Good morning on this Saturday, January 15th. Every Friday the various members of the Edgewood pastoral staff submit a report of their visitation results to me. The report shares whom the talked to and the results of their contacts. The emphasis of each of the reports is on their efforts to win people to Christ and/or move them toward baptism and church membership after they have received Christ. I ask each staff member to spend a minimum of two hours each week making these visits. Our Christian Education Director, Sheila Kuriscak, shared a testimony which I thought you would find to be a blessing. One of our Edgewood kids got so fired up about the Lord that they went home and started talking about what it means to be saved through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. After witnessing about salvation to his dad, grandma was asked to come over and talk to dad about the Lord which resulted in the father getting saved. Now that is a wonderful story! Throughout this year we are asking each of our people to "Prepare someone for Heaven in 2011." This young man is off to great start. What if each of us got so excited about Jesus Christ we did among our family members what this young man did. Scripture says, "He that wins souls is wise" (Proverbs 11:30).
Tomorrow's sermon is entitled, Under New Management. Please join us for this message.
Mel Brown

Good morning on this Saturday, January 8th. I hope that you enjoyed a wonderful Christ-centered Christmas and New Year holiday with family and friends. We thoroughly enjoyed having all of our children and grandchildren with us for much of the holiday season. A total of 13 of our family filled our house during the festivities, munching on an assortment of holiday goodies, visiting, and spending quality time together with lots of conversations with grandkids ranging in age from 4 to 13. One thought which I try to keep before me when I am with them is that I will never have this opportunity again. As they grow up (all too fast by the way) they will all too quickly move on to the next life stage and the chance for those exact golden opportunities for connection and influence will forever be lost. Our lives are filled with many "teachable moments" wherein we have a chance to impact, effect, and make lasting impressions upon our little ones which will count for time and eternity. Too often we fail to take maximum advantage of those chances to shape their lives and attitudes. One excellent suggestion is to sign up for the six week parenting seminar being offered at our church on Sunday evenings. The material is excellent for any parent or grandparent and will provide excellent instruction for improving your parenting skills. Our children and grandchildren are far too valuable to not bring them up in the "nurture and admonition of the Lord."
Tomorrow's sermon is entitled, God's Accounting: Gain and Loss. I hope to see you there.
Mel Brown