It’s a dirty little secret that really isn’t much of a secret, but our denomination (the Southern Baptist Convention) was formed in a region and in an era of extreme racial prejudice. Many of our churches openly practiced discrimination and segregation for years, and many of our churches were on the...
There is always something going on at FSBCA designed to help people, and we don’t always take the time to tell the success stories we hear. For example, in April, our church was the host site for Project Connect, a ministry sponsored by our church and the Valley of the Sun United Way to...
As soon as I walked into the church office, I could tell we had power issues. Some lights burned dimly; others wouldn’t come on at all. Computers wouldn’t turn on. Telephones didn’t work. The burglar and fire alarms were beeping, as were various back-up batteries. There was little on my “to-do”...
Some months ago, I blogged about a young man living in our dumpster. That was in January, and several of you have asked me for an update. The truth is that he has lived in our recycling dumpster for about 2 1/2 months. Our members made sure that he had food,...
I’m not a University of Kentucky fan. Those that know me best (or even know me casually) know that I am a fan of another group of Wildcats. Nevertheless, I learned some interesting things during March Madness about the University of Kentucky basketball team, and many of those things have...
1943 was a long time ago, and life was different in Avondale back then. Avondale (also known as Coldwater) was an unincorporated area, and the population was less than 2000 people. At the time, it didn’t have a High School. Litchfield Park High School had been founded in 1928, and it...
On Monday, I heard the beep of the intercom on my phone. I was expecting the standard, “John Doe is here to see you” or “You have a call on line 1.” Instead, the message was totally unexpected, “Hey, Pastor Jack. Holly says there’s a man in our dumpster. Can you check it...
Three sex scandals are in the news this week; unfortunately, that’s about normal by a Tuesday. One deals with a candidate for president, one deals with a young musician, and the other deals with a college football program. I’m thankful that none of the three deals with a church . . ....
I get the question often. Sometimes it’s in jest from a church member, “So you only work on Sundays, right?” At other times it comes from someone outside of the church that thinks of a church as “open” only on Sunday mornings, “I know you’re a pastor, but what’s your...
Two weeks ago, the members of Estrella Falls Baptist Church (our Goodyear congregation) decided to stop meeting. Most of these members have started attending FSBCA. It was a tough decision and a hard decision. It was not a decision that any of us enjoyed making or that we made lightly. But we did not fail. In our...
