I'm kind of sad. Cassandra and I bought our first bedroom furniture from Rhodes furniture 16 years ago. I went by there today because they are going out of business after 130 years. In recent years many of the greatest companies in the US and the world are no longer. K-mart is now Sears Essentials. Wilco, Wolworths, Zayer, Homelife, Shoneys, Rich's, Gayfers, Caster-Knot, Eastern Airlines, TWA, and others are either out of business or absorbed by another company. Even AT&T is a non player. What happened? I think the world is changing so radically that these companies have not kept up with the changes. That happens in church life also. Some of the "great" churches of just a decade ago are dying. The members want to serve themselves and have become irrelevant to their communities. My fear is that FBTC will become another great church that goes south. We have already seen that just in the almost 3 years I have been here. Last weekend we had half the people we did my first Sunday. I talked to a great friend of mine (Ken Nuss) in Gulfport, MS yesterday. Hurricane Katrina literally wiped out their building. It has been a blessing in disguise. They are becoming a "NEW" church! They were a traditional church before Katrina. But God has a way of changing things in an instant. They had to move to the local high school and change the way they operate. They are no longer "doing church" they are "being the church." They will now no longer have Sunday PM services. They will not have Sunday School anymore. They are meeting in homes with small group Bible Studies. They will not even have a choir anymore! They are moving to contemporary music. Unbelievable! Katrina has been used by God to make them a relavant church in Gulfport! I'm jealous! Their pastor gave the vision for the "NEW" FBCG last week. Their new focus is Faith, Family and others! They are streamlining their ministries so they can make a difference in Gulfport. WOW! I think more churches should be affected by Katrina in the way First Baptist Gulfport has been affected!