Spurgeon's fellow workers

"All my church officers are in a very real sense my brethren in Christ. In talking to or about one another, we have no stately modes of address. I am called 'the Governor'--I suppose, because I do not attempt to govern; and the deacons are known among us as 'Brother William,' 'Uncle Tom,' 'Dear Old Joe,' 'Prince Charlie,' 'Son of Ali' and so on. These brethren are some of them esquires who ought also to be M. P.'s but we love them too well to dignify them. One day, I spoke rather sharply to one of them, and I think he deserved the rebuke I gave him, but he said to me, 'Well, that may be so, but I tell you what, sir, I would die for you any day.' 'Oh' I replied, 'bless your heart, I am sorry I was so sharp, but, still, you did deserve it, did you not?' He smiled, and said he thought he die, and there the matter ended." page 70

"On going into the Tabernacle, one day, I gave directions about some minor alterations that I wished to have made, not knowing at the time that I was canceling the orders given by the deacon who had the main care of the building resting upon him. When he arrived, in the evening, he saw what had been done, and at once asked who had interfered with his instructions. The reply was, 'The Governor, sir'. The spirit of unquestioning loyalty at once asserted itself over any temporary annoyance he may have felt, and he said, 'Quite right; there must be only one captain in a ship;' and for a long while, that saying became one of our most familiar watchwords. I have often been amazed at the devotion of our brethren; I have told them many a time that, if they would follow a broomstick as they have followed me, the work must succeed, To which William Olney, as the spokesman for the rest, has answered, 'Yes, dear Pastor; but it is because we have such absolute confidence in your leadership that we are ready to follow you anywhere. You have never misled us yet, and we do not believe you ever will do so." page 71

Vision News
Vision Baptist Church

Spurgeon volume 2 page 11

"Spurgeon said. "I never answer any slanders against myself, and very seldom answer any questions about what I mean to do. I am obliged to be a self-contained man, just going on my own way, and letting other people go in their own way. If I am wrong, I will be accountable to my own Master, but to no flesh living; and if I am right, the day will declare it. God knows how sincere are my intentions even when I may have acted unwisely."

Vision News
Vision Baptist Church

The Full Harvest, C H Spurgeon 2

In the Autobiography of Charles Spurgeon there are quotes that just really make me realize that I must work differently than I am currently working. Think on this one for a while:

"As long as there is breath in our bodies, let us serve Christ; as long as we can think, as long as we can speak, as long as we can work, let us serve him, let us even serve him with our last gasp; and, if it be possible, let us try to set some work going that will glorify him when we are dead and gone. Let us scatter some seed that may spring up when we are sleeping beneath the hillock in the cemetery."

"As for myself, I am compelled to say with solemn truthfulness that I am not content with anything I have ever done. I have half wished to live my life over again, but now I regret that my proud heart allowed me so to wish, since the probabilities are that I should do worse the second time. Whatever grace has done for me I acknowledge with deep gratitude; but so far as I have done anything myself I beg pardon for it. I pray God to forgive my prayers, for they have all been full of fault; I beseech him to forgive even this confession, for it is not as humble as it ought to be; I beseech him to wash my tears and purge my devotions and to baptize me into a true burial with my Saviour, that I may be quite forgotten in myself, and only remembered in him.

What thoughts for you and me. We must leave something to glorify God with after our death.

I also am impressed that even Spurgeon could not or was not satisfied with his own service. But we are taught to realize that we would probably mess it up just as bad the second time.

Vision News
Vision Baptist Church

Missions Video

Trent sent me this video.



Vision News
Vision Baptist Church

Good video from Jason Holt

I really think that this is a good video from Jason Holt. It shows us some of the traditions of Chile as well as calling us to remember our great responsibility of getting the gospel to the world while there is still time.

I also think that Jason is using the video for a really good purpose of getting the message to all of us. You might consider doing something like this.



Vision News

Accountability

Everyone wants to be a leader. However, few are prepared to accept the accountability that goes with it. But you can't have one without the other. They are two sides of the same coin.

But what does accountability look like? First and foremost, it means that you accept responsibility for the outcomes expected of you—both good and bad. You don’t blame others. And you don’t blame the external environment. There are always things you could have done—or still can do—to change the outcome.

Until you take responsibility, you are a victim. And being a victim is the exact opposite of being a leader. Victims are passive. They are acted upon. Leaders are active. They take initiative to influence the outcome.

From here! Read the rest of the article.

Vision News

quote

“The work we do is a reflection of who we are. If we’re sloppy at it, it’s because we’re sloppy inside. If we’re late at it, it’s because we’re late inside. If we’re bored by it, it’s because we’re bored inside, with ourselves, not with the work. The most menial work can be a piece of art when done by an artist. So the job here is not outside of ourselves, but inside of ourselves. How we do our work becomes a mirror of how we are inside.”

The E-Myth Revisited

Vision News

I love the USA

I know that this blog is usually about my readings but I also share videos etc that I come across. To tell the truth I can't help but love things about the flag and patriotism.



Vision News

What do you think

Vision News

Area Independent Baptist Churches

View Larger Map

Vision News

Control or Accountability

I just noticed on Travis Snode's blog that he mentioned an article on Control Freaks. I immediately went to read the article to check myself out. I never fare as well as I want but always need to be thinking about it. I enjoyed the article and invite you to go and read the article.

Notice that this idea of control keeps our churches to about 200 in attendance. I do not want that for my ministry and I know that you do not also. Read and let's learn so that we can continue to grow.

Vision News

Youth Ministry

Check this out

At last June's Founder's Conference, Roy Hargrave delivered a powerful message that got me thinking about why so many churches lose their young people. (That wasn't the theme of Dr. Hargrave's message, but he brought up the subject in one of the points he made.)

Here's a really brief summary of some of my thoughts on the matter:

The very strategies many churches adopt to try to keep their young people involved in the church are the main reasons they lose so many of them. The dominant philosophies of youth ministry today are spiritually lame or worse—and almost completely counterproductive.

Specifically, it's time we faced the fact that systematically dumbing down the teaching ministry and ramping up the party atmosphere while isolating our young people from the rest of the body is not a very good strategy for increasing the rate of retention among our youth.

Think about it: Youth ministries (not all of them, of course, but the vast majority of squidgy evangelical ones) deliberately shield their young people from the hard truths and strong demands of Jesus. They tailor their worship so worldly youth can feel as comfortable in the church environment as possible. They squander the best opportunities of those formative student years by minimizing spiritual instruction while emphasizing fun and games. They let their teens live with the false notions that believing in Christ is easy, sanctification is optional, and religion is supposed to be fun and always suited to our liking. They fail to equip their high school students for the rigorous defense of the faith they will need in college. They neglect to integrate them as young adults into the adult community of the church.

And then they wonder why so many young people abandon the church about the same time they leave home.

How hard can it really be to understand why the "Youth Specialties" approach to student ministry has been such an enormous failure?

Vision News

Come home

Vision News

Adoniram to his wife

"January 1, 1811. Tuesday Morning
It is with the utmost sincerity, and with my whole heart, that I wish you, my love, a happy new year. May it be a year in which your walk will be close with God; your frame calm and serene; and the road that leads you to the Lamb marked with purer light. May it be a year in which you will have more largely the spirit of Christ, be raised above sublunary things, and be willing to be disposed of in this world just as God shall please. As every moment of the year will bring you nearer the end of your pilgrimage, may it bring you nearer to God, and find you more prepared to hail the messenger of death as a deliverer and a friend. And now, since I have begun to wish, I will go on. May this be the year in which you will change your name; in which you will take a final leave of your relatives and native land; in which you will cross the wide ocean, and dwell on the other side of the world, among a heathen people. What a great change will this year probably effect in our lives! How very different will be our situation and employment! If our lives are preserved and our attempt prospered, we shall next new year's day be in India, and perhaps wish each other a happy new year in the uncouth dialect of Hindostan or Burmah. We shall no more see our kind friends around us, or enjoy the conveniences of civilized life, or go to the house of God with those that keep holy day; but swarthy countenances will everywhere meet our eye, the jargon of an unknown tongue will assail our ears, and we shall witness the assembling of the heathen to celebrate the worship of idol gods. We shall be weary of the world, and wish for wings like a dove, that we may fly away and be at rest. We shall probably experience seasons when we shall be 'exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. We shall see many dreary, disconsolate hours, and feel a sinking of spirits, anguish of mind, of which now we can form little conception. O, we shall wish to lie down and die. And that time may soon come. One of us may be unable to sustain the heat of the climate and the change of habits; and the other may say, with literal truth, over the grave--

'By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed;
By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed;
By foreign hands thy humble grave adorned;'

but whether we shall be honored and mourned by strangers, God only knows. At least, either of us will be certain of one mourner. In view of such scenes shall we not pray with earnestness 'O for an overcoming faith,' etc.?"

Vision News

Mr Judson asks for his wife's hand in marriage

I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world ? whether you can consent to her departure to a heathen land, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life? whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean; to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death? Can you consent to all this, for the sake of Him who left His heavenly home and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with a crown of righteousness brightened by the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Saviour from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair?

Vision News

Death of a podcast

source

Tony Morgan, over at his blog, discussed the end of Yahoo! podcasts a while back. The service shut down, and it begs the question: Is podcast listenership in decline? He lists a few barriers to the success of podcasts:
You can't scan through a podcast to find the good stuff.
It's tough to carve out time to listen to podcasts.
Other things like videos and reading sound more fun than listening to someone talk.
Podcast quality often stinks.
They don't lend themselves to viral distribution.
Why in the heck does this matter to church marketing, you might ask. Well, podcasts for weekly sermons are integral parts of many churches. Some churches even podcast more than just weekly messages. We have to ask ourselves if this form of media is something we should continue to pursue, and if so, how should we improve the state of the podcast?

I see two potential "Save The Podcasts" schools of thought here. Firstly, you might think that podcasts are fine how they are. They were all the rage for awhile as people were testing them out, and now they're settling down to only those looking for serious depth and theological meat through technology. Secondly, you might think that podcasts just need a little makeover. The most popular podcasts sit around ten minutes in length and are well-produced. Let's look at these two briefly.

Podcasts are fine how they are.
In a world of blogs, bits, slogans, phrases and quips, they are a defender of the theological and the deep. The workhorses of the technological industry. There's obviously a market for deeply satisfying podcast material. I've met folks who like to run to the sound of solid exegesis or like to be spiritually satisfied on their long drive to work. This can give your church appeal beyond just the community and can be so important for edification of believers. Maybe if you don't think podcasts are worth your breath, you should at least consider these people.

Podcasts just need a little makeover.
In a world of blogs, bits, slogans, phrases and quips, they are the the technology that showed up to the race without shoes. Churches ought to podcast straight and to the point--maybe sermon highlights, inspirational thoughts or news and updates from the staff. There's people out there who get a little squeamish at the idea of a 45-minute sermon (cheers to you, Kevin), and we need to give these individuals a gateway to our churches. Let's not forget about these people, either.

So maybe one or the other podcast is especially effective for your audience. Maybe both would be best. Or heck, maybe podcasts are dead and neither one is worth a second look. Either way, as podcasts get older (relatively speaking, of course), it's time to ask ourselves again how we'll be using this technology.

Vision News

Missions as Church Planting

by SharperIron at 1:00 am November 6, 2007. 209 views. Filed under: In The Nick of Time, Missions


by Kevin T. Bauder

Historic Baptists agree that the work of missions is the work of planting churches. They derive this conviction from the uniform pattern of the New Testament. When the churches of the New Testament commissioned and sent out a member, it was invariably either to plant churches or to assist someone who was planting churches.

If the New Testament pattern holds, then a missionary’s work is not primarily to educate the ignorant, to feed the hungry, to heal the sick, to seek justice for the oppressed, or to engage in other works of mercy. These works are incidental to missions. While such works may be useful in facilitating church planting, and while they may be performed as fruits of the individual missionary’s Christian compassion, they are not properly the work of missions, and they should never be allowed to displace the work of missions.

Who, then, is a missionary? Properly speaking, a missionary is a church planter. The missionary’s responsibility is to preach the gospel, baptize those who profess the gospel, train believers in the faith, and organize them into New Testament churches. If Timothy and Titus may be used as examples (there are some differences), the missionary’s responsibility is not complete until the churches are fully ordered and self-perpetuating.

The work of the missionary involves a much broader range of responsibility than the work of the local pastor. As church planters, missionaries must master the same biblical and theological content that a pastor has to know, but they also must excel as witnesses for Jesus Christ. They must be able, with minimal resources, to organize a functional church. In the case of foreign missionaries, they must normally be able to communicate well across cultural and linguistic barriers. The work of missions has an exponentially higher level of difficulty than the work of a pastor at home—though this in no way demeans the work of the pastor!

If a man cannot pastor a church at home, is he really qualified to be sent as a church planter? And how does anyone know whether he can pastor a church at home unless he has actually done it? Clearly, Barnabas and Saul had significant experience in local church leadership before they were sent out on their first missionary journey. Why should the modern missionary be less qualified?

American churches have typically taken the attitude that men who cannot function in ministry at home can be sent to the mission field. The formula has been simple. On the one hand, the most qualified men are called to the most prestigious churches at home. On the other hand, the least qualified men are sent into places where their commissioning churches only have to see them every four years.

Within the Lord’s vineyard, no work is more challenging than the work of missions. If it is as important as everyone says, then shouldn’t the best and brightest be encouraged toward the mission field? More specifically, shouldn’t the bulk of missionaries be drawn from men who have proven themselves in the work of the pastorate?

This suggestion raises a question about current missionary practices. Is it compatible with the “missionary call” about which so many make so much?

The answer to this question is that the New Testament does not seem to teach such a thing as a distinctive and lifelong call to missions per se. One can make an argument (though this is not the place to make it) that the New Testament does imply a calling to what is sometimes referred to as “vocational ministry.” In order to justify the notion of a lifelong call to a specific area of service, however, a biblical interpreter must engage in considerably more theological gymnastics. In fact, the New Testament undermines such a notion, for it shows men moving not only from one specific ministry to another but also from one kind of ministry to another.

When modern Christians refer to “vocational Christian service,” they include several different areas of ministry. They include New Testament ministries such as pastors, missionaries (church planters), and itinerant preacher-teachers. They also include certain responsibilities that support these New Testament ministries, such as theological teachers and coordinators of infrastructural organizations. These supporting ministries grow out of particular functions of New Testament pastors or missionaries, and are generally regarded as “vocational ministry” even though they are not biblical offices. For example, a theological professor or a coordinator of a mission agency is usually said to be “in the ministry.”

Individuals are often led from one responsibility to another during the pursuit of their ministries. The same person may be a pastor at one time, a missionary at another, and a seminary professor at still another. A missionary may move between fields, and a pastor may move from one church to another. Nothing in the New Testament indicates that a person who moves between areas of service is somehow betraying the call of God upon his life. If anything, the New Testament pattern favors such moves.

Theologically, no reason exists for not insisting that men be tried and proven before they are sent to the mission field. Practically, many factors should motivate churches and mission agencies to ask candidates to prove themselves in ministry before going to the field. Among these are the years of travel that candidates will spend in deputation, the high price of establishing a new missionary on the field, and the heavy toll that first-term ministry takes on new missionaries and their families.

The work of missions is one of the most vital aspects of New Testament Christianity. Churches that do not plant churches are failures as churches. Missions is too important to do in a shoddy or slipshod way. It is a work for the best and brightest of those who are called to minister.

Vision News

Did you know

This ought to wake us up

Who are you

I'm a part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made.
I'm a disciple of His and I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still.
My past is redeemed. My present makes sense. My future is secure.
I'm done and finished with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living, and dwarfed goals.
I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity.
I don't have to be right, or first, or tops, or recognized, or praised, or rewarded.
I live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by Holy Spirit power. My face is set. My gait is fast. My goal is heaven.
My road may be narrow, my way rough, my companions few, but my guide is reliable and my mission is clear.
I will not be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed.
I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice or hesitate in the presence of the adversary.
I will not negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.
I won't give up, shut up, or let up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, and preached up for the cause of Christ.
I am a disciple of Jesus!
I must give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until He comes.
And when He does come for His own, He'll have no problems recognizing me. My colors will be clear!"

Vision News

Goal!