The Backwoods Baptist

After a brief ministry update Pastor Harold shares some of the challenges he encounters distributing free Christian literature at the Backwoods Book Co.

Churches have to have a good offense and a good defense to be a healthy church. We lose our effectiveness when we specialize in preventing the world to enter our church at the expense of getting the gospel out of our church. Other church may excel at outreach but fail in doctrinal purity. Simply put, the church has to play both side of the ball.

The Christian should be actively seeking to make friends and love his neighbors. We need to know the distinction between being friends with the world and having friends in the world. Having lost friends is the first step to leading them to faith in Christ.

Pastor Russell Threet joins the podcast to discuss an old practice that is making a resurgence. The once common practice of churches sharing a pastor is coming back into practice during this time pastor shortages. Russell and Harold discuss a couple churches that have begun this process before giving the biblical and historical precedence for this practice.

Pastor Harold begins by sharing some scriptural examples of places of private prayer before examining the prayer practices of some faithful Christians of the past. Lastly Harold shares some of his own experiences from his journey in a place of private prayer.

With most major denominations in decline and many churches either stagnate or declining is there an explanation for our declining salvations? In this episode pastor Harold Smith gives the top five reasons for our lack of salvations and offers three keys to turning this trend around.

In this episode Pastor Harold discusses the lack of pastors and the increase in pastorless churches.

Our lives have seasons as do our ministries. When we live and minister in harmony with the seasons of life and ministry we maximize our harvest.

The greatest threat to the gospel is a half-gospel that cannot save. This threat is especially serious because it is being quietly promoted by a small but growing number of Baptists — a group that historically has not held this view. The missing element in their gospel is repentance. Except ye repent, ye shall likewise perish.

In a day where everything happens fast and instant is expected, should we still wait on God's timing? Is there ever a wrong time to do or say the right thing? Let us look to the Bible to answer these questions.