New Picture of the Two Married Love-Birds

Mrs. Henricks took this picture of Grace and I when we went back to Pennsylvania for one of the weddings recently. We had been traveling all day, so the picture could have been alot better looking. However, it turned out pretty neat with all the effects that my mother-in-law added.

Evangelist Phil Kidd Meeting

Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville, NC pastored by Bobby Thomas hosted a week long revival this past week with Evangelist Phil Kidd. Bro. Kidd was instrumental in my life as a young teenage boy while attending my grandparents church in Monroe, NC during vacation times. He has traveled for many years across the country trying to preach so that sinners can be saved and so that the saints can be stirred. He mounts the pulpit with enthusiasm, excitement, and authority. He is also a Tabernacle Baptist College graduate as am I. As long as I have known him, overall he has walked a consistent Christian life. He works hard, studies, and prays. The Bible says that the fear of man bringeth a snare and so I praise the Lord for a man willing to not be tied to fearing man: lost or saved. It was so good to see him again personally. I had not listened to him preach live in about 4 years. The last time I did so was in the Philippines while working with Dr. Wendell Runion and IBOM.

Grace had never heard Bro. Kidd in person before, so it was new for her. We attended Monday, Tuesday, and Friday night of revival. On Monday, Bro. Kidd preached on "How to Have Favor With God". On Tuesday, the title of the message was "The Shepherd's Call". Friday evening's sermon was on "From Sinful to Satanic." Each message was different but good and I rejoice in the fact that there was one soul saved the final night we attended. Many Christians were at the altar praying for various things throughout the week also.

Bro. Kidd was very gracious to Grace and me. He took time to talk and counsel with us about the recent church problems we were having. He also gave us 5 of his latest sermon cd's: Can Your Home Take A Beating, How to Build a Great Church, Getting Started on the Right Track, Plowing Through the Cold, and The Danger of Becoming Numb to the Things of God. In addition, he gave us a signed copy of his new book that is to be first in a series on the home he is writing. It is entitled, "Fairground Relationships." Another thing he gave to me personally was 2 tie stays to help keep your tie straight no matter the situation. I have had the cloth ones in the past, but never the plastic ones like these. They work so well to help you look more professional when it comes to wearing a tie.

I learned in the meeting that Bro Kidd has in the last little while taken over a church in his home state of Mississippi. He agreed to step in and help a struggling work running 4 people and now they are running about 200 or so. The Lord has put his hand on his man and it seems that whatever direction the Lord takes Bro Kidd, be it pastoring, tent meetings, or church preaching it all seems to be blessed. I know that Bro. Kidd is simply a man and a servant of God and as such, has and will make many mistakes which he will admit too. However, the thing I guess I appreciate most about him is his walk with the Lord. You can tell he honestly seeks the touch of God upon his soul, his ministry, and his preaching. If you would like further information or would like to order any of his preaching cd's or new book you can visit his website at http://www.drphilkidd.com/

Soul-winning Still Works!

I just finished preaching/ teaching a 9 week soul-winning series on Sunday evenings at our church here in Farmville. It is amazing how few people really know how to personally lead someone to Jesus Christ. It is further amazing how many people that do know how to lead someone to Christ actually put their knowledge to practice consistently. Being from NC originally, I have a little insight to fundamentalism in this area and in the South East in general. My experience is that so many people in these areas think that all a soul-winner does is invite folks to church to get under preaching and hereby hopefully conviction. I take exception to this.

Despite my exception, I do believe in inviting people to church. I think that it is obviously a good way to be involved in the overall outreach of the local church you are apart of. But I see a difference between the overall outreach of a church and the actual soul-winning ministry of the church. To further explain the difference let me elaborate. The outreach of a church is any thing in relation to outreach (which should be about everything): Tract distribution, Brochure handouts, Flyers on doors, the Bus ministry, Missions, SS Classes, Jail ministry, Hospital Calls, Prayer Meetings, Altar workers, Letter writing ministry, Nursing Home ministry, Special Outreach Days, and Soul-winning. Notice that soul-winning is included here in this list. However, soul-winning should also be the main focus of the church.

I also believe that just as there is a difference between the overall outreach of a church and the soul-winning ministry of the church, there is also a difference between a soul-winning church and an evangelistic church. An evangelistic church might be involved with some areas of evangelism on the grand scale. They might invite people to church, give to missions, pray, and do good things. However my experience is that most members in this type of church and even most pastors of an evangelistic church are not personal soul-winners. A soul-winning church is one that starts with the pastor leading the people by being an example to them by being a personal soul-winner and then training others to be soul-winners also. Let us see how the scriptures back up this truth through the great commission given to all local churches today.

Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth

Notice the commission is three basic things from the account in Matthew's gospel:

1. Win them ---------- "teach all nations"

2. Wet them---------- "baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost"

3. Work them-------- "teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you"

From these verses as a whole the Lord showed me several things.

I. Being a soul- winner is characterized.

The Bible tells us what a soul-winner is and does. The word has a meaning. It is defined for us. And simply put, its name tells us what it means. It is the active pursuit of winning souls to Jesus Christ wherever they are. Whatever definitions we may have construed in our minds about being a soul-winner we must replace them with what the Bible says. No one is a true soul-winner who simply invites folks to church, but not to Christ. A person can go to church and still die and go to hell. Lost people need Christ not religion. True soul-winners are those people who try their best to share the gospel with everybody they can and then help those that will listen to understand their need to repent and place their personal faith in Jesus Christ. At times people will be convicted of their sins and be saved.

II. Being a soul-winner is commanded.

The Bible says in Matthew, "Go". It says in Mark, "Go". It states in Acts, "Ye shall be witnesses." Being a soul-winner is not open for debate. It is a command for all Christians to be a soul-winner. Let me go further and say this also: the natural outgrowth of a person who is filled with the Spirit is that they are a soul-winner. Acts says, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me". Notice from this verse when the Holy Ghost has come upon us, the next event that will occur is that we will be a witness for the Lord. Anyone who is not a soul-winner and a witness for the Lord is either not saved and thus has never received the indwelling Holy Spirit at all, or they are a backslidden believer who has quenched the Holy Spirit within them. God the Holy Spirit wants to work through us to convict and win souls. If you do not have that desire then maybe you need to check your heart.

III. Being a soul-winner is conceivable.

This point means that being a soul-winner is a possibility. It is something that is able to be done. I have seen many different styles of independent fundamental baptist churches with varied levels of involvement with soul-winning and outreach. I have read about and been apart of churches that experience much controversy about their super-duper soul-winning outreach. It is in these churches that there are generally people who lead thousands to Jesus each year and even baptize them but their church never grows in accordance with how many were reported to have been saved. I have also read about and been apart of churches that are on the opposite end of the spectrum. These are churches that only have people saved and baptized by accident, because they take a Calvinistic approach to soul-winning. That is, they think all of it has to be done by the Lord and as such never pursue sinners. I visited one of these churches about two years ago which ran 500 people for church but their total baptisms for the year was only 8 people.

Here is my point: I am not debating that there are things wrong with but both extremes in fundamentalism. I am also not debating the fact that there are some things that could be right in some cases with either type of church. However, the fact of the matter rests solely for me on the Great Commission and the Bible. What I mean is this. The Bible says that we are to go win people to Christ, baptize them, and disciple them. Now, if this were an utter impossibility then why did the Lord Jesus command us to do it? If we cannot simply go out to homes, to the streets, to places of business or recreation and give people the gospel and have them respond and be saved then how can we fully obey the Great Commission? How can we disciple people until they are baptized? How can we baptize people until they are saved? And of course how can we get them saved? The answer is that we cannot logically obey the commission unless we are out actively pursuing sinners with the gospel message. This thought didn't fully come to me until I was preaching through the series on soul-winning. Should I actively pursue sinners, even at their homes? Yes. I can with God's Holy Spirit go to a door and personally win them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. If I cannot do this then let us hang up the Bible and the command to do so, because it is only a farce and an utter impossible, implausible, inconceivable thing!

IV. Being a soul-winner is circular.

Matthew's gospel tells us to go and teach all nations. That is, teach them the gospel so that they can be saved. Second, we are to baptize those we have won. Then we are to continue in teaching them to observe all things that Christ has commanded for us to do. The focus here under this point is that final thing: discipleship. It can be noted that the first major command (found in Matthew) that Christ gave his apostles after the resurrection was to go be a soul-winner. The last command that Christ gave to his apostles before returning back to heaven (found in Acts) was to go be a soul-winner. So the emphasis on discipleship is on teaching others to be a soul-winner. In other words, though there are a multitude of other areas that are necessary for a new convert to learn, one of the main things that Christ has commanded us to be is a soul-winner. So we can say this: We are to win people to Christ, then baptize them, and then teach them to be soul-winners so that they can win people to Christ, baptize them, and then teach those people to win people to Christ, etc... The implication of this truth is that there is a circular pattern involved. There is a constant addition to church of new converts likewise. When church members fail to be soul-winners and bring new life into the church then they will become so introspective and self-centered that the church dies. No wonder people make statements like the following one I heard recently, "I am tired of all this soul-winning mess." What tragedy!

Since starting the soul-winning ministry here at Anchor Baptist, we have seen some good results:

• We have covered the whole main part of the town of Farmville with the gospel.
• We have made about 2000 contacts with a church brochure, flyer, or tract.
• We have had 75+ first time visitors attend at least one church service
• We have shared the gospel 14 times.
• We have had 7 people saved.
• We have had 3 baptized.
• We have 9 new people coming to the church on a consistent basis from our visits

All of this is from just 6 months of being here and of 3 months of an actual soul-winning ministry going out one time a week for two hours on Saturday mornings. We are excited about the Lord's blessings! Yes, soul-winning still works!

No Soul or No Sole?

A few months ago I purchased a new pair of black Nunn Bush dress shoes with a gift card we had saved from our wedding. They have not been used for very long, but obviously are my main dress shoes along with one other pair of cordovan Rockports that I use as well. If you go back with me a few years ago to the time when my brother in law and sister were about to leave for the mission field of Ireland, I was given a gift certificate for $100 to Florsheim. John Brown, my friend and brother in law gave me the certificate because he had discovered only two different actual Florsheim stores that were still open around the Metroplex. At that time they were closing down all their stores. Since he and my sister were so busy preparing to leave for the field, he passed on the blessing to me that another church had given to him since he didn't want to take the time to travel the 45 minutes or hour drive to get a pair of shoes with all the additional work he had going on. I picked out a pair of nice black Florsheim's with an inner gel cushion. They were used as I worked as a staff evangelist in Texas for 2 years and also as I traveled around the world in missions for the last 6 years before coming here to NC. They were good shoes and have lasted for quite a while. Since coming to NC, I have used the shoes primarily for soul-winning since they were a little raged anyhow. But a few weeks ago while out canvassing for our God and Country Sunday with Grace, one of my shoe's sole came off as I was walking. Grace and I laughed and laughed and even took pictures to remember the occasion. The extra funny thing about it was that I had just met a middle aged black man on the street and was inviting him to church and as I went to walk away, "Bloop", there goes the sole. I immediately exclaimed that I had "no sole" as in "no soul"! LOL!


In writing this event, I am reminded of the provision from God for Israel while they traveled in the wilderness.This is found for us in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 29:5 states, "And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot." No doubt God allows this same or similar provision for his saints today to some degree. And thankfully I have seen it on a small scale with these Florsheim dress shoes and the length of time that they had been useful for me.

God and Country Sunday

On Sunday July 6 we had worked hard to plan a God and Country Sunday at the church. Details originally included having a guest marine evangelist preach in his dress blues, have special patriotic music, have a color guard presentation of the flags, have a meal after the morning service, and also have an early evening service. Due to how hard the devil fought our church leading up to the event only three of those things became a reality though. The church went through a few personal battles with some members which ended up resulting in some people choosing to leave the church. The guest evangelist canceled. After contacting all the local national guard and reserve units and university ROTC programs no one had the manpower, the willingness, or the equipment to do a color guard presentation. However, the show went on. We still had some patriotic music. We pledged allegiance to our great country's flag in the morning service. We had new patriotic decorations in the church for the summer. We had small flags posted in the ground around our church sign outside along with a flag pole flying the America flag. I preached a message called "Freedom Isn't Free" from Galatians 5:1-- Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. In it I had three points as follows:

I. The Cost of Freedom----------("Christ hath made us free")


II. The Constraint of Freedom----("be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.")


III. The Continuation of Freedom- ("Stand fast therefore in the liberty")

I dealt with these three points on both a patriotic, physical, American level as well as a spiritual level relating to salvation and our new life in Christ after salvation. Praise the Lord for three visitors!!! This was a blessing because leading up to the event I had made up a flyer and Grace and I once again passed out about 500 invitations to the special service. After the morning worship service we went ahead with the cookout as well. We had a pleasant time of hamburgers, hot dogs, deserts, fellowship, and fun. With a belly full of good 'ole American food we returned to the auditorium for an early evening service and then called it a night. I want to thank the Lord for the country we live in, the freedoms we posses to worship God as we choose, and for all the leaders of our country both politically and militarily!

New Summer Decorations

Grace went out shopping for some new decorations for this summer for our church. Our budget allotted for more updates and as we go along we will continue to do such updating. The decorations this time were going to have a patriotic theme to tie in with our God and Country Sunday that we were going to have. Grace had a meeting with a few other ladies of the church to decorate and several hours that evening were spent arranging and decorating. A few of the men of the church were also present at the church and thankfully we were not enlisted to help in the decorations. We put up a flag pole so that we could begin flying the American flag. One man also helped by weed eating the grass. On Friday the decorations needed to be completely finished and hung up in the church, so Grace and I spent about 8 hours there working to get things ready. Grace completed the arranging of the flowers. I helped her to hang them up. I also mowed the grass for Sunday. In addition, it was the start of our month to clean the church and so after all the decoration items were done, we cleaned and cleaned. Overall things turned out great! Grace did a tremendous job finding good ideas and bringing them to fruition.

July 4th

Bang! Boom! So went the ever so short fireworks display in Farmville, NC. After a long hard day of preparing the church for an upcoming special day, Grace and I celebrated the forth by grilling out some pork chops, and having an awesome salad and some au gratin potatoes. It hit the spot. Then, because we basically live in downtown Farmville, we only had to look across the way at the fireworks being set off. We will most likely try and go somewhere else to get a little more ump next year. Maybe we will head to the coast since that is not too far aways. But hey, there is a first time for everything and now we know what to expect from this area!

Nursing Home Ministry

The only ministry that was already started at the church whenever we came this last January was a nursing home ministry at the Farmville Nursing Home. We usually attend on the last Tuesday night of the month for about 1 hour to sing a few songs and preach a little bit. I have preached on some of the following subjects:

• What Hath God Prepared For Us?
• What They Did Not Find at the Empty Tomb
• Aiming For Christ
• More Precious Than Gold

Hopefully we can try and continue to be a blessing and present the gospel to those who are halt, maimed, brokenhearted, and feeble.

Second Baptism

At the end of June '08 we had our second baptism service after the AM message at Anchor Baptist. It was a joy to have invited a single mother named Kim 'O Dowd and her children to church while out on our special week of canvassing. She lives in a small apartment complex in town. Although Kim does not have transportation currently, we had been giving her and her baby girl Zoe and her 9 year old girl Kayle a ride to church for several weeks. I scheduled a time with her to go by her house and formally witness to her. While I witnessed to Kim that Saturday, Grace witnessed to Kayle who had been in SS for several weeks listening to the gospel. Both of them individually and in separate rooms trusted Christ as Savior. And of course we took the time to explain baptism. We were at their house for at least an hour. Kayle understood baptism so well that the next day when she came to the morning service she was explaining to everyone, "Baptism is not for babies. They cannot be saved!" So I had the joyous privilege of baptizing them together after the preaching that very next day after they were saved. I baptized Kayle first and then had Kim join us while Kayle waited for a special prayer. All I can say is praise the Lord!!!

King of the Jungle VBS

The pastor of the Sandy Lake Baptist Church is my father-in-law Tom Henricks. While we were back in PA for Erica's wedding, we had the privilege of helping out in VBS at the church. They decided to have VBS from Sunday night through Tuesday night. The theme of their VBS was the King of the Jungle and the basis from Scripture was the Ten Commmandments. Grace and I helped out on Sunday and Monday evenings. We sang, passed out candy, and acted crazy. I also preached on Sunday night using the first commandement: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. I struggled to come up with a way to tie this in with salvation, but found a good object lesson using donuts that worked well. Although, no one officialy received Christ, we had about every kid respond during the invitation time. Seeds were planted that hopefully one day if watered correctly will come to fruition!

Erica's Wedding

Up to Pennsylvania we went again at the first of June for another wedding. Grace's cousin, Erica Osterling, had asked Grace to be one of her bridesmaids. Thankfully, we were able to round up the funds to go and the Lord gave traveling mercies both going and coming. It was a relatively short trip, especially since we worked really hard while we were there. We traveled up on a Thursday and arrived in the evening. On Friday, Grace was with all the other ladies getting their nails done. Friday night was the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. After wards we helped to clean up and then set up for the reception the next day. Saturday afternoon was when the wedding took place. Grace again in the morning was off to the hair salon with the girls. I was helping out at the church. I also acted as videographer again during the ceremony. If I keep doing it maybe I can start charging!! LOL! Grace was beautiful and modest and of course did a great job. After the ceremony and the reception, we again stayed to help clean up. Finally we made it back to the in-laws house only to crash that night for church the next day. Hopefully the knot was tied tight enough for those two love birds that were off to Tenessee for the honeymoon.

Duke Hospital and University

On June 3 of this year one our church members was scheduled for back surgery at Duke University Hospital in the Raleigh/Durham area. From where we live in Farmville, the hospital is about an hour and a half away. Grace and I got up at about 4 in the morning to try to get there in time to see her before the surgery and have prayer with her, however we missed her by about 10 minutes. We chatted for awhile with her husband, but since the surgery was supposed to last for 7 hours we decided to leave. We left the hopital to tour the Duke Univeristy campus and man is it stately. We were impressed. We had toured UNC Chapel Hill campus previously but not Duke. We were not aware that the hospital was in the same basic location as the school. Yet, there it was right next door connected to their nursing and medical school.

An interesting thing about our trip to Duke was that it was during the same period of time, actually the same week, that Senator Ted Kennedy was at the hospital having brain surgery. We saw tons of reporters and journalists camped out. However, no doubt with the sensitivity to his privacy and heavily guarded access, we did not get to meet Mr. Kennedy. I guess there is always next time!

New Grill for Memorial Day

Grace and I had been wanting a grill for sometime. We had never had one since we were married. Then out of the blue, the weekend before Memorial Day, we had a love gift of $100 given to us. So on Memorial Day Monday we traveled into town and went to Wally World (Wal- Mart) and picked up just a standard ordinary grill. Since we did not have alot of extra room here at our house-apartment we decided that although we really wanted a nice gas grill we would just go ahead and get a standard grill and take the rest of the money and use it for charcoal, several marinades, lighter fluid, and food. I also wanted to purchase a grill tool set which I got on sale for $10. It even came with a free electronic meat thermometer fork. We stocked up on some goodies and had a great cookout! Of course I still had to put the grill together and we had a wonderful meal of 4 kinds of marinated grilled chicken and Bush's Grilling Beans. YUMMMY!!

First Baptism

On May 18, 2008 we had our very first baptism service at Anchor Baptist Church. Of course, it was not without some labour. The baptismal is a very different kind of baptismal. It is built into the floor under the platform with access by a large heavy two-handled door. Because the church was without a pastor for quite some time the baptismal had not been cleaned in forever either. As a result, the water was dismal and dirty. It was filled with bugs on top of it all. So, my wife and I set to clean it. That Saturday morning we had led a man to the Lord who had commited to be at the services to be baptized the next day. Later that evening we figured we had better make sure the baptismal was in proper condition to have a baptism. After the determination was made to clean it we discovered several interesting other facts about the baptismal. It has no drain that operates independently. The drain only operates with a pump system which is also used to recirculate the pool. All the access to the drain and the recirculation valves are located underneath the church. So off I went to investigate and figure the system out, which I did in time. Unfortunately, since the pump only pulls out the water using about a 2 1/2 inch pvc pipe located inside the baptismal and the pipe doesn't go all the way to the floor all the water is not removed when you try and pump it out. And even when you are pumping it out, it is a slow process. Needless to say the only other option to remove all the dirt and grime was to scoop out the water by hand which Grace and I did. Once that was completed, then it was on to the actual cleaning. Finally after a long 5 hours we were finished cleaning and refilling the baptismal. The filling had to be done manaully also with a water hose. Oh the joys of a small country church!

Thankfully all the work paid off and our baptismal candidate attended church the next morning and submitted himself for baptism. His name is Leroy Smith and we had had the privilege of leading him to Christ the day before. He was so humble and said when I led him to the Lord that I had answered many questions for him about the Bible he had been having for some time.

One other thing of note was that the baptismal is heated by a plug in baptismal heater. We had plugged it in the night before, but had only left it on the halfway setting thinking it would get too hot. As a result the water was not like ice, but it wasn't really warm either. The weather thankfully was fairly warm and Leroy did not complain at all. Overall it went extremely well!

Visit From In- Laws and New Spring Decorations

Grace and I were very happy to have my mother and father in law visit with us here in Farmville for a few days the week we left from Pennsylvania from Beth's wedding. They flew down to Florida for a business conference with Mars National Bank, the company which Bro. Tom has worked for over 20 years. Instead of taking the flight back they decided to rent a car and drive the 20+ hourse home by way of Farmville, NC during the middle of the week so that he and Mrs. Henricks could stay a few days with us. Thankfully, since we are still in the process of setting up our guest bedroom, another independent baptist church had their prophet's chamber open and allowed for them to stay. I'm sure it was nice to have a little privacy.

I experienced a bought with a 24 hour bug upon arriving home early Wednesday morning from PA. I was so sick I really did not feel like I could preach, although I had preached sick several times throughout the space of time of being at the church. However, this time I only felt like sleeping. So I slept and trusted that Bro. Tom and Mrs. H. could make it in time to preach since they were going to try. If not, then I always have at least one message ready for cases like these. It was so good to see Bro. Tom arrive in time for the evening service. He preached on "The God of the Impossible" and I was able to simply listen to what God had for the church through him that night. Praise the Lord!

While they were in town they helped alot with the church. Mrs. H helped Grace shop for some new decorations for the springtime of our church. Of course, Bro Tom and I went and had some coffee while the woman shopped. They worked so hard on finding things within our budget and then putting things together and decorating the church after shopping all day. Once it was completed with the project it looked trememendous! There were some good compliments at the first service after the new decorations were up and rightly so.