In his book, The Grand Miracle, C.S. Lewis wrote an entire chapter about the incarnation, God manifest in the flesh. The following is a quote from that chapter.

“In the Christian story God descends to reascend. He comes down, down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity, down further still, down to the very roots and sea bed of the nature He had created. But He goes down to come up again and bring the ruined world up with Him. One has the picture of a strong man stooping lower and lower to get himself underneath some great complicated burden. He must stoop in order to lift. He must also disappear under the load before he incredibly straightens his back and marches off with the whole mass swaying on his shoulders. In this descent and reascent, everyone will recognize a familiar pattern, a thing written all over the world. It is the pattern of all vegetable life. It must belittle itself into something hard, small and deathlike. It must fall into the ground, thence the new life reascends. So it is in our moral and emotional life. The first innocent and spontaneous desires have to submit to the deathlike process of control or total denial. But from that there is a re-ascent to fully formed character in which the strength of the original material all operates but in a new way. Death and rebirth go down to go up, it is a key principle. Through this bottleneck, this belittlement, the highroad nearly always lies”.

The central miracle of Christianity and the highest meaning of Christmas, the most grand and wonderful of all the things that God ever did, was to come to this earth and put on human flesh.

Because He came down, we can go up. Merry Christmas!

IN REVIEW

This year it has been my high honor to preach in nineteen of our Louisiana UPCI churches as well as take part in thirteen Pastoral Installations, Anniversary Services and new Building Dedications. In addition, due to district events and services, I was blessed to be in all thirteen sections of the Louisiana district. I was also privileged to represent Louisiana in growth conferences, camp meetings, ministry training seminars, as well as other venues in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Rhode Island, and Texas.

Presently, I am involved in Thom Rainer’s “Church Revitalization” certification course which will help me better understand how to assist our churches across Louisiana to grow to the next level. It is an honor to also serve on the “UPCI Church Growth Initiative” committee under Chairman, Darrell Johns, our Assistant General Superintendent. We are working together to see every district filled with Apostolic churches which are healthy as well as experiencing the numerical growth God has intended.

My prayer is that all our wonderful churches across the state will experience the deep move of God’s Spirit as well as the exponential growth promised in Acts 2:17, “And it shall come to past in the last days saith God…”.

MISSION LOUISIANA – All Hands On Deck

This expression, “all hands on deck”, has its origin in the naval branch of the military. “Hands” is another word for sailors and “deck” is a part of the boat. In a storm or other emergency, the captain might yell “all hands on deck”. This is a command for all the sailors to come to the deck of the boat to help navigate the storm, emergency, or urgent need.

This is how I feel about our upcoming Mission Louisiana campaign. For the last year we have been planning and gearing up to approach this grand vision of building a new Boy’s Dorm and Tabernacle. In doing so, it will make room for renovating our existing tabernacle to become a 900-seat cafeteria along with indoor concessions and numerous meeting spaces. The second floor will house much needed workers dorm space. In addition, our existing cafeteria could be converted into a museum or girl’s dormitory space...all which is very needed.

Up to this point, we have received the district board’s approval to begin the planning process. In our upcoming March 2023 District Conference, our voting body will have the opportunity to place their vote toward moving forward with these most needed projects. It is a very historic time for our district. Please be in prayer and ask God to help us all be unified in all these endeavors.

Concerning our upcoming Section Conferences (January & February), in addition to voting on or ratifying our numerous leaders who serve on the section level, it will also be a time when I will share vision about our building and renovation proposals. In order to gain a clearer understanding of the whys, hows, and whens of this project, we will have a time of round table discussions that will help answer any questions that may have arisen concerning Mission Louisiana.

I am calling for “All hands on deck”. We need every licensed minister to attend their 2023 section conference. These conferences will begin at 9:00AM. I want you to be a part of the discussion concerning these very important and impactful plans which are being prepared for building on the campgrounds. This will be historic. I want you to be a part of the vision for where God is taking us.