WHAT GOES UP MUST COME DOWN

We have had 9 of the most exciting, adrenaline filled days I can remember. The James Island Easter Egg Drop was an off the wall, complete success. The attendance more than doubled our biggest goal. The only downside was there were so many people we did not anticipate the staggering number. We had as many preschool children as we had hoped for the entire attendance of adults, preschoolers and children. Thanks again to the giant team of volunteers and leaders who made that happen.

Then we followed up with three wonderful services around the theme “Never Lose The Wonder”. The Palm Sunday service, the Good Friday service and then Easter! Hallelujah. We baptized 5 precious souls welcoming them into the family of God known as JIBC. Want to hear some more great news? Our Hispanic Church, Luz Y Verdad, came over after our service and baptized 12 more! Whoohoo. I stayed and participated with them as Pastor Claudio and his team baptized all 12. By the way, Luz Y Verdad is running close to 100 adults on a regular basis plus their youth, children and preschoolers. Wow. They are on track to outgrow their current meeting space. Who knows what will be next?

Now, let’s come back down from a wonderful spiritual high…and buckle up for the next one.  CALL TO ME is our 50 day, church wide emphasis on calling out to God. We hope that it can be incorporated into our Connection Groups as you do life together. But as a group or individually, you will be blessed by the focus on calling to God asking Him to show us great and glorious things. The books are available in the church office. If you did not get one Easter Sunday, come by or pick one up this Sunday. The 50 days starts with Easter Sunday and goes for the next 50 days…Pentecost Sunday. The devotions are not numbered by date, so you can really start any time. All of the devotions were written by leaders in our church family. You will be blessed by their thoughts and their heart for the Lord.

See you Sunday as we launch our next teaching series on prayer…Call To Me (Jeremiah 33:3)

Pastor Tom

Never Lose The Wonder

GOOD FRIDAY@7:00

Every year we have a Good Friday Worship Service. It is always reflective and worshipful. The focus, of course, is the cross, the sacrifice, our God who so loved the world that He gave His One and Only. We sing, we pray, we hear scripture and we observe the Lord’s Supper. You are invited to join us this Friday night as we turn our eyes upon Jesus.

EASTER SUNDAY DAY OF CELEBRATION SUNDAY @ 11:00

What a day of celebration…He is risen…He is risen indeed! Join us this Sunday as we relive and recount why we “Never Lose The Wonder” of what God has done for us. We will sing and celebrate! If the weather continues to cooperate, please bring flowers from your yard (or your neighbor’s) for our annual flowering of the cross. We will have a special cross in the Worship Center where you can place your flowers and see the old rugged cross transformed to a symbol of beauty and new life.

We are also celebrating the resurrection of Christ with baptisms this Sunday. We have adults, teens and children scheduled to be baptized. Their baptism is a picture of the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. It is the beginning of their public profession as followers of Jesus. It is their entry into the membership of the part of God’s family known as James Island Baptist Church. Hallelujah, what a Savior.

PRAY AND INVITE

We had a wonderfully successful Easter Egg Drop for the Community. Now we pray for the process of outreach and spiritual growth. Pray that those influenced by the love and excitement of last Saturday will be wonderfully, mysteriously drawn to God. Pray for those you can invite to join you for one of the best attended services of the year. Be ready to give your seat to a guest…we can stand! Amen and amen!

CALL TO ME

This Sunday at the end of the Easter Worship service, we will distribute copies of the CALL TO ME devotional guide. This is a 50 day prayer devotional written by some of our church leaders for our church family. Our hope is that Connection Groups will find a way to use this together, to pray together and to grow together. It is not to replace anything you are currently studying…it is an opportunity to live out Jeremiah 33:3…call to me! We have 500 printed and ready to go. There will be greeters at the doors to give them out. If for some reason you do not get one, let us know. We will make sure you do! From Easter Sunday to Pentecost…50 days of praying together! Hallelujah, what a Savior!

See you Sunday, good Lord willing,

Pastor Tom

NEVER LOSE THE WONDER

As we enter into Holy Week. Let us Never Lose The Wonder of the cross. This year’s focus, Never Lose The Wonder, will call our attention to the great love of the Father and the loving obedience of His Son, our Lord. If you grew up in church you may have a list of wonderful songs that remind you of the wonder of the cross. We begin this Sunday looking at the soldier who recognized Jesus was surely the Son of God…he saw the wonder of the cross. Then Friday, March 25 we will gather for the Good Friday Worship experience where the entire service will be to help us never lose the wonder. Then comes Resurrection Sunday…He is alive…He is alive indeed! You are invited to share and participate in Holy Week that we may Never Lose The Wonder. Communion at the Good Friday service and baptism on Easter Sunday. May we never, ever lose the wonder. 

CALL TO ME

On Easter Sunday we will be distributing the CALL TO ME devotional prayer guides. We have created a 50 day devotional guide to be used in Connection Groups and by individuals to call us to a season of prayer. This season of prayer is based on Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” From Easter to Pentecost, we are inviting and encouraging our entire church family and friends to call to God. Let us prepare our hearts, our wills, our minds and our bodies for a fresh new work of God. Imagine, 500 of us, all praying together, praying in one accord calling on Him. It takes extraordinary power to accomplish extraordinary things. Let’s call on Him and trust Him to do what He alone can do. Our hope is that every Connection Group will find a way to work this into their meeting time. Perhaps you could begin or end your group time with the devotion for that day. Use this as an opportunity to deliver the Devotional book to absentee members. Be creative and open…call to Him and see what great and unsearchable thing he tells you. I will begin a teaching series from God’s Word on the same theme…Call To Me. What great timing. Following the Holy Week emphasis on the wonder of the cross, now we turn to our Father in prayer for 50 days. May His will be done.

See you Sunday, good Lord willing

Pastor Tom

Here It Comes

HERE IT COMES We are just a few weeks away from one of the biggest community outreach events in our church history. The James Island Easter Egg Drop WILL BE Saturday, March 19 from 11 am to 2 pm. Pray for a beautiful clear sky, little to no wind, no rain day. Pray that we will be ready for the large number of people that we believe will attend. Pray for those who will share the gospel and interact with our guest. Pray for a record number of volunteers. We need all types of people for all types of activities. We even need some after event people to do some follow up work. Then pray that they will be so moved to attend Easter Sunday worship to hear the greatest story ever told! Whoohoo, here it comes. Please check the volunteer table in front of the office to see where you would like to volunteer. If you are on face book, “share” the information of the James Island Easter Egg Drop. That way the ad will go to all the people on your facebook.

COMING UP NEXT It may seem a little early, but I wanted to let you know of our church wide prayer emphasis. On Easter Sunday we will launch CALL TO ME: A SEASON OF PRAYER AND CONNECTION. This will be a fifty day prayer guide from Easter to Pentecost. It will consist of a daily scripture reading, a devotion written by one of our leaders and a guided prayer for that day. We have 19 of our own church family that will be writing this 50 day prayer emphasis. We will hand these out for the first time on Easter Sunday morning. Everyone will be encouraged to have their own copy as we go through this together as a church family. You will, of course, be doing this on your own in your daily quiet time. The plan is that you do it “together” as a Connection Group. Share your prayer request, your thoughts about the devotional or the individual scriptures. Pray together. Encourage one another to discipline yourselves to daily be in the word and to daily be praying for God’s will and for the JIBC family. “Call unto me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3. Some of you have been around JIBC to remember that was the Old Brick Man, Ted Luther’s favorite Bible verse. What prayers will he answer during this period of time? What unsearchable things will he show us? 

Pastor Tom

Now Is The Time

THE LORD ADDED TO HIS CHURCH

Acts 2:47 begins “And the Lord added to His church…” What a wonderful feeling it is when the Lord sees fit to grace us with new families in the church. This past Sunday night we hosted Class 101: Discovering Membership at JIBC. We had 15 who attended and 12, so far, who felt led to join with us. Others may join as they pray through and get a confirming word from the Lord. Think about that for just a moment. We had 12 adults who felt led to unite with this church family. Between them they had 13 children. Several of them will be baptized in the coming weeks. Several will have children dedicated soon. Good Lord willing, many of their children and teenagers will come to know the Lord and become followers of Jesus. Oh what a blessing from God. Because we are growing, we can sometimes lose the wonder of God’s grace when He adds to His church. Children and teens that can be reached before they have to be rescued; families coming together to study God’s word; finding a place of love and acceptance. It is a story of God’s grace, each and every one of them. To God be the glory!


NOW IS THE TIME…

Did you take typing in high school? Among the first lines we learned to type: “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country”. Now is the time for all our members to come to the aid of a major outreach effort. If you have been through Class 101 with me, you know our strategy of who we are trying to reach. It is the five circles starting from the outside and work in. We start with the COMMUNITY. We try to find ways to intersect with their lives and the things they value. You know…find an itch and then scratch it. Families love big, fun events for their kids. For JIBC it won’t get much bigger or “funner” than our Easter Egg Drop on Saturday, March 19. Sean said it correctly: the Easter Egg Drop is designed to be like our successful Fall Festival on steroids. If all we did was to put on a fantastic program for families, it would still be worth doing. In our case, we are praying and working to move them from the COMMUNITY Circle to the CROWD…those families who attend church on special occasions like Easter and Christmas. Once they attend worship at JIBC, we hope they will feel welcomed, hear great music, an inspiring Word, have their kids blessed in All Stars, etc. Then as God leads, they will be invited to our next Class 101: Discovering Membership at JIBC…conveniently timed for two weeks after Easter. So they move from the COMMUNITY to the CROWD to the CHURCH to those COMMITTED to becoming like Jesus. The goal being to lead them to a relationship with Christ and membership in His family so they may become fully devoted followers of Christ.

Listen, if you have a better plan that’s working…let me know. But this is the one we are working. The Lord is blessing. Come on and be a part of this. Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of the mission…to reach, redeem and restore a lost and broken world.

Pastor Tom

TAKE YOUR PICK…BLESSINGS ARE ALL AROUND

I really do believe that a blessed person has options. I want to list a few of the “additional” options you have for blessings. I say additional, because you have ongoing sources of blessing in your Connection Group, Weekly Worship, daily time with God, etc. Here are a few coming up that could make a difference. Of course they take some effort on our part. Look over the options and see if God may be providing an answer to prayers you have been praying or relief from a pain you have been experiencing. Either way, a blessed person has options!

This Saturday our Experiencing God group is leading a walk through the Riverland Terrace neighborhood. Walk you dogs or a walk with the family. Either one or both. As you walk, pray for what you see and ask God to show you what He sees. This is not so much a church wide event as it may be an event God has somehow, in His mysterious way, put on your heart. Meet at JIBC Fellowship Hall at 9:30 a.m. this Saturday, February 20. Walking, praying family fellowship…hmm?

This Sunday, pray for Class 101: Discovering Membership. We have 20 signed up. That is 20 wonderful precious souls our Father may be leading to unite their family with ours. I really do believe God adds to the church those that He wills. So let’s pray with them about this next step at JIBC.

How about your language…your love language that is? Saturday, February 27 will be our 5 Love Languages gathering. We have 50 signed up so far. Hey, by the way, you don’t have to be a couple to benefit from this. Knowing your love language will help single people, single moms or single dads, etc. Whenever I meet with a couple planning to get married, this book, The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman, is one of the three books I recommend. Need a tune up? Things going good but could be a little better…let’s give it a try. A blessed person has options. Call the church office to make your reservation or sign up this Sunday.

Just around the corner is our church wide blood drive. Our friends from the American Red Cross will be at JIBC on Sunday, March 6 from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Janie and I will be out of town that Sunday, so we will make a special effort to donate the week before. Our family has been blessed more than once as we needed blood. My grandson, Wyatt, is here by the grace of God, the will of his mother, the love of his father, the prayers of our friends and the gift of life given through the Red Cross. Thank you for donating. It was the difference of life.

See you Sunday as we get Jonah in the belly of the big fish! Now he is Running To God.

Pastor Tom

Jonah: A Story of Grace

This past Sunday we started a series on the Old Testament Book of Jonah. It started off with a great message introducing Jonah and the great city of Nineveh. Jonah thought he could run from God and his responsibilities. Not so much. Psalm139 reminds us that we cannot find a cruise anywhere that God is not already there. And when we do run…He is fully capable of getting our attention in the most creative of ways. Perhaps it will not be in the belly of a great fish. It could be…but hopefully it will not be.

So I am encouraging our church family to spend some time reading and re-reading this great Old Testament Book of Jonah. I do believe Jonah was a real man swallowed by a real fish…a really big fish. I have no trouble believing the God who created the Heavens and the earth could also create a fish capable of putting up with a disobedient prophet for three days! So how is this God’s message for His church today? How is this message for your Connection Group? And more to the point, how is this a message from God’s heart to yours?

Jonah 1:1 starts with “The Word of the LORD came to Jonah”. This was the first evidence of God’s amazing grace in this story. Who is Jonah, and who are we, that Almighty God would take the time to speak a word to us? What grace and what love. We have a Father in heaven that the Bible describes as our friend; a Shepherd to His sheep; a lover of our souls. We have a Father who loved broken humanity so much that He sent His only Son to reach, redeem and restore a lost and broken world. To give wicked Nineveh a chance to repent, to change their thinking about God is an amazing display of grace. This is a story of God’s grace to Jonah, to Nineveh and to the people of Israel. It is also a story of grace for you and me, JIBC, your connection group. Seek the Word of God. Let the Word of God come to you as it did to Jonah…just don’t run! Where could you run from His presence?

See you Sunday…good Lord willing.

Pastor Tom