The Sweet Dropper

REMIND

Please remember to stay a few minutes after Morning Worship next Lord’s Day, July 12, as the Session has called a congregational meeting for the purpose of electing deacons from the slate of nominees approved by the Session: Kerry Hudgins, Keith Paton, Scott Pickle, and Sam Potts (Michael Holman, Culley Newman, and Bill Roos will rotate off the Diaconate. Dennis Baird has been granted a one-year leave of absence, effective June 1). Also, Eddie Thomas is returning to elder duties after a sabbatical (Greg LeVert begins a year-long sabbatical in July).

The rotation system (3 years of active service for deacons and 6 years for elders) is designed to give the men a rest from Diaconate and Session meetings and primary administrative duties related to the office. But it does not mean that a man who “rotates off” stops being a deacon or elder. Ordination to office is for life, unless a man is called by God to serve elsewhere, or disqualifies himself in some way, or is unable to perform his duties. People, projects and needs in the church do not wait or adjust annually for experienced leaders to step away and new leaders to step in. Both the newly-ordained officer and the officer returning from a year off are thrown right into the deep end of the pool. Remember to pray for our deacons and elders. Encourage and support them in any way you can. They carry out so much of the ‘ground war’ of our efforts. I thank God for each of them.

REVISIT

Church-wide Taste of Grace supper: A group of 75 or so was treated to a delicious sampling of the culinary riches of the new Taste of Grace cookbook this past Sunday evening. Taste of Grace is available for $20, and sales help fund the 2010 youth mission trip to Peru. The time of singing was excellent (the hard floors of the fellowship hall really help!). Sandra Fowler helped organize the logistics. Deborah Templeton has carried the cookbook project forward since its inception. Thanks to you both!

RELATE

Mission: Japan update: Nelson and I are leaving for Japan on Thursday, July 17! Here are some updates regarding the trip:

• Mississippi Valley Presbytery has been very generous toward us in offering to pay our in-country expenses (train passes, lodging, etc.). As for the airfare and other expenses, I am following Paul’s example of self-support in Corinth (2 Corinthians 11), so as not to be a burden on FPC funds.
• Some have asked about our plans for lodging. We will be spending a total of 3 nights in hotels. While in Nagoya we will stay in Linda Wixon’s apartment. Linda will stay with another female member of the MTW team who lives about a ten-minute walk away.
• Rev. Kaz Yaegashi underwent stomach surgery last week in Yamagata. He is recovering well. His son Morris has been sending reports. The surgeon removed 55% of Kaz’s stomach. Here is a quote from Morris’ email about a strange conference with the surgeon after the operation was completed (not for the squeamish):

The nurse finally appeared and told us to come in to a little room next to the waiting room. Dr. Onishi, the surgeon (who, by the way, is an expert in this specific type of surgery that was performed on Dad. He has done hundreds.) appeared from the OR carrying a plastic container (It actually looked like a casserole dish) with a red blob stretched out in it. It was Dad’ stomach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I nearly threw up.  Mom started crying. The nurse was looking at us all worried; then the doctor said, “problem?”
So, I said to mom “Just don’t look at it if you don’t want to,” as I turned back to the plate of stretched-out, red THING, formally known as Kaz’s stomach.
Dr. Onishi then pointed out the specific location of the cancer, and explained why the surgery took longer than scheduled.

REFORMED YOUTH MINISTRIES

On Monday 14 high school students and 2 chaperones from FPC Kosciusko will depart for the Reformed Youth Ministries (RYM) Sr. High Conference in Panama City Beach, Florida. They will join 1,250 students from around the Southeast for a week of biblical teaching in seminars, worship, preaching from Rev. Joe Novenson of Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church, and a whole lot of fun.

I will be heading down there on Sunday to do some advance preparation work for the start of the conference (I’ve served on the RYM Board since 1996). Pray for me, as I’ll be teaching a seminar on God’s grace in the life of Jacob (See how good I am at recycling?). Below is a history of RYM that Wayne Herring and I co-wrote. Much to my surprise, it appeared in the most recent issue of the Reformed Theological Seminary Leadership magazine:

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, students of Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) in Jackson, Mississippi, returning in the fall after summer internships at various churches around the South, frequently voiced to one another a complaint that became all too common: there simply was no good youth conference to which they could take their young people. Plenty of conferences were available, but the primary—if not exclusive—purpose seemed to be to provide fun. Good biblical teaching for high-school students was hard to find, and where it did exist, it was often dry and legalistic. No one, apparently, wanted to teach the basics of Reformed theology and play basketball.

Three RTS students—Wayne Herring (class of ‘71), Pete Hurst (‘72) and Wayne Rogers (‘72)—good friends who loved both theology and fun, decided to attempt do something about the situation. The need yawned large in their minds, and the burden grew in their hearts. In the autumn of 1971, a Saturday afternoon of planning, dreaming, and prayer yielded the idea of Reformed Youth Movement (so named because they were unable to think of anything cleverer). Gradually, though, “RYM” stuck.

Hurst and Rogers, graduates of King College in Bristol, Tennessee, thought the college might welcome a summer youth conference there. Once the college agreed to rent its facilities, the three men wrote letters to far and wide, made phone calls, and did all they could to get the word out. They prayed that God would send fifty young people. To their great surprise and delight, 125 came! The mornings were filled with solid teaching and the afternoons were devoted to fun. Evenings featured serious preaching with an evangelistic emphasis provided that first year by Dr. O. Palmer Robertson.

The conference grew rapidly, moved several times to different locations, and settled in at Covenant College for a run of nearly ten years. In the mid-1980s Bebo Elkin convinced the RYM Board to try Laguna Beach Christian Retreat in Panama City Beach, Florida. Before that move, the conference usually numbered around 400. After the move to Florida, attendance went up dramatically and eventually reached what it is today: 1,200–1,300 in the Senior High Florida conference alone.

Herring recalls that many pastors and church leaders were initially unsure about RYM and could not wholeheartedly support it. Gradually, he says, that changed, and today “we are very grateful for the men who came and stood with us in those early days. And we still believe that only eternity will tell what God has done through RYM. To him alone be the glory.”

As the Senior High Florida conference grew the RYM Board recognized that there were more opportunities to reach students for Christ and strengthen youth ministry in the local church than ever. The lives and culture of youth need the transforming power of the gospel of Christ.  Families and communities devastated by sin need the restoration and hope that only the gospel of Christ can bring. Thus, in the late 1990s the RYM Board decided to expand its conference base beyond a single-site summer youth conference. In the summer of 2000 a junior high RYM conference was begun at Laguna, and youth ministry training seminars were held at various sites. In 2004 and 2005 additional summer conferences were planted in Colorado and the Pacific Northwest; and in 2008 RYM is adding both a Mercy in Missions Project and a winter conference in Colorado.

RYM (recently renamed Reformed Youth Ministries) is now poised to assist churches by providing training and resources in the development and implementation of a biblical philosophy of youth ministry, a church internship program, and the promotion and publication of curriculum and other resources to help church leaders and parents point young people to Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of sinners. We thank God for the birth and growth of this ministry—and we’ve never grown tired of having fun!

Evening Worship: Grant will continue preaching from Ephesians 1 and minister at the Lord’s Table. We will sing Thy Works, Not Mine and How Sweet and Awesome Is the Place.