One Year!!!

Well friends, yesterday was my one year anniversary of living in Clarksdale and serving as full time Youth and Evangelism pastor of Oakhurst Baptist Church. I've always heard that each year you should set goals for yourself as a minster and follow up on those goals at the end of that year. Well its time for evaluation. Last June 1st, when I started, I really wanted to see a few things happen. First and foremost I wanted to build relationships with the students. I had been commuting for over a year and it was hard to really invest the way I wanted to from a distance. Looking back over the past year I feel that many relationships have flourished. This is no way means that I have fulfilled my task and its time to move on. Ministry is about people and I will always strive to continue building and bridging until the Lord takes me home. 

I also desired that God would grow our group qualitatively and I feel that he has. I've seen tremendous spiritual growth in many of the students and that is one of the greatest answers to prayers I've ever received. The Lord has saw fit to grow us quantitatively as well. Of course, some times are better than others, but as a whole God has grown our numbers by the truck loads. 

The Lord has blessed our year with so many great moments of ministry. We had a successful fifth quarter and an awesome Fall Retreat. RAKE has grown along with Youth Nights and we have our first self-organized (in-house) mission trip in a few weeks. Wow, God has been good! 

In the last year I've seen a church (Oakhurst) that never treats its staff any less than they did the first day we arrived. In the last year, I've had many visits from members bringing great food, gifts and blessings. Finally, God saw fit to bless my wife and I with a child in this last year.  If this next year is only half as good as the first, than I still have a lifetime of gratitude for all that I've experienced. So what are the goals for next year? Hopefully, we can do all that we've done and more. Thank you God and Oakhurst for making this year so great.

Hang in there...

Hello everyone,

    Sorry about not blogging lately. Its been a very crazy two weeks for me. I had the Clarksdale Crusade this week, I am officiating my sister's wedding this weekend (so I've been preparing a sermon and slide show) and I am in another wedding in two weeks; not to mention my Wed. night preparations and regular duties. Anyway, its been a wild time for me. So, i figured I would just write and give you and update on my life. Sarah and I went to have a 3D ultra sound the other day and now Know for sure that its' a boy!!!! We were a little skeptical at first because we were told a couple of different things, however, Wesley Shane is well on his way to being born. Last weekend Sarah's mom and step dad came and brought us our furniture we ordered and carpet for the nursery. It looks so cute. Wow, I'm not even a daddy yet and already sounding less masculine. Excuse me, I meant to say his room looks cool and tough. Sarah has been doing well. She hasn't really complained all that much to be honest. I know I sure would be if I couldn't see my own toes. It really is a neat thing to watch. Sarah feels that she is not as attractive anymore, but I think seeing her pregnant with my son is hot. Pretty funny huh? Pray for us as we travel to Orange Beach Alabama this weekend and as I pronounce my sister a wife to her husband. Again, sorry for the delay in blogging. Stay tuned for more once I return.

Baby got BITE!!!!

You know its funny that this little kid would stick his finger back in Charlie's mouth after he had already bit him once. Obviously, the first time didn't really affect him so much. However, when he stuck his little finger in Charlie's mouth that second time he got a little more than he bargained for. 

Sin works the same way sometimes. There are times that we choose to indulge in sinful acts and there are seemingly no consequences of that action, which leads us back to that same indulgence. However, the second time will prove to be a different experience. Sure, it may be fun at the beginning, but inevitably there is pain that follows. Now, I understand that this little kid's ability to reason through decisions may not be mature, but ours are. In a spiritual sense, if it looks like there's potential for pain, than turn away and never give it a chance to prove itself of its appearance. Look at it this way, sin is a mouth that has vicious teeth; what do you think would happen if you stuck your finger in it?

Little Drummer boy

Whether you're a music lover or not I think this little clip will stimulate your mind for a while. Keep in  mind that this little boy is about 12 years and allow yourself to get impressed. I know its not that spiritual but, entertaining none-the-less. Enjoy!

Tolerance in the Church

Do we tolerate too much in the Church today? Does the Biblical description of the New Testament Church portray it as one who sweeps sin under the rug or as a Church that deals with sin through discipline and confrontation? I know that its not popular these days to confront the issue of sin when it is running rampant throughout the body of Christ, but does that excuse us from doing it? The Bible makes no exceptions when it tells us to deal with sin in the body. Sure we can preach it from the pulpit, but thats not really singling anyone out now is it. If you didn't realize, the Bible is offensive and calls for sinners to repent. Its one thing to allow a non-christian, that has a loose lifestyle,  to attend a worship service and not confront them, but its another issue to treat a "member" of the church the same way. Unfortunately, we've become dangerously tolerant of sin. Maybe its because we're calloused towards it in our own lives or maybe its because we want to leave it to someone else like the pastor or other ministers in the church. Churches in America would look a great deal different today if we followed the Matthew 18 model of church discipline. What would it look like and how would it affect us to actually call an unrepentant sinner to repentance? What would be the outcome of going to your brother and sister in Christ to tell them, in love, that they are in sin and need to repent and move on? Well, it would look like the Bible's description of a Church. There are churches now that are allowing homosexuals to be the pastors of their Churches. What a dangerously audacious notion that directly defies the word of God. Below is an interview with Al Mohler (president of Southern Seminary) and some homosexual leaders of other churches. Please watch and consider the position that we are in as the Church today.

In honor of April Fools!!!

For those of you who haven't heard the story yet, allow me to impart what might have been one of the best pranks every pulled. 

The clown you see in this picture, as horrific as it might be, is the clown that was pretty much the culmination to an eventful day in the life of seminary apartment highjinks. Let me start from the beginning. My former beloved roommates during Seminary were Ben Adkison and Stephen Burks. Well, Stephen, as fun as he was to live with, was most definitely the instigator of the roommates. Naturally, he that instigates shall receive the consequences and repercussions of his actions. One particular Saturday Stephen was planning to head out of town for the day to visit his girlfriend (now his wife) and be back that night some time. Ben had the great idea of painting Stephen's room pink when he left that morning. What a great idea!!!! I exclaimed. So, we bought some HOT PINK paint, cleared his room of all furniture and called the friends. You see, everyone wanted to get Stephen back for something. Its always good to see a jokester get joked. Anyway, Stephen left and the painting began. It didn't take us long and we were done, but something was still missing. So we painting unicorns on his walls. We also painted lace around his window seals and other things you might see in a little girls room. Once that, among other ideas, were done, we were still missing something. 

We decided to call up a friend of ours who happened to be an artist. She came over and said what would like me to paint. Well, imagine our little brains going into over drive just thinking of what we could put on his wall. Then it came to us. STEPHEN HATES CLOWNS, so what better to put on his wall. Anyway, we told her what we wanted and what you see above this text is the clown that Jennifer painted. Pretty neat huh? Well, we laughed, took pictures and opened our home to many observers having heard the word until finally, it was time for Stephen to arrive. Well, lets just say that Stephen had a hard time sleeping in his room for a while. I would honestly hear him across rooms at night talking to himself. Finally, I asked him who he was talking to at night. He said the clown. The only way for him to get over his fear was to threaten the clown every night before he went to sleep. Hope you enjoyed it. If you've heard of other good pranks, please let me know. 

Text Messaging.....Mental Illness?

Recently, I was given some extremely interesting news concerning text messaging. In short,  addiction to text messaging could be linked to a mental disorder according to the American Journal  Psychiatry. The article was written by Dr. Jerald Block who says that there are a number of  symptoms that could be indications of mental illness. One of these symptoms is going into withdrawals when you cannot access your phone. Another is an increased need for better equipment/phone. The list continues but you kind of see where this is leading. You do realize if this is actually true than we have a student ministry comprised of mental problems. I feel confident in the fact that I do not fall into the mental illness category because, although I text the students, I feel absolutely no withdrawals if I don't text. However, I don't believe the same can be said for others who shall remain nameless. 

According to a report called "Media and Communication" they found that the avg. student in Australia ranging from the age of 15-17 spends 30 minutes a day texting. Wow... I believe that's considerably low compared to our wonderful students who consider texting to be the equivalent to life-support. Of course I'm just kidding around with you guys, but you've got to admit that it does stir up some interest. If you're interested in seeing a video concerning text messaging please go to 

http://money.cnn.com/video/#/video/news/2008/03/28/news.harlow.wierdbiz.cnnmoney. I believe you'll find it interesting. So, the question is posed. Do think addiction to texting could be a mental illness. In my opinion where do you draw the line? If addiction to texting is a mental illness than is addiction to caffeine a mental illness as well? It would seem that taking that stance would mean that any addiction could be labeled a mental illness.  I would love to here your thoughts.