Pastor James’ Blog

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

  As many of you know we’ve been praying for 10 new committed, grounded, hard working, soul loving, selfless Christians to join the ministry at Life House ….and join the other hard working members in this mission to reach College Hill and the world for Jesus.  WELL…..GOD SENT 3 recently (praise His name!!!) and now we are looking for the other 7 to be sent any day now!!!  The beautiful thing is that God is already sending some grounded families to visit with us and they are searching out God’s will for their church home and their future.  Pray with us (and them) that God will open their hearts, show them HIS will and then help them follow it with all of their hearts.   We are totally excited about the future of Life House Church and her many ministries!  Pray that we can follow God and see many more saved, the church grow in number and in the Word and Jesus be given glory for it all!!

     We are continually amazed at all that God has done and is doing at Life House, in the College Hill Community and in the Texarkana area.  We are still a young mission and already God is allowing us to have growing pains!   We are feeding right at 100 each Sunday Morning, Tuesday noon and Friday noon and between 50 & 80 children and youth on Wednesday night.  We are seeing right at 100 in our Sunday Morning Celebration Service and 75 – 90 on Wednesday night children & youth “Safe Haven” night.  We are running out of room. We need another van to be able to continue to pick up the number of people who need rides from the College Hill / Texarkana aea and from Downtown.   We need to enlarge our worship area  – and SOON!  We were “packed out” this morning.  So far 47 souls have been saved since Life House began 17 months ago! (GLORY!!)  How can you pray for us?

1. Pray that God will enable us to “pay off” our building in record time so that the money used for the building payment can be put back into the ministry.

2. Pray for another good used/new van. Pray for another driver or two and for people who are faithful to be “riders” on the van to help the drivers out.

3. Pray for wisdom as we begin to figure out how to “re-configure” our building in order to make our worship area larger. 

4. Pray for our members and workers that they do not get “burned out” or “weary in well doing”.  Pray for God to send us MORE workers (not sitters!) for the fields are white unto harvest!!

5. Pray for God to give me (Pastor James) and Mrs. Cindy wisdom as we seek to lead this great church.  We want to KNOW God’s direction and leadership for this church and her future.

6. Pray for God to send us a black associate pastor and black youth pastor.  I totally believe that it’s God’s will for us to “blend” our leadership to reflect our community. These men will need to be men of purpose, faith, faithfulness, strong in the Word and in character and selfless. God has the right men out there – PRAY!!

7. Pray  for the Lord to help us get the roof leaks fixed, building joints sealed, garage door enclosed, an awning put over the back entry area and etc. !  He can and will supply the money, workers and materials!!

Thanks for all who read the blog and are good to pray.  Because of your faithfulness and prayers God is helping us reach hurting, lost and broken people with His Word and we are seeing lives changed and people saved. Keep praying.   If you want or get the chance – call and i’ll be glad to show you around Life House sometime.  870-216-1936 or 903-278-0984.    

LASTLY:  I am more than willing to come to your group, church, meeting and share the work of Life House with you – at no charge. As a Arkansas Baptist State Convention Church Planter  I would count it a blessing to share and show you how your mission dollars are helping reach people for Jesus – just give me a call.  

                                                                                               On Mission For Him,

                                                                                               Pastor James

  Last Sunday the Lord impressed on me to begin praying for 10.  Ten what?  Ten sold out, solid, dedicated, faithful Christians to join the mission work at Life House in the near future.  Ten people who have souls, missions and  a mind to work.   We are blessed with a great group of faithful church members at Life House but the work is growing so fast that there is a BIG need for additional help.   We need ten people – who are selfless. Ten who want to work and don’t have to be prompted, pushed or “petted”.  Ten shiners – not whiners.  Ten who will put their hand to the plough and simply plough for Jesus!  GET THE IDEA?  They are out there.  Jesus knows just who they are and is working right now on their hearts to get them ready for this work.  COULD YOU BE ONE OF THEM?  Has the Lord been speaking to you to get involved in this type ministry?  If so, COME ON!

One word of caution:  We don’t have time for whiners, cry babies, selfish, pouters, big ego’s or people who need rocked all the time to keep them happy.  We need SOLDIERS!  We are on the battlefield not on the playground.  Harsh – NO. Truthful -YES!  Gear up and come help us!      Pastor James

  Last Sunday appeared from the start to be a “usual Sunday”.  As we all gathered at Life House several of our regulars were out sick and everyone tried to re-group.  One thing after another seemed to “go wrong”…one of our musicians wasn’t able to be present due to sickness, her husband who is our sound man was out too. Others in our church were out and then to top it all off — the projector wouldn’t come on like it was supposed to.  The worship team just pushed forward, led the worship with all their hearts and “made do” in spite of all that was going on.  I’m sure the devil was sitting in the corner laughing his head off…thinking he had won a victory over the service and over God’s people.  The song service ended and you could tell that God was in the room.  I preached a “normal” sermon – nothing great, nothing spectacular – but shared my heart and the Word.    When it came time for the invitation though it was evident that the devil lost – and he LOST BIG TIME.  All of a sudden people from all over the room came forward seeking Jesus as their Savior. I called out that I needed soul winners – I need people who know how to lead others to Jesus to come forward and help.  Within moments the Life House family was in every corner of our building – sharing Jesus, praying with people and showing them how to be saved.   When the altar call was over — eight (8) people had asked Jesus into their hearts!  There was joy everywhere!  I’ve never seen anything like it.    Adults from all walks of life were asking Jesus into their hearts. Two young men were praying to receive Jesus.   What a service!!     I’ve had several days to think about that one service. I’ve gone over it again and again.  I’ve rejoiced and the end result is… “GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN YOU THAN HE THAT IS IN THE WORLD.” — Jesus wins again!!!  

 I don’t have a clue what this Sunday will bring but i’m excited knowing that Jesus is going to do another work of grace at Life House!  Pray for us and come see us soon!!     Pastor James