Mercies of God Ministry

Happy New Year: The Word for 2010!!

2010-01-01T20:34:00.000-05:00

Wow, it is a new year, it seems 2009 flied by. What are you grateful for that occurred during the past year. Two things that come to mind for me are the completion of my PhD and graduation in May and the growth of Center Grove Baptist Church and its facilities. We saw many new people and families join us in 2009 and of course we moved into our new educational wing.

Well, what are your goals for 2010? Notice I didn't say resolutions. It is important to plan, set goals, and then put into action steps to achieve those goals. As I've been praying about what God would do in and through my life this new year, one word keeps coming to mind, DISCIPLINE. Discipline is sometimes viewed as a negative thing, but it is important that believers have discipline and practice godly disciplines. For example, we should have a discipline of reading the word of God, of worshiping corporately with fellow believers, and sharing the gospel.

My main goals in regard to discipline in 2010 are to be more disciplined spiritually, physically, and financially. I plan to reflect my efforts in these areas through my blogging. Pray that God would grant me great fervor and passion to live a more disciplined and fruitful life.

Have a great and DISCIPLINED 2010!!

Need Your Prayers!

2009-10-13T13:48:00.002-04:00

I know, I know I have failed to faithfully maintain my blog. I can tell you that since my last blog entry (which was on foundations, because we had just poured the foundation of our new church building) I have finally completed my PhD and the we have gone from pouring the foundation on our new educational wing, to having completed the project. It has been an exciting few months to say the least.

I'm motivated to blog today to seek your thoughts and prayers over the next month or so. God has granted me several opportunities to serve Him over the next month and my greatest desire is that He would move in great and mighty ways. Please remember the following during your prayer time:

October 15th, 2009, Revival in Lasker-I will be preaching one night for Scott White and the church plant he is serving in Lasker, NC. The service will be held at the Community Building there in Lasker at 7pm. I look forward to spending time with Scott and Tisha and I am so proud of what God is doing in and through their lives. Pray for a great service Thursday night.

October 18th, 2009-New Building Dedication-Come join us for our normal services on Sunday morning and stay for a covered-dish luncheon. Then at 1:30 pm we will have a dedication/ribbon cutting ceremony. This is a special day in the life of Center Grove and a great testimony to God's provision and blessing upon His church. We will have a good number of guests Sunday, so pray God would touch lives, and save souls during the service.

October 18th-21st Revival at Open Arms in Ahoskie-Sunday through Wednesday night I will be in revival services with Open Arms Church and their pastor Joe Lassiter. Pray that God would speak to the hearts of the members of this church, and draw others to the services as well. Also be in prayer that it would be a time of encouragement for Joe and his family.

October 25th-28th Revival at Temple Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC-This will probably be one of the busiest weeks our family has ever had, but I'm really looking forward to it. Sunday through Wednesday night my family and I will spend the week together there in Raleigh. I hope to get over to Southeastern for chapel one day and just enjoy some quality time with my family and then the great honor of preaching the word of God each evening. The theme of the week is "Rise Up O Church of God". I know 2 of the messages I plan to preach already, but pray God would confirm in my heart the messages for the rest of the week. Brian Jennings is the Associate Pastor of Temple, who currently do not have a pastor. Pray for Brian and his family as they labor for Christ and this sister church.

October 29th-November 3rd Mission Trip to Arizona-We get back from Raleigh late Wednesday night, and then leave for the airport Thursday, around 9am. We are going to spend 5 days in Buckeye, Arizona serving with our church planter friends Dennis and Cindy Conner, and Mike and Michelle Bailey. We have 20 people going from Center Grove to do whatever we can to help with the events of the weekend. Crosspointe Church is hosting a bike ride and a family fun night/fall festival and are expecting hundreds of folks to come and we are going to assist them.

I am really looking forward to continued time with Carol Ann, Karis and Caleb (It is Karis and Caleb's first time flying so pray for traveling grace) and also quality time with the crew from Center Grove, and with the folks at Crosspointe. Pray that God would work wonders in our hearts as we serve Him in Arizona. Yes, we are going to see the "big ditch".

November 8th-11th, North Carolina Baptist State Convention-We all need to pray for the leaders of our convention and decisions that will be made at this meeting. May God have His will and may we truly see great things for His glory in our state!

November 14th, Pregnancy Care Center of Ahoskie-I will be speaking at their annual fund-raising banquet, pray that God would use me to both inspire support for this ministry, but even more importantly to speak the truth and life-saving message of His gospel.

November 16th-17th, Revival at St. Johns Baptist Church in Ahoskie-One of our sister churches in the West Chowan Baptist Association. I know many fine people who attend this church and pray our two nights together would be an encouragement to them and that God would be greatly exalted. Pray for the pastor Brian Hall and his family as they strive to lead God's people at St. Johns in obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, as you can see it is a busy season, but I am so excited to embark on it. My greatest prayer is that come the end of November I will able to look back and see how God was glorified and lives where changed in so many ways. I'll do my best to keep you updated here on the blog over the next few weeks. Please help me cover all of these opportunities in prayer and join me in asking God for His presence and power in the weeks and months ahead. Thank you!

Sincerely His,

Tommy Kiker

Solid Foundation

2009-03-10T13:04:00.001-04:00

We are in the process of building a new educational wing here at Center Grove. The men are out laying the block and brick for the foundation. We all know that if the foundation is not right, you are going to have all kinds of problems with the rest of the building.

It is true with the foundation of our lives as well. We must build our life on the rock of the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew 7:24-29 describes the importance of building our life on Christ:

²⁴ “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: ²⁵ and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
²⁶ “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: ²⁷ and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
²⁸ And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, ²⁹ for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Notice the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on both houses. Becoming a genuine Christ-follower does not negate life from happening. It does, however, seal your security in Christ and the ability to rejoice in the storms.

Does your life have a firm foundation? Is it founded on the rock?

I'm going go work on the church building's foundation a little bit (shoveling some dirt), but I pray your spiritual foundation is Christ!

Carpet Stains

2009-03-05T22:52:00.002-05:00

I noticed something when I was leaving the church fellowship hall Tuesday night after another great deacon's meeting. We really do have a great group of deacons that serve Jesus and Center Grove, but I noticed that a long time ago. What I noticed on the way out of the fellowship hall is all the stains on the carpet.

I was walking beside one of the great leaders of our church, who also cleans those carpets, and we noticed the stains had come back out. See, when he cleans the carpets they look great for a few weeks, but the carpet has gotten older and is so worn that the stains quickly come back. There really is nothing you can do to keep them clean for very long. He said he could clean them again, and I told him to wait until right before the next special occasion.

Why am I bringing this up? Well you know there are a few ways you can take how these stains look. You could respond and say wow, look at those stains they look bad, but you know you can strategically place tables and chairs and you hardly notice them. Some might say, all these children running around here are making a mess of the carpet, and there have been a lot more spills than they used to be. However I must admit a couple of the spills in the last eight years have been made by me or our children. OOPS! Or you could look at it from a different perspective . . .

I realized Wednesday night with nearly 100 people in the fellowship hall eating supper, talking, and enjoying each other's company I did not think about those stains the first time. I just had a wonderful time being with my family, God's family, at HIS church. It was just a wonderful night with people I love being around. You know what? There were children all over the place and it was loud and it was crowded, and I LOVED IT. I really think everybody else did too.

So you know what I will think about the next time I see the stains on the carpet in the fellowship hall? First, I'll be grateful for one who diligently cleans them before major events, but I'll also be grateful for the fact that the stains are there. That the fellowship hall is being used every Sunday to teach adults the word of God in Sunday School (because we need the space), that it is being used every Sunday during worship to teach children about Jesus in a way they understand so their parents can be more attentive (hopefully) in the worship service. That it is used every Monday night so a group of women can study the word of God (book of James right now). It is used every Wednesday for crafts, games, snacks and bible study for youth and children learning about Jesus. I will rejoice that the carpet is getting so much use, wear and tear and accidental spills. Why rejoice? Because God is doing something at His church!

Praise the Lord for the stains on the carpet!

By the way we do plan on changing the flooring in the fellowship hall to something easier to keep clean. Something that can easily be mopped up when something is spilled. Then we will praise the Lord for all that He is doing and for worn out mops!

It's About Time

2009-02-24T18:55:00.001-05:00

Well, I promised that I would not blog again until my dissertation was complete. It is turned in and my defense is scheduled for March 19th. For those of you not familiar with the PhD process, basically what has happened is I have written about a 220 page paper on Samuel J. Mills and the Influence of the Second Great Awakening on Missions and Evangelism. It has gone through revisions with my major professor, and corrections from my incredible wife proofing it. Now what will happen is Dr. Reid, Dr. James, and an outside reader (someone from another university) will read it and tell me all the weaknesses and whether or not I pass or fail. It has been about 8 months of great focus on this project and it is such a relief to be nearing the end.

Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement through this whole process. If you hear somebody shouting on March 19th you will know they passed my dissertation! Thanks again.

Finishing Strong

2008-12-28T19:25:00.002-05:00

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

2008-12-25T09:57:00.003-05:00

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

2008-12-18T06:18:00.003-05:00

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

2008-12-04T17:06:00.002-05:00

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

2008-10-10T20:24:00.005-04:00

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

2008-10-02T19:29:00.003-04:00

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

2008-09-26T10:57:00.003-04:00

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

2008-09-15T23:35:00.002-04:00

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)

2008-09-10T21:42:00.003-04:00

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:

Personal Intimacy with Christ/Family Intimacy with Christ
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.
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.
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

2008-09-10T01:27:00.006-04:00

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.