Happy birthday to my mother, Ellen Charles! If the Lord let’s me see tomorrow, I will 40-years-old. Yikes! My children keep assuring me that they still love me even though I am now an old man. My wife made sure I had a great birthday weekend. She's the best. And thanks to my three partners in crime for hanging out with the old man. Last Sunday, I publicly predicted the 49ers would win the Super Bowl. I tried to ignore last weekend even happened. But the saints wouldn’t let me forget it today. A member who is out of town...

Today, the Lord has blessed me to see my 40th birthday. I am in shock that I am now 40. Where in the world did the time go? Let me think about it… I have been following Jesus for 34 years. I have been preaching the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ for 29 years. I have been pastoring God’s people for 23 years. I have been married for more than 14 years. I have been a father for 13 years. Yep. I guess 40 years makes sense, after all. The Lord has been good to me....

Saturday Shout-outs is my weekly bulletin board where I make note of the things that caught my attention over the course of the week. Thanks for reading my blog this week. You can sign up for email updates of future posts under the picture to the left. I am celebrating my 40th birthday this weekend. My birthday is Monday. I was born about 2 hours away from being born on the same day as my mother, whose birthday is Sunday, February 10. I saw my two favorite basketball teams play this weekend. The Miami Heat crushed the Los Angeles Clippers....

The McChurch has replaced the traditional church and its relational values. Fast-food Christians pull up to ecclesiastical drive-through windows, order the McGroups, consume the experience and then drive off, discarding relationships like burger wrappers on the highway of life. Savvy church growth pastors quickly learned that significant growth can occur if a church learns how to market it burgers to capture the appetite of this roving crowd. In some instances merely producing an interesting alternative to the status quo can lead to significant church disaffections. - William Chadwick, Stealing Sheep, p. 20 Transfer growth, by definition, creates no numerical growth in...

There are three basic elements to a sermon: explanation, application, and illustration. At any given point of the sermon, you are doing one of these three things. Explanation is the foundation of a biblical message. The goal is to explain what the text means by what it says. However, interpretation without application is abortion. You must explain the text and exhort the congregation to do what it says (James 1:22). But your work is not done there. The effective preacher must also work to clarify meaning, make ideas stick, and call the listener to action. To this end, Illustrations are...

It was a great, long weekend. Saturday morning, we had our 33 Series Men’s Bible Study, corporate prayer meeting, and New Members Class. Our Bible Study Fellowship groups began a new semester yesterday. I resumed my study of 1 Timothy. I taught on the spiritual qualifications for elders in 1 Timothy 3:1-7. Some things never change, as I did not finish the lesson. Part 2 next Sunday. We celebrated the Lord’s Supper and welcomed in our new members. I was good to have our guests in worship. I continued my new series called, “Family Matters.” I preached a message that I...

Saturday Shout-Outs is my weekly bulletin board of news & articles that catch my eye over the course of the week. Thanks for reading my blog. You can sign up for email updates of future posts under the picture to the left. I greatly appreciate your prayers and expressions of concern for my nephew, Myles, who was shot last weekend. He is home now and recuperating. Please continue to pray for the Smith family. Make sure you check out my interview with Dr. Fred Luter, Jr. More than Flunkies: 10 Keys for Associate Pastors by H.B. Charles, Jr. Should Young...

Have you noticed how people refer to the singing in church as "worship time," as if the other parts of the service are not part of our worship? This is troubling, because Christians should recognize that prayer, saying the creeds, giving, and especially the sermon, are all part of our worship of God. But I wonder if one of the reasons why people do not know this is that preachers have forgotten to worship God when they preach. We may deliver carefully crafted sermons, but if we ourselves are not worshiping God when we do, then that element will be...

It has been a long, blessed weekend. We kicked off a new session of the 33 Series mens' Bible study Saturday morning. We got off to a good start. Looking forward to the next 5 weeks. The 2013 JAX Pastors Conference was fantastic. I really needed David Jeremiah's message on the Prodigal Son. Dr. Al Mohler's message on heaven was phenomenal as well, and it was great to hear Dr. Fred Luther Dr. Brunson graciously invited me to speak Saturday afternoon, I am grateful for the honor. Thankful to Trey Brunson and the entire First Baptist staff as well for...

I stood, called my text, and began to preach. There was a weird response by the congregation. Something strange was happening, but I didn't know what. I couldn't catch the vibe. The congregation, to whom I had preached several times before, was tentative throughout the entire message. But I couldn't figure out why. After I sat down, it all became clear. Someone leaned over to me and told me the speaker who had opened the meeting several nights before preached the same text and/or message. For some reason, this news made me nervous. At the same time, I was at...

It struck me one day in a Christian bookstore that most of the "church growth" books I picked up in that store were not books on vision but on image. They hadn't been published to help me see the world in a particular way but to help the world see me - were I a megachurch pastor - in a particular way. They were books that enticed the pastor of limited self-image to be like somebody else the world admired. What a cul-de-sac of emotional poverty this is. These books were published to serve the idolatries of megapastor wannabes. -...

Today concluded our 2013 Prayer Emphasis Week at Shiloh. It has been a rich week. We prayed for daily targets this week. There were daily prayer meetings at noon. And we had all-night prayer meeting Friday night. Thanks to staff and volunteers for the labor and sacrifice this week. You make it happen! Glad to have all of our guests in worship today. Shout-out to our music department. You did a great job today! I preached from Romans 10:1-4 about "Praying for the Lost." Sermon Point: The most important thing you can pray for someone is that he or she may...