NOT A BAD WAY TO REDEEM AUGUST

I really do understand why a pastor or a church would be tempted to just write the month of August off. It would be easier to coast through the month and wait for the momentum of “Back To School” to kick in. It really would be easier. We believe God is in business to “reach, redeem and restore a lost and broken world”. The reality of being lost and broken does not take a month off…even a slow month like August. My thought was to do everything possible to redeem a month that could easily be considered a church calendar throw away month. So far, so good. I wanted to say so far, so great! But it did not sound right. Lol.

We started the month of August with the most people gathered to study God’s word and the most people gathered to worship than any Sunday this summer. We baptized 5 on Sunday morning and 2 at Celebrate Recovery. A pretty good way to welcome our new staff member and his wife, Scott and Lori. The Word of God taught, seeds of His Word planted, fellowship enjoyed and encouragement given. Now, let the Holy Spirit do that amazing work.

Last Sunday was just as amazing in many ways. We had a good attendance, celebrated the Lord’s Supper, heard a message on “Praying Big Prayers” from Ephesians. Then the Mac-N-Cheese Bake Off Competition was great. Ten outstanding offerings and a great hour of fellowship. Pastor’s mistake #765: I announced the winner before all the votes were counted. Here was the dilemma: I had already crowned James Hines as the winner with the most votes based on the cards I was given. Barry Waldrop was actually the top vote getter. But there was no way in heaven I was going to take the Top Chef Hat off my Father-in-Law, the Patriarch of my family. Sorry Barry! All kidding aside it was a wonderful time of fun and fellowship. It was a wonderful way to have a drop in reception for Scott and Lori. Thank you all for participating.

This week we Celebrate Jesus with “Stuff a Book Bag-Bless a Kid”. We will probably end up filling about 50 book bags. We will also have a time of commissioning for all of our teachers and administrators during the Mission-Ministry Offering time. You will want to be here for this celebration. By the way, we are giving each of them a $10 Starbucks gift card for the first week break they will need! Thank you all for the generous way you give in your tithes and offerings.

Then the last week of August will be JIBC giving the largest one time food offering every in our church history. You can bring school supplies and food items any day and/or any Sunday. Our commitment is that no one on James Island goes to bed hungry unless we don’t know about it. This offering will go a long way in helping the under-served.

See you this Sunday, expressing gratitude to our teachers.

Pastor Tom

HOW COULD IT HAVE BEEN BETTER?

The “Celebration of Jesus: Month of Mission” could not have started off any better! Frankie and our praise team did a great job in leading our worship. We baptized five precious souls Sunday morning: four teenagers and one adult (by the way, you saw your offerings that support Student Ministry and Student Camps bear fruit). Then we baptized two more adults at Celebrate Recovery. And we began a great series on the Queen of Epistles, Ephesians. The stage is getting filled with food donations to James Island Outreach and School supplies for children in need! And to top it all off, we did have the highest attendance in worship that we have had all summer. The only thing that could have made it any better is if our church family that was not present could have been. Then we would have that many more praising His Name and enjoying fellowship. To God be the glory.

THIS SUNDAY IS A THROWDOWN OF EPIC PROPORTIONS…OK, KIND OF. This Sunday after worship, everyone is invited to “drop-in” to welcome Scott and Lori to the JIBC family. To help you attend, you will be able to sample some of the best Mac-N-Cheese offered anywhere on James Island. We have some of our best cooks…and at least one not any kind of cook (me)…who will be presenting their favorite version of my favorite food…Mac-N-Cheese. You will be invited to sample any three “anonymous” selections and vote for your favorite. After everyone that wants a sample has had a sample, then enjoy all you like! All I can say is I have two sleeves and I have something up both of them for this competition.

I chose to reschedule observing the Lord’s Supper until this Sunday, August 11. Last Sunday was filled to the brim with celebration and I did not want Communion to be rushed or lie an after thought. So this Sunday, we will join together in remembering our Lord’s gift to us all.

SCHOOL SUPPLIES AND FOOD ITEMS. If you are buying school supplies for our area students and food for James Island Outreach, you may bring them any time during the week (Monday through Friday, 8:30 to 4:30) or any Sunday. I have it in my mind that we could redeem a traditionally low attended month in church life and make it a celebration of mission in Jesus’ Name. Could we make the largest one time food offering in JIBC history? I think we can. We are off to a great start. If you would like to give but not shop, just let us know. We have professional shoppers ready to hunt down the best bargains in town.

What a great day we had in the Lord. Blessings all mine and 10,000 beside, great is God’s faithfulness.

Pastor Tom

CELEBRATING JESUS: A MONTH OF MISSIONS

Usually around Christmas time, I hear the question “Why can’t we be this charitable all year long?” I smile to myself and give thanks for what God is doing in the JIBC family. All year long, reaching out, blessing others, finding a way to pay it forward and share God’s goodness. So, in August, traditionally the hardest month on our church calendar, we take on a “Month of Missions”. We are trying to do several things that reflect our values and help carry out God’s mission to our community.

First, we are aiming for a High Attendance Sunday for August 4. Really? August, high attendance? Why not? We are also planning to have several baptisms to celebrate…Amen? We will observe the Lord’s Supper and start a new teaching series on the Book of Ephesians. And we will welcome Scott and Lori to the JIBC family…Hallelujah! BTW, we will also have a baptism at Celebrate Recovery. How about that!

Second, we will throw down on some good old fashion fellowship and fun. Stay after the worship service and participate, yes, even salivate, over the JIBC Mac-N-Cheese Bake Off. Ten cooks, ten offerings one champion. You will vote and a champion will be crowned. And…you can come by and visit with Scott and Lori.

On Sunday, August 18 we will be making life a little easier for some families as we “Stuff a Book Bag and Bless a Kid”. You can bring the items requested (see below) any week or every week. Susan is working with school officials to make sure we bless those in need! In addition, on this Sunday, you will get to hear Scott Blasingame’s story.

And then to stretch our faith, I am asking us to attempt giving the largest one time food offering in JIBC history. Hunger does not take August off. We made a commitment years ago that no one on James Island goes to bed hungry unless we don’t know about it. Here is a deal you can’t refuse: if you want to give but cannot go shopping, just let us know. We have professional shoppers who will make sure they get the most bang for your buck! You can being food items any Sunday between now and Sunday, August 25.

Point of clarity: You can buy any kind of food item. The list below is just a sample of things they need. But you could buy 10 bottle of Apple Juice or 20 cans of Green beans. You DO NOT have to buy one of everything on the list. The same is true for school supplies. You could buy 100 pencils or 20 erasers. You do not have to buy one of each thing. Janie and I bought those things just for the purpose of illustrating what to buy. Again, if you want to give but cannot go shopping, we have professional, highly trained bargain hunters who will find the best deals in town for you.

A Month of Mission to Celebrate Jesus. To God be the Gory. Why yes, we can have the giving spirit of Christmas all year long!

Pastor Tom 

Sample List of School Supplies for 

a First Grade Student 

12 #2 pencils 

1 box of crayons (24/pkg) 

2 glue sticks 

1 box of tissues 

1 pink eraser 

1 package washable markers (8/pkg) 

1 pair of Fiskar blunt tip scissors

1 pencil case

2 wide ruled spiral bound notebooks

3 pocket folders

12 pencil crayons

Food Items for James island Outreach 

Jelly 

Canned Peas 

Canned Green Beans – NO SALT ADDED 

2 lb bag White Rice 

Jiffy Cornbread Mix 

Ramen Noodles 

Saltine Crackers 

Apple Juice 

Lima Beans – Canned or Dry 

Things for which I praise Him and give thanks!

I try to have a time alone with God every day. It includes reading the Bible, taking notes in my journal and then a time of prayer. My prayer time starts with a time of adoration and praise, then confession and then thanksgiving. It concludes with a time of intercession. So, let me share some of the things for which I am currently praising and thanking God.

First, I am so thankful that after a long and involved process, our Father has led us to Scott and Lori Blasingame as our new Associate Pastor. I am so looking forward to his mission and ministry with our JIBC family. He will continue strengthening our Small Group missions and ministry, the delivery system for Bible Study, fellowship, care, nurturing and mobilization to mission as well as the ministries in the church family.

It is possible that they will be with us on July 28 or at least by August 4. They still have a contract pending on their home in Rock Hill and the closing process on their home here. We are trusting those details will be blessed like this entire process has been blessed. Thank you for your faithful prayers.

Second, I praise Him and thank Him for the recent professions of faith. It is my wonderful privilege to present the Gospel at VBS every year. This year, as in many years, we had several children take the next step toward accepting Christ as their Savior. How wonderfully precious! We also had 31 children load up on the bus this week to attend CentriKid camp. I am praying for those who will have an opportunity to say yes to the Holy Spirit’s calling. This past Monday in our weekly staff meeting, Frankie told me we have 5 teenagers who have accepted Christ and are ready for Baptism. That is in addition to others we have waiting for baptism. We could have a pretty full pool! Praise the Lord.

Third, in Celebrate Recovery, we use a “chip” system to celebrate days, weeks, months and years of being sober or free from a hurt, habit or hang-up. Over the past 8 weeks, we average 33 adults at CR. That does not count the band, the prayer group and students who join us for the worship celebration and leave when the worship time is over and the lesson begins. They go to their own areas for their meetings. Over the last 8 weeks, we have had 25 first timers (blue chips). Many of them come from the Charleston Center. We send a bus weekly to bring them to CR. We also had 16 who picked up their 30 day chip. That, my friend, is pretty exciting. They have started a journey following Christ, one day at a time and JIBC is leading them to become disciples. We also had individuals who picked up their 2 year chip, 6 year chip, 8 year chip and 18 year chip. Please come visit one Sunday and celebrate with those who are finding eternal life and abundant life. I praise Him and give Him thanks for the opportunity to be a part of CR, the largest Christian recovery ministry in the world. Every church would be blessed by having CR as one of their many ministries.

Fourth, I thank our Lord Jesus for leading the JIBC family to reach out around the world. This year, we will have members going to Ukraine, China, Romania and Rwanda. We think “glocally” around the world and across the street. It fills me with joy when we hear of how God is using a small church like JIBC to reach such a large world.

These and many, many more are among the things for which I give our Father praise and thanks. I am honored to say this is who we are as JIBC.

Pastor Tom

WHAT KIND OF CHURCH ARE WE?

Recently I have had a few conversations about what kind of church James Island Baptist is. I think it is a great question. I would love to have an open discussion to hear the thoughts of those who are inside the church family and those who are in the community. Our newest staff member, Pastor Scott Blasingame asked it this way: What would the people in our community say about JIBC?

Not to get to philosophical about it but here is one way to consider our answers. There is who we think we are, who we say we are and who we actually are. Boy, there is enough to keep you busy for a while. The closer we can get those three together the closer we are to having what some might call “institutional integrity”.

The feedback we get on a consistent basis says we are a friendly church. I believe that. You have gone out of your way to make people feel like they are welcomed here. The clothes we wear, the honesty we share, the Good News we declare all say “You are welcomed here”. Someone could rightly say we’re a “fellowship-centric” church. We are one of the only churches on James Island that has a full time, fully funded Student Pastor. Hard to believe, but that is the truth. We do not have anywhere near the largest student ministry because we are nowhere near the largest church. We could be known as a church that cares enough to invest in a full time missionary/youth pastor to reach “Generation Z”. The Student Pastor’s salary is listed among the other salaries. It could rightly be listed under missions. For a small church, JIBC is about as outward focused as any church you will find. One prospective staff member said that is what he looked forward to the most, finding out how JIBC became so outward focused. It would be correct to say we are a “mission-centric” church.

We have significant ministries in the Transition House, Celebrate Recovery, and feeding people for free, caring for the homebound, offering showers, free food and fellowship to the homeless, helping support the underserved through James Island Outreach, etc. How could we not be known as a “compassionate-centric” church?

All these descriptions are accurate and I would be proud to be known and associated with any of them. You know the description I have aimed for my entire ministry, right? I would be proud to be known as a church driven by the purposes of God as revealed in His Holy Word. All churches are driven by something or someone. I have sought to lead JIBC to be driven by the purposes clearly taught by our Lord Jesus: reach people for membership in His family; help them mature to be like Christ; involve them in ministry to build up His church; send them into the community and world to make a difference; and to worship Him in all we do. Yep, Purpose Driven: biblically sound, theologically grounded, compassion motivated, taking on the spiritual giants as we join God’s mission to reach, redeem and restore a lost and broken world.

JIBC is not a perfect church and I am far from a perfect pastor. I do believe it would be hard to find a pastor who loves his church more than I do. I absolutely love who we are and who God has called us to be.

Pastor Tom

WHY PREACH A RECOVERY SERIES THIS SUMMER?

It never dawned on me that someone would really wonder why a pastor would preach/teach a summer sermon series on recovery. I believed anyone in our church family would “get it”. I have built my entire ministry around reaching out to the hurting, the broken, etc. I have a Biblical belief that all have sinned and come short of God’s glory. Your sin, little as it may be and my sin, big as it may be, both were a part of nailing Jesus to the tree. We are just as helpless to free ourselves of sin as any “addict”. This is a deep biblical, theological truth. It takes just as much grace to save you and me as it does to save one who is struggling with hurts, habits or hang ups. It might take a little extra work for those who live in denial that they have hurts, habits and hang ups. So, for those who might not understand why preach and teach on recovery on a Sunday morning when we have Celebrate Recovery on Sunday night, let me try to shed some light.

First a biblical/theological reason: Preaching on recovery is what Jesus did. 

Luke 4: 14-30 is considered by most to be Jesus first public sermon…his inaugural sermon if you would. He could have chosen deep theological topics like the Sovereignty of God or an explanation of the Trinity. But…he didn’t. He chose recovery. He said the Spirit of the Lord was on him and had anointed him to preach good news. Take a look at how Jesus described that Good News: addressed to the poor; proclaimed freedom for the prisoner; and recovery of sight for the blind; to release the oppressed. Sounds to me like Jesus had a recovery sermon in mind. He had enough topics for a summer series. That was just his first sermon. Perhaps his greatest sermon is The Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5, 6 and 7 are a full out effort of recovery. To preach/teach like Jesus somehow a pastor must include recovery, the sermon topic most often chosen by our Lord.

Now, the response of the people was interesting. “The people spoke well of Jesus and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips” (vs 22) Interesting that the people who were hurting, neglected, marginalized, oppressed, in bondage with hurts, habits and hang-ups loved his teaching. They noticed and benefited from his gracious words. They were amazed. On the other hand, the real religious people…not so much. They wanted to run him out of town and tried to kill him. Wow…apparently they really did not like recovery sermons, seeing people recover or acknowledging their brokenness.

Jesus said, in what could be considered his life mission statement: The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. Sounds like a recovery mission, doesn’t it? His first sermon a recovery sermon and his life verse a recovery statement. I am trying to choose Jesus as my model on the way I teach and the topics I preach on. I am not saying it is the only way. I am saying I think it was Jesus’ way and I want it to be my way.

See you this Sunday when I teach what the Word of God says about making changes. You can’t go deeper, you can’t be a fully devoted follower, you can’t be sound theologically without making changes. You want to be a better spouse, parent, employer, employee, disciple? Then you will love this message Sunday about making changes.

Pastor Tom

WE ARE ENGAGED AND THE WEDDING DATE IS CLOSE!

I am kind of old school when it comes to recruiting staff members. I like to use the analogy of “dating, engagement and marriage”. When we start the process of looking at dozens of resumes…we call that dating. We can call them, ask questions, and exchange information, finding out interesting things about the prospective staff person. They, of course, can be talking with other churches as God has led them. After all…we are just dating. At this stage, they usually do not come to visit the church campus, meet the staff or leadership. We are just trying to find out if we like each other enough to go on a second date.

Neale and I read dozens of resumes and called a lot of people. We both were much energized when we talked to one in particular. We went on a “second date” and then a “third”. We were so impressed and pleased we invited this one down to visit the church campus; join us in a staff meeting, and to be interviewed by my “Friday Preacher Buddies”. I have been meeting with this group every Friday for over 25 years. We have helped interview many staff members for each other. We then set up a meeting with this prospect and a group of our leaders. Everyone gave a resounding yes and green light to move forward. Every group he met with was wonderfully impressed.

So now…the engagement period. It is hard to pop the question but it had to be asked. He is coming from a much larger church family so I was not certain how we could do in matching his salary needs and requirements. By the way, several that we interviewed were quite concerned with the cost of living in the Charleston area and James Island in particular. Once I knew we could afford to get married, we pressed on. At this point, we cut off all communication with any other prospective staff members. We are now all in with Scott.

Just a week ago, we had the last official meeting for the remaining members of our leadership team to meet Scott and Lori. Again, everyone loved them both. So, here we go…James Island Baptist Church family just got engaged to a new staff member.

Scott and Lori Blasingame currently live in Rock Hill, SC where Scott serves on staff at First Baptist Church, Rock Hill. Lori is a school teacher. Just today, we got news that she was offered and now has a teaching job here in Charleston! That answered one of two major prayer concerns. The second prayer request is that they will sell their house and find a home here in our area.

Next week, I will give you the particulars about Scott and his background. As for now…I am so excited and can’t wait for him to get on board. Scott should be here, in full swing by the first of August. Perhaps a little earlier if their house sells and they find a place here. You know where my prayers will be focused!

Congratulations JIBC, I can’t wait for you to meet Scott and Lori.

See you this Sunday at the Anniversary Celebration.

Pastor Tom