"Love Out Loud" 2011

Calling the event "Love Out Loud," First Baptist Church of Rincon, Georgia sent over 350 volunteers into the community on Sunday, February 20, 2011, to do 16 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 1,124 lives touched.
Pastor Bob Rogers had challenged the congregation to get out of their pews and into the streets and do ministry, all on the same Sunday afternoon. "The world hears what we are against-- we want them to hear what we are for. We want to 'Love Out Loud,'" said Rogers. To those who wondered if they should work on Sunday, Rogers reminded them that Jesus said in Matthew 12:12, "It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." Members of all ages responded, from children to senior adults. Projects were planned with team leaders for each project, all under the direction of coordinator Beth Pye, and for several weeks in advance, members signed up to participate. Then on the Sunday after Valentine's Day, February 20, members came to church in blue jeans and "Love Out Loud" t-shirts, ready to get to work after morning worship. A lunch was provided, and then teams of volunteers went all over Effingham County during the afternoon to minister.
Volunteers washed and detailed 41 cars and one Rincon fire engine for free on the church grounds, refusing to accept donations. Vehicle safety checks were done for 11 cars and trucks. When people asked if they could give money, volunteers explained that it was like God's grace: "It's free. We receive God's grace as a gift."
Goody bags were made and delivered to 120 staff at Lakeview Retirement home and Effingham Nursing Home in Springfield. Members visited 31 people who are homebound and nursing home residents. Another group visited with 17 people at the retirement home. Groups did repairs and painting for a widow, a single mother, and for the Pregnancy Care Center. A group repaired and painted rooms at the Treutlen House home for boys in the Ebenezer Community, and another group did repair and yard care at seven homes and three vacant lots.
A party was given for seven special needs children at the church's new children's building.
A large group of volunteers prepared 390 handmade cards to send to the military and homebound. Another group wrote letters, poems and children drew pictures for 135 deployed military and for prisoners.
Volunteers gave away 110 free box lunches to people all over Rincon, offering free food at gas stations, parking lots, and wherever they met people. One grateful man immediately stopped what he was doing to sit down and eat.
Another group drove around the community, asking people if they could pray for their needs. This group prayed with over 100 people in spontaneous encounters, and gave away many Bibles.
Volunteers went to laundromats in Rincon and Springfield, and offered to put money in the machines, paying for laundry and offering Bibles in English and Spanish. Maribel Cortes, who participated in the laundromat project, commented that the experience was "awesome" and the youth who were with her were "excellent." Maribel met a fellow Hispanic who said that in 17 years he had lived in America, nobody had offered him a Bible until that day.
Volunteers gave away 176 free Bibles in English and Spanish. A team of volunteers giving away free Bibles on the sidewalk met a man who asked for a Bible in Spanish, and when he received it, he immediately began to read it as he walked away.
Many members echoed the sentiments of Marilyn Sulak, who said, "I'm so blessed that God allowed me to be a part of this."
"Only time will tell how many seeds that were planted during 'Love Out Loud' will take root and grow. But it was a joy to scatter the seed and leave the results up to God," said Pastor Rogers.
This was the second year for the church's "Love Out Loud" day of ministry. To see a music video of the day's activities, go to the church website at www.fbcrincon.com and click on the slide that says, "Check Out the Love Out Loud Video."
For more information, contact First Baptist Church of Rincon at 912-826-5536, or its Hispanic pastor, Francisco Rodriguez, at 912-313-7333, or on the web at www.fbcrincon.com.

Loving Our Neighbor

Heather Brantley and her husband bought an old home in the Sand Hill area of Effingham County a few years ago, hoping to fix it up. But then he came down with cancer and died, leaving Heather a widow with five young sons to raise. Her home church, Olive Branch Baptist, contacted several other churches about the need to repair her home, but it was decided the house was beyond repair. So eight churches banded together, working through Habitat for Humanity, raised the money to purchase a lot, and got over $100,000 worth of materials donated, and is building her a new house! The project, called "Loving Our Neighbor," had only been in construction three weeks when I went there on April 10, to work.
In the pictures, you can see Floyd Zettler, the project manager, carrying some lumber inside the house, and you can see me with Heather and her five sons, who came out to site today.
As you can see from these pictures, we are making major progress. About 20 men and one woman worked on the house today, and several ladies served us lunch. Over 100 people have volunteered their time to help so far. Donations are still needed, since a few of the donated materials could not be used. To help, contact Pam Williams at pwilliams@fbcrincon.com or send your donation to First Baptist Church of Rincon, 201 E. 6th Street, Rincon, GA 31326, and designate it to "Loving Our Neighbor."
If you want to come work on the project, work is going on most weekdays, and every Saturday, beginning at 8:00 a.m. From Rincon, take Blue Jay Road about 11 miles until it ends at Sand Hill Road, turn right and go north one mile on Sand Hill Road, and just after you pass Sand Hill Baptist Church, turn left and you will see the house on the right.

"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

"Gilead" a novel of grace and love

I just finished reading the novel Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. It is the story of an elderly Congregationalist pastor in Gilead, Iowa, who was widowed but late in life he married again and had a small son. He knows he will die soon, so he writes to his little boy his life story. It's about life in the midwestern United States in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

I can see why it won the Pulitzer Prize. Simple yet complex, humorous yet sad, scandalous yet full of God's grace. A story of true love. My favorite line: "Grace is not so poor a thing that it cannot present itself in any number of ways."

Missing the love dare?

If you have been reading the "love dare" daily devotionals on this blog and wondered where they went...
Our church finished the 40-day love dare challenge, and since the love dares took up so much space on my blog, I removed them. But if you would like to do the love dare, you can get the book The Love Dare by Stephen & Alex Kendrick, B & H Publishing, 2008. It's available at LifeWay Christian Stores. You can email me for more information at brotherbob@windstream.net.

Letter from a homosexual struggler

Below is a letter I received a while back from a friend of mine, a former minister of another denomination, who struggles with homosexuality. I met with him and befriended him during a crisis time in his life, when he lost his church because of his homosexual activity. He believes homosexuality is wrong, and wants to change, but it is hard. He now lives in another state, so we don't meet together any longer, but we still correspond from time to time.
He has given my permission to quote him. To protect his identity, I have waited a while to publish his letter, and I have edited some of the names and personal references. What he says needs to be heard by the conservative, evangelical church.
Here is part of his letter:

The priest at a local [name of denomination] church recently contacted me regarding a position at his parish. Shortly after leaving [name of church] Church, that parish had advertised for an administrator. I had applied since I needed work as well I figured that making sure the yard got cut, the toilets flushed, etc. wasn't out of the bounds of my abilities and the limitations of my"situation." Well, he and I talked back then, but the position was only a part-time thing and I needed full-time work, so it ended there. Lo and behold, he called recently and asked if I was interested in working in Christian ed for them. I explained to him my status and all and he still wanted to talk to me. He said he felt led to pursue this with me. He knew a little of what had happened, but, of course, not all the dirty details. Even after that second talk, he still wanted to pursue things. He and his leadership are willing to take the risk involved, and, even though this would only be a part-time position and requires me to continue to work full-time at [name of department store], I really would love to feel useful again. It's so difficult to go day by day feeling totally useless and insignificant, and walking around as an example of failure in ministry. I would be working on a consultant basis and not as a regular employee as another way to distance the parish from any negative reactions as I'm sure the grapevine will begin its work once it filters out.

I know that on several levels you might think this a bad idea, bad for the church as a risk, bad for me as someone who is still so wounded and fragile, bad for me someone so much more conservative (at least in belief if not in practice) from this priest, etc. I am taking all that in account, but both my counselor in [name of city] and my ex-wife [name] have been very positive about the way this is structured and all as a means of bringing me back to the land of the living.

One thing in this has been hard to swallow in this however. It has been the "liberals" and gays that have been the most practically helpful to me in [name of city].
It was a gay business owner who first gave me a job and a place to live, another gay [name of business] is providing me a place to live now, the manager of [name of department store], which employs some openly gay managers and salesmen, has been just great about my schedule and all, and it's a pro-gay priest who is giving me a chance at ministry again. What kind of message does that send, Bob?

He asks a good question, doesn't he? If we are going to say that homosexuality is a sin, are we willing to help the sinner change? Or will he find that the only person who really cares about him are those who consider homosexuality a normal lifestyle?

Loving New Orleans

Here are pictures of the Mature Adult Mission Team from our church that went to New Orleans this week and helped Terra, and Regina, two New Orleans homeowners, get their houses repaired so they could come back to their homes. They were helping Operation NOAH (New Orleans Area Housing). Milton and Jason are the guys in red shirts with Terra. Greg, our music minister who led the trip, is holding a level with Debra, our senior adult coordinator.
Great job, guys! You showed what Christian love is all about!

12-year-old talks about his pet and God

Words of wisdom from Kenny Grant

What a great revival we had this past week with Rev. Kenny Grant.

As promised, I have collected some of the one-liners that Brother Kenny shared with us this week.

Here are a few quotations:

"I want to be brief tonight, but I probably won't be."

"If you can't say 'Amen,' say 'Oh, me.'"

"We're fooling ourselves if we say we worship God and we live like common yard dogs."

"We make a big deal out of building God a house because we don't want Him in our own house."

Talking about men being under Christ's headship before being head of the home: "You gotta be under what you're supposed to be under before you can be over what you're supposed to be over."

"Missing men produce broken boys."

"A wife's job is to complete her husband, not to finish him off."

"The church is like Noah's ark; there might be a stench on the inside but there's a storm on the outside."

"Sin takes you further than you planned on staying and costs you more than you planned on paying."

Regarding the prodigal son and the elder brother: "The one who started out out, ended up in, and the one who started out in ended up out."

"Love isn't a fall. Love is a climb."

"Love isn't blind. Love just knows how to overlook the junk it can see."

"Safe sex is a myth. You can't do an unsafe thing in a safe way."

"The only safe sex is sacred sex. And the only sacred sex is married sex."

"Girls will play at sex because they really want love, and boys will play at love because they really want sex."

"I know we're not perfect people and this isn't a perfect world, but this Bible is a perfect book and we cannot dumb it down."

"Failure doesn't have to be final."

Divorce and Remarriage in the Church

I just finished reading Divorce and Remarriage in the Church: Biblical Solutions for Pastoral Realities, by David Instone-Brewer (Downer's Grove, Illinois: IVP Books, 2003).

This is the best book I have read on this subject. Instone-Brewer balances respect for the authority of the Bible, good historical background and scholarship with pastoral compassion. His arguments are consistent, logical, and biblical. Basically, he says that while the Bible discourages divorce, it is practical in allowing divorce and remarriage under certain grounds.

You can read his book on his website, www.Divorce-Remarriage.com, or order a copy of the book. Its well worth the investment if you or someone you love are dealing with this issue.

When Love Grows Cold

“What happened to your marriage?” the friend asked.
“I don’t know. We just drifted apart. We don’t love each other anymore. The divorce was final last week.”
That conversation is repeated thousands of times every day in America. The sexual revolution after World War II didn’t bring us happiness, it wrought havoc on the family. From 1960 to 1980, the divorce rate climbed from 10% to 50% before staying at about 50% ever since then. The percentage of single adults went from 6.5% to 20% in that same period, and single adults now number 30% and climbing, as fewer and fewer people are willing to commit themselves to marriage. (Willard Harley, His Needs, Her Needs, p. 9)
What is happening to marriage? What causes love to grow cold and die? Is there anything that can be done to turn it around?

[Read the full posting in the first comment below.]

Finding true love

Three times Solomon’s bride says it: “Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires” (NIV), or “until the appropriate time” (HCSB). (Song of Solomon 2:7; 3:5; 8:4). She is saying, “True love waits until marriage! Don’t arouse sexual love until the proper time.” This is also implied several other times in the song, such as in 2:15 “catch the foxes that ruin the vineyards in bloom” (warning to stop the temptation to ruin the relationship too early) and 4:12 “you are a garden locked up” (referring to her virginity saved for marriage).
The Song of Solomon shows the shallowness of Hollywood’s view of love. Hollywood makes movies that say true love is all about sex. In the current movie, The Holiday, the stars of the movie hop in bed with each other almost immediately after they meet, and then after having sex many times, they discover true love.
I wonder what Solomon’s bride would say if she saw that movie? She would probably jump to her feet in the middle of the film, spill popcorn all over Solomon and shout, “Are you crazy? Don’t light the fire too soon or you’ll get burned!”
I know cohabitation is common in our society today, but it’s also common for Americans to eat too much and get up to their ears in debt. Just because it’s common doesn’t make it good for us.
You see, when you have sex with somebody, you have left part of your body with that person. You think that you can have sex with somebody you’re not married to, and then walk away from it without being hurt? You know what that’s like? Suppose it was 20 degrees outside, and there was a light pole covered in ice. Suppose you went up to that pole, stuck out your tongue, and let it freeze to that pole. Then you tried to rip your tongue loose and walk away. You could get loose, and you could walk away, but there’s no way you can do it without leaving a part of you behind. If you’ll forgive the pun, that’s just a “taste” of what it is like to have sex with somebody outside of marriage.
True love waits until marriage to give itself away.

The book my wife made me hide

I don't read romance novels. My wife does, but I don't. I like to read all kinds of books, but I don't read romance novels. In fact, I pride myself on the variety of books that I read. To illustrate, I'm currently reading William Demski's The Design Revolution about intelligent design, and I've recently read a huge biography of Benjamin Franklin, and some novels by Randy Singer and an inspirational book by Max Lucado. And of course, I read the Bible every day. I just started reading Blue Like Jazz, a kind of quirky spiritual book by Don Miller. So I think I can show that I read a variety of books. But until I came across Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers, I did not read romance novels.

So why did I read this one, especially when it is 467 pages long? Well, I was preaching through the Bible this year, and my mom said that Redeeming Love was the retelling of the story of Hosea in the Old Testament. So I started to read it, and found it engrossing. I recommended it to some ladies, and they came back to me with tears in their eyes saying they had bought it, read it, and it changed their lives. Meanwhile I was still making my way through the book myself. It was so captivating, that I couldn't put it down, but whenever I wanted to take it somewhere to read (like when I was waiting at the doctor's office), my wife would ask me not to take it out in public. The book cover is so feminine (see the picture here that I stole from amazon.com) that I guess she was afraid people would think I had turned into a sissy or something carrying the thing around. So I wanted to read it, but had to wait until I had time to read it around the house.

Anyway, I finished it. Wow! Imagine a PG-13 rated Western romance novel that makes you feel the constantly forgiving love of God right in the pit of your gut, and you have a slight idea of what it was like to read the book. Women will cry their eyes out. Guys will say, "Man, I wish I was like Michael Hosea." And everybody who reads it will say, "What an awesome God we have!"

For those skeptics who say I'm over the top to say "everybody who reads it," I would refer you to amazon.com, where over 300 people reviewed the book and the average rating was 5 stars out of 5 stars. Check it out, guys. It might make you fall in love with your wife all over again, and make you want to be a man of God.