How did Your Easter Services go?

Outstanding!

Over a thousand attended today...but the best news for us...We added fourteen to our church family (three by profession of faith!)

And, next week we're baptizing an 85 year old fellow that accepted Christ a few weeks ago.

Furthermore...a kid I've been working with for several years...a Christian who is very, very shy...finally made her decision public.

Good stuff, it was...

 

At my home church, they went for about an hour and ten minutes!
What did the preacher preach from?

He preached from the pulpit.

On a serious note, we had the largest attendance in any service of any kind in anyone's memory, and very probably in our history of over 223 years, with one individual professing Christ as his Savior.
In His grace,
Ed

 

Sorry, double post!
Ed

 

Our music was outstanding -- if I do say so myself, serving as organist -- with choir, congregation, piano, organ, soloists, violinists. A glorious sound. Our pastor used the John narrative to help us see that joy need never end because of Christ.

 

We had a great day and how did the preacher do. He did great for I am the preacher. What did you think I would say!

 

You been there that long Ed????

 

We had a guest speaker today who is an old friend of many in the church, so I taught the adult Sunday School. I had planned on preaching my Resurrection Sunday message, which dispels many of the myths of Easter traditions, points to the timing of events, and the spells out many truths surrounding the events.

However, God was watching out for me. I could not (and still cannot) find my notes anywhere. So, I taught on the types involved with the two events with Jesus and the disciples on the water, applied it to those who are fearful being excluded from ruling and reigning in the coming Kingdom, and then showed that even though the disciples in the boat had timid faith (fearful), that God could still work with them. It was a good lesson that was well received.

How did God take care of me? Well, the guest speaker taught on Good Friday and Easter and tried to explain away certain things so that they meshed with the traditions of men.

It would have been an unneeded conflict that would not have been fruitful. If I had taught my original lesson, it would have possibly been a stumbling block to the guest, whereas the lesson that I did teach was a blessing to him, making him look at Scriptures in a light that he never had before. Most of the people at church sat politely through his lesson, although some got up and left.

 

Don't know about other countries, but (perhaps surprisingly) Mexico is not the place to plan a 'big day' on Easter. I preached on the topic of 'The Purposes of the Resurrection'. We had almost 30 in the a.m. and over 20 in the p.m. No visitors- they were all at the beach. Not a bad day considering.

 

We had a great day and how did the preacher do. He did great for I am the preacher. What did you think I would say! </font>[/QUOTE]

Ed

 

You been there that long Ed???? </font>[/QUOTE]No, but I have been there for nearly sixty years, and some of my family here for nearly as long as the church has existed, with some of my ancestors being probable charter members. We don't actually know this for the first two record books have been lost, although two of my ancestors were Baptist preachers in the area, and were settled here by the time the church was organized in 1782. In fact, I am a direct descendant of the first Baptist preacher to preach a sermon "west of the Alleghenies", which was Squire Boone, Jr., a lay Baptist preacher, and the brother and fellow traveling companion of Ol' Dan'l, from what I can find out from history. And I am the resident church historian, by default, as well.

Certainly, we had the largest attendence "inside the building", for one service, in our history, for we have recently increased the 'seating capacity' of the auditorium from some 240 to around 380 in permanent seats, and the auditorium was packed out with chairs along every aisle, and available space, several were in the nursery listening in via speaker, and we had a total of 446, in this little country church. The largest turnout for a single service before this, on record, has been 402 by count, two different times, I believe. We are growing by membership, both by letter, and profession of faith, and after peaking at just over 500 members, over a century ago, had dropped to some 250 around the time I arrived on the scene, partly due to population. We have been growing at a continuous rate, recently, in the last decade, and are now at well over 600, including some no one knows who or where they are (Time to update the roll, again, after twenty years), and are nearing a weekly average of 300 in morning service, with the last average I heard being 287, I believe.
Better to need a place to seat someone, I guess, assuming the Word is being preached, than needing to find folks to "fill up the seats".

FTR, with increasing population in this rural area, virtually every church, of about any flavor, north of Lancaster, in Garrard County, is growing.


"To Him, be glory in the church!"

In His grace,
Ed

 

Well God Bless you Ed;
I have a really old cemetary on my property where is buried a man named William Scott, the first Scott in Pike County, Kentucky, who would of been my 4th Grandfather and He or his father one was also supposedly with ole Daniel. He was born in 1700's. You are doing good to be growing in membership when the rest of us are shrinking and our church is an old country church which seats maybe 150 to 200. We usually are filled on Sunday but on the business day lucky to have enough to do the business. Anyway, I am glad for you and God Bless again,

BBob

 

I believe I too have read something about someone named Scott being with "Dan'l 'Boon'", somewhere, in the past, but don't quote me on this one, as to who or where.

And FTR, I am a layman, who has probably seen ten times more of our growth happen in spite of me, than because of me

But as I mentioned before, the Northern end of our county has grown by some 30-40 percent in the last ten years. That has led to much of the church growth in all the churches. I heard that this county is high among the ten fastest growing in the state, as of right now. "Thet do make a difference."

Ed

[ April 18, 2006, 01:20 AM: Message edited by: EdSutton ]

 

Here is how Easter in Japan went. In the morning we were disappointed because seven of our regulars were out, which in a tiny Japanese church is a huge gap! Still, we had a fun meal together after the service. Unfortunately, Bro. H., who always brings the sushi, forgot it was a potluck meal, so I didn't get my salmon sushi. What else could go wrong??

In the evening we had a meal planned before our English service. Boy, did my sweet, uncomplaining wife work hard on all this! The Kanekos showed up decked out in their finest. Ai ("Love"), their 28-year-old Downs daughter, had a beautiful white dress on. Then Mrs. S. showed up with Yurina and Shinpei and three kids from their neighborhood. I threw out my message and preached in English (and interpreted myself) a simple message on the resurrection. All five of the kids raised their hands to say they had prayed for Jesus to come in their hearts and cleanse them. If you know Japan, then you know this may or may not mean anything. They may have been simply trying to please the pastor. I didn't have a chance to talk with them much after the service, but I hope from my heart that they truly trusted Christ as Savior.

Now the greatest blessing was that Mrs. S. also raised her hand! We have felt for awhile
that she may be a secret believer now, and this was a welcome response from her. She responds very well to our English Bible studies on Sunday night. However, her mother has made Mrs. S. promise that she will give her a Buddhist funeral, which will be filled with idolatry. So Mrs. S. will have an extremely difficult time publicly confessing Christ.

All in all, one of the best Easter services we have ever had in Japan. Praise the Lord!!

 

Our services went wonderfully! We had a total of 113 in attendance and had 13 souls saved!

 

This statement almost struck me as funny.

 

Hi, Mexdeaf.

Easter isn't even on the radar here. They don't even know it exists, though they celebrate a very secular Christmas. Just wait until a Japanese businessman figures out how to make money from Easter, though, and they'll go crazy over it!

 

This statement almost struck me as funny. </font>[/QUOTE]I can see your point. I was using 'Easter' in the 'Christian' sense, not in the 'Easter bunny, baskets, and bloating after all those chocolate eggs' sense. If you lived in Mexico you would perhaps understand where I am coming from as down here 'Easter' is a week long, called 'Holy Week' which is anything but.