It’s been a crazy couple of days at our church offices. First, our copier/printer ran out of toner. And apparently, there is a national shortage of toner. Right now it looks like it will be delivered on Friday – hopefully.

Then, AT&T decided to replace our phone line on Tuesday morning. We have been having some trouble periodically and this seemed to be the best solution. They said it would mean that our phone/internet would only be down for about 30 minutes. 6 hours later, the first guy left and said another guy would be coming before the end of the day and get us up and running. Of course, he never came.

No copier/printer, phone, internet, email meant the next day I called AT&T and went “Old Testament” on them. They promised someone would come and finish the job. Well, someone did come. When he finished, he came inside to check that our phones were working. As he stood in our offices, he asked, “So, what is the real ‘F’ word?” (He was reading our church calendar.) I told him it was “Forgiveness” and then told him about the series we were doing. Almost in tears, he then said, “Can I ask you a question? How do you do that? How do you forgive when someone has hurt you terribly?”

Are you kidding me? Guess what my sermon is on this Sunday? Forgiving others! For the next 10 minutes we talked about forgiveness and the deep pain he was experiencing. He then asked, “Do ya’ll baptize by immersion here?” He saw on our calendar that we are having a baptism service on Sunday. “Why do you ask?” I said. “Well, I was talking to my dad the other day and he told me that I needed to get baptized by immersion. I was sprinkled when I was a baby, but now that I know what I’m doing I need to get baptized by immersion.” Again, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Thanks for the softball, God!

I then asked him to follow me into our auditorium where I showed him our portable baptistry that we had just set up two days earlier. We talked for a few minutes longer and I got to tell him what baptism represents and how it fits right in with our forgiveness and how God’s forgiveness allows us to forgive others. He also asked if we had a Youth Group. He has a son who has never been to church. He works on Sunday, but said that he might come after work to our 6PM service and get baptized.

Will he show up? I don’t know. But I do know this, there are no accidents in the Kingdom of God. And if we let Him and if our eyes are open, God even uses our frustrations, like a down telephone line for His glory.

Our new portable baptistry that is! It arrived today! I’m jacked! At Coastal we baptize by immersion and for almost 20 years whenever we have Baptism Services we typically do them at the beach. When we met at Ashley Hall School, we used their indoor swimming pool. We’ve also borrowed other church facilities that have a baptistry.

However, even though it’s December and 74 degrees today here in Charleston, we only use the beach during the Spring, Summer, and early Fall. And anyone who has been at Coastal knows that we have a history of having to reschedule and reschedule and reschedule our Beach Baptism Services because of weather. We will continue to use the beach for baptisms. There is something powerful about baptizing people in the ocean.

However, if I’m honest, one of the drawbacks of outdoor baptisms is that not everyone comes out to the event. The crowds aren’t terrible, but I think it’s important for as many people as possible to see real examples of life change. And that’s what baptism is – a beautiful illustration of life change – a celebration! It is an outward symbol of our faith. It is a public profession of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. It symbolizes new birth and a washing away of our sins. It’s also saying to the world that your life is now under new management. Therefore, I think it’s important to act when someone gives their life to Jesus and is ready to be baptized. It’s something we shouldn’t keep putting off.

So, with all that in mind and our new portable baptistry in hand, we’re going to be having our first Baptism Service in our own building on Sunday night, December 20th, during the 3rd service, the 6PM service. Not only is it the Sunday before Christmas, it is the 3rd week of our series on Forgiveness. I can’t think of a better time to do it!

True to Coastal style, we’re going to make the event a celebration – a party! At 4:30PM we’ll be having an Oyster Roast. We’ll provide the oysters (local, disease free), butter, cocktail sauce, crackers, knives, gloves, drinks, hotdogs (for those who don’t like oysters), and paper products. You bring whatever other food you want share – chili, desserts, etc.

At 6PM we’ll move into the auditorium for a time of awesome, rocking worship and the baptism service. You won’t want to miss it. If you are interested in being baptized, simply let us know. Wear shorts and a t-shirt for the baptism and bring a change of clothes, we’ll provide towels and a changing room. And yes the water is heated! It’s going to be an awesome celebration! I can’t think of a better Christmas party!

Had a great weekend at Coastal! On Saturday we had volunteers decorate for Christmas and help clean out some of our storage sheds at the church. Actually, we had to clean out the sheds to get to the decorations. The church looks great!

We started a new series on Sunday entitled, “The Real ‘F’ Word.” I said leading up to this series that it has the potential to be one of the most life changing series we’ve ever done. Why? Because the “F” word is Forgiveness. On Sunday I talked about receiving God’s forgiveness. Between our 3 services we had over 30 stand up, recognize their need for God, confess their sin, and ask God for forgiveness. It was very moving! Our attendance on Sunday was 275! I think we’re going to break 300 during this series!

Today, as I shared with a friend what series our church was doing, she shared with me how starting at the age of 5 she was molested by a family member for several years. You see, for her the subject of forgiveness is a raw, in your face, sometimes even offensive topic. For her, it IS the real “F” word. But she also shared how, by the power of God, she has been able to release her offender. She knows that vengeance is God’s and only He can settle the score.

If this weekend was any indication, the next several weeks are going to be powerful!

On a side note, Sean (our Youth Minister) had a great Parent Meeting on Monday night! Some of you might not know this, but Sean’s Grandmother in Virginia passed away the end of last week and the funeral was Monday morning. He went home to be with his family over the weekend, spoke at the funeral Monday morning, and then drove straight to the church for the Parent Meeting on Monday night! That’s dedication! I think we had more parents than I’ve ever seen at a Parent Meeting. We even had parents I don’t know. That’s what I call growth!