Shiloh Christian’s football team is playing for the 4-A State Championship on Saturday at noon in War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Arkansas. Moving up in classification this year, it was injected in the minds of most that this would be impossible, even to win our conference. Two years ago, our school won the State Championship, and last year lost the State Championship game in overtime. The opposition this year is the mighty Pine Bluff Dollarway High School, a public school football powerhouse. Last year, they also played in the championship game, losing to Nashville High School.

This game will be the marquis game of the weekend of State Championship games. Again, it will be played at noon on this Saturday in Little Rock. We hope you will make a great day of football and Christmas shopping in Little Rock, coming to support our team. We congratulate the Shiloh Saints football team, their Head Coach, Josh Floyd and his incredible coaching staff, along with the spirit groups, and of course, all their families. This Saturday is a great opportunity to represent our Lord on this statewide platform. If your schedule will not permit you to attend the game, go to: www.shilohsaints.org to watch the game via the Internet, which some folks did in Israel two weeks ago and said it was incredibly clear and great. You can also catch the game in Northwest Arkansas on 105.3 FM . This is a great, great team we are playing with some college coaches calling their star quarterback the greatest Division 1 recruit this year in the state of Arkansas, a pure athlete. We need prayer.

Last Saturday, Bentonville High School under the leadership of Coach Barry Lunney Sr., won the State’s Largest Classification State Championship Game. We are proud for our dear friend and church member, Barry Lunney and his staff, along with the team, the spirit groups, and all of their families. Thanks for representing the Northwest region of our state with this significant accomplishment.

This is the final weekend of High School football in our state. It should be an exciting and fun build-up, and hopefully for the Shiloh Saints will result in a victory on Saturday.

Great music is available for you to experience this Christmas.  There is nothing like Christmas music.  Our hearts are blessed each time various tunes are heard during the Christmas season. There are many options available this week through our ministry.

The Christmas Dinner Theatre at our Pinnacle Hills Campus is a great experience. Last night Jeana and I attended it.  It is entertaining and the food is very good as well.  Tickets are still available for purchase as the performances will continue tonight through Thursday night.  Call 479.271.7799 for tickets or information.

This Sunday, at our Springdale Campus at both 9:15 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., our Choir and Orchestra will perform and engage us in a major Christmas program. I know they have worked hard and their desire is to grant to us a wonderful Christmas experience.  Tickets are not needed as these are worship experiences at our morning service and then another performance at 3:00 p.m. I do hope you will choose to come to at least at one of these, bringing people with you at 9:15 a.m. and perhaps again at 3:00 p.m.

Yes, this is the time to sing.  It is Christmas.

Yesterday, we had a VISION service, the entire service filled with testimonies of Jesus’ life-changing power in the lives of people. Our hearts were blessed because of hearing how many came to Christ within the past year, plus how expansive the ministries of our church are that reach across the world. God has blessed our church greatly.

Perhaps on this Monday morning, you want your heart renewed by the Lord. If you will click below, you will hear a few of the testimonies delivered yesterday.  Oh by the way, we had a Muslim lady come to Christ yesterday after hearing the testimony of Eric Fahim, a former Muslim who now follows Jesus intimately.

Listen below and be blessed today.

[audio:vision.mp3]

Have a great week.

Congratulations is in order for Bentonville High School and Shiloh Christian High School for being the only area teams still in the State Football Playoffs. While many other teams had great seasons, these two are still standing at this point, moving forward with games this weekend.

Bentonville High School is in the State Championship Game this Saturday in Little Rock. This team is led by a great friend of mine, Coach Barry Lunney. Barry has a great heart for God and our church.  He and his family attend The Church at Pinnacle Hills.  Several of the players also attend that fellowship as well as members of the spirit teams.  Some of Coach Lunney’s assistants are also a part of our Pinnacle Hills fellowship.  May God grant them great play and victory on Saturday to win the State’s largest classification football championship. My blog today honors those coaches, players, parents, and spirit teams along with their families.

Shiloh Christian High School is in the State Semi-final Game this Friday night at our stadium on our Springdale Campus. This team is led by by our oldest son, Coach Josh Floyd.  Josh loves the Lord and our church passionately and he and his family attend our Springdale fellowship.  Several of the players and members of the spirit teams attend one of our fellowships at Pinnacle Hills or Springdale.  All of Coach Floyd’s assistants are a part of the Springdale fellowship.  Since the game is in Northwest Arkansas at 7:30 p.m. this Friday night, please come out and support this significant game against one of the state’s powerhouses in all classifications, Osceola High School. If we win, we will play next Saturday in Little Rock against the winner of the Newport High School and Pine Bluff Dollarway High School game.  These final four teams are playing for the Class 4-A State Championship.

Sunday is going to be a great day in the Lord. This Sunday, we will experience the power of what we are all about as a church.  Do not miss it.  I promise you, these services will be quite a blessing to your life.

See you on Sunday morning at one of our services.

The BCS of college football is an incapable system for determining who the best team is in college football. I have never believed in it and this week’s debacle is the result of it:  Choosing Oklahoma over Texas for the BIG 12 championship game, even after Texas won in a head-to-head game in Dallas in October and did so convincingly.  This irrelevant and anemic system has failed the college football fans of America and across the world.

The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) needs to determine that a Division 1 Playoff System is imperative. A system that gathers the best teams, whether it be 8 or 16 of them, then play it out all the way to the end.  Of course, money is the driving force in those decisions because of the way too numerous bowls offered to teams that barely even win as much as they lose, even with many only winning one-half of their games.

Can you imagine it?  We have winners through a fair playoff system in every collegiate sport but the most popular one of all, college football.  No, winning is not everything.  However, fairness calls for a fair system of determining the real champion.

I do realize that many who read this blog are not college football fans.  However, I just wanted to speak to this issue that everyone is hearing about right now.  Even President-elect Barack Obama has called for a playoff system.  Well, I agree and the injustice done this year is the greatest proof of its need.

Okay, enough on this and enough of the present system:  Give us a playoff system.

This past Tuesday Doug Sprouse was elected Mayor of Springdale, now the 4th largest city in all of Arkansas. His term begins January 1. Doug has been a committed Christ-follower for years, serving this church in our Bible Study and worship ministries. In fact, there is not anything that he and Sandy have not done in this church.

The city of Springdale has elected a man of God to serve as Mayor. I realize this is not important to some, but it is very important to me. What a rare occasion for our city to have a godly man and capable leader, all in the same package. A man who has demonstrated incredible commitment to marriage and family life, as well as personifying true churchmanship all these years.

Through Doug’s service to our blessed public school system in Springdale, the Lord began to raise him up in our city in a great capacity. Through owning a private business, serving in our church, and then serving in our public schools on the board of trustees, Doug has grown in leadership greatly. Now we understand what some of his journey has been preparing him for. This preparation has now led him to be elected Mayor of Springdale.

Therefore, now we must pray for him and support him in every way. Please put him on your prayer list. Each day I call out Doug’s name to the Father. Please join me in doing this daily.

Let us also call out the name of Mayor Bob McCaslin of Bentonville and Mayor Steve Womack of Rogers, who are also a part of our church. These two men, along with Doug, should be the most prayed for public leaders in our region. So stand up in prayer for these men, church. Please join me in praying for them.

Congratulations Mayor Doug Sprouse … we ARE praying for you.