Deacons Beacon
Father’s Day
It has been said that a dad is a fellow who has replaced the money in his wallet with snap shots of his family. No matter where a day takes him or what he does, a dad carries his family in his heart.
My earliest recollection of my father was when we were standing waiting for a bus on a cold wet winter evening. I was about four or five years old and we had been visiting my grandparents. We had no car so we had to rely on public transportation. To keep warm my father opened his coat, stood close to me and closed the coat around me. I felt warm and secure and loved.
Good fathers desire to spend time with their family so they know the family’s needs and can do whatever they possibly can to meet those needs. When they laugh with their children, it makes the times of discipline more meaningful. It has been said that the ratio of compliments to discipline should be ninety to ten. That would mean that for every ten times a father needs to discipline a child, he would need to give the child ninety compliments. What a powerful impact on a child to know that one of a father’s main goals is to see his children doing what is right and praise them for it.
Every father needs to see his son or daughter as someone very special. We need to tell them often that we’re glad God gave them to us. It is our desire to not only have a picture of them in our wallets but to always have them in our hearts in a very special place.
Every day a father’s prayer should be “thank you, Lord for the privilege and joy of being a father.”
Bob Refermat, Deacon Chairman
Valuing Our Differences
Valuing our Differences
by John V. Upton, Executive Director,Kingdom Advance
I think there is an important question that needs to be addressed in church life today. Its an uncomfortable question but one which forces itself on us whether we like it or not. The question is: Do people with strong differing commitments and styles need each other for balance and completion?
What Ive learned is the answer to that question is yes. One group needs the other because the other group has qualities that the first group lacks and needs to learn from; and without vital relationship between the two, each group succumbs to its worst tendencies and becomes a distortion.
I also know there are limits. Differing commitments dont always allow for relationship. What could a committed humanitarian learn from a committed Nazi? No real partnerships are possible between people whose differences are total and virulent. And by other means, too, we may find that certain ways of being different can cancel the possibility of constructive relationship. Would you mind me admitting on behalf of all of us that some folk are just plain crazy in ways that make meaningful relationship impossible? So Im not about to make a romantic case that all our differences are potentially helpful theyre not or that we all can be friends we cant.
But that point is as minor as it is obvious. The larger point that we keep missing is how so many of the bewildering and sometimes maddening differences between us are indispensable for our good.
Thats what I think Paul meant in I Corinthians 12: 1-11. If you were to ask the members of that church to describe the issue they would answer: Incompatibility! Weve got serious differences of opinion and commitment and styles here that are tearing us apart. But ask that same question of Paul and he answers, No. Your problem is not that you differ, but that you fail to regard your differences as mutual gifts.
Pauls response is both gentle and relentless. Your differences, he says, are actually gifts from God. Your diversity is not a problem, its a bonanza! What else would you expect from a God who creates giraffes and humpback whales and amoebas and rose-breasted grosbeaks, and who paints the world in unnecessary colors? The Creator irrepressibly diversifies. God just endlessly spins out beauty and boggling variety. And it shows up on us.
Here is what I know. Each gift God gives is linked to a particular kind of personality. Whatever gift the Spirit can grow in any of us will not be unconnected from our essential way of being in the world. Which means that whoever has a gift very different from mine will generally have a personality and disposition very different from mine. And there, as they say, is the rub. Thats what makes it hard that the differing attributes scripture celebrates as spiritual gifts are invariably attached to differing personalities that, when they rub against each other, cause friction. And who wants friction? So we cluster to our types, avoid sustained relationship with our opposites, and hang out with the occupants of our comfort zones. And why not?
Well, Paul insists that these differences have a purpose; they are gifts given for the common good (v. 7). They are not for isolation but for integration. These differences are necessary for you to learn from and to be completed by and to balance what you bring. They are necessary for growing us up. Apart from honest, vulnerable interaction with people unlike ourselves, we will never know the meaning of community or the real meaning of family; and we lose our chance to become a whole human being.
Many of us who marry come to realize through the years that this was the ultimate point of the partnership we made. Apparently we unconsciously knew that the spouse we found was different from us in precisely such a way that we would have to learn from them and find balance in them and grow by them, or just go crazy. On some days our differences are our dismay. Understanding our differences as bearing life-changing gifts, they become and remain our delight.
This, according to Paul, is largely the meaning of being a church or a state convention. Dont wish for a church where were all alike and we all vote the same and believe the same and apply our convictions the same. If youre looking for lockstep, try looking in hell. If youre looking for the Spirit, head for the people who are willing to be various together, people who bring differing notes and who lean toward each other and listen to each other and work at making it a harmony. A church is a people who for love of Christ learn not to tolerate each others differences but who celebrate them because they are being forged to wholeness as the body of Christ.
In writing this I found myself embarrassed. I am recalling feelings of judgment against people whose way and whose gifts differ from my own. I am embarrassed and am working at my repentance. If you have, like me, disparaged the necessary differences in people around you, may I invite you also to be embarrassed, and to make your own repentance by thanking God for what they give that you cannot. While youre at it, thank God for what you and only you can bring to them from the same irrepressibly generous Spirit.
Used with permission.
McMILLIAM and LIFE
McMillan AND LIFE
In Concert
7:00 p.m. Saturday, July 11, 2009
How blessed we are to have McMillan and Life returning to Azalea for another concert. Jimmy McMillan has been traveling full time in Southern Gospel Music for the last ten years. He has been on the main stage at the National Quartet Convention; he has taped several Gaither videos and participated in five Jubilees at Sea cruises. However, the local church is his favorite place to minister up close and personal where he can see the Lord working in real time. He is also a prolific song writer and numerous gospel artists have recorded his songs.
Liz McMillan is part of one of the greatest legacies in Southern Gospel. Her Grandfather – Alden Toney – was one of the founding members of the Toney Brothers in 1955. She has recorded with numerous inspirational artists and sang on the main stage at the National Quartet Convention.
Josh Arnett is a songwriter and no stranger to Gospel Music having been a part of several regional groups based out of Indiana. Josh is a native Hoosier and still lives in Ingalls, IN with his wife, Alica, and their four children.
Their primary goal is to share a message of hope, restoration and the unconditional love of Jesus Christ. They want people to know that no matter who they are; what they’ve done; or where they’ve been – Jesus is waiting with love, compassion and forgiveness.
Bring friends – come to the concert and be blessed. A love offering will be received for the group. I ask that you prayerfully consider how much you can give as you remember not only the enormous expenses involved in ministry but also that this is their full time job and how they provide for their families.
Thank you and may God bless you for supporting the Concert Outreach Ministry.
Liz Carter
Concert Coordinator
757-639-8088
WHY SUNDAY SCHOOL?
WHY SUNDAY SCHOOL?
Why is Sunday School important? Why do we encourage our children to attend? Why do we continue to participate in Sunday School? Because we always have……..
Isn’t it amazing that we should ever find ourselves having to defend the importance of Sunday School. After all, we can thank Sunday School for giving us pastors, missionaries, teachers; our churches are full of Christians strong in their faith and established in the scriptures. The real importance of Sunday School is one that has a dynamic ministry to every member of the family. It is a wonderful program that meets the needs of all family members as no other program in the church.
Here are some reasons why Sunday School is so important:
• Sunday School provides a basic study of the scriptures at a level of understanding that reaches every age group.
• Sunday School allows an opportunity for its members to talk and share their needs with others in similar life situations.
• Sunday School provides an opportunity for personal application of the scriptures based on the age level of the class.
• Sunday School provides for fellowship and a sense of belonging for each member of the class.
• Sunday School provides a platform for people to serve the Lord through teaching and administration.
• Sunday School is a training ground for young Christians to be more productive in their church and gives them the opportunity to develop their skills and talents for the Lord.
Take time to thank your Sunday School teacher for bringing you the Bible lesson each week. ABC teachers are the best!
Richard and Dana
Deacon’s Beacon
Father’s Day
It has been said that a dad is a fellow who has replaced the money in his wallet with snap shots of his family. No matter where a day takes him or what he does, a dad carries his family in his heart.
My earliest recollection of my father was when we were standing waiting for a bus on a cold wet winter evening. I was about four or five years old and we had been visiting my grandparents. We had no car so we had to rely on public transportation. To keep warm my father opened his coat, stood close to me and closed the coat around me. I felt warm and secure and loved.
Good fathers desire to spend time with their family so they know the family’s needs and can do whatever they possibly can to meet those needs. When they laugh with their children, it makes the times of discipline more meaningful. It has been said that the ratio of compliments to discipline should be ninety to ten. That would mean that for every ten times a father needs to discipline a child, he would need to give the child ninety compliments. What a powerful impact on a child to know that one of a father’s main goals is to see his children doing what is right and praise them for it.
Every father needs to see his son or daughter as someone very special. We need to tell them often that we’re glad God gave them to us. It is our desire to not only have a picture of them in our wallets but to always have them in our hearts in a very special place.
Every day a father’s prayer should be “thank you, Lord for the privilege and joy of being a father.”
Bob Refermat, Deacon Chairman
From the Pasto’r Heart
From the Pastor’s Heart
Here’s Hope Great Commission Cluster
I have a life wish for Azalea Baptist Church! I do not just want to see this church survive, but I want this church to thrive. I know that I am not alone. Some of you have had this same yearning for years, and have witnessed much of your life wish for the church come to fruition. And we celebrate God’s legacy of providence. Yet I still believe “the best is yet to come!”
I am not content to stay at the same level that we are currently experiencing. Why? Because the harvest is plentiful…
…and the workers are few….
We can rejoice that the harvest is plentiful. But what do we do about the the workers are few part?
This is where the Here’s Hope Great Commission Cluster comes into play. It is not another program to go through, not another method to study. So many of you have been through those things and the results just didn’t stick.
If we are willing to invest time and energy, the Norfolk Area Baptist Association will invest the money to leverage a breakthrough strategy for our congregation. This tested and proven approach is based on the work of empowering pastors and lay leaders to lead their church to fulfill our God-given mission of making disciples. Dr. Paul D. Borden, author of three books: Hit the Bull’s-eye, Direct Hit, and Assaulting the Gates will lead the Great Commission Cluster. This strategy is the result of tested and proven methods which have resulted in many churches fulfilling the Great Commission.
What does this process look like?
There are three dimensions of the Here’s Hope Great Commission Cluster:
1 – Monthly cluster meetings for the pastor for one year. This will be one-day events and will be devoted to training and inspiration and will include pastors who have successfully led churches beyond the size of the largest church represented in the cluster. Why the focus on numbers? Because numbers represent things, and in this case it represents lost people who have been found by the Savior.
2- Consultations for our congregation. Each church will receive a weekend consultation led by a team of consultants, who will study our church history, community context, conduct focus group and individual interviews, provide teaching, preaching, inspiration and share insights gleaned from thousands of such church consultations.
3 – Lay training events during the year. At least two training event will be held during the year in order to further inspire and equip members of the cluster churches.
The Cluster will consist of 8-10 churches. Thalia Lynn, Kings Grant, Great Bridge and others have already committed to being a part of the Great Commission Cluster. We are being extended an opportunity to join them. If we pass up this opportunity, I would not want to be the one answering to the Lord why we thought we were doing just fine without it.
Outside of the time and energy investment, the only cost is to be a participating member of the Association (which we are in good standing) and to provide a meal during the weekend training after the Sunday worship service for that weekend. This means that our kitchen crew, who work so faithfully, will be forced to “let someone else cook for them.”
That’s a small price to pay for such an opportunity. I look forward to continuing our dialogue about the Here’s Hope Great Commission Cluster!
See you at “the Sunday morning place to be”….rejoicing in the harvest and thrilled to be a worker in the field!
Pastor John