Playing Catch-Up

I'm playing catch-up after a very busy week last week. In the early part of the week (Mon-Wed), I preached for Pastor Larry Walker at the Oakland Avenue Baptist Church in Detroit, MI. It was a good meeting. Oakland is definitely an "in season" place to preach. Likewise, I have the opportunity to meet and sit under the teaching of Dr. Bill Burwell of Palm Springs, CA. He is a faithful and passionate teacher of God's word. I really look forward to fellowship with him again and hope that his schedule will allow him to come to MSMBC. Dr. Burwell also wants to introduce me to the game of golf. I need to pray about that one. I love sports; not golf. Okay, I'll just say it; golf is not a real sport!!!

I made it home Thursday and had to finish my preparation for our church council retreat Friday and Saturday. I didn't get done all the preparations that I had planned. But I have a great staff that was very helpful. And the Lord blessed the meeting to be our best yet! I am sure that we all left the meeting hopeful and excited about the work of our congregation in the coming year... and we left utterly exhausted. Then I had to turn it around to get ready to teach my Sunday School class. It's our new new members' class that I am writing and teaching. The lesson was on Christian generosity. It was a good session. I believe the students were learning and being challenged and encouraged. In our worship service, I continued our verse-by-verse study of Colossians. My text was Colossians 3:22-4:1, on slaves and masters. I talked about how the supremacy of Christ should be demonstrated in our work. I don't know how well that message was received. But I pray that God uses the message to shape our perspectives and help us to be faithful. Then, in the afternoon, I preached the 12th pastoral anniversary celebration of my boyhood friend, Reginald C. Payne of the Full Gospel Baptist Church (that was the name when he was called to the church; it does not reflect the church's theology or affiliation). Reginald is one of the finest younger pastor and preacher in Los Angeles, bar none - myself included! I am so proud of the preacher and leader he has become. I was absolutely worn-out by the time of the service, but the Lord helped me to preach.

Yesterday, I took the day off. That phrase seems too good to say and so rare for me to say, that I must write it again: I took the day off!!! I slept late. I ate breakfast with my wife. I read a little. I went to a matinee'. I picked my son up from school. And I went to church to hear one of my homiletical heroes, Dr. R.A. Williams. He pastors the McCoy Memorial B.C. here in Los Angeles. And he is one of the men that God used to introduce me to expository preaching. It was an honor to be there and hear him preach again. It had been a while. He preached from Colossians. When he finished, I felt embarrassed about every message that I have preached from Colossians. He's a master expositor; I am a student. And hearing him encouraged me to keep learning and striving to become a better preacher. In fact, I even started reading another book on preaching this morning (Preparing Evangelist Sermons by Ramesh Richard).

Today is my first day back in the office. I have a couple of meetings and a lot of study to do. Pray for me. Thursday, I leave town to preach again. It’s the last out-of-state preaching engagement I have this year, I think. And I am determined to be on top of my schedule this week, so that I won’t have to play catch up again next week.