It’s Saturday and for the most part I’m trying my best to take a day to rest. Janice is exhausted; she has been a jewel this week, arranging meals for many of my friends who are visiting the city, gather volunteer to serve them in the spirit of excellence that we strive to do everything. As well as hosting our evangelist wife Stephanie Carter and our special guest Dr. Sheila Bailey (the wife of the late Dr. E.K. Bailey who had a great impact on my ministry) along with all of her normal responsibilities at home and at church. I’m blessed to have such a special lady by my side, she is my Queen. God did something special for her by giving her some very unsuspected one on one time with Dr. Bailey, there are some pastor’s wives who would have given anything for that, but God did it for Janice. Father, thank you for unsuspected blessing!
Our Easter Celebration was just that it was a celebration. There always seems to be an extra air of anticipation during our Easter services. I was thinking about it and think that it may be due to the amount of people who are working during our Easter’s services and our normal weekend experiences; the number almost triples to put off Easter. People volunteer they are excited and they invite their family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. My assignment was to share a message of hope for a better life. I was happy with the message for the most part but would have like to nail the invitation a little better. It’s tough because the crowd is so large and there are so many distractions during such an important time, but many gave their lives to Jesus Christ and many stepped forward to unite with the church.
We had Easter Monday off as a congregation but I had to pick up our evangelist Rev. Bryan L. Carter, Senior Pastor of the Concord Church of Dallas TX (who succeeded Dr. E.K. Bailey). Pastor Carter is a homeboy for OKC, funny thing is that I didn’t know him when he was here. God took him all the way to Dallas before we became friends over the last 4 or 5 years I’ve seen him grow and mature as a preacher and now as a pastor over one of this nation’s most influential ministries. Pastor Carter is a special person, blessed with a special wife in Stephanie – this couple is destined for great things in ministry. They are simply good people and I’m always excited by young couple working together as a team in ministry. Pastor Carter opened up our City-Wide Simultaneous Revival Tuesday morning and set the tone for the week. It was our first-time participating in the Revival and it was an honor to have our evangelist be asked to speak in a joint service. He preached all week, our congregation responded great. They connected with him from the first service, he’s a great preacher with a big heart and a humble spirit. God spoke through him and deposited some heavy stuff. Corporately we need to hear from God, it was my prayer for this revival that God would show us what we need to do for His vision to come to past in our church. God used this young man speak to us. Then our one on one time was encouraging, it’s hard to find the time with so much to accomplish in a day to carve out time but the revival afforded us a great excuse to hang out. We both seem to have needed that.
Last year during the revival the Lord placed on our hearts to be a blessing to many of my friends who come to town during the revival and my friends who bring them. So Janice and I opened our home two evening to serve dinner and have some good fellowship. This year since we participated in the revival we just served dinner at the church, the dinners were fantastic (Special thanks to Lo, Teresa, Angela & Mendel). This is a special time because many of my friends in town our schedules are so full that we only see each other in passing and the dinners give us some uninterrupted time together. My friend, Pastor Jeff Mitchell of the Tabitha Church, we started preaching together and have been friends forever, brings Pastor Kevin Willis of Riverside Church in Memphis TN and my Pastor Dr. J. A. Reed bring Pastor H B Charles of Mt. Sinai in Los Angles CA. Pastor Willis is a great preacher, I admire his preaching ability and he preaches with as much energy and anointing than anybody I’ve ever seen. Pastor Charles is a special person, in my option he is one of the greatest preacher I’ve ever heard but what makes him that is that he is one of the greatest people I know. Every year we manage to carve out a few hours in between his preaching and it’s like we talk everyday – I appreciate his friendship and every time I’m around him I want to be a better preacher and person.
Well, I’m going to try to kidnap my wife for a few hours this evening to spend some special time together and show her how much if love and cherish her.
Our Easter Celebration was just that it was a celebration. There always seems to be an extra air of anticipation during our Easter services. I was thinking about it and think that it may be due to the amount of people who are working during our Easter’s services and our normal weekend experiences; the number almost triples to put off Easter. People volunteer they are excited and they invite their family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. My assignment was to share a message of hope for a better life. I was happy with the message for the most part but would have like to nail the invitation a little better. It’s tough because the crowd is so large and there are so many distractions during such an important time, but many gave their lives to Jesus Christ and many stepped forward to unite with the church.
We had Easter Monday off as a congregation but I had to pick up our evangelist Rev. Bryan L. Carter, Senior Pastor of the Concord Church of Dallas TX (who succeeded Dr. E.K. Bailey). Pastor Carter is a homeboy for OKC, funny thing is that I didn’t know him when he was here. God took him all the way to Dallas before we became friends over the last 4 or 5 years I’ve seen him grow and mature as a preacher and now as a pastor over one of this nation’s most influential ministries. Pastor Carter is a special person, blessed with a special wife in Stephanie – this couple is destined for great things in ministry. They are simply good people and I’m always excited by young couple working together as a team in ministry. Pastor Carter opened up our City-Wide Simultaneous Revival Tuesday morning and set the tone for the week. It was our first-time participating in the Revival and it was an honor to have our evangelist be asked to speak in a joint service. He preached all week, our congregation responded great. They connected with him from the first service, he’s a great preacher with a big heart and a humble spirit. God spoke through him and deposited some heavy stuff. Corporately we need to hear from God, it was my prayer for this revival that God would show us what we need to do for His vision to come to past in our church. God used this young man speak to us. Then our one on one time was encouraging, it’s hard to find the time with so much to accomplish in a day to carve out time but the revival afforded us a great excuse to hang out. We both seem to have needed that.
Last year during the revival the Lord placed on our hearts to be a blessing to many of my friends who come to town during the revival and my friends who bring them. So Janice and I opened our home two evening to serve dinner and have some good fellowship. This year since we participated in the revival we just served dinner at the church, the dinners were fantastic (Special thanks to Lo, Teresa, Angela & Mendel). This is a special time because many of my friends in town our schedules are so full that we only see each other in passing and the dinners give us some uninterrupted time together. My friend, Pastor Jeff Mitchell of the Tabitha Church, we started preaching together and have been friends forever, brings Pastor Kevin Willis of Riverside Church in Memphis TN and my Pastor Dr. J. A. Reed bring Pastor H B Charles of Mt. Sinai in Los Angles CA. Pastor Willis is a great preacher, I admire his preaching ability and he preaches with as much energy and anointing than anybody I’ve ever seen. Pastor Charles is a special person, in my option he is one of the greatest preacher I’ve ever heard but what makes him that is that he is one of the greatest people I know. Every year we manage to carve out a few hours in between his preaching and it’s like we talk everyday – I appreciate his friendship and every time I’m around him I want to be a better preacher and person.
Well, I’m going to try to kidnap my wife for a few hours this evening to spend some special time together and show her how much if love and cherish her.
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