It is hard for me to believe that we are already well into the month of May, and that the summer months will soon be upon us. Sometimes it seems like each year goes by faster than the one before. The busy pace of life only seems to continue gaining momentum, instead of ever slowing down.
 
As busy as we all are, I know it can be easy to just go through the motions of life. We move from one thing to the next as we try to juggle different schedules, and we cross items off our to-do lists only to find ourselves needing to make more lists. We must guard our minds against becoming so preoccupied with the things of this world that we sometimes unknowingly become spiritually distracted and take our eyes off Jesus Christ. Although it’s not always easy in the middle of all the hustle and bustle, I want to challenge us to let this be a year of renewed worship. Every aspect of our lives should be lived as an act of worship unto our God. 
 
We worship God in how we think by keeping our mind pure (Proverbs 4:23), and we worship God in how we speak to others by controlling our tongue (Ephesians 4:29). How we treat other people should also be an act of worship (1 Peter 4:8). Romans 12:1 instructs us to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God. Every day is an opportunity to show the world our love for God by the way we worship Him as we live for His glory.
 
Just as we can sometimes fail to worship God in how we live, we can also come up short in truly worshipping God during our times of corporate worship with our church family. Kenny Lamm, our worship and music consultant, often says that worship is not about people on stage performing and the congregation serving as spectators. Do you ever find yourself just observing rather than worshipping during a church worship service? I must admit my own guilt.
 
Worship is about responding personally to the indescribable grace of Christ, expressing to Him our gratitude, proclaiming our love and praising Him for who He is.
 
If we are deliberately engaged in genuine worship of our Lord, it matters not if the music presentations or the sermon is good, we can still sense the presence of the living God.
 
Kenny is doing a remarkable job helping churches of all sizes renew their worship. If you have not read his posted articles or attended one of his training events, I encourage you to do so. These events are designed to help your church truly focus on the purpose of worship and to help you lead people into God’s presence through corporate worship. You can visit renewingworshipnc.org to learn about all the different opportunities available to you.
 
Worship should be part of who we are as believers in Jesus Christ. May our lives reflect the goodness and glory of our Savior.
 
“O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker!” Psalm 95:6

One of the great joys I experience in serving as your executive director-treasurer is the opportunity to watch as you serve and meet needs in so many different and unique ways. I have been able to talk with you and visit in your churches and hear how God is using you to meet both physical and spiritual needs in our state and around the world.

Year after year, one of the ways North Carolina Baptists so faithfully respond to the cry for help is through the North Carolina Baptist Hospital Mother’s Day Offering. This offering helps patients at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center pay their hospital bills. The patients and families who benefit from this offering are struggling to pay their hospital bills and often have no idea how they will be able to do so.

For example, if you visit the Mother’s Day Offering website (mothersdayoffering.com) you can read the story of Logan McGirt. When Logan was diagnosed with leukemia his mom had to quit her job so she could stay home and take care of her son.

Logan’s dad also missed many days of work as he tried to help care for his son.

Rhonda, Logan’s mom, had this to say: “We are a hard-working family. But within the first two months, all the savings were gone. We were afraid of losing everything.”

But then, the McGirts received a letter in the mail that read, “Your son’s hospital bill has been paid by compassionate and mission-minded North Carolina Baptists in the name of Jesus Christ and His love.”
Your sacrificial giving to the Mother’s Day Offering helps people like the McGirts, and so many others, find relief from financial burdens.

This year’s offering theme is “God’s love at work” and the theme verses are John 5:17 and 1 John 4:11. As you help meet these financial needs, you do so in the name of Jesus Christ. You become the hands of Jesus Christ, showing people His love and helping point people to our Savior.

The Mother’s Day Offering website features more stories like Logan’s that you can share with your church as you encourage your congregation to support this offering. The website also includes free promotional resources such as bulletin inserts and a mission leader’s guide.

You can email pmmullen@wakehealth.edu or call (336) 716-3027 to request additional materials.

Paul Mullen, who is the North Carolina Baptist Hospital director of church and community relations, does a remarkable job coordinating the Mother’s Day Offering and helping share with us stories of how this offering is making a difference. I encourage you to contact Paul if you have any questions or would like more information.

Please pray about how you and your church can support this offering and help change many lives across our state.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 1 John 4:11

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As I listened to the wonderful musicians and waited for the time in the program when I would preach, I couldn’t help but marvel at this unique opportunity. This very stage where I sat, in this very building, was used during the Soviet Union days as a place where Communist principles were taught.
 
Although it is now run down, I can’t imagine what this building looked like in its prime. I imagine it sparkled and shined and looked pristine. I imagine it was a sight to behold as people poured in for rallies and special events.
 
But just a few weeks ago I watched as people packed the auditorium not to hear Communist propaganda, but to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed. For two evenings, on a Saturday and a Sunday, I had the privilege of preaching the gospel to people from villages throughout the Moldovan district of Ungheni.
 
On Saturday night the Lord impressed upon my heart to preach from John 3:16. I knew God wanted these people to know how much He loved them and how much He wanted a personal relationship with them.
 

BSC photo by Kenny Lamm Milton Hollifield, left, was part of a team of Baptist State Convention employees who recently went on a mission trip to Moldova. Team members worked with Moldovan leaders to build plans for the future of its partnership. For more stories, see pages 1 and 9. Visit flickr.com/photos/ncbaptist.

I want you to know that I approached these services with a great sense of responsibility. Perhaps more than any time in my life, I felt such a dependence upon God; a total dependence on Him for every thought and every word I shared during those messages.
 
I cannot tell you the overwhelming burden I had as I looked out into the crowd and realized that most of the faces staring back at me did not know Jesus Christ. God reminded me that He loves every single person on this earth and that He died to save people in Moldova just like He died to save me. What a joy it was to see many of them accept Christ as their Savior.
 
I was preaching in Moldova because I was on a mission trip with 10 other members of your Baptist State Convention staff. In addition to preaching during the two evangelistic services, Chuck Register and I were blessed to teach during pastors’ conferences throughout Moldova.
 
Other members of our mission team faithfully served each day in different villages in Ungheni. They helped with food distribution, children’s camps and shared the gospel with people in the villages. 
 
I want you to know how blessed I am to have been granted this opportunity from God to serve Him in Moldova. I was blessed to serve alongside our Convention staff, and I was blessed to see God work in the hearts of Moldovans.
 
Our Convention’s Office of Great Commission Partnerships is coordinating this Moldova partnership, and you can learn more by visiting ncbaptist.org/moldova.
 
Your Convention staff has a desire to see people come to faith in Jesus Christ – this is why we went to Moldova. My prayer is that North Carolina Baptist churches all across this state will join the work God is doing in Moldova.
 
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

Before I became executive director-treasurer of this Convention I served as executive leader for the mission growth evangelism group, what we refer to now as our evangelization group. Evangelism has always been a very important part of my life. I am thankful for every opportunity God gives me to share how the gospel changed my life.
 
The Bible tells us in Romans that people cannot believe in Jesus if they have not heard of Jesus. God has entrusted to us His gospel message and commands us to tell others.
 
One way your Convention staff is seeking to help churches make evangelism a priority is through the Intentionally Evangelistic Church Strategy, or IECS. This is a strategy that Don McCutcheon, our executive leader for evangelization, developed to help teach churches to be intentional in fulfilling the Great Commission.
 
In 1997, while still serving as director of evangelism strategy for the Florida Baptist Convention, Don first introduced IECS. Since then, more than 200 churches have implemented the strategy, and 40 percent of those churches doubled in baptisms in two years or less.
 
IECS is based on four principles: Every Christian is called by God to be involved in the Great Commission; evangelism begins with the local church; churches are different and must find their own way to evangelize their community; and God wants to bless Christians in reaching nonbelievers.
 
The five-part strategy includes evangelistic leadership, evangelistic prayer, assimilation, event evangelism and personal evangelism.
 
Churches are encouraged to develop an individualized process for effective evangelism that incorporates these five elements.
 
If your church has not participated in IECS, please pray about doing so. You can find more information at ncbaptist.org/iecs.
 
With Easter Sunday almost upon us, I also want to encourage you to join us in our Easter evangelism emphasis.
 
As part of this year’s Find It Here: Expanding the Kingdom missions focus, we are also inviting North Carolina Baptists to participate in an intentional Easter evangelism emphasis.

For the past two years, hundreds of churches across the state have participated and we have seen the gospel transform lives.
 
More details about this emphasis are available at 2010.finditherenc.org.
 
As we pray about being more intentionally evangelistic, what better time than during this Easter season?
 
There’s still time for you to go across the street and invite a neighbor to come to church with you on Easter. Pastors, there’s still time for you to prepare an evangelistic sermon for Easter Sunday.
 
If we are going to reach this state and this world for Jesus we must begin with prayer. In our own strength and abilities we can do nothing. Scripture commands that we go and tell, but only God can save and only God can draw people unto Himself. Please pray that Jesus Christ would open the hearts of lost people so that they will come to know Him as Savior and Lord. 
 
“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God …. Ye must be born again.” – John 3:3, 7

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In less than two months North Carolina voters will decide whether or not a definition of marriage is written into the state constitution that defines marriage as the union between one man and one woman. If you or your church would like more information about the marriage amendment you can visit blog.ncbaptist.org/clpa.
 
I do pray for this amendment to pass, but it will take more than pastors and church members saying “I support this amendment.”
 
The success or failure of this vote will be determined by the number of people who actually take the time to drive to the polls and cast their vote as a North Carolina citizen. I beg you to exercise your right and responsibility to vote.
 
However, I do not believe that passing this amendment will solve the problem of broken, hurting marriages and families. This is tremendously important, but there is more to do.
 
Many marriages and families in this country are in desperate need of healing. A recent article in The New York Times reported that more than half of births to American women under age 30 are outside the union of marriage. In 2010, a study from the Pew Research Center reported that 39 percent of Americans believed marriage is becoming obsolete.
 
As marriages are strengthened, so are families. In order for that to happen, the local church must step up and lead the way. We must teach about God’s design for marriage and family, and we must model Christ-centered marriages.
 
We must be willing to come alongside those who are struggling in their marriage and help them experience the grace and power that comes through Jesus Christ.
 
God created marriage between a man and woman. According to Ephesians 5:31-32, a Christ-centered marriage can serve as an earthly picture, or representation, of the unity and love that exists between God and His church – between those who know Him as Savior and Lord. A Christian marriage helps point us back to the love of our heavenly Father.
 
Since God created marriage we know that marriage is good and is intended for our good and His glory. Therefore we must cherish marriage and seek to honor God in our marriage.
 
Accomplishing this is not easy, as it requires commitment and intentionality. If we do not make marriage and family a priority, these relationships will fall to the wayside before we know it.
 
I want to point you to an excellent resource to help strengthen your family.
 
Eddie Thompson, our Convention staff member who serves in marriage and family ministry, leads various marriage conferences and parenting conferences.
 
During these conferences Eddie will help you understand God’s design for marriage and for the family, and how you can get back on track in these areas of your life.
 
In a few months he is also leading a pastor/spouse retreat. More information about these events is available at ncbaptist.org/family.
 
Your marriage and your family are worth your time and investment. You can leave a legacy of faithfulness and love for God that will impact generations to come.
 
It’s time to plead for the Holy Spirit to work in our marriages and it’s time to obey Him so that Christ-controlled relationships in our home bring much honor and glory to our God.
 
“…choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…..But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” – Joshua 24:15