FAMILY PICTURES

SIMPLY PICTURES

WHOSOEVER WILL CONTINUES

DID JESUS DIE ON THE CROSS FOR EVERY PERSON WHO HAS EVERY LIVED AND WILL BE BORN?

IN AN EARLIER POST I REMARKED ON THE JOHN 3:16 CONFERENCE THAT IS GOING TO BE HELD IN NOVEMBER OF THIS YEAR. AT THE TIME I DIDN'T NOW THE ABOVE S ADD WAS IN THE LIBERY UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE JUNE 2008

SEVEN DISTINGUISHED MEN A Biblical and Theological Assessment of and Response to 5- Point Calvinism

Total Depravity - Paigne Patterson

Unconditional Election - Richard Land

Limited Atonement - Dave Allen

Irrisistible Grace - Steve Lenke

Perseverance of the Saints - Ken Keathley

John 3:16 To the Entire World - Charles Stanley
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I LIKE TO BE FAIR AND BALANCE - I LIKE TO HEAR AND READ FROM THE OTHER SIDE.

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I was raised up with this viewpoint, and I wasn't damaged for life.

I was raised up a Independent, Fundamental, Evangelist, Scofield Bible, KJV, Charts of Revleation, J.Frank Norris/George Norris Pre Theological Viewpoint.

And I am still standing, with little damage.

And Jerry Falwell and Jack Hyles

had a little influnce in my life

and I had little damage done.

.

Lester Roloff and John R. Rice, and Ironside, Spurgeon, and DeHaan

SO YOU MIGHT ASKED

WHY DID I CHANGE MY VIEW POINT ON SALVATION

WHY AM I A FIVE POINTER!

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THY SHALT KEEP THESE COMMANDMENTS

ORANGE AVE BAPTIST CHURCH, ROANOKE VIRGINIA 1951 ?

Song Leader Johnnie Jones, well known song leader

Everette Whisnant Pastor

THIS WAS ROANOKE BAPTIST TEMPLE, IN ROANOKE VIRGINIA IN 1966

Everette Whisnant Pastor, Pauline Whisnant, Music

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF GOING TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY

I finished this post following the service today in church!



The time now is 7:00 p.m. and I am reflecting on today at church.

WHAT WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE OF ATTENDING CHURCH TODAY?

Today Charity and I attended a local church in the area. We walked into the auditorium, looked around, found a seat, sat down, and waited for the service to begin. We are visitors. There were a few folks who knew us, and made eye contact and smiled. And we exited the building as we walked in. A few smiles and a few handshakes, and a church bulletin in our Bible. And in the few months that we have attended, the experience has been the same.

1. What was the experience like attending this local church?
   
2. What kind of experience were we expecting when we attend a local church?
   
3. When we leave the service, and we are walking out of the auditorium, how do we expect to think, and believe about what we just have experienced?


4. Was our spirit satisfied?


5. Was our soul lifted up in the love of Christ as Saviour?


6. Was our knowledge of Christ in His Word increased by the preaching of the Word?


7. Was our love for Christ magnified by the worship in song and teaching of the Word?


8. Was the fellowship with other believers enjoyable and loving and filled our hearts with joy?


9. It is now eight hours since we left the church service, is there any effect left for our experience of the service?


10. Do we look forward to returning next week?
    

Now, I have not answered those questions in this article and that is on purpose. I have learned, that Charity and I have two kinds of experiences. I can write this article, and as she is reading it or I am reading to her, she will view what I am saying different than what I was thinking. I have learned, we don't think alike or experience the same experience. Why is that I wonder?

Each person who attends church will experience something different.

We are attending a different church, the experience is always different, when you are not a member of that church.

HOW WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE IN CHURCH TODAY?

BLOGGERS

WHO IS THIS LITTLE KID? THERE ARE TWO DOLLS IN THIS PHOTO OF A FEW YEARS BACK

DO I QUARANTINE OR DELETE MY PRE-WRITTEN ARTICLES

(This post was written after the post following this post: I posted that article after Charity proof read the article.) The article was on quaratine for twelve hours.

Having spent the last nearly four hours in putting down my thoughts today, I have decided to put them in quarantine until after Charity gets home and she can proof read this article. She does offer her opinions about the content, but she doesn't change the article. She corrects the grammar and spelling and sometimes the clarity of the sentences. That is a task.

Oh, the photo? Guess who that little kid is? There are two dolls in the photo!

It's hard to wait to post, but it's smart.

Charles

SHOULD I QUARANTINE AND DELETE IS THE QUESTION

WHICH PART OF THE BRAIN WILL CONTROL MY MIND TODAY:

WHICH SIDE OF THE BRAIN HAVE I DEVELOPED IN BLOGGING?

WHICH SIDE OF MY BRAIN IS IN CONTROL TODAY IS THE QUESTION

JUST WHAT DO I DO WITH INFORMATION I FIND WHILE I DECIDE WHETHER I SHOULD BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG, THAT IS THE QUESTION?

There are many mornings before I get up, my mind is running as to where I want to go when I get up. Sometimes it's the spiritual side, other times it's the human side. "Lord, please control me today." I will click the button on the Gateway and return to start the morning on Microsoft Word Processor, or Firefox Google Reader, or check the Inbox e mails.

Like this morning, Charity had an early day at the bakery and I find myself at the computer. Where do I go and what do I put on GROW BY LEARNING/BLOG today?

With DSL, Verzion, the highest connection speed, I have little time to think sometimes. The old days with dial-up I had a lot of time to think. TO CLICK IS FAST.

I have discovered with Windows 2007 XP, programs that I had up on screen are saved even when I cut off the AOL, or Firefox. I have turned the computer on and there was music playing.

Well, last night I was reading Kent Brandenburg. blog, he is a pastor, Bob Jones grad, and a fundamentalist bar none other. One of his articles is on "Separation." This has been interesting, to the point I have been putting down some thoughts on this subject. (To quarantine or delete)

This morning Kent had an article on "Multi-Cultural Gobblygook from Young "Fundamentalist". Now there was a subject of interest. Here is one comment he made.

• "I can see other doey-eyed young fundamentalists whose brains have been softened by the modern media picture of race relations."
  

To quarantine or delete is the question.

Then another Kent like background pastor Don Johnson made this statement about John Piper:.3

• "Consider those who much admire John Piper. I have listened to one Piper sermon in its entirety. If that is a sample, his content, style and mannerisms (as far as I could discern from audio only) leave me cold. But that is just me. I am not so much concerned with style as philosophy."

To quarantine or delete is the question.

Then last night (too late to quarantine) the idea of "WHOSOEVER WILL" occurred in my brain. And I addressed this issue. A talk with a young lady triggered this article.

EARLIER THIS MORNING I AM THINKING, DO I KNOW EVEN HOW TO THINK CORRECTLY? Do we know how to take the Scripture and understand the principles that they are teaching us?

For example:

• Separation: A fundamentalist like Don Johnson, or Kent Brandenburg will view separation differently from Mark Dever, John MacArthur, Jr. or John Piper, or Charles Whisnant. Of course there are branches of fundamentalist, too.


• Whosoever will: An independent Baptist will view this term differently from an evangelical. and BOTH WILL AGREE THEY ARE BIBLICALLY CORRECT.

And somehow, all this lead to a research on CRITICAL THINKING. While reading the comments on Kent and Don's sites, with Jason I am thinking, how do I engage in a serious thought with these men on these issues?

SO HOW DO YOU ENGAGE IN THIS KIND OF CRITICAL BIBLICAL THINKING ABOUT ISSUES THAT WE ALL HAVE IN MINISTRY?

A BRIEF OUTLINE TO GUIDE IN ONE'S THINKING PROCESS:

POINT OF VIEW

• Frame of reference
• Perspective
• Orientation

PURPOSE

• Goal
• Objective

QUESTION AT ISSUE

• Problem
• Issue

INFORMATION

• data
• facts
• observations
• experiences
  

INTERPRETATION AND INFERENCE

• Conclusions
• Solutions
  

CONCEPTS

• theories
• definitions
• axioms
• laws
• principles
• models
  

ASSUMPTIONS

• presupposition
• taking for granted
  

IMPLICATIONS AND CONSEQUENCES

• Conclusion
  

AND I THOUGHT YOU ONLY NEEDED THE KING JAMES 1611 BIBLE TO SOLVE ANY ISSUE. LET THE KJV 1611 BE YOUR GUIDE. ( sorry, tongue in cheek)

Without question the Word of God is our guide in all matters that pertain to life and godliness. It's how you arrive at your THINKING that will guide you. How else do fundamentalists and evangelicals and reformed and Baptist, and the Bob Jones, Jack Hyles, J.F. Norris camps arrive at different opinions?

• Separation: What is our guide in this matter, who we have fellowship with?
• Whosoever will
• Translations of the Bible
• Elders and Deacons
• Multiculturalism
• And a multitude of other issues that are issues.

So do I Quarantine or Delete this article?

Oh my!

This article was written and put on hold, and then I posted the photo of Charity in the last post.

Proof read by Charity 7:30 p.m.

WHY I BELIEVE GOD SAVES

THE JOHN 3 16 CONFERENCES In 1954 in my father's church in Roanoke Virginia, I heard the message on John 3:16 "Whosoever believe in Him shall be saved." And I do believe that day the Lord saved my sinful seven year old soul.

I have heard, read, preached, taught on John 3 :16 a number of times. "WHOSOEVER" has been the point of many sermons I have heard many times. And the point that is pointed out is that any person who desires to be saved can be saved. Just call on Jesus to save him and Jesus will respond and save that person who by his faith desires to turn to Jesus. As a matter of fact I have even said that in those early years of ministry.

I remember the first time I heard "Whosoever" was not for everyone. That would be Dr. George L. Norris in Seminary in 1966. That was a shocker. Not every one will be saved. I almost quit Seminary over that idea. Theology was the topic of Seminary. Dr. Norris taught from the theological perspective. He taught from the God perspective. How does God see salvation, how did God plan for the salvation of mankind. Now that was an idea that I had not heard.

Most preaching is always from man perspective. Most fundamental, Norris fundamentalist, taught from man side of salvation. "Whosoever". Preachers taught that all man should be saved, and that any man can come to Christ, if by their faith they trust in Christ. Salvation, being born again, being saved was started by man, by his faith, and God responded to that faith.

I have heard most of my life, "Jesus died on the cross for all men, and all men can if they will be saved." "The blood of Jesus Christ, can save all man of all times."

I heard that man is not really so dead spiritually as Ephesians 2:1 says, "dead in trespasses and sins" that he by his own faith can say he wants to be saved. "Even when we were dead in sins," as verse 5 tells us, we were alive enough to have enough faith to be saved.

Now I could not really figure out, why so many people would come to the altar in our churches and say they wanted to be saved, and then they would never come back to church.

I can remember Ephesians 2:8, preachers would say, "For by grace are ye saved, through faith." but I didn't hear a lot about the next phrase, "And that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." What did that mean. Did it mean that been saved, is a gift of God. I did hear that. Its a gift! Salvation is a Gift. Not of works, but a gift from God. Our salvation is a gift from God. Usually you do not ask for a gift. So do you ask for a gift from God? Do you have to ask God for His gift?

In Dr. Norris Seminary Class, he said, "Salvation is a gift of God, given to those whom He will." WHAT! I remember every time Dr Norris would walk or speak in chapel, they would sing, "Whosoever will". Because they believe he didn't believe whosoever will could believe.

After Seminary, I went to another Norris fundamentalist church, and heard the same whosoever will, Jesus died on the cross for everyone, and whoso ever wants to be saved, and call upon Christ, by their faith can be saved. And a number of people did just that, and they were short lived in their will to follow Christ.

Then another few churches and then to Hyles Anderson College, and FBC of Hammond and I got a real good taste of the whoso ever will preaching. The whosoever folks were coming in by thousands. By 1980 FBC had over 80,000 members, those who had been baptized. But for some reason FBC was only having around 17,000 of those people coming to the church. (The numbers are correct) The whosoever was never in church.

I don't know if I had really taking a biblical study of that word "whosoever." The John 3:16 conferences will have seven different seminary professors who will look, respectively, into the Hebrew meaning of whosoever, the Greek meaning of whosoever, the Latin meaning of whosoever, the King James meaning of whosoever, the historical meaning of whosoever, the contemporary meaning of whosoever, and, most importantly, what John Wesley taught about the meaning of whosoever. (I would like to get their notes in November 2008)

These John 3 :16 conferences will be sponsored by the following:

• Jerry Vines Ministries, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, Luther Rice Seminary and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

All those Theological Seminaries are very good. WHOSOEVER WILL CAN BE SAVED.

So what does it mean "WHOSOEVER WILL?" That is the question isn't it.


Let's look at this word "whosoever." Next time.

50 YEARS AGO NORTHSIDE BAPTIST CHURCH

JUNE 1958

Everette Whisnant, Billy Martin, Don Whisnant

Northside Baptist Church

Roanoke Virginia

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BLUES BROTHERS

THE REAL BLUES BROTHERS AND DAD

I am having way too much fun

SERMON NOTES

The top shelf: THE SERIES OF MATTHEW

Romans, Acts, 1 Corinthians

Ephesians, and Philippians,Revelation

General Messages 1980-87

Sermon Notes from Matthew 5-6
SERMON NOTES

I do have several sermons from my father. Some are hand written and some are typed. Dad must have written these in the 1940's. I could hardly read them, but I am glad I have them.

I have my notes from Roanoke Baptist Temple in 1963-1966 on Psalms, Revelation, and Galatians. They were printed by hand. All my notes were hand printed on paper, or what ever I could get my hands on to write on.

Then in 1983 I went to the Shepherd Conferences and as I was sitting next to John MacArthur at Grace, I actually took his Bible from him, and I viewed his sermon notes he was going to use that night in the conference. That was amazing. Hand written notes. And a rather large manuscript at that.

So I thought, "I can do that." I came back and I took regular typing paper, five sheets and folded them in half, that made a possibility of 20 half sheets of notes. Then I placed a cover sheet over on top with the name of message, scriptures, date and sermon number. Then I numbered the half sheets, and by the time I had finished Matthew, the number was 40.256(because Matthew is the 40th book and there were 256 sermons) and 3400 pages.

I wrote out the sermon as I would want to deliver the message. I had taken short hand in high school, and believed that was dumb at the time. How dumb I was. I did use some short hand.

I also started printing rather than writing. I discovered that I could read the notes better if I could clearly see the words. (smart thinking). Secondly I had to spell the words right. Now I am not a very good speller, but I know when a word is correctly spelled. I would get up to preach and notice a word was misspelled and was confused. So I had to made sure the word was correct. I had to call Charity a lot in those days.

Those first years while teaching Matthew, I was learning this method of preaching verse by verse with John MacArthur's video series on "EXPOSITORY PREACHING " 1984 seven volumes.

• (I still have the series) I also was gleaning from John's preaching on Matthew as well. Note photo I scanned)

Matthew was the first series I preached in depth, verse by verse, every verse in every chapter, and sometimes the periods and commas. While every message was from the KJV I would study from as many resources as I had at the time.

As I was learning, and following the series of Matthew, I began to use more technical books. Who needed Colin Brown three volumes "Dictionary of NT Theology." Or Georgey Bromiley "Theological Dictionary of the NT." or Merrill C. Tenney's seven volumes"Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible." Wasn't the KJV's Dickson Study Bible enough?

• Some were saying it's not fundamental and spirit led if you study from those resources. I used Oliver B. Greene, and John R. Rice, and Harry Ironside and others. They were rather good resources for study, and my Seminary notes were good too.
  

Then I moved into Acts, Romans, I Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, I Timothy, and I Peter, and Revelation, over the next twelve years, and had a few good resources to study from. Then I tried to footnote most of the references I used at the bottom of the page.

This article was to be about sermons notes. I did read the book, "How To Preach Without Notes." I didn't read it very well, I might say.

While it is true I always read the scripture from the 1750's KJV, that doesn't mean I didn't study from other translations and the Greek (as much as I knew). I have addressed this issue in previous articles so I won't go into that again.

Every message that is pictured above was hand printed, word by word. The picture was taken last week in my home. Charity was nice to let me use the book case to showcase my sermons.

What I discovered, I usually was not able to finish one manuscript in one sermon. Usually two messages were required to finish. I believed while I was preaching I would finish what I had written. What was good, as you teach verse by verse, you could stop just about any place and pick up next week. That was good too.

FOOTNOTE: I used the Pilate white fine print pen to print the sermon.

I would study from a lot of resources during the week, listen to John preach, study notes, then put the message down, and then when I delivered the message on Sunday, I had a lot of notes in my mind that I wished I had put down on paper as well. I said a lot of material that was not in my notes. But that was not the intent. I always allowed as it were, the Holy Spirit to direct my thoughts as I delivered the message.

• Drafted from my experience 1980-1996. First Baptist Church, Altoona, Kansas. Proof read by Charity Whisnant Photos taking June 25, 2008 Photo on right: Pastor/Teacher Charles E. Whisnant, Pastor's office. I like that study office.

SPORTS COLLECTOR

TOP NINE SPORTS FILEDS

Now while I love to preach and teach and have for forty years, and while I could never give my total attention to playing sports, I have always loved sports.

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Sports have never taken the place of ministry, but as a youth director or pastor they have been a part of ministry with youth.

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I have previously told the story about my collection and how that started (check here). Sports has being a connection with my kids and friends and people whom I didn't know.

'

This new Lexmark x3540 scanner has really been great. The cards above are just a dot in my collection.

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Some preachers play golf, some preachers race cars, really. Some preachers play basketball. You can play golf at 80 years old. Maybe I should have taken up golf. I will address that issue later, Eric.

.

Thanks again kids for the scanner/printer/copier/fax.

.

Dad

OBJECTIVES OF YOUTH MINISTRY

Bus Driver, Eloise Clay, Julia Moore, (sister before her), Elaine Clay, don't know, Jean Cundiff, Barbara Eaton, Jeannie Wilkins Woods, Becky Pickeral, Don Whisnant, don't know little girl

Front Row: Melvin Gray, Denny Campbell, Robert Shaver, don't know, Algie Myers, Henry Clay

Glen Furgeson in bus window. I must have taken this picture, who knows, where am I?

From left, Robert Shaver, Charles Whisnant, Donald Whisnant, Sandra Hulsey, Barbara Jean Campbell, Bus Driver, Melvin Gray. Great trip as I recall. (Thanks to Don for remember these names.)

REVIEWING BACK FROM TODAY’S PERSPECTIVE

Only as I look back can I get some perspective as to what I was doing, even when I didn’t really realize it. I believed teaching the youth and myself the Word of God, learning and teaching what God said in scripture, would there be genuine change. TOPICAL PREACHING IS NOT AS GOOD AS EXPOSITIONAL TEACHING. In my opinion, making people feel emotionally guilty about their life is not necessarily the best method of getting people to love the Lord. (Another article I see needs to be addressed)

If I remember, even in those early days, I was always with other teens. From my early preteen days we were always playing with a group of kids. Playing softball was our life. In our side yard, be it on Indiana Avenue or 21st street, or down the road, we were nearly everyday in the summer playing softball with a group of kids. That is what I remember most about my childhood-- playing softball during the summer.

Going to church camp was another activity that was a must. Every summer a group of youth would go to camp in North Carolina. Youth camp was a must for a lot of years even when I was a Pastor.

Any activity that we would have would be for the purpose of encouraging Christian living. And in almost any activity we would always teach the Bible. Whether there were two or fifty we would have fun, but in the end we wanted to teach the Bible.

My mindset was set on learning and teaching and showing and living a life that was pleasing unto the Lord. I had no clue about theology until I went to Seminary. I really had little clue about Bible doctrine, but I did read a lot and listen a lot to those who did. I must have absorbed some of that listening and reading. I wanted to be a Pro preacher/teacher. Like a Pro teaching golf.

I was totally focused on making my life’s work preaching and teaching and working in the church. I remember I couldn’t really focus on playing sports, because I knew I would be preaching some day. I couldn’t, I must admit, focus on dating my girlfriend of three years. She always wanted to be alone on a date, and I was usually with a group of kids from the church. When we would go to preach somewhere, it was usually Don and Algie and me. (I was not skilled in the area of taking my girl friend, was I dumb or what.) DUMB, FIRST CLASS. But I was totally honest in my dumbness.

Those early days we spent most of our time, when not in school, with kids in some kind of activity. We did play a lot of softball and football. We had a lot of Bible studies in our home. We had a lot of activities at the church. We had Sunday Morning teaching, Sunday afternoon we had a radio program and then on Sunday Evening a youth program and then church, and then after church another activity. Nearly every day was filled with some kind of activity that gave opportunity to teach. That was fun.

So naturally when we went to Seminary, I was expecting to have some of the same kind of ministry that I had at Roanoke Baptist Temple.

I BELIEVED BIBLE BAPTIST SEMINARY WAS THE BEST PLACE TO BECOME A PROFESSIONAL BIBLE TEACHER AND PREACHER in 1966. They didn't have a class on preaching, pastoring or being a youth pastor.

While my focus at BBS was on learning the Bible, which there were good teaching, it was another story as to how to apply those principles in a local chuch setting.

Next time.

UPDATE FEATURES 08

UPDATE FEATURES 08

1. Kodak 7.0 M753 Digital Camera (my kids)
2. Hanns-G 19" Monitor (Tim and Sherri Wheeler)
3. E Machines (gateway) 2007 XP Home Windows (US Government)
4. Lexmark 3500 Printer/Sanner/Fax/Copier (my kids)
5. Verizon DLS High Speed,
6. AOL 9.1, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer
7. Kodak Easy Share, Lexmark Imaging Studio
8. Microsoft Works Word and Office 2007
9. I Tunes
10. Adobe Reader 8
11. Google Reader
12. Blogger: Grow By Learning.
13. Homestead: Grow By Learning. com
14. Lamp (myself)
15. Works Word Processor
16. Coffee Cup (myself)
17. Picture of Charity (I took with Digital) Wife, proof reader, keeps an eye on me daily as I am on the Internet
18. Hebrew Greek Key Study Bible Zodhiates 92 / Dickson Bible 73
19. AOL E MAIL Inbox
20. Verizon Cell phone
21. Window Media Player
22. Quick Time

(Background behind my desk: Sport collection, books)

ALL THIS TO BETTER SERVE

OBJECTIVES OF YOUTH MINISTRY

What is the objective of the ministry? When I was a Youth Pastor or Pastor, just what was the objective? part one \

Roanoke Baptist Temple 1963-1966

Youth Pastor Charles E. Whisnant

At first, I just did what I naturally wanted to do. I really didn’t have any professional training in ministry as a teen. I never read a book on

1. “HOW TO BECOME A TEACHING PRO-YOUTH PASTOR.,”
2. “WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BECOME A YOUTH PASTOR AT A LOCAL CHURCH?”
3. “LEARN TO TEACH THE BIBLE…THE PROFESSION OF A LIFETIME.”
4. “LEADER IN THE FIELD OF BIBLE INSTRUCTION.”

What does it take to become a golf teaching pro at a country club?

What does it take to become a pro youth pastor?

IN 1964 THERE WERE NO GOOGLING SEARCH ENGINES

From those days when I first became interested in church ministry, I loved working with people. Well, maybe not loving people so much, but having the desire to see youth grow in their love for Jesus Christ. I would say I wanted to teach them the Bible. I wanted to teach the Word of God in a way that would bring about their salvation and their love for the Lord, and their service for Him in the ministry. In teaching them the Word, and by their learning the principles set forth by Scripture, they would have a life that would be well pleasing unto the Lord. I believed the success in life, the success of living our life, was bound up in learning and applying the principles of the Word of God.

In those early years, I am referring to the ministry of Roanoke Baptist Temple, even as a teenager, I wanted to teach the Scripture. I wanted to learn myself, and I wanted to teach the Word to the teens. In my youth, Dad would take the family almost every month to a Fellowship Meeting to hear preachers preach. In our home, having preachers in our home was normal. Getting up in the morning, Dad would have the radio on Back To The Bible and Theodore Epps, or Oliver Greene, and Lester Roloff and others. How could you hear all them and not learn and want to learn what Christ had to say. There was a balance of teaching and preaching and encouragement to learn the Word.

I couldn’t write enough. I wrote down as much as I could about what I was learning and what I wanted to say. I was always writing down what I wanted to accomplish. I always wrote down the group of teens that I was working with. A practice I have done and continue to do to this day. MINISTRY IS PEOPLE. I always wanted to learn how to do ministry. What was the best way to teach, the best way to communicate truth and how to help people know the Lord and want to serve the Lord. I was always trying to figure out what was the best way of accomplishing my objectives.

I wanted people in our neighborhood to know Christ. I wanted those who came to our church and youth department to know Christ. I wanted them to understand what was meant to be a Christian and love Christ.

One of the ways to accomplish my objectives was to learn first myself. Secondly, I wanted to show others that I was a person who loved Christ. The best way of doing that, I believed, was to be with them. Youth trips, teaching at home, youth camp, retreats.

This has been a practice throughout the ministry. Our lives were to be a part of any one who would be with us. I always was trying to find ways to be with others so that I could teach them.

EVERY DAY HIS MERCIES ARE THERE FOR US

WHEN IS EXITING A CHURCH OKAY

WHEN SHOULD SOMEONE EXIT FROM THE CHURCH WHERE HE IS A MEMBER?

• "This is not to suggest that these are the only circumstances under which people are permitted to leave a church. There is certainly nothing wrong with moving one’s membership just because another church offers better teaching or more opportunities for growth and service. But those who transfer their membership for such reasons ought to take extreme care not to sow discord or division in the church they are leaving. And such moves ought to be made sparingly. Membership in a church is a commitment that ought to be taken seriously. John MacArthur, JR."
  

I am speaking from the viewpoint of a minister/pastor/christian worker for over forty years.

I never wanted to leave my first church where I was a member. My dad's church. But he died in 1966, and the church was in such disarray that our family had little choice in the matter of leaving the church. (I really don't remember the details) We joined another church in town for about three months. My mother was offered a church position as the pastor's secretary in Danville, Virginia. Our family moved to Danville. I moved to Arlington, Texas to Seminary.

Upon arriving in Seminary, I wanted to find a church where I could pick up doing what I had being doing for twenty-seven months, being a Youth Pastor. Yet the churches I attended were not in favor of that. Thus I left the church to search for a place of service. Churches that I joined were churches that would allow me to serve in the church, not just come and sit.

The problem with us who are preachers is that we are not usually welcome in other churches. And often when we are invited to come and serve in the church, it doesn't take long, in my case for the people to really like me, and the pastor doesn't like that, and he will ask me to leave.

Generally there are problems that occur in churches that leave us with no choice but to leave. Generally I have really never wanted to leave a church in which I was serving as Pastor, or Youth Pastor, or having a position in the Church. Various problems will occur and you find yourself on the outside, and you have no choice but to leave. That has never been my first choice.

There have been several times, in which I felt there were better choices to serve than in the church I was serving. Those choices at the time seemed good, but was not necessarily the best choice to make.

Pastors, Associate Pastors, and Youth Pastors are often asked to leave the position. You thus have no choice but to leave. A few years ago I was removed from my position and asked to leave the church. The people didn't like that, and I stayed for a few weeks; but the Pastor made it clear he wanted me to leave.

Finally, I have been in a church for almost four years, and have desired to serve the church, within my spiritual giftedness, and for four years that has not been possible. While I was led to believe, if the Lord's will, I would be able serve in some area of ministry. When I confronted the pastoral leadership about this, they created a position, in which they said it most likely will fail and by the end of the year, I was removed from the position. THE TIME TO EXIT HAS COME.

Of course the people didn't fully understand, as generally is the case, and the pastoral leadership so shapes the events, that it always looks like it's in the best interest of the church that the position is removed. In this case I was not asked to leave the church, but was informed that my service in the area of preaching and teaching was not going to be needed.

IT WAS TIME TO EXIT.

Few pastors are really looking for another pastor/teacher to come to their church and serve in any way that would include preaching or teaching. Especially those who have experience, have pastored before and are seasoned in their position. Pastors are usually looking for someone who they can control and train in their likeness.

One church I was in this month, the pastor said, "For those who want to preach in this pulpit, we are starting a class for them, so they will know how we want them to preach for us."

THE TIME TO EXIT A CHURCH sometimes is not by your personal choice, but the choice is made by the leadership of the church.

IS A 29 MINUTE SERMON SCRIPTUAL?

Why Speak 45 Minutes When You Could Speak 30 Minutes?
AND I WOULD SAY, WHY SPEAK 3O MINUTES WHEN YOU SHOULD SPEAK 55 MINUTES, WHEN YOU TEACH EXPOSITORIALY.

Part three

“CRAFTING SERMONS AND PRESENTATION THAT WILL BE ACCEPTABLE TO THE GENERAL AUDIENCE OF YOUR CHURCH” sounds like what many pastors are trying to accomplish.

I will quote Dan Philipps on the kind of sermon we should preach:

• “Figure out what God wants you to do, listen for the voice of God — and do the opposite!

• Preach angry! Preach short, graceless, dessicated little dehydrated sermons!

• Preach a hard message that nobody wants to hear!


• And make it harder!


• Don't pray for conversions!


• In fact, pray against conversions! You'll experience unparalleled success and explosive growth!" (Who preached this kind of message and be successful?)
  

A best-selling book project: Let us called it: Your Best Preaching Now!

The modern idea

1 Don’t use phrases that sound theological or biblical. I read a list of words and phrases that preachers shouldn’t us in preaching or use in the church bulletin. Like Justification, Election, Sovereign.
2 Speak in your normal voice pattern. This point really is a good point. Ron Parsley is not in this camp. Nor is John Hagee. Paula White is not an example. Maybe Ed Young, Jr. is a good example

3 When speaking, don’t stand behind the podium. Get rid of the pulpit. John MacArthur style doesn’t work well?

4 Tiees and Suits are taboo, try the casual look. Take off the robe. Robert Scheller did. But James D. Kennedy kept his own. Rick Warren is good dressing looking casual.

5 Smile a lot. That works every time. Joel Osteen is a master of this.

6 Use as little, as possible, Scripture, especially the King James.

7 Don’t be sarcastic. Charles Whisnant is good at sarcasm Quit it.

8 Use a little humor, a few cuss words might be in order. Brian McClarin as an example.

9 Keep the sermon to 29 minutes in length.

WELL CHARLES, HOW DO WE PREACH THE RIGHT SERMON?

WHERE YOUR MONEY GOES WHEN YOU BUY GAS

DUBAI, United Arab, Saudi Arabia

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WHERE YOU MONEY GOES WHEN YOU BUY GAS

Speedway/Shell/Texaco/Amoco

Every time you fill up the car, you can avoid putting more moneyinto the coffers of Saudi Arabia . Just buy from gas companies that don't import their oil from the Saudis.

BP/ARCO/Sinclair/Sunoco

FLOWERS AND LINK

THIS IS FOR YOU, FRIENDS

PREACHING AND TEACHING

PREACHING/TEACHING/PASTOR: FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, ALTOONA, KANSAS 1980 - 1996

CHARITY WHISNANT, AND ERIC AND BECKY AND CHAD IN 1980

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I have already written several posts about our ministry in Altoona, Kansas. I was thirty two and Charity was 31 when we came. Eric was nine and Becky was four. Chad was born in July of our first year, and Kyle was born in December 1984. I still remember that first Sunday we came to preach. I can remember meeting with the men about the possibility of us coming to pastor the church. I did my best to get out of coming, but they answered all my question with a "yes." And Charity was praying that I would say no, and the church would say no. The church wished they had said no after the first month! But as the Lord would have it, He said "yes" and we came and stayed for sixteen years.

Charity and I loved the ministry and the people. Eric and Becky and Chad and Kyle loved the ministry and the kids. Today we still love the folks who were in the church when we were there. It's really great that we can still have long distance fellowship with them today.

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• Footnote: I love this new scanner that the kids bought me for Father's Day, making the photos possible. Thank you for this great gift! I love you all and appreciate your thoughtfulness and generosity.)
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  Photo: Charles, preaching in 1982 I think. But we had remodeled the building. That in itself is a good story to tell. We also moved from the house into our remodeled house in Dec 1984. That also is a great story. Right Kurt Nunnenkamp?
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From Topical Preaching to Expository Teaching

I also have addressed this issue as well. We began in 1983 to teach the book of Matthew on Sunday Morning and Romans on Sunday Evening. And four hundred sermons later we finished both books. HOW LONG SHOULD ONE PREACH OR TEACH? I am addressing this issue presently. If I had taught 29 minutes, the church might have been full and overflowing. But fifty five minutes of teaching from one verse or two, took a lot of discipline on the part of the folks. I still have those sermon manuscripts on Matthew and Romans. And we also have those old tapes. Goodness. I am going to scan those too. Boy, you might be questioning the gift the kids gave me before long.

HOW MANY BOOKS ARE TOO MANY

In a previous post I asked: How Many Books are Too Many?

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The second photo was taken in 1969 after Charity and I were married. We lived in Fort Worth Texas. Our living space was in our two little rooms, inside a house where we lived. But I needed space for a book case for all my books. We had more books than clothes. When we moved from Fort Worth to Wooster, Ohio, in March of 1970, we had our clothes, kitchen necessities and thirty-two boxes of books!

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The first and second photos were taken in 1990's when I was Pastor/Teacher of First Baptist Church in Altoona, Kansas. Kurt Nunnenkamp built these extra nice book shelves, built to fit the room in my church office. These books were my technical books used to study. Plus, I had a room where I had my other books, used as the Church Library.

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Reading books has been a part of my schedule since I was a young person. I loved reading in middle school, I read history books, and books about people mostly.

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In Seminary, Dr. Luther Peak took us to his Church Library and gave us information how to catalog books and papers in our library. I had cataloged my books by numbering them one to 150. Dr. Peak said start with the books you have now.

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Over the years, the number of books for my studies increased.

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When I moved to Altoona, Kansas, I started my own system of filing my books. I was able to catalog each book on a library card with a specific number. It was my own "Dewey Decimal System". That was great since I had several thousand books I also filed papers and articles so as to find them when needed.

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FILING ALL MATERIAL IN A SYSTEM WAS NECESSARY:

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All my sermons had a numbering system, (I used the John MacArthur's system in cataloging sermons) all my religious papers had a numbering system, and all my books had a numbering systems, all my church papers and folders had a numbering system. I catalog all three ring binders.

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I read that Charles Spurgeon read books, and his desk was filled with books while he studied. I picked up on Spurgeon's practice.

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You couldn't have too many books in those days.

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TODAY IS A LITTLE DIFFERENT I AM AFRAID

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When I moved to Lexington, Kentucky, I had little room to put my books. (I left most of my books and many of the papers in Altoona, Kansas). Finally moving to Portsmouth, I had less room and most of the books are stacked in boxes. But I do manage to keep some books in book cases. When you don't have a nice church office to keep all your study material, you are in disarray.

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This has gone down the history road. My Dad had a Christian book store, and he had a few books himself. I wished I had been old enough to have kept those books.

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So how many books are too many? Good question.

Charles and Donald Whisnant

CHARLES AND DONALD WHISNANT
IN 1951 WOULD YOU BELIEVE

IS A 29 MINUTE SERMON SCRIPTURAL

IS A 29 MINUTE SERMON SCRIPTURAL PART 2

When I was pastor/teacher of First Baptist Church in Altoona, Kansas I usually would start the message with something like this:

1. We have been for many months studying Paul's marvelous epistle to Ephesians, or I could say Philippians, or Romans, and I Corinthians. And we return to that epistle and chapter ? for our study this morning.


2. We systematically go through the Word of God emphasizing these New Testament books because

• every word is pure,


• every word proceeds from the very heart of God,


• every word of Scripture is indeed to us a treasure


• as well as a responsibility for our edification and our obedience.

And Eric, my son said, "but Dad you teaching even the . and , and : and ;. Funny Eric.

My comment was, if every word is pure, and comes from the very heart of God, why shouldn't we teach on every word in the New Testament? So I really tried to do that.

Part two today: WHY SPEAK 45 MINUTES WHEN YOU COULD SPEAK 30 MINTUES? AND I WOULD ARGUE "WHY SPEAK 30 MINUTES WHEN YOU SHOULD SPEAK 55 MINUTES, IF YOU ARE GOING TO SPEAK EXPOSITORIAL?

Ephesians 1:1

1. "Paul" (several sermons) "


2. "an apostle of Jesus Christ" (several messages)


3. "to the saints which are at Ephesius"


4. "and to the faithful in Christ Jesus."

WHAT IS THE QUESTION THAT PREACHERS AND CHURCH LEADERS NEED TO ADDRESS IN THIS MATTER OF WORSHIP AND PREACHING?

Are we given a clear mandate in Scripture as to how we are to Worship and Preach and Teach? What was Paul’s motive, what was Christ’s objective in his teaching, what was Peter and the apostles’ motivational mindset in doing the ministry that was given to them by the Lord Jesus Christ?

The only time Paul preached less than 29 minutes was when he was stoned, or thrown in jail by the crowd. Stephen’s sermon was cut short by his stoning.

Crafting a sermon? For what purpose do we speak?

“You’ve got to be a REALLY great communicator to keep attention for an hour. “ Todd said. Of course! Charles Tremendous Jones was a great communicator and could speak and keep my attention for an hour easily.

I am glad we are not living in Europe or Central America. Those leaders will speak for hours at a time. They have little concern with the attitude of those to whom they are speaking.

I have gone to Preachers’ Fellowships, and Paul Henderson would speak for 17 minutes, and get applause. Jack Hyles could speak for an hour and ten minutes and get applause. I am sure John Piper or John MacArthur could speak any length of time and get applause. Charles Stanley, did you know he speaks to thousands each week for over an hour? Charles Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, how long did they speak? Have you read a Spurgeon sermon?

And, of course, you could mention DeWayne Prossor’s two hour sermons. Kenny McComas could preach two hours on “prayer” and you would be in awe. Monroe Parker, Tom Malone, Lee Roberson, those fellows could preach. Roy A. Kemp could keep my attention as a boy and teenager preaching on Revelation for hours. But there were some who could speak thirty minutes, Raymond Barber, Wayne Martin, who could have you wishing they preached longer. I have said of a lot of preaching I have heard, they should have cut their message in half. (Of course I could mention their names as well, uh!) I have said “there are enough fillers in that sermon to fill a dump truck.” Take out the jokes, and farm illustrations and you have little biblical content.

The purpose of your preaching is. . . ? That is a good question to ask yourself.

Crag put it, “As communicators, we can become emotionally attached to information others simply don’t care about. Find those areas and cut them.” So then we are to craft our sermons around what the church, and the lost and Christians want to hear? We are to keep in mind the audience? Jesus did that, right? Paul did that, right? Peter did that, right? J.F. Norris did that, right? John MacArthur does that, right? John Piper does that, right? Oliver B. Greene did that, right? J. Vernon McGee did that, right?

“Information that people don’t want to hear, cut it out?” Let’s take a survey of our sermons, and let the people in our churches tell us what they don’t want us to say and they would rather we cut out of our sermons. Text message us while we preach and we will. E mail us this week and give us your ideas of what we should speak on next week.

Let’s ask Jeremiah and John the Baptist that question, “Boys, did you feel that your crowd that you were preaching to didn’t want to hear your message?” John, how did the Pharisees and Sadducees like your statement “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come.” John, why would you want to stir up those religious groups like that?

The King said, “Tell me what I want to hear, or you will be killed.” That should have got the attention of the Prophet Daniel, and others. Today, the deacons will say, “Tell us what we want to hear and we will keep you, or you will be fired.” Ouch!

I will agree that many times we do need to cut out a lot of information like illustrations, jokes, comments that are rude, crude, and unacceptable, and self glorification of what we have done. Ouch!

(The photo: The series on Matthew: Twenty One volumes with twelve sermons in each volumes.) Manuscripts hand written. Several volumes not showned

PART THREE NEXT TIME

GOD HAS AN AMAZING WORLD(S)

GOD HAS AMAZING WORLDS OURSIDE OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

"We are still scratching the edges of that region of the solar system, and I expect many surprises await us," one scientist said. Above, Pluto and its moons are shown in an image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The planet is so far away that no clear pictures of it exist.

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The first photo was taken outside our back yard. The sky is the home of God's world, and its growing. Science is learning just how big God's world is. I am not sure if God will keep the worlds in eternity, but if God does, I would like to visit those worlds. Just a thought.

PSALMS 24:1

"The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein."

DEUTERONOMY 10:14

"Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD'S , the earth also, with all that therein is."

Photo from this site:

SERMON - HOW LONG IS TOO LONG OR TOO SHORT

SERMONS AS A YOUTH PREACHER AT ROANOKE BAPTIST TEMPLE

"Dad, can I preach Sunday Night?" "Son, are you ready to preached, have you studied?" "How do I study for a sermon, Dad?" I was 15 then, and had little clue as to how to study. All I knew in those days, was watching Dad. Now Dad was sixty and had being preaching for forty years. He didn't need to study, I was thinking. He just gets up on Sunday and talks.

Dad had a wonderful library. He also owned a Bible Book Store. So I thought I will study some of the books in his library. I liked Charles Spurgeon sermons. Boy to read one sermon took a long time, Spurgeon must have preached two hours or more, to over 10,000 people each time he preached. Didn't they have anything else to do in 1850's and 60's?

I remember Al Myers and Don and I would travel to preach in youth revivals and youth rallies and in one church the preacher said to Al and Don, do you want to preach too. And Don would say, "I don't think there will be time after Charles gets finish preaching."

One time in Rocky Mount I can remember Don pointing out his watch, "Charles its time to stop."

Usually, us young preacher boys would preach about five minutes. I would preach thirty or more minutes. I could see the adults smiling as I preached. They were surprise to see that I could talk as long as I did.

Did I know how to preach? Nope. But I could read and study from Spurgeon and others.

HOW LONG SHOULD YOU PREACH! I guess until you are finished.


The photo above: Tonight I gathered up some of my sermon manuscripts.

I have some from Roanoke Baptist Temple back in 1963. Some from most of the churches I worked in. I have some from Madison Baptist Church where I was pastor for three years.

But most of the sermons are from First Baptist Church, in Altoona, Kansas.

1. The series from Romans and Matthew. (the top shelf of sermons) Matthew 17 volumes with 12 sermons in each volume. All all the message were hand written. Each sermons from Matthew was about fifty five minutes long. The book of Matthew was my first really verse by verse study. And I was learning how to study and learn how to interpret the text. Other series: Acts, I Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Daniel, Revelation
   

• And I guess I would study just the KJV. Kidding. I used a number of technical books. In 1983 I attended the Shepherd's Conference in California, and from that conference, learned what was meant by expository preaching. And I had to purchase those books I learned I needed from the conference.
  

While I would study from Harry Ironside for teaching lessons in Sunday School in Dad's church , I had to learn to study with the idea of preaching/teaching. I believe I have address this process in an earlier post.

All the sermons in the photo are manuscripts and were hand written. Goodness.

IS A 29 MINUTE SERMON SCRIPTURAL?

Why Speak 45 Minutes When You Could Speak 30 Minutes?

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Over at Todd Rhoads site, he addressed the above issue. “WHY SPEAK 45 MINUTES WHEN YOU COULD SPEAK 30 MINUTES?” Todd quotes from Craig Groeschel about sermon/message length over at Swerve.

Todd makes this comment, “Over the years, most churches have changed everything about their services (in an effort to reach the culture) except their sermon length. My question is... where else in our culture do we ask people to sit and listen to a speaker for 45 minutes? I really can't think of one. And I do agree with Craig: many speakers look at how much time they have to fill rather than how much content they have to deliver. That, in and of itself, does not make for a culturally relevant presentation, does it”

Please check out their website and their articles and the comments, this will give you the background for this article.

So the question begs an answer.

I often hear “We want to be a New Testament Acts church.” That is a great objective. Let us ask Peter or Paul, or Stephen, or the other preachers, “Men, how long did you preach to the crowd before you?”

Do you think Paul or Peter would address the question: “We always view the audiences’ mindset and see if there is a need to tone down the message, we want to be culturally relevant?”

I believe we mistake the outline sermons we read in Acts to mean that Peter on the day of Pentecost only preached for 29 minutes. I think we believe that Christ in His Sermon on the Mount only preached in 29 minutes segments. I think some believe Christ crafted His sermons to be culturally sensitive.

Paul or Peter, “Did you use overhead screens, and a good power point presentation in the delivery of any of your sermons?” “Peter”, you might ask him, “How was the setting and lighting in the places you taught?” I don’t think many of their sermons were well received by the unchurched folks. I think they should have revised their methodology in preaching; maybe they could have stayed out of jail more.

So you might now say, “Maybe we need to have a 21st century kind of church, rather than an Acts kind of church.” Do we then change the message? Do we change the places we teach and preach? Do we craft a better presentation? Maybe we need to take a survey of what the people want.

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WHAT IS THE QUESTION THAT PREACHERS AND CHURCH LEADERS NEED TO ADDRESS IN THIS MATTER OF WORSHIP AND PREACHING?

Are we given a clear mandate in Scripture as to how we are to Worship and Preach and Teach?

1. What was Paul’s motive.
2. What was Christ’s objective in his teaching:
3. What was Peter and the apostles’ motivational mindset in doing the ministry that was given to them by the Lord Jesus Christ?

(to continue)