This is an update to the Lighthouse Baptist Church
Dear Praying Friends,
False Doctrine/Growing as a Pastor:
Since the month of September, I have been dealing with an issue which involved an individual who was attending our church. This individual had been indoctrinated by a man named Steven Anderson. The reason why I bring this up in this pray letter is because Steven Anderson claims to be a New Independent Fundamental Baptist. The individual that was attending our church thankfully did not cause any problems amongst our church people. Over the course of these last couple of months there has been over 120 hours of investment both in study and in reasoning in the scripture with this individual. We had multiple meetings that lasted over 3 hours going verse by verse through the scriptures. Sadly, the individual was unwilling to budge from false doctrines like:
1. The rapture taking place just over halfway through the 7-year tribulation (Post-Trib/Pre-wrath Rapture)
2. The church has completely replaced the physical Jews and God has no plan for ethnic Israel anymore. (Replacement Theology)
It honestly breaks my heart too see an individual caught up in false doctrine such as this. If you get God’s plan for Israel wrong and you get the timing of the rapture of the church wrong, it complete changes how you see the Word of God. The individual has informed me that they will no longer be attending our church. It makes me sad to see them go deeper into false doctrine, but I am also thankful for the lessons I have learned over the course of these last couple of months dealing with this issue.
USF Students/ Youth Nights:
After evaluating where the most souls were saved in our ministry last year, we have found that the most souls saved came from door knocking and youth ministries. As result of this we decided to expand our door knocking and our youth outreach ministry. For our youth ministry we do not have anyone trained to work with youth on their own yet. So, we decided to have youth nights once a month where we take our Sunday evening service and have everyone get involved in a one night VBS for kids k-5 – 12th grade. The results of these youth nights have been tremendous. We have seen 4 people make professions of faith so far this year. One of the souls that were saved was one of our University of South Florida students from Honduras named Alina. Hannah has started discipleship with her, and she is truly growing in the Lord.
At one of the youth nights something very interesting happened while picking up some of the teenagers. When I arrived at the home of two of our teens there was a group of about 20 young men all dressed in black, some in ski masks standing outside of their house. Once I got out of the church van and walked up to their home one of the men asked if I was there to buy the cocaine. It amazes me how far our society has come. Growing up in the ministry I remember the day when people were embarrassed for the Pastor to see them smoke a cigarette. Now at least in our neighborhood they have no problem offering cocaine to the preacher getting out of the well labeled church van.
Church Member’s Moving:
When our family first moved to Florida to work with the Southside Baptist Church, Bruce and Bethany Torrens loved on our family. Upon starting the church plant back in 2019 the Torrens decided to come help us at Lighthouse. They truly have been a huge help; Bro. Bruce is a handyman who helps a great deal with fixing many things on the property and Miss Bethany has been a help teaching children in Sunday School class. They truly have been a strong support system for my family personally. Recently the Torrens have decided to downsize their home and move about an hour and half away. It’s sad to see them go, but we are thankful for their sacrificial spirit they have had over the last couple of years at Lighthouse. We know God is in it and that He will fill the holes that will be left.
Prayer Requests:
1. Pray for more souls to be saved
2. Pray for safety (Note: There have been 30 shootouts in the last two months in our neighborhood)
In His service,
The Corban Butler Family
Monthly Support Level: $1600
Goal: $3000
