LANNYFAULKNER.COM

Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.“

Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

These are the words of the LORD. Thanks be to God for HIS word.

A couple of weeks ago I had the great joy of having lunch with a friend who is also a Pastor. As I almost always do, when the server took our order, I told her that we were about to pray over our meal and asked if there was anything for her that we could pray. She replied, “Just that I will continue to do well.”

After the meal and after paying at the counter, our server asked me what church I went to. I told her that I was serving as the Pastor at Summit Fellowship in Decatur. She then asked, “do you have anything for teenagers?”

That is the opportunity I missed!

I replied to her that we did not but that I was aware of some churches in Decatur that did have such ministries and I recommended them to her. I did at least think to give her a business card and I invited her to contact me if there was anyway in which I could be of help her.

Only after getting home, I realized that I should have told her something that I know very well! That is the fact that the thing her teenager needs most is to be with their mom in a good Bible-believing and Bible teaching church listening to biblical and expository preaching!

As you know, after my many years at First Baptist Atwood, I am committed to reaching and ministering to children and teens and training church members to do so! I am thankful beyond words for churches that are blessed to have – as does First Baptist Atwood – godly, committed, and qualified Bible teachers working with children and teens.

BUT… I (and we) need to remember that the week-by-week, Book-by-Book, verse-by-verse and doctrine-by-doctrine teaching of the Bible is the primary means by which God saves unsaved people and by which HE sanctifies and matures HIS people!

So, I am planning to go there again soon and share this advice with her. I hope that you will take a moment to pray for her and her children.

I am certain that the thought has occurred to many, if not most, elderly Elders that the problem with 40 years of experience is that it takes 40 years to get it, and by then most people think you are too old and too “out of touch” to have anything valuable to add to the conversation!

As an elderly Elder I want to share some of the theological knowledge and spiritual insights that I wish I had known when I was a younger believer. I hope that you will find them helpful.

I believe the single most important theological lesson I have learned in my 40+ years of ministry is that it is easy for a person to develop a relationship with a Church without having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ!

This was certainly true of me.

When I was 21 years old, my girlfriend’s father told her that she could not date me unless I joined their Church (which required that I be baptized by immersion) so I went to their Church on a Sunday night and was baptized.

I knew nothing about what it meant to be saved let alone how to be saved. This began an eleven years long saga of my being a member of four Churches and attending a Christian University without ever coming to realize that I did not really have a personal relationship with Jesus.

Sadly, it is really easy to become a member of a Church and once you are a member of a Church almost everyone will assume that you have a relationship with Jesus and therefore they will not seek to find out if you really do have a personal relationship with Him.

Two simple things are required to have a personal relationship with Jesus: first, you must repent of your sins, and second, you must believe in Jesus.

To repent means to recognize that you have sinned against God and to confess your sins to God and forsake them.

Proverbs 28:13 “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”

To believe in Jesus does not mean a casual belief such as when we believe it might rain, rather, it means to believe to the point of committing yourself and your life to Him much like a skydiver believes in and commits their life to their parachute.

You must believe two things about Jesus to have a personal relationship with Him: you must believe WHO Jesus is and you must believe what Jesus did.

John 8:24 “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”

1^st Corinthians 15:3-4 (3) “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, (4) that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…”

Romans 10:9-10 (9) “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (10) For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

It is easy to know if you really believe these things because if you truly believe that Jesus is God in human flesh and that He paid for your sins on the cross and rose from the dead, you will desire to obey what He commands!

John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

Luke 6:46 “”Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?”

Beloved ones, nothing else in life is more important than having a personal relationship with Jesus!

Since I have accepted the position of Transition Pastor at Summit Fellowship in Decatur, I have been happily surprised to learn that our church – while small and struggling – is a real church made up of real Christian people who really love the LORD!

I am thankful beyond words to have the opportunity to serve this faithful group of believes on the northwest side of Decatur!

When I came back to serve Central Baptist Association in 2020, I was surprised to learn how severely many of our member churches were suffering following years of decline that had been made much worse by impact of the Covid pandemic.

Nearly 60% of our 19 member churches averaged 30 or fewer people in morning worship for the 2020 – 2021 Associational year. Almost all of these churches have fewer people attending and the average age of those who do attend is higher that in the 2019 – 2020 Associational year.

Many of our Churches are continually getting both smaller and older. It was easy for me to be troubled by these statistics as I should have been!

Of course, the reasons for this decline vary from church to church, but in a more general sense our stories are very similar. If I am typical of our members, and demographically I am, I know that the older I get the more resistant I am to change and the more intolerant I become of things I do not like.

These attitudes are deadly for a church!

As decline continues, the funds needed for care and improvement of our facilities are less and less available and the physical ability of our members to do the necessary work to properly care for our facilities also declines.

At Summit Fellowship, we are engaged in a multi-year revitalization plan that we trust God will bless and end this season of decline and set the stage for future growth!

May it be so for all of our LORD’s faithful churches!

For anyone who knows me, the fact that one of my all-time favorite songs begins with the words, “Off we go…” is no surprise.

So, here I am, three days from my 72nd birthday (can’t get my head around that) and it is time again for me to say, “Off we go!

This time, I am off on a new adventure as the “Transition Pastor” of Summit Fellowship in Decatur, Illinois. After doing a Church Health and Growth Evaluation for this congregation last year, the Pastor Search Team asked me if I would consider coming to lead them through the process that I had outlined.

Believing it to be the LORD’s will, I said yes. This will be a multi-year effort involving rebranding, (we are now calling ourselves “Summit Fellowship” and refocusing, (our new focus is “Let’s Start Over Together” since there are tens of thousands of people in our beloved City who need to start over in their relationship with God, their marriages, their families, and their careers; and, restructuring the congregation to a biblical leadership structure.

We plan to try 25 or so things and if a few of them work, I will likely write a book!

In my work with Central Association, I was able to help a few churches a little, whereas in the role of Transition Pastor at Summit Fellowship I trust that I will have much more impact for the Kingdom and for the members of this one congregation.

So, a plan is in place… my sermon schedule is set for the next three years (as the LORD allows) the hard work is beginning… so… OFF WE GO!

A Pastor Out To Pasture

“The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.” Psalm 16:6 (ESV)

I do not remember who said it, but a single sentence haunted me for a few years as I was considering and praying about the idea of retiring from my position as Pastor-Teacher at the First Baptist Church in Atwood, Illinois. To my best recollection the sentence was, “Don’t let your fear of retiring keep some qualified younger man from having a place to serve; God will take care of you.”

Ouch.

The main problem for me was that serving Jesus at the First Baptist Church of Atwood was the most wonderful experience of my ministry. My thirteen years there were not the most productive years of my ministry, but they were certainly the most joyful.

It may be typical that the most “productive” years of my ministry were also among the most difficult. But that was a different church and a story for another day.

Thankfully, the last years of my ministry at Atwood were very productive and due to the blessings of God, our church led our Association in baptisms the last three years I served there. One of the most amazing things was that after thirteen years there the Church was almost “twice as large” and, it was “half as old.”

Our average Sunday Morning attendance had gone from the 80’s to the 140’s and the average age of those attending weekly had gone from 61 to 29.

And those are just the numbers. No one in ministry has ever been more loved and appreciated by a church than my beloved Atwoodites loved and appreciated me and my wife Lin, which, of course, made the decision to retire all the more difficult.

I decided in 2017 that, as the LORD allowed, I would retire on July 31^st of 2020 which would be two weeks to the day after my 70^th birthday. In July of 2018, I informed our Elders of my decision and in July of 2019 I informed the church. One of the key reasons that I gave the church a full year’s notice was my desire that we would have our new pastor selected, called, and in place by the Sunday following my retirement.

By the grace of God, we did.

Being “a pastor out to pasture” is an old joke and I have heard it many times over the years. Funny thing; it was much more humorous when we were speaking about someone else! That is exactly the picture that I had in my mind over the last three or four years at Atwood.

So, what is the work of a pastor out to pasture? I think a primary thing is to encourage other pastors who are still actively serving in a local church. Personally, I think my first priority is to encourage the wonderful young pastor whom the LORD sent to serve us at Atwood FBC!

Over the years, I have heard pastors comment that things were hard in their ministry because they were following the “hero pastor” who preceded them. I am thankful beyond words to realize that I preceded the “hero pastor” of our Church.

Almost every pastor I know and have known honestly strives to be their best but it is a simple reality that some men are more gifted than other men and the LORD uses some men in ways that he does not use others.

Our beloved pastor, Woody White, is certainly one of the most gifted and able men – especially young men – that I have had the joy to know in my over forty years of ministry! He is really bright, well-educated, and a gifted expository preacher.

God has blessed him with his wife Brittany who is every bit as bright as he and is fully committed to Woody and to the ministry of our church. Pastor and Brittany are gifts of God to me and our church for which I am very thankful!

Seven weeks after my retirement from Atwood FBC, Central Baptist Association of Decatur, Illinois, whom I served for sixteen years prior to going to Atwood, called me to serve them again, this time in a part-time capacity as their Associational Mission Strategist which allows me to continue to serve Jesus by serving HIS people and to carry out my passion for serving pastors as I have opportunity.

Thank YOU, LORD!

Sunday, January 10^th, 2021

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.”

– 1^st John 5:13 (ESV)

The Southern Baptist January Bible Study (JBS) has long been a blessing to me. For over thirty years, I have done a verse-by-verse exposition of the JBS Study almost every year.

For most of those years, I attended the Illinois Baptist JBS Pastors’ retreat at Camp Streator and I had the privilege of teaching the study there on three or four occasions.

This year, the JBS Study is “The Epistles of John.” This has made the study even more special for me since the LORD used 1^st John 5:13 to bring me to faith on Saturday, November 6^th, 1982.

Special. Really Special.

As the LORD allows, this evening (1/10) and on Sunday, 1/24 I will again teach the January Bible Study at the First Baptist Church of Lovington from 6 to 8pm.

This evening, (1/10) as the LORD allows, I plan to teach an Introduction and 1^st John 1 before a short break and then Chapters 2 and 3 after the break.

On 1/24, as the LORD allows, I plan to teach 1^st John Chapters 4 and 5 before a short break and then 2^nd and 3^rd John after the break.

Also, I have been invited to teach 1^st John 3 at Oreana Baptist Church at 6pm on Sunday, January 17^th as part of the annual CBA-wide January Bible Study.

I will appreciate your prayers for these meetings and I want you to know that if you are not having Sunday PM Services at your Church, I would love for you to attend any of these meetings that you can!

The CBA January Bible Study will also feature Dale Granda teaching 1^st John 2 this evening (1/10) at Emmanuel Baptist beginning at 6pm; Keith Schmutzler will teach 1^st John 4 at Emmanuel Baptist beginning at 6pm on January 24^th; and Dr. Scott Andrews teaching 1^st John 5 at Oreana Baptist beginning at 6pm on January 31^st.

These CBA-wide services will be live-streamed on the Church’s Facebook Page if you prefer to watch from home!

My favorite verse says, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4)

While every Bible verse is certainly a blessing, I think you will find that 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd John will be a special blessing to you and your family!

THE WEEK IN REVIEW – September 28^th through October 4^th

This past week, the LORD has again blessed me with good health, safe travels, and another wonderful week!

With the LORD’s help, I have been able to continue my healthier eating plan and to walk 2 miles per day 6 days per week.

This past week, I enjoyed an opportunity to visit with friends on Staff at Tabernacle and to meet the new Worship Pastor, Chris Gregg. That was his first day on the job!

Please pray for Chris and his wife, Abi, as they go through the process of getting settled in Decatur.

Wednesday was the latest of my twice-monthly meetings with my Pastor. It was a joy (as always) to visit with him, read and study together with him, and to pray with him.

Sunday, October 4^th, I had intended to visit the First Baptist Church of Casey where the LORD has allowed me to lead more revival meetings and conferences than at any other single Church, and to visit after Church with my dear friends Tom and Linda Marsh. Tom served as Pastor of that Church for over 25 years!

When I checked in with Tom to see if this was a good day to visit with them, he told me that he was going to be preaching that morning at the Mullen Baptist Church in Montrose, Illinois; which is another Church in Cumberland County where I had the pleasure of leading a revival.

So… I had the joy of seeing the friends at Mullen (including seeing the stunningly beautiful new Sanctuary they built a few years ago) and hearing Brother Tom preach on the Second Coming of Christ!

After Church, I enjoyed lunch with Tom and Linda at their home in Casey and I absolutely loved spending time catching up with how they and their sons are doing.

Of course, I took the longest and most rural possible routes back to Decatur and really enjoyed the fall scenery.

Sunday evening, I enjoyed watching the video of the worship service at my Church and to hear my Pastor’s sermon from Philippians!

All-in-all, another wonderful week!

Thank YOU, LORD!!!

I want to repeat my special prayer request from last week:

As the LORD allows, at their Annual Meeting this coming Saturday, October 10^th, the Central Baptist Association in Decatur will vote on the recommendation of the Leadership Team to call me to serve as their Associational Mission Strategist on a part-time basis.

I previously served CBA for 16 years before I left to serve at Atwood. Please pray that the LORD will make HIS will clear to the Association.

As in all things, my one desire is to do HIS will as HE allows me to serve HIS people in whatever way I can.

Thank you for your continuing prayers.

This past week, the LORD has again blessed me with good health, safe travels, and another wonderful week!

With the LORD’s help, I have been able to continue my healthier eating plan and to walk 2 miles per day 6 days per week.

I was able to enjoy a couple of drives this past week including a lovely drive after Church last Sunday.

I was blessed again this week to have brunch at my home with my daughter Becky who manages an apartment complex nearby. As the LORD allows, we will continue to do this once per week.

As I continue to visit the Churches where some of my dear friends serve, last Sunday I attended and really enjoyed the morning worship service at the East Harrison Street Church of God in Charleston.

Pastor Curt Weaver is a long-time and much-admired friend!

I first met Curt about 20 years ago when he was serving as the Youth Pastor at the First Baptist in Casey, IL. The LORD allowed me to do multiple revivals and conferences at that wonderful Church and getting to know Curt was a blessing!

During one of the revivals, he and Music Evangelist Bill Allen wrote a Rap Song about me… (I still love them anyway!)

Some years ago, Pastor Curt went back to the Harrison Street Church during a difficult time in their life and he has led them to become a strong and happy Church!

While I was serving Central Baptist Association, Pastor Curt invited me to lead a Revival for their Church. Until their work situation led them to move to Decatur, Brian and Melodie Keown led the worship team there!

Sunday afternoon, I was able to watch the video of the worship service at my Church and to hear Pastor Woody’s sermon from Philippians 2.

I have a vitally important prayer request this week…

As the LORD allows, at their Annual Meeting on Saturday, October 10^th, the Central Baptist Association in Decatur will vote on the recommendation of the Leadership Team to call me to serve them as their Associational Mission Strategist on a part-time basis.

I previously served CBA for 16 years before I came to Atwood. Please pray that the LORD will make HIS will clear to the Association.

As in all things, my one desire is to do HIS will as HE allows me to serve HIS people in whatever way I can.

Thank you for your prayers.

This past week, the LORD has again blessed me with good health, safe travels, and another wonderful week!

With the LORD’s help, I have been able to continue my healthier eating plan and to walk 2 miles per day 6 days per week.

I took two fairly short drives this past week and really enjoyed the day. Best of all, the crops are beginning to be harvested which means payday for the Farmers and great views for my drives.

I enjoyed my weekly lunch with my Daughter Becky and on Saturday several of our family met at her house to celebrate Austin’s 17^th Birthday.

17! Can Austin really be 17?

Austin is an excellent student and he is currently attending both Cerro Gordo High School and Richland Community College where he is scheduled to receive his Associate Degree the same weekend as he receives his High School Diploma!

The LORD’s Day was wonderful!

You know… the reality is that if you have two Churches one will inevitably be better than the other. They may both be very good Churches, but no two Churches are exactly the same so one will inevitable be better than the other.

Well… as of June of 2020, Southern Baptists currently have 47,530 Churches.

No doubt many of these are truly great Churches.

But, logically, among all of these Churches, there has to be one that is the very best of all of them.

AND LAST SUNDAY I WAS ABLE TO BE IN THAT CHURCH!

I have really missed being at First Baptist Atwood and it was a joy to worship IN PERSON with my Church; to see these dear friends; to experience the worship service; and, to hear my Pastor’s sermon from Philippians 2:5-11.

I have enjoyed visiting Churches where friends of mine are serving, Churches where I have had the opportunity to lead revivals and/or conferences, and one of the three Churches that First Baptist Atwood helped to plant.

I will visit a few more of those Churches over the next three or four weeks, but I am looking forward to every opportunity to worship with and in my beloved Church!

As the LORD allows, I hope to be able to visit all of our Central Baptist Association Churches a time or two in the coming year.

I dearly appreciate your prayers for me and my family. My son Tim and his wife Roxane just purchased a new house five miles North of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin!

Looking forward to another blessed and happy week ahead…

This past week, the LORD has again blessed me with good health, safe travels, and another wonderful week!

With the LORD’s help, I have been able to continue my healthier eating plan and to walk 2 miles per day 6 days per week.

Friday, September 11^th was the 22^nd Wedding Anniversary of my son Tim and his wife, Roxane!

I know it is hard to believe but I actually changed my schedule this past week… I went for a drive on Thursday instead of Friday!

And what a drive!

I drove to East Peoria to take a few photos of the Richland Baptist Church where I was privileged to lead a revival several years ago. (This Church is also special to me because it was planted about 60 years ago by my dear friend and mentor, Tom Miller!)

While I have previously always driven to that area by coming to the Illinois River on I-74, I figured that because of the location of the Church on Springfield Road in East Peoria that there should have been a way to get there from the south on a “country road” avoiding the Interstate.

Indeed, there is! Taking the first County Road west of I-39 off Illinois 136, that County Road becomes Springfield Road and is the very street on which the Church is located.

What a lovely and fun drive!

On the way back, taking Illinois 10 south off of 136, I took Lower Salt Creek Road south at Tehran, Illinois… and once again enjoyed one of the loveliest drives in Central Illinois.

That tiny County Road has some of the most breath-taking views in our area. I HIGHLY recommend you take that when you have the opportunity.

On Friday, I enjoyed my weekly brunch with my daughter Becky!

On Sunday, I drove to Urbana to worship with the Redeemer Church which is one of the three Churches that FBC Atwood helped to plant while I served there.

At least, that is what I thought.

The members of Redeemer Church recently did a “restart” of the Church led by a Church in Edwardsville, Illinois, and they have called a new Pastor!

The Church, which is still meeting in the same location – the former facility of Urbana First Baptist Church at the intersection of West Illinois and Race streets – is now called “New City Church.”

To say that I was blessed by the service would be a tremendous understatement!

There appeared to be 60 or so in attendance who were mostly younger adults including several families with small children. There were obviously some U of I students.

The Praise Team provided excellent worship music and the hymns were theologically sound and very well done.

The new Pastor is Nick Volkening, and his expository application of Matthew 5:13-16 was “spot on.”

They wisely practiced social distancing and I think that everyone there had their masks on. I was warmly greeted by the Pastor and two other members and by a U of I student who was there for his first time.

Of course, I went for a bit of a drive “through the country” on the way home and soon after getting home I had the joy of watching the video of the Worship Service at FBC Atwood.

The Music and Preaching were great as always… and I really, really, really enjoyed the testimony time which included a testimony by a first-time visitor!

All-in-all, this was a happy and blessed week!

I deeply appreciate your continuing prayers for me.