Jubilee!

This past month, after 5 years and 3 months, the congregation at Parrish paid off our mortgage on our mortgage. In 2001 we located and purchased 17 acres of hill, hollow, and creek on the new road between Parrish and Oakman. In 2004 we completed construction on our current building. Then in 2007 we added a second building for fellowships. This month we paid the last payment on our mortgage. This is a year of Jubilee. This will open the door for us to do more in the way of missions and outreach. The elders planned to pay off the mortgage by 2014, but the "people had a mind to work." Below are pictures of our building, and mortgage burning last Sunday night!

Our Main Building in Parrish, Alabama

Denny Pugh, Sr. one of our elders reminds the congregation that in 2001, We began with 70 active members, and now have more than 150.

Charles Earnest who has served as Treasure for 49 years starts off the burning.

Elders, Ed Earnest and Denny Pugh watch the mortgage burn!

 Roger Minor, another of our Elders is happy to see those flames!

Scott

Ten Years and Counting

Ten years ago a young preacher, his wife, and 23 month old son left a good congregation in Niceville, Florida where he had served as Youth Minister and then Preaching Minister and head for a smaller, rural congregation in the Alabama Foothills of the Appalachians. Ten years ago the drove up the the building on the left nervous, but trusting in God that they had made a good decision and that God would bless them in this new work. Five years later that congregation moved into the new building on the right.

Yesterday, Amy, Andrew, and I celebrated ten years with the Church in Parrish, Alabama. God has blessed us in this work and every day we realize the blessings we have from this great group of Christians. Ten years ago 75 - 80 people assembled on that first Sunday in July, this past year an average of 140 assemble each Sunday. The leadership here planned for growth and with God's help we grew and I pray we continue to.

Yesterday, two men asked for prayers of the church. One, a family man, asked for prayers that he might be a better spiritual leader for his family. The second, a single man who fell away from Christ many years ago, stated that he needed to be restored to Christ and His church. What a great way to celebrate 10 years.

Keep praying for our work. We are praying for you. (Phil 1:3)

Scott

Vacation Bible School

Consider this your invitation to Vacation Bible School at Parrish Church of Christ. Our VBS begins Sunday, June 21 and runs through Thursday, June 25 from 6:30 - 8:00 each evening. This year our over-all theme is MARVELous Heroes. Using this theme we will study events from the lives of five Biblical Heroes. Here is our list: 1) Joshua the Conqueror, 2) David the Giant Slayer, 3) Gideon and a Small Army, 4) Esther Queen of Heroes, and 5) Paul the Weak Hero. John writes, "For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world -- our faith." (1 Jn 5:4 - ESV).

Along with classes for our children from Cradle Roll through Teens, we also have adult classes with visiting teachers each night. In order from Sunday through Thursday we have the following visiting teachers: Rob Gurganus from Dovertown, Russ Crosswhite from Fulton, MS, Kerry Richardson from Northport, Joey Sparks from Midway, and Mel Futrell from Shades Mountain. I am looking forward to the messages they bring.

Each evening will begin with a period of singing -- the children and adults love this part of VBS, then we dismiss to our classes where the students will step back into time as they "experience" these stories coming to life. Rumor has it that each student will get a opportunity to test their aim with a sling to bring down a NINE FOOT giant! After classes we reassemble for more singing and a review of the evenings lessons.

This year there is a special treat. We are teaching a new song. A song NO ONE else has ever used at their VBS. A song that Rob Gurganus and I wrote together (Rob did most of it). You will have to be here to learn it.

Come learn to be a Hero with us!

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Church History

Douglas Adams quotes to his readers from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe’s entry on Galactic Civilizations. According to the Guide civilization pass through three stages before their demise. The stages are: Survival, Inquiry, and Sophistication otherwise known as How, Why, and Where. Adams explains it in terms similar to this: Survival - “How are we going to get something to eat?” Inquiry – “Why do we need to eat?” Sophistication – “Where would you like to go out to eat?” Adams may be on to something.

Our society grows more and more sophisticated. We no longer worry if we are going to eat, nor do we care why we eat, our concern is what and where are we going to eat. We have so much, that we never need go hungry; so many choices that we cannot find satisfaction. We grow ungrateful and less dependant upon God. We look more and more to selfishly defend our egos and feed our swelling midriffs.

Can the Church go through these stages of survival, inquiry, and sophistication? At one point the Church was struggling to survive. Persecution seemed to be getting the upper-hand, yet through Providence, the Church survived. Persecution slowed to a near halt. With realized survival the Church began to ask questions of “why.” “Why did Jesus have to die? Why do we worship the way we do? Why do we have elders over each congregation? Why can one elder not preside over a city, state, national, or universal church system? Why will some not follow the Church’s mandates?” Eventually the church flirted with the world growing into a sophisticated entity with absolute power. She stopped asking question of survival and inquiry and began solely to feed her growing waistline. The selling of Indulgences, accommodating Pagan worship styles, and the corrupt land grabbing of millennium past demonstrate this developmental stage.

Reformation attempted to change the established church to what men and women read in scripture. As reformation ideas grew common, persecution from the established church followed. These reformers asked, “How are we going to survive?” They did survive and began asking questions of “why.” “Why do these other reformers not agree with me?” These groups became established sects that began shifting to sophistication, establishing creeds and systematic doctrines.

Coexisting with these reformation groups were groups and individuals with a mindset of Restoration, longing for a return to the teachings of the New Testament. Restoration existed in Europe as early as the 1100-1200’s A.D. (some suggest even earlier: Traces of the Kingdom) and in America in the 1700 – 1800’s A.D. Early restorers faced persecution from the established churches and sects. They too must have wondered, “How can we survive?”

Those of us that are of the restoration mindset must continue to survive. We can and should ask questions of “why.” But we must ever fight to avoid becoming sophisticated, growing fat and lazy by only feeding ourselves. We must continue restoration in the lives of those outside of Christ. We must reconcile them to God through Christ (2 Cor 5:17-21). We cannot allow sophisticated creeds to develop, we must remain vigilant and diligent to demonstrate ourselves approved of God (2 Tim 2:15). We must fight faithfully, stick to the course, and finish the race (2 Tim 4:7-8). The day will come when we will rest from our efforts (Rev 14:13), but that Day is yet to come. For now we struggle against principalities and powers (Eph 6:12) for our survival.