not a fan, part 2

This message is the second in our current series, "Not a Fan". I pray the words would move you to follow Jesus on a deeper level.

 

 

ILLUSTRATION- Fine print in advertisements, no matter if they are on my television screen, or in print, drive me crazy!

(Some of you would argue that I don’t have far to go, but they drive me crazy nonetheless!)

Most of us have probably seen the fine print in the advertisements at least once in our life.

            Car companies are notorious for having fine print.

        They will advertise a beautiful new car and they will list off the wonderful specifications of this car, they will give us the price, and then tell us that only certain people qualify for this price.

            Cell phone companies also operate like this.

When a new phone comes out, they will cook up an amazing deal, and say that everyone is allowed to purchase the phone, but only certain people can purchase the new phone with the amazing deal. 

            It sure seems like whenever advertisers say “anyone is welcome” or “anyone can cash in on this deal” they don’t really mean “anyone”; there is almost always a catch. 

            In Luke 9:23, Jesus said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (NIV)

            When making the invitation to potential followers, Jesus says: Anyone is welcome.

            Because of the influence of advertising, whenever we hear the word “anyone” we automatically assume there is a catch; so I want to tell you that there is no catch, nor is there any fine print.

       There are no hidden fees, anyone means anyone.

            When Jesus said anyone, the crowds would have looked at His disciples and known that He meant anyone. Allow me to explain what I mean.

            To His society, Jesus was a Rabbi, and a rabbi was a teacher of God’s word, which in Jesus’ day was the Old Testament.

            Rabbi’s had extensive knowledge of the first 5 books of the Old Testament, as well as the writings of the prophets.

            Rabbis were also special because they had a group of students or disciples called Talmid (tal-meed).

        (Not to be confused with the Talmud, which was a collection of books and commentary complied by Jewish Rabbi’s)

            Every Rabbi had a class of students, but this class was limited only to the brightest and the best.

            In fact, the students that didn’t make the cut as a talmid, often went back into their family's business.

            Talmid’s had to have an impressive knowledge of the Scriptures and a rabbi could quiz a prospective student at any time, asking him to recite an entire book of the Old Testament, or to tell him the number of times the name of the Lord was used in the book of Leviticus.

            Rabbi’s had to be thorough because the excellence of the student reflected the excellence of the teacher.

         If a rabbi let just anyone in, it would be clear that he was not a sought after teacher.

            All of a sudden, Jesus shows up and changes the operating system, especially when it came to Talmid’s or students. He invited anyone to follow Him; anyone included a despised tax collector.

 

            When word gets out that a new Rabbi is picking followers at random, people start to wonder what’s up.

They come from all over to hear from this incredible Teacher named Jesus, but when they look at His disciples they must have been confused.

            They must have stepped back and scratched their heads and thought: “These are His students? They’re nobodies.

“Those two over there used to be fisherman, and that guy over there, he’s the local tax-collector!”

            When Jesus made the invitation for anyone to follow Him, people started to ponder this idea, people who didn’t make the cut to learn from another rabbi, could all of a sudden learn from Jesus.

            Why, even women could become students of Jesus—something that was completely unheard of with all the other rabbi’s.

            When people looked at Jesus’ followers, they realized that when Jesus said anyone, He was telling the world that 2) Anyone means everyone!  

            Though we may not verbalize it, we don’t always like the idea of the church being for everyone.

            We kind of like the church as it is. We like to keep things the same, while we may never admit to such a thing, especially in a group setting like this, we like the mantra that says “Us four and no more”

            But Luke 9:23 is here to remind us that there shouldn’t be any fine print; there shouldn’t be any exclusion clause.

         Everyone can come to Jesus, because Jesus laid down His life for everyone!

            When Jesus said anyone, He was 3) Getting rid of all the excuses.

            When Jesus invites anyone to follow Him, He gets rid of all the excuses people were hiding behind.

            Now tradespeople could follow Jesus without excuse. The drop out student couldn’t complain about his past any more.

            Jesus, with His open invitation, got rid of all of the reasons why ordinary people couldn’t follow God.

            Some of us in this room have been holding out on having a relationship with Jesus because we have an excuse.

It could be that your job takes up too much of your time, or you are hiding behind a past that you are not particularly proud of.

            But Jesus gets rid of everyone’s excuse with the word “anyone.”

            Anyone is welcome to have a relationship with Jesus.

            Sexual Past? Anyone.

            Ex-Con? Anyone.

            Recently divorced? Anyone.

            Alcoholic? Anyone.

            Addict? Anyone.

            Hypocrite? Anyone.   

            Anyone can follow Jesus, because He gets rid of the excuses we so often give for not following Him. Jesus said that anyone can follow Him.

            Now, we need to be ready for what can happen when we embrace the invitation to “Anyone.”

Because if anyone can come to church, that’ll kind of mess things up.  All of the sudden, the church gets filled with a lot of “un-churched” people.

If we really accept “Anyone” into our church to follow Christ, we’ll be forced to get out of our comfort zones and rub shoulders with people from different backgrounds; people who have different music collections than us; people whose wardrobes confuse or annoy us, even people who are hard to tolerate and even harder to love.

But followers of Jesus are willing to break down walls, and welcome “Anyone” into God’s family.

            When Jesus makes the invitation, he says, “Anyone.”

            So some of the people who respond to that invitation will have a past that you don’t approve of. Remember that you have a past that is less than nice, too

Some of the people who accept the open invitation of Jesus will have been involved in lifestyles you’d be embarrassed to hear about.

Remember: You made choices when you were younger that you are not particularly proud of either!

            Fans don’t know how to handle new people like that. Fans prefer things to be shallow and comfortable.

But followers are willing to listen, willing to hear stories of brokenness and sin and still welcome people with open arms.

            When Jesus makes His invitation, He welcomes anyone who would come after Him; but He also makes it clear that when you choose to follow, 4) it will cost you everything.

            Jesus “…said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23, NLT2)

            The open invitation is for anyone, but it will cost anyone, everything!

            Some of us are following Jesus, but have yet to give up everything.

Some of us are still enjoying the things we did before we became a follower of Jesus.

            To be a fully devoted follower of Christ means to turn away from your old way of living, and commit to following Jesus with all you have; it means to burn your plows.

            Elisha is a key person in the Old Testament. He performed more miracles than his predecessor, Elijah did, but all of that would not have been possible if Elisha had not put an end to His old life.

            What was his old life like? Ordinary in every sense of the word. He was an ordinary man who was out plowing a field when the Great man of God, Elijah, met him.

            Elijah comes to Elisha who is at work in the field, plowing the ground, and throws his cloak over him, signifying a call to the Greater Life that God had for him, and Elisha responded by setting his old life on fire:

            “So Elisha returned to his oxen and slaughtered them. He used the wood from the plow to build a fire to roast their flesh.” (1 Kings 19:21a, NLT2)

            God called Elisha to follow Him. Elisha obeyed the call and burnt everything that represented his former way of life, proving that anyone can come, but it demands everything.

            What do you need to burn? What do you need to let go of?

            When a talmid was finally accepted into a rabbi’s school, they would leave their homes, their jobs, whatever was holding them back, and they would go and follow the rabbi.

They would, literally, follow the rabbi wherever he went.

            If the rabbi decided to go to market, his students would follow. And if a rabbi decided to go to another town, his students would follow. If the rabbi needed to visit some sick in the area, his students would follow.

            Now, to follow the rabbi named Jesus, this would cost even more. Because if Jesus decided to live without a home, His students would follow.

And if Jesus decided to go among the sinners and the shameful, His students would follow. And if Jesus decided not to flee from persecution, His students would follow.

            The greatest teacher who ever lived, offers you the chance to become one of His students, and when He says anyone, He means everyone, with no excuses.

            While He makes this open invitation to everyone, He also points out that it will cost you everything.

            So what do you need to give up in order to follow Jesus? What plows do you need to burn?

            You should have received a blank piece of paper when you came in this morning, I would like for you to take it out now.

If you didn’t get one, raise your hand and we’ll see that you get one. If you need a pen let us know and we’ll see that you get one as well.

            I’d like for everyone to have a piece of paper…

If there is something that is keeping you from being a fully devoted follower of Jesus, then I want you to write that thing that is keeping you from following Jesus down on your paper.

            If money is keeping you from following Jesus completely, then write money on your paper.

If pornography is keeping you from following Jesus completely, write pornography on your paper.

If gossip is keeping you from following Jesus completely, write gossip on your paper.

if there is a person that is keeping you from following Jesus, then write that person's name on the paper, even if that name is your name.

            As we sing our closing song, I invite you to bring your piece of paper to the front of the church and place it on the altar.

            Taking this step will signify you burn your plows; it will signify your desire to become a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ.

            When you get home, you might have to take additional steps at burning your plows, but just take it one step at a time…

            No one is going to pressure you to do any of this; but Jesus makes it clear that while anyone can come to Him, it will cost you everything.

            Are you willing to accept the open invitation and follow The Rabbi?

 

Not a Fan, part 1

On Feb. 10th, we launched a new sermon series on the Ridge called "Not A fan". this post is the first sermon in the series. (I am sorry for posting it so late...) Enjoy, and, as always, I welcome your comments.

 

 

            Did any of you ever have a lemonade stand when you were younger? Did any of your children have lemonade stand when they were younger?

ILLUSTRATION- I tried this type of thing….once.

            It was a hot day in Silverwood, and I was bored out of my mind, and I decided that I would like to earn a little money, so I went inside and collected the necessary supplies and set up an orange Kool-Aid stand at the edge of my driveway.

            Because we didn’t live in a high-traffic area, I ended up drinking most, if not all, of my profit away. 

            I think I clued into the fact that I could never make it in the business of selling drinks at the side of the road, and quickly moved on to something else to end the summer boredom.

            These kind of ah-ha- moments aren’t unique to the business world. A much more common experience lies in the realm of relationships.

 

            Over the next several weeks, I want all of us to examine our relationship with Jesus.

            I understand that for some of you this is kind of like a first date; you have started coming to the Ridge and you are still not quite sure what to think of all that goes on here, but examining your relationship with Jesus, as casual as it may be, will still be of great benefit to you.

            I say that because all of us in this room need to have the DTR talk with Jesus. We need to find out where we stand with Jesus.

            To find that out, we will be using a verse that clearly lays out what it means to be a follower of Christ.

         It’s found in Luke 9:23 and it says: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (NIV)

            Most of you will welcome this DTR talk, because you are ready to move to a different level of commitment.

You’re ready to move past the casual and past the convenient into something more devoted, something more committed, so you are already looking forward to the next 6 weeks…

            But some of you are not.

            Some of you don’t want to DTR, because you like the set up that you’ve got going on with Jesus.

To you, He’s a nice guy who did some nice things, and you like coming to church because it gets you out of doing chores for an hour.

            You like what you have going on, and this idea of being more committed, the idea of taking your relationship with Jesus to a different level is a little frightening.

            I want to encourage those who feel like this to not tune me out, because doing a DTR with Jesus will literally save your life.

            So here’s a question I’d like all of us to consider. This is the key thought of the entire series: Are you a fan or a follower of Jesus? 

            You may be wondering why I would ask a question like that; after all we’re all followers of Jesus, right? Why else would we be here?  

            The word fan is defined as “an enthusiastic admirer”, and most, if not all of us are fans of different things.

ILLUSTRATION- Some of you know that I am a Third Day fan. If you don’t know who Third Day is, they are the best Christian Rock band on planet earth.

            I have been a Third Day fan since 1996 and I have seen them in concert 4 times.

        I have every CD they've ever put out.

        I’ve had my picture taken with them 3 times, I have 6 Third Day shirts, 3 Third Day hats, one Third Day tour jacket, 2 guitar Picks, and their autograph on just about everything imaginable, including an electric guitar.

            I know a lot about Third day, because I am one of their fans.

            If we are not careful, our church has the potential to become a building full of fans: people who know about Jesus, but don’t actually know Jesus.

            Jesus never really cared about having fans, especially if our definition of a fan is “an enthusiastic admirer”, fans weren’t all that important to Jesus.

            But we in the church tend to gravitate toward fans. We come to church, sit down in “our” seat, evaluate the sermon and give the song service a thumbs up or a thumbs down—and we do this week after week!

            Being a fan feels pretty good, but Jesus never wanted fans, He wanted—and still wants today—followers.

            As we Define The Relationship with Jesus, there are three questions for us to consider, and the first is: Why are you here?

            If you read through the Gospels, Jesus, at different points in His ministry would draw a line in the sand and He would separate the fans and the followers.

            One such instance is John chapter 6.

Jesus is at the height of His ministry, and we read that large crowds were following Him.

            Jesus was very popular. He was preforming miracles, He was healing people and feeding people with 5 loaves of bread and two small fish, and a lot of people in the crowd were following Jesus.

            But Jesus, in verse 2, realizes why the people were coming to Him: “a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick.” (John 6:2, NIV)

            The main reason the people were showing up was because of the spectacle; they didn’t care much about the teaching as much as they did for the performance.

            So, why are you here? Is it because you think our seats are really comfortable, or you really like the music, or the preachers are a little better here…?

            All of these reasons are awesome, but eventually you will have to DTR with Jesus. Eventually you will be asked to go deeper with Jesus.

            This is what Jesus did in John chapter 6. He challenged the fans into a deeper life with Him; into a more intimate relationship with Him and in verse 66 we read:

        “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” (John 6:66, NIV)

            A lot of the people when home because Jesus defined the relationship and what He offered was not what they wanted.

            So, to answer the Why Are You Here question—you’re here right now because Jesus wants to have a relationship with you.

You’re not here today by mistake or because you had nothing else to do, you’re here because someone prayed for you, because that someone wants you to be more than a fan of Jesus.

            Please don’t turn your back on Jesus, instead turn to Him, turn to Him and allow Him to define your relationship.

            The second question we need to consider is: Are you all in?

            Being a follower of Jesus requires complete commitment. A follower of Jesus will do whatever it takes to follow Jesus. They are absolutely loyal; completely committed.

            Sometimes we don’t do well with this kind of absolute commitment. Sometimes we customize our Christianity.

            We tend to look at our relationship with Jesus and say: “I’m going to follow Jesus, but I’m going to pick and choose the areas that I want to follow Him in.”

            For example:

            We say that we follow Jesus, but don’t ask me to forgive that person who wronged me—no sirie! O, I love Jesus but I’m not going to forgive that person…

            Or:

            I love Jesus, but don’t talk to me about money! It’s MY MONEY, and I earned it, and I’ll spend it how I want to spend it!

            Or:

            I love Jesus but I’m going to talk about you behind your back. I love Jesus but I’m going to tell the world what you did. To that person. 15 years ago.

            A customized Christianity says: I follow Jesus but only in the areas that I agree with; only in the areas that I’m comfortable with. I’m a Christian, but I’m not all in.

            Friends, this is not being a follower of Jesus; this is being a fan.

            To follow Jesus means to follow Jesus; there is no bargaining, no bartering, and no backing up.

            When you decide to become a follower of Jesus, you’ve got to go all in. Fans don’t like the idea of going all in, but followers know that it’s the only way to live.

            Jesus said: "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:62, NIV)

            Are you all in? Are you a completely committed follower of Jesus, or are you just a fan?

            This brings us to our last question to consider: Have you made it your own?

            In order to move from fan to follower, you’ve got to make this faith your own. You can’t buy this faith at Estyes. You can’t work for it at the Mill. You can only become a follower of Jesus by faith.

            The Bible tells us in Romans 10:9: “If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (NIV)

            To move from fan to follower means accepting the work of Jesus on the cross for yourself.

Your spouse, friend, co-worker or seat-mate can’t accept Jesus for you, only you can move from fan to follower.

            Have you made Jesus your very own?

            As we begin this series, I want to encourage those who are followers of Jesus to keep following Jesus!

         Just because you’ve surrendered your life to Him doesn’t mean that He’s finished with you.

You are still a work in progress; there are still areas in your life that need the transforming power of Jesus Christ.

So, commit again to being a fully devoted follower of Jesus, and take up your cross and follow Jesus, don’t look back, keep on the narrow path that leads to life.

If there are fans of Jesus in our midst today, (and I pray there is) I want to encourage you to truly consider your relationship with Jesus.

He can and wants to radically change your life if you will only commit to move away from being a fan of Jesus to becoming a follower of Jesus.

Jesus said to the crowd: “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23, NLT2)

Jesus isn’t looking for a fan club; He’s looking for completely devoted followers.

If you would like to move from being a fan of Jesus, to being a follower of Jesus, today is your grace-filled day. Moving from fan to follower begins by:

Admitting that you have sinned. (Romans 3:23)

By believing that Jesus Christ died for you. (John 1:12)

Confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord of your life. (Romans 10:9-10)

(BAND TO COME)

If you want to move from fan to follower today, as we prepare to sing our last song, I want to invite you to stand where you are, or to raise your hand, or even find a friend and come to the front of the church…

Jesus isn’t looking for fans; He’s looking for followers, and if you want to become a follower of Jesus, know that “Today is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor. 6:2, NLT2) 

As we sing this song, I want to encourage you to respond to the invitation of moving from Fan to Follower as you'd like.

 

Out of Africa

This post is an update from my recent trip to Ghana and Burkina Faso. I'm sorry I can't post the photos, but give me a call and I'll share them with you.

Out of Africa 2013

Missions Trip Report

Sunday, February 3^rd 2013- MRWC

 

            I once heard someone remark that one of the hardest things about being a professional speaker is knowing what not to say; of knowing what to leave out.

            I would have to agree with this statement. How can I take 18 days of ministry and boil it down into a 17 minute presentation, and all at the same time, hope to have you leave here, excited with what God is doing around the world?

            I’m not completely sure, but I will do my best, so as we get under way, I would direct your attention to a little slide show I’ve put together.

 

ILLUSTRATION- I am a local church pastor who believes that “the Local Church is the Hope of the World” (Hybels)

            Whether that Local church happens to be here on the Ridge, or in the West African Countries of Ghana or Burkina Faso, it doesn’t much matter, because the Local Church is the hope of the world.

            This was the primary reason for me leaving my family and church and traveling over 64 hours in a tin can filled with Jet fuel, to train and teach pastors in the Wesleyan Church of Ghana.

            Allow me to give you a brief history of the church in Ghana before I dive into some of the memorable moments of my trip.

            The Wesleyan Church in Ghana is one of the newest mission’s fields that The Wesleyan Church is responsible for.

        It came to us via merger with the Standard Church in Ontario several years ago, and giving leadership to the church in Ghana is Rev. Joe Ocran.

            Joe, and his wife Jemima, left Ghana to come to Canada in the late 70's, and both were prepared to spend the rest of their lives working and living in Canada.

       Of course, God had other plans.

            In 1990, the Orcan’s packed up their belongings and made the return voyage back to Ghana.

       This was met with questions from their people, as no one leaves Ghana only to come back again.

            Joe informed them that God had called them back to Ghana to plant churches, and a little over 23 years later, The Wesleyan Church has over 50 churches and preaching points in Ghana.

            Rev. Ocran has for some time, felt the need to move beyond Ghana with the Good News, and recently they have planted a church in Burkina Faso.

            Because the work in Ghana and BF is relatively new, there is little or no training for pastors.

            This was the primary reason for me going on this trip, to teach and train my African brothers and sisters how to do the job that I love to do.

            So with that little background, allow me to share some highlights of the trip.

            After arriving in Ghana on January 8^th, we got about 5 hours of sleep, and then climbed into our home away from home (Photo of van) for the 14 hour trip to the Northern part of Ghana  to a city called Tamale.

            On Thursday morning, we walked into the Presbyterian Lay Training center and met 18 pastors seeking district licencing.

            For the next week, we interacted with them, prayed for them, listened to them, and yes, I will say it, we—myself included—even taught them.

            The course that I was asked to teach was “the role of the pastor” and because I like to make things interesting, we spent some time role playing.

            I had my students perform a wedding, a communion service, a deliverance service, and even a funeral. (Photo of funeral)

            We had a great week of teaching these pastors  the two courses they will need to obtain their licences to pastor their respective churches. (Show photo)

            Two of our students in our class, happened to be the pastors of our church plant in Burkina.

            This Pastor Issah and Pastor Theophilus. The way they met is nothing short of a God thing.

            Pastor Issah is a native of Ghana, and has believed for some time that God wanted him to plant a church in Burkina, but he knew he couldn’t do it alone.

          So he began to pray for God to send a helper, someone who lives in the spot where the church was to be planted

            All the while Pastor Issah was praying, Pastor Theophilus was also praying that TWC of Ghana would come to his country and plant a church.

            When Rev. Ocran and Pastor Issah took an exploratory trip to Burkina, they came face to face with Theophilus, and they have been working together to plant the Ouagadougou Wesleyan Church.

            Don’t you love it when God brings two people together?

            So, here it is; the very church that we are helping to plant. (Show Photo)

            On the Sunday we were there, 71 people attended service that morning, and one baby was dedicated to God for His service! (Show Photo)

            During the week, the church building is being used for a public school, and 111 students are enrolled. (photo)

Already, our efforts are paying off. Not only is our church offering a public school to the children in the area, 8 people have been baptized since the church opened in August! 8!!!

As you can probably see, the church is made primarily of mud bricks. (Photo)

This is fine for the next few months, but when the rainy season comes, the church could potentially be washed away, so the need to finish the church with plaster and cement is very real.

The cost to fully finish the church is $1000; this will do the inside, the outside and the floor.

When you give to missions at our church, you will be helping this church reach more people for Jesus.

Another encouraging word about our church plant in Burkina is that they have already planted 2 more churches!

We had an opportunity to visit one of the two, and while they are not quite the size of the mother church, the potential is there for many more changed lives.

We left Burkina Faso on Sunday afternoon encouraged and excited for the lives that have been changed, and for what God is doing, and will continue to do through the local church!

Speaking of life change, our team had the opportunity to attend a showing of the Jesus film. (Photos)

After travelling two hours to our village destination of choice, the chief of the village was asked if the film could be shown, and he said: “Who am I to stop the work of the Living God?!”

Unfortunately the equipment didn’t work properly and only the video was working, but Pastor Isaac was able to describe the events of the film to the people, and many of them were seeing and hearing the Gospel for the first time.

After a few more technical difficulties, the movie had to be stopped at the half way point, but without missing a thing, Pastor Isaac continued on with the message of the Good News, and invited people to receive Jesus.

All of a sudden, I was standing in the middle of 50+ people who were ready to give their lives to Jesus and we prayed the sinner’s prayer, and they were welcomed into the Kingdom of heaven.

We made sure to get their names for follow up, and the following Sunday, Pastor Isaac held church there for the first time!

 God was once again at work through the Local Church.

Well, it wasn’t all about work, we did have some time off, and when we did, we made use of it.

One of the things we did was to get up close and personal with a crocodile. Not just one. Not just two. Or five. At my count, there were at least 7 crocs, with 15 more in the water before us.

After the crocs were taunted with a chicken (photo), we were given the opportunity to sit on his back and have our photo taken. (show my photo and the group photo) 

I’m happy to report that no one on our team lost a limb, and we all lived to see another day.

The chickens on the other hand, that’s a different story. (If you want to see that video, I can show you later…)

One of the low lights of our trip was when we traveled to the Cape-Cost of Ghana to visit the Slave castles.

It was at this very place that African men and women were traded to the Europeans in exchange for money and other goods.

We were told that of the 40 million slaves to have entered these castles, less than 20 million made it to their destination.

They were either killed in the castles, or on the way to their place of slavery.

As I was touring the castles, my mind thought of two things.

I thought about were the words found in Jeremiah 17 “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9, NIV)

What I saw was evidence of how low the human race could go, but I also thought of how The Wesleyan Church was one of the first denominations that took a stand against the slave trade!

I need to tell you that I was proud to be a Wesleyan in that moment!

The Local church truly is the hope of the world.

ILLUSTRATION- In an interview with Observer Music Monthly Magazine, Elton John stated: “From my point of view I would ban religion completely.

       Organized religion doesn’t seem to work. It turns people into really hateful lemmings and it’s not really compassionate.

            Now, I’m not a fan or Sir Elton, but I think he’s way out in left field here.

            I’ve travelled to Africa 3 times now, and in that time I saw wells dug by organized religions, hospitals and orphanages that were operated by faith-based organizations and schools that were funded and operated by various churches. (Txs to Denn Guptill for his help on this illustration)

            In all of my travels, I did not see one school, one hospital, one orphanage,  owned or operated by “rock stars”.

            What I did see was the church—the Bride of Christ—step up and meet the needs of the people.

            As I said at the start, I am a local church pastor who believes that “the local church is the hope of the world”

            I saw the local church at work and how lives are being transformed by the saving power of Jesus Christ.

            So thank-you to those of you who prayed for me and for my team as we travelled half way around the world to see the hand of God at work.

        A lot could have gone wrong, but it didn’t because you were praying for us.

            Thank-you also to each one who gave financially toward this trip. I could not have gone, I could not have seen, or did what I did, without your financial assistance, so thank-you.

            While I am a local church pastor, I did leave a peace of my heart in the West African Countries of Ghana and Burkina Faso, and I will have to return their one day soon.