This past Sunday, I was invited by the Berea Advent Christian Church in Collettsville, N.C., to participate in a special service honoring their pastor, Rev. Floyd Boston. While he has been their pastor for 12 years, the recognition was focused on the fact that he has completed 50 years as an ordained Advent Christian minister (pictured above, left: Floyd and Peggy Boston). The event came as a complete surprise to Floyd. Following some congregational singing and special music from the choir, a brief history of his life and ministries served as the starting point of the service. Letters of appreciation from some of the churches he had previously served were read. Peggy Boston shared poems and prayers their children had written and also expressed her own thoughts and appreciation for her husband.

14th ANNUAL GOLF CLASSIC (Rain Date)
On Friday, June 26, 2009, the First Advent Christian Church of Concord, N.C., has rescheduled its 14th Annual AC golf tournament to raise money for their mission program. All proceeds go to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world. The tournament will take place at the Corbin Hills golf course in Salisbury, N.C; lunch and refreshments will be served at noon; the shotgun start at 1:30 p.m. Individual entry fee is $50, and team entry fee is $200. Entry forms must be in by Monday, June 1. For entry forms and more information, please contact Steve Thigpen at 704-938-6850 or David Taylor at 704-721-0257. Click Here to download entry form.

REPAIRS AND SPIRITUAL RENEWAL
The Maine State Conference is planning a local short-term mission trip to Auburn, Maine, to help with the repairs and bring some spiritual renewal to the Advent Christian Church. This historic church, located in a key city, has fallen into disrepair due to an aging congregation. The Maine State Conference decided to plan a week, June 13 - 20, for people from all of our Maine AC churches to come together to participate in work projects, which will include: re-shingling the roof, putting vinyl siding on the front and back, tearing up the carpet in the sanctuary and re-finishing the floor, painting the sanctuary and replacing some doors and windows. Besides the work, we are planning to do some prayer walks and outreach in the neighborhood. The goal is to raise $6,300 for materials and put together a crew to get the work done. If you’d like more details please contact Rev. Greg Twitchell at 207-372-8460 or email him at gmtwitch@roadrunner.com.

Things have really changed over the past 20 years, and this shouldn’t bother us. The proper response is for the church to “act,” not “react,” to these changes in a way that communicates our willingness to “go” into the entire world.

After sitting there for an hour or so, it became so evident to us that Panera Bread was a "happening place" for many things, which included business ventures like Mary Kay and Bible study groups centering on golf, as well as other group meetings focused on this product and that product. It was, without a doubt, a hub of activity centered on those things that are important to people. As we observed what was going on around us, we considered a very important question,