Orphans Deserve Better

Interesting post by Rus Moore about an upcoming project that will counter a new Warner Bros. film that unfortunately passes along the terrible stereotypes of orphans. You can read about it here.

Preaching to Kings and All in High Positions

Yesterday at our Celebrate America service, I talked about the need to pray for "kings and all who are in high positions" (1 Tim. 2:1-2), just as Paul instructed Timothy with reference to public worship in Ephesus.

The church must be known as a people who prays for everyone, and particuarly for those who make important decisions, like establishing peace, which allows the Gospel to flourish. God is the only true Sovereign, and He uses human beings to fulfill His great purposes. And God does His work in response to genuine prayer.

I found it interesting that today a story was released on President Obama's new pastor: Carey Cash. What strikes me is that he is the great nephew of Johnny Cash (!) and he is actually a Southern Baptist, who graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. I pray that God will use Cash for His glory as he preaches to and prays for those in "high positions." There are several stories circuluating; you can read one of them here.

Camps and Conventions

Tomorrow morning I hit the road again. I will be preaching in Glorieta, NM at another student camp. Please pray for a profitable and fruitful week of ministry; and for my wife as she is at home with the kids, for yet another week.

The Southern Baptist Convention is going on this week as well in Louisville, KY. Obviously, I won't make it this year, but hope to follow along via the web. For some of you the Southern Baptist Convention is about as exciting as watching the grass grow, but for those of you who are interested in keeping up with the happenings, you can view it here.

Today was a wonderful Father's day, which makes it even tougher to leave. I will enjoy the month of July because I am not traveling anywhere. I am very grateful for God's goodness in giving me four wonderful children to Father. And I am in need of His grace to imitate Him to these kids. Happy Father's Day to all the Papas who care for their kids.

Church Planting and Loving the Poor

In my studies this morning, I happened to come across the following statistics on church planting and poverty, as presented by John Piper in 2007. The implications are numerous.

Observations on Church Planting

1. There are 195 million non-churched people in America, making America one of the top four largest “unchurched” nations in the world.

2. In spite of the rise of mega-churches, no county in America has a greater church population than it did ten years ago.

3. During the last ten years, combined communicant membership of all Protestant denominations declined by 9.5 percent (4,498,242), while the national population increased by 11.4 percent (24,153,000).

4. Each year 3,500 to 4,000 churches close their doors forever; yet only as many as 1,500 new churches are started.

5. There are now nearly 60 percent fewer churches per 10,000 persons than in 1920.

In 1920 27 churches existed for every 10,000 Americans.
In 1950 17 churches existed for every 10,000 Americans.
In 1996 11 churches existed for every 10,000 Americans.
6. “Today, of the approximately 350,000 churches in America, four out of five are either plateaued or declining.”

7. One American denomination recently found that 80% of its converts came to Christ in churches less than two years old.

8. Hence the claim of many leaders: “The single most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven is planting new churches” (Peter Wagner).

Observations on World Poverty

Then consider eight observations about world poverty.2

1. More than 1.5 billion people around the world live on less than a $1 a day.

2. More than one billion people do not have access to clean water.

3. Every year six million children die from malnutrition before their fifth birthday.

4. More than 50 percent of Africans suffer from water-related diseases such as cholera and infant diarrhea.

5. More than 800 million people go to bed hungry every day, 300 million are children.

6. Of these 300 million children, only eight percent are victims of famine or other emergency situations. More than 90 percent are suffering long-term malnourishment and micronutrient deficiency.

7. Declining soil fertility, land degradation, and the AIDS pandemic have led to a 23 percent decrease in food production per capita in the last 25 years even though population has increased dramatically.

8. A woman living in sub-Saharan Africa has a 1 in 16 chance of dying in pregnancy. This compares with a 1 in 3,700 risk for a woman from North America.

Camp!

I will be flying out of Hattiesburg at 6:15 am on Monday morning (I didn't book this flight:)) for the first of two weeks of camp. The first week I will be in Ridgecrest, North Carolina, and the second in Glorieta, New Mexico. Both are Fuge camps put on by Lifeway. I would appreciate your prayers for lives to be changed. 

This will be the 12th year that I've worked camp for Lifeway (although the last five have been for only two weeks each summer). It has been a good run. Next year I agreed to do one week of Fuge, and one week of Student Life. Next week I will be with some old friends, Big Daddy Weave. 

Hopefully, the family can come with me next year because this will be tough without them. I do fly back, however, on Saturday both weeks, with the intent of preaching on both Sundays. So I will get to see the kids between the two weeks. 

And of course, I will miss my bride. We had a great date tonight. I had stuffed Red Fish and she had Mediterranean chicken. Speaking of fish, James and I will be going fishing in the morning at 7:30 with our music minister, Paul. It should be fun. It will be James' first fishing experience. 

My parents are also coming in tomorrow and it will be their first time to meet the kids. Unfortunately, I will only get to see them for a few days before I head out, but I don't think they will miss me.:) 

VBS and Progress

The kids have done very well at VBS this week. We were a bit anxious since this is their first time to be alone with kids their age. I'm so thankful for all of the folks at Temple that are serving not only our kids, but hundreds of others. May Christ be exalted at the Boomerang Express.  

The kids have also been taking swim lessons each afternoon. Today they were doing cannonballs! 

They have been with us now in Hattiesburg for 3 1/2 weeks and we definitely see many signs of progress, for which we thank God. To see some good pictures see Kimberly's blog. 

Shepherding kids' Hearts

Today I mentioned several resources of parents. I have been blessed by Tripp's Shepherding a Child's Heart, The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones, and My 1st Book of Question and Answers by Mackenzie, to name a few. I also mentioned some questions that a Sovereign Grace Pastor shared with Piper, and he in turn footnoted the book Stand: A Call for Endurance of the Saints (p., 132, footnote 2). Piper honestly admitted that if he could anything over, after a long ministry, that it would be with respect to asking "heart questions" (my phrase) to his kids. He met with them regularly but wished that he would have probed deeper. I went through the questions quickly today in the sermon, but wanted to make the available here. Here are the questions (I hope to print them out and use them in the future myself once the kids learn English.:)

• How are your devotions? 
• What is God teaching you? 
• In your own words, what is the Gospel? 
• Is there a specific sin that you're aware of that you need my help defeating? 
• Are you more aware of my encouragement than my criticism? 
• What's Daddy most passionate about? 
• Do I act the same at church as I do when I'm at home? 
• Are you aware of my love for you? 
• Is there any way I've sinned against you that I've not repented of? 
• Do you have any observations for me? 
• How am I doing as a dad? 
• How have Sunday's sermons impacted you? 
• Does my relationship with Mom make you excited to be married? 

Advance 09

It is amazing to me that so many great conferences are now posted on-line immediately. For those who could not attend the Advance 09 conference, (a conference mainly for young pastors and leaders) about the the importance of the church, you can hear the messages here, here, and here. 

Later, Piper will speak on global missions. Hear and be edified. 

IMB Sends More

When asked "Why are you a Southern Baptist?" I generally have several comebacks. But the big reason is: the International Misision Board. For all the things that are falling apart in our convention, one of the bright spots is the fact that we are now sending over 5,600 missionaries over seas. I've seen some of these missionaries on the field. They are not rich, but they are taken care of, and can focus their attention on making disciples. I love Jerry Rankin, the President of the IMB. Recently in Denver, Temple had a couple at this event.  And it was actually hosted at the church were my mentor, Jim Shaddix, serves as Senior Teaching Pastor, Riverside Baptist. 

Good Rec Ministry

We are blessed at Temple with great leadership in our rec ministry. Tonight I personally saw it in action. I played a basketball game in the new summer league as a team member of the Monsters. We won. But that's not what I will remember the most from tonight. Two things stick out....

1. The gym was full of guys I didn't recognize. These were dudes. All sizes, colors, and skill-levels. I made several new friends tonight on my team as well as on other squads. I was able to invite them to church and introduce myself to them. Our basketball league is a great place to connect with dudes who need Jesus and a local church. 

2. The league was ran by a top-shelf rec minister: Eddie Baker. Eddie led a devotion during halftime that included a story about Robert O'Kelly, a former Wake Forrest player, who was a strong Christian leader. He also quoted Tim Keller on humility saying, "Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it's thinking of your self less." Eddie then went to Philippians 2 and talked about the humility of Christ in the incarnation and his subtitutionary death for sinners. He captivated these guys, four teams, all hot and sweaty. They came to play. But they heard the good news in about five minutes. 

I'm thankful for all of our staff, and thought I would give a special shout out to Eddie. I must also say that his associate, Ben, will be missed badly, when he leaves in a few weeks with his wife and daughter to go to central Asia as IMB missionaries. Ben is truly a missionary who doesn't have to start doing something he's not already doing: showing and sowing the Gospel.