Today is the first day on the job for our newly elected General Superintendent, Bro. George O. Wood.  This morning he sent out an email to every AG pastor in America signalling the 5 core values he feels the Lord has placed on his heart for the years ahead. They are:

1. Passionately proclaim, at home and abroad, by word and deed Jesus as Savior, Baptizer in the Holy Spirit, Healer , and Soon Coming King.

2. Strategically invest in the next generation.

3. Vigorously plant new churches.

4. Skillfully resources our fellowship.

5. Fervently pray for God’s favor and help as we serve Him with pure hearts and noble purpose.

These are wonderful emphases that strike a chord in my own heart, and I’m sure with AG leaders all across the nation.  Let’s pray for Bro. Wood as he leads the fellowship forward in the days ahead, and for the rest of the National Leadership Team that work alongside him.

Pastor Phil.

Miss getting all those points written down this morning?  Here’s the outline …

“Philip the Evangelist: A Study in Usefulness”

READ: Acts chapter 8

Principles:

1. Faithfulness in the Lord’s work leads to greater opportunities. (Acts 6, 7, 8.)

2. Doors to new service can open in the most unexpected ways. (Acts 8:4)

3. No ONE person has all the gifts / grace / ministries. (Acts 8:14-23)

4. Sensitivity to the Holy Spirit’s leading will find us constantly “in the right place at the right time”. (Acts 8 – Samaria … Ethiopian … Azotus to Caesaria)

5. Divine appointments come in many shapes and sizes – don’t judge their importance by their prominence. (Acts 8:26-38)

Pastor Phil

Judy Figueroa, who works in our office, has been working on a complete makeover of our web site – at the same time moving it from our present host to a new server. It’s been a lot of work … thanks Judy!

You should see the new site replace the old in the next few days, and we’ll look forward to getting your feedback. We want the site to be as helpful as possible, and up-to-date with all the latest happenings at First Assembly. We also want you to be able to quickly download great resources, so more and more things will be added over time.

Pastor Phil

One of the great blessings of technology for Christian workers is the ability we have today to travel with a whole library of resources literally in a briefcase. If you’ve stopped by my office you’ll know that I have hundreds of books, as many pastors do, but a lot of the time now I do most of my preparation using the resources I always have at hand on my laptop. This means I can pick up where I left off studying wherever I am – at the office, at home, away at another church, at a conference in another state, in a hotel room … wherever!

People sometimes want to know what software I personally choose for all this.

Well, over recent years I’ve invested in a few different packages, but to be honest I rarely ever use them (with the exception of a few CD’s I carry with specific works on them … eg. all of C.H.Spurgeon’s sermons on 1 CD.)  What I use more than anything is a wonderful software package that I downloaded for FREE from the internet (and that is still the best price of all, right?!)

It’s called e-Sword, and you can download it with literally scores of commentaries and helps, language studies and maps; some of the finest works ever produced … and it’s all absolutely free!

Sometimes free software is what you “make do with” until you can afford the real deal, right? NOT SO with e-Sword. I have found it to be simply the best, most user-friendly interface available.  I love it! I use it in preference over packages I’ve paid for.

I recommend you take a look at it … CLICK HERE.

If you do like it, just consider making a donation for it.  If you can send the author of e-Sword a few bucks, he will actually mail you a CD containing the whole program as a fast backup (even though everything is downloadable immediately straight off the internet).  He has provided these resources at no cost to missionaries all over the world, and a donation helps him to keep doing that.

Just wanted to share it with you!  Let me know if you try it and like it.

Pastor Phil

This past Sunday morning we had over 200 people turn out for the first week of the Fall season Growth Groups. That’s a great start!

If you haven’t signed up for a group yet, it’s not too late. We have a group that you’ll love. Choose from:

• Kids 
• Youth
• Young Mens 
• Womens
• Primetimers (over 50)
• Berean School of the Bible (Current subject – “Prayer & Worship”)
• Practical Living (Current topic – “Good $ense: Financial Management”)
• Hispanic
• Portuguese

The groups meet at 9.30am Sunday mornings on the church campus.

This is a vital part of both our mission – Connecting people with God’s plan for life!  AND our vision for Prayer, Missions & Discipleship - “Praying through … Reaching out … Growing up!”

Get connected in a Growth Group this week! 

Pastor Phil

Hi, and welcome to the all-new Pastors Blog.

Previously my personal blog was called “Crumbs From the Master’s Table”, and lots of you checked in to read. The problem was that sometimes I would just get very busy, and couldn’t post anything for a few days, so the blog would get “stale” (OK, sometimes it was longer than just a few days!)  This a problem that a lot of blogs suffer from.

Well, here’s the solution. We’re launching this all new blog which we hope will be updated regularly by all the pastors at First Assembly. You’ll probably even have multiple new posts on some days. But then whenever one of us gets snowed under with appointments (or goes on vacation, or is out of town for some other reason) the blog should continue happily along with other writers.

SO, we hope you’ll check back in regularly. You’ll be able to catch up on the latest events at our church, what the pastors are reading, things happening in our families … just about anything and everything really. Please take a minute to leave a reply from time to time. Let’s make this a really active spot to stay connected.

Every blessing,

Pastor Phil.