The Wright Word
September-November 2007

Annual Session October 18

Our annual session committee, under the excellent chairmanship of Roy Stebbins, has developed a wonderful annual session. Please arrange your busy schedules to support and learn about cooperative missions.

Involvement in churches and associations

Thank you for the heroes who have served on MBA committees, volunteered at our ministries, and given sacrificially to help us make an eternal difference in Mobile. Churches need every member to be faithful to the services, meetings and budget of the church. Church members need to be involved in the leadership and financial support of the congregation. Associations also need the involvement of members in meetings, committees and funding. As we move in 2008 please pray about additional ways to actively support cooperative missions.

Is your church an Acts 1:8 church?

The empowering of the Holy Spirit was intended for use in evangelistic ministries and church growth. Each church needs a balanced outreach to local, state, national and international evangelistic missions. Or five emphases help church to move forward.

Crossover Mobile November 9-11

Take a look at the Evangelistic Ministries column for some more information on the upcoming Crossover events. This will be a great time for some of your members to see how evangelistic events can be done by churches of all sizes.

Confronting the gates of Hell

Dear ones, we have chosen as an association of churches to aggressively confront the gates of hell in Mobile. Satan hates it and will continue to bring diversion after diversion to turn against ourselves. It happens in churches and it happens in associations. Be diligent to remain focused on presenting Jesus through the strategic five emphases that are effectively leading us to make an eternal difference in Mobile.

Diligence against the gambling proponents

Strong political forces continue to work behind the scenes to bring the moral vice of gambling to Mobile County. Continue to include illustrations in your sermons that believers do not need to participate or condone the greed that fosters gambling.

Financial Security

Please encourage your finance committee to insist on yearly independent audits of the church financial records in your congregation. Evaluate and develop processes in your church, as we have done in the MBA, which ensure that the receipt and disbursement of all gifts go exactly where they were intended. Provide accountability processes, as we have done, so that no one staff member or individual is ever solely responsible for collecting, counting, depositing and spending church funds. Always maintain a chain of custody for funds from the moment they are collected until they are deposited. Always have at least two counters who are not related and deposit cash immediately. It is unfortunate the growing number of documented instances of collectors, counters, staff and treasurers who are misappropriating funds. One article even suggested “Seeding the offering plate with a marked $20, $10, and $5 to be sure each one actually made it to the deposit.

Updating your Constitution and By-laws

As we look toward the new church year please be sure that you have an updated constitution and by-laws. I deal with churches almost every week that have problems arising from not having adequate procedures and legal processes. Please let any of our staff help you to create or update an effective and complete constitution and by-laws.

Living with a wild animal

It has happened again. A Canadian woman was recently killed by her boy friends “pet” tiger. She came to the cage to pet him but the tiger reached through the bars, knocked her down and pulled her partially into the cage.

Each of us needs to be careful of believing that we can tame sin and pet it occasionally without getting hurt. The Bible reminds us that all have sinned, not just might sin. Satan is seeking to lure each of us so close so he can drag us in. The Bible also reminds us that the wages (consequences) of sin is death. Sin can bring death to effective prayer, to relationships, to future plans, to careers, and to effective evangelism.

It is a joy to serve together to make an eternal difference in Mobile.

In the Lamb,

Bro. Thomas