DEEP // WIDE // LIGHT

Here are some lessons that I am learning in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine life. It is often assumed that those like me who minister to younger generations prefer technology - its ability to reach more people, and its convenience, and its ability to enhance the presentation of the good news.  However, at the risk of being the only youth leader in all of youth ministry who feels this way, I wholeheartedly do NOT prefer ministry through technology.  Ministry is personal and spiritual. When you minister through a medium or a screen, you dilute the personal nature of ministry. You dilute the ministry to the soul.  One of the lessons that the COVID-19 pandemic is teaching me is that technology is an insufficient format for ministry. Please don’t misunderstand. Technology is a valuable tool. But it is only a tool, and its value is too often overly exaggerated.  How is student ministry changing during the pandemic and forced isolation? We...

To my brothers and sisters in Christ in Philadelphia, Mississippi , After several months of intense prayer, I and Marion and the kids all believe that God is calling us away from Philadelphia. We believe that we have been called to move from Philadelphia to Clinton, Mississippi. We are staying here through the end of the school year, and through all of the graduation ceremonies, and my last day will be Friday, May 27, 2016. I have accepted God’s call to a new ministry opportunity. The church is Wynndale Baptist Church , just south of Jackson in Terry, MS. The ministry is Associate Pastor of Students and Missions. It is exciting to imagine how God might use me (1)in ministry to students and their families, (2)in ministry to this church as an associate pastor, and (3)in ministry in this congregation’s missions efforts as they seek to fulfill the Great Commission. We are also excited about how God might use Marion in her continued work with the STEM Institute at Mississi...

Sanctification : being made holy, or being set apart It happens every time we attend a Jesus conference or camp! We are reminded of the bad news of sin and the good news of forgiveness and love, and we turn back to God. Time after time, students experience this phenomenon. Praise God for his working! And yet… The next question on their young hearts is always the same:  “What can I do to feel this close to God back home?”  The frequent concern in the older hearts of adults is similar:  “Why do I not always feel close to God?”  There is a single answer to both questions – sanctification. The words of John the Baptizer ( John 3:30 ) fit quite nicely here to explain it succinctly: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” The first time we claim that Jesus has become our Master, the first time we ask forgiveness of a holy God, we are set free from sin’s chains; we are saved from sin. Because the perfection of Jesus has been exchanged with our ...

You might have a need that seems entirely too big to fill. You might have a situation that seems positively too impossible to solve. What if God were ALREADY at work setting up just the help you need for just the time you will need it? There is an impossible need right now for the International Mission Board . They are doing a right thing, while doing a heart-wrenching thing. They are required to reduce the number of missionaries and workers in numbers as large as 600 - 800 people in order to be good stewards of God's blessings of financial receipts and of manpower. ( See the story here. ) This situation is in spite of an increase in annual receipts from their annual Lottie Moon Offering for International Missions . I want to tell you an inspiring story. In the tiny town of Philadelphia, Mississippi, a high school senior, who is a leader in his church youth group, wanted to plan a 3 on 3 basketball tournament for his community. The church leadership here at First Baptist Ch...

In my town, there is an annual triathlon in the summer. There are strict rules about drafting as the competitors make the 27 mile cycling leg of the triathlon. What is drafting? Drafting is cycling behind or beside other competitors or a passing vehicle to reduce the drag (air resistance) that cyclists push through as they race. A competitor's drag can be reduced as much as 50% when they draft. I have seen a cyclist pull in behind a bus, and draft his way from 40 mph to 60 mph while putting out much less physical effort. In ministry, we often struggle with creating MOMENTUM. What does ministry momentum look like? It can seen in several ways: people are EXCITED about a program in the church, LOTS of people are coming to the church program (this would look like an attendance number that is higher than average or much higher than predicted), people are TALKING (in person and on social media) about the program, etc. In other words, ministry momentum is when others are FOLLOWING you ...

"Though he (God) slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face."                                                          -Job (from Job 13:15) If you have been a believer in Christ very long, you have been there -- that place of pain. It is perhaps most difficult to love God in that moment. You often wonder if he still loves you at all. After all, if he loved you, would he not take that pain away? As bad as your pain is, Job almost certainly had greater pain than yours. All of his belongings were taken from him. He went from rich to poor in an instant. All of his 10 children died. He went from a large family to a small one in an instant. Incredibly painful sores broke out all over his body. He went from healthy to painfully sick in an instant. All of this pain seemed to pour upon him so very quickly. He sat in anguish...

A tribute to God and to Liam Isaac Mooneyham (April 8, 2008 – June 17, 2014) I delivered this talk in a shorter form at Liam’s funeral, Monday, June 23, 2014, at First Baptist Church ofJennings, Louisiana . What you read here is an edited form. Aaron Tucker, Philadelphia, Mississippi email: rev [dot] tucker [at] gmail [dot] com Why? Why is Liam’s six year old grin no longer here? Why were we wearing bright colors at his funeral? Why? I tremble at the thought of trying to devise a simple answer that will meet our satisfaction. If I had a simple answer, it would not satisfy us in our pain. No. Our pain is too deep for simple. And in our search for an answer, we find that the answer is not, in fact, simple at all. The Mooneyham’s know why. They know why Liam is no longer here, and they know why we wore bright colors and released balloons at his service. They want you to know why. The answer is in four parts. And the answer comes straight from God’s Words to us...