By Tom Jenkins on 4/26/2009 7:07 PM

   I am preaching in a revival this week at a neighboring church. I've enjoyed these preaching missions ever since I was the preacher for a revival team back in college days. In those days most churches had spring and fall revivals. Often one of the revivals began with Homecoming, a time honored tradition of celebrating the past, perhaps inviting a previous minister and following the service with a meal. At FBCC we still have Homecoming in the fall but we do not follow it with a week of revival services.    In the rural south where I grew up revivals were often held in the summer after the crops were "laid" by, that is, the farmers had completed their work in their fields and were waiting for the harvest to ripen. So there was a short reprieve between the making of the crops and the harvesting of the crops. Some churches held what were called "protracted" revivals which meant that the beginning date was posted but no one knew when it would end because planning an ending date was akin to "quenching the spirit."...

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By Tom Jenkins on 4/20/2009 12:47 PM

    April 19 was Youth Sunday at FBCC. Our youth director, David Richardson preached, the youth choir sang, youth acted as ushers, staffed the welcome center, greeted our guests, offered prayers, read Scripture and even gave the children’s sermon. It was a marvelous experience for us all.

    God has a way of stirring a church through its youth. He often uses them to remind us “older” folk of our need to have youth-like faith, a faith which always includes the elements of journey and unpredictability. Youth are great at showing us that God can use us even when we feel unprepared. Youth ministry has an exciting edge of Divine serendipity about it. What may at times appear to be lack of preparation by youth are actually faith steps trusting God to do what they cannot do. We all need to learn that or our faith walk becomes predictable, routine, ho-hum and a little monotonous. So risk something this week for Christ. Do something for him that you have been reluctant to do. You may discover as many Christians...

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