Well this will not really affect you unless you just dropped by because Lord willing the feedburner account will just keep everyone up to date but we are moving.
This blog will now be hosted on BCWE.org and so click here to read further posts.
Monday, February 04, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
Stay on target
I thought that I might share with you some things that God is working in my heart about right now! I just made a trip to Boston and was very excited about the ministry of Arabic Bible Outreach Ministry.
The good thing about these trips for me is that when I am locked in that aluminum tube for so many hours, have no one to talk to, and no distractions I can really do some thinking. It is so easy to get off track!
I came back to the states to start a church to do more for missions than I had ever done before. It had nothing to do with thinking that other pastors weren't great men or that they weren't doing a great job! It was that I realized that the most important person and role in world evangelism isn't the missionary but it is the pastor.
He decides how much to push the cause of world evangelism. He decides how many men and women to train and send off and how many to try and keep with him.
Well starting Vision Baptist Church has been and is great fun. I love it. I am having the time of my life but it is easy to let Vision get in the way of the vision! I know that I have to be a pastor. I know that there is a lot of work to do but sometimes we get so caught up in the day to day that we forget our target, lose our focus, lose our dream, and the vision grows dim!
I am just trying to stay alive. People are pulling on me and they want me to take care of the church, to not get to caught up in world evangelism--they are busy and there is so much to do. God doesn't seem to grow the church fast enough--do you really need me to tell you more for you to see the problem that quickly comes up!
If you go to Vision News you will see that we are busy--you will even see that God is blessing! That is not the question! The question is am I staying on target?
I came back to train missionaries! Are they getting enough ministry experience? Am I focusing them on the world and what God wants them to do?
It is easy to get off target! It is easy to feel the pressure of the financial, the urgent, those near at hand! I prepare to preach each week! I pray! I talk to people and if I am not careful I will develop tunnel vision! I only see what is happening right where I am!
I get Bunker Mentality! I am just trying to stay alive, pay the bills, keep everyone happy! There is so much more--Wake up Austin! Get on target
The good thing about these trips for me is that when I am locked in that aluminum tube for so many hours, have no one to talk to, and no distractions I can really do some thinking. It is so easy to get off track!
I came back to the states to start a church to do more for missions than I had ever done before. It had nothing to do with thinking that other pastors weren't great men or that they weren't doing a great job! It was that I realized that the most important person and role in world evangelism isn't the missionary but it is the pastor.
He decides how much to push the cause of world evangelism. He decides how many men and women to train and send off and how many to try and keep with him.
Well starting Vision Baptist Church has been and is great fun. I love it. I am having the time of my life but it is easy to let Vision get in the way of the vision! I know that I have to be a pastor. I know that there is a lot of work to do but sometimes we get so caught up in the day to day that we forget our target, lose our focus, lose our dream, and the vision grows dim!
I am just trying to stay alive. People are pulling on me and they want me to take care of the church, to not get to caught up in world evangelism--they are busy and there is so much to do. God doesn't seem to grow the church fast enough--do you really need me to tell you more for you to see the problem that quickly comes up!
If you go to Vision News you will see that we are busy--you will even see that God is blessing! That is not the question! The question is am I staying on target?
I came back to train missionaries! Are they getting enough ministry experience? Am I focusing them on the world and what God wants them to do?
It is easy to get off target! It is easy to feel the pressure of the financial, the urgent, those near at hand! I prepare to preach each week! I pray! I talk to people and if I am not careful I will develop tunnel vision! I only see what is happening right where I am!
I get Bunker Mentality! I am just trying to stay alive, pay the bills, keep everyone happy! There is so much more--Wake up Austin! Get on target
Thursday, January 10, 2008
quote
“Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves. When our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little. When we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, Lord.”
Sir Francis Drake
I pray that I allow God to work in my life the way He wants and never become to complacent. I want to dream great dreams for Him. I want to get out into the deep. Vision Baptist Church needs people that believe God and will dream as well as does your church.
I invite you to check out Vision News and see the new look. You can also get the latest sermons preached at Vision on a player right on the page
Sir Francis Drake
I pray that I allow God to work in my life the way He wants and never become to complacent. I want to dream great dreams for Him. I want to get out into the deep. Vision Baptist Church needs people that believe God and will dream as well as does your church.
I invite you to check out Vision News and see the new look. You can also get the latest sermons preached at Vision on a player right on the page
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Vision Baptist Pulpit
To the left and top of this blog you will find a little podcast player. On it you will find the teaching and preaching from the Vision Baptist Church. We sincerely hope that it will be a help to each of you.
It should update each time a new message is uploaded and at least for a while that should be happening on a regular basis. You are also able to subscribe to this podcast directly from itunes by searching for Austin Gardner or Vision Baptist Church or you can go to Vision Baptist.com and go to the media file and podcast and click to subscribe there.
I hope you will get some spiritual benefit from these studies of the Word of God
You can always keep up with the latest happenings at Vision by going to Vision News.
Vision Baptist Church is an independent Baptist Church serving all of Forsyth County, North Fulton County, Alpharetta, Cumming, Roswell, John's Creek, Milton, Duluth, Suwanee, and many other cities on the Northside of Atlanta.
It should update each time a new message is uploaded and at least for a while that should be happening on a regular basis. You are also able to subscribe to this podcast directly from itunes by searching for Austin Gardner or Vision Baptist Church or you can go to Vision Baptist.com and go to the media file and podcast and click to subscribe there.
I hope you will get some spiritual benefit from these studies of the Word of God
You can always keep up with the latest happenings at Vision by going to Vision News.
Vision Baptist Church is an independent Baptist Church serving all of Forsyth County, North Fulton County, Alpharetta, Cumming, Roswell, John's Creek, Milton, Duluth, Suwanee, and many other cities on the Northside of Atlanta.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Praying for God to revive His church
Vision Baptist Church has invited Lou Rossi to come and preach a revival from January 13-17. We are bathing this time in prayer. We need God to do a great work and I ask you to be praying for us. Please come and visit and bring your friends with you. To get the latest updates be sure and check out Vision News regularly.
Here are some great quotes about revival by Stephen Olford. Please pray that God work in our church--Vision Baptist Church and send revival.
Whether it be in the personal life, or in the church life, or on the mission field, we need revival--we need revival urgently--we need revival desperately!
Revival is the manifestation of the glory, power, and blessing of the Son of God among His people.
Revival is ultimately Christ Himself, seen, felt, heard, living, active, moving in and through His body on earth.
Revival is not some emotion or worked-up excitement; it is rather an invasion from heaven which brings to man a conscious awareness of God.
Will you pray 'Revive me!' and then open your being to the Spirit of Revival? Do not rest until you have been restored to the fullness of the blessing that God is waiting to pour out in your life!
Revival is that strange and sovereign work of God in which He visits His own people--restoring, reanimating, and releasing them into the fullness of His blessing.
When God breaks into a life or a community, nothing else matters save the person of Jesus, the glory of Jesus, the name of Jesus.
The Ordinary Pastor
taken from here
Some pastors, mightily endowed by God, are a remarkable gift to the church. They love their people, they handle Scripture well, they see many conversions, their ministries span generations, they understand their culture yet refuse to be domesticated by it, they are theologically robust and personally disciplined. ... Most of us, however, serve in more modest patches. Most pastors will not regularly preach to thousands, let alone tens of thousands. They will not write influential books, they will not supervise large staffs, and they will never see more than modest growth. They will plug away at their care for the aged, at their visitation, at their counseling, at their Bible studies and preaching. Some will work with so little support that they will prepare their own bulletins. They cannot possibly discern whether the constraints of their own sphere of service owe more to the specific challenges of the local situation or to their own shortcomings. Once in a while they will cast a wistful eye on “successful” ministries. Many of them will attend the conferences sponsored by the revered masters, and come away with a slightly discordant combination of, on the one hand, gratitude and encouragement, and, on the other, jealousy, feelings of inadequacy, and guilt.
Most of us—let us be frank—are ordinary pastors.
Dad was one of them. This little book is a modest attempt to let the voice and ministry of one ordinary pastor be heard, for such servants have much to teach us.
* * *
Tom Carson never rose very far in denominational structures, but hundreds of people ... testify how much he loved them. He never wrote a book, but he loved the Book. He was never wealthy or powerful, but he kept growing as a Christian: yesterday's grace was never enough. He was not a far-sighted visionary, but he looked forward to eternity. He was not a gifted administrator, but there is no text that says “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you are good administrators.” His journals have many, many entries bathed in tears of contrition, but his children and grandchildren remember his laughter. Only rarely did he break through his pattern of reserve and speak deeply and intimately with his children, but he modeled Christian virtues to them. He much preferred to avoid controversy than to stir things up, but his own commitments to historic confessionalism were unyielding, and in ethics he was a man of principle. His own ecclesiastical circles were rather small and narrow, but his reading was correspondingly large and expansive. He was not very good at putting people down, except on his prayer lists.
When he died, there were no crowds outside the hospital, no editorial comments in the papers, no announcements on the television, no mention in Parliament, no attention paid by the nation. In his hospital room there was no one by his bedside. There was only the quiet hiss of oxygen, vainly venting because he had stopped breathing and would never need it again.
But on the other side, all the trumpets sounded. Dad won entrance to the only throne-room that matters, not because he was a good man or a great man—he was, after all, a most ordinary pastor—but because he was a forgiven man. And he heard the voice of him whom he longed to hear saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord.”
Pretty interesting for those of us that will probably never be the pastor of the megachurch or have all the books. Click on the link at the top of the article and read all about it.
Vision Baptist Church
Vision News
Some pastors, mightily endowed by God, are a remarkable gift to the church. They love their people, they handle Scripture well, they see many conversions, their ministries span generations, they understand their culture yet refuse to be domesticated by it, they are theologically robust and personally disciplined. ... Most of us, however, serve in more modest patches. Most pastors will not regularly preach to thousands, let alone tens of thousands. They will not write influential books, they will not supervise large staffs, and they will never see more than modest growth. They will plug away at their care for the aged, at their visitation, at their counseling, at their Bible studies and preaching. Some will work with so little support that they will prepare their own bulletins. They cannot possibly discern whether the constraints of their own sphere of service owe more to the specific challenges of the local situation or to their own shortcomings. Once in a while they will cast a wistful eye on “successful” ministries. Many of them will attend the conferences sponsored by the revered masters, and come away with a slightly discordant combination of, on the one hand, gratitude and encouragement, and, on the other, jealousy, feelings of inadequacy, and guilt.
Most of us—let us be frank—are ordinary pastors.
Dad was one of them. This little book is a modest attempt to let the voice and ministry of one ordinary pastor be heard, for such servants have much to teach us.
* * *
Tom Carson never rose very far in denominational structures, but hundreds of people ... testify how much he loved them. He never wrote a book, but he loved the Book. He was never wealthy or powerful, but he kept growing as a Christian: yesterday's grace was never enough. He was not a far-sighted visionary, but he looked forward to eternity. He was not a gifted administrator, but there is no text that says “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you are good administrators.” His journals have many, many entries bathed in tears of contrition, but his children and grandchildren remember his laughter. Only rarely did he break through his pattern of reserve and speak deeply and intimately with his children, but he modeled Christian virtues to them. He much preferred to avoid controversy than to stir things up, but his own commitments to historic confessionalism were unyielding, and in ethics he was a man of principle. His own ecclesiastical circles were rather small and narrow, but his reading was correspondingly large and expansive. He was not very good at putting people down, except on his prayer lists.
When he died, there were no crowds outside the hospital, no editorial comments in the papers, no announcements on the television, no mention in Parliament, no attention paid by the nation. In his hospital room there was no one by his bedside. There was only the quiet hiss of oxygen, vainly venting because he had stopped breathing and would never need it again.
But on the other side, all the trumpets sounded. Dad won entrance to the only throne-room that matters, not because he was a good man or a great man—he was, after all, a most ordinary pastor—but because he was a forgiven man. And he heard the voice of him whom he longed to hear saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord.”
Pretty interesting for those of us that will probably never be the pastor of the megachurch or have all the books. Click on the link at the top of the article and read all about it.
Vision Baptist Church
Vision News
Monday, December 24, 2007
Beware of the Bunker Mentality
I was sitting listening to a missionary speak in our church recently and something very important dawned on me. As he spoke he showed enthusiasm. I have noticed over the years that when we are not at our church, dealing with our problems we are often able to be grateful and enthusiastic.
But then at home when the bombs are bursting in the air and things are going wrong, people are moving on to new towns and jobs and leaving our church, the bills are piling up it is easy to develop a victim attitude.
I was just sitting here thinking about how good God has been to me and then I got an email from a great family in our church that is planning on moving to another part of the state. Every time I hear that I cringe and hurt--I think you know what I mean. I would never hold up there progress and what they believe God's will to be BUT
I will lose them, I will miss them, Our church will suffer and I don't want them to go. It causes me to start thinking that things aren't going good. It doesn't matter if things are going good or not I tend to focus on the bad things--Do you do that?
I develop a Bunker Mentality. I want to retreat where I can't get hurt again. I would rather not risk loving than lose the love or be hurt.
That begins to show in my demeanor and attitude in the pulpit and around people. Then people don't understand what is happening but they know that something makes them uncomfortable.
Do you know what I mean? I want a praise and let's go forward attitude. I hope you do. God is in control. He is going to work things out. Lets serve Him with joy in our hearts.
In the Vision News I have to be positive but sometimes it is hard and I just do not feel like it! Have you ever been there?
But then at home when the bombs are bursting in the air and things are going wrong, people are moving on to new towns and jobs and leaving our church, the bills are piling up it is easy to develop a victim attitude.
I was just sitting here thinking about how good God has been to me and then I got an email from a great family in our church that is planning on moving to another part of the state. Every time I hear that I cringe and hurt--I think you know what I mean. I would never hold up there progress and what they believe God's will to be BUT
I will lose them, I will miss them, Our church will suffer and I don't want them to go. It causes me to start thinking that things aren't going good. It doesn't matter if things are going good or not I tend to focus on the bad things--Do you do that?
I develop a Bunker Mentality. I want to retreat where I can't get hurt again. I would rather not risk loving than lose the love or be hurt.
That begins to show in my demeanor and attitude in the pulpit and around people. Then people don't understand what is happening but they know that something makes them uncomfortable.
Do you know what I mean? I want a praise and let's go forward attitude. I hope you do. God is in control. He is going to work things out. Lets serve Him with joy in our hearts.
In the Vision News I have to be positive but sometimes it is hard and I just do not feel like it! Have you ever been there?
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Ramblings from North Africa:
The following comes from an email sent out by project North Africa and Aaron. I want to encourage all of you to get your copy of this book as soon as possible. I have already ordered mine and paid for it over paypal.
One Church-planting team’s first year of minsitry to Muslims
My wife Jillian and I, along with our coworkers Cesar and Mariet Copa from Arequipa, Peru have kept a journal of our experiences over the last year since we arrived in Morocco. This book is unique because it is written from a man AND a woman’s perspective as we ministered to Muslims together.
If you would like your your family and/or your church to know how to better pray for our missions…
If you would like to know what it is like to live and ministry in a Muslim country…
If you would like to know how to witness to the Muslims that you know…
If you know anyone going to minister in Muslim country…
Buy One, GIVE One Free!
For every book YOU buy, we will GIVE a book to a college student. The future of missions lies in the hands of the young people who are preparing themselves in our colleges. Will they consider going to a Muslim country?
It’s up to you!
All profits from the book will go directly into the church planting efforts of Project North Africa!
Order online at our website: www.projectna.com or by mail:
Project North Africa
PO Box 519
Braselton, GA 30517
Checks made payable to “Project North Africa” for $14.95 for the book and $3 for shipping.
Special pricing available for churches or individuals requesting 5 or more books.
This would be the book for you!
Vision Baptist Church
Vision News
One Church-planting team’s first year of minsitry to Muslims
My wife Jillian and I, along with our coworkers Cesar and Mariet Copa from Arequipa, Peru have kept a journal of our experiences over the last year since we arrived in Morocco. This book is unique because it is written from a man AND a woman’s perspective as we ministered to Muslims together.
If you would like your your family and/or your church to know how to better pray for our missions…
If you would like to know what it is like to live and ministry in a Muslim country…
If you would like to know how to witness to the Muslims that you know…
If you know anyone going to minister in Muslim country…
Buy One, GIVE One Free!
For every book YOU buy, we will GIVE a book to a college student. The future of missions lies in the hands of the young people who are preparing themselves in our colleges. Will they consider going to a Muslim country?
It’s up to you!
All profits from the book will go directly into the church planting efforts of Project North Africa!
Order online at our website: www.projectna.com or by mail:
Project North Africa
PO Box 519
Braselton, GA 30517
Checks made payable to “Project North Africa” for $14.95 for the book and $3 for shipping.
Special pricing available for churches or individuals requesting 5 or more books.
This would be the book for you!
Vision Baptist Church
Vision News
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Preach Jesus
You [as preachers] have nothing else to employ as the means of good, except the salvation of Jesus, and there is nothing else worth telling.
I heard of a congregation the other day that was so very small that hardly any one came to listen to the preacher. Instead of blaming himself, and preaching better, the minister said he thought he was not doing much good by sermons and prayer-meetings, and therefore he would found a club, and if the fellows came in, and played draughts, that might do them good. What a lot of that sort of thing is now being tried! We are going to convert souls on a new system,—are we? Are we also to have a substitute for bread?—and healthier drink than pure water? . . .
[T]o hope ever to bring sinners to holiness and heaven by any teaching but that which begins and ends in Jesus Christ is a sheer delusion. None other name is given among men whereby they can be saved. If you have to deal with highly learned and educated people, nothing is so good for them as preaching Jesus Christ; and if the people be ignorant and degraded, nothing is better for them than the preaching of Jesus.
A young man said to another the other day, “I am going down to preach at So-and-so, what sort of people are they there? What kind of doctrine will suit them?” Having heard of the question, I gave this advice,—”You preach Jesus Christ, and that will suit them, I am sure, if they are learned people it will suit them; if they are ignorant it will suit them—God blessing it.”
When the great Biblical critic, Bengel, was dying, he sent for a young theological student, to whom he said, “I am low in spirit; say something good to cheer me.” “My dear Sir,” said the student, “I am so insignificant a person, what can I say to a great man like yourself?” “But if you are a student of theology,” said Bengel, “you ought to have a good word to say to a dying man; pray say it without fear.” “Well, Sir,” said he, “What can I say to you, but that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin?” Bengel said, “Give me your hand, young man; that is the very word I wanted.”
A simple gospel text is the word which every man needs who is in fear of divine wrath, and he may be sitting next to you at this moment, or he is in the same house of business with you, and needs that you should tell him about Christ. Do that, and bless his soul. May you all understand the Scriptures in this way, and may God make you a great blessing to those around you.
Charles Spurgeon
That is what Vision Baptist Church is all about. We preach Jesus service after service, That is what we did in Peru. God blesses the preaching of His World. Keep up with all if going on via Vision News
I heard of a congregation the other day that was so very small that hardly any one came to listen to the preacher. Instead of blaming himself, and preaching better, the minister said he thought he was not doing much good by sermons and prayer-meetings, and therefore he would found a club, and if the fellows came in, and played draughts, that might do them good. What a lot of that sort of thing is now being tried! We are going to convert souls on a new system,—are we? Are we also to have a substitute for bread?—and healthier drink than pure water? . . .
[T]o hope ever to bring sinners to holiness and heaven by any teaching but that which begins and ends in Jesus Christ is a sheer delusion. None other name is given among men whereby they can be saved. If you have to deal with highly learned and educated people, nothing is so good for them as preaching Jesus Christ; and if the people be ignorant and degraded, nothing is better for them than the preaching of Jesus.
A young man said to another the other day, “I am going down to preach at So-and-so, what sort of people are they there? What kind of doctrine will suit them?” Having heard of the question, I gave this advice,—”You preach Jesus Christ, and that will suit them, I am sure, if they are learned people it will suit them; if they are ignorant it will suit them—God blessing it.”
When the great Biblical critic, Bengel, was dying, he sent for a young theological student, to whom he said, “I am low in spirit; say something good to cheer me.” “My dear Sir,” said the student, “I am so insignificant a person, what can I say to a great man like yourself?” “But if you are a student of theology,” said Bengel, “you ought to have a good word to say to a dying man; pray say it without fear.” “Well, Sir,” said he, “What can I say to you, but that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin?” Bengel said, “Give me your hand, young man; that is the very word I wanted.”
A simple gospel text is the word which every man needs who is in fear of divine wrath, and he may be sitting next to you at this moment, or he is in the same house of business with you, and needs that you should tell him about Christ. Do that, and bless his soul. May you all understand the Scriptures in this way, and may God make you a great blessing to those around you.
Charles Spurgeon
That is what Vision Baptist Church is all about. We preach Jesus service after service, That is what we did in Peru. God blesses the preaching of His World. Keep up with all if going on via Vision News
Monday, December 10, 2007
Good ain't good enough
Visit us at Vision Baptist Church. Check out Vision News. Come and visit us for Christmas on the Northside.
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