Spiritual Conversations: Let’s Talk About…

I started a new teaching series I am calling “Spiritual Conversations: Let’s Talk About…” The big idea is to encourage and equip our church family and friends to look for opportunities to have these “Spiritual”, Gospel Conversations. These conversations can take place anywhere at any time and may start off about anything.

There are two ways we can have these conversations. First, you might initiate them. You take the first step. Maybe ask questions like: Do you go to church anywhere? Are you watching the news about Israel and Iran? Would you guys like to go to church with us this Sunday? Those are straight forward, nonthreatening, questions that you could initiate and see if there is a conversation to be had. The second way is to respond. Keep your ears and heart open to listen to what people ask and say. For instance: “My teen has gone off the rails and I don’t know what to do”. “We just called Hospice in for my grandmother. I am not sure what to do to help her”. The person you are with might bring us the topic that really is a spiritual conversation waiting to happen. I try to watch and listen for the things only God can do. Only the Holy Spirit can convict people of sin, lead them to righteousness, and convict them of judgment. Only the Holy Spirit could lead someone to seek after God. So when I hear these things, I can be pretty sure God is working and this might be the place for a Gospel/Spiritual Conversation.

How can we celebrate these conversations and give God the glory? Pastor Kyle made a great looking display box. Every time you have a Spiritual Conversation, you are invited to stop by the box and drop a ping pong ball into it. There are three holes at the top and a cross on the inside. What if we had a hundred Gospel Conversations this summer? Wow, we plant the seed, someone else waters and God makes it grow.

Let’s pray that we will be open and ready to give an answer to anyone that might ask why we have this hope in Jesus.

See you Sunday, good Lord willing!

Pastor Tom

“But in your heart set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have.”

1 Peter 3:15

SPIRITUAL CONVERSATIIONS

Starting this Sunday, our teaching series will be called “Spiritual Conversations: Let’s Talk”.

The big idea is to lead our church family and friends to engage in spiritual conversations with those who intersect with our lives. Over the next few weeks, we will be looking at biblical examples of spiritual conversations. We might even have some testimonies from those who have had such conversations. We are currently working on a way to help us measure how many spiritual conversations our church family is having.

Frankly, we don’t want to be “that guy” who with no sensitivity at all, just blurts all over people whatever is on their mind. We are not looking for arguments. We are looking for those Holy spirit led moments when it just seems so right to engage in …well, spiritual conversations. We will be trying to equip our church family and friends to engage in spiritual conversations the way Jesus did. My guess is that our church family is already having such conversations. We just don’t think about them as such. So, for 6 weeks, we will be brining them to the forefront of our thoughts.

The big picture is spiritual conversations. The subtitle is “Let’s Talk About…” Each week we will study a Biblical Story about spiritual conversations. Let’s Talk About… forgiveness when we have been wronged; about how could a loving God could send someone to hell; if there is a God was does He allow suffering; there must be more than one way to heaven; etc. I will try to address the kind of conversations we might have with family members, friends, co-workers and team mates. These can be conversations with people that are near to us but far from God. It could be with people who use to believe but got hurt and dropped out of Church and away from God.

“…and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” 1 Peter 3:15

See you Sunday, good Lord willing,

Pastor Tom

NO PLACE LIKE HOME!

Janie and I have had the opportunity to take some time off the last three weeks. As much fun as we had, the old saying is so true: “There is no place like home”. We started our adventure with a trip to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky. Wow, it is the largest wooden structure in the world. If you have kids or you are a big kid at heart, you may want to consider making the trip to see the Ark Encounter. You could also visit some of the most beautiful horse farms in the country. We left My Old Kentucky Home area for a brief stop in Sellersburg, Indiana. We have wonderful old friends who invited us over for evening meals. When God blesses you with good friends He has blessed you with a great gift.

We left Southern Indiana for our destination of the Smokey Mountains. We stayed in Pigeon Forge but our goal was to hike as much as we could. We love chasing waterfalls. Our biggest hike was 5 miles in and 5 miles out! We packed our salads…yep, our salads, and took off for our hikes. I figured if we met black bears they would not be enticed by salads!

By the way, we saw 8 black bears in Cades Cove! There were two days we did not hike. One was spent shopping at the Big Knife Store. You gotta see this place to appreciate it. The second non-hiking day was spent at Dollywood. We have been asked if we rode the roller coaster rides. Not only did we not ride them, we never even saw them. We jumped around from music venue to music venue enjoying really good music and shows. Once you hear Dolly’s story, you become a fan.

Then the last of the summer travels included going to see the Savannah Bananas. Yes, that is a real name. It is a profession baseball organization that does for baseball what the Harlem Globetrotters did for basketball…only bigger! Our daughter Erin won the tickets for the game played last weekend at the Carolina Panthers football stadium. That stadium seats 75,000 and was packed…two nights in a row setting an attendance record.

So now, we are home sweet home. We have no more travel plans for the summer that I know of so we can get back into our comfy routine.

This Sunday is Father’s Day. We will have a Parent Child Dedication service at the 11:00 service and will be recognizing and honoring one of our Elders, Frank O Hunt at the 9:00 service. This week’s sermon will finish our series on The Apostle’s Creed. I will be teaching on the section that says Jesus descended to hell. I should have assigned that one to Logan!

See you this Sunday, good Lord willing.

Pastor Tom

“Summer time and the living is easy!”

June is such a great month. The old saying is “Spring would be a tough act to follow, so God made June!” The grill gets fired up, the pools are ready, you get extra hours of daylight. You can get ready for bed while it is still light outside!

Let’s make June a month of worship, Bible study, fellowship with friends, inviting those who are close to us but far from God to join us for a fun event…like a ballgame. What a great month.

June at JIBC includes VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL. This is one of the time-honored spiritual traditions here in the South. Throughout the year, parents, grandparents, Sunday School teachers have all been planting the Gospel seeds and VBS is one of the seasons where we just might see a spiritual crop! Our VBS will be June 23-June 27. There is a VBS training event on Thursday, June 12 and the VBS Decorating Event on Saturday, June 21. See Felecia Hebert or Pastor Kyle about the details.

Father’s Day almost slips by without too much fanfare. Not this year! This year we will have a “Parent Child Dedication Service” on June 15 at the 11:00 service. If you feel like double dipping, we will also have a recognition of one of our faithful servants on that day, too!

Here is a June event that happened as a result of the Festival of Hope. On June 29, 6:30 p.m., JIBC will host a free “Narcan Training” event. The Festival of Hope was designed to help remove the stigma of mental health issues and to raise awareness of addictions. There have been 187 drug overdose deaths this past year in Charleston. In South Carolina there were 2,296 drug overdose deaths in 2022. Let’s make June a month we decided to do something to change that number. Everyone attending will receive a free Narcan kit and free training.

June is the gateway to summer. Let’s make June a fun gateway to worship, service, fellowship and friends!

Summer time and the living is easy…and blessed, I hope!

Pastor Tom

WE BIRTHED THAT BABY!

 

It was a long and very busy 9 months but that baby finally arrived! This past Saturday witnessed the wonderful arrival of the Festival of Hope “baby”! She arrived in the blazing sun. She was a little under weight but just as beautiful as she could be. I am, of course, talking about the Festival of Hope…that is the beautiful baby!

The Festival of Hope was everything we dreamed it could be with the exception of attendance being a little lower that anticipated. Pastor Kyle estimates that we had close to 700 guests, over 75 volunteers and maybe 111 people at the 38 Vendors of Hope booths! We gave out over 900 of the entrance wrist bands!

I walked up to one family and asked if they were having a good time. With a big smile on her face she just kept saying “They gave me new clothes for my baby!” I asked another person if they were enjoying the day and the event. She smiled and said “Yep, I just signed up for my first session of counseling therapy!” I am hoping there are hundreds of stories similar to these two.

This was probably the largest mission event JIBC has tackled in quite a while. Pastor Kyle and the amazing platoon of volunteers did an outstanding job. They dealt with the heat, met scores of people, blessed in Jesus’ name, networked with other helping organizations, etc. This day went about as well as I could ever have expected it to! Well done, good and faithful servants, well done!

Now, ready for the topping on top of the pie? One of the larger organizations told me they want to do this event next year. They wanted Kyle to meet with them at a later date to tell them how we put on this Festival of Hope. Oh my, we get to infuse the Spirit of the Lord and His creativity and someone else foots the bill and does the heavy lifting! Amen and Hallelujah!

Thank you again to our church leaders, Finance Team and our members for being willing to take on the spiritual giants.

Blessings in the Name above all names, Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord!

Pastor Tom

TAKING ON THE GIANTS

You know the story of David and Goliath.  Goliath thought he was too big to hit and David thought Goliath was too big to miss!  So…David rocked Goliath’s world.  Check out the story in 1 Samuel 17.  David was told he was too little and Goliath was too big.  David changed the field of battle when he said:  “I come to you in the Name of the LORD”.  The rest, as they say is history. 

Why take on the giants in our community? Because it is our community, it is the LORD’s community. JIBC has a great history of taking on some of the largest challenges in our community. Mental Health illness is a giant. There are 59 million adults with mental illness That is 23% of the population. Over 42 million adults have anxiety disorders and 31% of those have had anxiety disorders for most of their lifetime. Addiction affects 46 million adults in the United States. Major depression affects 4.8 million youth. That is almost 20% of youth. Mental Health America makes these stats known. If interested you can keep learning more and more. This is a BIG GIANT and you are taking it on at the Festival of Hope this Saturday, May 17.

Our goal is to help remove the stigma of mental health disease and raise the awareness of addiction-substance use disorders. The two of them often go together. The substance abuse is often used to self -medicate the pain and problems created by the mental health disease.

We have gathered over 35 Vendors of Hope that offer help to anyone interested in Mental Health and addiction; to anyone needing resources to help; to anyone needing to network with others with like-minded missions. Doing this in a family friendly environment is one way to help remove the stigma. Families can come and enjoy good music, good food, fun inflatables and meet over 35 Vendors of Hope working to make our community better…to fight some of the giants.

By the way, who was the greatest babysitter in the Bible? David of course. He rocked Goliath to sleep! Just remember if God puts a Goliath in front of you, He must believe there is a David inside of you! Thanks for being a church family that takes on the giants. I love you all!

Pastor Tom

The Final Countdown

For all of the Rocky Balboa fans, think “the final countdown”. Rocky is going to the Soviet Union to fight Drago, the man that seems to be more machine than man. Rocky increases his training to almost super human levels. Rocky goes all in, no turning back, no throwing in the towel. What follows is one of the all-time classic fight scenes in Hollywood history. And of course, Rocky wins. He makes a plea for change and unity. His haunting cry in the ring “Everybody can change!” That is a little Gospel nugget right there.

OK, maybe a little over the top. The Festival of Hope is nearing the final countdown. On Saturday, May 17 from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM JIBC will host what may be the largest gathering of Hope Vendors in the Charleston area. Our goal is to take on Drago, a giant in our community: Mental Health Issues and Addictions/Substance Use Disorders. I know, it is a giant of a problem. I think we have done everything we know to do in reference to putting this family friendly Festival of Hope together. There will be approximately 35 Vendors of Hope from a wide variety of agencies, organizations, ministries, counselors, trauma specialists, Veterans support groups, children’s services, and on and on.

What is left to do? 1) Pray that the Spirit of God will move the hearts of hundreds if not thousands to attend. Let them be mysteriously interested and moved to be a part of this event. 2) Attend. Bring family and friends. We all have issues and have family and friends with issues. There will be a plethora of resources available to help get us connected. (I don’t get to use the word plethora a lot!) 3) We still need around 50 volunteers to give us the ability to cover all the areas adequately. To volunteer, please text Pastor Kyle at 919-218-4455.

By the way, the energetic song “The Final Countdown” is not the soundtrack for Rocky IV. It sounds like it should have been and it will forever be in my mind as a motivational song. See you this Sunday as we continue with the “I Believe” series. This Sunday will be “I believe in God the Father, Almighty, maker of Heaven and earth”.

Pastor Tom