You know the old line about "Dog Bites Man" is not news, but "Man Bites Dog" is news.  I fear that "Pastor Teaches Bible" may be news today, at least more than it should be.  How many of us as pastors really give time to teaching our congregation the Bible?

H. A. Tupper (1828-1902) was the brother-in-law of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary founder J. P. Boyce.  (He married James' sister Nancy.)   Tupper was for almost 20 years the pastor of the Baptist church in Washington, Georgia (a beautiful town!).  And then for the next 20 years was the second person to lead the Southern Baptist Convention's Foreign Mission Board.  Before his long pastorate in Washington, GA, Tupper pastored for a few years the Baptist church in Graniteville, South Carolina.  While pastoring in Graniteville, Mr. Tupper not only preached each Sunday morning to his congregation, but in their evening service (which was really in the afternoon, as was common in the 19th century) preached consecutive expositional serieses through the epistles of the New Testament.  And then, on Saturday night he would gather with all those who were interested to examine them about the text he had preached on the previous Sunday!  There's an idea for a pastor teaching the Bible!

In our congregation, we print the passages to be preached on ahead of time, in order to encourage the members to study them in their personal devotional times through the week, so as to prepare themselves for Sunday morning.  We also encourage small groups to take as their study the previous Sunday's passage, and then give themselves to applying it to the lives of those present.  Just a couple more ideas on teaching the Bible.

Al, good to have you back.  Lig, any update on Twin Lakes Fellowship?