iPreach, the podcast for preachers, has been on hold for a few weeks due to holidays, travel, and sickness. Dale Jenkins and I enjoy doing these podcasts, and it is time to start up again. These are done when we have the chance, so there will be little breaks like this from time-to-time. We hope you understand. We are planning on recording a podcast on each of the next two Fridays. Tomorrow, our plan is to have a podcast about the new Church of Christ social network site, and we will be interviewing the man who started the site (you’ll have to tune in to find out who it is!).…

[NOTE: One of my resolutions for 2009 is to try to read an average of one biography (or autobiography) each month. These books contain stories of interesting lives and also usually have several possible illustrations for sermons and lessons.] Subtitled A Portrait of My Years with Nancy Reagan, Michael Deaver’s book contains a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most interesting first ladies our nation has ever had. Deaver worked as an aide for the Reagans back into the days when Ronald was governor of California, and he served right through the White House years. Through those years and beyond, he became a friend of both Ronald and Nancy. It…

It was cold yesterday, but only on the outside of the building. We even saw snow, though it was just about 11 flakes! The cold weather (nor the Titans loss…grrrr) could not keep us from having a very uplifting day at Lebanon Road, however. Our attendance suffered a bit, but we were blessed with a tremendous number of visitors. Our Sunday morning attendance was 330, and we were blessed to have 282 for our evening services. With the cold weather, we are dealing with the illness of several members, but we are thankful for good attendance despite those who cannot attend due to sickness. Last evening, we had quite an…

This is the 896th post in the history of Faughnblog. We are happy to have several posts that have 2, 3, or 4 comments. Our readers just aren’t “commenters,” I guess (although I wish that would change…hint, hint!!!). I didn’t go through the list of all posts in the history of the blog, but the most comments I remember a post ever having was five… …until I brought up the case for the Utah Utes winning the national title. So far, there have been seven comments (and 8 Facebook comments on it, too). Now, we’ve posted articles on this blog dealing with abortion, controversial movies and TV shows, and Bible…

It was pretty amazing. Late on January 2, and on into the weekend, we were bombarded with stories of how wonderful the Utah football team was. They had beaten Alabama, and done so in dominant fashion. However, as we draw closer to the BCS national title game, the story has swung another way. Now we are being told that Utah is a “good story,” but they could never match up with either Florida or Oklahoma. This change in story illustrates the problem with NCAA I-A (or FBS) college football. It’s all about appearances. So, for a few moments, read with an open mind the case for Utah winning the AP…

I try to mention each book I complete on this blog, and I try to point out positives in brief reviews. Unfortunately, the first book I completed in 2009 makes it difficult to start off the year with an uplifting recommendation! The book, The Gift of Forgiveness by Charles Stanley, is a book that I was excited to read, but was deeply disappointed. Stanley, of course, is writing from a purely Calvinistic viewpoint and the teaching of “once saved, always saved” permeates nearly every aspect of the book. That was enough to really upset me as I read. In all seriousness, how can one write a book on forgiveness when…

We got off to a great start to 2009 at Lebanon Road. Our attendance headed up again, and we had very uplifting services. At the beginning of our time together yesterday morning, our treasurer presented the congregation with the budget for 2009. Even with the economy in turbulent times, our elders challenged us by increasing our budget. We know that our families will meet and exceed the challenge set before us by our elders so that we can do as much good as possible through our giving. Yesterday morning, I preached a New Year’s sermon that was entitled, “A.D.” We used the phrase, “The year of our Lord” as the…

It was so nice to see Nebraska pull out a Gator Bowl victory yesterday. So far, the Big 12 is 3-1, but there are still quite a few teams left to play. I haven’t watched as many bowl games as usual. I think there are so many now that they start to run together after awhile. Anyway, we’re off to a good start to 2009, and I hope you are having a great start to your new year as well. If you haven’t yet, make sure you include God in your New Year’s resolutions. One of my resolutions is to preach through the Bible on Sunday nights. I’m following a…

As each year closes, we often take time to reflect on the events of the year. For the Faughn family, it has been quite a year. It really started on December 30, 2007, when we agreed to move to Nashville to work with Lebanon Road. On January 1, we sold our house in Haleyville (no kidding!). On January 6, we had to share the news with the wonderful people at 9th Avenue, just one day after the close of the annual youth rally (and record attendance!). It was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done to announce we would be leaving, but, as we would expect, the great…

Our family was away for the weekend, but things continued to go well at Lebanon Road. J.D. and Harry preached, and did a great job. It was also great to end the year with another family placing membership with us! Steve, Mary Catherine, Katie Grace, and Cross Thompson are coming back to Lebanon Road. They moved away from Tennessee a while back, but are back in the Nashville area now, and will be working with us under the oversight of our elders. This is a great family with many talents, and we are happy to have them with us. There were 343 in worship Sunday morning, and our Bible class…