Smyrna Baptist Church

I would contact one of the IFB colleges and see if some good ones are graduating. We have had two come and preach for us from West Coast Baptist in Lancaster Calif and both were Bible-grounded young men.
Of course, that is Paul Chappell's church and college, and they will be grounded in the KJV if they graduate from there. :thumbs:

 

Forgive me, I was being sarcastic in both cases.

God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. So he knows the future, but He doesn't publish a list of whose going where. There is fine line between whosoever will and the calvanist. I believe God gives us the free will to choose. That is why we try to evangelize the world. Why would we have the commandment to "go into all the world and preach the gospel", if people we are preaching to did not have the opportunity to choose Christ. Now, we know I am not going to change your mind, and visa versa, but I've been taught the concept of evangelizing since I was saved, based on the fact that we must accept Jesus's Birth, Death, and Resurrection. My earthly father was saved just a few days before he died. Our pastor was driving by our house, felt impressed to stop and make a visit, and led him to the Lord. He was impressed by the Holy Spirit. What if he had not stopped. Maybe the wife was waiting on him at home.....Would my father have accepted the Saviour in the next couple of days of his life? In this case you could argue that since he was elected, the preacher had to stop, or maybe the next guy by the house would have stopped, or maybe the nurse or doctor would have witnessed to him just minutes before he died. I could argue if he was elected, why didn't he accept Christ years before, when he could have been helpful to the Lord's work, and raised me as Christian father. I just can't accept that God, who says "whosever will" would run a lottery to get into heaven.

Here is what I do know....The last instructions given to us, an invitation, Revelation 22:17 says "whosover will"...case closed for me.

 

Hello Racer, I'm not going to respond because if we let this break out into a debate over Calvinism, the moderator may shut it down. And besides, this is about you guys needing a new pastor, so let's don't hijack it, ok? We have plenty of calvinism debates going on in different forums, so if you want to jump in, the water is warm.

 

Thanks for the info. We have about 6 or 7 resumes' and recorded messages that we are reviewing now. Interest seems to be fairly high, especially since it is hard to get anything done between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I think we plan to start bringing in some candidates mid January.