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Orientation_Booklet

Orientation_Booklet

RESPECT is built and earned by your behavior toward another individual. RESPECT transcends many different religions. Relationships and organizations are failing due to not understanding the simple principle of RESPECTING others.

Christianity: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.

Judaism: What you hate, do not do to anyone.”

Islam: “No one of you is a believer until he loves for his brother what he would love for himself:”

Hinduism: “Do nothing to thy neighbor which thou wouldst not have him do to thee”.

Confucianism: “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”

Aristotle: “We should behave to our friends as we wish our friends to behave to us.”

Plato: “May I do to others as I would that they should do unto me.”

I would like to know if you agree with this statement about RESPECT.

Lambs among Wolves

Redemptive Suffering

Training the New Church

Romans 12:1 (KJV)
¹  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

I received the call from the Lord in 1972 to preach His Word. I began as a teacher in various homes in the Gaston and York area. A the the same time I was serving as a Sunday school teacher in the Gold Hill Baptist Church in York. While sharing the gospel through teaching I had opportunities to speak to different individuals about what God was saying to those who were lost and seeking Him.

After a brief time of teaching in York and Gaston I got the call to pastor. Twelve souls wanted to start a church and needed a leader. Christ Community in Gastonia was started in a living room near Highland High School. My first sermon was in a living room with dinning room chairs for pews.

I believed then and I believe now that God had a call on my life to share the good news! After nearly 5 years as leader of Christ Community that assignment ended and south I went to Lake Wylie to pastor 35 individual of which half were children. This time I shared the gospel for 9 years. During those 9 years God gave me a second gift and that was evangelist. Through out the North and South Carolina’s I shared with different church during their annual revivals, homecoming, ushers annuals, men’s day, laymen breakfasts and church workshops.

Next came the call to go to Grover for a 32 years span of sharing the gospel as pastor and evangelist to other churches. This time at the St. Peter Church.

Acts 16:6-10 (KJV)
⁶  Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,
⁷  After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.
⁸  And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas.
⁹  And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.
¹⁰  And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.

God made a call in 2018 for me to leave the role of pastor and share as an evangelist/ teacher to churches and places wherever the opportunity presents itself.

When Jesus began His three-year earthly ministry, He preached that “the kingdom of God is near” (Matthew 4:17; Luke 10:9). Mark 1:14–15 gives a concise description of Jesus’ primary focus during His time on earth: “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” When asked to define His kingdom, Jesus explained it this way: “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed. . . . The kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (Luke 17:20–21). Romans 14:17 says that the kingdom of God is a matter “of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

The gospel of the kingdom is the good-news message of repentance, redemption, and restoration offered by God to all who will receive Christ. Those who accept this offer become part of His eternal kingdom (John 1:12). Those who choose to remain in their sin cannot be a part of this kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:9–10; Galatians 5:19–21). Although grace makes this offer available to anyone who will receive it, Jesus warned that it would be very difficult to enter His kingdom and few would do so (Matthew 7:14).

The gospel of the kingdom is the news that there is freedom from our slavery to sin if we will repent and turn to God (Romans 6:18–19). Our Redeemer has come, but it is difficult to enter God’s kingdom, not because God requires impossible standards for us, but because we do not want to repent and change. We tend to love the darkness more than the Light (John 3:19). Many would rather cling to their old sinful identities than allow Jesus to create them anew (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Please pray for me that I don’t let the Lord down for He has been gracious to me.

 

 we are going to be able to teach our teens and preteens to stay focus then the church need to be the starting point.

I am looking for any and all distraction that can be eliminated so that the teaching of Christ will be center and forefront.

If the children cannot grow then they cannot develop.

How many of you tonight know what happens when you google a word or phrase and something else like an advertisement/ commercial attach itself to your search?

I just call it pop ups when I search for a word. Pop up commercials can be distractions but the persons who created the pop up what to sell you something you are not look for. Life is filled with pop ups. Pop ups will lead you to unhealthy sites.

When a young person is confused and they search for truth they often get pop ups in their life in life that lead them to unhealthy places.

Pop up for commercials can be distractions to what you really what to know?

Why Go to Church?

 

Has the church lost its Purpose?

 

What does the church exist to do in the World?

 

Is the church a social Club?

 

The New Testament church came together for 4 reasons

1. Fellowship
2. Communion 
3. Prayer
4. The teaching of the ways of God as taught by the Apostles

 

The church was together for they had a clear focus on their purpose for existing.

 

They went to the temple to seek God and in their homes for fellowship.

At their center was praising God…

 

Drama belongs at the theatre. Distractions belongs at the club. Worshipping God belongs at the church.

 

When we come to church we must lay aside those things that beset us from making worshipping God the Center focus.

 

 

• Church/Religion

 

 

 Church, or religion. Believe it or not, these can be HUGE interferences in our walk with God. Church does not do this intentionally, but we can easily let it hinder our relationship with God. Why? The main reason I see is that it can be so easy to pursue church, and beliefs about God, but forget to pursue God Himself. It is so easy to go to church to…well…go to church, when the real reason we should be going church is to refuel for our week by coming together with fellow believers to worship and meditate on God.

Also, somewhere along the way, at so many churches, people have gotten the idea that we need to pretend to be perfect at church. That if we show our weaknesses and struggles, we’ll become outcasts…and since so many people parade around in this stained glass masquerade, if one person does reveal their weaknesses, they’re so easily looked down upon. This is opposite of what church is supposed to be. Church is really the body of believers. We are supposed to help each other, hold each other accountable, pray for each other, and love one another!

To keep church from becoming a distraction from God, make sure you are pursuing God before pursuing “beliefs” about Him, or church/religion. We need to get past religion and into a relationship. It starts with you! Love your brothers and sisters, be open to people, and DO NOT CONDEMN others when they fail!!

 

 

• Relationships

 

 

 Relationships. I’m sure you knew this one would be here. Every kind of relationship falls into this category; friends, parents, siblings, spouses, girl/boy friends, children, co-workers, bosses, etc. We can allow any of these relationships to distract us from God. It is our relationships that are our connection with the world, and it is our human nature to have them, but when we allow any one of these relationships threaten to become more important to us than God…well, they become a distraction. Remember, God calls us to love one another (1 John 3:11), so when we do, it is an act of obedience to God. But don’t forget about God in the process. We need to make sure we are giving God ample time everyday.

I would have to say the relationship with the most danger of becoming a distraction from our walk with God would be that of a boy-friend, girl-friend, or spouse. These relationships in their nature, demand the most time, and that is why it is extremely important that they are centered around God. If they aren’t, you will see your walk with God spiraling downward. In a dating relationship, don’t compromise your morals.

In a nut shell, relationships are extremely important, but our relationship with God is of the utmost importance. Remember that!

 

Born in sin and wrapped in iniquity means I am wired wrong from birth. Sin is in my DNA. If that is true then the role of the church is to rewire the believers with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

We fail when we use behavior modification to develop children. What is needed is a complete change in mindset to succeed. It (success) begins with accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and understanding what that truly means.

 

Change in:

Thoughts

Words

Decisions

Actions

Habits

Character

Destiny

 

Stop trying to show children things they don’t have the capacity to see because of their perceptions of reality.

 

Acts 2:42-47

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common.

They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. 

They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.

And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

 

“But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, ‘The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us’ . . . And all the congregation said to stone them with stones’.”
Numbers 14:6-8, 10

During its early stages, a dream is an incredibly fragile thing. Bobb Biehl says, “Dreams are like soap bubbles floating close to jagged rocks on a windy day.” New dreams are fragile because we haven’t had time yet to let them grow or develop. When a seedling oak is only a year old, a child can tear it out by the roots, but once it’s had some time to become firmly established, even a hurricane can’t knock it down.

Young dreams are also more easily shot down because if they are attacked, it is usually by close confidants, because they’re the only people who know about them. Our hopes and desires may be able to weather the criticism of a stranger, but they have a more difficult time surviving when undermined by a friend.