Blog

Boothe, Charles Octavius. Plain Theology for Plain People. Lexham Press, Bellingham, Charles Octavius Boothe (1845-1924) was the founding pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama (later renamed King Memorial Baptist after Martin Luther King, Jr.). He created this theological primer to meet the needs of the people sitting in his pews, from the busines...

I cannot thank you enough for allowing me to take a sabbatical from my pastoral duties starting September 13. I have been in contact with three fellow area pastors and each of them had taken recent sabbaticals as well. They encouraged me greatly about how re-energized they are to serve their congregations once again. I have had people ask me, why am I taking a sabbatical,...

Our Theology Conference this year will be held on Friday night, October 28th and Saturday morning, October 29th. Our speaker, Dr. J. D. Payne, will be speaking to us about reaching unreached people groups within the United States. He writes in his book Strangers Next Door: Immigration, Migration and Mission, "While we rightly call out, equip, and send brothers and sisters ...

Barcellos, Richard. Better Than the Beginning: Creation in Biblical Perspective. Reformed Baptist Academic Press; Palmdale, CA, 2013. I have completed my initial overviews of Genesis (my next sermon series). Now I am getting down into the 'weeds' so to speak by studying issues related to the book. I am glad I picked up this volume because Barcellos places Genesis within ...

Elder Response to the Report on Sexual Abuse in the SBC If you are not aware, a report regarding the handling of the victims of sexual abuse within the Southern Baptist Convention was released on Sunday (it can be found here https://www.sataskforce.net/updates/guidepost-solutions-report-of-the-independent-investigation). It was done by an independent task force and is...

Suffering, Loss, and God's Grace Death is not a subject people want to talk about. It is an uncomfortable topic, but it is certain. Hebrews 9:27 says "it is appointed once for man to die..." My intent today is to offer the church encouragement. We know that death is certain, but do we live like it? Is your Hope in heaven or the here and now? Matt Chandler recently said i...

Benton, John. Straightening Out the Self-Centred Church: The Message of Titus. Evangelical Press: Durham, 1997. As you can tell by the spelling this is a British publication. It is an expository commentary on Paul's letter to Titus in the Welwyn series. This was also a $5.00 bookstore find and worth every penny. Benton does a remarkable job of portraying the first centur...

Getting the Most Out of Our Annual Psalm Our Psalm of the year is Psalm 5. I encourage you to listen to last week's sermon to familiarize yourself with the meaning of the text. But I have been asked before, 'How can I make better use of the Psalms for the entire year?' Here are eight ideas: Meditate upon the Psalm. This is what I do every Sunday morning as part of my...

What Pastor Blair Has Been Reading (from October 2021 through December 2021) Alcorn, Randy. The Treasure Principle: Bible Study. Multnomah: New York, 2018. This is a Bible study based upon the book with the same name title. Lisa and I did this study together using the DVD. I would say the videos are dated and definitely need to be redone. But we were both challenged ...

We are in the midst of some amazing events here at Providence. This past Sunday, we just got finished celebrating our sixth annual chili supper at the Kelly's farm. (Congratulations to Susan Herder on winning our competition!). It was a pleasant evening with a delightful fellowship. Thank you to Amelia Kelly and all the members that organized the gathering. But there are w...