I love innovation. Finding the best way to share Christ with a hurting culture is a passion of mine. Because of this, change has become a way of life at Brookwood Baptist Church, where I pastor. I love innovation.  Finding the best way to share Christ with a hurting culture is a passion of mine. Because of this, change has become a way of life at Brookwood Baptist Church, where I pastor.  We will try new methods and jettison old, comfortable ones when they prove ineffective.  This has led us to multiple weekend services, including Saturday night, extremely contemporary services (as well as a blended service), and beginning many off-campus Bible study groups.  In other words, we will try new methods to get the good news of Jesus into all the world. Methods change; the message never will!  That’s why, when it comes to the resurrection of Jesus, I try to be very clear about what message we proclaim.  At Brookwood, we’ve decided not to have Easter egg hunts before, during or after church.  Yes, we can draw a crowd with it.  Yes, many respectable, godly churches have these every year. But we’ve decided that as our culture becomes more and more secular, as increasing numbers of people admit they’ve never been to a … [Read more...]

My advice is let children be children. I seriously doubt that parents will damage their children if they give them a chocolate bunny at Easter, new clothes, and a stuffed bunny rabbit. My advice is let children be children. I seriously doubt that parents will damage their children if they give them a chocolate bunny at Easter, new clothes, and a stuffed bunny rabbit. Generally, children up to the age of six or seven are not asking questions like “Is the Easter Bunny real?” They are more interested in the experience of being full of chocolate than existential questions of being or differentiating between Jesus and the Easter Bunny. To be perfectly transparent, my perspective is shaped primarily by the way I was raised. I was introduced to the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, but it never interfered with my coming to faith in Jesus. I never doubted the reality of the risen Christ. I simply enjoyed the chocolate and the presents and moved on from there. Now, you might have a precocious child, who will ask profound questions (and who doesn’t think they have a “genius” in their midst). But the reality is that they may at one moment pose a profound theological question and at the next minute ask for a peanut butter and jelly … [Read more...]

It’s been my joy as a senior pastor to teach the children and their parents on Wednesday nights for the past year at CrossPoint. It’s been my joy as a senior pastor to teach the children and their parents on Wednesday nights for the past year at CrossPoint. In our times together we focus on doctrine, memorizing Scripture, prayer for missionaries, worship, and fun. Our children have not only memorized the books of the Bible but their genres. They could tell you what theopneustos means and that the Holy Spirit is Who confirms the Truth of Scripture to our hearts. Ask them what it means for God to be both transcendent and immanent and they will give you hand motions to show you the difference. If there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that children can handle Truth and its deepest doctrines. During Christmas we did not just teach about the manger, we taught our children about Jesus’ Incarnation. We addressed His pre-existence and His taking on flesh. If you are waiting to teach deep Truth until students enter the youth group then you have missed the foundational years and your students will be behind. In thinking on teaching children about Easter, I have a few recommendations. First, I would pick a passage such as 1 Cor. … [Read more...]

Smoke on the Mountain is the most produced play in America [more than 3,000 times] and a husband and wife team from Louisiana are bringing it here to their home state. ALEXANDRIA – Smoke on the Mountain is the most produced play in America [more than 3,000 times] and a husband and wife team from Louisiana are bringing it here to their home state. This Friday, Saturday and Sunday (April 3-5) in the Alexandria Senior High Auditorium, Ross and Karen Schexnayder will present this hilariously funny and inspirational show. “It is a musical comedy about Southern Baptists,” said Ross Schexnayer, who along with his wife Karen, have come home after completing an extended national tour with the Cumberland County Playhouse, to start the Lagniappe Theatre Company. “Karen and I are both from Louisiana. I am from Baton Rouge and she is from Alexandria. “When we returned home we decided to begin a professional theatrical production company dedicated to preserving, developing, and redefining live theatre in Louisiana.” And the Schexnayder’s have selected Smoke on the Mountain as their company’s first production. “The year is 1938 on a Saturday evening in Mount Pleasant, N.C.,”  Schexnayder says, “and  Rev. Oglethorpe has invited … [Read more...]

Dear Editor,  I would think a Bible believing organization would wield its press to stand against a government leading this nation toward apostasy rather than attacking a radio commentator who espouses many Christian principles.  To the point, just which of Barack H. Obama’s policies does Joe McKeever wish to succeed [Baptist Message, March 19]?  Defeat of infant protection bills that require living, breathing infants to be cared for and not left to die of hypothermia and dehydration?  The denial of rights to doctors and nurses not to participate in abortions on moral grounds?  Using taxpayer money to abort babies in other countries?  Legalizing marriage of one sodomite to another?  Partial birth abortion?  Wholesale abortion for convenience?  Abortions for children without parental notification?   Allowing the United Nations to mandate how American parents raise their families?  Destruction of capitalism and replacing it with socialism?  Confiscating hard working successful people’s wealth, redistributing it to the lazy?  Denying the rights of parents to home school or send their kids to Christian schools in favor of godless secular public indoctrination facilities?  Limiting/abolishing the allowed tax … [Read more...]

Tom Cosat, pastor of tiny Mullen Baptist Church in Montrose, Ill., believes in “The Bridge” (http://thebridge.namb.net). ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) – Tom Cosat, pastor of tiny Mullen Baptist Church in Montrose, Ill., believes in “The Bridge” (http://thebridge.namb.net). Originally, Mullen Baptist Church was a one-room schoolhouse. A year ago, the church’s members decided to step out on faith and add 7,000 square feet for a new sanctuary, classrooms and bathrooms. Cosat’s local associational missions director told him about The Bridge, a North American Mission Board (NAMB) website designed to link projects with SBC volunteers around the country. “I still shake my head and can’t believe it,” says Cosat. “A team of 42 people from three or four Southern states came up and framed the building in four days. A second team came up from Tennessee and did the inside framing for us. “There’s no telling what the man-hours and materials donated were worth and the money we saved. It put us a light-year ahead of where we would have been had we tried to do it all ourselves. It made it affordable,” Cosat continued. “All we had to do was put on the siding. Another team even volunteered to come back and do the drywall. “Thank God for … [Read more...]

The life of a man in the ministry can be taxing to say the least, but what about life for his wife? NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – The life of a man in the ministry can be taxing to say the least, but what about life for his wife? About 300 ministers’ wives from across the United States and as far away as Japan met at a “Between Us Ministers’ Wives” conference March 12-13 in Nashville, Tenn. The women’s events area of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention organized the gathering, which preceded a Beth Moore Living Proof Live event for ministers’ wives. One of the best reasons to be there, one wife said, was to see she was not alone. By and large, the ministers’ wives said they were happy to be married to men on church staffs. “I felt like I knew what I was getting into because he was already in the ministry when we got married,” one wife said. “I married the man, but got the ministry along with him.” Chris Adams, LifeWay’s senior lead women’s ministry specialist, described ministers’ wives as special women.  “They deal with all the issues that being married involves, but in a fishbowl,” Adams said. “Then, if they have children, they may feel like the church is looking at her, expecting her to be … [Read more...]

Jennifer Landrith and Rachel Lovingood decided to begin a Bible study for staff wives. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – Jennifer Landrith and Rachel Lovingood decided to begin a Bible study for staff wives. As they explored possible resources, “too many of them just said what to do,” said Landrith, whose husband, David, is senior pastor at Long Hollow Baptist Church in Hendersonville, Tenn. “[N]ot many of them said anything about how to live as a minister’s wife. We obviously wanted to use the Bible as our foundation, but as we began working, we decided the need was for a Bible study, not an advice book.” Then, said Lovingood, whose husband, Jeff, is student pastor at the church, “When we got into it, we decided if this were good for our ministers’ wives, it’d be good for other ministers’ wives too.” The aim of the Bible study, as Lovingood put it: “To encourage wives with the Word. We want it to be empowering, real and relevant.” The result: “In Our Shoes,” published by LifeWay Resources. Landrith and Lovingood were among the featured speakers at the “Between Us Ministers’ Wives” conference hosted by LifeWay’. One of the key topics Landrith and Lovingood address in the Bible study is the “calling” on the life of a … [Read more...]

Have Southern Baptists said, “Enough!”? Have they reached their potential in reaching a lost world for Christ? Is their work done? GREENVILLE, S.C. (BP) – Have Southern Baptists said, “Enough!”? Have they reached their potential in reaching a lost world for Christ? Is their work done? “I will not accept that Southern Baptists have said, ‘Enough!’” said Paul Chitwood, chairman of the International Mission Board’s trustees. During the March 17-18 trustee meeting in Greenville, S.C., the Kentucky pastor challenged fellow trustees to encourage Southern Baptists to dig deeper and give sacrificially to missions during these difficult economic times. Until giving increases, the IMB’s missionary count will remain in the mid-5,000s, said Chitwood, pastor of First Baptist Church in Mt. Washington, Ky. More will be needed to help reach 1.6 billion people who have little to no access to the Gospel, he said. “We must shout from the rooftops and the mountaintops the news that we cannot grow our missionary force because we do not have the money to do so ... [T]he possibility has now become a reality.” Trustees appointed 89 new missionaries for a total missionary count of 5,569 during their meeting. OFFERING UPDATE IMB … [Read more...]

Despite recent media reports that young adults are running from churches in droves, the beliefs of many younger unchurched people are more connected to historic Christian beliefs than many suspected. NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Despite recent media reports that young adults are running from churches in droves, the beliefs of many younger unchurched people are more connected to historic Christian beliefs than many suspected. More 20-somethings than individuals 30 and older believe in the God of the Bible, the resurrection of Christ and the uniqueness of the Christian God, according to research conducted by LifeWay Research, the research arm of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. The data showed that younger unchurched people are more open than their older unchurched counterparts to hear more about Christianity – though they do tend to hold negative views of the church. The survey results were released recently in Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them, a new book by Ed Stetzer, LifeWay Research director; Richie Stanley, team leader at the North American Mission Board’s Center for Missional Research; and Jason Hayes, LifeWay’s young adult ministry specialist. According … [Read more...]