April Outreach Showers May Brings May Revival Flowers

Our revival emphasis will take a different form this spring. Each of the five Sundays in May we will have a different evangelist preaching. But my prayer is that those five Sundays in May will actually be a part of the harvest.

During April we will continue Operation Saturation. This will be our third surge as we attempt to saturate our community with our love and concern and, at the same time, spread Jesus’ love around. Just to refresh your memory concerning last year’s two surges, I want to tell you what this is all about. We began with a one-mile radius of our church and touched every family, and then reached beyond that to a two-mile radius. Our next surge will extend to that third mile. We will re-touch those who we identified as unchurched in the first two miles, and then continue to pan out further. Our goal is to eventually reach out to the fifth mile.

During May, you will hear a different evangelist each week. They will include Jim Futral (former pastor here and Executive Director for Mississippi Baptists), Larry Robertson (former director of Evangelism of Tennessee Baptist Convention), Phil Glisson (career Evangelist), and Juston Gates (pastor of First Baptist, Saltillo). You will be able to see the schedule in just a few weeks. But I am telling you now so you can begin to pray.

You have heard me say repeatedly that the key to revival is prayer. That prayer should take many forms. It must be a prayer for your personal renewal. Second, it must be a prayer for your involvement in outreach. It must be a prayer for those who will lead us (preachers). It must be a prayer for those who are lost (particularly those God has assigned us to reach to) and unchurched. It must be a prayer for our entire church. My vision is that everything we do be outreach-driven. And my prayer is that this evangelistic effort will begin to do that very thing.

INTRODUCTION to Me

I am a North Mississippi pastor of Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church (Dumas). I am serving in my tenth year and am blessed to be able to serve here. My vision for us is that we become outreach-oriented--that everything we do be directed toward reaching out to our community and reaching into our own church rolls to minister to those who hurt. My daughter, who is also my secretary, set up this blog for me. My plans are to post to this blog two or times a week, simply sharing my heart. I will share my journal ramblings from time to time. My daily Bible reading takes me to three different passages--one in the New Testament and two in the Old. I read through the New Testament twice every year and through the Old Testament once every year. Many days my journal entries are nothing more than what God has spoken from His word, though sometimes I record my thoughts and responses. As I begin today, my prayer is that these ramblings will minister to the hearts who are seeking direction from God for their life.