By Tom Jenkins on 10/20/2008 10:57 AM

 These are difficult times for us. The stock market crash and the subprime mortgage meltdown have affected most Americans. Persons planning to retire may have to now work longer to rebuild their retirement accounts. Young couples planning to buy their first home may have to continue renting or living with parents. Church's planning new buildings or programs may have to wait or scale back.    What is the Christian to do in such difficult times? Pray. That's the bottom line. We walk by faith and not by sight. We must continue to claim the promises of God. The Psalmist said that he had never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging for bread (Ps. 37:25). God will provide.   In the coming weeks our conregation will hear about our financial plans for 2009, including the budget. I will not be asking you to sign a commitment card this year. Instead, I am asking you to commmit to a season of prayer. We will begin "Thirty Days of Prayer" on November 26. We will pray each day for particular and specific programs,...

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By Tom Jenkins on 10/16/2008 9:52 AM

  FBCC called David Richardson to lead our youth as the Interim Youth Director. David and his wife Becky have been active in our church for several years. Both of them yielded to the call of God for Christian ministry before joining FBCC. I feel that God brought them to us so that at the appropriate time David could be lifted up as Youth Director. Before the church asked David to become Interim Youth Director he was already involved with our  youth, most recently leading the youth through Christianity 101. David is also very active in our technology programs such as running Media Shout for our video programs on Sunday mornings. Becky is a gifted young lady who will work alongside David in a ministry partnership. She will bring her charm and commitment to the work.   FBCC actually followed the pattern of the early New Testament Church in calling out its own members for ministry. We followed that pattern when we ordained Steve Brown for Christian ministry this year. Steve is now serving as the Associate Pastor...

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By Tom Jenkins on 10/15/2008 3:56 PM

  Sunday was Homecoming at FBCC. We also dedicated the new Allen organ, given in memory of Nita Whitfield by her family. I changed directions for the sermon and spoke on "A Room Called Remember." The title comes from a story by the same title by one of my favorite authors, Fredrich Buechner. In the story the author tells about a dream he had. He went to a hotel where he had never stayed before and checked into a room. Immediately, he was overcome with feelings of happiness and peace. He said that everything was the way it should be. He learned, later on another visit, that the special room was called "Remember."   Homecoming may be referenced as "A Room Called Remember." We come together to remember our forefathers and foremothers who had the faith and courage to found and then build a church. We remember friends and neighbors who used to worship with us. Some remember growing up in the church. Some have spent the whole span of their lives in this community as active members of FBCC. The sanctuary is filled with...

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By Tom Jenkins on 9/26/2008 6:58 AM

  I have a cross-stitch piece my mother made for me years ago. It is a saying she picked up somewhere: "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." It is in a beautiful frame that she had made for it. I think about her when I see it. She made it for me at a difficult time in my life when I was struggling to understand God's will in a difficult situation. Mother wanted me to understand that the past is the past and every day presents me with new opportunities.    Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4 that we "are perplexed but not driven to despair." I think the idea behind his words is that we are perplexed by many things we do not understand but we do not despair. That takes faith. We can despair over what we do not understand unless we face uncertainty with the certainty of Christ dwelling in us, as Paul says to the Colossians, "Christ in you; the hope of glory."   I think that's what my mother was saying to me with the framed words she delicately stitched. You can give in to the despair that may come from dwelling...

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By Tom Jenkins on 9/17/2008 5:52 AM

  I popped in and out of the sanctuary several times yesterday while skilled workmen were installing our new Allen Digital Organ. I returned last night after leaving the annual meeting of our association and found our organist, Nancy Wynn, sitting before the keys playing "Amazing Grace." What a thrill to listen to her play the new instrument.   I've always appreciated good organs. Don Surrency gave me organ lessons many years ago and even on an old Hammond organ with slide bars he could play in such a way as to make the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.   I know that we live in a time where many churches use contemporary music in worship. I believe there is a place for that style of music. It has brought many people to worship that were turned off by other musical expressions. Personally, though, I like our style which our music director, Betsie Forsythe, and I call blended. We sing traditional music mixed with some modern renditions of gospel favorites. Our choirs and soloiosts often favor us with more...

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By Tom Jenkins on 9/4/2008 10:18 PM

  I've been taking some time off this week to oversee the paitning of our house. The people charged with the job have painted the house before. That is, the father of the current painter did the job for me about ten years ago. The son is now running the company, appropriately called a father and son company. I was happy to connect again with the family. I had not known that the son had taken over the company.   My job is to watch what they are doing and be sure the work meets my wife's specifications. It's a plesant job when you have good people working. We should finish tomorrow before Hannah pays us a visit with wind and rain. The bad thing about painting your house is that it makes other things stand out in relief and you begin thinking about upgrading other areas. Maybe we need new cabients in the kitchen and the wallpaper in one of the bathrooms needs to be replaced and also the carpet in the bedrooms and..... You get the drift.   I think there is a lesson in this for the Christian life. C.S. Lewis likened...

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By Tom Jenkins on 8/26/2008 2:40 PM

The presidential election campaign is now with us. The Democrats’ Convention is meeting this week and the Republicans will meet next week. Each party’s nominees will be paraded by adoring delegates before millions of people who will watch by television. Surfing the television channels will reveal multiple venues vetting the conventions. In the following weeks we will be bombarded with ads telling us why one specific candidate and his platform represents our best interests. None of us will be surprised, though dismayed, if the campaign turns ugly. Some political strategists believe that negative campaigns hook the unsure voter so they try to present their opponent representing the antithesis of what is best for America. What is a Christian to do?

            First, Christians should vote. Dismay over the marketing of the presidential candidates should not keep us from voting. In fact, that’s another reason for voting. Vote with the hope that reforms may ultimately reverse the negative trend in politics.

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By Tom Jenkins on 8/7/2008 3:55 PM

  Larry and Dawn Sanders will be with us  Sunday morning. They are missionaries to Milan, Italy.  They serve in a country where witchcraft is openly practiced. The Catholic Church in Italy, as in other parts of the world, is struggling to have enough priests to serve its churches. But witchcraft is flourishing.    These are challenging days for Christian ministry. Some leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention have declared that the convention is becoming irrelevant. They cite decline in baptisms for support and predict a steady decline for the convention if the present course continues.    Polls consistently show that most Americans believe in God. But polls also suggests a wide gap exists between our belief in God and our practice of it. It's the old problem of our "walk" not matching our "talk."    We must continue to advance the Gospel in places like Milan, Italy and Creedmoor, North Carolina. In addition, we must help the people we reach with the Gospel understand that being a Christian is a religion that places demands on us. Saying "Yes" to the Gospel is saying "Yes" to a radical lifestyle when Christianity is compared to the mores of secular culture....

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By Tom Jenkins on 7/28/2008 1:03 PM

Bad things happen to good people as surely as good things happen to bad people. Jesus said that the rain falls on the just and the unjust. We look around us and wonder about the beautiful Christians we know that have to suffer. In my many years of Christian ministry I've never found the "perfect" way to address the suffering of God's people. I know the platitudes that well-meaning people speak when they observe the suffering of others. I've heard them often given as feeble attempts to explain that which cannot be explained. So it really catches my attention when a Christian speaks about suffering from the "inside" rather than a casual observer speaking about it from the "outside." Tony Snow, at one time press secretary to President Bush, recently died from cancer. I ran across a link to an article he wrote about his suffering that I found helpful. Perhaps you will, too. Click Here

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By Tom Jenkins on 7/23/2008 7:52 AM

Our street appearance may soon change. For years FBCC has had an agreement with the company that owns the BP Service Station next to our property on Main Street to use part of their land for parking. The company has been very gracious to allow us to use their property and even allowed us to pave the section that we use. That section is primarily the asphalt paved portion of our parking lot that joins the larger cement section. Now the company plans to demolish the service station and place a convenient store there. The plans call for the new store to take in the area of their property that we have used for parking. A retaining wall will be built to separate our property from the convenient store. Obviously, that will severely impact us. Not only will it change the appearance of our property, but also we will lose some parking spaces and the entrance to the parking area that is nearest to the BP station. The store will be open seven days a week and that may complicate our accessing our parking area on Sundays.

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