Midweek Gathering: The Wednesday Night Place To Be

First Baptist Church is the place to be on Wednesday night. All through the summer we have had a devoted group assembling on Wednesday evening for our Midweek Gathering. As our student groups have been meeting off campus for Bible study and recreational activities, those of us meeting on campus have enjoyed a varied schedule of inspirational music, devotional messages, and mission reports.

Next Wednesday we resume our full program of multi-generational activities on Wednesday night. Our children’s choirs, AWANA groups, and student groups are meeting on campus. Our Midweek Gathering for adults begins each week in Chipley Hall after dinner at approximately 5:45.

During our Midweek Gathering we share in a season of prayer for our church and our extended family members. We enjoy inspirational music from a variety of groups and individuals. And I share a relevant devotional message aimed to equip and encourage us in our daily walk with Christ.

Wednesday night is also a great time to introduce new friends and neighbors to our First Baptist Family. The casual atmosphere, the good food, and the variety of activities provide a great opportunity for getting acquainted with new folks and building stronger relationships with other members of our church family.

Wednesday nights are my favorite time of the week and our Midweek Gathering is the Wednesday night place to be.

This Sunday we are looking at Psalm 98 and how our music in worship really is “More Than a Song.” I look forward to seeing you as we gather for worship and Bible study.

Getting Your Life in Gear

I learned how to drive in my grandfather’s 1966 Volkswagen Fastback….a straight shift. Learning to change gears while simultaneously pressing the clutch proved to be quite a challenge. However, once I mastered the art of driving a manual transmission, moving to an automatic was a piece of cake. Rather than shifting from first, to second, and then third, and grinding around looking for reverse, the options on the column of our 1976 Falcon were PNRDL: P for Park. N for Neutral. R for Reverse. D for Drive. And L for Low, a gear usually used for towing.

As we gear up for the coming season, it occurs to me that our lives can get stuck in the wrong gear. In our commitments to Christ, to our church, and to our responsibilities we can become lethargic, passive, inactive, and at times, even backslide into old habits, living as if we have not given our hearts and lives to Jesus.

If you are sitting still, seemingly not going anywhere, your life may be stuck in Park. If you are committed to preserving the status quo, content to let others carry the bulk of responsibility, and have no interest in growing, your life is probably in Park. If you have grown comfortable sitting behind the steering wheel but you never leave the driveway, perhaps you need to find a way to get your life out of Park and into a forward gear.

A life that is stuck in Park is not going anywhere, but a life stuck in Neutral can be even more detrimental. When you put a car, or a life, in neutral and let off the brake, the car is likely to roll one way or the other. Perhaps it will roll whichever way the wind is blowing. Or maybe it will move one direction or the other based on the tug of gravity, which is usually downhill. The danger of putting your life in neutral is that you live without conviction, you go the way of the crowd, and you always choose the path of least resistance. And those options are seldom the right way.

If you are continually going backward, or preoccupied with the past, your life might be stuck in Reverse. But it’s hard to go forward, while looking backward. Back in the 1990’s, the church I served in Alabama had a faithful custodian named Ralph. Ralph was a retired chemist who came to work at the church as a retirement project. Ralph was a loyal soul….good-hearted and highly punctual. Ralph and I both typically arrived at the church early, often driving into the parking lot simultaneously. One morning, as I pulled into my parking space, I heard a few horns honking at the nearby intersection. I looked up to investigate the commotion and was stunned to see Ralph’s 1972 Dodge Ram approaching the church….backward. Ralph was driving toward the church in a line of traffic tailgate first. He was advancing forward in reverse. As he pulled up beside me, he quickly explained that his transmission had locked up and reverse was the only gear that worked. He didn’t want to miss work so he drove all the way from home…looking backward over his shoulder.

To this day, Ralph is the only guy I know who has ever advanced forward by going backward. But having served as a minister in Baptist churches for over 30 years, I’ve seen a lot of others try to move forward by looking backward, and it just doesn’t work.

To gear up to move forward, you have to move out of Park, resist the temptation to settle for Neutral, and avoid Reverse, in order to put life into Drive.

Maybe that is why Paul wrote to the Philippians, Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (3:13-14 NIV).

God has a plan for us to advance forward in our walk with Christ, our fellowship with one another, and our participation in the work of the kingdom. One analyst put it this way: “There comes a moment when you have to stop revving up the car and shove it into gear.” Now is the time.

I look forward to seeing you this Sunday as we gather in our school colors for worship and Bible study.

What We Can Learn from St. Francis

As the Eurostar train from Rome approached the Santa Maria degli Angeli station I could see the old town of Assisi sitting on the slope of an Umbrian butte with prominent castles and cathedrals visible from miles away. We headed to our hotel immediately after disembarking, and along the way we saw friars and nuns walking so routinely that few seemed to notice their presence. There was definitely a spiritual aura here, affirmed by a sense of serenity and safety not present in the larger cities we visited.

St. Francis was certainly the most well-known among the saints honored here. When I was in college, I was introduced to the Prayer of St. Frances. Since that time I have read much about the life and ministry of St. Francis and I have quoted him in sermons and columns. Little did I know that this day would come when I would have the privilege of visiting his hometown.

Volumes have been written about the life of St. Francis, but three emphases from his ministry stand out as particularly relevant to the challenge facing the Christian church, especially Baptists, in the 21^st century.

St. Francis emphasized simplicity of lifestyle. In 1206, the young Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone, who would later be known as St. Francis, had a vision of Jesus Christ that transformed his life. A couple of years later he heard a sermon on Matthew 10:9-10, in which Christ tells his followers they should go forth and proclaim the kingdom of heaven, and “do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts. Take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals, or a staff, for the worker is worth his keep.” Francis took this literally and it inspired him to devote himself to a life of poverty and to begin preaching a message of repentance and hope. The message of Francis captured the hearts of young men from all over Italy who in turn wandered about preaching the Gospel to rich and poor alike. His message of non-materialism emphasized a love for God, a love of nature, and equality of humankind.

Desiring to share the good news with everyone, St. Francis ventured outside the walls of the church and took his message to the streets, preaching in the common language of the people, not in the traditional Latin of the church, so that all could understand. While some protested this new practice of St. Francis and the methods he employed, eventually the pope gave his blessing in 1223, and the Franciscan Order was included in the larger Catholic community.

In addition to the young men who sensed a calling to joyfully proclaim the gospel, there was also the young Clare who at age 18 was captivated by the message of St. Francis. On the evening of Palm Sunday in 1212, she departed her father’s mansion without his permission, and headed to the valley below. Once there, friars escorted her to St. Francis who cut her hair, gave her a simple brown tunic, and commissioned her to a life of poverty. She spent the next forty years in the convent of San Damiano and was gradually joined by other women who heard the call to serve God. They became known as the Order of the Poor Clares.

Much about St. Francis’ approach to ministry seems extraordinarily relevant for our time. First, to counter the materialistic impulses of our day, perhaps we need to re-emphasize the value of service, the beauty in nature, and the worth of each human being. Second, instead of waiting on people to “come to church,” perhaps we should also take the message to the streets, preaching through our lifestyles and language a message of hope that the common people can understand. And finally, we must find ways to affirm both the men and women that God calls to serve, recognizing that the spiritual passion and giftedness God places within a man or a woman supersedes the rules or traditions of the church or the culture.

In some ways, following the path of St. Frances in our time could be considered as radical as it was almost 800 years ago. But it may be a path worth following to revitalize the church and advance the Good News.

Ten Observations from My Travels

At the conclusion of the Go Ye Choir Tour, I met Amanda and stayed over in Italy for a few days of vacation. We visited places I never dreamed I would have the privilege of visiting…the Vatican, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the town of Assisi, the mountains in the Cinque Terre range, and the canals of Venice. Our trip became more like a spiritual pilgrimage as we toured renowned museums, visited historic cathedrals, and hiked the scenic mountains.

During our journey, I took a few notes, wrote a few articles, and reflected a little on what I was seeing. Of all my observations, here are the top ten:

10. Man cannot live on pasta alone.
9. Hospitality, smiles, and laughter transcend language barriers.
8. Ice cream is good, especially when you call it gelato. (I also learned that I could eat gelato every day of my trip and still not catch up with Pensacola’s reigning gelato king, Steve Baker.)
7. Euros seem to disappear faster than dollars.
6. Caffe’ and coffee are not nearly the same beverage.
5. Turning off your email and cell phone periodically is good for the soul.
4. A church that is more concerned about preserving the past than ministering in the present may become the next “tour stop.”
3. Churches become empty when Christians neglect faithfully assembling with others for worship, and begin to treat Sunday as a “holiday” to travel, recreate, and visit family and friends.
2. We can learn from our Catholic friends to say, “Father, forgive me, for I have sinned,” a little more often.
1. Be it ever so humble there’s no place like home.

It’s great to be home in Pensacola. Our August series, More Than a Song, continues this Sunday as we look at Isaiah 40:28-31 and hear an encouraging message built around the song title, “You Raise Me Up.” On Sunday evening at six o’clock, Ross Lankford will be sharing our second August Concert.

Don’t forget that our celebration of Baptism at the Beach is coming up on August 22. If you or a member of your family has recently made a commitment to Christ, contact me or one of our ministers so that we can help you prepare for baptism.

It’s great to be at home in Pensacola. I look forward to seeing you this Sunday as we gather for worship and Bible study.

(Read more about our trip at www.bayhillrev.blogspot.com)