This Week at The Gate: Feb 6

Brothers and Sisters,

We had a great time with Danny Walls last week. He was awesome in communicating his view of how the Apostles knew what their role was in ministry and how that applies to our lives. I appreciate Danny sharing with us and look forward to hearing how our guest speakers continue to challenge our Christian viewpoint.

This week we have a movie night planned. We will be watching Cinderellaman on the big screen. I will be bringing snacks and drinks and it should be a lot of fun. Please be sure to invite your friends from school. Everything is free.

One last item. I will be presenting my testimony at FBC O'Fallon tomorrow night at the 6:30pm Worship Service and then the church will be voting on licensing me to preach the gospel (it will be a business meeting tomorrow night). You are all invited and I would love to see any of you there that can make it.

Here's what we have planned in the near future:

Wednesday February 8
6:30pm Worship Service at FBC O'Fallon. The service will be a FBC O'Fallon church business meeting that will include a licensing to the ministry vote for me.

Thursday February 9
7:30pm Thursday Night Alive! Movie Night at The Gate. We will be watching Cinderellaman. Snacks and drinks will be provided.

Monday February 13
Men's/Women's Bible Studies at The Gate
Prayer Meeting

Thursday February 16
7:30pm Thursday Night Alive! at The Gate. Jonathan McIntosh from The Journey in St Louis will be sharing with us.

The Gate is located at 225 N. Monroe St, Lebanon, Illinois, 62254. Here is a link to a Yahoo Map of the Gate's location. Link.

God bless you all.

February 12, Evolution Sunday?

Answers in Genesis has a good article today titled "In Praise of Darwin This Sunday...In Hundreds of Churches". The article starts out by saying,

This Sunday, over 400 congregations in 49 states in the USA will participate in what could be called a “Darwin praise service.” They will be celebrating (yes, that’s the word that could be used for many of the churches) the 197th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. It’s called “Evolution Sunday.”

The article discusses the crusade of Professor Michale Zimmerman of the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh to link science and the Biblical creation account together. The twist is that he is persuading Pastors to give up faith in the Genesis creation account in favor of the Evolution account. It is a very interesting article you can find here. Link.

Another excerpt from the article says,

On 12 February 2006 hundreds of Christian churches from all portions of the country and a host of denominations will come together to discuss the compatibility of religion and science. For far too long, strident voices, in the name of Christianity, have been claiming that people must choose between religion and modern science. More than 10,000 Christian clergy have already signed The Clergy Letter demonstrating that this is a false dichotomy. Now, on the 197th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, many of these leaders will bring this message to their congregations through sermons and/or discussion groups. Together, participating religious leaders will be making the statement that religion and science are not adversaries. And, together, they will be elevating the quality of the national debate on this topic.

I find two very incredible items in this article:

First, that you can be a Pastor in a mainline denomination and not believe in the inerrancy of scripture. Personally, if I didn't believe in the Genesis creation account I could never serve in the position of Pastor.

And second, where is the separation of church and state? Pastors are ever increasingly aware that they must strive to be politically correct and vague in their political views or risk inviting lawsuits, but on the other end, this professor is an employee of the State of Wisconsin and yet he can use the university's website and his position to promote his political/religious agenda.

Where is the balance?

It Has Been A Year, And....

I am getting really embarrassed at the way I keep changing jobs. I have been working for Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) since Jan 31, 2005. The position I have been in as a Program Manager for the US Air Force's GeoBase Program (electronic map making similar to Google Earth) has been the best job I have had since I retired from the Air Force in 2003. It is a job that was right in line with my Masters Degree in Geographic Information Systems, working in the Air Force's Air Mobility Command where I spent 15 of my 21 years on active duty, and only 12 miles from my house. It was the perfect job, but for some reason that I don't understand I submitted a resume to Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) (I know, another 4 letter word), who makes our mapping software and they decided to hire me as their federal representative for the Mid-West region. It is a great job that I didn't think I would get. And, for some reason the Lord led me to apply. So, it is off on another job change on March 1. I have really got to quit doing this and find out what I want to do when I grow up!

Thursday Night Worship at The Gate: Feb 2

Wow, we had another incredible evening at The Gate on Thursday night. Danny Walls, a Youth Pastor from FBC O'Fallon, and a 2003 McKendree College Graduate, spoke about knowing specifically what the Lord has called us to do.

In Acts 6:1-7 The Apostles were called to pray and preach and concentrated on those aspects of ministry. Because they concentrated on what they were called to do and others who were gifted in different ways took on other duties the early church grew at an incredible pace. It was a very applicable message that was exactly what the Lord knew we needed to hear. Danny is a great friend and as McKendree College grad has some pride in ownership of what we are doing at The Gate. As a Youth Pastor, he can also be kind of goofy at times!


We also had a great time hanging out and getting to know one another better. We have been having lots of new students attend on Thursday night and it has been a body building experience to hear each of their stories and become a part of their lives.

The Lord is doing great things in the lives of our students and I am excited at what lies ahead. Bringing McKendree grads back to speak has really blessed me just to hear what the Lord has accomplished through them and to know what the Lord is accomplishing through the lives of our current students. Praise God for what He is doing in their lives.

Establishing Infrastructure in Iraq

As a digital map maker I enjoyed reading the following article. Geospatial referencing is such a big infrastructure enhancement allowing everything from aircraft approaches at airports to designing a transportation network. We don't hear enough good news about what the coalition military forces do in Iraq. Here's a good article from The American Surveyor on how the military is working together with the Iraqi government to set up the Iraqi Geospatial Reference System . Link. The article specifically mentions US, Italian, and British military troops working together with each other and the Iraqi government to enable a geospatial reference system for the Iraqis.

This Week at The Gate: Jan 29

Brothers and Sisters, We have another great week planned this week at The Gate.

I hope you all had an inspired time at Bible Study tonight. I am very excited that we have so many young men and women attending the Monday Night Bible Study. I know God is working in marvelous ways in your lives and knowing how His plan works in our lives is the biggest part of studying the Word of God.

Wednesday Feb 2:

Thursday Night Alive! at 7:30 at The Gate. We have another dynamic McKendree graduate who is in the full-time ministry sharing with us at Thursday Night Alive! Danny Walls graduated from McKendree in 2003 and is the Associate Pastor to Students at FBC O'Fallon. He does great work with the Jr High and High School kids and is deeply involved in mentoring and leadership development of FBC O'Fallon's collegiate students. The Lord has has been speaking to Danny's heart and I can hardly wait to hear what he has to say. Plus he is a real good drummer! Snacks and drinks will be provided.

The Gate is located at 225 N. Monroe St, Lebanon, Illinois, 62254. Here is a link to a Yahoo Map of the Gate's location. Link.

I am looking forward to seeing each of you on Thursday.

God bless you all.

Work Day at The Gate: Jan 16

On Martin Luther King Day the Lord blessed us with an unusual 70 degree day, so we held a work day at The Gate. Here's some pictures from the projects we did that day. Everything looks so much better!

Thursday Night Worship at The Gate: Jan 19

Thursday night was the kickoff for the Spring semester at the McKendree College Baptist Collegiate Ministry, also known as The Gate. One of my plans this semester is to have a worship service every other week where McKendree graduates who are serving in the ministry come back and speak to current students about how they can make a difference in people's lives. Kind of a "I was in your shoes a short time ago and understand what you are going through and you can make a difference sooner than you think." Our first guest speaker was Noah Oldham, a 2004 McKendree graduate who is a charter member of The Gate and out first student Bible study ledader.

Thanks Noah for helping us kick off our new semester at The Gate. Noah is currently a Pastor at Little Chapel in Harrisburg, Illinois. Noah is incredibly bold in his faith and the Lord has really used Noah to work on the hearts all who meet him.

Music was led by Mike Cheeseman and we definitely felt the presence of the Holy Spirit during the entire evening.

We had about 30 students show up for our kickoff service and we are looking forward to what the Lord wants to do with us this semester.

We will have Danny Walls, a Youth Minister at First Baptist Church of O'Fallon, Illinois with us on February 2. Danny is a 2003 McKendree graduate. There is nothing so satisfying in my couple of years running The Gate than to see young, dynamic Christians make a commitment to the ministry. Praise God.

I bought a new digital camera for our annivesary and promise to post many more pictures this year. These are from Thursday.

Human Ears Evolved From Ancient Fish Gills!

Here's the link to a Yahoo news article. Link.

Just another ridiculous claim that the evolutionists are making that shows me how desperate they are to tie anything that sounds like scientific research to evolution. I don't see much scientific proof in this article.

A Sudden Ending To A Great Life

I received an E-Mail from an old Elementary School, Junior High, and High School friend named Jim this morning. He was also back home in Los Angeles for New Year's Day. He left on Friday to go back to Michigan and after his 76 year old Mom dropped him off at the Burbank Airport her car was hit my the Metro Train on her way home and she was killed. The accident was reported here. Link.

I feel so sorry for Jim. I had lots of great memories of his family helping out with Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and school events.

God please comfort them in their time of need.