My friend Todd Clippard sent me a very touching story in an email. Please read the story. Now, if that didn’t pull at your heart strings, enjoy the video!

I’m excited about the Washington Avenue youth rally in Evansville this weekend. My friend, Alan Bush, always does a great job planning the rally, and I enjoy leading singing there. I just wish I was driving my own car. What I thought was a timing belt turned out to be a totally messed-up engine, and when you drive a Daewoo, it’s next to impossible to get parts at anywhere near a decent price. So, if anyone has a low-mileage car you’d like to give me (or sell me for next-to-nothing), I’ll be glad to take it off your hands. Seriously, I’m thankful for friends like Andy and Mary Jane Kizer.…

[With the 9th Avenue Youth Rally a mere 71 days away, here is another article about the book of James. You are coming to the rally on January 4-5, aren’t you?] James wrote his epistle “to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad” (1:1). That they were “scattered” is enough to show us that something wasn’t right. It is true that we can scatter on our own, but usually we scatter because we are forced to leave. In Acts 8:4, we have a summary statement about the early church. After Stephen had been stoned to death, persecution began to become common in and around Jerusalem. For that reason, we read,…

I know you probably went to bed last night thinking, “Adam sure hasn’t put any pictures of his kids on the blog in awhile.” Okay, maybe you didn’t think that, but I did. So…. Here you go. Mary Carol is two now, and Turner Eric is 6 months. We are SO proud of our two wonderful kids.

Who Runs Your Church From: iluvleah9, 4 minutes ago | View | Upload your own This lesson, written by Chuck Webster, gives an overview of the organization of the New Testament Church. It is the 8th lesson in the Lads to Leaders PEARLS book. SlideShare Link

One feature of this blog is the list of blogs and sites that I find helpful. I try to keep the list short, even though there are dozens of great blogs out there. Personally, it is not my favorite thing in the world to go on a blog that has 100 blogs on the sidebar. It’s just overwhelming to me. However, today two more blogs were added that I frequent. Both have been featured in our Friday Links Roundups before (and will be again, no doubt), and both contain helpful content in brief articles. The first is The Mind of Mitchell. Mitchell Skelton is the Family Life Minister for the…

One of the greatest things about the New Testament Church is God’s design for her. Tomorrow night I am teaching a lesson to our teenage class on the organization of the Church (PowerPoint will be on this blog Wednesday, as usual). We will discuss, in a brief way, the role of elders and deacons. However, the point of the lesson is that the New Testament Church isn’t run by any one man, or any “board.” No, indeed! It is God’s Church; the Church of Christ! While that may rub some people the wrong way, it really should make each of us feel great. Why? Because God treats all people the…

Whoever thinks preachers (and especially youth ministers) don’t work should have been around here this week! After preaching away Sunday morning and going to our Area-Wide Youth Series Sunday night, I had our Sonshine Singers (K-6 singing group) Monday afternoon, Area-Wide Bible Bowl Monday night, a banquet in Double Springs Tuesday, Bible classes Wednesday and I taught a class for Faulkner Thursday. On top of that, I did 3 radio programs and helped with a funeral… …and I’m preaching Sunday! …and the battery on a car went out. WHEW! Even though it’s quite stressful, I actually enjoy weeks like this. When I have this much to do, it sure helps…

Pray Without Ceasing From: iluvleah9, 13 minutes ago | View | Upload your own The 7th lesson in the PEARLS book was written by Ancil Jenkins. It is a lesson on the basics of prayer. I plan on ending our class with some prayer requests. SlideShare Link

[NOTE: Our Youth Rally at 9th Avenue is a mere 79 days away! I hope you are planning on being with us as we study the book of James. With that theme in mind, I am trying to write several articles about James, young people and other related topics leading up to our rally. Here is the first in that series.] In writing the letter that now bears his name, James begins with these words: “James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:1, New American Standard Bible). In the First Century, it was common to open a letter with your name and a short description, whereas…