Reverend Willy

It's official...I'm now the Reverend William G. Blackrick! O.k. now that the excitement is over, you can just call me Bill.

I'm Up Before the Firing Squad Today!

Tomorrow Evening at 6:00 p.m. I will be taking the next step in my ministry and becoming ordained. Many have chosen to be ordained before entering college and their first "jobs" at a church but I chose to wait. I had never been approached with being ordained by any of the churches I had been a part of and I feel it is the duty of the church to recognize, nominate and ordain someone. I've always felt that if I was the one to bring it up or ask to be ordained it would be selfish.
Today is my ordination counsel here at church. I'll be sharing with other pastors, deacons of the church, and others about my testimony, call to ministry, education goals, theological beliefs (which is the part I'm worried about answering...I know what I believe, but some of my views aren't the traditional Southern Baptist's), and whatever else they decide to hurl my way.
When someone gets ordained there is a orientation of praise, recognition of achievement, etc. and I don't want that. Yes I will have the "REV." before my name from now on, but it's a prefix I don't want to flaunt around like some in the media light do. Anyways...I hope I come out alive!

I Just Didn't Feel It

Yesterday (Sunday) was very odd for me in church. I just didn't feel anything! As a worship leader I should be the first person to be in the spirit of worship but I just wasn't. Why? I have no idea and believe me, the possible reasons kept running through my mind all through the singing, prayers, and sermon. I addressed this with Jessica on the way home from church and she thought the service was great! Was the problem with me? Was the problem with the congregation? I decided to post this personal problem because others I know have done this before. Who cares if I felt something! Worship isn't about what I feel (at least true worship) Any comments?

God and Politics

Now that I am back from Orlando I have much to share with you readers in the next few days about The Florida Renewal Project Conference I attended. Let me start off by saying that this was an eye-opening, jaw-dropping experience for me as the Christian morality of this country in the realms of politics has been steeply decreasing. It seems that most Christians feel that they should leave politics out of the church and their lives. Wrong! It is our God-given duty to elect the right leaders for our government. To not care (not vote) in my opinion is an absolute sin in God's eyes! We must vote based on our Christian values, not on a party preference or getting one candidate in over another one.

Also, the Florida Marriage Amendment is falling short of petitions due to and audit (I feel it was corrupted by the ACLU) and If you have not signed it, are registered to vote in Florida, and feel that marriage is between one man and one woman, then click here...sign the form and mail it now. It must be in by Tuesday the 29th in Orlando. Get as many as you can and sign it now!

Looking forward to sharing with you some thoughts from the speakers like David Barton, Newt Gingrich, Tim Lahaye, John Hagee, Bob Mcewen, Mike Huckabee, and others. Do not forget to vote on Tuesday!

God Says..."Clean My House!"

O.k. so He (God) may not have actually spoken those words to anyone directly but He has given me that burden to tidy up His house (the church building) and make it more practical for ministry.
The three biggest projects I have started in the past six months to do that are coming close to being done. Our Youth Room is now only needing new carpet and it will be done. I reclaimed a storage room and moved the contents to another part of the building where it was better suited, organized the room into a youth and music ministry storage closet. Everything prior to my coming was left out in the youth room and offices. I hate it when things aren't organized and get in my way. The next big project was completed last Wednesday which was reorganizing the choir room and redo the music library number system. I added room for about 6-8 new chairs in the choir room as we are growing towards an attendance of 30 in choir! As I am writing this, I just completed cleaning out the choir music library of all its antiquated files, music, equipment, etc. that hasn't been used in 30-40 years! (no joke...some of the stuff was dated in the 60's and 70's)

Why should a church be cleaned out? Because if a church is filthy, it shows how well the spiritual life of the church body might be. Is someone going to feel that church is important if they see so much junk lying around the facility? No! For those of you Bayshore readers...join me and the others who have helped in making the church more practical for ministry!

"I Don't Mean to be Racist, But..."

I get an occasional glance on my blog from my own church members and I appreciate you out their. Over my short term in ministry, every church I have been in has either directly or indirectly had problems with racism. To set the record straight...I am not racist, prejudice, or think I am better than any other ethnicity in the world. After all, Jesus was not a "white male" either. Growing up in a growing city in south Florida, I have been accustom to all kinds of races at school, work, and church. When I moved into the "Bible Belt" this all changed.

While serving in one particular church, my wife and I were victims of a road rage and shooting...no bullets hit us...Of course the gossips started flying through church and almost everyone who came up to me and asked me questions about it first started off by asking..."Were they black people?" "Nope! They were as white as you and me" I responded watching the shock on their faces that a crime was committed by one of their own kind and not a black person.

I have also heard horror stories of churches in the Bible Belt telling a black person to go worship down at the "Black Church" That enrages me to no end. How can "Christians" do this?

The Church I serve in now is different, there are many different races and ethnic backgrounds represented in Worship. We have Haitians, Greeks, English, Canadian, Chinese, African American, Romanian, Hungarian, German, as well as Anglo-American. It's awesome to see so many types of people joining together as one. I want to list some of my "pet peeves" of how Christians show direct or indirect racism:

1. Don't Call it "The Black Church" - They are a church...I'm sure white people are welcome
2. Don't say "I don't mean to be racist, but..." - If there is something that might sound racist or
stereotypical, than it doesn't need to be said.
3. "Them Mexicans" - not all Spanish speaking people are Mexican. If you are white and speak
english does that make you British?
4."Don't Judge Interracial Marriage" - I believe we humans are all one race bonded together by
one faith in one God. How could skin color break that apart? We have a couple of bi-racial
marriages in our church and they are the sweetest people.
5. (this one's left blank for your examples...let's stop this nonsense of racism)

An Atheist's View on Mormonism

A.C. from Alexander The Atheist blog has an interesting post about how he compares Mormonism and Christianity. It would be worth your time to check it out. Why give an Atheist any shout-outs from a Christian blog? Well, I might be doing more of it in the future because it only strengthens my desire to learn about my faith and apologetics. I have now also added a new Non-Christian link list I will update in the future. I respect A.C. very much, please do not go to his site (or any others) and bash what they believe in because that is not what we should be about and it only gives them more fuel to the fire. View the site by clicking here.

Idol Worship and Idle Worship

IDOL -vs- IDLE I raise this issue up because they are probably the two biggest problems in church today.

IDOL WORSHIP - was warned against in passages like Exodus 20 (10 Commandments), all throughout 1-2 Kings and so forth. God specifically said "you shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water. You shall not worship them or serve them, for I the Lord your God, am a jealous God..." (Ex. 20:4-5) With this in mind, what kind of idols are there in church? I can think of many "idols" that get more attention (which is worship in my opinion) than God does. Money, Power, Pews, Worship Styles, Technology, Food, Social Interaction, etc. are some idols we have made and placed in the church. Of course some things are not material but they are an idol nonetheless. I was walking with my lovely wife the other day and passed by a catholic church. we decided to walk around the church and see what it looked like. Beautiful! Catholic churches are some of the most elegant of all worship buildings. The problem is that it (the building and its contents) are being worshipped. in the parking lots were statues of different saints and people have placed wreaths and flowers by their feet as if something spiritual happens because of it. Idol Worship! Why place a flower at the feet of a handmade statue when you can place all your sins, worries, and cares down at the Jesus' feet?

IDLE WORSHIP - "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot, I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot I will spit you out of my mouth..." (Rev. 3:15-16) This was written to the church in Laodicia in Revelation. It gives the illustration of the water supplies in Laodicia which came from other cities via channels. By the time the cold water reached the town it was lukewarm and disgusting, as was the hot water. God want our best, not our lukewarmness. Our corporate worship has become lukewarm in my opinion. We come to church, sing some songs (and only worship if the music plays with our emotions the right way) give some money if any at all, listen to a speech, and go home. Did that sequence of events describe your church? I hope not! So what's worse...Idol or Idle worship?

Slam It In Gear...Pedal To The Metal !

These past few days at church have been spent getting things going and finishing projects started in the past. The FUSION LAB remodeling took a back seat on my priority list and needed to get done and get done right! John from my church has worked with me all day these past few days in getting things done!
Things in our church property is getting organized, rooms cleaned out and functional for ministry, and new strategies are being planned for the betterment of how Bayshore Baptist operates.

On top of all this...The Adult Choir Christmas Cantata is this Sunday morning,the youth are having their Christmas party Saturday night, Christmas Candlelight Service is next Sunday, Christmas in Miami, New Year's Eve Lock-In with the youth at church, and Winter-Jam in January!!!

I feel God rewarded the efforts in working in the youth room because we had a record attendance of 7 youth @ FUSION (yes I celebrate those awesome numbers) I had two girls that couldn't normally come due to dance attend tonight and they said that the times are changing for Wednesdays!!! Hopefully they can come from now on! Thanks God!!!

I feel it's time for Bayshore to "SLAM IT IN GEAR AND GO PEDAL TO THE MEDAL!!!"

Joel Osteen

Hey readers...I recently have been preparing to study about this whole Joel Osteen controversy thing going on in the Christian circles. First and formost...I don't preach "Prosperity Gospel" but have been faced in my church, friends, and other bloggers about whether Joel is a pastor or not. There is an excellent article on Colossians3:16 blog about this so I figured it appropriate to link it here. It definitely is worth your time as you know I don't link posts that often on this blog. To read it...Click Here

Excuses! Excuses!

As I'm writing this I am recooping from a energy-draining night at church...a good kind of energy drain though! I was asked to fill in for the pastor tonight which means leading the singing and then going right into a sermon. (all this after an hour-long budget discussion meeting) The subject of my sermon was "Stop making excuses to God"

We have all made excuses for not doing something God told us to do. We give excuses like:

1. Too Tired

2. Too Busy

3. Not enough money

4. No time

5. Someone else will do it!

That last excuse is what I focused on tonight as I illustrated the point with the account of Moses and the burning bush in Exodus 3-4. Moses was told by God to go to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites free from slavery! To make a long story short...Moses told God to send somebody else because he didn't feel adequate enough to do it. Quit making excuses to God, get of your butt, and do what God wants you to do!!!

I had each person tonight write down an excuse that they have personally gave God before. I then had them come forward and rip it up and throw it in a trash can I had placed on the altar! The response was amazing! who would have thought that throwing away garbage was an act of worship but it was! Our excuses belong in the trash! God is bigger than any excuse we come up with so start believing it people!!!