Dear Saints, Each month, I make recommendations of books that I think will be a blessing to your walk with the Lord.  While I do realize that reading books has fallen on hard times today (statistics say that almost half of college graduates never read a whole book after college), I do believe that Christians should have a particular interest in reading good books.  Reading good books is like fello...  Read More

Last week we began a study of the great revival that took place in Beaufort in the 1830s.  We were introduced to Rev. Daniel Baker, the great preacher from Savannah whom God used greatly to spark this tremendous movement, and churches that were affected, such as our friends at The Parish Church of St. Helena and The Baptist Church of Beaufort.  Through this period of revival, our small community b...  Read More

Beaufort’s Rich Spiritual HistoryLiving in Beaufort for the first 18 years of my life made it very easy to take for granted the beauty of this majestic town.  I am probably not alone in that; I am sure that many of us forget that not every town has exquisite views, Spanish moss-covered oak trees, history that dates back centuries, all of which are only matched by the wonderful people who live here...  Read More

Dear Saints,This is my monthly letter with books that I think will be a blessing to your soul.  Before I get to my recommendations of what to read, I want to share a few thoughts from Charles Spurgeon on how & why to read:Why all of us should be readers: “Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the though...  Read More

Over the last few weeks, we have been looking at the various rest-work rhythms that God has built into our world; night and day, rest and work, seed time and harvest.  These rhythms are gracious provisions for weary pilgrims sojourning through this world. And yet, even those rhythms often leave us longing for more.  We enjoy a vacation, but we know it will soon come to an end.  We love the Lord’s ...  Read More

This month in our pastoral letters, we’re thinking about the rhythms of rest and work that God has built into His created order.   This week, I want to discuss one of our Lord’s sweetest gifts to His people: the rhythm of six days of work and one day of rest.  The day of rest is known in Hebrew as the Shabbat, meaning “ceasing or stopping,” from which we get our word “Sabbath.”  Because of the Jud...  Read More

Several years ago, I was out in the boat and dropped anchor to fish. We fished happily, not knowing that our anchor had not caught but instead was dragging along the mud beneath us. Next thing I knew, we had drifted into an oyster rake. Drifting is dangerous, and yet so often we can drift in our walk with the Lord without noticing it. Slowly, we spend less time in prayer or in the Word. What we on...  Read More

This month, we are studying the ways that God has designed us to glorify Him both in our rest and our work.  As we saw in last week’s letter, God has designed the world with built-in rhythms for both:  He has designed the day for activity and the night for sleep.  He has designed seasons for harvesting and seasons for reaping.  He has designed six days for working and one for rest.  He even gives ...  Read More

Dear Saints, I hope that reading these pastoral letters have been as much of an encouragement to you as writing them has been for me.  I don’t know if you have experienced this before, but I believe that the teacher often gets more from the lesson than the students.  That was certainly the case with this series on the “one anothers” of Scripture, as the Spirit moved powerfully in my own heart, con...  Read More

We have been using these pastoral letters over the last two months to examine many of the different “one another” passages in the New Testament. I hope it has been an encouragement to you; it has certainly encouraged me as I have watched you live out these commands from God in the life of our church. As we conclude this topic with this pastoral letter, I want to return to a quote I shared in the f...  Read More

Each month I send a list of books that I hope will be of encouragement to you.  Because I know we have people with various interests, I send many different categories of books.  Don’t be overwhelmed by the list- I’m giving you a broad selection in hopes that you’ll pick one or two books to read this month. My Main Read for March: While most of these books fit fairly neatly into categories, Michael...  Read More

This week in our pastoral letter, we’re going to think about a topic that is vital for life in the church: hospitality.  We will look at several New Testament exhortations to hospitality in this letter, but I want to focus on 1 Peter 4:9: “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.”Life in the early church to whom Peter wrote these words was exceedingly difficult.  Internally,  there were ...  Read More