I want to say thanks to those of you who read this blog. Recently, I've had a few people send me notes or mention that they are reading it and enjoy it. It's something I do for fun and a way for me to express myself in an environment I'm comfortable with. I'm sure at times I will say things that make no sense and other times, something that provokes you to think a little.

When I first came to Decatur, I wrote a little newsletter I called Current Times that had snippets of information about things on TV, court rulings and the like that could have a negative impact on the morals of our society. I'm not sure what the morals of our society really are but I know in many people's minds, we are a nation built on faith in God; that our country's founders ascribed to a Christian lifestyle. Much of this can and has been debated but as I see it, what they thought and did has little impact today. The question I ask is what are we going to say and do? What impact will we have on the country or even in Decatur?

I quit writing Current Times because a) I didn't feel like it was helping anyone make decisions about what they did and b) it was time consuming to put it together. Yet the idea and the questions that started it still remain. What will we do to turn back the wave of immorality that is rolling over us? What will we do to have an impact on the people we can see and touch? In my mind, it is a two-pronged approach. First, we must be concerned about what we see going on in our country. We must be concerned about what is shown on TV, about the growing effort to push Christ out of public places and the legitimization of drugs, divorce, homosexuality and the other sins. Second, we must be public about who we are and what we are here to do. If we stay in our church buildings, we can't complain about what happens in public places. If we don't reach out to the drug abuse, the couple struggling to hold it together or the people who got divorced and don't know where to turn now, if we don't talk about the ravages of sexual sin, we cannot affect it. We have to speak up, to be bold and courageous in our message and in our actions.

I know it's not easy. It's easier for me to write about it here than to actually do what I suggest. Yet, it is what I am going to have to find a way to do to be the man God wants me to be.