Big Pulpit

We are leading a mission team on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We left early this morning and drove to D'Iberville. I preached at the Brodie Road Baptist Church. We partnered with Brodie Road the week following the storm. They have come a long way and are working hard to reach thier community. They are still working on thier facilities but have made great progress. The platform of the small sanctuary is covered with a blue tarp. In the center of it is the largest acrylic pulpit that I have ever seen. It was donated to their church and looked as if it may have once belonged to Benny Hinn or T.D. Jakes. I know it must have spent some time of cable television. I thought that it seemed quite large for such a little church. As I preached it occured to me that the big ole thing was a fitting picture of the influence many small churches have. Paul Powell once said that, "there are no small churches only small people." The people at Brodie Road are large people with a large task. They have a powerfully large pulpit planted in the midst of a very difficult situation. Please keep them and all Gulf Coast ministries in your prayers.

This afternoon we traveled to Ocean Springs and met with church leaders at Graceland Baptist Church. They are hosting us this week. We look forward to getting to know this community of faith better. The pastor of the church is a 67 year old man named Jim Willey. He preached a message on Noah tonight that was essentially narrative. At one point he had Noah say to God, "Well if that is really what you want me to do then let's get on with it." A little country theology never hurt anybody.