Tommy Mitchell / The Rurban Church Blog

Back to Work!

Well, my working vacation is over. As near as I could keep count - during our vacation I worked 71 hours on the house!  So, I am looking forward to going back to work this week!

Actually I got started tonight with the evening service. This morning Andrea and I attended FBC Ocean Springs.  They have a wonderful fellowship and a great staff.  Michael Barnett is their pastor. He preached one of the finest messages I have ever heard and presented the gospel in a most compelling way!  We were blessed.

It was good to get back into the pulpit tonight to preach. I don't mind being gone from time to time - but I love preaching at ABC!

Day One of Vacation - I worked 13 hours!!!

Right now I am on vacation!  I saved it for this time of the year because I knew I would be getting close to finishing my house.  So, on my first day of vacation, I worked 13 hours!  It will not likely happen, but I hope to be "very" close to finishing the house by the end of the week!  I don't know if it can be done - but I hope it can be.  I will then have one more week to work at night finishing up painting etc. before the carpet goes down on the MOnday before Thanksgiving. We will see.

I noted that we had 344 in Bible Study yesterday! WOW! That was something else on the giving too! Way to go, ABC.

Tomorrow, I'm pretty sure I will put in more hours on the house than today. I have to make one "LOWE'S run to pick up toilets, etc..

Back to One!

Well,we made known a fairly strategic and difficult decision today.  As of the first Sunday in December, we will return to one Sunday School and one worship service.  There are a variety of reasons - but two or three stand out.
1. The Sunday School side has worked flawlessly. When the church year ended at the end of September, we had posted our highest annual average attendance - I believe that was 341.  Unfortunately, the worship side of that has not kept up.

2. The two worship services were not balanced and had a very different dynamic. Some difference is expected, but these were so different that it began to feel like two very different churches. You cannot build unity and purpose in that dynamic.

3. Every church has a personality, and ours just does not do well in separate service.

We have some positives to carry forward.

1. We gained about 5 classes that have excelled under duals. They will be continued in the one Sunday School.
2. Because of the method we are now using with students, they will do fine meeting in the worship center.
This has freed up 7 rooms.  We also have a house on the campus that we can convert to SS space.  So we are hoping to keep our gains from Duals and improve on them with the one worship service. 
3. We may finally be able to experiment with small groups meeting for Bible Study on days other than Sunday.

We have one LARGE challenge. In Duals, we had teachers for each hour of SS in the preschool.  Now we will have teachers during SS, but need EXTENDED SESSION volunteers for the the nursery and young preschool during worship.  That is a monster list and rotation to maintain.

We will begin this on December 7th.

My Favorite WOW Verse!

WOW!  I love these verses! Ephesians 3:20-21 I am using these to speak at a Moving That Mountain capital stewardship banquet in for a church on the coast this Sunday evening.  I noted today a great perspective on the verses at Perry Noble's Blog this evening.

It is amazing how we squander imagination, creativity, and ideas! When we are walking with God and are spirit-filled and spirit-led, our imagination, creativity, and our ideas should really be His!  I believe He usually enables His heart desires to be fulfilled.

These verses never cease to hit me right in the heart!  What about you?

Excellent Post!

All I will say about this post is that it is excellent!

Strategic Quitting!

I have been intrigued by this concept for a while - since I heard Paul Scanlon preach about it.  There are many great programs and ideas that one can employ in growing the kingdom.  However, there are times when one has to "strategically quit" a good idea.  Several factors enter in to strategically quitting!

1. When results aren't at a level that justifies the work involved.
2. When the primary goal of the idea is not being fulfilled.
3. When the support for the idea or plan is primarily passive instead of primarily active.

Great ideas and plans are hard to quit - but holding on to great ideas that don't work produces no better results than bad ideas that don't work!  Something to think about!

Fall Festival 2008

Tonight was Fall Festival 2008 - The Agricola Round-up!  Appropriately dressed for the occasion was yours truly and Mr. Jim.  I liked his "Texas" wear!

The mechanical bull was a smashing success.  I rode it until I fell off everytime.  Here are a couple of pics of Mitchel Summers going for the prize!

Watch it! Sudden move!

Our Three Blessings!

These three blessings belong to Andrea and me!

Kelsey - Drew - Lesley

Suffering! Wow!

This study on Revelation is just flat out messing with me!  I figured out pretty quick in preparing for tonight's study that I would hate to look a Christian from Smyrna in the eye and complain about anything. Those from Smyrna (would that be Smyrnians or Smyrnans?)were horribly persecuted. I love what the Lord, the First and the Last, the One who died and came to life again, told the folks there.

Don't be afraid!
Be Faithful -unto death!

These folks had literally been reduced to begging for survival.  The Roman government persecuted them as well as the Jewish community that had rejected Christ. They were facing terrible circumstances. Yet, Christ told them that if they pushed through - if they overcame - they would receive the Crown of Life.

Isn't it interesting that they had no building program, no building, no great wealth, no incredible music ministry, and apparently no great plans for tomorrow.  They were poor by every standard but God's standard. To Him, they were rich - rich in faith -rich in endurance - rich in love for God.

One day many of us will stand shoulder to shoulder with the Christians who were killed at Smyrna. Can you imagine the conversation?  I don't feel worthy to look one of them in the eye! After all, we complain that Christianity is tough if the weather is bad on Sunday!  I certainly don't seek persecution - but I wonder if God's people lived "sold out" lives before God without reservation if we would not discover that persecution would find us?!

Praying Through The Date-Line.

Just about the time we will be praying for our Mission Team in the Pac Rim this morning, it will be Monday there.  It will definitely be so at church this evening.  So, it is sort of weird, from my point of view, that will be praying for them today when it is tomorrow for them and yesterday!!!  So, we will pray today, and they will be prayed for on their yesterday!  Yet it is the same moment!

Glad God is above the time and date zones!!!! 

Fulfilling my Responsibility on the SUPERIOR SCRIBBLER!

Yesterday - or the day before - I was tagged for the Superior Scribbler Award. You can read MY POST ABOUT IT HERE!  I needed to offer 5 nominations for this award - - -

1. Mark Williams at Mark Williams Live. Mark is our Equipping Pastor and while most of his posts are brief, they have a very interesting variety - and include wonderful accounts of family life.

2. Parson Price or Phillip Price as we know him.  Phillip is the pastor at First Baptist Church, Leakesville. Phillip just writes some wonderful stuff.  From personal experience to great Bible teaching, he writes some great stuff.

3. Mark Wilson at Revitalize Your Church. Mark is located in Wisconsin.  Every day he has great wit and insight for reader.  I really enjoy reading his blog.  The variety there makes it a great read every day.

4. Dr. Joe McKeever, the Director of Missions for the Greater New Orleans Baptist Association is one of the finest writers I know.  A long time family friend, Dr. Joe was preaching the night that I committed to preaching the Gospel.  His writing is engaging and draws you into the story.  You can read his BLOG HERE!

5. Dr. Bob Roberts, at Glocal.net, will astonish you with his personal experiences leading a kingdom minded church. The world-wide mission of this church and the disciple-making spirit they possess is phenomenal.

There you have it - my nominees.

The Envelope Please!

Misty Harris has awarded me the Superior Scribbler award.  According to the rules governing this Major Award  I must now nominate 5 others to take up this torch and post the rules to receiving this award.

Here are the rules:

• Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.
• Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.
• Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.
• Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!
• Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

I will name my 5 nominees tomorrow in a separate post.
I received the Superior Scribbler from Mrs. H, my co-worker and super friend.  She is one of my links under My Connections. You can link here as well - Mrs H at Large
I also have added a link to the post which explains the award.

WOW! this is HIS church!

In teaching through Revelation, we covered the church of Ephesus last night.  The church seemed to have everything going for it in terms of activity, doctrinal integrity, testing apostles and enduring hardships. Careful examination would lead most of us to DESIRE to be like this church.

Yet, the Lord considered it a FALLEN church and inflicted by a FATAL disease - it had left its FIRST LOVE - or passion for the Lord.

Upon consideration of that I noted the following about the "seeming" attributes of the Ephesian church:

Maintaining doctrinal integrity, without love, just becomes cold legalism.
Not tolerating evil, without love, just becomes pure judgementalism.
Not putting up with false apostles, apart from love, becomes nothing more than spiritual pride.
Activity, labor, and perseverance, without love, becomes nothing more than "super spirituality."

The Ephesian church was going "great guns!" But without a passion for Christ and only a passion for their achievements, they had become useless to God..

God help us to love Him more!

PAC RIM UPDATE!

1. Our team is in their destination country and settled into their hotel.
2. Sleep is their next order. They have been traveling for about 40 hours.
3. Two or three of them are missing various parts of their luggage!   It is supposed to arrive by tomorrow night.  Pray that it will - especially one of their bags that has supplies in it.
4. Pray that they will get sufficient rest to get a great start with their retreat.
5. Praise God that ABC has a team half-way around the world doing a great work.

Back Home!

Got back in this afternoon late. Dad seems to be a bit better.  I believe the work on his meds is paying off. He seems much more at himself and tonight he told me he felt like he might be turning a corner for the better.  We pray that this is so.  I know he is TIRED of feeling so weak and awful! So, hopefully, the gains today will be advanced tomorrow.

I drove on back this afternoon. Have a full day tomorrow between hospitals and church.

This evening I have communicated with Mark and the gang in Hong Kong. They will travel on to their destination in the Pac Rim after a few more hours. I know they are tired. They have been traveling since leaving the church at 2:00 pm yesterday.

Could Be a Solution

We may have hit on a partial solution to Dad's challenges here at the hospital.  He has suffered a damaged nerve that controls his diaphragm. On his left side, his diaphragm is not working.  This has allowed his stomach to shift to that area and accounts for his occasional shortness of breath.  The docs believe that his weakness may be due to the accumulation of medicines that have lowered his bp and heart rate too much.

So, the meds are being greatly adjusted, and it seems to me that he is "brighter" today.  The docs think that by tomorrow he should be starting to regain a little energy if the meds are the cause.  We are all hopeful that his docs are all communicating with each other and he is getting more coordinated care.

At the Hospital!

I have made it to the hospital. Things are fair!  If we keep this up, we will try out every room on the 5th floor.
More when I know more!

Heading to the Hospital

Quick update! Heading to hospital in Columbus. Dad has been hospitalized - having more complications.
Pray!

Not the Confirmation You Want!

Well, the confirmation I needed about not going on this mission journey was just delivered to me via my sister.  My Dad is having a most difficult time this morning.  We have arranged to get him back to the doc for another check on his lungs (he has pneumonia) to see if it has worsened or spread to the other lung. Keep him in your prayers.

I am waiting to see what the doc says - and then adjust my plans to do whatever I need to do to help.

I Flew to The Pac Rim in the Late Evening!

We have been so busy between church, my Dad, and building the house, that I have not had any "entertainment" time in a long while!  So, having the evening at home, I decided to load up Flight Simulator X and fly to the destination airport of our mission team in the PAC RIM!  I was really surprised to see the attention to detail of the graphics at this overseas airport.  I chose a Cessena to fly around the area. It was really pretty - even in a simulator.

My flight only took about 15 minutes. Theirs will take considerably longer!  During our orientation meetings, one of the things suggested was that the team not get involved in too much stressful stuff the last day or so before leaving.  This is probably one of the busiest weekends in a while for all our staff guys.  They are preparing for Praise in the Park and potentially serving about 2500 - 3000 bowls of redbeans and rice! 

We also have the tailgate party this Sunday. That is not especially stressful - but it can be sort of hard on the stomach when you eat a whole lot! 

Our team should have a great trip!