FOCUS Conference

We wanted to write a little on a great opportunity for all ABC teachers called the FOCUS Conference. Whether you teach adults, youth, or children this conference is for you! The dates are Friday night, April 17 and Saturday morning, April 18 so it's not a lot of your time, but we really believe that it will be worth it to you to come as we spend some time in fellowship and in training. One of our main goals with this conference is to equip you in your classrooms as you teach and to be sharpened together as teachers!

We'll eat dinner together on Friday night and then have one large group session altogether. Then we'll break out into our age-appropriate sessions. Here's the schedule for the weekend:

Friday 17th
6:00 – 7:00 Dinner in the Fellowship Hall
7:00pm – 7:45pm Combined Group Session with Dan Cook
7:45pm – 8:00pm break
8:00pm – 9:00pm Age-Group Track Session 1

Saturday 18th
8:30am – 9:00am continental breakfast
9:00am – 9:45am Age-Group Track Session 2
9:45am – 10:00am break
10:00am – 11:00am Age-Group Track Session 3

We've got some great folks coming in to teach and to train and they'll be covering some really good topics. Some examples of what we'll be talking about in the children's teachers breakouts are: discipline in the classroom, age-appropriate story-telling, games, songs and other tools that you can use in your classroom.

Feel free to email Nathan with any questions, but we really hope you'll sign up and join us that weekend! Click here to sign-up today!

Forgive Them

Tim Shaw
Adult Education Pastor

As spring is in the air causing the trees to bud and flowers to bloom, my thoughts are more on the approaching Easter season than the calendar season. The whole basis of our faith is the Cross of Christ and His resurrection!

When Christ was crucified, He made seven profound statements while He hung on the tree before He breathed His last earthly breath of air. As I think about Jesus Christ and what he went through on the cross, the word "amazing" dominates my mind. We can learn a lot about Christ's character from these few statements that I believe to be truly amazing. Of those seven, the one that I find the most convicting was the first. "Then said Jesus, 'Father forgive them; for they know not what they do'." Luke 23:34

Jesus, having just been nailed to a cross, was in the process of dying by the most painful method of execution that has ever been devised by man. In the midst of His agony, Jesus looked down from the cross at the people responsible for His suffering and offered up a prayer requesting that God forgive them. If you think as I do, you read this and thought, "Wow, that's amazing!" And from our human reasoning it is. But should it surprise us that He would offer such a prayer? After all, this forgiveness if the very reason that He chose to lay down His life!

There is debate among theologians as to whom Christ was referring when He said "they know not what they do." Is He referring to the Romans who were responsible for carrying out the execution or to the Jews who failed to recognize their Messiah? I believe He was referring to the Jews, for they made a serious mistake and failed to recognize God's plan for their nation. As Paul later wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:8, if they had known who Christ was, they would not have crucified Him. Regardless of which group He was referring to, all the participants in His death were included in the prayer for forgiveness.

This same forgiveness that Christ prayed from the cross is available for everyone. However, one must accept it before salvation can be claimed. How about you? Have you ever come to the point in your life where you realized that you were a hopeless sinner and that you stood in need of a Savior? Have you ever asked that Savior, who loved you enough to lay down His life for you, for forgiveness of the sins you have committed? Have you ever placed your faith and trust in that Savior as the only means by which you can have hope and eternal life? If you have not, there is no better time than right now.

If you have received Christ as your personal Savior, are you living by the example He set? Do you love your enemies? Do you offer or withhold forgiveness from those who have caused you pain and suffering? Amazing, astounding, miraculous -- choose any descriptive word you like. Then choose to live for Christ, and extend the mercy, grace, and compassion He has shown you to other people.

Keeping In Step With The Spirit

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

I recently finished a book by Mark Foreman entitled “Wholly Jesus.” Mark is a pastor out in California at North Coast Calvary and is the father of Jon and Tim Foreman, both of Switchfoot. It really was a great book filled with practical wisdom, but there was one section that really resonated with me.

He addresses Galatians 5 in which Paul admonishes us “since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Foreman talks about some practical ways that we can be filled by the Spirit in our everyday lives and I wanted to share them with you.

The first is giving thanks. Check out Ephesians 1:16, 1 Thessalonians 1:2 or Colossians 3:17. When we wake up overwhelmed with all the stress and worries of the day spend some time in thanksgiving and thank God for everything in your life—from family to the sunrise. “It’s a way of living in the painting of God’s reality and it clearly helps us to see the fingerprints of Jesus in one’s life.”

The second is praise and singing. See Ephesians 5:19. “When we speak and sing the truths of God privately or publicly, the Spirit is released more fully in our lives.” Sing constantly and remember that praise is a response to the love of God.

Studying God’s Word is next and it is when we are corrected, reminded and encouraged. The Word is when we rediscover “true north on the compass”.

When we’re in fellowship we’re encouraged and filled with the spirit. Like Sanctus Real sings, as brothers and sisters we truly need each other. To be and to live in community.

When we obey or resist temptation we are filled. We’re empowered and there’s a sense of victory. And when we love each other and give ourselves away to others we’re filled. Jesus said that when we love others (especially those that are “un-lovable”), we are really loving him.

So, there you go. Giving thanks, praise and singing, studying God’s Word, fellowship, obedience and loving others. Let us keep in step with the Spirit together, ABC!

On a completely unrelated note here's a commercial that NBC wouldn't air during the Super Bowl this past weekend.

Theology With A Tiger

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

I’ve always loved reading Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes. In fact, I can attribute much of what I am today to two adults (my Mother and Father), one perpetually young kid (Calvin, named after John Calvin) and one insanely intelligent and good looking tiger (Hobbes, named after Thomas Hobbes). That might be scary to some of you, I know, but it is what it is. For those of you not familiar with the strip, Calvin is the dreamer and philosopher while Hobbes; his imaginary tiger (or is he?) plays the realist.

During one staff meeting a few years ago Rick (now at Explore Church) and I had this crazy idea that we would bring lots of random things to the meeting to try and stimulate our creativity. So we brought play dough, crayons and doodling paper, our X-Boxes and, yes, you guessed it—a couple of Calvin and Hobbes books. I don’t know how many good ideas came out of that hour or so, but it was one of my favorite staff meetings ever.

I remember reading one of the strips in which Calvin and Hobbes are lying in bed. In the first panel Calvin asks, “I wonder why man was put on the earth. What’s our purpose? Why are we here?” In the second panel Hobbes turns to him and says matter-of-factly, “Tiger food.” In the third he grins at Calvin, who is taking in his comment. And finally, in the last panel, Calvin lies awake, with a worried look on his face and one eye on his tiger, as Hobbes peacefully sleeps. Existential musings from a 7 year old. How could you not love that?

I mean, I’ve had a few teachers like Miss Wormwood in my life and growing up I remember a few Susie Derkins. In fact, without revealing names one time in Kindergarten I was wrestled to the ground by an uber-aggressive female First Grader where I found a kiss forcibly planted on my lips while I screamed and shouted in protest.

I also treated my babysitters poorly, as Calvin did Rosalyn. I can remember one night refusing to come out of the bathroom the whole time my parents were gone and other times tying my babysitters to a chair and pretending they were damsels in distress. I usually got them untied after an hour or so.*

I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, my life would not be the same were it not for the exploits of Spaceman Spiff or for the wonderful carefree sport of Calvinball. As a future political science major I also conducted and interpreted polls on my Dad’s performance as a Father as I grew up, much to his chagrin. Sorry about that, Dad. Hopefully Aidan and Gavin won’t get any bright ideas.

And finally, if there was one thing I could change about my physical appearance I always wished my hair could have resembled Calvin’s amazing cut.

*In honor of the snow this week I’d also like to give a shout out to the whole Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons storyline. Brilliant.

The Holiness of God

Nathan Stam
Children's Pastor

I’ve been thinking a lot about the holiness of God lately. This past Sunday we sang a song in which one of the lines said: “No mortal man would dare to stand before your throne.” What does that mean? For much of my life I thought we wanted to stand before God’s throne and be in his presence. But it sounds like that might not be possible. In this life, at least. How do I reconcile that desire to be in the Presence of the Lord with verses that say things like:

But He answered, "You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live. (ex. 33:20)

The only One who has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom none of mankind has seen or can see, to whom be honor and eternal might. Amen. (1 Timothy 6:16)

No one has ever seen God. The One and Only Son—the One who is at the Father's side—He has revealed Him. (jn 1:18)

You cannot see My face and live. Unapproachable light. No one has ever seen Him.

There’s something mind-boggling and awe-inspiring about the holiness of God. It should inject a good dose of humility into our bones.

A.W. Tozer once described the holiness of God this way: “God is holy and He has made holiness the moral condition necessary to the health of His universe. Sin’s temporary presence in the world only accents this. Whatever is holy is healthy; evil is a moral sickness that must end ultimately in death. The formation of the language itself suggests this, the English word holy deriving from the Anglo-Saxon halig, hal, meaning, ‘well, whole.’”

So, how can we possibly know God? How can we, broken and sinful men and women, draw near to Him? Listen to what Tozer went on to add:

“Caught in this dilemma, what are we Christians to do? We must like Moses cover ourselves with faith and humility while we steal a quick look at the God whom no man can see and live. The broken and the contrite heart He will not despise. We must hide our unholiness in the wounds of Christ as Moses hid himself in the cleft of the rock while the glory of God passed by. We must take refuge from God in God. Above all we must believe that God sees us perfect in His Son while He disciplines and chastens and purges us that we may be partakers of His holiness.”

Here’s to hiding ourselves in the wounds of Christ. Have a HOLY New Year!

The Rest Of the Story…..

Dottie Stam
Minister of Music/Worship
dottie@apexbaptist.org

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“Whatever happened to Mary Ann?’...I was asked this question multiple times during the presentation of A Frontporch Christmas. Even when I explained that she was merely a fictional character the question still persisted. “Yes, I know you changed her name, but the real Mary Ann....what happened to her?”

The belief that somewhere in the far past there lurks a real Mary Ann is hard to overcome. However, there were several characters that were based on real people and events of the early 1900’s. My paternal grandfather’s name was Green Titus Mills and he served as the model for ’Preacher Green.’ He was pastor of Green Level Baptist Church for decades and while I never met him, the stories told about him have made him come alive in my mind. My mother’s family suffered along with others during the depression years and she remembers the terrible event of their only cow dying. That meant no milk or butter for a family of 5 children. Her family were not members at Green Level Baptist, but some how Preacher Mills got wind of their situation and showed up at their doorstep. He told my Grandmother that he had heard about the cow and he had $5.00 to give her to help buy a new cow. That $5.00 was like $500.00 now. My grandfather was not a wealthy man and had a large family of his own. That $5.00 was a huge amount to give, but he gave it anyway. My mother, a little girl at the time, was awed by the kindness of this gentle man and always remembered it. Probably had something to do with her later falling in love with his son.

I was told about the big boarding house that stood in downtown Apex and Aunt Fanny was sort of a composite of several of the generous, kind women that populated Apex in the early 1900’s. They mothered everyone and everyone’s business was theirs. But if you were ever in trouble, they were there to help.

Allious Yates was named after a wealthy gentleman of that time. I know nothing of his character, but he sort of morphed into the ‘Scrooge’ character of the play. I was never really sure what would change his heart and break his pride but it seemed that nothing is so convicting than to have the person you have fought with for years ask you to forgive them. Allious was an honest enough gentleman to recognize that the fault had been all his and with that recognition realize all that he had lost. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in a man that can change him and that was true in Allious’ case. The Lord was merciful in bringing Mary Ann and baby John into his life. I think he, like Scrooge, was truly changed. “I will not be the man that I once was,” Scrooge said, and so it was with Allious. And with his confession, the Lord blessed him.

The character of Joe Broadwell was inspired by a movie I had seen earlier in the year. It was about a WW I officer who had seen his company butchered in the Argonne offensive as they held their position against overwhelming odds. This officer received several medals but could never get over the horrors of war and later committed suicide. I wondered what could have healed him and restored him to a meaningful life. The story of Joe offers the only solution I know of for those wounded in spirit as well as body. “Just go to the cross,” Mary Ann tells Joe, and when he does, he finds that his sufferings are only a faint shadow of the sufferings of his Savior who knows, understands and heals. Joe finds health when he forgets himself and devotes his life to caring for others.

I loved Irene Batchelor. It seems that every community needs a woman ‘who can get things done.’ And where would we be without those visionary women who ignore the cost to themselves as they pursue a ‘greater cause.’ I certainly am grateful to those brave women who campaigned for the right for women to vote. It took energy, dedication and sacrifice on their part and I admire them. But most of all, I loved that Irene was as willing to put her energies in a cause for the Lord Jesus as she was in getting the vote. In fact, that is the greater cause. Politics can shape society, but only Jesus can save and change the heart of man. I think Irene knew that and perhaps she was in the play to represent the courageous women everywhere who persevere in doing right.

“But what about Mary Ann?”, I can hear you ask. Well, she is every woman who has ever suffered tragedy and grief. Being helpless and hopeless she seems to fall under life’s proverbial ‘crushing blow’ only to be rescued by the mercy of God evidenced in His people. But I know that answer is not the rest of the story so here it is.

Well, Allious did help Mary Ann and baby John. He found that true to his son’s letter, he admired Mary Ann’s spirit and helping her became a joy. He had lost his son but he gained a daughter and a grandson. I expect he would have been very protective and suspicious of any other man who would have desired to gain her affections had that man not been Joe Broadwell. Joe and Mary Ann remained friends for a long period of time and gradually that friendship just shifted into love. Mary Ann encouraged Joe to go to Med School and was his biggest supporter in the church. (Actually, this is a true story. A church in Richmond agreed to send my uncle to Med school if he would serve on the mission field. He served in China until the communists ran him out). They just got used to talking together and being married is a better way to do that. I think they were blessed their whole lives by a love that grew with them and remained thankful for the way the Lord worked in all things for good. Baby John grew up with a loving Father and granddad. He followed in his Father’s Jeff’s footsteps and served in WW II in Europe as a medic. Mary Ann and Joe had 4 children of their own, all of which delighted Granddad Allious who had adopted them as his own grandkids. As for Jim and Josie, Jim never did find a girl prettier than Josie, and Josie figured she could keep an eye on Jim better if they were married so several years later they were married by Preacher Green. Their first born child was a sweet girl named Elizabeth who later became baby John’s wife. Both John and Elizabeth felt the Lord was calling them to be missionaries and the church had the blessing of seeing them go to serve in the Far East. After a lifetime of service on foreign soil, John and Elizabeth retired back to their home town and enjoyed their grand kids. John turned out to be quite a good story teller having a great deal of practice with the grandkids and it was at his wife’s, Elizabeth, urging that he recounted the tale of A Frontporch Christmas so that everyone could see that with God nothing is impossible.

So there you have it...the rest of the story.

CHECK OUT THE VIDEO EPILOGUE HERE!

(Thanks to Paul Allen for the photo)

Parental Influence

Peter Dubbelman
Family Life/Administrative Pastor

Of course, our careers are important. Your company may even suffer a setback in your absence. Yet, as valuable as we would like to think we are, we can easily be replaced at work. But nobody can take our place as a parent. Who else but you can love your children as they need to be loved?

Both George Washington and Abe Lincoln attributed their success in life to the moral, intellectual, and physical education they received from their mother. Yes, there are many people who have actually succeeded in life, from God’s point of view, without coming from a good family; however, usually these people had to learn things the hard way, often at a great cost to them and those around them.

A lot of people work for many reasons: self esteem; a need to be productive, a desire to make a mark on society, a need to provide for their family. None of these reasons are by themselves wrong; however, if they are done at the cost of impacting our children and consistently being there for them, things are out of priority.

Most of our jobs have short term impact; but, all of our children will affect this world for a long time to come, whether in a godly or ungodly way. Often which effect our children have on this world has a lot to do with whether we parent them properly.