The Pine Cone
The personal thoughts of Pastor Mike Davis, pastor of Pine Forest Estates Baptist Church.
Welcome to The Pine Cone
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Working Together
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Outreach
Last Sunday, we had a 10 year old girl accept Christ in the morning service. What is obvious is that God is still willing to save. It's up to his people to share the gospel. Join us as we organize to reach our community for Christ.
The next evangelistic event that we are working on is our Christmas play The Other Wise Man directed Ray Gibbs. The whole church is coming together to form the cast, build the set, and stage the event on December 6-8.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
3-1-2013 10_40_50 PM
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Now It Happened Like This
At this Christmas season, take time to look for God's hand at work. As it relates to the "things" of Jesus, they all happened that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet. As it relates to us, if we know the Savior, He is working all "things" together for our good to conform us to His image.
The story of Jesus has now been told for over two thousand years. It happened like this... Our stories will be told for years to come. Don't wait for the history books to write it down, recognize the hand of God at work. He knew what He was doing with the "things" of His Son, and He knows what He is doing with you.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Christian Camp
Monday, January 30, 2012
Making Church Essential in 2012
Our goal is to make church essential to the lives of our people this year. When I talk about church, attendance is not really the main issue. It is important, but church is much more than attendance. May God help us to be the people that He wants us to be this year. As we meet each other's needs and develop relationships for fellowship and ministry, the church becomes essential to our lives.
Recently, I read a statement about making the church essential that caught my eye. The statement went something like this. "It ought to be harder to leave a church than it is to join one." In general, it is easy to leave a church. Our hope is that we can develop a culture, through discipleship that keeps track of and supports our members. We must get better at meeting the needs of the body of Christ.
As life changes and life stages change, we must grow in our knowledge of people. The old adage says, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." We do care. Now we need to do a better job of showing it. Can you think of any ways to demonstrate your care for the body of Christ? Let's demonstrate that the church (people) is essential (can't live without it) this year.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Passionate People Welcome Here
I am in the process of learning how to understand and accept passionate people. In fact, I intend to do everything in my power to welcome passionate people to our church. God save us from those who don't care about something. As we continue our growth, we are seeking to develop a church culture that values passion.
The idea goes something like this. We start new ministries and try to talk people into participating because it is a good thing to do. After a while, it's like pulling teeth to keep people involved. They need someone to come along and use a bicycle pump to pump up their tire so they can go again. The cycle repeats over and over again. The result is frustration on the part of everyone involved. The need for constant pep talks demonstrates that their hearts are not in the activity.
Our new strategy is to figure out who our people are (What is your passion?) and match them with spiritual activity that is consistent with their gifts and passions. I don't have a desire to increase our participation and service each week by just 20-30%. My goal is to get as close to 100% participation in any given week as possible. (Every member serves God in a tangible way every week). God's people need to know what it is like to successfully serve Him on purpose each week. The satisfaction that comes from pleasing God is achievable by the whole church. To the extent that we can help those who have never purposefully served God on a regular basis see God use them in an area that they already enjoy, we can develop their appetite to be involved in other spiritual activities.
We need to be honest in our expectations and our communication about them. There are more ways to serve God each week than just going on door-to-door visitation, soul-winning, and bus visitation. Though these activities are commendable and a great way to put the command of the great commission into practice, I question the wisdom of acting like this is the first step toward maturity or even the ultimate step of maturity. Serving God has to be a way of life, and it has to be something that can be done no matter where one is or what one's skills or abilities are. Relationship with God is essential. Let's start by helping folks literally take the logical next step. Start where you are. The most important spiritual step that you can take today is the next one.
As to passionate people, passion is not the answer to every problem. In fact, it can create problems in the church. Passionate people don't always get along with other passionate people. Passionate people don't get why others don't share their passion. It takes work to work with passionate people. What is the solution to helping those with passion get along with others, it's the same as the solution to helping those who are not currently serving the Lord. Discipleship.
May God give us a passion to serve Him! Passionate people are welcome here.