November 2006

11.08.2006

ne Parson’s Opinion

Thank you for providing the funds and the opportunity for me to be a messenger from ARBC at the Colorado Baptist General Convention’s annual meeting in Pueblo.

This is the fourth annual meeting of the CBGC I have attended as your pastor. Each year, the meetings have provided both inspiration and information. This was no exception.

Let me give you some of the highlights of the meeting.

• There is a new initiative to get all Colorado Baptist churches to give ten percent to the Cooperative Program. ARBC already gives 10.375 percent of our offerings to the Cooperative Program. For you who do not know, the Cooperative Program is the voluntary giving program whereby we Colorado Baptist churches support our state-wide ministries like resort ministry, church planting and church strengthening. Also, the Cooperative Program is the mechanism whereby 50,000 SBC churches support home and foreign missions and our six seminaries.


• Four new churches were admitted to the Colorado Baptist General Convention.


• We now have 427 churches and missions in Colorado, divided into eleven associations.


• Sadly, we were told of Clear Creek County which is just west of Jefferson County. It has a 96.2 percent lost-ness factor. There is one SBC mission and only one other evangelical church in the whole county.


• In church planting there has been a net gain of 85 new works started in the last five years.


• We had the pastor of Northwoods Church in Keller, Texas, speak of their work in North Vietnam. They are partnering with a Vietnamese Christian who has started 240 cell groups in North Vietnam.


• We had a fellow speak from the Middle East who became a terrorist at age seven. He came to this country to recruit folks for Islam and terrorism. He got converted in the process. Now he speaks for Jesus all over the world.

There is more to report and I will give it in our next monthly business meeting.

Now, let me move to a few thoughts about the election. First, regarding the candidates. It matters not to me if you are a Republican or Democrat. What matters is that you vote for the candidate that stays with Biblical principles on moral issues. As Christians we have a responsibility to do what is right. That includes how we vote. One of my litmus tests is where the candidate stands on abortion. A human life is more important than taxing this or that.

In addition, there are two initiatives in particular which deal with moral issues. I simply urge you to do the right thing. What is the right thing to do? Fifty years ago no politician would have dared to support homosexual agendas. It is annoying that we have to vote to defend marriage, but this is where we are in the USA. I urge to you to vote Yes on Amendment 43 and No on Referendum I. Amendment 43 defines marriage as between one man and one woman. Referendum I proposes a change to the Colorado Constitution that gives homosexual unions the same status as heterosexual marriages. Again, let me encourage you to vote and to simply ask yourself on the moral issues, “What is the right thing to do?”

Our annual Thanksgiving Celebration (November 19) is rapidly approaching! This year we will have Bill Jack as our speaker. For the AM service on November 19, Bill will give a talk entitled “The Seven Habits of Highly Suppressive People.” This talk deals with how people suppress the truth about the Scripture. For the evening, after our fellowship meal, Bill will talk about “Creation vs. Evolution: “What’s the Big Deal?” It should be a great time of fellowship and being fed spiritually and physically.

See you on the Lord’s Day,
Jim

Posted by arbc at 09:25 PM