“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” – Luke 19:10
The
seed that was planted in our hearts last October to plant a church is now beginning
to produce buds for
Now
for my friends and family who are not Presbyterian, you may be asking, “why in
the world does Mark have to go through all of this ‘stuff’?” The simple and
best answer is that God is preparing us. I have been reading a great book this
summer titled Prepared by Grace, for
Grace: The Puritans on God’s Ordinary Way of Leading Sinners to Christ by
Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley. On page two is this quote: “The Puritans
urged people to prepare for many things: prepare to hear the preaching of the Word,
prepare for conversion, prepare to partake of the Lord’s Supper, prepare to
face trials, and prepare for the Lord’s coming in glory.” God is always
preparing us for all kinds of things. The book primarily focuses on God’s
preparing us to be saved by grace through faith in Christ alone by Scripture alone
for His glory alone. However, as the quote above mentions, God prepares us for
other things, not only the hearer hearing the preaching of the Word; but also
the preacher preaching the Word, the evangelist sharing the Word, the church
planter beginning a new work in a new community, and even you starting
something new in your life if you are truly seeking the Lord’s will in your
adventure.
I
told you that to tell you this, the preparation is done for this portion of the
work. I have been called, prayed over, assessed, examined and approved by all
committees and agencies. There is nothing left to do here but to raise our
support and then move to the field. So if you were asking, “What’s next?” That
is it. MNA requires us to have the first year of support raised before we can
move onto the field. At present, we are at about 26% of first year, either in
pledges or cash given. We are reaching out to individuals and churches to
partner with us in this ministry, to allow us to be an extension of their hands
to do a great work in a spiritually dead area. You know the beach is a great place
to work, live and vacation; especially if you are not saved. Myrtle Beach, as
beautiful as it is, contains some of the highest percentages of vices: drug and
alcohol addiction, sexual and pornographic sin, broken marriages, high percentage
of teen pregnancy, high percentage of out-of-wedlock cohabitation, in other
words – if you can name it, you can find it in Myrtle Beach. Our goal is not to
go and just gather other Christians to form a church, but to gather the saints
that are lost that God has been preparing to hear about His Son, Jesus Christ
and bring them into His Kingdom.
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| Jonathan, Tanner & Katherine |
It is not going to be easy. Beeke and Smalley quote the great Puritan Thomas Shepherd in the book mentioned above on page 91 stating, “Those that are saved, are saved with much difficulty…. It is a wonderful hard thing to be saved. The gait is strait, and therefore a man must sweat and strive to enter.” Shepherd wasn’t speaking about working to get into heaven. No, he was talking about how many fight God and wrestle with their own hearts when the Holy Spirit breaks down that heart of stone and turns it into a heart of flesh. We know God is calling us to witness to and be witnesses of His great work there. What can you do to partner with us? The first and most important is to pray, pray, pray. Below is some things for which you can pray specifically. The second is to help support us financially. The instructions for doing this are to the right if God lays this on your heart. You or your church may pledge support for the three year work, or it may be more feasible for you or your church to give a one-time love gift. Either way, please uphold us in prayer!
