The hardest thing I've ever done...

This morning I announced to my church that I would be leaving at the end of this Conference year. This has been one of the most agonizing decisions I’ve ever had to make. It was difficult, not because I didn’t know what the will of the Lord was, but because of the love I have for the people of my church. For nearly eight years I have served as their Pastor. When we first came to our church my wife and I had only been married about a week and a half. I had just graduated from college and was full of zeal but I’m not sure how much brains :-) Yet, my people loved us and treated me with the same kind of respect that would have treated someone who had been pastoring for 50 years. The people of this church have stood with us through thick and thin. They have loved us and treated us very well. We are not leaving because of any problems or because we are seeking someplace “bigger” or “better.” We are leaving because we know that God is leading us on. Where that place is we do not know at this point but we firmly believe that God will direct our paths as we seek His will regarding our future. We would appreciate your prayers!

Below I’m embedded my sermon from this mornings service. At the end of the message I made the announcement we would be leaving. (Sorry if it sounds a little funny – I don’t have very good recording equipment)

So true and I’m guilty…

Over at the Arminian Today blog there’s a great post today entitled “We'll Do Anything To AVOID Evangelism.” The author makes some great points in his article and I confess that I have been guilty far too many times.

For example: a couple of weeks ago I was flying home after speaking at a youth convention about witnessing and while aboard the plane I sat next to a man and woman, while their daughter and son-in-law sat in front of me. I’m not a naturally chatty person and so most of the time when I’m flying a sit quietly and read. About half way through the flight the lady who I was sitting next to moved up a seat and sat next to her daughter. I had noticed that they all seemed to be very sad. I wasn’t trying to be nosy but I could see through the gap between the seats that the daughter opened her laptop and connected via the in-flight wifi to Facebook. She than began to send out messages concerning the death of her brother. He was the police officer from North Georgia who was tragically killed recently when his car became stuck in the mud and then somehow began to roll and pinned him against a tree.

So, there I was sitting right among this grieving family on the airplane. Now I’m feeling odd because I’ve discovered all of this about them without trying to be nosy but just seeing what was going on in front of me and listening to their talking. So now I began to wonder if I should say something to them and introduce myself as a pastor. In my mind I went back and forth…should I say something or would they think I was being nosy and prying into their business…? So I battled back in forth in my mind.

But, instead of just introducing myself and being friendly I sat there quietly. Then I had a bright idea. I was reading a commentary and so I thought that I would try to make it obvious what I was reading and hope that the step-father (who was still sitting a seat over from me) would notice what I was reading.
So there I was. Right in the middle of a great opportunity to be a witness for Christ and I sat there like a coward and didn’t open my mouth.

Finally, he noticed what I was reading – but it was too late. Our plane had landed in Atlanta and as we stood up to leave, as I was putting away my commentary, he noticed what I had been reading and asked me, “Are you a priest or a pastor or something?” I told him I was a pastor. He started to cry and say “I wish I would have known. I wish I would have known!” Then he handed me a clipping of a newspaper story about his stepson, told his wife and children I was a pastor, and told me the had come to Georgia to attend the funeral. I read the article and handed it back and expressed by condolences and assured them I would be praying for them. By this time everyone was getting off of the plane and then they were gone…

I missed a golden opportunity to be a witness because I was too cowardly to open my mouth! As I walked away from the plane I cried out in my heart begging God to forgive me for failing to be a testimony for Him!

So, yes I must confess that I’m guilty (and to think I had just spoken on witnessing!!)…I am so ashamed of myself and embarrassed to even admit all of this. But, hopefully I learned a valuable lesson from it…may God help me to be a better witness for Him and to open my mouth – even when it means getting out of my comfort zone!

Declaring His Glory - Among All People!

Currently I am reading American Saint: Francis Asbury and the Methodists(which is a great book by the way). Today as I was reading I read how in 1790 African-American's made up 20% of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In some places there was an even greater percentage than this! In the district that Francis Asbury knew the best they represented over 30% of the members in 1787. What is amazing about this is that this was when slavery was very common. Yet the Methodists reached out to the blacks in order to win them for Christ.

In 1780 at General Conference the Methodists had declared that slavery was "contrary to the law of God, man, nature, and hurtful to society; contrary to the dictates of conscience, and pure religion, and doing that which we would not others would do unto us and ours."

In 1784 the Methodist Episcopal Church in America became independent of the Anglican Church and at the first Conference of the newly independent Church they put even further restrictions on slave ownership. The Discipline printed in 1785 stated the following about slave ownership:

We view it as contrary to the Golden Law of God on which hang all the Law and the Prophets, and the unalienable Rights of Mankind, as well as every Principle of the Revolution, to hold in the deepest Debasement, in a more abject Slavery than is perhaps to be found in any Part of the World except America, so many Souls that are all capable of the Image of God

Blacks joined the Methodist Church in great numbers. But, they not only joined in great numbers they also preached and led in the Church. One such preacher was a man named Harry Hosier who was known as "Black Harry."

Thomas Coke, who along with Asbury were the first Bishop's of the American Methodist Church, said this about Hosier's preaching: “I really believe he is one of the best preachers in the world, there is such an amazing power attends his preaching, though he cannot read; and he is one of the humblest creatures I ever saw.”

Henry Boehm, a Methodist preacher, said “Harry was very black, an African of the Africans. He was so illiterate he could not read a word. He would repeat the hymn as if reading it, and quote his text with great accuracy. His voice was musical, and his tongue as the pen of a ready writer. He was unboundedly popular, and many would rather hear him than the bishops.”

"Black Harry" became Francis Asbury's traveling partner. One nineteenth-century historian said this about Harry's travels with Asbury, "The truth was, that Harry was a more popular speaker than Mr. Asbury, or almost any one else in his day."

Obviously there were problems that would come in regards to the slaves and the Methodist Church which would lead to an eventual split in 1842 by a group of churches which became the Wesleyan Methodist Church.

The reason I have shared all of this is because I am troubled by the lack of outreach to, and the numbers of, African-American's in our "holiness churches." I am writing this post specifically in regards to the group I am a part of which is known as the "conservative holiness movement."

When I read of how the Methodist Church of 1790 was 20% African-American and then I think of the holiness movement I am a part of it troubles me greatly! Where are the holiness African-American's that should be part of us? Unfortunately there are very few, largely because I believe we have done very little to reach them. We believe we have the Message of the Bible - the Message of Full Salvation from sin - yet, we who claim to love God with all of hearts and our neighbor as ourselves have done very little (by in large) to reach our neighbor's in the African-American community! Unfortunately there are many "holiness" churches who frankly do not want blacks attending. Perhaps they may not come right out and say this in so many words but by their actions they show otherwise...

The Conference I am apart of is the Alabama Conference of the Bible Methodist Connection of Churches. As far as I know (and I hope I am mistaken) there is not one member of any of our churches who is African-American! Our Conference is located (for the most part) in the deep South where they are surrounded by African-American's and yet after 44 years of existence we have no black members? I am not trying to throw stones so please don't mistake this post. I am posting this to hopefully raise an awareness that it's time for us to open our eyes and see that the fields are ready for Harvest!

Thankfully there are many of our churches who are reaching out to the African-American's in their communities and in the last few years our annual youth camp has probably been nearing 30 to 40% African-American young people. This is extremely exciting to me!

However, it is time for all of the conservative holiness movement to catch the vision and reach out to those around about them - regardless of color. It is time for us to truly be "holiness people" and show the love of God to everyone around us! Surely we who claim to be entirely sanctified and filled with "perfect love" should be leading the way on this issue. I look forward to the day when I will attend the Inter-Church Holiness Convention and find it filled with blacks, whites, and Hispanics all worshiping God together in the Spirit of Holiness! The theme for this years convention is "Declare His Glory: Among All People" may God help us to do just that!

Mission Accomplished! The roof has been replaced!

Below is the text from a message I sent out today for all of the Churches and individuals who contributed towards our Church roof project. I thought I would post the message here as well. I really want to let everyone who prayed for us or gave towards the project to know that I appreciate it more than words could ever express! I am truly overwhelmed at the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord and His people as the result of how this project came together. I love the Family of God!

The Church roof is finally completed! We are so grateful to the Lord for supplying and for the generosity of His people for being so willing to give to help others!

I remember so well the feeling of knowing that the roof had to be replaced yet also knowing that we had no money to do the job. Yet, I knew that God is faithful. Our “theme” chorus at Cordele is “My God is Enough” and once again He has proved that to be true!

In the picture above you can see the completed project – a roof with all of the same color shingles, and hopefully no leaks! In the picture on the left you can see the section of roof where they added on to so that it would not be so flat. This section of the roof covers the Junior Church classroom and from what I understand they have had problems with this part leaking since almost right after it was originally built. We have tried various “fixes” over the years but hopefully now the problem is resolved!

We plan to now begin work on the inside of the Church. There are many discolored places in the sanctuary and classrooms from where the roof has been leaking and in some places portions of the ceiling have been falling. Over the next couple of months we plan on repairing these places and repainting the sanctuary. We also are going to be doing some landscaping on the exterior of the Church and we hope to make the place look much more inviting to the community. The biggest part of this “battle” is over – the roof is fixed! I considered taking a victory shout around the building to celebrate the completion of the roof! I feel like so a large burden has finally been rolled off of our shoulders!

This is due to so many Churches and individual’s generosity and we want all of you to know just how much we appreciate all that has been given to help our Church. As the roofers were loading up their things to leave this afternoon I took my camera out to take these pictures. As I was taking the pictures I stopped by the mailbox to get the mail. It has now been sometime since I had received any checks towards the project. God had supplied and so many gave and now a couple of months have gone by since the last time I received a check. But today as I was taking pictures of the completed roof I went to the mailbox and inside I found another check for $250! It was as if God said to me, “See, I told you I would provide.” Tears are running down my face as I type this and once again I want to just let everyone know how much we appreciate you!

Thanks so much!

Pastor Jon Earls & the Cordele Ga. Bible Methodist Congregation

Happy Valentines Day!

I’m so thankful for my wonderful wife! She has been such a tremendous support and help to me and I love her more today than I ever have before! I love how two people can become one in marriage and that is exactly what has happened with us. Love you honey!!

Law & Grace

Last week I spoke at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Convention on witnessing and in the session I spoke about the importance of using the Law to bring conviction of sin and the whole idea of “Law to the proud – Grace to the humble.” Below are a few quotes from some the greatest preachers in history. With the Bible being so clear on this issue and history showing us the results of using the Law to bring conviction, how is it that we seem to miss this today? Instead most preaching is of the lovey-dovey , “God has a wonderful plan for your life,” variety. May God help me to be faithful to speak the Truth about sin, righteousness, and judgment and then when hearts are convicted to share the glorious Truth about Christ’s sacrifice on their behalf!

Martin Luther said, "The first duty of the Gospel preacher is to declare God's Law and show the nature of sin, because it will act as a schoolmaster and bring him to everlasting life which is in Jesus Christ."

Charles Spurgeon, who is known as the "Prince of Preachers," said, "They will never accept grace until they tremble before a just and holy Law."

Charles Finney said, "Evermore the Law must prepare the way for the Gospel; to overlook this in instructing souls is almost certain to result in false hope, the introduction of a false standard of Christian experience, and to fill the church with false converts."

John Wycliffe said , "The highest service to which a man may attain on earth is to preach the Law of God."

D.L. Moody said, "God being a perfect God, had to give a perfect Law, and the Law was given not to save men, but to measure them." He also said, "It is a great mistake to give a man who has no been convicted of sin certain passages that were never meant for him. The Law is what he needs...Do not offer the consolation of the Gospel until he sees and knows he is guilty before God. We must give enough of the Law to take away all self-righteousness. I pity the man who preaches only one side of truth - always the gospel and never the Law"

J.C. Ryle said, "People will never set their faces decidedly towards Heaven and live like pilgrims, until they really feel that they are in danger of Hell...Let us expound and beat out the 10 commandments, and show the length, and breadth, and depth, and height of their requirements. this is the way of our Lord in the sermon on the mount. We can not do better than to follow His plan."

Paris Reidhead said, "If I had my way, I would declare a moratorium on the public preaching of "the plan of salvation" in America for one or two years. Then I would call on everyone who has use of the airwaves and the pulpits to preach the holiness of God, the righteousness of God and the Law of God until sinners would cry out, "What must we do to be saved?" Then i would take them off into a corner and whisper the gospel to them. Such drastic action is needed because we have gospel-hardened a generation of sinners by telling them how to be saved. Don't use John 3:16. Why? Because you tell a sinner how to be saved before he realized that he needs to be saved. You have gospel-hardened him."

John Wesley said, "Before I preach love, mercy and grace, I must preach sin, Law and judgment." He later advised a friend, "Preach 90 percent Law and 10 percent grace." What percentage is your preaching? Remember God has called us all to be His witnesses so this applies to all of us!

Vanishing Christianity

“Liberal Protestantism, in its determined policy of accommodation with the secular world, has succeeded in making itself dispensable.” That was the judgment of Thomas C. Reeves in The Empty Church: The Suicide of Liberal Protestantism, published in 1996. Fast-forward another fourteen years and it becomes increasingly clear that liberal Protestantism continues its suicide — with even greater theological accommodations to the secular worldview.”

So begins an insightful post by Albert Mohler called “Vanishing Christianity — A Lesson from the Presbyterians” which can be reading by clicking here.

Lots of thoughts churning after reading this post, perhaps I’ll blog further on this in the future when I have more time…

Calvinist Dictionary

Click here to read Kevin Jackson’s hilarious Calvinist Dictionary.

Surprise!

In the middle of the night my wife awoke to a pack of dogs barking outside of our house. We often have packs of stray dogs come through and previously they have killed some of our outside cats. When Michelle heard the dogs carrying on furiously she got out of bed in a hurry to protect her precious cat. She opened the door to see a pack of strange Chow dogs.

After chasing away the pack of chows Michelle got down on her hands and knees to look under the car to see if her cat was okay. She said, "Come here Fiona (our cat) are you okay?" She got down, looked under the car calling for the cat - and came face to face with a possum!! :-)















Needless to say she screamed and came running back to bed seeking my help. She woke me up to tell me that there was a possum under the car. In my half-asleep state I said, "What do you want me to with a possum under the car!?" and rolled over and went back to sleep. (Yes I am my wife's hero) :-)