Hijacked

At some time over the past two weeks, my computer has been hijacked. It does not seem to affect anything but by searches on the internet. Whenever I click on a link with in a search, it reroutes me to a different page normally selling something to do with what I’ve searched for. It is very annoying and I have tried every fix that people have recommended. I have found a way to work around it, but I want it stopped. Sometime this weekend or early next week after all of our Christmas programs are over and church slows down, I have decided to just reformat the hard drive and start from scratch. Not a fun thought, but it will get everything back working the way it is supposed to.

As I thought of this procedure, I could not help but think of the lives of many Christians, myself included. Sometime without us really noticing, our lives get hijacked. We then find that we are not performing the way that we ought to perform. When we notice it, it bothers us because the Holy Spirit begins to convict our hearts. But what happens, many times we find a way to work around it. We may even talk to others, listen to preaching, or read devotionals on how to “fix” it. The truth is sometimes the only way to fix it is to reformat. We need to go back to that place where all things were made new. Where God reprogrammed our heart to a work far greater than anything this world could offer. For Jacob, that place was Bethel. For you it may be a prayer closet, a park bench, or an altar. Wherever that place may be; if you find yourself of track today hijacked by the things around you, find some time to meet with God. Allow Him to reboot your hard drive and bring things back in line with where they are supposed to be.

Holding Forth The Word of Life

I had the awesome privilege of being a part of Good News FWB Church's Holding Forth The Word of Life Bible Conference. This is the first one they have ever done. We had two preachers each night Sunday through Wednesday. I can only speak for myself, but God met with me. My heart has been challenged at a level that I have not felt in some time. It never ceases to amaze me what God can and will do when we will take time to be still and Know that He is God. I appreciate so much my brothers; Joel, Tommy, and Chris. Great job of taking the word of God and challenging hearts. Thank you so much Bro. Glen for putting this whole thing together. I am not sure how much I contributed during my two services, but I know I have taken a tremendous amount away from the other services. If they post the sermons on their website, I will try and place a link to them so that your heart may be challenged as mine was. I praise God for the young man that was saved during the conference and all of those that rededicated themselves to the Lord throughout the week. I certainly praise him that after I preached Wednesday night that my son was on the altar putting things back in order in his life. Thank you Bro. Joel for taking the time to pray with him. My heart is so full I could go on, but I will close for now. I just wanted to take a moment and update on the goodness of God and His continuing work.

Take Time to Encourage

We have been doing a Sunday night study through 1 Thessalonians. One thing that is hard to miss in this epistle is Paul's love and concern for his brothers and sisters in Christ. He cried when they cried, but just as important, he rejoiced when they rejoiced. For some reason in our society today it is hard to find people that are genuinely excited to see God's blessings in the lives of others. I think about the ministry, as a pastor I will share what God is doing with a fellow minister and instead of praising God with me, they have to think of a time that they have out done what ever it is that has been accomplished. Can't you just take time to praise God with me. Or even worse when I here ministers nitpicking at another ministers ministry because God is blessing and they are not seeing the same results in their church. Can't we just stop and praise God for his work. I wonder how much more could be accomplished in the cause of Christ if we could learn to encourage one another. What a joy its to hear about God working in some of our sister churches. Let this encourage us to pray harder and work more faithfully to see the same effect in our church. We all go through struggles from time to time, instead of beating others down to help our own pity party, lets use their blessing as an encouragement to keep on pressing on. Let's face it, look around you, we are all blessed. Thank you Lord for what you are doing in my ministry and I praise you for your work here and your work in all of the churches that are faithfully proclaiming the name of the Lord.

Better Late Than Never

OK, I am late again but what is it they say, better late than never. I have brought the church website up-to-date with pictures and sermons. We have been so busy here at Kendale, but please do not take that as a complaint. God is truly blessing the work here. Summer is about over so vacations are about out of the way and our worship crowd is getting back to normal. We are gearing up for Revival with Bro. Mark Cash, associate pastor at Hilltop FWB. I went to school one year with Mark at SE and renewed our friendship through some church services we have attended at Hilltop since moving to North Carolina. I am excited about having him come. I find that after the hustle and bustle of summer vacations nothing brings you back into focus on the Lord's work like a good ole fashion revival. We have also started raising money and recruiting teams for our annual Homecoming Classic. This was a great event last year and we are looking for an even better event this year. On the day following the tournament is our Homecoming service, we are looking for a great time in the Lord with special music, good preaching, and what is a homecoming without good eating. So look on the side to find event dates and links to some of our new photos and sermons. As always thank you for the honor of sharing our ministry with you.

We Made It

Another wonderful year of VBS. We had our best attendance in my three years here at Kendale Acres. We had a high night of 42 and averaged in the mid 30's for the rest of the week. Everything seemed to go real smooth this year, maybe we are getting the hang of this thing. We had over 35 workers every night, what a blessing. Seeing the smiles on the kids faces every night made all the work worth it. Only God knows the eternal significance of this week. I want to give a very special thank you to all of our workers. We could not have done this week with out you. One more event as we will close out the week with a tailgate party tomorrow night from 5pm-7pm. Come and join us if you can.

Way Behind

Ok I am running way behind on keeping the sermons and the Pastor's Pen up to date. Never fear, the sermons are loading as I type. I will blog about this later, but we are closing out a very successful week of Vacation Bible School tonight. We had a high night of 42 and maybe we will break that tonight. Anyway, I will give you all the updates on that this weekend. I just wanted to drop a quick note to let you know our recent sermons will be on the website today. God is working in our sevices and maybe these messages will be a blessing to you as well. Drop us a note and tell us what you think and sign the church guestbook if you get a chance.

Gearing up for VBS

VBS is less than a month away, and I feel like we are so far behind. We are using a sports theme this year - "Get In The Game". I do already have the lesson themes together, now all I have to do is write them. Did some shopping this past weekend for decorations. We have chosen about 10 crafts and now need to pick the 5 that we will do. We hope to have that decided by the end of the week. Letters will go in the mail tomorrow for the children that we have had in the past. The online registration is already up and running. Maybe we are not as far behind as I thought. Anyway, we are looking forward to a great VBS this year. If you are a church member - sign up to help, if you live in our area and have kids - get them registered, if you do not live around us - pray for us. God has blessed each year and we expect nothing different this year. We serve a mighty God who can do mighty things when people will step up and say "here am I, use me". VBS August 2nd-7th, see you there. Register online

June Update

I have not kept this blog as up-to-date as I would like. It seems that every time I think things are going to slow down I find something else to put on the schedule. Things here at the church are going great and God is really blessing. Attendance is up, and we have had a first time visitor each week for the past two months. We have also had two salvation decisions and I will be talking with them about following through in believer’s baptism. My daughter, who got saved at VBS a few years ago, also wants to be baptized. I decided not to push her, but I think she is now ready. As always we are staying busy. In just over a month’s time, we have had a special service for Family Day, Mother's Day, Graduation Sunday, and Father's Day. We have completed phase 1 and 2 of our audiovisual upgrades. Phase 1 new video camera to tape our services and a monitor in the nursery so our workers can watch the services. Phase 2 a new sound booth and moving our sound equipment from upstairs to downstairs. We are only $1800 away from our goal for phase 3, installing projectors in the sanctuary. We are praying to have that money raised by the end of the summer and the phase completed by September. God continues to use the preaching of His word and people are responding to the altar regularly. God has done a tremendous work in this church over the past two years. It is hard for me to believe that I celebrated my two year anniversary here at Kendale at the beginning of this month. Time has flown by. I can honestly say I have never enjoyed the ministry so much. I look forward to many years here in Sanford and know that God has big things ahead for us as we faithfully follow Him. Thanks for keeping up-to-date through these blogs. Feel free to post your comments, and please stop by and sign our guestbook on the church website – www.kendaleacresfwb.org.

Wonderful State Meeting

I have just returned from our NCFWB annual state meeting in New Bern, NC. What a wonderful time of rejuvenation. As a preacher, I spend most of my time preaching. Just like everyone else however, I need to be preached to. The messages brought over these past two days were just what my heart needed. My spiritual battery has been recharged and I am ready to press forward with the calling God has put on my life. I am always excited to take advantage of these opportunities. I would put our FWB preachers up against anyone. Thanks for all who serve the Lord behind our pulpits. For you laymen, don't forget to pray for your pastor today - we need it more than you know.

Family Day

We had a wonderful family day yesterday at Kendale. We had 95 for service and about 120 for the food, fun, and fellowship. We had a full altar at the end of the message that included one of our men in the neighborhood giving his life to Jesus Christ. We praise the Lord for this new addition to the family of God. After service we had hotdogs, hamburgers on the grill and something for everyone to do. Bouncers, giant slide, horseshoes, ladder ball, chipping green, horseback riding, and of course the Kendale Lock-up. The rain held off and God blessed us with a wonderful day. You can view pictures and listen to the Sunday sermon online here.

In June 2008 we held our first annual golf fellowship. Though all had a good time, the temperature was over 90 degrees, which robbed us of some of the enjoyment. Figuring we would avoid another 90+ day we decided to move the tournament up this year. With the calendar quickly getting booked we squeezed it in this past Saturday, April 25th. Surely in April we would not have to worry about a 90-degree day. It is times like these that I am convinced God has a sense of humor. The temperature this past Saturday - 91 degrees. Now as one of our men pointed out, “but preacher it is not as humid”. I love when people say that. When you are over 300lbs., hot is hot humid or not. Anyway we did have another good day of fellowship and once again the trophy eluded my teams hands. Hey there is always next year; maybe we will have it January. Does it hit 90 in January? Congratulations to Eddie, Michael, Ron, and Randy for their eight under score and for taking home the trophy once again this year. You can view the pictures here

Wonderful Day

As the sun rose in the background, we gathered outside for our annual sunrise service. Though a little chilly, it was a great service. From there it was off to the mixing bowl as I mixed pancake batter for the traditional Easter breakfast cooked and served by the men of the church. That was followed by a time of fellowship and then a wonderful Easter service. As the challenge was given to "take up your cross" the pews quickly emptied and the altar filled as one by one the congregation came to the front picked up their cross and knelt at the altar. Praise God for the service and we pray that all will follow through with the commitments that were made. Listen to today's sermon or any other sermon here.

Easter Card to David Spears

Our youth wanted to send a video card to David Spears who is serving our country over seas. David we miss you, love you, and are praying for you.

Busy Weekend

Been a busy weekend preparing for one of the biggest days in the church calendar. It should not be that way, but this is the only day we get a shot at some of those "Chreasters". We have a sunrise service planned followed by the men cooking breakfast for the church. Then it is off to Sunday School and then Worship hour. As always I have a little surprise for the church in our Easter sermon. I want my congregation to leave with more than just a "traditional" Easter message. I want to bring the story to life. I have prayed and I believe God has given me the answer in a message I have titled "Is there more to the Easter story". I guess you will have to visit the church site to hear the answer. I pray you each have a blessed Easter service.

New Blog

Welcome to the new blog page for Pastor Western and Kendale Acres Church. I am hoping this new format will give me more flexibility to keep the blog fresh and up to date. I will be trying to give updates at least once a week and will be posting devotions as the Lord leads. Book mark this page and visit back often for updates. Feel free to comment on any blog, I look forward to hearing from you.