New Lessons are Now Available

Being Fruitful As a Christian
(Class by Brayden Gillis)

You Will Never Fail
(Sermon by Shea Brown)

Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen
(Sermon by Dan Jenkins)

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Kick Start Your Summer:
Revive Our Love for the Bible
(Lesson by Kerry Burkey on Wednesday, June 24)

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Leadership Training Camp Lessons

As you look back on your life right now, from whatever phase of life you have reached, what is there that you haven’t seen?  Some might say, “Well, I’ve never seen the Alps…I’ve never seen a show on Broadway…I’ve never seen Paris…I’ve never seen the inside of a bar…I’ve never seen a moose…I’ve never seen Halley’s comet…I’ve never seen a grown man cry.”

In Psalm 37, King David told of something that he had never seen in his life.  He spoke of how the Lord establishes the steps of man, and “though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand” (37:23-24).  Then David said this in verse 25, “I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread.”

– David Sproule
Thought for the Day
July 3, 2009

We have just finished a remarkable Leadership Training Camp with some remarkable young people. This past Sunday our young ladies spoke to a ladies class and our young men spoke at our Sunday morning auditorium class and at our worship. It was thrilling to see the progress being made by each of them. Brayden Gilles challenged us to be more fruitful and I would like to share with you three comments from his lesson.

“It’s not very hard to bring someone to church, just ask them.” At first glance this might not seem especially important until we consider that so many are not doing this now and so many more have never done it at all. Let me ask you, when was the last time you “just asked them”? Have you considered the worst thing they could say to you is that they are not interested. That line from the movie Field of Dreams, “If we build it they will come,” probably doesn’t apply to a church building, but Brayden was simply saying, “If we ask them, they will come.”

We were sitting with a group of teenagers at dinner when the text messages started arriving one after another—“Michael Jackson has died.”  We verified the reports, then drove back to the building while radio announcers lamented the unexpected death of the King of Pop.  After some time one teen inquired, “Is this what it was like when Elvis died?”

Having not lived it, they wanted to know if there was any similarity.  Perhaps when Elvis died, some teenager asked, “Is this what it was like when JFK died?”  When JFK died, maybe some teen asked, “Is this what it was like when FDR died?”  Having not lived during that time, was there anything similar?  Perhaps such questions were asked when Lincoln died, when Napoleon died, when Caesar died, etc.  As time passes from generation to generation, the impact of individuals—their lives and their deaths—is soon forgotten.