"Love Out Loud" touches 1,700 lives for Christ

On Sunday, February 21, 2010, First Baptist Church of Rincon, Georgia sent 458 volunteers into the community to do 22 service projects to show the love of Christ in practical ways. Whenever possible, they gave away New Testaments, gospel tracts, and a personal witnesses. There were over 1700 lives touched, and 786 gospel presentations.
Pastor Bob Rogers said, "Our coordinator, Beth Pye, and her team leaders did a super job of organizing and carrying out this project. Not only was the community deeply touched, but the fellowship among members from the shared experience was tremendous."
Church member Sabrina Carter, who helped clean yards for the elderly, said, "My body is aching now, but I sure did love the smile on Mrs. Kitty's face when she came home and saw what we had done. She hugged me a million times. We had a great time receiving a physical and spiritual blessing."
Charles McDonald's team gave free car washes to anybody who drove up to the church, and refused to take any donations. When one lady insisted on giving him money, he turned around and said, "Lady, what does the back of my shirt say?" She read: "Love Out Loud." He replied, "That's what we're doing. We're showing you God's love for free."
Mona Underwood was on a team visiting Effingham Nursing Home. She said, "I was so blessed at the nursing home. My visit with Mrs. Lee McGriff was such an emotional blessing. She shared stories of times past and I was able to tell her what a blessing she was to so many people."
After feeding the volunteers, the hospitality team drove through the community and gave away food. They met a family that had lost their home and had 12 people living together, and gave meals to the whole family.
Church member Elizabeth Beasley had to work Sunday, and was pleasantly surprised when volunteers came in to give away free food to people who had to work on Sunday. She said, "Thank you so much for the lunches that were brought to the local businesses including ...over at Tractor Supply...while I was working we had a very busy day, due to the beautiful weather and they came in handy! Everyone appreciated them!"
Steve Grissom's team did free vehicle safety checks. He said, "We prayed with everybody we helped, and we told people that the most important thing is a relationship with Jesus Christ."
Project coordinator Beth Pye said that Sunday night she usually reads before going to bed, "But Sunday night I didn't read-- I wanted to 'savor the taste' of 'Love Out Loud.'"

Here is a detailed report of "Love Out Loud" projects:
*Car wash & detail - 55+ cars, 70+ lives touched
*Care Packages for Military - 18 boxes to 50+ military
*Goody bags for ret. & nursing home staff - 125 goody bags
*Haircuts for unemployed - 9 haircuts
*Home projects - 2 homes reattach siding, repair roof leak, tear down unsafe structure & remove debris
*Homebound visits - 25 lives touched
*Laundromat, pay for laundry - 50 lives touched
*Loving Our Neighbor - 5 happy boys, 50 fish caught
*Make cards for retirement & nursing homes - 250 handmade cards
*Meals for volunteers. - 900+ meals, 90 handed out to community
*Nursery Team for vol's. children - 16 babies & preschoolers
*Nursing home & Hospital visits - 120 residents visited, 15 trays of goodies for hospital staff
*PowerPoint - 500+ photos, teams encouraged
*Prayer - prayed over each team, 3 gospel presentations
*Pregnancy Care Center - 10 rooms painted, new offices ready to occupy
*Retirement home visits - 25 lives touched
*Special Needs Kids Party - 10 lives touched
*Spiritual needs survey/free gift - 265 homes with about 600 people
*Tax Preparation (basic) - 10 tax returns for people on fixed income
*Treutlen House - painting & cleaning, 6 lives touched
*Vehicle safety checks - 5 vehicle checks, 7 free oil changes
*Weekday Ministry child care center playground repairs - Countless little lives protected
*Write to military & prisons - 120 letters + artwork & poems
*Yard care - 7 yards, cut down trees, raked, trimmed shrubs

"The Secret"

Australian author Rhonda Byrne has written a blockbuster bestseller book entitled The Secret. (Atria Books/Beyond Words, 2006). Byrne says that this secret has been known by great people throughout history, like Beethoven and Abraham Lincoln, the secret to getting what you want (although I’m not sure if we want to be deaf like Beethoven or assassinated like Lincoln, but I digress.) Popularized by people like Oprah Winfrey, The Secret teaches a New Age philosophy called “the law of attraction,” which is basically another way of talking about the power of positive thinking.
But before you rush out and buy Byrne’s book or watch her film, let me share the real secret with you. You can open your Bible to Philippians 4:12 and find that the secret has already been revealed.
In this verse, the apostle Paul says, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.” Aha! Here’s the secret. And it’s not in New Age philosophy, it’s in the Bible. What is the secret?

(To continue reading "The Secret," click on "Comments" below and read the first comment.)

Church on fire

Our church has literally been "on fire" this week as the athletes from Team Impact have crushed concrete blocks on fire, broken baseball bats, and dealt the Devil a body blow with their gospel presentations. The crusade is still going on, but after the first three nights, we have counseled 95 people who said they were accepting Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord!
UPDATE: In five nights, we counseled over 250 people, 177 of whom made professions of faith in Jesus Christ. We are now very busy following up on these individuals with personal contacts. We sent references to 71 different churches for them to follow up, and we are following up on about 100 people who live in our area and have no church home, or already attend our church.

Christ Church of Savannah leaves Episcopal Church

The leadership, called the "vestry," of Christ Church, the Mother church of Georgia, has voted to leave the Episcopal Church and put itself under the authority of a bishop in Virginia who is under a conservative bishop in Uganda, Africa.
Church leaders defended their decision on their website, saying that they are not leaving the Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Church has left them by denying the authority of scripture. While not directly mentioning the issue of the ordination of homosexual bishops, the liberal rejection of Biblical sexual morality is a major factor in Christ Church's decision. This is a local result of an international split, as the Anglican worldwide communion has called on the Episcopal Church in America to discontinue ordaining gay bishops, but the Episcopal Church has not agreed to make such a pledge.
The Episcopal Church will probably take Christ Church to court and try to seize their property. Unlike Baptist churches, which are owned by the local congregation, the denomination generally owns the property of local Episcopal churches. Bishop Henry I. Louttit issued a statement asserting the denomination's claim to the church's property.
"Christ Church is and will remain a parish of the Episcopal Church in this diocese and will continue to occupy its present facilities," he said.
Who will win a court case? Christ Church points out that they were in existence 50 years before there was an Episcopal denomination. The congregation was founded in 1733 when Oglethorpe founded the new colony of Georgia, thus making Christ Church the oldest congregation in Georgia. They feel that since the vestry of the church had possession of the property long before there was an Episcopal Church in America, they have strong legal reason to keep control of their local church. "We are confident of our ownership of the property," said the pastor, known as "rector," Rev. Marc Robertson.
See an article in the Savannah Morning News that discusses the legal case for and against Christ Church keeping ownership of their building.
This brave congregation needs the prayers of other Christians as they seek to be faithful to their Christian heritage, no matter what may happen in their future.

UPDATE: The bishop says they will take Christ Church to court.