Pastor James’ Blog

When life house began as a new mission we only had a small handful of people who believed that God wanted a multi-ethnic church started in College Hill.   Over the last two years God has blessed over and over again by sending us people of all ages, races and economic status.  Little by little He is growing a very diverse body with one thing in common – JESUS.  Each member of life house has a desire to see people of all colors come to know Jesus and experience LIFE – now and in eternity.

This past Sunday God added three new members to our church family.  All three of these people prayerfully sought the Lord concerning a church home. All three “wrote out” their salvation experience (testimony) and then agreed to the four principles of being a member of Life House Church.  What are the four principles?

1. To be faithful to Sunday Morning Worship

2. To be faithful to Life Group Meeting (Sunday Nights now)

3. To be faithful to find a place of service in the church and do it faithfully!

4. To be a “store house” tither.

Every church “expects/hopes” that their members will do the above but at Life House we believe that it’s a privilege to be a part of a church body – not a right. We believe that if you are going to be a member you should seek to be a blessing to your church and not just a “name on a roll”.  We are praying that God will continue to send new people and families to our church and that they will be lights in this dark world to reach souls for Jesus.  We don’t need pew sitters – we need workers in God’s vineyard.  If you are looking for a church home and all you want to do is “SIT” – do us a favor…don’t consider Life House.  In fact if you want we can give you the name of several abandoned church buildings that might fit the bill for you.  You won’t have to attend, work, tithe, pray or anything – but you can call it your church home!! SAD!  In these last days (and we ARE living in the last days) God is raising up churches – HIS people – to do the work He has called the church to do.  It’s time to SERVE not SIT. 

LAST NOTE:  ARE YOU A BLESSING TO YOUR CHURCH FAMILY OR JUST A NAME ON A ROLL?  THINK ABOUT IT!

Membership at Life House Church isn’t just a privilege but with it comes responsibility.  On any given Sunday worship service you will find that we usually have 100 “visitors” in our service and around 35 members who have prayerfully stepped out and made the commitment to serve as a part of our church family.  If you know anything about Life House you know that you don’t just “join and sit”.  After you have prayed and sought God’s will and make that step to join Life House you must:  1. Write out your testimony.  2. Must have experienced Believers Baptism by immersion in a Baptist Church or be willing to submit to Believers Baptism at Life House.  3. Agree to the “Four Principles” of Membership at Life House which are as follows:  You agree to:  1. Be faithful to Sunday Services  2. Be faithful to attend Life Groups  3. Be faithful to find a place of service in the church – one or more.  4. Be a “Store House Tither”.   In order to remain a member of Life House you must be faithful in those areas.  If you aren’t faithful then after counsel your name will be “dropped” from Life House Church Membership Roll.   If you aren’t a member it does NOT mean you can’t come, serve, work and enjoy all the blessings of being at Life House  – it just means you don’t have the rights and privileges of being a member.  

One of those “rights” of being a member of Life House is being invited to any “congregational meeting” – such as tonights “MINI R & R” Meeting at 5:30 p.m. .  What is “R&R”?  We call it “Review and Renew” Meeting.  It has been done annually but we are going to start having one quartertly – starting tonight and then every “FIFTH SUNDAY” Night.  Tonight the Life House Members will worship together, share their hearts together and then I am going to be sharing some exciting news, challenging our members hearts and then close in a season of prayer.  God has some “GREATER THINGS” that are soon to come and we must get ready.  God is using Life House in a special way and we need to be ready to see Him open the flood gates of heaven. 

It is a joy to serve as pastor of this great mission/church and I am totally excited about what I see coming.  We aren’t your “typical” or “usual” Baptist Church – and we strive hard not to be!  The last thing we want to do is become a “business, budget and battling” church.  We don’t want to be a part of the “religious country club” that is permeating churches today.  When the “constitution and by-laws” mean more than the BIBLE then the “church” is in trouble.  God help Life House to keep their eyes on the Jesus and the cross. Help us never forget our mission.    

                                                                                                                                                                    Pastor James

VBS 2010 is NOW HISTORY!  What a big and busy week.  We are so blessed at Life House!!   The Lord blessed us with some great mission minded friends from Springfield Baptist Church, Morton, Ms and First Baptist Church, Vinton, Louisiana coming to “DO” our Vacation Bible School this week.  (THANKS GUYS – You all are and were a HUGE blessing to us this week!!)

As most of you who have worked in a VBS know – it takes lots of people, lots of hard work, dedication and time to “do one right”.  Not only did our mission friends come and “do” VBS with us but also many of the Life House family worked hard to pick up and deliver children, cook, serve and clean up for “snack time” and other things to.  (THANKS GUYS!  You are the BEST!!)   

This week we saw several new faces, lots of smiles, hugs, and laughter.  We saw some youth “stretched in their faith” as they taught, sang and lead out in areas they had never experienced before.  Through it all – God blessed this week with 11 souls saved – 10 in one night. 

It is safe to say that,  Friday night after it was all said and done, there were lots of tired bodies but rejoicing hearts in all who worked.  My mind can only imagine what we at Life House are going to see come about because of this years VBS.  Seeds were sown and a harvest is sure to come to pass.  Pray for those children who came, heard the gospel and those who came and were saved. Pray that this week will impact their Mom’s and Dad’s. Pray that for many this will be a week that serves as a turning point in their lives and future. Pray that we will see God do something that only He can do in this community. 

GREATER THINGS ARE YET TO COME!!                                                                                 Pastor James

Once again: THANKS to all who came, worked, shared, loved, prayed and gave.  You made a difference in eternity this week!!

It has been a few months since i’ve blogged anything but felt that NOW is the time to COME BACK and keep the blog going full force. There are so many things that have happened since I’ve blogged and lots to share. Stay tuned…pray for us and i’ll be back real soon.  Gotta run for now… Talk to you soon my friends!!

Our church family held their annual R&R Celebration (Review & Renew) for 2009 last Friday night. As we looked over the past year it was exciting to see all that God did during it.  We were blessed to see God’s hand throughout the year.  We are also excited over all that we believe He is going to do in 2010.  We are praying for a great year not only for Life House but for the kingdom.  We are “adopting” four other church plants so that we might encourage them and petition the Father to help them reach souls on their respective fields.  We are wanting to teach our church family that as a new church plant we still need to look beyond our own neighborhood, city and state and reach out to others with the gospel.  We are not the only church that is trying to reach the world and together (as we link arms and hearts) we will see souls saved here in Jerusalem (our local mission field), Judea (our states – Arkansas/Texas) Samaria (the United States) and to the “ends of the earth” – (the world – foreign missions).  We have chosen to adopt: 

Local Mission Field – Texarkana, AR /College Hill Community/ Texarkana, TX

State Mission Fields:  Stuttgart Harvest Church, Stuttgart, AR – (AR) and Keystone Community Outreach Church, Ft. Worth, TX (TX)

National:  DeSoto Community Church, DeSoto, Kansas

International: The Mapuche People Group – found in Chile.

  Each of these ministries are important in God’s kingdom work. Life House Family is blessed  to be able to partner with them and hopefully encourage and support them in many ways in the next year.  God has been soooooo good to us and faithful to us and we are praying He will use our church family to bless others who are just like us.

Wherever you are…whatever part of the kingdom you are serving in – don’t lose hope or heart – God is with you and will prosper your work in the kingdom.  Be faithful, pray and don’t ever give up! There are souls to be saved, lives to see changed, people to clothe, people to feed, people to love, children and youth to touch and train and we MUST keep working till He comes again.  It’s a blessing to serve Him and we praise Him for being faithful in 2009 and know He is always faithful and will be in 2010. Can’t wait to see what He is going to accomplish in 2010 with Life House and many other churches who refuse to become “religious country clubs” but want to be His hands and His feet in the world today. It’s time to get up, get out and become the salt and light He has called us to be. Life House Church has renewed her vision for 2010 and is purposing in her heart to reach more souls and touch more lives than ever before. Will you join us? It’s time – He is faithful – are we?   Serve Him in 2010!!

Last Saturday our church did an “Concert Outreach” to the College Hill Community in Bramble Park.  Our Praise Team & Praise Band set up and sang and our church family served hot dogs, chips, donuts, snacks and ect. to those who showed up.  We enjoyed getting to “mingle” with the people, had the opportunity to pray with some of them about some needs in their lives and just “hang out” and love on ‘em in Jesus name.  While there I noticed a woman and spoke to her.  She immediately “stiffened up” and seemed VERY reluctant to approach the area we were in – much less take any food from us.  Many of our people spoke to her and most got the same “stand offish” reaction.  While mingling with the people I again got near her and tried to strike up a conversation. I eventually invited her to church at Life House and she let me know VERY QUICKLY that “church wasn’t her thing”.  I thanked  her and assured her that she was always welcome at Life House.  I then said – “If you don’t want to come to church at least come in the morning for our huge country breakfast that we serve ever Sunday morning to the community. It’s free and if you want to stay for church afterwards it’s fine and if you don’t it’s fine – the breakfast is always free with no strings attached.”  She didn’t promise me anything.   Sunday morning rolled around and as people began to come in for breakfast I noticed that this lady and a man had reluctantly come in the building.  I watched her and she walked over to another lady that she apparently already knew and said, “I hope the roof doesn’t fall in.”   I stepped over and told her not to worry about the roof because I had been in the building many times and it had never fallen with me in it.” – we both laughed.  After breakfast people began to move toward the worship center and lo and behold she and the gentleman she was with slipped in the back of the worship center and sat down. I couldn’t see her during the worship service but when it came time to deliver the message I noticed her. She was all eyes and ears.  I shared God’s Word in my plain way and you never know what to expect during the altar call at Life House.  Many people came and filled the altars. Many praying, some seeking prayer.  A line of people had formed in front of me asking me to pray for them and after praying with two people I noticed the next one in line was this woman.  She said she needed to “get things right” in her heart.  I motioned for one of our ladies to come and she took her aside and led her to the Lord.   Following the service, this same woman walked up to me and said she needed to do that “water thing”.    I was shocked!  She was requesting to be baptized!!  I told her that we would be doing believers baptism that very night and she could be baptized then if she wanted.  She was READY!  Sunday night we had the blessing of baptizing three new believers and she was one of them.   The “neat thing” is that I saw her again on Tuesday for our Life House Community Cafe’ meal and when she came in – she came in with a big smile and came and hugged me.  She had been telling her friends about getting saved and about her new church.  What a difference Jesus makes!!  I wasn’t there when the woman at the well got saved  – but I can say that I was there when the woman at the park did!!  Keep praying for more “God Moments” like that one at Life House in the near future !    Pastor James

   November is all about being thankful and so I want to begin Nov. 1 by expressing my thanks…

    1. THANK YOU Life House Family and Friends for the surprise Birthday/Pastor Appreciation lunch last Sunday. It really was a big surprise and I appreciate your hard work, gifts and acts of love so much.  I am blessed to be able to serve with you as we try to reach souls for the kingdom.

2. THANK YOU for all who worked so hard to make last nights “Fall Festival” a HUGE success.  As far as I know everything went over great!  We saw many “new faces” come through Life House’ doors and hopefully will see more of them in the near future.  Thank you so much for all who planned, ran errands, cooked baked goods, brought candy, set up booths, served in the kitchen area, cleaned, set up/tore down and more. I know it was alot of work but by working and pulling together we were able to see it come together to provide a safe place for kids on Halloween night.

3. Thanks to those who helped get the walls moved in the coffee shop/worship center area.  That was quite a feat in itself to see the walls “jacked up” and then rolled around and “set down” to form a foyer in the building and enlarge the worship center space.  Thanks for cleaning up, setting up and more.  We are truly a work in progress and probably always will be as a church family. We now have ROOM for more people in the  worship area.

4. Thank you to our weekly workers on Sunday Morning, Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday’s that work so hard to serve food at various times throughout the week to make sure people are fed in our area.  Your hard work and act of love touches the lives of lots of people and God is using it to bring people to Himself.  We fed 1504 meals in September and 1595 meals in October. Keep up the good work!

5. Thank you to all of the churches and individuals that help support Life House with your “Partner Gifts” and gifts of time, money, needed items and more.  Because of you this new church plant is able to move forward and reach people for Jesus.  THANK you for loving souls and participating in missions right here in our own area. 

6. Thanks to those who help make Sunday morning worship a blessing. Those who play, sing, prepare and execute the service are so faithful and willing to do so.  You make my job of pastoring and preaching God’s Word so much easier. Keep up the good work!  Can’t wait till we grow big enough to have a “Life House Praise Choir” (or whatever name they might have LOL)

7. THANK YOU to Jesus for His blessings on my family and me. I praise Him for His provision, love and blessings on our lives and on the work of this new church plant. We don’t deserve it but see HIM in it all.  We can’t wait to see what He is going to do in the days, weeks, months and years ahead. 

     NOW – let me challenge  you to start making it a habit to develop an “ATTITUDE of GRATITUDE” and start saying THANKS to the Lord and those around you.  My list is in no way complete but it’s a decent start. STOP and start counting your blessings and begin to PRAISE HIM and THANK others in your life too.  Let’s make November a month of “Developing An Attitude Of Gratitude” month!      Well….are you thankful?    Pastor James

     It really is hard to sneak around and plan a surprise for someone when your church is as small as ours but THEY DID IT!  I am so blessed to have great church family that loves each other and their pastor and showed it this past Sunday morning.  My birthday was Saturday and had a great day. Sunday was supposed to be a “usual” Sunday but it wasn’t.  We were blessed to feed probably about 120 at the Life House Community Cafe’ that morning for breakfast and had 130 people in worship.  At the end of the service one of our guys, Matt, needed to make an announcement and shared that since it was pastor James’ birthday and since it was October, Pastor Appreciation month the church was going to be holding a meal in my honor at the end of today’s service.  I WAS TOTALLY SHOCKED!  How they got it past me I will never know. When we went to the back they had cooked hamburgers and all the trimmings and even had a birthday cake complete with candles there.  I am so blessed to be a part of a group that is this loving! THANKS LIFE HOUSE FAMILY!!!  Thanks for remembering my birthday but even greater than that for remembering ”Pastor Appreciation Day”.   That really blessed my heart.  I love you guys and am thankful for all that Jesus is doing and is gonna do in our lives together.  Pray for me and always know that Mrs. Cindy and me – love you!   THANKS AGAIN for the surprise, the food and all the gifts.  I AM BLESSED.  Pastor James

    Life House is planning on having a  Fall Festival on Oct. 31 with simple games and refreshments for the community children and youth. It’s our desire to give them a place to go, someplace safe and yet fun on this night.  We are in need of “simple toys” – (McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys – trinkets, nothing costly)  and we are in need of BAKED GOODS for the “cake walk”.  We do not need large cakes- we need cupcakes, cookies and small baked goods (that can be placed in small sandwich bags) and prepackaged/pre wrapped candy to be given away as prizes. We also need lots and lots of WIENERS (for hot dogs)       We also could use ANY and ALL volunteers to come help us “do” the games and help set up, clean up and supervise the event.  If you are looking for something to do on that night – call us!   870-216-1936 or 903-278-0984.   Any and all help will make this event for our community a success.   Listening for YOUR call today!!   Pastor James

   When you are in a “brand new” ministry like Life House there are always “NEEDS” and “WANTS” to help make the ministry grow and run more smoothly.  God has been soooooooooo good to meet those needs and wants even more than we could have ever hoped for.   He always does things according to His timing and i’m learning that is always best.  His timing is much better than James’ timing.    This week He brought a new family into contact with Life House and because of that one contact they felt led to help get the lighting in the church “fixed up” and now that is in progress. Even though they aren’t through – what a difference it is making already. Tomorrow (Sunday) it’s going to be exciting to be able to really SEE each other in the worship center of our building.  GOD is SOOOO good!!!  Then yesterday during the Life House Community Cafe’  time we found out that there was a large commercial stainless steel freezer for sale downtown on Broad Street.   We sent someone to look at it and price it.  They came back and said it was worth the price even though it was still “pricey”.   We decided to purchase it because we need all the freezer space we can get for the items we get weekly for the feeding ministry.   At the end of the day a couple decided to just purchase the freezer as a donation to help the church in her ministry to the hungry and homeless. GOD is SOOOO good!!!   A little while later I received a call from a local friend who asked if we could use some “trinkets and toys” to be used in our Fall Festival…and I said YES!     All in all this blog today is to say THANK YOU JESUS for all HE has done to provide for this ministry.  TIME AND AGAIN…OVER AND OVER…HE has provided our needs and many of our wants.  YES, we still have lots of needs and wants.  BUT BY FAITH we believe that the God who wanted us to start this ministry in College Hill WILL provide for it.  Where HE LEADS – HE PROVIDES!  Pray for Life House Church and Ministries.  Come see it for yourself.  If you can’t come – invite me to come speak to your group or church and I will travel anywhere to tell about the mission God has placed us on.  Pray for us…and pray for souls!  Pastor James