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The longer I walk with the Lord, the more convinced I am that knowing and loving Jesus Christ is really what the Christian life is all about.
As a pastor, more than I want my church family to experience any outward change in their lives, I want them to fall in love with Jesus and walk with Him in fully-committed, heart-deep discipleship. Over and over, I’ve seen that those who love Jesus purely do experience radical change—both heart change and life change.
This Sunday morning, I’m beginning a new preaching series and a new endeavor—preaching verse-by-verse through the gospel of Luke. I can’t say how much I’m looking forward to this study with our church family! For many years, I’ve preached verse-by-verse through specific books of the Bible on Sunday evenings, but this is my first Sunday morning series to structure this way.
Luke is the longest and most detailed of the four gospels. With 1,151 verses describing Christ’s life and ministry, it includes 41 passages not recorded in the other gospels. Because Luke provides a comprehensive and mostly chronological look at Christ’s life, I believe this study will help our church deepen our love for Jesus. (more…)
Walk into any bookstore, and you will find dozens—maybe even hundreds—of books on life management. (I have many in my own library.) There are books on organizing, scheduling, budgeting, prioritizing, administrating, goal-setting, people-managing…obviously, life management is a popular and necessary skill.
Even a surface skim through these books will reveal a common sub-theme. Authors attempt to teach you how to be successful by living out your dreams. They encourage you to dream big and then use management skills to become the best you that you can be—to reach your full potential of leadership and growth.
Stewarding Life is a different concept. Rather than focusing on self-fulfillment and personal legacy, we start by recognizing that life is a gift from God, and He has entrusted it to us to steward for Him. (more…)
Since our first days in Lancaster, it has been my passion to develop a cohesive team at Lancaster Baptist Church and ministries. I praise the Lord that on our staff and among our church family there is a unified team spirit—a shared heart to exalt Christ and win the lost. I attribute the great team spirit in our ministry to the work of the Holy Spirit and the yieldedness of individual team members.
There was never a more cohesive and victorious time in the early history of the church than at Jerusalem around the time of Pentecost. An obvious reason for this was the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Yet there was another factor—the common convictions these Christians shared about the truth.
In the August edition of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast, we explore the convictions necessary to developing a cohesive team.
Strong teams have an alignment of four leadership domains—the heart, head, hands, and habits. Each member must have a heart for God, the mind of Christ, a willingness to lend a helping hand, and a shared habit of soulwinning. These four areas are properly aligned when members of the team share the very convictions common to the early Christians in Jerusalem. (more…)
Last week was another wonderful opportunity in ministry here at Lancaster Baptist Church and West Coast Baptist College as we hosted the annual West Coast Baptist Youth Conference. Teenagers came from across America and from several foreign countries to be challenged spiritually with this year’s theme on “The Power of God.”
We are thankful for like-minded parents, pastors, and youth pastors who allow us annually the privilege of influencing their young people for the cause of Jesus Christ. There were many highlights of this conference, including a record attendance, a record number of young people accepting Christ as Saviour, and a record number of young people surrendering their lives to full time ministry.
But for many of us here at Lancaster Baptist Church, the highlight was hearing the message preached by our son and Sr. High youth pastor, Brother Larry Chappell. (more…)
What a joy it is to have our campus filled with teenagers for Youth Conference this week. And what a joy to encourage young people to see what God can do in and through their lives when they yield to Him.
Our theme this year is “The Power of God,” and we’ve already seen His power at work in hundreds of lives during this conference. (more…)
