SABBATH 10/7
The church this morning is packed with people and there is excitement over the baptisms that are going to take place. The sermon was about the unpardonable sin. Since this was called a “Sabbath Celebration” and we were baptizing people, it kind of seemed like an inappropriate topic. I thought something more celebratory would be in order but this provided one last chance to call people out of “Babylon.” The evangelist was in full form calling for commandment keeping and coming out of Babylon and we didn’t even finish the church service part until 2pm (We started at 11). After this we did the baptisms and had about 20.
One of the interesting things about the baptism was that most of the people were not baptized because of the meeting itself. Maybe 8 of the 20 had initial contact with Adventists through the preaching series and were regular attendees of the meetings. The rest were people who had prior contact with Bible workers or church members and didn’t come faithfully to the meeting. What it showed me is that Bible work is the most important aspect of a series. In fact, if we placed more emphasis on Bible work and meeting with people in their homes, we wouldn’t necessarily need the preaching series. I think the problem is that within our paradigm, we only do Bible work before a series but if Bible work is ongoing in your church, baptisms will be happening on a regular basis.
I missed the evening meeting but they had a graduation based on people turning in their A.F. lessons and didn’t have a sermon but just wrapped things up.
The church this morning is packed with people and there is excitement over the baptisms that are going to take place. The sermon was about the unpardonable sin. Since this was called a “Sabbath Celebration” and we were baptizing people, it kind of seemed like an inappropriate topic. I thought something more celebratory would be in order but this provided one last chance to call people out of “Babylon.” The evangelist was in full form calling for commandment keeping and coming out of Babylon and we didn’t even finish the church service part until 2pm (We started at 11). After this we did the baptisms and had about 20.
One of the interesting things about the baptism was that most of the people were not baptized because of the meeting itself. Maybe 8 of the 20 had initial contact with Adventists through the preaching series and were regular attendees of the meetings. The rest were people who had prior contact with Bible workers or church members and didn’t come faithfully to the meeting. What it showed me is that Bible work is the most important aspect of a series. In fact, if we placed more emphasis on Bible work and meeting with people in their homes, we wouldn’t necessarily need the preaching series. I think the problem is that within our paradigm, we only do Bible work before a series but if Bible work is ongoing in your church, baptisms will be happening on a regular basis.
I missed the evening meeting but they had a graduation based on people turning in their A.F. lessons and didn’t have a sermon but just wrapped things up.
Comments
You are right though, the traditional paradigm is so engrained in us it's hard to move past. I don't know of many churches that would be gung ho about bringing in a Bible Worker unless a series was involved.