say thanks to all of our 40 DOP hosts. Each host will receive a special gift from Pastor Kyle. We are working on a way to give everyone an opportunity to give thanks and glory to the Lord for the blessings of the 40 DOP.

The second celebration happens on Sunday, May 26. Kyle will be giving a praise and thanksgiving report during the 9:00 and at 11:00 Worship Services. In between, we will have a church wide adult fellowship at 10:00 in the Fellowship Hall. All adult Connection Groups are invited. It does not matter if you meet on Sundays or during the week. Come on by get something to drink, see some new faces and prepare to celebrate!

Here is the third reason the 40 DOP is not quite over. Pastor Kyle gave out 15 more books this past Sunday. Hopefully, that means we will have 15 more JIBC family and friends going through the Prayer Journal for the next 40 Days! It ain’t over until it is over.

I have so enjoyed our church family and friends going through this church wide study on the Power of God and the Power of Prayer. It has, indeed, drawn us closer to God individually and closer to our Connection Groups and friends. We have given out 400 Prayer journals and some of them are still being used! Amen and amen!

See you this Sunday for Celebration #1. Be thinking about how God has blessed you or how this 40 DOP has blessed you. Let’s give Him some glory.

Pastor Tom

WHEN DO YOU WANT SOMETHING TO NOT WORK?

Most of the time, we really want things to work. We want our car to start every time we get in it. We want our air conditioners to work when it gets hot! Whenever I have to get on the floor or the ground, I really want my knees to work. LOL So when do you want something not to work? Pastor David and David Jr. have been tracing my microphone’s issue for quite a while. They would have the problem defeated and handled until next time. I really thought it was something in my body chemistry that was affecting the microphone. David and David were working every week. Then their creativity won the day. Let’s take Pastor Tom’s “mic-pack”, the brand new, top of the line, just about as good as they come mic-pack and isolate it. BOOM…you just heard a mic drop! Success has arrived and we are betting the farm, so to speak, that the very complicated mic issue is resolved. Thank you David and David Jr and all your team. You are the best. Thank you all for staying with it so diligently.


TWO MORE WEEKS OF 40 DAYS OF PRAYER

This has been so good for our church family and friends. Our prayer is that we will all grow closer to God individually and grow deeper in our connection with our church family and wider in our outreach to family and friends. The testimonies have been inspiring; the daily devotionals have been day after day of some of the best verses in the Bible; Rick Warren’s video Bible Studies have been spot on. How have you been doing on the Bible Verse Memorization? These 6 verses are great ones to hide in your heart.

This week the message will be “What do you do when God says ‘No’? This coming Sunday is also Mother’s Day. Kat Cumberledge, our Children’s Ministry Leader has worked with Pastor David to produce a great kids video for Mom’s. We will show it at both services. All moms attending will receive a carnation this Sunday. Kat also has a special gift for moms that will be joining or interested in joining the Sunday Morning Mom’s Bible Study. If you are interested in this group please see Ashley Judy or Kat Cumberledge.

This coming Sunday I will be teaching on “What to do when God says ‘No”. On Sunday, May 19, we will have our 40 Days of Prayer Celebration Sunday. We will celebrate Lord’s Supper at both services, 9 and 11. I should be a great week. Hope to see you there.

Pastor Tom

Down the Homestretch of 40 Days of Prayer

We have three more weeks to go. We started four weeks ago on a church-wide study on the Power of God and the Power of Prayer. 40 Days of Prayer is designed to draw us closer to God individually, deeper in our connections with other believers and wider in our outreach to family, friends and community. What a God honoring, Christ exalting, Spirit led campaign. I cannot see a downside to leading the church to pray! The worship services are inspiring; the video lessons from Rick Warren are spot on to many of our experiences; and the daily devotionals are leading us to experience many of our favorite Bible verses.

Here are some of the comments that have come in so far: I never thought of God as my Father before this; We felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in our conversations; We are having great discussions!; We have no more seating in our home!; We ran out of books and had to get more. You can tell people are enjoying this 40 Days of Prayer campaign.

Here are some interesting numbers for you. We have 1 new ministry partner named Still Worthy, a recovery community on Johns Island. They have 30 who will be going through the 40 DOP; 10 books given out to HOMEBOUND individuals; We have 23 groups in total including the 12 we had before we started. That means we have started 11 new groups; averaging 12.7 people in each group; we have 301 people associated with a 40 DOP group; we have given out 380 Daily Devotional Books. That includes the 285 we have distributed through our groups and 95 that have gone to people outside our groups. Add that all up and it equals a great big HALLELUJAH!

We have one more objective we would like to accomplish. If you are not in a 40DOP group and have not already received a Daily Devotions Book/Guide, we would love for you to have one…or as many as you need. We only ask that you give us 5 to 10 minutes to walk you through the book so you know how to get the most out of it. That simple! And we really would love to take a moment to meet with you. Let us help you on your spiritual journey.

See you this Sunday, good Lord willing!

Pastor Tom

 

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