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June 31, 2011
Dear Church Family, Blessings upon you! It has been our privilege to serve as your Pastor and Family these last 6 1/2 years. This past Sunday just reminded us all over again why we love you all so much. Thank you for all your kind expressions of love.
Meri Jane and I will be praying for you as you pray for us in these days ahead. Since we will still be in the area for a while, please know that our door is always open, and if we can minister to you in any way, don't hesitate to call. Thank you, all of you, who helped get the house ready for sale this last Saturday. You gave us quite a jump start.
I feel confident that you are in the best of hands with Jon Sapp, Glen Davis and Peck Lindsay. I know they will help you move forward toward better days. Please know that my greatest desire now is to see you move forward together, and mightily impact this city and beyond with the gospel. Since you are some of the sweetest and most caring people I know, I don't see how you can fail! We will be cheering you on!
With all our love,
Pastor Bruce, Meri Jane and Family
September 5, 2007
Dear Church Family,
Last year some of the men of our church thought it was time to begin a ministry to reach and grow men. Several men came together to consider what kind of approach we could take to begin providing opportunities for growth, fellowship and outreach to the men of Metropolitan. Out of the meetings that followed our Men’s Ministry was birthed. We are now seeking to offer regular opportunities for men to get together for fellowship, for training, for spiritual growth and development and to reach out to other men of Wichita.
This fall a key opportunity for men, sponsored by our Men’s Ministry, is "Letters From Dad- Leaving a Legacy of Faith, Hope, and Love". This program has led thousands of fathers to bless their children with words of love and encouragement through the lost art of letter writing. We are going to discover a way to create a legacy of love for the ones we love the most. Ask yourself, "If you were to die today, what would your children hold in their hands tomorrow that would let them know that they were the treasures of your life?" Would you like to learn how to provide a very powerful and special blessing for your children and grandchildren?
In the course of the study we will learn how to write several letters. One will be an expression of love and blessing to our wives. We will also learn to write letters to our children and grandchildren that will give a legacy of love and blessing. We will also write letters to our parents (or testimonials about them if they are no longer living) and we will learn to write a letter to be read after we are gone that will express our faith and hope for our families, with blessings and encouragement.
We are going to have a "kick-off" event on September 29th at 6:00 p.m. in Vardaman Hall to introduce "Letters From Dad" to our men, and any guests they invite. At the kick-off banquet our men will have the opportunity to sign up for this great study. By the way, the study will consist of ONE night of instruction about every four weeks, for a total of four studies. It will be timed to make possible the giving of some very special Christmas gifts this year! Be watching for opportunities to sign up for our "kick-off" event. I look forward to seeing all you men there!!
Pastor Bruce
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August 22, 2007
Dear Church Family,
Summer break is over, and now we are getting on to our fall programs. This fall on Sunday nights we will be offering several opportunities for growth. As usual we will have a top-notch music program for children. Pastor Jason has many powerful things planned for our youth. For our adults we will offer four classes. I will be leading a class for parents of children on "Developing Biblical Concepts of Parenting." Terry McMillan will lead a class for parents of teenagers designed to help parents experience greater success with their teens during these difficult years. Our ladies will be offering a class on Monday mornings, another dynamic study with Beth Moore, entitled "A Woman’s Heart: God’s Dwelling Place".
For all the rest of you, Paul Smith has agreed to teach again. For those of you who enjoyed the Ray Vander Laan series on the New Testament and archaeological sites in Israel he taught during the summer discipleship course, there will be a part two beginning September 9th. If you have not experienced any of the videos, they are a visually beautiful presentation of the land of Israel and Vander Laan brings not just a scholar’s insight into life in ancient times, but a thoughtful comparison with our problems in present day Christianity and our culture. There are two areas that will be covered in Hebrew history: lessons on the Promised Land and the Prophets and Kings of Israel. This series is not only a new insight into your Bible study, but the next best thing to an actual tip to the Holy Land.
The Sunday night classes will begin at 6:00 p.m., following our Sunday Night Supper at 5:15 p.m. The Monday morning study runs from 9:30-11:00 a.m. I hope you will come and check out our many opportunities for spiritual growth. See you there!
Pastor Bruce
August 8, 2007
Dear Church Family,
Our church will host the Associational Annual Evangelism Rally on August 26. This year our speaker will be Dr. Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Paige will be speaking in our morning service, also. From 3:30-5:30 p.m. there will be a missions fair hosted by HOKSBA. The Southwestern Seminary touring choir will also be sharing at the rally. Don’t miss this great opportunity for worship and fellowship with our other associational churches.
You will enjoy hearing Dr. Paige Patterson. He has a great heart for evangelism. While in seminary at New Orleans he operated a coffee-house ministry with street evangelist Leo Humphrey in the famous French Quarter, where he worked with biker gangs, underworld figures, homosexuals, prostitutes and runaway teenagers from all 50 states, sharing the good news of salvation in Christ. He has traveled to and ministered in over a hundred countries. He has even had the opportunity to share the gospel with six heads of state, including Yasser Arafat and Menachem Begin. He has led church planting movements in places like New Hampshire. He is currently involved in Christian sportsmen banquets throughout the U.S. He uses powerpoint presentations on hunting and emphasizes the importance of fathers in the task of making responsible men from the mischievous raw material of boys. He has seen over 2000 men come to Christ through these banquets in the last two years.
Dr. Patterson has been involved in educating spiritual leaders most of his life. He was president of Criswell College for 17 years, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary for 11 years, and has been president of Southwestern since 2003. He has so many important things to share with our church and association on August 26th. Invite a friend. You will be blessed!
Pastor Bruce
July 11, 2007
Dear Church Family,
As the Continental Congress met in 1778 to develop laws to lead our young nation, on October 12th they passed the following resolution:
"Whereas true religion and good morals are the only solid foundations of public liberty and happiness: Resolved, that it be, and it is hereby earnestly recommended to the several states, to take the most effectual measures of the encouragement thereof, and for the suppressing theatrical entertainments, horse racing, gaming, and such other diversions as are productive of idleness, dissipation, and a general depravity of principles and manners."
Each state considered these recommendations. Their response is illustrated by Connecticut. In their state laws they wrote:
"Gaming is an amusement, the propensity of which is deeply implanted in human nature. Mankind in the most unpolished state of barbarism and in the most refined periods of luxury and dissipation are attached to this practice with an unaccountable ardor and fondness. To describe the pernicious consequences of it, the ruin and desolation of private families, and the promotion of idleness and dissipation, belong to a treatise on ethics."
Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was titled "The Father of American Medicine." In his day he was considered one of the three most notable Founding Fathers, with George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. As a physician and scientist he was well aware of the addictive nature of gambling and its consequences on men. When writing on the different species of mania that afflict mankind, he wrote:
"This disorder [the effects of gaming] seizes gentlemen in some instances before breakfast in the morning, and continues with only short intervals for meals, till 11 o’clock at night. It affects some people in the night as well as the day, and on Sundays as well as week days…This madness is of a destructive tendency, and often conducts persons afflicted with it to poverty, imprisonment, and an ignominious death."
George Washington felt so strongly about the effects of gambling that he wrote in his General Orders on May 8th, 1777:
As few vices are attended with more pernicious consequences, in civil life; so there are none more fatal in a military one, than that of Gaming; which often brings disgrace and ruin upon officers, and injury and punishment upon the soldiery…"
He concluded his remarks by stating that any soldier that disobeyed this order shall be tried by a General Court Martial. You will understand why he felt so strongly about gambling if you consider his remarks written in a letter to his nephew in 1783:
"The last thing I shall mention, is first of importance and that is, to avoid gaming. This is a vice which is productive of every possible evil, equally injurious to the morals and health of its votaries. It is the child of avarice, the brother of inequity, and father of mischief. It has been the ruin of many worthy families; the loss of many a man’s honor; and the cause of suicide. To all those who enter the list, it is equally fascinating; the successful gamester pushes his good fortune till it is overtaken by a reverse; the losing gamester, in hopes of retrieving past misfortunes, goes on from bad to worse; till grown desperate, he pushes at everything; and loses his all. In a word, few gain by this abominable practice (the profit, if any, being diffused) while thousands are injured."
Our Founding Fathers clearly understood the effects of gambling on society. They did their best to discourage gambling in any form, knowing how unproductive and destructive it was. They also didn’t accept such behavior by their leaders. Consider what Thomas Jefferson included in a series of bills he proposed in a comprehensive effort to revise the laws of Virginia. In "A Bill to Prevent Gaming" Jefferson wrote:
"Any person who shall bet or play for money, or other goods, or who shall bet on the hands or sides of those who play at any game in a tavern, racefield, or other place of public resort, shall be deemed an infamous gambler, and shall not be eligible to any office of trust or honor within this state."
With all this in mind, please consider that our local government is violating a trust passed down to them by our Founders by seeking to get involved in the gaming business. If they wish to claim the title of patriot, they should stand with the great men and women of our heritage and reject gambling in all its forms, educate our citizens to its destructiveness, and call upon all Kansans to reflect the great character of our predecessors by refusing to participate in this vile practice. Let us purpose to work to this end.
Pastor Bruce
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June 27, 2007
Dear Church Family,
In the early years of this great nation there were two holidays that stood above all others; Christmas and the Fourth of July. One celebrated the birth of our Savior, the other the birth of our country. Our forefathers understood that the hand of God was responsible for both, and that these two days were linked together by a spiritual bond. So, the Fourth of July celebrations focused around Christian themes. It was nearly impossible to find a celebration that did not invoke the name of God and include praise and thanksgiving to Him.
Why was this so? The answer can be found many places and in many speeches during the founding era. Consider a Fourth of July speech given by John Quincy Adams in 1837, while a member of the House of Representatives, to the citizens of our nation. In that speech he asked an unusual question, then answered it. The question, "Why is it that next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival occurs on this day (the 4th)?" His answer,
"Is it not that in the chain of human events the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer’s mission on Earth?—That it laid the cornerstone of human government on the first precepts of Christianity?"
For well over an hour he continued his speech, confirming that Christianity was not only the basis of, but the reason for, our national independence.
There will be many Fourth of July celebrations around Wichita. Many will include fireworks and picnics and games. But I want to encourage you to attend a special celebration that is more in line with the way our Founders celebrated this great day. It will be at Metropolitan Baptist Church on Sunday morning, July 1st. We will focus our celebration on the place our nation holds in our "Redeemer’s mission on Earth." Come and join us for a real Fourth of July celebration!
Pastor Bruce
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June 13, 2007
Dear Church Family,
It seems our state government is intent on bringing casino gambling to Wichita. There is a tremendous amount of money and power behind this movement. But know this: the desire to bring casino gambling to Wichita is not for the benefit of the citizens. It is for the financial greed of the gaming industry. There is much that can be said about the destructive potential of bringing this menace to our city.
Consider a few known facts:
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A key cause of addiction is accessibility. The more time and effort required to travel to a casino limits the amount of addiction. The presence of a casino within 50 miles of a potential addict roughly doubles the prevalence of problem and pathological gamblers.
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Casinos cannot survive without addicted gamblers. They obtain over 80% of their revenue from 20% of their customers.
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A pathological gambler costs society over $13,000 a year because of crime, business expense, unemployment, money from family and friends, illness, social services and bankruptcy.
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It has been proven that 1.0 to 1.5% of a population are vulnerable to gambling addiction. That would mean 5,000-7,500 citizens of Sedgwick County would eventually become pathological gamblers. The annual financial burden to our community could exceed $100,000,000.
For the sake of our community it is our responsibility to speak up and oppose so destructive a decision. On August 7th we will have a chance to express our opposition with our vote. I hope each of you will make plans to vote, encourage others to oppose this decision, and pray for God to move in the hearts of our fellow citizens to oppose this decision. This is not a political issue; it is a moral one. Since the church is the conscience of the community, let us fulfill our responsibility by sounding the warning and by voting! This is part of that debt of love we owe to one another!!
Pastor Bruce
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