I worshiped with two wonderful but vastly different churches Sunday morning and found myself reflecting on the nature of congregations.

Vaughn Forest Baptist Church in South Montgomery, Alabama, is constructing a new sanctuary to accommodate their exploding congregation. I believe they’re running three morning services each Sunday. The one I attended was the 9:20 am service with the associate pastor preaching. During the final minutes, I excused myself and slipped out to the parking lot and drove downtown to the First Baptist Church of Montgomery. That church is enjoying a huge new sanctuary and they need two morning services to take care of their congregation.

I had never attended either church. I knew no one in either congregation except my cousin Mike Kilgore and his family in Vaughn Forest, and Pastor Jay Wolf and his family at FBC-M.

These are Southern Baptist churches, so obviously they are alike in a hundred ways. But, frankly, they are different in 75 ways.

Both churches were alive and fresh. The people were involved and friendly. The staffs were sharp and prepared. The messages were outstanding and biblical.

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Proverbs 27:17 “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. So one woman sharpens another. So one Christian young person sharpens another.

As iron sharpens iron, so one campus minister sharpens another. So one worship leader sharpens another. So one deacon sharpens another. So one missionary sharpens another. And pre-eminently, as iron sharpens iron, so one pastor sharpens another.

I tell you on the authority of Heaven that no matter what level of ministry you are serving in, you need two or three great, close personal friends to keep one another sharp and faithful and working at the highest level.

Over 46 years of ministry, I’ve known only two pastors who did not like preachers. The first one, it turned out, was a fake. When his last church forced him out of the pulpit, it came to light that he had been spending time at the gambling tables in the casinos, was ordering alcoholic drinks with his meals, and was given to telling dirty stories and sprinkling profanity in his conversation. I believe we would all agree here was a man who had no business in the ministry. His dislike and criticism of other preachers, no doubt, was a diversion to draw attention away from his own misbehavior.

The other pastor, however, seems to have been genuine in his dislike for preachers. I knew him well and saw close up the effects of the isolation he imposed on himself as a result of his contempt for preachers. I’m not a psychiatrist, but only a pastor. However, my opinion is that any preacher in isolation has to contend with two great problems: ego and temptations of the flesh. Now, everyone fights these battles, but the isolated minister does so with one arm behind his back. He has no colleague to confide in or draw strength from.

Ego problems vary from feelings of worthlessness to extreme pride and egotism. The fleshly temptations may involve impure thoughts, unhealthy reading material, and smutty stories, and in time may lead to pornography and adulterous affairs.

Both kinds of temptation ended the ministry of my friend.

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Text: Acts 2:42-47

The Jerusalem church had a problem. This congregation of 120 souls held a one-day revival and by nightfall, they had baptized 3,000 people. Talk about overwhelming the system! No church is set up for this kind of growth.

The challenge they faced was how to disciple these new believers, to get them established in the Christian life as quickly as possible.

The task was complicated by several factors. Many were foreigners in Jerusalem for the days of Pentecost, which had just ended. Their friends were ready to head home, but since Jesus Christ had just entered their lives and rearranged their priorities, they planned to remain in town for a while to learn all they could as quickly as possible before heading home.

Since the church had no meeting place, they crowded into homes and any available corner of the Temple for classes taught by the apostles. To further complicate matters, new believers were arriving all the time. By Acts 4:4, the number had risen to 5,000 believers. Clearly, this was not an orderly and well-organized process of discipleship. They were doing the best they could under unprecedented conditions. The image of “herding cats” comes to mind.

In building His fledgling church, the Lord was using three different kinds of stones, so to speak: the Word of God, the Work of God, and the Worship of God.

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I’ve said to my sons they are far better fathers to their little ones than I was to them. I’m a little grateful that they argue the point, but I stand my ground.

For one thing, they’re home more than I was. Ask any pastor. The evening meetings at church are bad enough, but add to that the out-of-town trips to speak in other churches, denominational appointments, conventions, mission assignments, and–well, you get the point. I look back to those days 30 years ago with regret that I was not there more than I was.

However, without engaging in an autopsy here–and punishing myself too severely–I will admit I did a few things right.

Every parent makes mistakes. I wouldn’t be surprised if even James and Shirley Dobson–the world’s greatest authorities on how to raise kids–look back to mistakes they made in raising Ryan and Danae.

If we wanted to grovel in regret and self-pity,we each have done enough wrong to supply plenty of material. But let’s not. Let’s focus for a moment on things we did right.

The only reason I mention this here is to “put a bug” in the ear of some parents who read this.

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In Poplarville, Mississippi, police have arrested a guy for sending threats to African-Americans. According to news reports, he texted targets announcing that he is so angry over the election of Barack Obama as president, he is determined to kill thousands of N—-rs. That’s terrible.

But here’s the scary part: it turns out he was black.

He was trying to stir up further racial tension and dissension. As if we need any more.

Up the road a few miles above New Orleans — on what we call the “North Shore” — police have shut down a KKK-type operation and arrested everyone involved. A young Oklahoma woman had joined the group and was going through the initiation when she suddenly decided this was not for her. “You can’t leave,” they insisted. When she refused to back down, their leader pulled out a pistol and killed her. Everyone is being charged either with her murder or abetting it by covering it up afterwards.

These are whites, of course. But they are a cancer on America today, I’ll say as clearly as I know how.

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The mayor has erected signs all over New Orleans announcing big plans for future development. Tuesday’s Times-Picayune says he did this “hoping to boost public confidence.”

The question that occupied much of Monday night’s meeting of the City Council, however, was whether such signs inspire the citizens of this city or anger them. Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell said, “Instead of signs saying what we’re going to do, why not put up signs saying what we’ve completed?”

Sure would save a lot of money on signs.

In the three years and three months since Hurricane Katrina devastated this city and regions around us, our mayor and his administration have developed incredible skills at announcing plans and program. Numerous press conferences have been called to unveil architects’ imaginative plans for developments on this block or in this neighborhood. The paper gives the hoopla front page coverage the next morning, and then nothing happens. Pretty soon, another conference is called, another drawing is unveiled, another front page heralds the news, and then nothing.

The citizens have long since grown skeptical over any announcement emanating from City Hall.

Instead of learning, however, Mayor Nagin and his people want to invest more money in bigger and better signs of their plans.

I’m with Ms. Morrell. Tell us what you’ve done, not what you’re planning.

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Not being a pastor any more, I almost have little need for the extensive files loaded with anecdotes and illustrations accumulated over the years. However, with Thanksgiving approaching, I dug out the thick file so labeled and chose a few of the stories and insights on the subject. Just because the paper they’re on is beginning to “yellow” does not diminish their value.

In a 1973 sermon titled “Don’t Sit on the Thorns,” Brian Harbour speaks of a 17th century preacher named Jeremy Taylor who had just seen his home plundered and his family driven out of doors, their worldly possessions gone. Taylor writes,

“What now? Let me look about me. They have left me the sun and the moon, a loving wife and many friends to pity me, and some to relieve me. They have not taken away my merry countenance and my cheerful spirit and a good conscience; they have still left me the providence of God and all the promises of the Gospel, and my religion, and my hopes of heaven, and my charity to them, too; and still I sleep and digest, I eat, and drink. I read and meditate — and he that hath so many causes of joy and so great, is very much in love with sorrow and peevishness, who leaves all these pleasures and chooses to sit down upon his little handful of thorns.”

Taylor (and thus Brian Harbour) says the fellow who chooses to complain instead of giving thanks is like one who intentionally sits on a handful of thorns.

Gloria Steinem (hey, I’ll quote anyone if it’s worth saying!) once said, “America is an enormous frosted cupcake in the middle of millions of starving people.” She was right. For God’s people, it’s not enough to give thanks for our bounty, but must be looking for ways to share God’s blessings with others who have less.

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Gwen Williams is a dear sister in Christ who is well-known to many who have lived any time in New Orleans or come here to minister. She has been redeemed through the precious blood of Jesus, she is an African-American who bills herself as “Miss Chocolate,” she has ministered to inner city youth for decades, she belongs to Fred Luter