Once again, we had a wonderful visitation of God in our Wednesday night service, which concluded with tongues and interpretation as in I Corinthians 14. One person received the Holy Spirit.
Historically, three things have helped to establish people in our church: discipleship class, Sunday school, and Wednesday Bible study. We need to reemphasize these important meetings and not take them for granted. We retain 90% of converts who follow these three spiritual disciplines, compared to less than 50% who do not. Thus, if you have recently been baptized or filled with the Holy Spirit, make every effort to attend Life in the Spirit, a 6-week class on Sunday at 10 a.m.
All of us need to attend Sunday school and Wednesday Bible study. Schedules, distances, and gas prices make it difficult for some to attend every Wednesday night, and in those cases God’s grace is sufficient. Some, however, have simply neglected to attend. In such cases, individuals and families suffer spiritually. We should also remember that God will judge unfaithfulness.
Our guest speaker tonight is Gary Erickson. He is the director of the Sunday School Division of the United Pentecostal Church International and a graduate of Urshan Graduate School of Theology.
This week, I will travel to Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia, to teach the first seminar on the Apostolic faith in this predominantly Muslim nation. Please pray for God’s protection and anointing as we walk through this new door of opportunity. In my absence, our associate pastor, Rodney Shaw, will preach next Sunday morning and evening.
Next Sunday night in the fellowship hall, we will conduct our first French service, under the direction of Jerome Williams. We will hold these services periodically for French-speaking immigrants from Africa and other places. A group from our church will attend an African immigrant conference in Dallas in May.
For the past few months, we have worked diligently on our sound system. Special thanks goes to our sound coordinator, Craig Crowder, who has invested many volunteer hours and has done an excellent job of repairing, upgrading, and fine-tuning our system. Musical instruments and parts can now be heard with much greater clarity. To regulate volume more effectively, we adjusted the position of some of the hanging speakers. It seems that we have found the happy median of greater intelligibility and quality with moderate volume, but there will always be adjustments due to changing room and crowd conditions. The sound varies somewhat across the building, so different spots are optimal for different people. If you have questions or input, see Rodney Shaw.
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