Eastern Idaho

9Marks eJournal

Mark Dever, Pastor at Capital Hill Baptist Church in Washington DC has a great resource on church health and related aritcles that you may find of interest from time to time. 9Marks published a journal of various topics you can subscribe to here. 

The May/June 2009 issue became an imediate read for me because of the topic of multi-site church growth thoughts. This reminded me of a pastor in Colorado in the early 70s who preached in New Castle and Rifle (about 14 miles apart) every Sunday morning while both churches were new and shared the support of their pastor. How could this be a model for church planting in rural Idaho and Utah as well as the cities of Salt Lake City and Boise?

Prayer For New State Staff

Dear Utah/Idaho Southern Baptist,
Join together in prayer as the process continues in the search of new state staff positions.

Church Shooting March 8, 2009

Today at First Baptist Church of Maryville, Ill, pastor Fred Winters was shot to death while preaching.

"Senior Pastor Fred Winters was preaching during the 8:15 a.m. service when a man entered the church, walked down the aisle and started shooting, a parishioner told FOX News. Four others were also reportedly shot." FOXNEWS

Please pray for this church and his family.

Repent!

While still reading the classic, "the Overcoming Life" by D. L. Moody in Chapter four he says;

"When the ungodly see that Christian people do not, you cannot expect them to repent and turn away from their sins."

Moody then proceeds to walk through five things that flow out of true repentance.

1. Conviction 
2. Contrition
3. Confession of sin
4. Conversion
5. Confession of Jesus Christ

I'm surprised and encouraged to hear Moody's boldness from the pulpit. He frequently pleads with the listener to 'repent' and he is clear about what is ment by repent. He must have been a fun guy to listen to, but very straight forward about Truth. At first glance, the title of his book sounds like a modern day 'self-help' book, but with every word I hear it as bathed in Scripture.