I am so proud of my church. God is stretching us beyond our comfort zones and we are being richly blessed by Him. We may be small, but we are doing huge things for Him. All throughout Scripture God used the small in stature to accomplish great things so He would get the glory. Let me give you a quick update about how our church has been serving the community over the last few months.

• As you may know, the first weekend in May, Franklin was hit with a thousand-year flood. We have helped neighbors, families, friends and churches who were affected by the flood to recover. One church in our community had seven feet of water in their basement, and we pitched in to help with clean-up and to assist them getting into a school for their worship services while the repairs to their building were being made.

• The day before the flood hit, we helped distribute over 14,000 pounds of food to the needy in our community, feeding over 300 families.

• For the third summer in a row we have cut grass for the Hard Bargain Mount Hope Redevelopment community. Our efforts have saved this important ministry thousands of dollars.

• In June, eight of us went to Honduras to minister to thousands of people through an evangelism / medical brigade. Before the trip, we collected a bunch of medical and miscellaneous supplies to take with us. On the trip, 51 people prayed to receive Christ and another 50 people rededicated their lives to Him.

• In August, we helped distribute another 14,000 pounds of food to the needy in our community, feeding over 300 families. (We are planning another food distribution for Saturday, September 25th, and another one for Saturday, November 20th.)

• We partnered with Johnson Elementary School (the school were we hold our services) to collect school supplies. We also weeding and mulched a memorial garden at the school.

• We have helped several people get back on their feet, or over a financial hump, through our “basket-of-blessings” ministry. (There is an archived blog about what our “basket-of-blessings” is.)

• We have collected furniture and home supplies for people in need.

• Any time we have seen a need, we have done our best to help meet that need. The response to give sacrificially of time and resources has been incredible.

One of the cool things about all this to me is that our church has done all things without starting any programs. It’s all been relationship based, sensing the need around us, and then getting involved.

I am saying all this, not because we have done anything spectacular, because we haven’t. I am saying all this to give God the glory and to tell everyone that any church, regardless of size, can do something to make a difference for the kingdom of God. Pastor Rick Warren has said and written, that a church can be small and lean or big and fat. I am so thankful that we are small and lean.

And to top it all off, we have seen dozens of people come to know Christ and rededicate their lives to Him. That’s the greatest miracle of all!

To God be the glory!

For what it is worth, here are my thoughts on the flood in Franklin and Middle Tennessee:

One word describes it all…UNBELIEVABLE!

The amount of rain was unbelievable.

The loss of human life (now close to 20) was unbelievable.

The destruction of homes and cars and stuff was unbelievable.

Seeing interstates and highways and residential streets under water was unbelievable.

The work of the police, fire department, and National Guard was unbelievable.

Once the water started receding, driving around and seeing how high the water line actually was…unbelievable.

Churches working together was (and is) unbelievable.

Right now, as the clean up begins, the smell is unbelievable.

And the number of people willing to get involved and help friends and strangers was (and still is) totally unbelievable!

Franklin and Middle Tennessee is a great place to live. I know we cannot fully recover without governmental help, but I am so proud we did not stand around doing nothing until the government helped. While it was still raining people were already helping people.

Experts say the total damage will exceed $1 billion. They also say it will take months to recover. But I believe we will recover and we will recover quicker than anyone expects.

Middle Tennessee is a great place to live and when all is said and done more will be done than actually said and our community will be an even greater place to live.

UNBELIEVABLE!

Yesterday (Monday, February 15) I had two separate, unrelated conversations with two different people about global warming and climate change. The two individuals were college students who had been asked to watch a movie that debunked global warming and then attend a lecture from a scientist who favored the idea that climate change is a real, life threatening issue. They were interested in my thoughts as a minister. …[read more]