Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Weekend Wrap Up

What a wonderful weekend of witness and worship for BBC! The weekend started off with the Annual non-violence march sponsored by Mamas Against Violence. This is a group of women who have had a child murdered. This ministry is led by, Bobbie Woods, who is a member of our church. They come together for support and violence prevention. Normally this event is lead by the Mayor of our city, but this year they asked the IMA to lead the march. I think it sent out a special message to see the preachers leading a march against violence in our community. I had an opportunity to push the Gun Buy Back as well as speak out publicly against the violence in our community. The IMA has vowed to do something to reduce the violence in this area, and our presence there was felt and appreciated by all in attendance.

After leaving there, I was invited to a cookout/concert in Lasalle Homes. This is a housing development located in our city, which has seen an increase in violence lately. This event was out on by Camp Salvation. This is a young group of gospel rappers, who instead of competing with one another have joined forces to do ministry. One of these artists is Bro. Cory Brazier, who is a member of our church. I had an opportunity to fellowship with people there and met several new acquaintances with whom I look forward o fellowshipping with in the future. Being in Lasalle Homes reminded me of being back home in Gary, so I felt very comfortable. The people there are very nice and warm and they helped out in serving food and everyone enjoyed the music. I also had an opportunity to promote the Gun Buy Back there as well and share my passion about seeing a decrease in violence in our community.

After this great day of work in the community, I could not wait until public worship on Sunday. Our morning started with Early Morning Prayer. The topic of the day was Togetherness. The prayers offered up were passionate and powerful as the people asked God to bring them together and to remove anything from them that caused any separation in the body.

Morning Worship started off high and lifted up! The songs were beautiful and the prayers were fervent. I could not wait for the preaching moment as we began a new series of messages in the Gospel of John. This series is entitled, "You made a believer out of me". In this preaching series, we will look at the miracles in the book of John. I believe that there is a message in the miracle and the signs have significance. The overall scripture for this series is John 20:30-31, which says, " Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. "

The 1st message in this series was from John 2:1-11. The message was entitled "Advice for your Adversity". Here's the basic outline:

1. Acknowledge the problem

2. Adhere to the procedure

3. Advance to praise.

God truly blessed the exposition of this passage! We had run em go get em, pick em up and put em down church, followed by a soul coming back home on restoration. God be praised!! I am pleased to see the people of BBC allowing themselves to be free in worship once again. I believe that God was pleased with our presentation of public worship on this past Lord's Day!

Pray for us as we have a long week of meetings gearing up for our 60th Church Anniversary, our 1st ever Youth Sunday, Gun Buy Back promotions, and Teaching/Preaching prep. Also I am pleased to announce that I will be meeting with Rev Jessie L. Jackson Sr. on today at 3pm EST!!

By the way, if you would like to help us with the Gun Buy Back, visit our website and click on the CURE link. God Bless!!!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Sunday Summary

After a day of worship like today, all I can say is WOW!!!! Our Early Morning Prayer Service really set the spiritual atmosphere in BBC today. The prayer warriors were on fire this morning! I joined in with our young adult Sunday School class today and we had an awesome time there sharing the lesson.

From the time Morning Worship began, the Spirit of God fell down and rested upon us. Our Deacons were on fire this morning for devotion! They prayed and sang, and sang and prayed! After this the spirit just flowed through the service. The choir was on point as they sang out of their hearts and not their habits. One song in particular, "How great is our God", just sent us all in!! After another selection, it was preaching time. I must admit, with service that high, I wanted to jump in and preach, but I allowed one of the sons of the ministry exercise his gift, Rev Terry Tate. He preached a message from Mark 5. I don't recall the title, but it was a very inspiring message. This kind of worship was really needed in our church on today. I felt a release on today that many needed. There had been a heaviness, but I believe that God lifted that on today! Praise God!!

This afternoon, I had the privilege of preaching the closeout message for my pastor, Rev. Isaac Culver Jr. in his 11th Pastoral Anniversary. I really enjoy preaching at my home church as well as fellowshipping with friends that I grew up with there. Service was great. I was excited about the preaching moment. I have a new perspective on preaching Pastor's Anniversary. I don't believe that it is my assignment to go to another church and beat up on the people there about what they should be doing for their pastor and things like that. We can cause irrevocable damage by some of the things that we say trying to be helpful, and actually do more harm than help, we leave then the Pastor has to spend countless amounts of time trying to straighten things back out. I believe that it is my assignment on these occasions to encourage both Pastor and people and that's what I attempted to do. I preached from a familiar passage located in Daniel 3:15-18. The message was entitled,"Furnace Faith". I've posted the outline before.

There was an overwhelming response to the message! I think BBC had some leftover shout from this morning and brought it to Jerusalem! i was really honored to be able to share with my pastor this evening. He is so full of wisdom and is a man worth modeling. I pray God's choicest blessing upon him!

This week will prove to be very busy as our District Association is in its Annual Session in Gary. I have a final meeting about the Gun Buy Back, as well as my pastoral duties for the week. I am also beginning a new preaching series this week. Pray my strength in the Lord!

Also, I am happy to announce that you can check us out on the web @ www.bbcsb.com . Check it out and let me know what you think. God Bless!!

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Sunday Summary

I showed up, stood, sang, spoke, and sat. Now I'm ready to sleep.