News

On October 3rd, we will receive new members into the ranks of St. Mark. This is a joyous occasion as we formally recognize co-laborers for the cause of Christ and formally join with them and welcome them to our midst.

What does membership mean at St. Mark? Among other things, it means the members joining have formally asked the elders to be recognized as under their care. It is the formalization of a relationship with the local manifestation of the body of Christ. While you won’t find the words “church membership” in the Bible (though 1 Corinthians does say we are members of the body of Christ), nevertheless you’ll certainly find the principle there. In 1 Peter 5, we are told that elders are to “Shepherd the flock of God which is among you.” When one formally joins in membership at St. Mark, it is a formalization of being “among” the oversight of the elders. And in Hebrews 13 we read about being submissive to the elders who watch out for our souls.

As we all go about the work God has called us to, the local manifestation of the Christ’s body is of great benefit to us and we rejoice to receive these members.

The second Fight. Laugh. Feast. conference held in Nashville is now in the rear-view mirror. It was a great time of meeting up with Christians, both old friends and new, and had a general sense of camaraderie in our common fight for the good of the Kingdom of Christ — which work we are called to. This camaraderie was apparent even in the midst of the differences of lifestyles and cultures represented in the attendees of the conference. And this is true diversity such as can be had in the freedom Christ gives us. A diversity that stirs us into love and good works as we seek to identify ourselves by the common thing that unites brothers and sisters in Christ: and that is our new life in Christ as we put off the old man and all its evil deeds.

The theme of the conference as well, is timely as we consider the sexual confusion of our day. The Politics of Sex is a relevant way of addressing the way in which our culture has infused rebellion against the created order into every aspect of modern western society. Mainline liberals would have us believe not only do we not need to address this issue, but that even to believe it is an issue, is unloving and unkind. But the truth is that we are to be salt and light in this evil world. We cannot affirm evil while being about what we are called to. May God grant us courage.

Please keep Jamie Hays father, Carol Carman, in your prayers. For our newer friends and members, the Hayses were members of St. Mark for many years before moving their church membership closer to home. They, of course, remain dear and close friends.

Earlier this year Carol Carman was diagnosed with prostate cancer, but the doctors believed at the time that it was a slow growing cancer and would not become a major concern during the course of the remainder of his life. This was good news.

Last week, however, that diagnoses was revised as the doctors have discovered that the cancer is actually quite aggressive. He will now need intensive radiation lasting 38 days. This treatment is scheduled to start very soon.

Pray for wisdom for the doctors, for the effectiveness of the radiation, and that our Lord Jesus, the great healer, would see fit to intervene on his behalf that the Hayses and other friends and family might enjoy many years still of the company of their beloved friend, father, and grandfather.

And pray for the Hayses as they walk, yet again, through the valley of the shadow of death. Pray that they might rest in the comfort and love of the Lord.

Fight. Laugh. Feast. is this week, September 9–11, and St. Mark will have a strong presence at the conference through volunteers and our folks that are attending the conference. We hope it will be an encouraging and edifying time, and we also hope to bring awareness to people in the area of St. Mark who might be looking for a good, solid, reformed church. Therefore, your prayers to that end will be appreciated.

One of the things we’re keenly aware of is the chicken and egg problem regarding our growth, and facility. We are thankful to be meeting at TCA as an interim location, but we also need a more permanent solution. And while God has blessed us financially, there’s a lot of ground to cover to go before a facility could be purchased. And as we consider other, larger interim worship locations, they call come with steeper rent than we pay at TCA, which would cut down on our ability to grow the building fund.

These are things to be praying for as we consider the growth that we hope and pray God brings us (through, Fight. Laugh. Feast. and other means). And when you pray, also remember to thank God that we do, in fact, have a welcoming place to meet. Praise the Lord!

This past week severe flash flooding came to Waverly TN and the surrounding area of Humphreys County. People who track such things noted that the rainfall was measured at 17 inches in a 24 hour period. The result was devastating flooding. The death toll as of the writing of this newsletter stands at 22 and many still unaccounted for. The flooding came very fast and caught people unawares. Many were caught in their homes, where the lower levels flooded and they had to move to higher levels. Others still, in modular homes, actually floated away due to flooding where water had never been before. It was a truly devastating event and those who live in the area estimate that it will take many, many years to recover from this incident.

As our fairly near neighbor county, we invite you to pray for this community. Some in our congregation have friends in the area, and even historic familial ties. And while ties of friends and family aren’t necessary to pray for a place, it certainly makes it a more present need. Pray that God would comfort those who have lost loved ones, or property. And pray for mercy, that those still unaccounted for might be found. And pray for the rebuilding and healing of the community.

Afghanistan: You may have heard some things this week. And regardless of where you are on the political opinion side of things, we can all agree that what the people there are facing, particularly our brothers and sisters in Christ, is gut-wrenching. There are several things going on that we won’t be able to cover easily here in this one or two paragraphs, but here’s a couple things:

The Taliban are now going door-to-door taking women and children. The specifics and the rest of what’s going on are perhaps too grizzly for this newsletter. Suffice it to say that they are suffering horrendously at this Taliban resurgence.

And the Taliban has a hit list of known Christians they are pursuing and killing. And with no U.S. Embassy there now, there is no good place for them to flee to.

God often uses these types of things, paradoxically, to grow the church. This is a hard thing for us to grasp, understand, or even, in our flesh, to agree with God about. We can and should pray for God’s mercy. But we should also pray for the strength of these Christians — these martyrs and potential martyrs — as they live out the gospel in a very real, gritty way.

As pressure continues to mount from both our government and employers to require people to put things in their bodies that they do not believe they should — in this case it’s vaccines — be praying for:

1) Those in our congregation whose livelihoods are either in question or directly threatened.

2) Those among our leaders who believe these authoritarian measures are good and proper: that God would change their hearts or strike down their evil intentions.

3) Those among our friends or colleagues who are cheering on the authoritarianism that God would change their hearts.

4) Much wisdom as we navigate these matters and that our Christian witness would be strong as we seek to love our neighbors, our families, our church, and so on.

5) Pastor Thacker as he serves on the CREC committee dealing with this issue as they seek to come up with a denomination-wide statement and response.

6). The peace of the church and our congregation.

Hope Russia is one of the ministries we support at St. Mark and encourage you all to pray for and support as well. One way you can pray for for one of the Hope Russia seminary students, Victor Nedorezov.

He is the father of five children and a deacon of the church in Prokopyevsk, Siberia.

Victor contracted encephalitis through a tick bite. This has left him paralyzed on his left side, and he can hardly sit or hold up his head. But unfortunately, hospital care is not an option for him right now due to the fact that the hospitals are overwhelmed, so he’s at home.

But it’s difficult to be about the work he feels the Lord has called him to in this condition. The church in Prokopyevsk has been praying and fasting for Victor and his family and is asking that the brothers and sisters throughout the rest of the church lift him and his family up in their prayers too.

The most recent report is that this past Lord’s Day, Victor was able to attend church services — which is an answer to prayer. Continue to pray that complete healing might take place.

This week, we’d like to ask for your prayers for 10 year old Susanna Ketchen, daughter of Nathan and Melissa Ketchen. Nathan was formerly the pastor of a CREC church in Colorado.

At age 7, Susanna started complaining of back pain — to the point that she could not sleep because of it. An MRI revealed a large tumor on her spinal cord and emergency surgery was preformed the morning after the MRI to remove the tumor. This was in October of 2017.

Unfortunately, they were unable to remove everything. Some small nodules remained. The Ketchens learned a year after the surgery that those nodules are still growing. Though she has been through radiation therapy (which was pretty rough and caused a lot of swelling which left her in bad shape), the tumor nodules continue to grow and they believe she’ll need another risky surgery soon.

Through careful research and a Doctor in Mexico they are comfortable with, they are currently preparing to try alternative treatments as they await the need for another surgery. The Ketchens are requesting the following specific prayers: that Susanna would be healed, that they would have no trouble getting passports renewed, that Susanna’s symptoms would not return before they get to Mexico, that they make the best decisions on Susanna’s behalf, and for comfort and trust. Please be in prayer for this family.

One of the difficult things about living in the information age is, paradoxically, the availability of information. We have in our pockets and at the ready at all times, news and information about events that either concern us not at all, or that we can have no impact on one way or the other. This provides consequences of both the positive and

negative variety.

One the one hand, we can get ourselves worked up into a frenzy about what’s happening with laws preventing one from walking their dog after 9:05 PM in Nowheresville, Anystate, USA. And make no mistake, with such a hypothetical law we would be within our rights to fight against it were it in our municipality where we had some say over it.

On the other hand, it connects us much more closely to those who have needs we can pray for across the world. And praying for and connecting with our brothers and sisters is a right and proper use of the technological wonders God enables us to afford.

One of the concerning things that instant and global news makes us aware of is that we can and should pray about for our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan. As the U.S. withdraws from the area and a power vacuum is created, the Taliban has begun to swoop in and enforce their godless regime and evil plans in a manner which directly affects the church there. Pray that the church would thrive, that where necessary they would be bold for the Lord, and for mercy as they face the cruel and evil intentions and punishments of Islamic terrorists.

Continue to lift up Ashlee Holst, her husband Ryan, and the family. Brain scans revealed that Ashlee has had new strokes and that more are forming on the other side of her brain. When we pray to God, sometimes he answers with a “yes,” sometimes with, “wait,” and other times, he answers with “no.” It seems that the answer to Ryan’s and our prayers for Ashlee’s healing is, “no.” And while we can be sure that God is on His throne and in control of this situation, it is a hard providence for her family

to endure.

In accordance with Ashlee’s wishes, she is being removed from any life support measures and moved into hospice where she is expected to pass on to glory in a week or so.

The prayers we have been asked to make now are that her transition to glory be as peaceful and painless as possible, and, of course, for her husband and family as they bear that which God has given to them.

This is also a reminder to us of that which we profess on Ash Wednesday, “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” But, though it may be coming sooner than we would have expected for Ashlee, Jesus himself had these words of comfort for Martha in the face of her brother Lazarus’ death: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” As Ryan and his family face this anguish, we pray that they will live in the comfort of this truth.

Tim Stephens, the baptist pastor in Alberta, Canada who was arrested for continuing to gather with his congregation to worship God, was released from jail on July 1st. But before he was released, he wrote a letter to the Alberta Premier and MLAs from his jail cell. A Premier in Canada is roughly analogous to a state governor here in the U.S. while an MLA (member of the legislative assembly) is a representative in a provincial legislature roughly analogous to the members of the state legislative body (TN House of Representatives) in one of our U.S. States. The letter can be read at www.fairviewbaptistchurch.ca/letter-june23 and it is a commendable read. In the letter, Pastor Stephens does an admirable job of balancing the Christian’s call to obey the civil magistrate, and to obey God. Here’s a sample:

“For example, I’m commanded by Jesus, who died to make me his own, to practice hospitality. In fact, as a pastor, this must be a defining mark of my life. Hospitality is the practice of welcoming guests into your home. A practice forbidden by your government for 6 months. When forced to choose between obeying God and obeying men, the choice is clear.”

The entire letter is a recommended read, and is not all that long. But it is worth reading as a faithful man of God calls to repentance those who would insert themselves between man and what God has called man to do. May we be found as faithful.