Antioch News - October 2004

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NEWS AND VIEWS

• I (Pastor Reagan) traveled to China and visited there for a couple of weeks. I saw many of the famous sites like the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, and Forbidden City. But mostly, I went to see the land and the people. I spoke to a combined Sunday School at Antioch on September 12^th to tell about my trip and what I learned. From this trip, I am convinced that China and other countries will ultimately need materials in their own language if they are to be fully reached with the gospel and the truth of God’s word. It is not enough to give it to them in English. There is an open door for believers who will become proficient in other languages in order to write, translate, witness, or even correspond with those from other cultures. Who will accept this call to seriously study another language?

• A special thanks to Brother Robert Schoolfield, pastor of Victory Baptist Church in Crossville, Tennessee. The morning I was in China, he left his congregation to teach and preach for us. He also taught my college class in John one of the nights I was out. Thank you, Brother Schoolfield.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• David Holland, our long-time missionary to Papua New Guinea, is scheduled to be with us to report on his work there on Sunday evening, October 10^th.
• Evangelist Sam Gipp is scheduled to be with us all day on Sunday, October 31^st, and at 7PM Monday and Tuesday evenings, November 1^st and 2^nd. He has been with us several times and the meetings have always been a great blessing. We only wish he could have been here longer. We encourage you to visit with us during these services.

• Instead of meeting in their separate classes, beginning this Sunday we will have an opening assembly for the entire church at 10AM on Sunday’s. I have become convinced that our children are not learning many of the great choruses I learned as a child. Many times, the parents did not grow up in church and do not know them either. We are going to use the opening assembly to teach both children and adults some good choruses. We plan to divide up for the classes after about 5 minutes. Please try to be here in time to learn the choruses with everyone else.

CHURCH MINISTRIES

• On Wednesday evening of September 8^th, Chris Wilhoit of Antioch Baptist Church presented a Feasibility Study of Noah’s Ark to the people. He is also teaching Creationism in the college on Monday nights. Brother Wilhoit wants to develop a ministry in Creationism Evangelism. This is needed for our young people, especially for college students. It is also a great way to challenge the unchurched about the truth of God’s word. I know he would be a blessing.

• Evangelist Bill Grady, who is out of Antioch Baptist Church, hopes to have his next book out after the election. Please pray for him and his wife Linda as they work on this. Congratulations to them as well for the healthy birth of their latest grandchild. If you wish, I’m sure they would be glad to show you a picture.

• In teacher’s meeting at 7PM on Wednesday nights, I have been giving out a detailed outline of the next Sunday School lesson and have gone over it on the adult level. I am convinced that I have helped the teachers of the younger children as I should have. We are therefore changing our approach to the teacher’s meeting in order to help the teachers prepare for teaching the different age levels. We will be using the acronym STAR to organize our approach. The lessons will be given out an extra week ahead so the teachers can look them over ahead of time and then we will apply STAR to the lesson on the Wednesday before it will be taught on Sunday. If anyone who is not teaching now and would like some training on preparing lessons, the meeting is open to you as well. Just let me know. Here is the meaning of STAR:
  • S stands for STORY. What is the story to be found in this lesson? What is happening? What is going on? What is exciting about the lesson?
  • T stands for THEME. What is the main theme of the story? What is the main point or points of the lesson?
  • A stands for APPLICATION. How can you tell this story and present this theme in such a way as to make sense to your students on their level? How can it be applied to them in a practical way?
  • R stands for RESOURCES. What are some of the resources that can be used to help teach this story to the students? This, of course, will vary with the age of the students, but here are the types of things we will be looking at.
    • Coloring sheets
    • Worksheets and puzzles
    • Games
    • Object lessons
    • Props that illustrate something in the story
    • Flannelgraph or other visuals
    • Songs that go along
    • Stories that illustrate the theme

BIBLE COLLEGE

• Scripture Baptist College for the first term (8 weeks) of the Fall Semester has 14 local students. This is down a bit from last year but this class has already shown itself to have a special spirit about them. And, at this point, we have not had anyone drop out of school. This in itself is unusual and shows the high quality of the students. Here are the classes that are presently being taught:
  • Creationism by Chris Wilhoit
  • John by David Reagan
  • Daniel by Karl Lohman
  • Galatians by Drew Ray

• We have several who have been taking classes by correspondence. A couple of students are finishing up our available courses quickly and are challenging us to complete more of them. We have several in preparation. Pray that we can complete them in time to keep up with our students.

• Mt. Carmel Bible Institute is having its first session in Israel as I write this. Please pray for them. Also, you might be interested in going on one of these unique trips in the future. He is planning another trip for May of 2005.

PREACHING/TEACHING 

• I thank the Lord for those who filled in for me when I was traveling to China. The men from the church who filled in were Andy Soon, Drew Ray, and Chris Wilhoit. What a blessing to have these and others who can be called on when needed. Thank you men.
• We are studying the Book of Ecclesiastes on Sunday evenings right now. There has been a good response to the study.

• Someone emailed me the other day asking why Agrippa was no longer almost persuaded in Acts 26:28-29 in the New International Version of the Bible. That reminded me of the invitation song “Almost Persuaded” and got me to thinking about all the songs that are being undermined by the new versions. So, I preached on this last Wednesday night. We will try to make the outline and sermon available on the web.

WEB SITE

• The web site continues to grow. Each day on average, more than 2900 pages on the site are being viewed. That means that we are averaging 120 pages viewed each hour around the clock, an average of one page view every 30 seconds. We even had one day last week with over 4800 page views. The Lord is good.

• One of the most popular sections of the site has turned out to be the Question and Answer page. We are getting questions about the Bible, Christian ministry, and Christian living from all over the world. Right now, we are averaging about 3 to 4 questions coming in each day. The problem has become how to get to all of them. Please remember us in prayer.

• Our email newsletter list now has 1931 active addresses. Several people sign up a day. We thank the Lord for these people. Here are the places represented in the last 20 sign-ups who gave geographical information:
  • Nigeria (2 sign-ups)
  • South Africa
  • Philippines
  • United Arab Emirates
  • Canada, Nova Scotia
  • Thailand
  • USA
    • Georgia
    • Kansas
    • Illinois
    • Tennessee
    • Virginia
    • South Carolina
    • Kentucky
    • Missouri
    • Indiana
    • New York
    • Texas

QUOTE

• “We wonder why we don’t have faith; the answer is, faith is confidence in the character of God and if we don’t know what kind of God God is, we can’t have faith.” From The Attributes of God: Volume Two by A. W. Tozer (p.4-5).