Pray for Vic Young

A couple of weeks ago, Vic Young, pastor of Fountain of Life Bible Church sent a paper around to the "active ministers" in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches. His paper was entitled "Faith and Reason in Modern Society" or "Welcome to Laodicea" and is to be presented at an Oxford Rountable this week. I finally read Vic's paper last night, and want you encourage you to pray for him as he shares. Please pray in the following ways:

In his letter, Vic mentioned his opportunity to present the gospel during the roundtable. This opportunity will find him surrounded by those deemed religious, but many who've never repented of sin and trusted Christ. Pray that the Lord illumines His gospel message in the hearts of listeners.

Pray that Vic's message is heard. His paper is an articulation of why pragmatism is a bad church paradigm. He shares many of the concerns for the "modern church growth movement" that I have, he just does it better than I have, and with more research. The church needs to hear this message.

Pray for our fellowship. If I remember correctly, Vic planted the church in Johnson City, then after it was established, he joined our Fellowship because of the passion he saw for the Word of God. Yet, in his paper, Vic directly addresses the need for our Fellowship to return to Biblical thinking and to make sure we aren't just trying to keep up with other trends. Vic even gives specifics of how this new mindset has affected our Fellowship. Pray Vic's voice is heard within the Fellowship, as one who loves the Fellowship, and desires to see God glorified through it.

I've had concerns for quite some time about how the church has been affected by consumerism trends in the church. Ultimately, I can only play a limited role in the attitude my own local church holds, let alone our district. In many ways, the direction of a national Fellowship seems too large to have any influence. And the worldwide church seems to be so far beyond, that we often feel like a very small ripple in the middle of an ocean. It was comforting and challenging to read Vic's paper.

Soli Deo Gloria!