From the Pastor's Desk

Dear Church Family
        I recently read some statistics that were given at this year’s Southern Baptist Convention.
· 1500 Pastors from all denominations resign every month.
· 9 out of every 10 who begin the ministry don’t finish.
· Only 1 in 5 seminary graduates are still in ministry after 8 years.
· Last year, more churches in America closed their doors than at any other time in history.
· For 13 years in a row, baptisms in SBC churches have been in decline.
· Last year, our SBC Convention had the lowest number of baptisms since 1948, yet in 1948 we had 6 million members and today we have 16 million members.
· 75% of the nations of the earth are hostile toward Christianity.
Let me give you one more...Out of those 16,000,000 members, less than 40% will be in church on any given Sunday.
Can I give you some good news?  I’m not one of those Pastors that’s resigning!  Our baptisms are up.  Our attendance is growing in Sunday School.  That does not mean we are where we need to be.  None of us are complete and we won’t be until Jesus comes back. 
Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”  I believe that God not only has good things in store for us, but I believe God wants to do exceedingly above all we can ask.  Let’s not become one of the statistics.  Let’s be a church that is the exception to the rule.

Serving the Savior,
Pastor Mike