Finishing Strong

We had a great day at Center Grove today. I really have a sense that God is going to do something special with His church there in 2009. I know all pastors say those kind of things or at least they should be hoping for them, but I have a great peace and excitement that God is in the midst of some amazing works. To God be the Glory!

You will not be seeing any blog entries from me for a week or two. I've got to finish this draft of my dissertation and I'm going to have a focused intensity. The only things that can interrupt my writing until it is done is God, family, and church. Anything else is going to have to wait. I feel like I can finish this thing quickly if I give it great priority until it is finished. I must do this, I must finish strong.

I can't wait to see what God has in store next. He is overflowing my heart and mind with such great ideas and I'm praying diligently for clarity of vision for the weeks, months, and years. Much of that vision will include the purpose of this blog in the first place, and the vision God has given me to make an impact in such a way that brings Him the greatest glory!

So have a great close to 2008, and a great start to 2009! If you think about it say a prayer for diligence, clarity, and focus as I write and finish this phase of my journey with a great, amazing, precious Savior and look forward to the next steps. See you next year!

Merry Christmas

What a glorious day in Welcome, NC. The sun is shining as we celebrate the birth of the SON! I rejoice in time with family, in the meals we will share together, the laughs, the stories, and just an overall good time. But most of all I rejoice that God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. I celebrate that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believed on Him would not perish but have eternal life.

I celebrate JESUS! I pray that you and yours will have a Merry CHRISTmas and celebrate JESUS!!!

Grandma Ruby

It is about 6:15 am on a Thursday morning. Not much different than a lot of mornings Caleb woke up and needed a little bit of attention. Only this time he was in Nana and Paw-Paw's room of the hotel while his mom, sister, and I were in ours. So going to get him has me up a little earlier than planned.

In a little less than 8 hours I will help perform the funeral of my Grandma Ruby Kiker. She is such a sweet lady. I remember so many times growing up going to her house (for a few years it was just a 10 second sprint from mine) and just enjoying being around her. Man, could she cook. You probably won't believe what one of my favorite things she cooked was? Green Beans of all things. She cooked green beans better than anybody I've ever known. She could take a box of plain old Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and make it taste better than anybody else could.

While at Wingate College (It was college, they changed it to University the year after I graduated, I don't think there was any connection). Grandma and Paw-Paw would come get me and take me with them to church on Sunday. I didn't have a car and man was that meal better than the cafeteria food I'd eat all week. During the summer between my Freshmen and Sophmore years they helped me buy my first car (basically they bought it and I was there:)

I'll miss Grandma, but not as much as I know Paw-Paw will. You know how long they were married? 62 years, 2 months, and 3 days. You know why I know that? I think he told everybody that went through the line last night at visitation. What a testimony. I'll close by sharing with you what I said as I stood over grandma's casket last night. I said "Grandma, I love you, I know you are with Jesus and I'll miss you for a season. I'm happy for you, and I'll meet you there!"

I'm grateful for my Grandma, but oh THANKS BE TO GOD WHO GIVES US THE VICTORY THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST!

Busy Season

Wow, it's been almost two months since I've posted. Sorry about that. I truly believe once this little thing called a dissertation is passed this is something God has called me to spend more time on.

I pray that each of you take some time to slow down and celebrate Christmas. Worship together as a family, tell the Christmas Story, rejoice in the great gift we have been given through Christ Jesus.

2008 has been an incredible year for me personally, the Kiker household, and for Center Grove Baptist Church. I praise God for all that He has done, and look forward to finish this year out strong. There are four weeks left until the year is over. I challenge you to even now begin developing some habits that will carry strong into a new year.

God bless!

The Heart of God

As I sit in a hotel room in Simpsonville, South Carolina I'm overwhelmed at how we serve a God that loves the nations. What a privilege it is to serve the Lord in His passion for the nations. I shared with the folks at Center Grove of the many ways that God is using us to touch our local community, region, state, nation, and world. I praise the Lord for the many at Center Grove that desire to honor the Lord and reach the nations right here at home through local mission projects cleaning up yards, doing construction work, helping other churches. God has truly blessed us as we are a blessing to others and glorify Him.

We've also had the pleasure of supporting several church planters in the US. Andy and Tanya Ehlers work with High Tide Church in Delaware (Church Website). We begin supporting them when the church consisted of Andy and Tanya by themselves. They are now a completely self supporting church reaching hundreds of people for Christ. We still strongly support the work of Dennis Conner through Crosspointe Church in Buckeye Arizona (Church Website). The church is doing well and is going to be a pivotal ministry in one fo the fastest growing areas in America.

We also have several opportunities to support God's work internationally. The Flythe Family (Tripp, Heather, Drew, and Ella) are missionaries to Indonesia through Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF). You can keep up with their ministry through their blog at www.trippandheather.blogspot.com.

Finally, I want to remind you of the ministry we share with Search and See Ministries. Dr. Wil Owens is the President and founder of Search and See Ministries. I am currently in Simpsonville for the Board of Directors meeting in the morning. Through Search and See we have done a great deal of work in Tiriki, Kenya and will continue that work. We also have opportunity to be involved with works in India, Myanmar, and the Philippines. You can keep up with the efforts of Search and See Ministry at www.searchandsee.blogspot.com

What a joy and what a responsibility we have to use all of our energy, all of our passion, all of our resources for God's glory to the nations. For all that we have to give is His anyway, He deserves our complete and total worship and sacrifice.

Look forward to what God has in store!

Please pray for the board meeting tomorrow and also pray for my preaching engagements Sunday at Center Grove of course, and Sunday night through Wednesday night during the revival meetings at Creech Memorial Baptist Church in Ahoskie.

God bless!

Good Day of Labor

I've spent the last seven hours or so in front of my laptop with books and articles opened in front of me. I've got over 16 pages of material done today. It has been a productive day. God is refining me through this whole dissertation process. I've been working on this thing for over 3 years, but I've only been REALLY WORKING on it for a few months. It has been amazing to see how God is increasing my discipline and through the study of past movements of God, He has greatly increased my desire to see a movement like that in my lifetime.

Please pray that we might see God move in ways like they did during the Second Great Awakening. If you don't know what the Second Great Awakening was, look it up and study it some. I'd be glad to answer any questions you might have.

Also pray for diligence as I work on this dissertation. I'll post again sometime early next week. God bless.

A Good Kind of Tired

What do you get when you have 10 services and two 12 hour dissertation writing sessions in a 12 day period. One tired preacher on the 13th day. But PRAISE THE LORD for all He has done. What a wonderful week of revival services we had at Center Grove Baptist Church. Dr. Paul Childers did an amazing job of proclaiming the word of God. We saw three folks publicly declare their faith in Jesus and another join our church. We will be baptizing all three real soon. Then this week I have had the joy of being with Roper Baptist Church in their fall revival services. What an honor to proclaim the wonderful message of the Word of God. Pray for Roper Baptist that God would continue to use them in great and mighty ways to reach out to their community and the world with the Gospel.

Upcoming in the month of October I ask that you remember the following in prayer:

Search & See Board of Directors Meeting-I will be traveling on October 10-11 to attend the Search & See Ministries Board meeting. Please pray that God would grant clarity and vision for Wil as he continues to seek ways to glorify God and increase that glory through the ministry of Search and see. Check out Wil's blog here for updates on Search and See and his personal reflections.

Revival Services @ Creech Memorial Baptist Church-My dear friend Tom Ravan has asked that I come and lead in the revival services at Creech Memorial Baptist Church in Ahoskie October 12th through October 15th. Services will be each night at 7 pm and I hope those of you in Ahoskie will make an effort to attend. Tom and I are accountability partners and we have been praying for years for God to move in mighty ways in our region. It appears that we are seeing fruit from those prayers. Pray that God would greatly increase His presence in our lives and the lives of those who attend these revival services.

Dissertation Work-The end of September and October is a critical time in the completion of my dissertation. Pray for many large blocks of time to produce pages of writing and pray for discipline and endurance to use those blocks wisely. I am loving this task, but it must come to a completion. I thank you for your prayers in this as well.

To God Be The Glory

We are in the midst of revival services at Center Grove Baptist Church where I have the great honor to serve as pastor. My pastor and dear friend, Paul Childers, is our guest evangelist. We've had three good services so far, but tonight was especially special. We had two folks, a middle aged gentleman and a 10 year old young man come publicly confessing Christ and desiring to follow the Lord Jesus. Also, there was a great movement of the Spirit of God among His people.

I still believe God desires to accomplish much more through the final two services. Please join me in prayer that we will see much fruit Tuesday and Wednesday night and that genuine life changing revival will come to God's church at Center Grove, this community, region, state, nation, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Mercies of God Ministry (Part Two)

In my previous post I alluded to the establishment of Mercies of God Ministry and shared that it's ultimate goal would be to develop a strong prayer network to support the various ministries that God has opened to me. Several of you have already responded with your willingness to pray for such and I greatly appreciate it. How can you pray right now? In the days ahead I will share with you all (so far only Carol Ann has read my first draft) the purpose and objectives of Mercies of God Ministry showing the main goals and priorities of the network I am striving to build.

I do this not only to seek your agreement in prayer, but also for accountability, encouragement, and constructive criticism. Obviously by the title of my page Romans 12:1 is a verse God has used and continues to use in my life. My desire is by the MERCIES OF GOD to present my body a living sacrifice to Him.

Here are a few things that I would covet your prayers about:

1. Personal Intimacy with Christ/Family Intimacy with Christ
   
2. Dissertation Writing-it is crucial that I stay focused and disciplined in the completion of my dissertation over the next two months. Please pray for large chunks of time to get writing done.
3. Revival Services @ Center Grove Baptist Church-We will be having Dr. Paul Childers coming in beginning Sunday morning and going through Wednesday night (Sept. 14-17) Please pray for a genuine spirit and movement of revival at God's Church at Center Grove.
4. Upcoming Speaking Schedule
• Roper Baptist Church-Revival Services September 21-24. Please pray that God would use me during this series of meetings. Pastor of Roper is Rev. Howard Simpson. This is also the home church for Thomas and Rhonda Cobb and Emma. So we are looking forward to spending time with them.
• Creech Memorial Baptist Church-Revival Services October 12-15 with my dear friend Tom Ravan. Again please pray for God's power in these services.

Mercies of God Ministry

There have been several defining moments in my life. The first one I remember is when I knelt and prayed to receive Christ on June 14th, 1981 at 91 McDowell Road in Wake Forest. Thank you Lord for drawing me to yourself at such a young age. Next came a call to ministry (Though I fought it pretty hard) between my junior and senior year of high school in the summer of 1990. Later times came when God called me to my first ministry position at Covenant Baptist Church in Monroe, then on to full-time ministry at Troutman Baptist Church. I will never forget the day walking around the campus of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in the summer of 1996 and hearing God clearly call me to finish my Master of Divinity, and later for reasons I believe I'm finally understanding call me to pursue a PhD. In between those two educational calls I was blessed to become the pastor of Center Grove Baptist Church in Ahoskie, where I still serve and plan to serve for years to come. Then in 2002 the second greatest gift God has ever granted me through His unmerited favor, I met, courted and married Carol Ann Yarbrough in less than a year.

What's my point? Well, each of these moments in my life were clear, undeniable moments when I truly sensed God's leading in a new or greater direction. Often times these calls would turn my world completely on its head for a time. It has been several years since I've felt God's hand so strongly. Don't get me wrong His mercies are new every morning, but now, now His hand is heavy, and oh how I rejoice. Over the last few weeks I have felt overwhelming joy and enthusiasm, as well as the pain of conviction, confession, pruning and cleansing. I feel the need and the desire to begin expressing the vision that God is laying before me for His glory to be accomplished through His servant. It excites me, and then it humbles me, and to some degree frightens me, but I am so eager to share what I'm learning.

The establishing of Mercies of God Ministry is one aspect that God has revealed to me. What you say is Mercies of God Ministry? It is my desire and great prayer that in the establishing of Mercies of God Ministry that there may be a prayer network developed that would be a source of strength, encouragement, and accountability as I labor in various aspects of ministry as God allows.

I'll share more in the days ahead, including what I believe to be the vision for Mercies of God Ministry, but for now please pray with me that God would continue to refine, reveal, and uncover His plan and His ways. Pray for humility, obedience and a teachable spirit as I seek, pray, and listen.