Here’s a very relevant article on church security that might be of interest to you.
From the News and Record.
At 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, Crystal Ashley Smith, 19, told Greensboro police she was walking near the intersection of Haywood and Gregory streets when she saw an older model burgundy station wagon approach the intersection and slow down.
Smith said a passenger rolled the window down in the station wagon and showed a handgun.
Smith told police she heard four gun shots and took cover on the ground. She was walking toward Glenwood Avenue when she realized that she had been shot in her right buttock, police said.
She was transported to Moses Cone Hospital where she was treated for non life-threatening injuries.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Crimestoppers at 373-1000.
James MacDonald just finished a couple of great sermons on our spiritual gifts. I know many churches routinely “test” their new members for spiritual gifts, but I can’t recall ever really evaluating what my particular gifts are. Indeed, I have a distinct notion that I have tried to do everything for the kingdom, with good results when I was relying on my particular spiritual gifts and with not so good results when I was working in areas where I am not particularly gifted…
So what are your spiritual gifts? Notice I didn’t say what is your spiritual gift. You don’t pigeonhole yourself into one and forsake the rest – you have a sampling of several spiritual gifts. Where do you find the most joy in serving the Lord? Where have you seen the most “success” in serving? Below is a list of spiritual gifts found in three key passages and their definitions. I don’t believe that there is a completely exhaustive list given in Scripture due to the fact that all three main lists are different and that my wife definitely has the spiritual gift of music and I know people with what seems to be a spiritual gift of worship. But these are to get you thinking – I’m sure there is a good online spiritual gifts quiz you can take as well…
From Romans 12:6-8 -
From 1 Corinthians 12: (along with prophecy and teaching above)
From Ephesians 4 (along with apostle, prophecy, and teaching above)
So, where do you fit in with the body of Christ? I notice that pew-sitter is not on the list anywhere, which will make a lot of people unhappy. Is technology a spiritual gift? If so, I’m all over that!
SHINE Lesson for November 25, 2007 – delivered by Brian Beasley
Feel free to right-click and select Save Target As… to download to your computer, or simply hit the button to play!
Sorry if you’ve tried to access the SHINE blog in the last few days. I think it went down for no apparent reason on Wednesday night or Thanksgiving morning and I’ve been trying to fix the problem in the little time I had between shoving turkey down my throat, leaving town, coming back again, and a full day at church yesterday.
I’ve learned a little more about advanced web databases now. It’s funny how you learn the most about something when it’s broke and you’re trying to fix it. The only things I know about cars concern the things that I’ve had break or stop working over the years. Guess that falls into the same category as the fact that if you take a test with 10 questions and get 9 of them right, the one you will remember the most in the future is the one you got wrong. (Maybe that’s why I’m so smart 
)
I will try to post last night’s SHINE lesson on Gideon tonight sometime…
At least once a week, I’d like to post a collection of links to articles that I have found interesting reading lately. Here’s our first installment – enjoy!
We’ll start with a devotional from Pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest.org.
From a blog on Biblical Preaching:
From SAWorship.com, a fantastic article with ideas on some ways to get involved in the church. This relates to my Gideon post earlier this week:
From the News-Enterprise of Elizabethtown, KY, proof that sometimes the simplest ways are great ways to share God’s love:
Something to get your blood boiling from New Zealand:
In case you needed any more proof that THE key is the preaching of the Word Of God….
And that’s it for this week – Have A Very Happy Thanksgiving!
Glenwood Presbyterian is a “small church.” With less than 100 members, there are certain dynamics of that type of small group. I stumbled across a good intelligent article which sums up a lot of what is familiar to me. As we start the search for a new pastor, I thought it was good reading and wanted to share it with you. It is from a website called SmallChurch.Com. I haven’t had time to explore their whole site yet, but here’s a link to the article.
My lesson at SHINE this coming Sunday night is on Gideon, that “mighty man of valor” from the book of Judges. I selected this particular story because of the inevitable loss of some members whenever there is a change in the pastor. God called Gideon to go and conquer the Midianites, who were oppressing the nation of Israel. Gideon, after some delays, rounds up an army of 32,000 men, a pitiful force with which to fight the Midianites, but God has him whittle his army down until Gideon is left with a force of 300 men. But God can do more through 300 dedicated men than he can with tens of thousands of lukewarm followers and he delivers the Midianites into Gideon’s hand.
What struck me as I was studying this today happens just after that miraculous victory. In Judges 8:1, the Ephraimites criticize Gideon sharply saying, “Why didn’t you call us when you went to fight Midian?” They’re upset that they didn’t get to join this vastly outnumbered army now that they have seen the results…
I can’t tell you how many times as the head of various church committees, I have attempted to get volunteers for certain things and been unsuccessful. I hate putting someone on the spot and asking them to do something, so I will advertise the need and wait (many times in vain) for interested parties to heed the call and volunteer. Same thing happens as the choir director – members of the congregation want more “special music” solos, but no one volunteers and we have to recruit folks who may or may not feel called to participate in that way.
The Ephraimites were upset that they weren’t asked to get involved. More likely, they were upset because they didn’t get to share the glory and probably even attributed arrogance to Gideon, deciding irrationally that he meant to exclude them so he wouldn’t have to share that glory and success.
So the question is this: should Christians need to be asked before they use their spiritual gifts for the good of the church? Should church leaders ask members to do certain things before expecting them to participate? I completely understand the need to encourage some people generally to use their gifts, or in certain circumstances, specifically approaching a person and saying, “I think you would do a great job with [insert program here] based on your gifts and talents. Have you considered it?” But with my Type A personality, if I see a need and feel called to address it, I’m going to volunteer long before anyone has to ask me.
Have I completely missed the mark?
Today was our pastor’s last Sunday leading our church. Randy Wellford has been our pastor for the last 10 years and resigned to take a position with the Servant Center, a non-profit service organization which is located next door to Glenwood Presbyterian. There were a lot of visitors there this morning, and we had a covered-dish luncheon in Randy’s honor where several people stood up and thanked Randy for his time with us and talked about what his ministry had meant to them. He meant a lot to so many people as he sat with them during surgeries or comforted them through grief and tough times. Randy has a tremendous heart for serving the less fortunate in our community and world, and that will no doubt serve him well in his new position. Our church was able to reach and help many people over the last ten years due to Randy. We wish him all the best, and know that his presence will continue to be a shining light in the Glenwood community.
We have a Session meeting tonight to start the process of finding a new preacher. I pray and ask for your prayers that we can find the person that God has prepared and is calling to lead our church in the future. I also pray that we do not fall into a “waiting” mode during this transition time, but instead continue to serve the community and reach people for Christ.
As I started getting this blog together, I stumbled across several other local blogs that I want to make sure to draw attention to. The Glenwood neighborhood was once a very proud, close-knit community – it has really declined through the years but there seems to be a strong movement currently to make it better. Just last week, a person was robbed at the corner of our church property at 10:30 pm one night.
I’m not sure who really deserves the credit for getting it started, but I know Marshall Benbow, Intervarsity, Grace church, and probably others have treated the Glenwood community as a mission field, having people move into the community and support various programs to help the young people here. I’m ashamed that Glenwood Presbyterian hasn’t done more in response to this problem. Many of our older members grew up in the community and have since moved elsewhere, but most of our members have some ties here. Otherwise, we’d be going somewhere else. Both of my parents grew up in Glenwood.
Unfortunately, almost all of our members drive into the neighborhood for church functions and drive back out again, simply hoping not to encounter anyone on either trip. Our Session (the ruling body of our church) will meet soon to set goals for next year. Hopefully, we will find a way to really get involved. I would love to be able to make a positive contribution – but the vision I have is helping the neighborhood association get rid of some of these absentee landlords, clean up some properties, and exert pressure on the police (and District Attorney’s office) to really get serious about crime in this neighborhood.
But in the meantime, I’ve added several Glenwood related blogs to the blogroll on the right – be sure and check them out.
