Before I get into a report of our visit with the Landmark Missionary B.C., let’s have a short Bible exposition. Verse 57 – “Thou art my portion, O LORD: I have said that I would keep thy words.” In Psalm 16:5 David said, “The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup; thou maintainest my lot.” In other words, Jehovah is, essentially, my retirement portfolio. And for that reason, I have promised, depending on your grace, to do all that I can to protect my investment. “I intreated thy favour with my whole heart; be merciful unto me according to thy word.” I am thoroughly committed to you, Lord, because I depend on and live on your favor and grace. If you please, Lord, I am asking you, and trusting you, to keep your promises to me. “I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.” I know that lip service is not enough before your eyes. I set my heart to understanding what you have commanded, and I’ve pointed my feet in that direction. “I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.” I know, Lord, that hesitation can mean disaster. I know also, that delay is essentially disobedience, so I’ve wasted no time in obeying your will. “The bands of the wicked have robbed me; but I have not forgotten thy law.” Just because things haven’t always gone my way, that has not deterred me from my responsibilities. And those responsibilities begin and end in you, my God. “At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments.” If the problems of the day wake me up in the middle of the night, I’ll turn my heart to you and not to them. And if it is midnight before I get to bed, I’ll still take time to praise your Name for the blessings of the day. Verse 64 – “The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy; teach me thy statutes.” Creation, and my little piece and little time in it, are replete with your mercies. After all you’ve done for me, “How can I do less than give you my best and live for you completely?”
Verse 63 – “I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.” It is a joy to be around people who love the Lord and the Word of God – those who reverence Jehovah. And that is what the Kjeldaards, Palmers and Oldfields were privileged to do the end of last week, during the Bible conference at Landmark Missionary Baptist in Granite Bay, California. I can’t be sure every visitor to that conference believes exactly as we do, but neither can I say they didn’t. I can’t even say that every member of the host church believes like we do or just as their pastor does. I have been told that not everyone attending those five services consistently keep God’s precepts. But as far as I know everyone we met down there fears God and reverences the Saviour, to some degree. As David suggests it should be our desire to find that kind of people and to fellowship with those people.
I’m not going to put this service on SermonAudio when I get home tonight. It will not be worth it. But there are a couple of things here that I’d like you to know and consider. Some day you may want to have a similar kind of conference. Here are 5 quick points about this trip and about what it takes to have a Bible conference of this magnitude.
The travel back and forth.
The Palmers took the easy route down and back – in the air and in a short period of time. But the Oldfields and Kjeldgaards drove – 15½ hours down and 16½ hours back. We left last Thursday morning at 5 AM, and we arrived at our motel at 8:30 that night. We went down through the heart of Oregon, and I saw a lot of new country. I loved every moment. For example, we drove under the foot of Mt. Shasta, but sadly the top was covered in cloud.
While coming and going, we saw deer, antelope, a coyote, egrets and lunatic drivers (like me).
Returning home on Monday we went through Nevada, in order that we could pass by Lake Tahoe. I asked Bro. Steve to research what time the sun was supposed to rise over the lake. After calculating the distance and time, we left our motel at 5:00 and arrived at the lake at 7:00. We parked the car, walked across the road and down to the beach with 5 minutes to spare. And then we watched the sun pop up over very beautiful lake. It was well-worth the added hour home. The rest of the day we drove up to Tri-cities, getting home about 10:30.
Point Two: the services.
As I said, we arrived at our motel in the Granite Bay area slightly after dark on Thursday. Friday morning we went over to the church to supervise Pastor White’s smoking chunks of tri-tip beef. Then we spent the afternoon with the Pastor’s family and one of the visiting preacher’s wife. That night with a number of others, we ate that smoked beef in the church fellowship hall. (Smocked beef)
After the evening meal we went into the auditorium for two messages. A preacher from Arkansas brought a great message about “Walking in the sunshine,” remembering that the Lord makes His sun to shine on both the good and the evil. This was a man I had met in Smithville, Oklahoma a couple years ago. A second brother, from West Virginia brought a message on being a “Good soldier for Christ.”
The next morning, Saturday, after coffee and donuts, there were three messages. One of the locals – the pastor of the Carmichael Baptist Church preached on “Swimming with Jonah.” Then the former pastor of the church preached from Psalm 126 – “Tell them what the Lord hath done” The third speaker was man I had met at a Bible conference in Kentucky years ago. He had an excellent message on “Sovereign Grace” from the story of David and Mephibosheth. After a huge lunch of left-over smocked brisket and freshly pulled pork there were four messages. The man from West Virginia brought his second message about “Reprobate Silver” from Jeremiah 6. Very few of the preachers actually titled their messages, so I am giving them my own title. I was the second speaker of the afternoon. The host church has a Spanish-speaking ministry, and the third speaker Saturday was that pastor. He spoke in English with a Spanish slip now and then, talking about “Diluted Gospel” from II Timothy 4. The last speaker Saturday afternoon, was another local pastor who lifted up “Christ crucified” – I Corinthians 1. There was no evening service, and we spent much of that time in fellowship with everyone..
Sunday, after some left-over donuts, there were three speakers. A young man from Kentucky who has recently been called to preach brought another – but different – message on “Soldiers for Christ.” At the Sunday School hour I preached a gospel message entitled “Three Veils and a Vail.” At morning worship hour, the brother from Kentucky preached a great message about “Naaman’s maid.” After another big meal, the Arkansas brother, spoke from the disciples watching Jesus’ ascension. The theme was that too many saints have their “heads in the clouds” – They are far too interested in what the Lord is going to do, than what they should be doing themselves. The final message was from another featured speaker from Kentucky. Sadly, after he and his wife arrived, she went into a near diabetic coma with her numbers over 1,100. She was taken to the hospital and spent a couple days fighting for her life. But she was well enough for her husband to leave her to preach the final message from Psalm 51.
The first two nights we got back to our rooms about 10:00, but on Sunday it was 8:30 or 9:00. Suffice it to say those were long and blessed days.
Point four – Our Participation.
As you can imagine, the Kjeldgaards and Palmers fit in really well. I don’t know how many times I heard people say “social butterflies” when talking about Steve and Darren. Of course, we all knew Pastor White and his family, and we had met one or two other preachers in Oklahoma. One of the blessings to me personally was to meet the Pastor of the Carmichael Baptist Church. He and I had never met, but over the last 40 years we had contacted each other for various reasons. And in about 1972 or 1975 I asked his father to come to Calgary to join another preacher from Springfield, Missouri, for the first and only Bible conference I ever hosted. It was really good to meet Bill Brown, and we hit it off really well.
As I said, I preached twice. My first message was on Saturday afternoon. Reusing a message from a couple weeks ago, my theme was the importance of our personal testimony. But I began by outlining some of the Lord’s blessings on our church since Family Camp. I wanted to encourage people about the Lord’s desire to strengthen and bless His churches. As far as I could tell the message was well received.
In my second opportunity I tried to preach the gospel from the tearing of the veil of the temple. It, too, was well-received and there were several positive comments. One man even asked me if he could have my outline – so I gave him my notes.
At one point, the Palmers and Oldfields sang a song which we’ve sung here – “Zion’s Hill.” I can say with all humility and accuracy that it was the best special sung all week. There were more boisterous “amens” during that special than there were with any other. I was surprised there were so many people who had never heard that hymn before, because I’ve been singing it for fifty years.
Speaking of the special music, of which there was quite a bit, some of it was really – “different.” For instance the Ten Commandments and even their Church Covenant were put to music and sung. The church song leader made the hymn “Amazing Grace” the theme song for the meeting. He talked about the life of John Newton, quoting him off and on, but never mentioning he wasn’t a Baptist. During the first service we sang three verses, and then in the next he added three more and more again. He kept adding a couple verses and adding verses until we sang thirteen verses of “Amazing Grace.” But the biography of John Newton by Jonathan Aitken, there were only 6 verses written by Newton.
One more point – Details and planning.
Let’s say that some day you would like to host a Bible Conference or Jubilee, like Indian Mission Baptist. I don’t want to discourage the idea, but here are some things to keep in mind. Our auditorium might have handled all the members and visitors in that meeting in California. But our fellowship hall down stairs isn’t much larger than the kitchen in either Smithville or Granite Bay. We couldn’t sit more than 20% of the people who were fed by the church at any meal last week.
In this conference there were five or six out of town invited speakers – some from 2,000 miles away. Each of those speakers had their expenses paid and they received a love offering. I would guess the church spent $5,000 to $8,000 on those preachers and their wives. As far as I could tell, all but one of the visiting couples were put into motel rooms for 4 or more days. In our case, many of the preachers we know would be glad to take beds in our homes. But we probably couldn’t handle many that way, and some would prefer motel rooms. In addition to the preachers, there were at least 3 other couples and motel rooms for other guests all paid for by the church. The church there may have spent as much on accommodations as they did travel and offerings. Judy noticed that posted in room was a price of $500 per night, but I know there was a discount given.
In this meeting there were three major meals served. Admittedly, in two of them, the pastor prepared the meat for the main course. I have no expertise in that area, so that would leave the main course of every meal to someone else. But there were also one or two dozen side dishes for each meal. That church has far more families and ladies than we have here. Someone would have to prepare a lot of baked beans, green beans and mashed potatoes. And then there were the fifty different deserts throughout those three days. Someone had to organize and coordinate those meals. Maybe it was Brother White, but more likely it was his wife, Emile. Needless to say, all that takes an enormous amount of planning and cooperation between all the ladies of the church. In addition to those meals there were dozens and dozens of breakfast rolls and donuts, not to mention several gallons of Starbucks coffee. And on Friday night, there was an “ice cream social,” in the dark on the tiny lawn at the front of the building.
I can’t begin to guess the direct cost of the meat, donuts and ice cream, or the indirect cost of all the extras. But I would not be surprised to hear that between travel costs, motel rooms and food, the church spent $20,000 on that three day meeting.
Of course, there is no reason for us or anyone else to try to duplicate the size or cost of a meeting like that. But perhaps some day we could invite two or three preachers for a three or four day conference. It is certainly something to think about. But again, it would take a tremendous amount of work and expense.