Ray Pritchard’s Blog – October 2006

Questions from the Weekend

During the Q&A times at the conference, we answered common questions about prayer plus we took specific questions from the audience. Here are some of the questions with my comments in bold type:1) If God is sovereign, why pray? We pray to express our complete dependence on our Heavenly Father. We pray because God comman ...

Wrapping Up the Weekend Conference

We just finished the “Why Did This Happen to Me"? conference at Word of Life Inn in Schroon Lake, New York. It turned out to be a powerful time of sharing and encouragement. Marlene and I did our first-ever team teaching during the conference, and it seemed to be a big hit. There is something very helpful about hearing a hu ...

Jessica and Friends Community

The last three days at Lancaster Bible College have been eye-opening and deeply moving in ways we didn’t expect. For one thing, we stayed in the guest suite in the Presidential Manse where we got to know Peter and Paulette Teague. It’s always eye-opening to get up close and personal with the leader of a major Ch ...

Reformation Sunday Sermons

October 29 is Reformation Sunday, which commemorates one of the most important days in church history. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany, sparking the Protestant Reformation. Many pastors will be preaching on the great themes of the Reformation th ...

Lloyd Perry’s Benediction

We got off to a great start this morning at Lancaster Bible College. Today through Thursday I am speaking in chapel for the Lloyd Perry Preaching Series. Dr. Perry published many books about preaching, taught homiletics for years at Trinity Seminary in Deefield, IL, and was one of the most influential preaching professors o ...

Three Books In My Suitcase

This is Day 1 of our ten-day trek that takes us from MS to AL to PA to NY to IL to AL and back to MS. Right now we are staying at the guest apartment in the Presidential Manse at Lancaster Bible College. The drive from Albany to Lancaster took about six hours, a little longer than expected because we made a wrong turn and e ...

Our Final Multi-State Trip of the Year

We are back home in Tupelo after our all-too-brief visit to Gulf Shores. We’re here just long enough to unpack, wash clothes, repack, and grab a few hours of sleep before heading out on our last multi-state trip of the year. We’re leaving here at 3:15 AM to drive to Birmingham where we will catch a Southwest fli ...

High-Tech Church Fights

I ran across these two articles about local church conflicts that became so bitter that they spilled out onto the Internet:Church Fights Turn High-Tech Bellvue Conflict Bleeds Onto InternetWhat should we say about this?1) Church fights are nothing new. Go all the way back to the New Testament and you discover that Christian ...

88 Days, 20 Hours, 31 Minutes, 2 Seconds

According to Mark’s China Blog, we leave for the Holy Land tour in 88 Days, 20 Hours, 31 Minutes, 2 Seconds. We still have room on the tour for others to join us. Here are a few of the sites we will visit: Masada Caesarea Beit She’an Nazareth Bethlehem Capernaum Mount of Olives Jordan River Gethsemane The Golde ...

Changing Your Mind

Here is the newest sermon in the series The Transformed Life from Romans 12-16:Changing Your Mind

Gulf Shores

This morning I’m writing this note from beautiful Gulf Shores, Alabama. We left Tupelo yesterday about 12:30 PM with Alan, Linda Hale and Paula DeCanter, driving down Highway 43, bypassing Meridian, then cutting across a country road south of Citronelle, Alabama, catching I-65 to Mobile, then across the bay to Highway ...

One Year Later

Today is the one-year anniversary of our move from Oak Park to Tupelo. At this moment a year ago, I was sitting in the front seat of a rented truck with Craig Hammond and his son Cuyler as we tooled down I-57. Marlene and Megan drove behind us in our car. As I look back on that morning, I realize that I didn’t feel an ...

Pastors and the Struggle of Prayer

Phil Miglioratti has just posted an interview I did with him on Pastors and the Struggle of Prayer. Here is the heart of the interview:All of us as pastors struggle with prayer. And that struggle itself is not sinful. It is a reminder that we are made of flesh and that something in us will fight against prayer because praye ...

China Clippings

Anthony Bollback has posted the October issue of China Clippings. This month’s edition focuses on the spread of the gospel along the ancient Silk Road, part of the movement to take the gospel from China into the Muslim countries to the west and ultimately back to Jerusalem, where it all began 2000 years ago.

Married Couples Now a Minority

Here’s a significant statistic every church leader should know about . . . Married couples are now a minority in the U.S. For the first time ever, less than 50% of American households are made up of married couples. Here is the money quote:The numbers by no means suggest marriage is dead or necessarily that a tipping ...

Another Perspective on the Perfect Church

A friend sent this in an email and I thought it was so good that it ought to be shared with everyone. My friend hopes for . . .1) A church that prays for and supports their Pastor and Board (not because they are perfect)…but in obedience to God.2) A church where forgiveness is more important than being right.3) A ch ...

In Search of the Early Church

Over the weekend a received a question from a friend in Atlanta asking me about the role of elders in the local church. That led me to revisit a series of sermons I first preached in 1992 called In Search of the Early Church when our congregation in Oak Park was considering a new constitution that would establish a board of ...

Swimming Upstream

Here is the newest sermon in the series The Transformed Life:Swimming Upstream

My Perfect Church Is . . . A Singing Church

Consider this a follow-up to my earlier entry on My Perfect Church. After thinking about that list some more, I wanted to pare it down to a few succinct principles that could be easily memorized, I was surprised by the first thing that came to mind, and I couldn’t get it out of my mind so I left it in first place. My ...

Executed

Yesterday I asked you to pray for a brother on an Asian island who was facing eternity for his Christian beliefs. I just received word that he was executed by firing squad a few hours ago. Here is one Christian’s reaction:My brother met eternity earlier today. His thirst for righteousness was filled. He was maltreated ...

Urgent Prayer Request

12:17 PM CDT I just received the following request for prayer:Please pray for a brother on an Asian island who is facing eternity in the next few hours for his faith. For security reasons, I cannot give more details but there is no doubt that this is true. When I asked my contact how we should pray, this was the answer I wa ...

Sermons at Sierra Bible Church

I am writing this note late on Tuesday night after the final service of the Bible conference at Sierra Bible Church in Reno, Nevada. God met us in an unusual way during these days. I think it would be the unanimous sense of the congregation that this was far more than a Bible conference. It was a time in which the Lord reve ...

Is Limbo in Limbo?

According to this article, the Pope may be about to abolish the Catholic doctrine of limbo, a centuries-old teaching that answers the question, “What happens to unbaptized babies that die in their infancy?” The medieval doctrine of limbo taught that they go to limbo, a sort of halfway house between heaven and hell. Why abol ...

Monday in Reno

5:21 PM Just got back from our visit to Lake Tahoe. Hard to find the right adjectives to describe the sheer, overwhelming beauty. Awe-inspiring. Our hosts for the trip were Greg Kuehn, pastor of Sierra Bible Church, his wife Debbie, and Dave Smith, executive pastor. Dave and Greg have worked together for 17 years, and they ...

Nev-ADD-uh

This morning we started the Bible conference at Sierra Bible Church in Reno, Nevada. I was informed later (by my sweet wife) that I had mispronounced the name of the state. I called it Nev-ODD-da. It’s supposed to be pronounced Nev-ADD-uh. I guess it’s sort of like outsiders pronouncing Illinois with an “s” on t ...

Vegas, Baby!

I’m writing this note from the Las Vegas airport while we wait for a flight to take us to Reno where I will be speaking at a Bible conference at Sierra Bible Church Sunday through Tuesday. In case I somehow forget where I am, I only have to look up and see the slot machines in the gate area. I can hear the incessant ...

Mark Driscoll Explains the Mainline

Mark Driscoll explains why the mainline denominations are in such a mess. He then offers these ten steps to destroying a denomination:1) Have a low view of Scripture and, consequently, the deity of Jesus. 2) Deny that we were made male and female by God, equal but with distinct roles in the home and church. 3) Ordain libera ...

Repent!

I just posted the sermon from last week: Repent! The Forgotten Doctrine of Salvation. This particular message has drawn more comments than any sermon in the last month.

If You’re Looking For a Sign From God . . .

I saw this on the sign for the Eggville Free Will Baptist Church: “If you’re looking for a sign from God, this is it.”

Doubter Your Doubters

A friend sent an email that ended this way: “We are thinking of and praying for you. Remember – doubt your doubters.” The reference is to a sermon on dealing with doubt that includes this application: “Doubt Your Doubts, Not Your Faith.” My friend changed it (unintentionally, I think) to “Doubt your doubters.” That strikes ...

Chinese Churches Challenge the Rules

I found a good article in the Washington Post about how some churches in China are challenging the rules of the Communist government. A sidebar to the article contains a video of authorities recently demolishing an illegal house church. The article discusses the new boldness of Christians in the Wenzhou and Zhejiang provinc ...

News, Notes and Comments

1) We have just posted the first sermon in the series The Transformed Life (Romans 12-16):God’s Altar Call2) When Nick called this afternoon, we chatted about this and that. At the end of the conversation, he said, “Go Rebels! Go Huskies! Go Bears!” The Rebels are the Ole Miss Rebels who are off to a 1-4 start this se ...

Switching to the ESV

Starting this week, I am switching to the English Standard Version in my preaching ministry. I’m making the move partly out of the necessity to get a new Bible. For almost ten years, I’ve used a large-print NIV, but it is so worn and torn that it needs to be replaced. I had been thinking about making the switch ...

105 days, 3 hours, 36 minutes, 15 seconds

According to Mark’s China blog, we leave for Israel in . . .105 days, 3 hours, 36 minutes, 15 seconds. You could be with us in January when we . . .Take a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee Float in the Dead Sea Ride a cable car to the top of Masada Share communion at the Garden Tomb Sing “Were Your There?” at St. Peter ...

Seven, Seven, Seven, Yes, Yes

Several months ago a group of college students came to visit us. Around the breakfast table we started talking about spiritual warfare. That led to a long discussion about how Satan attacks us in multiple ways, that he rarely hits us head on, that he attacks from many directions at once, with the ultimate goal of discouragi ...

Podcast of Interview re: Amish Schoolhouse Shooting

Today Kevin McCullough and I had a very honest, wide-ranging discussion of the issues raised by the tragic shooting of ten students at an Amish schoolhouse yesterday. Click on this link to listen to the interview that included calls from listeners. We discussed the role of spiritual warfare, the reality of sin, why anger wi ...

Last-Second Radio Interview This Afternoon

I am going to do an interview with Kevin McCullough on WMCA at 1:20 PM CDT to discuss yesterday’s tragic shooting of the Amish schoolchildren.

New Pictures From China

Mark has posted some new pictures from China.

NewSong Fellowship Church

I am writing this note in the Atlanta airport on our way back home from NewSong Fellowship Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Most people know that Lancaster is the center of a large Amish community. However, we didn’t see a single horse and buggy. I learned that Lancaster County is home to over 600,000 people. That s ...

Barnstormers Win It All

Last night Jamie and Kris Mitchell took us to see the Lancaster Barnstormers play what turned out to the deciding game in the Atlantic League playoffs. Several years ago some farsighted businessmen banded together to bring minor league baseball to Lancaster. With help from the state and funding from private sources, they bu ...