Random Thoughts from a Pastor – Pastor Jay's Blog

Be His Church

I have been pondering about something that I think about a great deal, and that is the condition of the church. As a pastor going into a new year I…

Praising Him for the Small Things

I have found that many times we fail to praise God over things that seem small to us but I do believe that if we praise God in the small…

Good-Best=Better

As a preacher the moment you tell a church congregation to turn to Malachi 3:7 they know you are going to talk about tithing. I mean, after all, that is…

The Benefits of Coming to Church

I was sitting here at my desk this morning and thinking about all that happened Sunday and what God has been doing here at SDC. I was reading Hebrews 10…

The Danger of Misinterpretation

A few weeks ago, I used for my text Ephesians 3:14-21 which is actually a prayer that Paul is praying for the believers in the church. In the study of…

Building On a Firm Foundation

Over the years I have been involved in the building of houses, churches and other buildings and I have had the honor of pastoring many people who worked in the…

Connect, Grow, Multiple

WOW! God has been moving here at South Decatur. Now I know when a pastor says that the first thing that people think is how many people the church has…

Advise for Young Pastors

A couple of days ago I found out that one of my former youth pastors had taken a church and was becoming a lead pastor for the first time. After…

Is it time for a new Church Growth Plan?

I have been a pastor for the past twenty-four years and in that time I have gone to more than my share of church growth conferences. I have spent a…

XO Marriage Conference Insights

I just got back from our second annual XO Marriage conference at the church and it was an incredible weekend. Marriage is the second greatest relationship that we have in…

A Great Lie

13 Dec 201713 Dec 2017

One of the great lies that the world has set forth is that "life is too short for you not to be happy". Now let me just stop here and…

The Hope of His Coming

7 Dec 20177 Dec 2017

This past Sunday we started a new sermon series called "Advent" as we entered the Christmas season. The word advent comes from the Latin word Adventus, which is translated from…

Naked Marriage Series

For the last several weeks I have been preaching a series called "Naked Marriage" during Sunday worship. The goal of this series is to help people see that marriage is…

We must Grow Up

As a student of the Word of God and of theology, in general, I have found that two of my favorite theologians are John Wesley and Karl Barth. I know…

Obtaining and Maintaining Peace in Your Life

In the world that we live in one of the things that seems to be so elusive to us is peace. I mean we live in a world where it…

What Makes a Christian?

5 Jul 20177 Jul 2017

This is a question that I do not believe is asked in the church or understood by many within the church. So many have come to believe that salvation is…

Why go to Church?

11 Jun 20177 Jul 2017

What does it mean to be faithful to the house of God in 2017 and does it really mean as much as it use to? That seems to be a…

The Young and the Old

26 May 20167 Jul 2017

In recent weeks there has been a great discussion within the denomination that I am apart of about “getting younger”. This idea was brought up by one of the prominent…

A Brokenhearted God

22 Jan 20167 Jul 2017

This week my family said goodbye to my grandmother, or as we called her Granny. She had been sick and now is completely healed and living in the presence of…

Reaching people through the Love and Power of Christ

21 Aug 20157 Jul 2017

Today we live in a very challenging time as believers. One of the great challenges that we have is, we live in a society where there seems to be no…