THE KANSAS VACATION, PART ONE

VACATION IN KANSAS

photo 1

Kyle and Brittney
Kyle in front of the damn from our house in Altoona
Kyle, Becky, Joe and Kevin
Kyle, Kevin, and Joe

Charity and Kyle as they come into KANSAS
Charity and her wonderful friend Beverly

Kyle on the top side of the damn from our house in Altoona
Kyle coming back to KANSAS where he was born

THE KURT NUNNENKAMP FAMILY

I WOULD LOVE TO TELL THE OLD OLD STORY

Kurt and Michele at First Baptis Church, in Altoona, Kansas a few years ago
A FEW YEARS LATER, AND HUNTER AND HANNAH GROWN UP

MICHELE, HUNTER, KURT, AND HANNAH NUNNENAMP

I would love to tell the story of one of dearest friends Kurt and Michele Nunnekamp, and I will. But first I need to put it down, and proof read by Charity. I need to go to work, but later.

That would be Kyle Whisnant, to the right of the photo. I just last night looked at these photo, Becky sent them to me, via Alana, via Kurt.

PREACHING TO A CROWD OF PEOPLE

IN THE EARLIEST DAYS WHEN I KNEW I WOULD BE PREACHING AND HAD THE DESIRE TO PASTOR A CHURCH, I DREAMED OF A CHURCH OF ABOUT 1000 PEOPLE ATTENDING EACH WEEK. Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston has an average weekend attendance of 45,000 and an annual budget of $72.6 million. Osteen is one of a new breed of televangelists -- Joyce Meyer, T.D. Jakes, and Creflo Dollar are also rising stars -- who are preaching a less sanctimonious, more inclusive message.
Osteen preaches to more than 15,000 people at a time. Even the Houston Rockets, who have since moved across town, never put as many people in the seats as he does.

Now let us pastors be honest, I would love to preach to that many each week. Oh my, its going to be in the 1000 year reign of Christ if it ever happens for me.

I would need to fill River of Joy Baptist Church building 67 times to have 15,000. Let me see, it would take at the present attendance 10 years to reach 15,000 people. Now let see 45,000 people, this would take..... let's not go there. I do have a sense of humor.

Thomas Road Baptist Church has 15,000 on Sunday's in all their services. That's good. I don't mean to put Jonathan Falwell in the same class with Joel Osteen.

THE SIMPLE TRUTH IS:

Some of us are just not getting the job done. Many of us want to preach to more people, some will do just about anything to get a crowd. But it seems there is no staying power.

We all I believe go to a Hyles Conference, or the Shepherd's Conference, or a Super Conference, and 4The Gospel, or the John Piper conferences, who have I left out? But we pastors (boy that sounds good), and try to get charged up to be better equip for the work of the ministry and the preaching of the Gospel. That is a good thing I believe.

It seems, to get a crowd, and many churches today are doing just that, are trying to de-Christianized the message of Jesus Christ. People don't come to hear the message, they come to hear the rock music. They didn't come to hear Billy Graham, they came to hear all the music before the services.

Maybe the come to hear Joel Osteen, or -- Joyce Meyer, T.D. Jakes, and Creflo Dollar.

Maybe they are coming to hear Chuck Swindoll and John MacArthur, or David Jeremiah. I would hope they are coming because these men are preaching the Word. But they also have good Elder leadership and a great team of ministers who are doing a great job in the the ministry of the local church.

My prayer is that God would lead my spirit to focus on His Word, and to be able to feed the flock, and to love the flock and to lead the flock in a manner that will bring glory to the name of our Lord.

FIVE NON NEGOTIABLES OF THE BELIEVER

FIVE NON-NEGOTIABLES OF THE BELIEVER AND THE CHURCH

FIVE NON-NEGOTIABLE REQUIREMENTS THAT ARE TO BE IN VIEW IN THE CHRISTIAN MIND IF THEY ARE GOING TO BE A GODLY PERSON OR A GODLY CHURCH.

A HIGH VIEW OF GOD

• It is absolutely essential that a local church, the believer, perceive themselves as an institution or person for the glory of God. Isaiah 6
  

THE ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE - RECOGNIZE ITS TOTAL SUFFICIENCY.

• Matthew 4:4 If we are fed by every word that comes out of the mouth of God, then we ought to study every word. Its mostly today’s attitude, “I don’t need another sermon; I’d rather be fellowshipping.” Fellowship is important, but it does not replace the Word of God.

• Every week it seems in my life that I learn something new from the Word of God that I never fully understood before.
  

SOUND DOCTRINE: CLARITY OF BIBLE TEACHING

• Can you explain the truths from God’s word? Like, life, death, heaven, hell, sin, man, Christ, God, the Holy Spirit, the position of the believer, the flesh, the world, Satan? Etc. 1 Timothy

• Here is the key to Scripture: you read the text, find out what it says and means, draw out a divine truth, and establish the truth in the mind, and then repeat it.
  

PERSONAL HOLINESS

• We are victimized by an absolutely unholy society, and it gets our thinking mixed up. I cringe when I think of the philosophical and immoral filth that our society has created. People’s minds are corrupted and drawn away from God as a result of that.

• Christian’s are called to live a pure life, and we can’t compromise that. 2 Corinthians 7:1. Some people know the Bible, but do not practice the doctrine of personal holiness in their life and in their living.
  

SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY: UNDERSTANDING THE NEED AND PRIORITY OF BIBLICAL LEADERSHIP

• Christ is the head of the Church, the father is the head of the family, the elders, pastors, or head of the local assembly. Ephesians 1:22, 4:15, 5:12-13, Hebrews 13:7, 17

THUS, IF WE ARE GOING TO BE A CHURCH THAT IS GODLY AND HAVE PEOPLE WHO ARE GODLY, WE MUST HAVE A RIGHT FRAMEWORK. IT HAS TO HAVE A HIGH VIEW OF GOD, THE PURSUIT OF A CHURCH BODY SHOULD BE TO KNOW GOD. IN SEEKING TO KNOW GOD, THE AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPTURE MUST BE RECOGNIZED, FOR IT IS THROUGH THE BIBLE THAT WE CAN KNOW GOD. A CHURCH BODY SHOULD A HAVE HIGH VIEW OF SCRIPTURE, AND A COMMITMENT TO THE TEACHING OF SOUND, CLEAR DOCTRINE. THE PEOPLE OF THE CHURCH ALSO SHOULD SEEK PERSONAL HOLINESS. AND SEEK TO SUBMIT THEIR SOULS TO THE CARE OF THOSE THE LORD HAS PLACED OVER THEM AS SPIRITUAL AUTHORITIES.

Photo: Choir at the Rivers of Joy Baptist Church.

TEACHING ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT

THIS IS AN EXCELLENT CLASS ROOM FOR BIBLE STUDY

WEDNESDAY EVENING STUDY

PRAYER: ....Prayer what is it?

• Prayer is not for altering God's purposes but for accomplishing them. In prayer we are privileged to exercise a partnership with God.


• What is needed is for Him to fill our heart with His thoughts and then His desires will become flowing back to Him.

THEN 1 JOHN 5:14-15 WILL BE A LIVING REALITY.

• 14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
  1 John 5:14-15

YOU ARE PRAYING IN JESUS NAME FOR THIS.......

• Let say you have one or two request you are personally praying for specifically and you know its God's will and you want the church (local body of believers) to pray that it will be accomplished, what would those request be?

WHAT SHOULD WE BE PRAYING, KNOWING THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD FOR US AND OUR CHURCH BODY? What does God want to accomplish in His Church for His Glory?

First Topic of the night was PRAYER

Like clouds and wind without rain Is a man who boasts of his gifts falsely(Proverbs 25:14 NAS)

Pretension (n): making claim to distinction or importance, especially undeservedly; having or creating a deceptive outer appearance of great worth; ostentatious.

THE ROLE OF THE PASTOR/TEACHER

THE ROLE OF THE PASTOR/TEACHER OF A LOCAL CHURCH IS?

The ideologies of the Emerging Church movement. Was this paradigm shift real?

I am thinking today, "What is the role that a pastor/teacher/shepherd in the local church today?"

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And I am sure many of you will say,

"I can't see why it isn't biblical?"

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How should he view his role in the church that would bring the most glory and honor to the Lord Jesus Christ?

The NewSpring Churches are not independent baptist churches, nor WBF, or IBFI, or GARBC, they are a group of emerging churches who have a desire to see their church grow. Here is a mission statement by one of these churches. And a video you can watch.

Located in Jenks, Oklahoma, we have ministries for every member of the family and we are sure you will find something just for you. At Newspring, we exist to turn unconvinced, unchurched, and uncommitted people into fully devoted followers of Christ. Enjoy your time on our site and please consider visiting us Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m. where you will enjoy a contemporary relevant service with people just like you.
At Newspring, we're not church as usual!

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5 Pirates in Search of Character Island

.So should I consider a change of methodology. I do desire to reach the unconvinced, the unchurched, and the uncommitted people in our area of ministry. I do desire to see people come to be fully devoted followers of Christ. You say what is wrong with that?

I viewed the Newspring Church out of Wichita Kansas, Charity and I both listen to the message by Mark Hoover.

• As a footnote: I knew Mark over twenty years ago. Mark preached in our church in Kansas, I have had lunch with Mark. I knew him as genuine person who loved God. I have not talked to Mark in twenty years. I have passed NewSpring church several times. But yesterday was the first time I had ever heard Mark preach in twenty years. Totally different personality, totally different look.

• The church was originally Messiah Baptist Church, now the name of the church is NewSpring Church. Once this church was a independent Baptist Church, now the church is . . . . .

Now Christ Community Church in Portsmouth Ohio is beginning to do the same thing. And some have asked me, "What do you think about what they are doing?" I have known the founder of the church for a long time. I know him as a man who loves the Lord, a man who has been married for fifty years. He as pastored the church for more than forty years, I believe. And in reality he wants what I desire, to see people saved, and reach those who are not going to church.

"I had started through that narrow passage that leads from one paradigm to another. Then this paradigm shift got scary and painful. One author describes it as a “post-modern free fall.” I found myself disoriented and confused by the different voices around me." A quote from a young woman.

• "I'm actually amused by the faux-humility of always lower casing one's own name so as not to draw undue attention to it. But the popularity of the practice is yet another fitting symbol for just about everything that is currently fashionable on the evangelical fringe. Why is it that those who seem to talk most about originality are always so lemminglike?"


• Someone wrote me last week asking what would be wrong with adopting McManus's methodology as long as we're careful to overlay it with a high view of Scripture.

WHAT WOULD BE WRONG WITH ADOPTING SOME OF THESE METHODOLOGY AS LONG AS WE'RE CAREFUL TO OVERLAY IT WITH A HIGH VIEW OF SCRIPTURE?

It's pretty hard for me to see why anyone with a high view of Scripture would want to adopt a methodology whose whole raison d'être is rooted in a low view of the sufficiency and authority of Scripture. It's a methodology that systematically subordinates Scripture to a secondary or tertiary role in the life of the church.

And not all churches or pastors have a low view of scripture, but they believe they need to take a low reading of scripture.

IS THERE GOING TO BE A PARADIGM SHIFT AT THE RIVERS OF JOY BAPTIST CHURCH?

Is there going to be a paradigm shift? A Paradigm shift is an example that serves as a pattern or model for something, especially one that forms the basis of a methodology or theory. The acceptance by a majority of a changed belief, attitude, or way of doing things.

Can there be a change attitude of the way of doing things? I would really hope so. But our pattern or model should be one that models biblical pattern of ministry.

There is generally a shift in methodology with a new pastor, that is natural. There is a new point of view, a different style of ministry. But what I hope to do, is keep the goal of ministry one that is going to bring glory to the Lord, and that we will reflect as a mirror the glory of Christ.

FOOTNOTE: We posted this morning a line, and then finished up tonight at 10:30 p.m.