I am preaching this week in Gastonia, NC at Beech Avenue Baptist Church where Brother Jeff Cook is the Pastor. From my estimation, we have had a very good meeting. The Lord has blessed the singing and the preaching and I praise Him for His grace and His presence in the services. Lord willing, we will finish up this evening. Pray for the meeting as we gather once again to worship our Redeemer. Please remember Brother Jeff and Beech Avenue Baptist. Brother Jeff is a fine man of God. He loves Jesus and is a very good preacher. There is a good spirit in the church and I am confident that the Lord will bless them in the days ahead. Thank you for your faithfulness to pray for me and for this ministry.

Brother Alan

I hope each of you had a great Thanksgivng Day. We certainly did. We went to Mom and Dad’s house for turkey, ham, dressing, and all the other good stuff that will make you fat and me fatter! Today, we are taking the wife’s parents to Spartanburg, SC to Mutt’s BBQ for dinner. Should be some excellent munchables. Tomorrow, we are taking about 40 youth and adults from the church to Pigeon Forge, TN to Dixie Stampede (YeeHaa!) for the Christmas show and dinner. Lots of running, lots of eating and lots of good times. It doesn’t get much better than that!

I suppose I could try and list all the things I am thankful for, but it would take a long time. Let me give you the top ten list.

God and all that comes from Him – Grace, salvation, the Word, hope, peace, forgiveness, joy, a future, you get the idea.

1. My Wife Joan – 28 years together and she is still the love of my life. It doesn’t get any better than that!
2. My Children – Nikki and Jesse have always been the joy and rejoicing of my heart. Their spouses, Chad and Amy are like my own children. I love you guys and I am proud of you all.
3. Clayton – My first grandchild and he sure is grand. Every time a see him and he smiles at me or reaches for his Papa, my heart swells with joy.
4. My Parents – I love you Mom and Dad. Thanks for supporting me and loving me.
5. My Brother – I don’t get to see Don too often, but I love him and pray for him and his wife Liz everyday.
6. My Ministry – I get to go places and see God do things I would have never imagined. I praise Him for every open door in my life.
7. My Church – Calvary is a special place. The Lord meets with us there and our people are simply the greatest.
8. My Friends – Thank God for the people He has placed in my life.
9. My Material Blessings – It may sound selfish, but I thank God for the things He has given me. He has blessed me beyond belief. I have a home, a car, food to eat, clothes to wear, and more things than I need to make life good.
10. My Health and Mind – I am overweight, but otherwise healthy. That is saying a lot. My mind, well, all in all, it’s not too bad!

Those are just a few of the more precious things in my life. How about sharing some of the things you thank God for.

Have a great holiday season.

Alan

I received an E-mail yesterday from a reader who wanted to now whether or not I, the preacher, was dead. I am happy to report that the rumors of my demise are all wrong. I am still here, I just haven’t been posting lately. The main reason is that I have had nothing worthwhile to say it seems. Blogging is a strange activity. Some people are content to post links to what others have said. Others seem to do a lot of copy and paste work in what they call their blog. Me, I would rather ramble on about nothing in general. Sometimes I have written about the things I am doing and the places I visit. other times, I say a word or two about preaching. Lately, I haven’t had much to say and less time to say it. I suppose that my energies have been so focused on the meetings I have been preaching, the needs of my family, the constant duties of the church and the recent sickneses and deaths of some precious people in our church. In other words, my mind has been elsewhere it seems.

So, this week i am preaching at Brown Mountain Baptist Church, which is located above Morganton, NC. The Pastor is Johnny Shelton. The first two nights of our meeting have been very good indeed. The Lord has given great liberty to preach His Word and the people have responded well during the invitation. In fact, every person in the church was in the altar on Monday and all but three or four were last night. I am anticipating a good service this evening as well.

So, thanks for checking up on me, and thank you to the reader who was concerned about my passing. I do desire your prayers and I do appreciate you visiting our humble web site. Tale care!

Alan Carr

We had a great day yesterday in the house of the Lord. I got to preach twice to a packed house and I appreciate the opportunity. Tonight I will begin a meeting at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Morganton, NC where my son, Jesse Carr, is the Pastor. Please pray for these services, and if you are in the area, please come to meeting with us.

Remember the Jack Richardson family in your prayers today, Brother Jack went home to be with the Lord last night at about 10:50 PM. Please pray for his wife Ramona and his children, Dean, Todd and Jennifer. Pray that God will give this family His grace during these difficult hours. For our folks at Calvary, the services for Brother Jack will be Wednesday, with the receiving from 1:00-2:00 at the church with tthe funeral to follow at 2:00. The family wants the choir to sing, so we need as many singers as possible in the service.

Still remember Norman Tester and his family. Brother Norman is getting closer to the crossing with each passing day. He and his family stand in need of prayer.

Thanks and God bless.

Alan

I have been preaching this week at the Old Paths Campmeeting in Morganton, NC. The meeting is sponsored by several local churches in the Burke County area. The meeting has been a blessing to me. I have enjoyed tremendous liberty to preach every night and there has been some movement at the ernd of each service. While I appreciate that, I have learned over the years not to try and gage the effectiveness of my preaching by how many people come forward during the invitation. The true measure of the success of our sermons will be revealed by changed lives, not by the number of people in our altars. Anyway, the meeting ends this evening, but it has been a blessing.

We have two men at Calvary Baptist who stand in need of prayer today. Both of these men are saved and looking for a spot to cross over into eternity. Pray for Jack Richardson and Norman Tester. Both of these men are getting closer to eternity by the hour. Pray for their families. This is n;t the outcome either family wanted or prayed for, but both families are walking with the faith in the God Who makes no mistakes.

Thank you for all the kind comments about my preaching blog the other day. I am committed to biblical exposition. I hope you are! I hope to write more about that in the coming days. God bless.

Alan

I am reminded again this week of the power and necessity of expositional preaching. As I travel around and preach in Campmeetings and Bible conferences, I hear a lot of preaching. One thing I hear too little of is expositional preaching. Most preachers in these meetings tend to be topical in their treatment of the biblical text. They take a text and use it as a launching pad for their thoughts. Then they preach here and there from the Bible, stringing texts together like so many pearls on a necklace. Some of their messages are exciting and moving, Others are stale and even offensive. Sadly, most people tend to believe that this is true preaching. The preacher will shout, snort, and stomp around as he preaches through the thoughts he has strung together in his mind. However, when the sermon is finished, there is nothing of value to take away from the meeting. All we have are the ramblings of a man.

On the other hand, when a man open his Bible and does serious Bible exposition, he is giving the people meat that will nourish their souls along the way of life. The preacher who is faithful to do biblical exposition when he preaches may not get the “amens” the “hallelujahs” or the “glorys” that the topical preacher gets, but he is the true friend of the listener in the pew. He is making a serious attempt to feed the people of God. He is being faithful to the text. He is delievering the mind of the Holy Spirit. He is delivering the actual message God intended when He inspired that passage. He is speaking as the very “oracles” of God. Thank God for Bible expositors! Thank God for those who take the call to preach the Word seriously. Thank God for men who refuse to take the easy road of topical sermon preparation, and are willing to give themselves to the hard work of biblical exposition and exegesis.

One of the reasons the church lacks power and glory in our day is that she does not receive the right kind of nourishment from the Word of God. The church is anemic and weak becasue she is being fed a diet of man made thoughts and ideas. What she needs is a steady diet of expository preaching. That kind of preaching will make the church healthy, powerful, knowledgeable, and biblically literate. Preacher, the call to preach is a call to “preach the Word”, not your clever twist on the text. Let’s let the Word speak! Let’s give the people the very mind of the Spirit. Let’s determine in our hearts that we will never stoop so low as to preach anything other than what “thus saith the Lord”. Let us determine to be expositional in our preaching!

Just a thought, but it will work!

Alan

I haven’t blogged in forever. I am sure that nobody even bothers to stop by to see if there is anything new here. Well, I am here today.

I am in Alabama this morning preaching in a campmeeting at Asberry Baptist Church. Brother William Cain in the Pastor. We have had good sevrvices this week. Last night was especially good. The Lord blessed His Word in a special way. I praise Him for that. Lord willing, I will head over in a few minutes for the morning session. Please pray for the remainder of the meeting. Pray that God will be honored and that His name will be exalted by every man who opens the Word of God to preach.

Well, that’s about all I have today. I just wanted to stop by and see who was here. How about taking a moment to post a comment and let me know that you are at least looking for something day by day. I will try to do better. No promises though!

Alan

I am back at the keyboard after a two week absence. I make no excuses for not blogging, I simply havn’t had the time. Anyway, I wanted to bring you up to date on what’s been going on in my world.

We got back from Little Rock, Ar two weeks ago after a great meeting there. We came home to many need among our people. So, I spent several days visiting and checking on folks who were in need of some ministry.

I am in Perry, FL today as I write this note. I am preaching at Friendship Baptist Church where Brother Ed Taylor is the Pastor. I would appreciate your prayers today as I am sick with a chest cold and can barely speak today. I am not sure that preaching is in my future today. The Lord knows!

This past weekend we had a great meeting at Calvary. Our Youth Pastor, Brother Chad Carswell, planned a three day youth meeting featuring Brother Jason Payne from Temple Baptist in Stony Point, NC. Brother Jason preached each night and truly had a touch of God on his life and preaching. The services Thursday and Friday were good, but Saturday evening was amazing! We had some 300+ youth in attendance. It was a great blessing to see them weeping, shouting, singing and worshiping God together. I praise the Lord that some young people were exposed to old-fashioned worship in that service. I was a good opportunity for them to see that you do not need comtemporary music, rock bands and other foolish concessions to the world. It was an opportunity for them to see the Lord work in power and glory. I am glad they were there. I am glad that I was there!

We came back to Calvary on Sunday and the Lord met with us in a great way again! The youth choir sang and the glory fell on the service. Praise His name!

Anyway, please remmeber this preacher in your prayers today. I would also ask that you remember Norman and Earlene Tester. Brother Norman has been in the hospital for over eight weeks. Most of that time in intensive care. The doctors told his family yesterday that he has cancer in several places in his body. The doctors said that he has about three months at best. Pray for this man and his family. They need God to do something great for them. I trust that He will!

God bless!

Alan