First Baptist Church Altoona, Kansas \May 2015

We had the joy this week to go 

back to the church where we were from 03/1980 to 07/1996, the First Baptist Church of Altoona, KS.  We have been gone from there now for almost 19 years.  Just amazing. 

 

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Week Paper at First Baptist Church Altoona, Kansas

WHAT IS PREACHING THE WORD OF GOD, NOT ALL PREACHING IS.

 

Well I once said if I could teach with my head not showing that would be good, because people would hear  what I side rather than look at me. Well I did cut off some of my face. 

It seems that I am always evaluating ministry. I have from day one of ministry.    What kind of ministry does the Lord want our church to have?  I have spend my entire life as a servant of the Lord wanting to do the work of the Lord the way the Lord would be most pleased. 

From the first position that I had as a Youth pastor/teacher at Dad's church in Roanoke VA, when I really didn't have a clue what I was doing at age 16 to 18, pre- college days and still in High School. But what I did want to do was teach the Word of God. 

My Dad Everette Whisnant

Goodness, 1982 at FBC in Altoona, Kansas

C

Charles at Roanoke Baptist Temple in 1965

I loved teaching Revelation, and Colossians, and Psalms those 27 months that I was the teacher of the youth.   We had such a wonderful time in working with teens our own ages.  I had just a great time doing so many wonderful things, but the main thing was teaching the Word of God. 

 I wanted the Word of God to be the primary reason why they came to church and to come to Christ was to learn Christ and His righteousness.

I wanted people to come to our class to learn the Word of God so that they could live a holy life pleasing unto the Lord.  Matthew 5:20 I believe.  For me getting a person to get saved was not the motive. My motive was to see a person seeking to know the Lord and wanting to known Him and be like Him.  And the best way was in my mind to do that was  to teach the Word of the Lord.  To know Him is to learn about Him.

I didn't want to spend my time trying to get people to be holy by methods other than teaching them the Word of God.   I have come to realize the way people are saved and live a holy life is if they are drawn by the Holy Spirit of God.   As a preacher, I have realize that if I try to draw them into any kind of living a holy life the change will not last.  If the Word of God doesn't draw them then into holiness than the life will not be pleasing to the Lord.  I used to believe I was  to draw them into change by my methods other than the teaching of the Word of God.

Unless the Lord changes our  hearts from the inside out we will not change.  Where God is doing the persuading in our life to be like Him,  then there will be genuine change and holiness.  The best way in my mind is to teach the Word of God, as I have mention in the lesson Wednesday night.  

So what is meant by "Teaching or Preaching the Word of God."  May  I say, not all those who say they "preach the Word of God," are preaching the Word of God.

I AM OBSESSED WITH CHURCH REALLY

IS THE CHURCH IMPORTANT TO YOU?

( Madison Missionary Baptist Church, Minford, Ohio a long time ago)

THESE ARE REASONS I LOVE THE CHURCH

(First Baptist Church Altoona, Kansas a view years ago)

(Rivers of Joy Baptist Church - Minford, Ohio)

Be

1970 or 1980 -90 or 2008

I LOVE THE LOCAL CHURCH

Just in case you haven’t been able to tell this about me before…I am OBSESSED with church.

I am asked often "Are you glad you are pastoring?" Are you kidding! ?! I sure am.

Now…I can’t quit thinking about it. If someone wants to talk church…I’m in! AND SO…it bothers me when I hear someone say that they don’t think that church is really that important.

REALLY? Church isn’t important? THINK ABOUT THAT…if that’s the case I have a few questions…

#1 - If church isn’t that important - then why does Matthew 16:18 say that Jesus built it? Would the Son of God actually spend time building something that was worthless?

#2 - If church isn’t that important - then why does Scripture in Acts 20:28 say that Jesus shed His blood for it? Would the Son of God have been willing to endure the suffering He went through for a meaningless organization?

#3 - If church isn’t that important - then why does Ephesians 1:22 & Colossians 1:18 say that Jesus is the Head of it? Would Jesus REALLY be the Head of something insignificant and trivial?

#4 - If church isn’t that important, if church isn’t “needed” to learn about God…then why does Ephesians 3:10 say that it was through the church that the wisdom of God should be made known?

But might I say, it's not only going to church, it's a lifestyle that takes place daily in our life. As we go about our daily life in the workplace, at school, at college, we live a life that reflects what we learn in church, through the teaching of the Word of God.

HOW TO REACH THIS CURRENT GENERATION

PEOPLE THAT DON'T KNOW MUST LEARN

GROW BY LEARNING

Charity asked me the other day, "How did you decide to use the name "Grow By Learning?" And I said "Proverbs 1:2, Proverbs 1:3 and Proverbs 1:5 (now point to those and see the verses)

Charity took this photo of me Sunday Evening at Rivers of Joy Baptist Church. I am getting a Library room ready. Here are a few of my three ring binders of articles I have downloaded from the web and study notes.

Also at Rivers of Joy I am working on my Pastor's Office
Back in Altoona Kansas I also had a great pastor's office. Kurt Nunnenkamp built us a wall to wall book shelf. Who is that guy with dark hair anyway?

A closer look, at the book shelves that Kurt built.

Charity and Kyle loved my office too.

GROW BY LEARNING

If there is anything I love to do it is learning. I loved the library. I would spend hours in my Dad's library as a child and as a youth. I would spend hours at school in the library, both High School and College. When I lived in Texas, Kansas or Kentucky. I would love going to the local public library. Then I had a nice library myself.

When I was pastor at Madison Baptist in Minford, Ohio in 1971 I had a nice library / office.

(I don't have photos of those, wish I had.)



When I went to First Baptist in Altoona, Kansas I had a very nice pastor's office, And a great church library. . And then in Calvary Baptist Church in Connersville Indiana, I had book shelves built in my office.

The point of this post was not to be about my library. I wanted to mention the LEARNING process that I spent yesterday doing.

HOW TO BETTER GET THE MESSAGE OUT ABOUT RIVERS OF JOY BAPTIST CHURCH

I woke up yesterday early, my mind was really working overtime. How can I learn to put our church on the web. The web is here and we should learn to use the medium. Some one moves to town, or is going to move to Scioto County and they are looking for a church. Really. How can we provide the means whereby they can find us on the web.

We are going to have to prepare for the future. As our church members are getting older, we need to give attention to the younger group. We need to meet the needs of us that are older, but we need to seek to reach our youth and young adults as well.

I don't believe we can reach the now generation with the methods that we used when we were younger. Have you seen what our children (3-7) are doing these days? Our teens today are way more advanced than we were.

If we are going to reach those that are younger than we are, we must learn how to reach them.

To cont.

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH FAMILY 2008

THE CHURCH FAMILY IN FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH

ALTOONA KANSAS

The First Baptist Church in Altoona, Kansas family

The apostle Paul, and Silas and Timothy were pastors in Thessalonica and Paul would write back to the church even after ten years. While we have been gone for twelve years, we still love the folks at the church.

Charity and Kyle, Becky and Brittney were in Altoona for a few days in July 2008.

Jeremiah Morris the pastor of First Baptist Church and I understand is doing great. As Paul said about the saints in Thessalonica,"We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other." And Charity and I give thanks for the folks in Kansas.

FELLOWSHIP

FELLOWSHIP

PREACHING AND TEACHING

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

CHARITY WHISNANT, AND ERIC AND BECKY AND CHAD IN 1980

.

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.

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH ALTOONA

WHEN I CANDIDATED FOR PASTOR: FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, ALTOONA, KANSAS

As I said I visited with Jack Hyles in his church office, and as a result I decided to take my brother’s suggestion and visit Altoona, Kansas. Don had sent a résumé to First Baptist Church and he suggested that I go in his place. Boy, did he miss out on a great place to go.

Now it’s February 1980. Outside there is three feet of dirty snow on the ground, in Cedar Lake Indiana, just a few miles from Chicago Ill. It’s cold and a typical day in the Chicago area.

"Charity what do you think about going to Altoona, Kansas to candidate for a church?" "Honey, this was 26 years ago you know!" Charity mentions.

Three feet of snow, and about 900 mile trip in an old car! Sure that would be great, dear.
I remember looking on a map (this was before mapquest.com) and was looking for the city of Altoona, Kansas. I had to get a magnifying glass-- the dots were getting smaller and smaller. Then there were no dots. Altoona was a town okay, and there were just over 500 people. In Wilson County there were 40 sq miles and 10,000 people. Just great, I thought. Now I know why Don wanted me to go to Altoona.

First Baptist Church in Hammond, had an attendance that was 20,000, I wonder what the attendance in FBC i n Altoona was? Funny. Well, the church was downtown on Main Street, just like FBC of Hammond.

After a few phone calls I made the decision to go to Altoona. Charity was just thrilled. After all, we had Eric age 8, Becky was 3 and she was three months pregnant with Chad. Just great.

From Ft. Worth, Texas, to Wooster Ohio, West Portsmouth, Ohio, to Minford, Ohio, to Portsmouth, Ohio, to Grapevine, Texas, to Mansfield, Ohio, to Connersville, Ind, to Cedar Lake, Ind, then to Altoona, Kansas. Let’s see, I don’t think many basketball players in the NBA have been traded that much. This is going to be our tenth stop on this journey, and will last for sixteen great years. But the first couple months you would have never thought so.

Charity really wasn’t all that happy about moving to Altoona. When we arrived in Altoona, Kansas that February 1980 around 2:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, we meet the couple that had invited us to come. We got up that morning and got dressed and went to the church. I had my three piece suit on, Charity was dolled up, and Becky had her beautiful dress on and Eric was dressed in a suit and tie. You would think we were going to FBC in Hammond. As we walked in, oh boy. Here were farmers in farm clothes. We did look strange.

I preached, about an hour, and we had dinner, and then I met with the men of the church to see if we were coming back! I did about everything I could to discourage them in this matter. But every thing I mentioned that I would like for them to do, they agreed. Everything that I suggested that I would do, if I came, they agreed. I really tried to get them to say no. But to no avail, they asked me to come back. The vote was 10-0 I think. Great crowd that Sunday, somewhere around thirty five, I think. I was to understand later the attendance had averaged about seventeen.

I couldn’t say no, and Charity cried. The kids didn’t have any idea what was going on. I was thirty-two years old , and I should have had better judgment in this matter. But we came anyway.

I discovered after our arrival in March 1980, that some in the church were not members. The adult Bible teacher was from the Holiness church, the song leader was having a Mormon class in his home. The previous preachers were good men, but didn’t stay very long. This church was as malfunctional as a church could be. At least I thought so. . The building was pieced together with old stuff from here and there. There were at least five different forms of chairs and pews. But at least they had bathrooms at this church.

As a matter of fact, the people were really great and loving people, they just needed a good pastor to pastor the sheep of the church.