Crazy Days of Summer

“Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer,” sang Nat King Cole. This summer has been anything but lazy. It has indeed been hazy and just on the edge of being crazy with the smoke from the Dismal Swamp. VBS was a huge success! The enrollment shot up to over 30 more than had attended since records have been kept at Ivy. Several of the families showed up on Sunday morning, and from what I can tell, none of them had been attending church at all. Time will tell if they are open to the Gospel and are open to surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus. It is a start.

By the time you read this, Chinese Promise will have ended, and the team of eight that spent the week in Brooklyn will have returned. Not only that, but 49 youth and adults will have arrived in New England to begin a week on mission.

This you can pray for now. You will begin to hear a lot of talk about “Gone Fishin’.” I have asked David Bounds to help us reach a group of people in the shadows who have both literally and figuratively “Gone Fishin’.” By that I mean those people who, for one reason or another, have checked out of their walk with Christ and now find themselves captured by our enemy. Some have been ensnared with a co-dependent addiction, some by work and some through a compelling leisure activity like “fishing.”

Whatever has captured or ensnared them has the effect of taking a believer out of action with the Lord and placing them on the sidelines, far from the Spirit’s care. They are on their own, far from the care of the Shepherd and His flock.

I can’t think of anyone more suited to help us reach these folks than David Bounds. Many of you remember him from his service as Ivy’s interim pastor. Since then, David has begun a ministry called GraceBound Ministries. This is a counseling/discipleship ministry that helps people discover their identity in Christ and trust the “Christ in them” as they live for Him each and every day.

I can’t emphasize enough how the powerful, Biblical concepts of grace have set people free from their chains. I have seen it first hand and have experienced it myself.

Everyone can begin preparing for the people who will hear this message on August 17. Now is the time to invite your adult children, your neighbors, your brothers and sisters, and anyone you can think of who will benefit from this message. Actually, this might be something you need too.

We don’t point fingers at each other at Ivy; the Word sets us free from the powers that would trap and enslave us. That is what we are about.

PJ