Troy Manning

My typical routine for a weekend ministry is to travel over on Saturday afternoon so that I can eat supper with a family in the church and then fellowship with them in the evening.  I was able to do the former this past weekend, but not the latter.  It ended up, however, working out very well.  The church set me up to stay in the Courtyard of Marriot.  I thoroughly enjoyed a chance to have a quiet room to myself, especially since I had a midterm on Monday to prepare for and the lesson for Sunday. Typically, I speak in multiple services on Sunday.  This past Sunday I spoke in only the Sunday school hour, and that happened to be the second hour.  A couple of other unusual things about this church: no hymnals, small fellowship groups that meet for prayer on Sun evenings, and meetings at a school on Sun am and Wed pm.  The church uses powerpoint for the music (and they sing only conservative music!), which proved to be very effective in aiding worship.  They meet in a school because, though they have land, they can’t afford to build on it at this point, since construction is so expensive.

Pastor Brown has given serious thought to how God wants him to lead his congregation.  I can say that I was greatly encouraged by the vitality at the church.  It had a wonderful mix of new converts and mature believers.  The people were extremely attentive as I spoke about the centrality of the Word in the believers life.  Also, the group I fellowshipped with on Sunday evening very actively participated in the discussion as they worked through applying the pastor’s message from the previous week.  All in all, it was a great blessing to see what the Lord is doing in eastern MI, even in spite of all the economic and other pressures. 

This Sunday I will be going to Calvary Baptist Church in Midland, MI, where Dan Dickerson is the pastor.  I’m excited about this opportunity, because it’s one of those very desirable situations that a missionary rarely gets–the pastor asked me to come.  And the church has already proven their heart for Bibles International because of their previous gifts.  I will be speaking in all three slots–SS, AM, and PM.  And I’ll be on TV and the radio.  So please pray for me.  I’m also looking forward to fellowshipping with friends from BJU.