It is Already A Winning Season!

Although we have just begun the 2010/11 basketball season, we can already tell that it is going to be a success at The Hollywood Christian Academy. Our Lady Eagles team which has been to the state finals the past three years is once again, expected to make the trip central Florida. Just last night (11/26) our Lady Eagles beat Miami Norland High School, which was last year's 4A state champion. We believe that this could be the year that we win a state championship. Go Lady Eagles!

More importantly, though, God is at work in the lives of our young basketball stars. Recently, two of our players trusted Christ as their personal Savior and another followed the Lord in believer's baptism. I am certain that you would agree, those decisions are more important than ten state titles!

I dare not fail to mention our boys team as well. They are young, but very talented. Their regular season schedule has them playing many schools that are much larger than THCA. I guarantee you that you will be impressed with the hustle and the talent that they demonstrate!

Let me encourage you to pray for Coach Adamson and Coach Osceala. God is using them to not only develop talented ball players, but also young people that are going to make an impact on this world for the cause of Christ. It is going to be a great season!

Girls schedule - http://tinyurl.com/2epaskx
Boys schedule - http://tinyurl.com/2586dgh

Great Community Outreach!

On Saturday Hollywood Community Church held its first community mega-yard sale. This unique event was hosted by the HCC Ladies' Ministry. The response and the turnout were absolutely fantastic. The main purpose of this activity was to meet and minister to the families that live around our campus, and it was a rousing success. In total, some 50 different venders "opened shop" on our parking lot and in our gymnasium. In addition, hundreds of our neighbors attended, shopped and just had a great time.

Special thanks to our Ladies' ministry, maintenance staff and parking lot volunteers. Your dedicated service made the event a tremendous success!

The Hole in the Gospel

Recently, I was recommended the book by Richard Stearns titled, The Hole in the Gospel. In this, his first published work, the President of World Vision, asks if we as twenty-first century Christians, have embraced the whole gospel or a gospel with a hole in it?

In the first chapter, Mr. Stearns lays the biblical foundation for his premise that the Gospel includes more than the simple plan of salvation. In making such a statement, by no means, is he minimizing the signifance or the power of salvation by faith. Rather, he states that "in our evangelistic efforts to make the good news accesible and simple to understand, we seem to have boiled it down to a 'fire insurance' that one can buy." Sadly, we have ignored the hundreds of other exhortations found in God's Word to protect the persecuted, feed the hungry,and love the less fortunate. If we cut those commands out of the Bible we literally have a book with a whole in it.

Having been raised and trained in an independent Baptist envornment, I must confess that for years I have looked at social ministry as unnecessary. After all, as long we as we are introducing them to Jesus Christ and and leading them toward eternal life, then we have done our part, right? I am afraid that I was gravely mistaken. We have not only been commanded to share Jesus with a lost world, but to literally be Jesus as well.

Did Jesus ignore the hurting, the hungry and the homeless? We all know that he did not. If Christ loved and cared for them, why should we do any less? I am reminded of John's words in I John 3:17, "If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need, but shows no compassion - how can God's love be in that person."

To my friends and critics that will read this post and believe that I have become liberal and that I am watering down the Gospel, let me assure you that my passion for evangelism has not waned. As a matter of fact, I am convinced that such a position puts me and my fellow servants in a much better position to share our faith. After all, one is much more prone to listen to the gospel message with a full stomach.

"Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God." Bob Pierce, Founder of World Vision.