David Prince, Pastor of Preaching and Vision as AABC, is known for his love for baseball. In a recent article for Baptist Press, he explains how baseball provides the perfect context for fathers to teach their sons the mystery of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Pitchers and Catchers Report — Will Dads?

Snow recently covered a good portion of the country but I have not felt as warm and vibrant in some time. Pitchers and catchers reported to Major League Baseball Spring Training in mid-February and for some inexplicable reason that does something good for my soul.

Like George Will, “baseball has been the background music of my life” and I have never tired of the tune. A new season of the national pastime is full of hope and glorious possibilities for every club and its fans.

Since 1846, when Alexander Cartwright took the Knickerbockers to play the New York Nine in the first game of organized baseball on the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, N.J., the game has possessed an irresistible and rhythmic hold on our nation. Generations of Americans are linked because of what happened on that green field in New Jersey and has been happening on subsequent diamond-stamped green fields ever since. Those fields have not simply preserved an enduring form of recreation but have helped promote vital traits which are fundamental to our health as a people.

“Without fathers, there is no baseball, only football and basketball” (Diana Schaub, “America at Bat,” National Affairs).

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This Sunday evening (February 21st) marks the beginning of a New Sunday Night Sermon Series called Change: Answering the “Yeah, But How?” Questions.

Pastor Jeremy and I will both preach sermons in this practical series designed to help you get from conviction to life transformation. Over the course of 15 years of ministry I have witnessed people who seem to always be striving and never arriving spiritually. Many develop a habit of feeling bad in response to biblical truth but not doing anything about it. We are going to try to equip you to get out of this unspiritual discipline.

“Yeah, but how?” is a question I have heard countless times. The question has come from people of different ages, diverse backgrounds, and I have heard it from a plethora of accents. It seems people from every tribe, tongue and nation grapple with that question when being convinced they have cherished behaviors that need to be change.

The first sermon in this new series with a foundational message for biblical change Are You a Missing Person? A Biblical All Points Bulletin (Romans 7:24 and Selected Scriptures).

Are you completely satisfied with you right now? If not come to this important series as we get down to the nitty-gritty of how Christ-centered, biblical change happens in the life of a Christian.

- Pastor David

Each year at AABC, we have a theme that we hang as a banner over our ministry.  This year our theme is Know Nothing.  Before we attempt to know something, we want to be determined to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified. (1 Corinthians 2:2)

Jesus’ finished work on the cross is the central reality in all the universe.  Therefore, if we are going to make sense out of our lives in the world, we must make the cross central. Our prayer is that by knowing nothing, Christ will be made known in and through AABC like never before!

In this sermon Pastor David Prince unpacks our 2010 know nothing emphasis:

 

 Our New Year's Resolution: We Resolve to KNOW NOTHING in 2010 (Pastor David Prince): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (52)

This Sunday at Ashland Avenue Baptist Church we began to pray and respond to the current crisis in Haiti.  Here is some updated information concerning our immediate prayer initiatives.

Pray for Relief Efforts: Roadways and electricity must be restored throughout to help with relief efforts.  General chaos and confusion from those desperate for help has led to violence such as riots and looting.  Last week, the word was, “If you are not medical personnel and if you do not know the language, wait!”  Now relief teams from all over the U.S. are leaving and planing to travel to Haiti at this very moment.  Pray the relief will help bring order to the chaos to Haiti.  Pray also for safe passage for those bringing the relief to Haiti.

Pray for the Abandoned: There were 1.2 million orphans in Haiti prior to the earthquake. Only 200,000 lived in orphanages. Orphan care was already difficult in Haiti due to the extreme poverty.  This tragedy has not only created more orphans that need care and families but the governmental structures needed to process adoptions have been affected.  With this said, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has announced the provision of “humanitarian parole” for certain Haitian orphans.  You can read about these developments here.  At this time, adoptions that were already in process will be addressed. However, lets continue to pray that more doors will be open for both orphans and refugees from the country of Haiti.   Pray also that orphan care initiatives will increase and many more will see the need to defend the fatherless in Haiti.

Pray for the Lost: Joshua Project lists more than 4 million, ½ of the population of Haiti, as nominally Christian.  11% of the population is listed as unreached, meaning they have little or no access to the gospel. 74% of the Christian population is categorized as Roman Catholic and only 20% Protestant.  Hatians are very ’spiritual’ people and heavily syncretistic. Pray that this tragedy will be used to awaken Haiti to the gospel.  But pray also that there will be a renewed focused on the unreached in Haiti.

Giving to Haiti: If you are member of Ashland Avenue Baptist Church, you can designate your funds to AABC Ends of the Earth: Haiti Relief. This money will go to fund the relief efforts of the International Mission Board’s Haiti Response Fund.

At AABC we believe that adoption is a community project.  Our adoption ministry is not a segmented group of people who have the ‘adoption process’ in common.  All who are trusting in Christ alone have been adopted by God.  Therefore, we all have adoption in common. As a church body we must work together to rescue spiritual orphans, who have never heard and believed in Jesus, with the gospel. We must also work together to rescue the 145 million abandoned and vunerable children around the world through adoption.  This is why at AABC adoption and orphan care are both woven into our commitment to the Great Commission.

One of the ways we will be fleshing out this church centered vision for adoption in 2010 is through our ABBA Forum.   On January 15, 2010 we will have our first ABBA Forum beginning at 6:30p.m. ABBA Forum is for anyone who has questions about adoption. It is for families considering adoption but also for church members who simply want to encourage and support those families who have and will adopt.

ABBA Forum will be hosted on the 1st Friday of each month at David and Jessica Evan’s home.  The Evan’s recently brought their daughter Lilly home from China.  They cannot wait to share their story and help encourage our church family in the mission of adoption.  For more information you can call or email the church office (8594558244).

May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face to shine upon us,
that your way may be known on earth,
your saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you!
Psalm 67:1-3

This week we were able to bust through our 2009 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goal of $30,000.00. This money goes directly to IMB missionaries serving among the unreached around the world. In 2009, we not only met our Lottie Moon goal we also took in an additional $20,000.00 that goes directly toward our Ends of the Earth work. Our Ends of the Earth work includes church planting efforts among the Ayacucho Quechua in the village of Cordova, Peru. In 2010, we are praying for an increase in short-term teams and an extended presence in the village. These additional fund will help us accomplish this goal.

This Sunday we will take up a special Lottie Moon Christmas Offering in our morning worship service. This money goes directly to IMB missionaries who are serving Southern Baptists around the world by taking the gospel to those who have never heard. Everything we take in beyond our goal of $30,000.00 will go toward our church’s own Ends of the Earth work. Watch this short video reminder from Pastor David Prince and pray about what you will give this Sunday.

The banquet is ready.  A spread of fine cuisine unlike anything you could ever imagine has been carefully arranged with painstaking attention given to every minute detail.  While everything is prepared, the feast still lacks one thing…people!  The Master must have His house filled, so He commands His servants to, “go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame…go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that My house may be filled”  (Luke 14:21-23).  While we as believers anticipate with great joy and hope a future heavenly feast (Revelation 19:9), we recognize our position as servants of the Master whom He entrusts with the delightful duty of compelling people to join in the feast!  On Sunday, December 13, we will celebrate our first ever, “Compelled Christmas.”  It will be a day our church will labor as servants of the Master, not only to provide a banquet for those “poor, crippled, blind, and lame” but also to compel them toward a greater feast to come, enjoyed only by those who trust in Christ for salvation.  To sign up or for more information on ways you can help serve this banquet, go to the Compelled Christmas table in Crossroads today.

The banquet for the needy will be only the beginning of a wonderful evening of music celebrating the birth of God’s invitation to the feast, Jesus Christ.  While our church is specifically serving the needy in our community during the banquet at 5:00, our outstanding choir, quartet and orchestra will present a free concert for the entire community at 7:00.  Please begin compelling as many people as you can to join us for the concert.  I pray your loving service throughout the banquet and your multiple invitations to attend will ultimately compel many to one day fill the Master’s house for the true feast, the marriage supper of the Lamb!