My family and I had a wonderful day with our church family at Vision today. I was blessed with the opportunity to bring a man with “rough past”, his words, to church to hear the life changing story of Philemon. Thatcher got to play with his friends, friends which have parents that pray for him. Tinsley got to join the other little princes and princesses in Wawa Land. We have nursery workers who do no have to fake at loving our kids. They adore all of the children of our church. Then I was involved in the World Evangelism Committee which has to be one of the coolest things I get to be involved in each month. My Pastor, Austin Gardner, layed his heart out to us and taught us about forgiveness from Philemon tonight. The ability to forgive because we have been forgiven is one of those miracles that the Gospel provides for that many Christian never fully enjoy.

I am in love with my little family. My wife and I both had the awesome privelege of being brought up in a loving and nurturing environment. We are asking God to live through us and allow us to be the type of parents that only He can enable us to be. Our kids return that love so much. They are the sweetest little kids. Sometimes we will find them holding hands while watching cartoons, of course it is always Thatcher’s idea.

Outside of salvation the greatest part of this journey is the wonderful wife God has blessed me with. I love my wife more than words can express. No one on earth has more influence upon my life than my wife. She encourages me and is the perfect help meet for me to live out my God giving calling.

I know this was a fairly sappy blog entry. Tonight’s message from the life of Philemon really helped open my eyes to my lack of appreciation for all God has provided. I want my life to be a living sacrifice in worship to my Heavenly Father. How could I ever say thank you!

I know this is not what I typically write about and do not worry I am not turning my blog into QVC. A missionary couple I love and strongly believe in had these rings donated to them. As they were raising support to do what they believe God has called them to do someone felt as if they should give them these rings.

Some opportunities have opened up for them on the field to make use of the money they make on them so we want to move quickly. I will post this for sale for 24 hours then I will take them to a pawn shop. The one ring alone was purchased for $3,000 dollars. We are hoping to get $1000 for all three of them.

If you know of someone who is interested please let me know by 10:00 am on Friday morning. You can see the rings in the video above.

In this passage the Apostle Paul is teaching by inspiration of God about the gift of tongues. He is helping the Corinthian church get a proper understanding of the purpose of this spiritual gift and lays out what is “decently in order” for the use of it.

He has a strong emphasis on the value of a word understood verses that of words that cannot be understood. As an uncertain sound in battle is not only ineffective but dangerous.

Men who lead in a church or family with an uncertain sound are not only ineffective but dangerous. I want my life to in harmony with the message I preach. I want my message be in harmony with the scripture.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? Romans 6:1

A grace that leads to a life of sin is a grace misunderstood! When I was a sophomore in High School I had the opportunity to lead a home Bible study one night with several adult members of a church I did not belong to as a member. I was very nervous and was told that my lesson should come from Romans 6 since they were doing an expositional study through the book. Oh man, was I nervous. As I began to study I never got past this first verse. It captivated my thoughts and brought strong conviction on my life.

Romans can and has been divided among many different divisions. I had been taught that Romans 1-3 dealt with the need for Salvation, Romans 3-5 deals with the way of Salvation, and Romans 6 -8 deals with the life of Salvation (sanctification).

I love how this verse starts with a rhetorical question. Maybe because I have had a tendency to be a smart alec but mostly because it is such a strong way to make a point. After taking a good look at the penalty of sin and the provision made to deliver us this question is so extremely strong.

S Lewis Johnson has said that in Romans 6-8…

Wrath and justification (of Romans 3-5)…yield to the discussion of sin and sanctification. Justification is restoration to life, while sanctification is restoration to health. Justification brings us from the tomb; sanctification delivers us from the old “threads.” (Sermon on Romans 6:1-14)

Compare a similar pattern when Jesus brought Lazarus up from the tomb…

And when He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” He who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings; and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” (John 11:43, 44)

I vaguely remember as I studied this passage to teach in the Bible study that night realizing that I had much more power to over come sin than I had thought. Growing up with the “black dog verses white dog” theology of the battle inside of me I do not give the proper respect to God to finish what He had started in me. Since that time I have learned much about positional and practical sanctification. However, I still have much to learn.

Taking a look at grace tonight does not motivate me to go find sin so that grace can abound. Actually a good taste grace causes my appetite to not only not crave sin but to be disgusted by it. I am by no means perfect, but I am extremely grateful not to be a small boy with a stick trying my hardest to run off the black dog in the fight. Jesus Christ has given me the power to resurrect from the dead (you see I was once dead in my sins) and He will give me the power to remove these old threads!

Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Romans 4:6-8

When I was a child I would hear people say “I am blessed” and it held little importance. I assumed it meant they were happy. They would say it things were going good. I seldom heard it when things were bad. It seemed to me to be synonymous with “I am happy”. Thankfully I know better now then to limit this word.

Noah Webster’s dictionary gives the following definition:  1. (imp. & p. p.) of Bless. 2. (a.) Hallowed; consecrated; worthy of blessing or adoration; heavenly; holy. 3. (a.) Enjoying happiness or bliss; favored with blessings; happy; highly favored. 4. (a.) Imparting happiness or bliss; fraught with happiness; blissful; joyful. 5. (a.) Enjoying, or pertaining to, spiritual happiness, or heavenly felicity; as, the blessed in heaven. 6. (a.) Beatified.

David described the “blessedness of man” to be…

• unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works
• they whose iniquities are forgiven
• they… whose sins are covered
• the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin

I am so grateful that I can say “I am blessed”. Nothing and no one was able to do the above things for me except Jesus Christ. Righteousness has been imputed upon not based upon my works. Praise God! My unspeakable and many iniquities have been forgiven. My sins have been covered. The Lord will not impute sin unto me – I am blessed!

Nothing that will happen tomorrow or the next day will change the above facts. I did not work to see it happen and did not work to maintain my blessed position. This is good news. This is the results in a life that only the Gospel can bring!

¹¹For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; ¹²That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. Romans 1:11,12

It would be great if all christians would have this mindset. To seek to strengthen others by contributing to their spiritual needs is truly a sign of a deep relationship with Christ. Not only did Paul preach the gospel, and defend it, he also lived it. We do not know exactly what is meant by the “spiritual gift”, however we do not that it would result in the people being strengthened.

Paul hopes that not only will he be able to contribute to them, but that both he and they may be comforted by each other’s faith. The fact that he refers to faith here is further evidence that what he means by gift in the previous verse is not that he will give the Roman church spiritual gifts, but that through the exercise of the gifts already given the apostle and the Christians in Rome by God, each will be edified, the one by the other.

The last few days I have spent time with a family that is very dear to my family. In watching the Tolsons respond in faith to the very difficult loss of their child I have been comforted and strengthened. We have a mutual faith and passion for Jesus. Seeing them live out their faith was one of the greatest sermons I have ever known.

God is doing a great work in this generation. I see Him very clearly working in the life of my dear friends. They are abiding in Him and Jesus doing through them what they could not do on their own. They have imparted unto me a gift. I have been strengthened. May God continue to richly bless their ministry here in the states during the next 70 days and then in the needy land of China.

Ten Thousand Teachers

It’s easy to teach; it’s hard to parent.

Sometimes I read biographical blurbs of this or that speaker “having taught in 48 of the 50 states and in 39 different countries.” Impressive indeed, but I often wonder, “How many kids does he have?”. There seems to be a growing number of people interested in teaching other people’s kids and a waning interest in the work of bearing and training children.

Exhibit A: A young seminarian approaches me feeling God might be calling him to teach theology to other people’s disciples on the mission field (through an interpreter). But he has never led anyone to Christ who has been baptized and is an active servant in the church.

Exhibit B: A person who has never planted a church wants to teach church planting methods to others. He has learned these methods from somebody who wrote a book on planting churches–someone who also never planted churches himself, but visited some places where people were planting churches.

Exhibit C: A young blogger who has never done anything opines about ministry and missions (he is usually critical, sometimes right-on, but usually always invalidated by his reproductive barrenness).

Exhibit D: People love their favorite Internet pastors (which change every few years) but criticize their own local pastors’ zits and foibles.

Exhibit E: Someone wants to host a conference and tries to tap big-name preachers and musicians, and flies them into an area as a drawing point. People ooooh and aaaah and then go off to their next conference, having never applied what they have learned in the first conference.

Exhibit F: A missionary candidate wants to come to the field and enlist the partnership of a young believer he met on his survey trip (someone else’s spiritual kid). He thinks this will jump-start his ministry.

I appreciate some itinerant teaching ministry. I love hearing powerful preaching. I am sharpened by Biblical teaching on the Internet. I have accepted teaching invitations myself. But I love what Paul says: “Though ye have ten thousand instructers in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel” (1 Corinthians 4:15).

One application of this is to honor those who have begotten us–those who have labored to lead us to faith in Christ and disciple us personally. Doubtless, the 3,444th or 9,872th teacher will give us some stuff that we wish our dads had given us, indeed which might even seem like a better philosophy or doctrinal hue than our dads embrace. From a distance, the phantom pastors appear flawless (they are not) and seem to make our dads’ flaws seem worse than they actually were.

Another application of 1 Corinthians 4:15 is this: Get busy with the dirty work of giving birth and training your own children rather than trying to sort out everyone else’s. It’s OK to be taught by a plethora of God’s servants. To read. To hear. To blog. Even to teach other people’s kids.

But if we do not make child bearing and child training our priority, we will soon have no one left to teach.

Then what will those ten thousand instructors do with all their frequent flyer miles?

by David Hosaflook

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Tonight at Vision we had our monthly Q & A Session. Throughout the month people email, text, and turn in question for the Pastor to answer during this Sunday evening service. He doesn’t know what the questions will be until they come up on the screen. It is exciting and occasionally causes a tense moment when you see how straight forward some of the questions are.

I typically do not add any questions to give others a shot to get their questions answered. However, tonight I tossed him a ball I knew he would hit out of the park and he did just that. You can watch his explanation on the sermon video archive, it is about half way through the service. I asked for  brief explanation of our church ministry philosophy of Be. Do. Serve. Train. , which I wrote about in my previous post.

I love hearing him explain how God worked through the church of Antioch. Which brings me to my thought for tonight. At the end of Acts 11 the world called the disciples at Antioch “Christians”. In other sections of the book of Acts (24 & 25) you hear of of believer being referred to as a sect. In Galatians we learn of an argument that took place at the end of Acts that discusses what the Gentiles must do to be more “religious” like the Jewish people (ie. circumcision).

In Antioch the people on the outside looking in decided not to call them a sect. They knew they were not like any religion they had ever seen before. What they had effected everyone and every part of its believers. I love this verse Acts 11:26b, “.. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.” This was not just  anew label for the “followers of the Way” but it was a WHOLE NEW WORD!

I think it is so incredible that the church in Antioch was so dedicated to Christ’s teaching that the non-believers had to come up with  new word to describe them. It was a mixed group of two rival groups, the Jew and the Gentile, come together to worship the Son of God. I say this with no enjoyment. We live in a day that I would like to see our church live in such a way that it does not appear to be a sect of main stream Christianity but something different that requires a new name. The world and false teachers have made the word “Christian” almost vain. It was become the default religious association of almost everyone born in America. I want to be a type of Christian as we see in Antioch. How about you?

To learn about some men who are planting Antioch type churches around the word check out bcwe.org

Dear Community residents,

My name is Trent, myself and several of your neighbors are spearheading a local community initiative between the Alpharetta and Cumming areas to do everything we can to aid in the growing problem of poverty-induced hunger.

Attached you will find two flyers which speak on this initiative.  The first refers to an event termed “Dodge Hunger”.  This event is going to be held at the Alpharetta YMCA on May 14, 2010 with the key goal of raising over 2,000 cans of non-perishable food items to help feed families in need.

The second flyer speaks on a fundraiser that several of our local teens have conceived, designed to help youths that want to attend the May 14th event at the YMCA, however are struggling financially to cover the YMCA imposed entrance fee.

How can you help?

There are THREE ways:

1) You can donate non-perishable food items to Vision Baptist Church located at 1125 Alpha Drive. Alpharetta, GA which will be distributed after the May 14th event.

2) You can allow our local teen group to cut your lawn for a minimum recommended donation of $20 this Saturday, May 8th.

3) If you or anyone you know has teenagers that would be interested in attended this event which includes a dodgeball tournament, food, games, music, and fellowship with local teens, with the overall focus on raising awareness of and food for the growing population of families forced to do without within our community please contact Trent at 770-853-8148. (see attached flyer for further details).

If interested in learning more about Dodge Hunger, please visit www.dodgehunger.com.

Thank you so much for your time and may God bless you all.

Trent Cornwell.

The majority of the people who read my blog know or have a pretty good idea what the title “be. do. serve. train” means to our ministry. It is our basic philosophy of discipleship, which means  it is our basic philosophy of ministry. About 15 years ago Austin Gardner, my pastor, wrote down these words in response to a questionnaire to a supporting church. He had been a missionary in Peru for several years at this time and had come to the clear understanding that “church planting is leader training”.

I briefly reviewed this process with men training for the ministry in Santiago, Chile last week. I will be leading a discussion on this subject  at our Vision Baptist Missions Orientation Week later this week. I do not get bored with it! I love that I can go and visit one of staff missionaries or strategic partners and even though I do not speak the same language as the men they are training I do speak the same principles they are being instructed in.

Recently, I have read the book Simple Church and I really enjoyed it. It reaffirmed what I have believed to be the key to the success of many churches on the mission field in comparison to many of the struggling churches in the states. Missionaries know they have to replace themselves in 4 years. The average American pastor doesn’t really even have to replace himself in a life time as long as there is a Bible college of seminary he likes. Missionaries start from the goal of training leaders and design process and programs backwards from that point.

I am not claiming that we have arrived at Vision Baptist Church by no means. However, we want to be that type of church you would find on the mission field. We want to take “life on life discipleship” seriously. We are constantly looking for ways to reach out to more people and help people transition from where they are to a more fully dedicated servant of God. However, we do have a game plan that we are all on. Below you will find a basic outline explaining the ministries Vision offers and why we offer them.

BE

Your Private Ministry or the “Be” Level. This is the “real you” that absolutely no one knows except you and God. It is your character. It is the very basis or foundation for all that you can ever be or do in the Lordʼs work. I Samuel 16:7, Matthew 23:27

Characteristics of the Be Level
1. A born again Christian
2. A person of character and integrity
3. Heart is surrendered to Godʼs leading.

How do we develop this area?
•Engrafting the Word of God (James 1:21)
•Washing in the water of the Word of God (Ephesians 5:26)
•Transforming our mind (Romans 12:2)

Ministries of Vision designed to help you grow in this area:

• Worship Services with In-depth Bible Teaching
• Sunday # 10:30 am & 6:00 pm
• Thursday# 7:00 pm
• Foundations Bible Lessons
• A series of Bible lessons have been developed to teach on our new identity in Christ.
• Adult Bible Fellowship & Sunday School
• Life stage appropriate Bible Classes are offered on Sunday morning at 9:30 am

DO

Your Personal Ministry or the “Do” Level. This is the “you” that people see. This is how
seen in how you live out your life. The “do” level will be a natural outflow of your “be” level
for the good and for the bad. Matthew 12:34-35, Psalm 37:31

Characteristics of the Do Level
1. The “Do” level speaks of how a person treats his or her spouse.and their children.
2. Being good stewards of all we have been entrusted with. (Gospel, finances, creativity)
3. Personal & family devotional life

How do we develop this area?
• Develop friendships with other believers based on your mutual desire to worship and
serve God.
• Develop relationships that will help you accountable to do what you know is right. (Ie
Bible reading, avoiding temptation, etc)

Ministries of Vision designed to help you grow in this area:

• Saturday Community Impact (SCI)
• Monthly Activities
• Our Adult Bible Fellowship groups, Students of Vision (Teen Ministry) and Faith Friends (Childrens Ministry) offer monthly activities to cultivate fellowship among fellow believers.

SERVE

Your Public Ministry or the “Serve Level”. This level should be based first on the fact that
God has done a work in you at the “be” level and is transforming you into His image. You
should be serving not to serve but because that is who you are. 1 Corinthians 16:15, Acts
9:36-42

Characteristics of the Serve Level
1. Being involved in the ministry of the church – proclaiming Christ to the world.
2. Exercise your gifts and talents through the ministry of the church.
3. Reaching out to the community by meeting the spiritual, emotional and physical needs.

How do we develop this area?
• Be willing to meet the needs in the ministry big or small. (cleaning, parking lot attendant,
assistant to a Sunday School teacher, community Bible study leader)
• “Test Drive” a ministry by volunteering in a ministry team for 3 to 5 weeks.

Ministries of Vision designed to help you grow in this area:

• Food Ministry
• Community Bible Studies
• Secretarial Team
• Bible Teachers & Assistants
• Random Acts of Kindness (yard work for
• those in need, fundraisers, etc)
• Ministry Leader, Church Planter, Pastor, Missionary

TRAIN

Your Priority Ministry or the “Train” Level. The Great Commission was given to the
church. It was not given to part of the church but to all of us. As we “be”,”do”, and “serve” we
should invest our lives into other people by helping them to “observe all things”. Matthew
28:18-20, Titus 2:3-5, II Timothy 2:2

Characteristics of the Train Level
1. We must “invest time” and not simply just spend time with them. Matthew 13:10-17
2. Training is different then teaching/serving. Training requires a “life on life (Holistic”
approach to instruct and guide. Mark 3:14
3. This must be our priority ministry to see Godʼs church multiply and reach the world
with the Gospel.
4. Training “leaders of leaders”. The person you are training should already be discipling other people.

How do we develop this area?
• We must first be learning from someone in a mentor relationship. 2 Timothy 2:2
• Our “be”, “do”, and “serve” levels must be Biblically qualified to imitate.

Ministries of Vision designed to help you grow in this area:

• Our Generation Training Center
• The OGTC provides “establishing and equipping” classes throughout the week.
• Foundations Resources
• Guide books are available to all those who have completed the Foundations booklets to train others.

Learn more about missions, our staff missionaries, and strategic partners at the new and improved bcwe blog at www.bcwe.org