Sunday Sunday

Greetings,

I greet you in the name that is above every name, Jesus! I hope that this finds you doing well. Today has been a very good day. God has been faithful toward us at BBC. Our day started with Early Morning Prayer service. I know that I say it often, but this service really inspires all who attend and sets the atmosphere for the corporate worship experience.

New Members class today was awesome. It is amazing to see new lives in Christ being shaped and transformed by the word of God. The students pondered and promised to spend some time in prayer to discover their God given purpose.

I was extremely happy to have my mother and grandmother, who came to visit for the weekend in church with me on today! Today we were blessed with selections from our Male Chorus and their ministry of music lifted the hearts ad minds of the people and prepared everyone for the preached word of God. I preached a message from Ephesians 6:10-13, entitled, "The Invisible Battle". There's a war going on with opposition that we cannot see with the human eye, stand against with our own power, or fight with carnal weapons, so to fight this invisible battle:

1. There is a Charge of Power (v.10)

2. You must have a Commitment to Prepare (v.11)

3. You have to Clarify the Problem (v.12)

4. You must Carry your Protection (v.13)

God blessed the exposition of the text! Thank God for this awesome privilege to carry His Word! My day ended with my family and I traveling to Believer's COGIC for a musical. Our choir was invited to sing and they did a wonderful job in song ministry. I'm really excited about the future of our Music Ministry and the direction it is taking. To God be the Glory!

Pray for me on this week as I prepare to preach the eulogy of Pastor Albert Miller, pastor of the St. Matthews MBC of Buchannon, Michigan who went home to Glory on Saturday morning. This is a very humbling task as well as a hard task because preaching in front of a group of preachers can be uneasy to say the least. I am honored to preach a eulogy of someone who lived so well and pastored for over 25 years! He was my son in the ministry and I will miss him greatly.

I want to close by saying that God will answer prayer! We have been praying for specific at BBC and today God gave me a sneak peak of how He's going to work it out! I can't tell you what it is yet, but when it happens, I will be more than happy to share it with all of you!

Until we meet again, may God bless you and keep you is my prayer!

Sunday Summary

Greetings,

This is a day that The Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it! I hope that this finds you doing well. We had a great corporate worship experience this past Lord's day at BBC. Our day started as it always does in prayer. Thank God for a group of people that have dedicated themselves to the ministry of intercessory prayer. I truly believe that prayer is the life blood of our church.

I have the wonderful privilege of teaching our New Members Class. I believe that this gives the new member a direct contact with the pastor and the relationship can bloom and blossom from there. It was also amazing to see the faces of the new converts light up as their understanding of faith in Christ begins to grow and they begin to develop an appreciation for the Word of God!

Corporate worship began with believers baptism. I always smile during baptism because it reminds me of my conversion experience and the mothers of the church sing those old baptism hymns that remind me of good old fashioned church! We were truly blessed by songs from our Mass Choir. I was excited and ready for preaching! I preached a message from Lamentations 3:21-23, entitled "It could be worse". The passage lets us know without hesitation that no matter how bad things are, if it was not for the Sovereign hand of God, they would be worse. It could be worse if:

1. His Mercy didn't Manage our Misery

2. His Compassion didn't Cancel our Completion

3. Not for the Longevity of the Lord's Loyalty

God blessed the exposition of the text! I truly thank God for what He is doing in the life of our church. I truly look forward to what the future holds! My day ended with friends and family watching the Super Bowl. Congratulations to the Baltimore Ravens, who overcame "Light Gate" and defeated the San Francisco 49ers to win their 2nd Super Bowl. After all of the food that I ate, it will be a must that I get in the gym today! However, we are supposed to get between 4 and 6 inches of snow, so we'll see how that goes.

Well that's enough for now. I have a busy week of teaching, sermon preparation, and preparing some of our football players to compete at the Nike Sparq Combine on February 16. God Bless and keep you until we meet again!

Sunday Summary & Monday too....

Greetings,

I hope that finds everyone doing well! All I can say about this past Lord's Day at BBC is wow! Our day started off at 8am with Early Morning Prayer. I always enjoy hearing the people of God offering up their petitiions. After prayer meeting was over, I figured that we were in for a grand celebration at corporate worship.

After prayer meeting I received some news that really shook me to my core.  One of the most faithful men in the church, Bro. Ocie Richie made his transition from labor to reward at about 9am. I was very saddened by his passing as he was always very supportive of his church and his pastor. Please keep his family in your prayers as they prepare to funeralize him and for me as I have to eulogize him.

Sunday served as our Officers Installation Day. Its the day where the congregational leaders are installed to their office, given the charge of leadership, and discharged to their duties. Normally I would bring a guest pastor in to preach this service, but my leaders said that they wanted to be preached to and installed by their pastor. This was a very humbling experience for me.  Our Mass Choir really blessed us in their ministry of song and we all were very surprised when one of our young ladies came out of the choir choir stand and got on the organ to play, "We Worship You". I thank God for the young people at BBC, they never cease to amaze me!

By it being installation day, I wanted to preach something specific to encourage and strengthen the leadership for the upcoming year of service. The Lord led me to Philippians 2:5-11.  The sermon was entitled, "Serving with the mind of Christ". To serve with the mind of Christ, you must :

1. Have the Correct Psyche

2. Be Content with your Position

3. Exhibit a Charitable Performance

4. Then you'll receive a Celebrated Promotion

God truly blessed the exposition and the people rejoiced in the Word! If that wasn't enough we really rejoiced as people came to give their lives to the Lord! God be praised for the converts and additions to the fellowship.

I was truly exhausted after such a powerful worship service. However I did watch the football games, and I'm looking forward to the "Harbaugh Bowl".

Thank God for the inauguration of our President as well as the celebration of the life and legacy of the Rev.Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. we at BBC spent our King Day celebrating at the St. Joseph Regional Medical Center, Mishawaka Campus. I am grateful for our choir who sang out of their souls and the opportunity that I had to say a lil something.....

With such a big kickoff to the week, I am really looking forward to this upcoming week of meeting, teaching, and preaching. may God Bless and keep you is my prayer.

Sunday Summary

Greetings,

I pray that everyone is doing well.  I want to start off by wishing everyone a very happy new year! I pray that this year be the best year of your life this far.  I am truly excited about all of the possibilities that 2013 hold in store for all of us.

Today was a wonderful day of corporate worship at BBC. Our day begins at 8am with prayer. This has great value in the life and vitality of our church, especially since I have been led of God in this season to draw the church closer together in the area of prayer. I've clearly heard the Lord say that all that we desire as individuals and as a body of believers according to the will of God will happen as we seek after God.

I was very eager to preach this morning but also somewhat hesitant. As many of you know, I am a competitive weightlifter amd while training for a competiion that I have on March 9th, I seriously injured my lower back. It has been difficult to walk and at times even to stand, but after a week and a half of therapy and much prayer, I felt as though I could preach. Our Male Chorus graced us today with the music for the day. It always does my heart good to see men leading in the worship service.

I preached a sermon from Psam 127:1-2, entitled, Lord, build us a house! I argued that it is better and we obtain greater results in trusting the Lord rather than exerting oursleves in tireless labor. We want the Lord to build our house because:

1. God will produce

2. God will protect

3. God will give us peace

Thank God for the exposition of the text and the response as a result of the preaching. There were members that came to rededicate their lives to the Lord, and one even desired to be baptized again. 

I look forward to this week of meetings with our new ministry leaders. I also look forward to resuming Bible Study on this week. We will be studying Daniel chapter 2.  I ask that you would pray for my continued healing and hopefully I can return to the gym soon. I look forward to sharing with you again real soon! Until then, peace!!!!!

Motivation for Ministry

Greetings,

This past Lord's day at BBC was a wonderful worship experience!  I am always blessed when I attend Early Morning Prayer Meeting. As always, I was lifted and inspired as I watched and heard the people of God make their requests known.  There is power in prayer, and God's power is always present at prayer service.

Morning Worship for the past few week has been very high! I am elated to see God's people with a spirit of expectation. When we come to church, we should expect God to do something transformative in the lives of His people.  Our Mass Choir really ushered in the presence of the Lord, after a very inspiring devotion by our Deacons Ministry.  I really feel like the choir sometimes tries to set me up for failure by singing so well.  Nevertheless, I approached the preaching moment with great anticipation. We continued our 2 Corinthians series, and I preached a message from chapter 4:1-6.  The message was entitled, "Motivation for Ministry". Here's the outline:

1.  Value of Mercy (1)

2.  Validity of Ministry (2-5)

3.  Victory of the Master (6)

God really blessed the exposition of the text!  I thank God for the wonderful privilege and awesome responsibility of preaching His Word.  I am already excited and anxiously waiting for next week, so I can preach again!

Well, its time for me to go for now. I must start sermon preparation and Bible Study.  I also have a few meetings on this week as well as my coaching responsibilities for the Washington High School Track Team, who are preparing for their 1st meet of the season on this Saturday.  They are well prepared and they work very hard,s o I know they will do well. God Bless you and keep you is my prayer!

The Content of our Confidence

Greetings,

It is always a pleasure of mine to communicate with you in this fashion.  The past 2 weeks have been incredible!  On last Friday, we traveled down to Bloomington, Illinois for my youngest son Deonne to compete in the AAU National Indoor Tack and Field Championships.  I am pleased to announce that Deonne finished 5th in the nation in the 400m dash and 7th in the nation in the 200m dash! I forgot to mention one important factor. He ran injured and still did very well! I am very proud of him.

The meet was not over until Sunday, so I was not able to attend any of our Sunday Morning services. I was told that they went very well.  I want to thank Rev. Terry Tate for preaching in my stead.  I was also told by some of the congregation that I was missed. That made me feel good to know that there are some people who genuinely care about you.  We rushed back to South Bend because we had a Deacon Ordination service at 4pm. It was a very close call but we  made it!  The Ordination service went very well and the candidate passed with flying colors. Congratulations Deacon Cory Brazier. He is a young man on fire for God and has a passion for the youth. I look forward to working with him in ministry. 

This past Lord's Day was a day of rejoicing! I was unable to attend Early Morning Prayer Service, but I know it went very well.  I taught the New Members Class while Sunday School was going on and it was a treat for me to teach our new members. 

Morning Worship started out with a bang! Our Deacons really ushered in the Spirit of the Lord in the Devotion Service.  The Music Ministry kept the fire going and Rev. Derick Buggs added another log in the fire during Altar Prayer.  It was getting close to preaching time and all I was thinking was, " I hope I don't mess this up." I approached the preaching moment with great anticipation.  I preached a message from 2 Corinthians 3:1-6, entitled, "The Content of our Confidence".  Here's the outline:

1.  Confidence cannot be based on Human Approval (v. 1-3)

2.  Confidence cannot be based on Heartfelt Ambition (v.4-5a)

3.  Confidence can only be based upon a Heavenly Appointment (v.5b-6)

God blessed the exposition of this passage! I feel as though preaching and teaching in the same passage on Sunday and Wednesday is helping to strengthen our congregation. 

Well, it's about time for me to go for now. I'm in preparation for our Wednesday in the Word Services.  I look forward to talking with you again real soon! God Bless and keep you is always my prayer.

Sunday Summary

Greetings Blogosphere!!

This is the day that the Lord has made! I will rejoice and be glad in it!! This past Lord's Day was an awesome experience in the Lord! I was not feeling my best at all, but the saints at BBC prayed me through. Our topic for Early Morning Prayer was "Walking in Love". The service was very high and there was expectancy in the air! I got a real good feel that the people of God were expecting God to do something great!

From devotion to the benediction the saints worshipped the God of their salvation. The choir really blessed our hearts with songs of Zion! As I stated earlier, I was not feeling my best, but I was really expecting God to use me in a mighty way. God desires to get the glory out of our lives and sometimes He has to move us out of the way so that He can use us.

I approached the preaching moment with great anticipation and expectancy! We continued in or series on "The Word of God" taken from Psalm 119. This week, the message was from verses 9-16. The message was entitled, "Washing with the Word". I only had 2 points but here's the outline:

1. Delight in the Word
A. Heed (9)
B. Hold (10)
C. Hide (11-12)

2. Duty to the Word
A. Tell (13)
B. Treasure (14-15)
C. Try (16)

God really blessed the exposition of this passage!! This series on the Word of God has breathed new life into our church family. I believe that a serious spirit filled revival of the saints has started and I look forward to watching God transform the lives of many!! I was very elated to see a young man that had been visiting for several weeks, give his life to the Lord as a Candidate for Baptism!! God is truly worthy to be praised!!

Well now I am off to a week full of meetings and readings, along with all other pastoral preparations. I will ask for your prayer for CURE. It is the organization that I help to oversee. We are engaging ourselves in study circles to see what God wants us to do about institutional racism. I know this sounds like an impossible task, but we believe that " We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!" Be Blessed!!!

Sunday Summary

Greetings all in the Precious Name of Jesus the Christ! We had an awesome time in the Lord at BBC this past Lord's Day. Our Day started as normal with our Early Morning Prayer Meeting. Our Hospitality Ministry is in charge of prayer for the month of January. The topic was endurance. The prayers were fervent and much appreciated! This ministry of prayer has really been the glue of our church and I thank God for the diligence of the prayer warriors. I stand to tell you that a few people can really make a difference.

We were blessed this past Lord's Day with songs from our Male Chorus and they really ushered in a spirit of praise. I was really excited about preaching this series on the Word of God. I believe it will once again prove God's Word when He said that His word will not return to Him void, but will accomplish that for which He sent it! I am excited about the fruit that will come as a result of a people falling in love again with His Word!!

I approached the preaching moment with great enthusiasm! I preached a message from Psalm 119:1-8, entitled, "The wonder of the Word" Here's the outline:

1. The Word will make you Delightful

2. The Word will make you Devout

3. The Word will make you Diligent

God really blessed the exposition of this text! This will prove to be a busy week as I have made the decision to finish my education! I had 3 classes on yesterday and they were delightful, but I have tons of homework to do, so off I go. Pray for me as I try to find balance to my schedule again! I will begin posting Wednesday in the Word again hopefully on tomorrow!!

Sunday Summary

It was a pleasure to be in the Lord's presence this past Lord's Day. Unfortunately for me, I did not make Early Morning Prayer Service, due to the fact that my grandparents were in town. It brought me great joy to bring the New Year in with them.

I am always excited about the 1st Sunday of the year. To me in represents the start of a new opportunity. There was so much excitement and expectation in the atmosphere that you could almost cut it with a knife. Our numbers were down due to over a foot of snow, but the spirit was high!

The choir blessed us in song and I was really ready to preach. I approached the preaching moment with great anticipation! I began a new series entitled, "Building on the Word of God". I introduced this series from the book of Nehemiah 8:1-6. The sermon was called, "We want the Word". Here's the outline:

1. Hunger for the Word (V.1)

2. Hearing of the Word (V. 2-4)

3. Honoring of the Word (V.5)

4. Heeding to the Word (V.6)

God really blessed the exposition of this passage and I was encouraged by several of our members that this is what will get us to the place that God has for us. Several of them told me that their prayer for the year was that they would get into the Word of God more this year. God always has a way of confirming His Word for His people. I can't wait to preach the next sermon in this series. This Sunday we will be sharing from Psalm 119:1-8. I ask for your prayers for this series. God Bless and keep you.

Sunday Summary

Greetings Everyone!!!

I want to start this post off by thanking everyone who has contacted me about my absence from the blogosphere. Names are too numerous for me to call and I don't want to leave anyone out, so thank you all! I really am overwhelmed about the concern for me and my well doing from people all over this country who have only met me through this venue. I am glad to be back with the "Blogging Bunch"!!

Today we had wonderful worship in BBC. This day started off with our Early Morning Prayer Service. For the month of December our youth are in charge of prayer meeting. It is truly a joy to see young people engaged in prayer meeting. I believe that we are building a foundation with these young people that will hold them and make them mature Christians. The prayers were fervent and faith filled as the people of God poured out their hearts to Him.

Today being 2nd Sunday, we were blessed with songs of Zion from our Male Chorus. I was lifted by seeing these men sing praises to God! I was very excited about preaching today and could not wait to get the message that the Lord gave me out of me. Today, I understood what Jeremiah said when he described God's Word being in his heart as a burning fire shut up in his bones! Don't get me wrong, I love, cherish, and am excited EVERY opportunity I have to preach, but today, I was really fired up about speaking on behalf of God. I preached a message today from Isaiah 9:6 entitled, "The Gift that keeps on giving". Here's a brief synopsis of the message:

The Gift that keeps on giving was:

1. Sensible

The text says, "For unto us a child is born". This made it a sensible gift. Our Messiah came to us and lived among us as a real human being. He felt pain, rejection, frustration, headache, heartache, and everything else that we feel. What good would it be to have a Messiah that could not identify with what we go through everyday? This is why it is a sensible gift. The Bible say in Hebrews 4:15, "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."

2. Spiritual

It goes on to say, "unto us a son is given." In normal Hebrew dialect when a son was introduced, he was introduced by the name of his father. In this instance, it was left out, not by accident, but to let us know that this Son is the Son of God! John records that we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. He was given to us, or should I say He was given for us. The bible declares that Jesus was a Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Jesus came to fix the spiritual problem with man. Our sin alienated us from God and Jesus became the propitiation or intermediary between sinful humanity and a Holy God. Romans says that He came for sin and condemned sin in the flesh. Jesus did not come for our creature comforts; clothes, cars, cribs, and cash, He came to rid us of sins penalty and power, and when He comes back, He will remove us from sins presence!! Glory to His name!!

3. Substantial

The last part of the verse says, "and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. All of the earthly kings whether good or bad could not handle all of the responsibility of ruling and reigning. They would forget some things or let some things go undone, but Jesus ca "shoulder" all of the responsibility!! This means that there is nothing in your existence that Jesus cannot handle!! If I were preaching now, I would say, "Is there anybody here that knows He can handle it? Have you any rivers that seem uncrossable? Have you any mountains, that you can't tunnel through? God specializes in things that seem impossible, and He can do what no other power can do!!!" I closed the message on the last part of the verse describing His name or His attributes.

God really blessed the exposition and presentation of this text. I thank God for giving me the power and passion to preach His Word!!

If I don't communicate with you anymore before Christmas, I want to wish from my family to your a very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year. May God richly bless you is my prayer!!!!

Sunday Summary

This past Lord's Day is one that we at BBC shall not soon forget!! The power of God was manifest from beginning to end. I was not at Early Morning Prayer, but I am positive that the intercessors played a significant role in happenings of Sunday. I know that they bathed all of us in prayer and it was definitely felt.

Morning Worship started off on fire. Our Deacons Ministry really set the tone in the Devotional Service. The Mass Choir really blessed us with their ministry and took the service even higher! We felt the Glory Cloud fall in the place!! At this point, I pondered whether I should preach or should we just continue to praise. I was compelled by God to preach and I am so glad that I obeyed the command of God!

I preached a message from Psalm 91:1-3. The message was entitled,, "A story worth Telling". I argued that for too long many of us have been telling the wrong story. We have been telling about our mistakes, mess ups, and mis haps, instead of our miracles and makeovers! The story that we should all be telling includes these few things:

1. Devotion
A. Presence
B. Protection

2. Declaration
A. Provision
B. Praise

3. Deliverance
A. Power
B. Peace

God truly blessed the preaching of this text! I believe this is just what our church needed and I feel the winds of change beginning to blow on the hearts of the people. There was great celebration over the Word of God!! Bless His Holy name!!!

This did not conclude our day of worship. We traveled to Dowagaic, Michigan to Second Baptist Church to celebrate in worship with them for their 142 Church Anniversary! This was a blessed occasion for a church that has such a rich history and I am honored to have been asked to be the preacher. I preached from their theme which was, "A foundation that cannot be moved" Luke 6:48-49. Here's the outline:

1. Advantage of Selection

2. Assurance of Storms

3. Ability to Stand

4. Abruptness of Shattering

God blessed this preaching moment as well. Thank God for His Word!!! However, my day ended on a very sad note as I had to travel to Gary for a wake of one of my childhood friends, Lewis Eldridge or "Two Ton" as we called him. On last Tuesday he was brutally murdered in front of his home washing his car. I cannot express how tired I am of burying young men and women due to gun violence! THIS HAS TO STOP!!!! This is why I am so passionate about our Gun Buy Back! I am really looking forward to doing the next one, but in the mean time, let's strive to make our communities safer places!

Well, that's enough for now. I have really enjoyed my off day today to refresh and refuel for this busy week ahead filled with preaching, teaching, and meeting!! I am off to do tomorrow the same thing I do everyday, try and take over the world for Jesus Christ!! God Bless!!

Sunday Summary

Today was a great day of worship! I arrived at church right before Sunday School. I had the opportunity to visit all of the classes on today. I was encouraged and strengthened by most of what I heard. As I viewed one class, I was troubled by a spin that was put on the lesson that was not there, but encouraged because the teacher addressed it very well. This means I must work harder in teacher's meeting. The Lesson today was from Numbers 14. This was a fantastic and an encouraging lesson for me. I really like how Moses in spite of all of his opposition by people who had not too long ago sang his praise, prayed for them as God wanted to eliminate them for their rebellion and their wanting to get a new leader to go back to Egypt. I really enjoy Sunday School, especially teaching it.

Today, we were blessed with songs from our Male Chorus. I have some men that have really stepped up their role in corporate worship! To God be the Glory!! I did not preach today. We were blessed in the preaching moment by Rev. Jordan Key from Michigan. He is an associate minister of Christ Temple Baptist Church and the son in law of one of our most faithful and dedicated members, Sis. Daisy Barnes. It was a blessing to hear him preach and he did an awesome job! He preached from Jonah 1:1-3. The message was entitled, "A ship headed in the wrong direction". This was a timely message that was a blessing to the people of God.

This was about it as far as worship went on today. I ask for your prayers as this week will prove to be a busy one. I have meetings that begin on tomorrow, there is a revival that I wanna support at Macedonia MBC, hosted by Pastor Ray E. Owens, where the guest evangelist is Pastor Rickey Harvey, Bible Study and sermon preparation for this coming Sunday, as well as an IMA meeting this weekend. My mind has been flooded with various thoughts that I've been meaning to write down. Unfortunately many of them have since escaped me, but on this week, I will attempt to blog about some of these discussions. Be Blessed!!!

Sunday Summary

This Lord's Day has proven to be one that I won't soon forget! Has anyone ever had a day of worship that seemed to be tailor made to your needs? At Early Morning Prayer Service, the topic of today was forgiveness. The prayers were fervent, the spirit was high, and it really helped to lift me up. I thank God for this time of corporate prayer. I feel like the songwriter when he said, "What a privilege it is to carry everything to God in prayer!

I really needed God to show up in a mighty way in worship today. Sometimes we all can get in a routine where things become mundane and stale. I needed to feel a move of God on this morning, and God did not disappoint. Our mass Choir did a tremendous job of setting the tone for worship. The last selection that they sang was, "Incredible God" and this really lifted the congregation into a spirit of praise. It was prime preaching ground now.

I preached a message from 1 Peter 5:10. This is a favorite passage of mine that has brought me through many of the storms in my life. However, this was the first time that I preached an entire sermon from this passage. The message was entitled, Reasons for Rejoicing. Here's the outline:

1. Commission

A. Sufficiency of the caller
B. Station of your calling

2. Condition

A. Severity of your suffering
B. Span of your suffering

3. Cause

A. Service
B. Shape

God really blessed the exposition of this passage! I thank God for His Word. This passage once again has moved me from looking at my circumstances to looking at my Christ! To God be the Glory!

This evening, our Mother's and Deaconess Ministry celebrated their Annual Day on today! Our special guest was Pastor H. Gregory Haygood and the Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church of South Bend. Pastor Haygood is a writer for the Sunday School Publishing Board and a tremendous preacher! I was excited for him to be with us on today!

It's amazing how the Lord works, especially when He wants to confirm or establish a Word in His people. You've already read what I preached, Pastor Haygood came this evening and preached from 1 Thessalonians 5:16, which simply says, "Rejoice Evermore". He entitled this message, "A short message that goes a long way". I wont post his outline, but let me be the first to say that his sermon was a walk off grand slam!! I thank God for his ministry! He serves as a mentor to me and several other young pastors in the area, and today he really encouraged me.

I have great anticipation about this upcoming week. My youngest son, Deonne and the rest of the family are traveling to Des Moines, Iowa to watch him run in the AAU Nationals! I am really happy and proud as a father because this is only his 1st year running. God has really blessed him with great ability. I ask for your prayers this week for him and our safe travel. I am also asking for prayer for BBC as this week is Vacation Bible School.

Sunday Summary

Greetings Everyone

It has been a very long time since we have communicated in this fashion It has been an extremely busy season for me. Let me try and catch you up on a little bit. The Gun Buy Back was a tremendous success! There were 175 guns collected. Many of which were illegal to own. There are some who say that these don't work, but I beg to differ. Most of the weapons used in violent crimes are weapons taken from home invasions from people who have not properly secured them. This was not and was never intended to be an anti gun movement, but it is an anti violence movement. We even had parents to bring guns that they found in their sons room. There were guns turned in that were taken from people who were intoxicated at the time. There were guns that were taken from underage children, so this was a much needed step in the right direction to help bring an end to violence in the community.

This past week, I was privileged to attend The National Baptist Convention Congress of Christian Education, that was held in Detroit, Michigan. This was a wonderful congress! I had an opportunity to learn some valuable information that will be a blessing to our church and community. I attended the Moderator's Workshop. This class was taught by one of my mentors, Dr. Cato Brooks Jr. as well as Dr. Clifton Rhodes, and Dr, Green Davidson.

I was also fortunate to attend, "Generation Next". This was held at the historic New Bethel Baptist Church, where Dr Robert Smith is the pastor This was 3 nights of preaching by some of the country's finest young preachers such as; Rev. Sedric Veal, Rev. Clinton McFarland, Rev Marcus Davidson, Rev Clifford Mayes, Rev. Elliot Ivey, and Rev. Bertrand Bailey! These men of God really preached out of their souls. I was blessed to witness such a plethora of proclamation!

After all of that preaching including day time sessions and Late Night, it is needless to say that I was ready to preach at BBC on this morning! I arrived at Early Morning Prayer early this morning. I could not wait to get this day of public corporate worship started. This morning's topic was obedience. The prayers were fervent and filling and we felt the power of God come down and rest in the place!

I attended a portion of the adult Sunday School class and it was on fire as well. I could not wait until 11:00am worship started. Service was very high on today and I could not wait until the preaching moment. I approached the pulpit ready to tell anyone that would listen that Jesus can change their life! I preached the final message in the series, "You made a believer out of me". I preached today from John 11:39-45. The message was entitled, "A testimony from the tomb". Here's the outline:

1. Requirement for the miracle
A. Priority
B. Preparation
C. Protest

2. Raising by the Master
A. Prayer
B. Proclamation
C. Proof

3. Release of the man
A. Position
B. Pardon
C. Partnering

God really blessed the exposition of this passage on today! I thank God for His power and presence! It looks like I get a breather on this week and I plan to take full advantage of it. Pray for us as we refuel for the next phase of the " Conquest for Christ".

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 Summary

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

Sunday Summary

What a delightful day in the Lord! Although this past Lord's Day was a busy day, it was a blessed day! I was very honored to be the 8am guest preacher for Pastor Rickardo Taylor and the Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church. Pastor Taylor and church were celebrating 11 years of service as Sr. Pastor. He has an awesome testimony as he left a good paying job in Indianapolis to come and pastor a 15 member church on the southeast side of South Bend. With the Lord's help, he has since grown this church into one of the largest, most progressive churches in the region. I was very glad to be preaching at 8am, as the Oklahoma City Tornado, known as Pastor Ray Owens, was preaching at the 11am service.

The service was very uplifting and inspiring as their music and mime ministries set the atmosphere for preaching. I know that the schools of thought vary on this issue, but in my feeble opinion, I do not believe that our job as pastors is to go to another church and then chastise the people about what they should be doing for their pastor. In my experience this does more harm than good, because as the guest you leave, and the pastor of the church has to stay and deal with the backlash, which often lasts longer then the sermon. So i went simply to encourage the pastor and people. I preached a message from Psalm 27:10-14. The message was entitled, "The blessing in being forsaken". Here's the outline:

1. Dependence (10)

2. Direction (11)

3. Deliverance (12)

4. Determination (13)


God really blessed the preaching moment as we rejoiced on verse 14. "If you have the patience, God has the power".

When I arrived at BBC, I was excited about seeing the saints. I always appreciate the opportunity to travel and preach in other venues, but the saying is true, "there's no place like home". Worship was inspiring from the devotional service until the benediction. I was really excited about preaching in the pulpit that Christ has made me overseer of. We continued in our series, "No More Drama". The message was taken from James 4:7, entitled "Make the Devil Do it". Before you tune me out, please read the introduction, "There was a popular comedian, named Flip Wilson that had a variety show. One of the most popular characters was Geraldine Jones. Every time Geraldine was confronted about something that she was not supposed to do, she wold reply by saying, “The devil made me do it”. This phrase became extremely popular and even found its way on t-shirts.

Even though he passed away in 1998, his popular phrase lives on, and what’s worse is that it has found its way into the church. There is so much “Devil talk” in church, that we forget that God and the devil are not equals.

A careful study of scripture will reveal to you that the devil cannot make you do anything, but today’s text let’s us know that we can make him do something and that is flee from us. "

In order to make the devil flee, you must:


1. Relinquish

2. Resist. If you do these 2, the devil will

3. Retreat


God really blessed the exposition of this text as we were challenged to "Submit to God". I really liked this word because it literally means to place under. It carries the connotation of voluntarily placing our total selves under God's authority. This includes our failures, fears, faults, and frailties. I contend that the reason we have so much "drama" in our lives is that there are some things that we haven't placed under His authority.

Our day of public worship ended at the Pastoral Appreciation service for Pastor Cory Gathright. Pastor Gathright is a son of BBC and he pastors the Greater New Birth Christian Ministries Church. Dr. E.A. Jones preached a wonderful message, entitled "Love and Happiness".

I believe that God was pleased with our offering of public worship on today. Pray for us this week as the Gun Buy Back draws closer. It's looking well, but we are still looking for support. Later on in the week, I will post a link to it. God Bless!!

Sunday Summary

We had a wonderful day of public worship at BBC this Lord's Day! Our Day started off with our Early Morning Prayer Meeting. For the month of April, our Deacons and Trustees are providing leadership in prayer meeting. the topic for today was forgiveness. Our hearts were lifted as the people poured out their hearts to God about desiring to be more forgiving toward others. Thank God for the power of prayer!

Morning Worship started off a little differently this morning. Instead of the Deacons leading devotion, the Mothers and Deaconess carried on in their stead. This took several of our members back to their southern roots as it was a tradition for the Mothers and Deaconess to lead the devotional service on 1st Sunday in the south. This was welcomed and warmly received by the congregation as the praises of God went up!

We were blessed in song by our Mass Choir as they lifted the Savior up for all men to see! I approached the preaching moment with great expectation. My prayer for the week was that the people of God would be both receptive and responsive to the preaching. I continued in our series entitled, "No more drama". Today's message came from James 3:1-12. The message was entitled, "Tempering the tongue". Here's the basic outline:

To temper the tongue, you must;

1. Tame its ability to influence (1-5a)

2. Terminate its ability to impair (5b-8)

3. Train its ability to inspire (9-12)

God really blessed the exposition and presentation of this passage! The power of speech is one of the greatest powers God has given us. With the tongue, man can praise God, pray, preach the Word, and lead the lost to Christ. But with that same tongue he can ruin a person’s reputation or break a person's heart. The ability to speak words is the ability to influence others and accomplish tremendous tasks; and yet we take this ability for granted. I pray that this message was well received and the people would respond by using the gift of speech to edify, equip, encourage, and enlighten one another as well as evangelize the sinner.

I believe that God was pleased with our offering of public worship on today! Pray for us this week as I have meetings about the Gun Buy Back. We held a press conference that appeared on the news. I am interested to see the response from the community. I'm praying that this one will be more successful and more lives would be saved as a result. In the words of Pinky and the Brain, with some slight variation, "What are we going to do today Brain?" "Same thing we do everyday Pinky. Try to take over the world for Jesus." God Bless!!

Weekly Wrap Up

Greetings Blogging bunch! I will start this post by letting you know that this will probably be a little lengthy, so I apologize in advance. Last week was the annual City Wide Revival put on by I.M.A. . I was excited for 2 reasons, first because I really needed to be preached to and secondly this would be my first event as president of the I.M.A. Our evangelist for the week was, Rev. Dr. James A. Boyd, pastor of the Zion Gate Missionary Baptist Church of Columbus, Mississippi. Dr. Boyd has served as the pastor of this church for almost 44 years! He preached with power and passion each night, challenging both clergy and congregation to live up to our God given potential. He was truly a blessing to the body and I look forward to hearing more from him.

Normally, during the revival, we have noon day services featuring local pastors. However, over the past few years, attendance has been extremely low. Because of the drop off in attendance, we decided to combine the noon day into the night service and allow the local pastors to lecture. This turned out to be a wonderful idea! All the pastors were to lecture from an invitational passage of the bible. I was selected for the lecture on Friday night. The passage I chose was Matthew 11:28-30. It was simply called, "An invitation to rest" Here's the outline:

1. Request (Come unto me)
2. Requirement (All you that labor and are heavy laden)
3. Reward (I will give you rest)
4. Responsibility (Take my yoke upon you and learn of me)
5. Resume (I am meek and lowly in heart)
6. Revelation (You shall find rest unto your soul)
7. Report (My yoke is easy and my burden is light)

God blessed as I did my best to keep this at a lecture! This revival was truly a wonderful experience as Dr. Boyd shared with the pastors and ministers some of the pleasures and pitfalls of pastoring.

After hearing such a great week of preaching, I could not wait to get to the pulpit on Sunday! As always, we started out public worship day with Early Morning Prayer. The topic for the day was being available.. My heart was lifted as the prayers of the saints went forth. It was amazing to see the people of God crying out to Him for them to be available to be used by Him.

The choir truly blessed us and set the tone for worship. I approached the preaching moment with anticipation of something transformitive happening in the lives of the people of God as a result of hearing the Word of God! We continued in our series, "No more drama". The passage for the preaching moment was James 2:1-4. The message was entitled "The problem with partiality" Here's the basic outline:

1. Adverse Contradiction (v.1)

2. Absence of Consideration (v.2-3)

3. Antagonistic Conclusion (v.4)

God blessed the exposition and presentation as we were challenged to not show favoritism. The closing argument was simply this. We are no better then anyone and all of us have what we have, simply because of God's grace! It's not that we've applied ourselves, been good, been careful, made all the right decisions, or even the fact that we are saved, it is simply God' grace!

The IMA started a night worship on 5th Sunday nights at 7pm. This is part of fulfilling the three-fold vision of the IMA: 1. Restoring the Worship 2. Reclaiming our Witness 3. Reconciling the World. Our preacher was Rev. Dwight L Gutridge, pastor of the St. Luke AME Zion church of Gary, Indiana. We were truly blessed as he encouraged us on what to do when your life is a mess. This was a tremendous day of worship and I believe that God was pleased with our offering of public worship!

Pray for us this week as we continue to "Serve the Lord with gladness"!

Sunday Summary

What a day of worship this Lord's Day! I arrived back home yesterday from a wonderful Georgia trip extremely tired. I will admit early that I did not think that today was going to be a good day. It really started off rocky as I overslept for prayer meeting. I really don't like to miss prayer meeting. I pledged to myself that I would do better in the future!

When I arrived at church, I was greeted warmly by the saints at BBC! The saying is true, "There's no place like home!" I was happy to see my church family. Service started for me with a very lively devotion, which really set the tone for morning worship! The choir blessed us with beautiful songs of Zion, which continued to build the worship experience!

I was very excited about preaching in my pulpit on today! I couldn't wait to get back to our series. today we continued in James 1:26-27 ESV, which says, "If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. The message was entitled, "Do you got good religion? Here's the basic outline:

Good Religion involves:

1. Dialogue (26)

2. Duty (27a)

3. Detachment (27b)

This message was well received by the congregation! Praise God for His Word! I really thank God for BBC! God has blessed me to pastor a great church with great people!

My day of public worship concluded with an evening service at the Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church here in our city, where the pastor is Rev. Larry W. Davidson. Pastor Davidson is a member at BBC, so I was happy to have been invited to share with him and his congregation. Greater Friendship is a wonderful church with a very powerful youth ministry. We were there to celebrate their Nurses Anniversary.

This was going to be my fifth sermon in as many days and I really didnt know how much I had left. The longer I'm in ministry, the more real the scripture becomes that says,"His strength is made perfect in my weakness". I wanted to encourage the nurses especially and the congregation to continue to serve in spite of obstacles that they may face. I preached a message from Hebrews 12:1-2, entitled, "Being committed to the cause" Here's the basic outline:

To be committed to the cause, you must:

1. Embrace your cross (2a)

2. Erase your contempt (2b)

3. Elevate your condition (2c)

God blessed the message and gave me power to preach it! This has been a great welcome home day for me. I was glad to see family, friends, and have an opportunity to fellowship. I'm exhausted and ready tp rest. Thank God for monday! Pray for me this week! God Bless!