My week thus far!

Sunday I had the opportunity to attend Holman Street Church for their annual Woman's day celebration--to my surprise and delight, one of my childhood/teen mentors in ministry, Pastor Earl Jackson--was the guest speaker for this special day. God used Pastor Jackson to open some doors for me very early in my ministry. He allowed me the opportunity to share in his pulpit several times as a teenage minister; and also had a large part to play in my preaching at some great churches--Antioch in downtown Houston, Pleasant Mt. Gilead in Fort Worth--just to name a few. I love this man and he is an awesome preacher. I was immensely blessed by the entire message, from start to finish. He spoke from I Kings 17, 'When you reach the end of the barrel'. Worship at our church was good; but I was NOT pleased with attendance. I speak to pastors all over the country and this is, of course, a universal problem. However, we will continue to pray, teach, plan, work, and instruct--that consistency and growth in our commitment to church attendance and responsible church membership is of utmost importance.

Last night I had the opportunity to be a part of a forum (rountable) with a group of Senior Pastors. I REALLY enjoyed this time together with these pastors. Our primary reason for meeting was to dialogue and see how we can come together as Pastors and moreover how to effect men in our community and churches for positive life change. We endeavored to get to the source and all agreed that something must change. IF our churches are going to go to the 'next level' in every aspect, I am just convinced that men are going to play a very important part in the accomplishment of these great endeavor.