Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Corona Virus Response by Pastor Todd (Newspaper Article)


 COVID-19 Pandemic has, in some ways, caught the church and the nation off guard.  BUT, in many ways, it has been responded to well.  We here at HMA, of course, do not wish to see sickness, death or financial ruin of any kind, but I am very proud to be an American, a Christian and a ministry outreach leader at this moment in history. 

The pandemic has “forced the issue” on so many levels.  Yes, we are in the midst of the great toilet paper shortage of 2020 and people are improperly and wastefully using masks all over society but these things are based on fear and it is hard for me to fully condemn someone who acts out of fear because I too have been afraid.  

So much more is happening though, above and beyond just the base fears and carnal instincts of men and women.  The Church is being forced to remember what She was here for to begin with.  Caring for the elderly, sick and at risk in our communities.  Spreading the gospel message of hope, peace and strength through Christ and His perfect plan.  The Bible is being quoted more, people are praying more and more people are caring than I have seen in a very long time. 

Above and beyond all of that, great preaching and teaching is being recoded and archived on the internet for the global consumption of all future generations.  Un-settled issues, such as, is an abortion going to be classified as a necessary and emergency procedure or not.  Also, much political bickering has been put aside federally, locally and even in the church as much more important issues have risen to the forefront.  Issues of health, life, welfare and strength of our financial structures.  

I do have my concerns of just how far the “powers that be” are going to take things.  If history repeats itself, and it usually does, they are going to take them as far as they can get away with.  I am not much of one to be on the side of the federal government doing buyouts, stimulus or over generous welfare BUT in this exact situation I do see the need to not allow our economic system to implode.  I realize that we need stimulus and a hand up through all of this.  But we do not need Congress to use this as an opportunity to over-reach and create new and more powers for themselves.  AND, I do not care for the fact that a new precedence has been set, for the sake of the health of the nation, that multiple government entities will now have used a “clause” that allows them to tell Churches, Mosques and Synagogues when and for how long they will be open or closed.  

All in all, I see a lot of good coming from this in the short term and some fear for the long term.  We will bounce back economically.  America is very strong like that.  Out system still works.  We will defeat the virus.  Our health care system is still the best in the world, period.  But we cannot expect our politicians to step back after this is over.  The pandemic will allow them to create new powers for themselves and they will not want to let them go. 

Truth be told, how The Church, Christians and all good American people handle the normality of life coming back, will determine the total and final affects of COVID-19 on America.  Will it just be a passing thing?  We fed people and checked on folks and thought about how our actions affected others and watched our government…until everything got back to normal.  Until we got our jobs back and our income came rolling back in and we were able to spend all day everyday selfishly worrying about all of our games and toys and hobbies again.  Or are we going to use this frightening global health and economic crisis to “reset” some of our basic priorities.  

Then and only then will we know for sure what we are made of, what the final affects will be and what the future of this great nation will look like.  God bless America, Oklahoma and Creek County.  

-President and founder of HMA Ministries
Rev. D. Todd Sloggett

(To learn more about HMA Ministries, how to help, give and get involved in such local outreach ministries such as children’s feeding programs and drug addict placement groups, see HMAministires.com)



COVID-19 PANDEMIC from Pastor Todd’s Current Perspective



Several have asked where I am and what I am doing.  What is HMA doing?  Etc.  Here are some answers to those questions.  

When I very first started hearing about the Corona Virus outbreak being on anyone’s radar, my wife and I were planning a trip to California for our 30thwedding anniversary.

Information was vague and distant.  We flew from Tulsa and caught a connection in Dallas and on to Fresno.  I preached that night in Fresno and we went on to spend our anniversary in the Monterey/Carmel costal area.  Before flying back home we drove up the coast and attended a fellowship meeting Arbuckle, California.  Then flew back out of Freson, reconnected in Dallas and came back to Tulsa.  

The first thing that I noticed upon landing in Tulsa were the trees blooming.  Spring was obviously breaking while we were gone.  From that time on I began to get sick.  Allergies it felt like.  

We were only home for 3 days and then we drove through Arkansas to get to a camp meeting that I was preaching at in Louisiana.  The few days that we were home and on the way to Louisiana, the news about the virus began to get more intense.  I believe this is about the first time that I heard the term “social distancing”.  While in Louisiana we could see and hear some of the first affects of the news of the virus on the culture.  People were randomly talking about it, hand sanitizer was more prevalent, etc.  

We left Louisiana late one night and drove through Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and into Ohio.  This took a night and a day and I listened to the news the whole way there.  It was very obvious now that this was going to be a major event.  The stock market was wildly falling, circuit breakers were actually used on Wall Street for the first time in over 30 years.  President Trump appointed Vice President Pence as the head of the Corona Virus Task Force and numbers of infected and eventually deaths began to roll in.  

Every day things intensified and have intensified up until this very moment.  In a week and a half, we live in a completely different society.  We spent 4 days in a Hotel in Cincinnati, Ohio and everything was touch and go.  I preached in three churches that Sunday and we didn’t know until the last minute if each church was going to go ahead with service.  That is the day that all Ohio restaurants were closed at 9pm and have never fully reopened since.  Hotel services were shutting down, the hotel was running out of food.  

Monday evening we went to State Representative Keller’s home “headquarters” to prepare to put out signs for the polling stations for the next day.  I was getting very sick.  Just as Junior Smith and I pulled up, the governor was “cancelling” the election.  12 hours before an official state election, one man decided to toss out millions of dollars and tens of thousands of votes and an unprecedented amount of effort, he said, because of the Corona Virus.  (I don’t know but…It looked very political)  By this time there were three candidates for public office that were at the house with their spouses along with Brother Junior, Sister Teresa and my wife, Niki.  

Everyone was very distraught and upset, even angry.  These people were about to win 3 very important races and the Governor was jerking the rug out from under them…Illegally.  We gathered in the room and made a circle and held hands and prayed for God to open the right doors and close the wrong ones. Within 5 minutes a court had decided that the governor could not do what he was doing in the manner in which he was doing it.  That meant that the election, now about 11 hours away was back on.  Several of us loaded up and started putting our signs.  Within a half hour or so, I was so sick, coughing, gaging, weak, I couldn’t continue.  I was dropped off at my hotel while my wife and others tried to secure some medicine for me.  

The next morning, the governor had finally taken “more legal and legitimate” steps and postponed the election.  Everyone went there separate way and my wife helped me pack up and she began to drive me out of Ohio, through Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and back to Oklahoma.  

They were literally closing the country down all around us as we drove.  Me wife got me home and by that time I was in horrible shape.  At this time she was sick as well.  We both, especially myself, take allergies and colds very harshly.  No, we do not have COVID-19.  But because I have asthma, a weak immune system, a tumor and was already sick, I have avoided almost all people for over a week now.  Because of a bad cough and a very sore throat and the fact that I just don’t feel well, and the fact that I have been extremely busy (I will explain), and the fact that I have been seeking the Lord constantly for understanding…I haven’t answered very many calls, texts, emails or pm’s for several days.  I think this has added to the questions about where I am and what I am doing.  Just on March 20th, 21st and 22nd, I missed hundreds of messages.  

At that point I had been praying, meditating and “seeking the face of the Lord” for several days and I asked God in a prayer to help me to at least have faith that He was hearing and answering my prayers in some way shape or form.  Within the next several MINUTES, I received voicemails, texts and pm’s from 7 Pastors, 5 HMA ministry leaders, 2 old friends, several Bible school students from 2 different colleges, an old class mate and an old teacher from high school.  All saying the same general thing.  “The Lord has all of a sudden put you on my heart and impressed upon me to reach out to you and let you know that He is with you and is hearing your prayers.”  At that point, I felt even more direction and peace than I previously had and I started working even harder. 

 Now, I am of course watching the stock market, the economy, trade through the borders, etc because I am a businessman that owns several companies and I need my income to do the things that we are doing.  Above and beyond that and more importantly than that, I am seeking God, praying for our people, our country and our ministries.  I am also watching and learning much about “church” and American culture in general.  Some bad, some good.  Here are a few of them.  

When we got back to Oklahoma, we landed right in the middle of the great American toilet paper shortage of 2020.  This of course let me know just how random, carnal and ignorant, the actions of the people were going to be through this pandemic and so far, they haven’t let me down.  But it also started my wheels turning about missions, ministry and church.  

I had of course already heard many truck drivers, random people in stores and gas stations, Pastors and other church folks already putting their 2 cents worth in about the Corona virus.  Trump did it, China did it, it’s a coordinated attack, it’s from Hilary to steal the election, the government will use it as a way to close down all the churches, we must buy guns and ammo, this is from the devil, this is the beginning of the end of time, the military is hoarding all of the anti-serum.  Almost everybody that I generally “run with” falls somewhere in these general statements.  

But I began to consider something far different and the first couple of times that I expressed it, it was met with very harsh criticism….Should we automatically dismiss the fact that this could be the handy work of God?

Approaching this from the way that I generally approach thought.  It could be the devil, it could be man, it could be nature or in could be the direct action of Deity.  Let’s see if there is very much substantiation for any of them.  

The devil?  Though it is causing the kind of confusion and pain that the devil likes to cause, in my opinion, he is the last one that I would put this on.  The devil is very strong when directly attacking and tempting a person.  Job, Jesus in the wilderness, Judas, me, you, etc.  But where do we find him being capable of practicing a global attack?  Personally, I do not like that theory.  

Man, of course man is capable of doing this to ourselves and we basically have.  The one thing about that though is the church should have the power…let me put it this way.  The church was given the power and the authority to stop such things but doesn’t seem yet to be coming together against this.  So there is something to the man theory here.

Nature, now this one is one of the strongest cases.  God created everything in the world, recorded in the first couple chapters of Genesis.  He made rules.  Laws.  We call them laws of nature or natural laws.  Laws that He put in place and He is the only one that can break them.  The Law of gravity.  Laws of the power created if you split an atom.  Laws of, if the human body drinks lots of sugary drinks and eats lots of fatty food that it will get fat, weak and by certain other laws it can develop high blood pressure and heart problems.  Laws that naturally state that certain chemical compounds like asbestos can cause lung cancer and mixing certain natural and harmless chemicals can cause something more harmful.  These are laws of nature and it has always amazed me when humans basically ignore them and then claim Christian immunity or Biblical authority over them.  For example:  You don’t exercise, you don’t eat healthy and then you end up very overweight and then you end up with heart disease and then you call on the elders of the church to pray for a miracle.  I’m quite certain that we are supposed to obey the laws of nature first and then exercise our Christian rights and Biblical authority over what is left.  Because they are God’s laws.  But that being said, could we as a race, have created such conditions that override natural law and done things in such a way that just the very laws of nature caused something like this to happen.  Of course.  That is precisely why so many of these global threat viruses such as sars, bird flu and corona virus originated in Wu Han.  Because conditions in Wu Han province China attempt to defy the basic sanitary laws of nature.  So there is that.  

Lastly, there is Deity.  Now when I generally get to the topic of “Did God do it?”  Many people want to quickly rule that out.  God is love.  God wants to help us not hurt us.  Etc.  Let me tell you what God wants.  God wants you to miss hell and make heaven.  He wants the blood of His son to not be wasted.  That’s what God wants.  If what you think about God doesn’t fit that, you may have gotten off somewhere.  When thinking about if God did something I generally end up in the same place.  #1 There is always a level of possibility so I can’t count it completely out and #2  I can’t come to a conclusion of certainty or prove anything substantial so I just kind of leave it on the bottom shelf.  

This time, once again, I can’t prove it, it isn’t absolute and definite and I will not conclude that it is so…but I will tell you this, there is a lot more substance to it than you might want to admit.  

Most of you know that, in some ways, I am here to say things that others won’t, so… As much as many won’t like this, let me just list a few things for you.  

This current viral pandemic:  Shut down multi-billion dollar Hollywood movie houses, stopped multi-billion dollar sports industries in their tracks.  Greatly hurt these two industries that cause people to worship and idolize other humans.  Shut down clubs and bars where much immorality stems from.  Forced people to spend time at home with their families and loved ones.  Put a huge damper on workaholics like myself.  Put a lot of things into perspective.  Crashed a false 11 year bull market.  By forcing governments to close non-essential medical practices such as breast enlargements, liposuction, etc It created a legal battle over abortion clinics that we haven’t been able to win simply because we haven’t been willing to fight.  Ultimately we won, at least part of that battle, in 1 week of this pandemic.  And now that we are losing a few hundred very precious innocent lives a week to COVID-19, we are also saving tens of thousands of innocent lives a week by not murdering babies.  

 Churches that have been living in the dark ages by not broadcasting their gospel messages to the world at large are all of a sudden throwing up facebook pages and livestreaming for their members.  This now a decade after 99% of all the other churches were already doing it. As a matter of fact, almost every preacher that I have ever heard preach against facebook…is now preaching on facebook.  Also, churches that have drug their feet for years and years over not having online giving, all of a sudden fixed 3, 4 or 5 years worth of internal church politics almost overnight and start having online giving and text to give, etc. because they have to have money.  Most of these things they could have been doing all along but they just weren’t important enough to them at the time.  And I’m not saying that there wasn’t good reason some of the time.  I just wish they would be a little more honest with themselves and transparent  about it with everyone else.  Almost as if corona virus is resetting priorities for the church, the family, politics and society in general.  Many preachers are taking their message outside and ministering in the parking lot or in the yard or broadcasting live without an audience.  This I love.  I have watched many of them.  It stops them from being able to feed off of their people and allows me to see just how anointed they are and how much teaching they can do and if they really know what they are talking about instead of just getting people worked up.  Also, I dare you to do this.  Go find a church that has been broadcasting services for quite some time and listen to several sermons in a row then fast forward and listen to the last couple of sermons.  You will notice that before the pandemic there was a lot more political speak and regional standards and stuff to slip in there.  Now all of sudden, not so much.  Now things are important, desperate.  Now the message matters and it is getting more solid and doctrinal.  Didn’t it matter before?  Of course it did but we grew slack.  Times were too good.  Now all of sudden more people in the world are hearing a purer message.  Does anybody want to look me in the face and say…Rev. Sloggett, I just don’t see any way that God could have His hand in this?

Think about this also.  As soon as the pandemic began to hit, churches that already had true new testament biblical outreach ministries were able to jump into action.  They already had volunteers, the already had vehicles, the already had connections to food services, they already were in regular contact with the poor, the needy, the elderly, the troubled youth, the police, the shelters, etc.  Churches that have talked about doing outreach for the last 10, 15, 20 years, found themselves trying to “put something together” and that is another good outcome.  Now they will “have something together”.  We will see if they will maintain and sustain it or if they will just let it fall back to the wayside and go back to worrying about appearance and numbers and who’s the boss.  

One of the first things that I heard in all of this was that if the government uses this to close down the churches, we are all doomed.  I of course greatly disagree.  If the government uses this to close down the churches, the only thing that is doomed is the comfortable local church structure and all that it entails.  I doubt that anyone with any information what so ever would disagree with me that the most powerful church presence on planet earth today is the Illegal Chinese House churches in communist China.  They have seen more converts, more miracles, produced more pure doctrine sustained more suffering for Christ than any other group alive….Oh, and they do not have churches, pastors, choirs, songbooks, instruments, pews, sound systems, bank accounts or political structures.  Many of them do not even have whole Bibles at a time and yes…they are illegal.  And by the way, wouldn’t it be ironic if the thing that forced the American Church back into the biblical pattern, came from that place in the world where the most powerful and prayerful part of the church is currently located…China.  So, does not having regular services in a designated building constitute closing the church?  Perhaps not having regular services in a designated building could constitute…re-opening THE CHURCH.  

I would like to also point out that some of the biggest problems that we all know that we have been having with our society is the lack of ability to get anything accomplished, specifically because of all of the political posturing from our “leadership”.  And in all fairness, within the first several days of the most intense part of the pandemic so far, I witnessed some of the most partisan federal and state politicians as they began to stop posturing and seemingly do what they could to begin to get emergency things done.  Even Trump, Schumer, Inhan Omar began to use far less mic time to push their agendas and just started attempted to push some things through.  The first several times that I heard each of them speak, there was far less time for making political points and they were putting out sound information and being fair and realistic.  Now to be fair, there were a few knuckle heads that couldn’t stop showing their true colors.  These people need to be pointed out, shamed and voted out of office once and for all because they are dangerous animals.  I saw such partisanship and political games that were literally playing with people’s lives out of New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Nancy Pelosi and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were some of the absolute most egregious offenders.  

Again, the church had this same reaction as well.  Most church leaders that are even some of the top political problems on a regular basis, came together, made sense and got much better information out, using far less mic time to hammer their pet doctrines and political points.  And, just like in the political realm, the were those church leaders that couldn’t help themselves but to use even these desperate times to garner power and pound their pet points.  If you know of such, you would be foolish to not remove yourself from propping them up once and for good.

Now, it also goes both ways here.  If you take this opportunity to trash a leader that is under great duress from such a horrible predicament, you are the shallow selfish one.  I watch, talked to, prayed with many great men and women of God over the last many days as we struggled with what to do about lots of elements of daily life.  Do we have church, change church, continue outreach, change outreach, keep the businesses open, spend the money that we have been saving, etc.  I criticize no man for making the hard choices.  Sometimes there just isn’t a known right answer.  We do the best that we can and desperately need God for the rest. 

Now, to finally answer a little better about where have I been and what have I been doing.  I have spent the last ALMOST 25 years of my life living, learning, studying, trying, perfecting (as best we can) church and ministry techniques.  It is what HMA exists for.  We work with ministries that are excellent at it and then pass it down to those who want to do better at it.  Much of what we have created, Churches, ministry outreaches, missions works, funding platforms and booklets and starter packages have been created in house.  Rather than trying to find things somewhere else in the world, we just went back to the source.  The Bible.  And re-built things from the ground up. 

I say all of this because this is what we do, we work at building ministry programs and sharing them with others, etc.  When times are fine, we work at expanding the churches ability to do more and do it more biblically.  We have become ministry innovators and ministry funding entrepreneurs and Christian philanthropists, literally at our own expense.  But it is working!  As this pandemic hit, dozens of ministries that we have worked with, partnered with and affiliated with over the last 15 years or more swung into action.  (Almost 100 of them that I have been in contact with in the last 10 to 12 days)  They were already ready.  They were already active.  And they were already Biblical.  Only God knows how much more help people are getting now than they would have if The Lord wouldn’t have helped us work with so many great people over the last many years. 

Also, because it was an emergency and the largest one that we have ever been involved in, I made the decision early, with much prayer and duress, (blame me and me alone if it proves to be wrong)  To let the HMA Ministries and those connected with us, do their work.  Let the last decade plus pay for itself.  These are grown men and women that run homes, businesses, churches and non-profits.  They do not need my thumb on them.  They need to see me doing the right thing.  We have talked the talk all of these years, now let’s see if we can walk the walk.  I decided to try to go bigger and do more with larger entities and see what I can learn from all of this to be able to pass down more information to the rest of our works as time goes on.  

I believe it is working.  Our ministries responded all over this country almost simultaneously.  Services continued to be live streamed and even larger crowds were garnered than usual.  Calm, peace and faith were spread.  Our feeding programs ramped up and fed many many more than usual.  Nursing home services, jail services, kids programs, all were re-vamped and re-tooled for bigger and bitter impact.  The homeless were  checked on and cared for the pregnant and at risk were visited and counselled.  Ladies sewed masks, money was strategically spent and the gospel continues to be taught in more ways than ever.  

All the while, I was able to reach out to some bigger and better established entities and learn more and help more.  I was able to be involved in securing a large sum of finances and spend in all…and then some on groups that are going into jails and calming fears and offering salvation at most critical moments.  Doing the same in drug rehabs, nursing homes and mental facilities.  I was able to work with 2 large conservative political groups to put pressure on the closing of abortion clinics and the passing of a heartbeat bill.  I was able to finish a huge project of getting our Peanut Butter and Jesus community feeding program finally offered on a global level.  It is now available anywhere in the world at HMAministries.com.  I was able to learn that our 700+ total ministry connections that we have here at HMA carries more recognition that I realized and can do bigger things, faster than I even understood.  


In the last week we have worked with multiple missionaries from a least a half dozen different countries.  Helping them to come home or stay in country and make their plans.  We have helped a couple dozen Pastors get up and running on Facebook and Youtube.  We have helped, I couldn’t tell you how many, churches to retro fit their services to fit the crisis.  We have wired money to other countries to help secure the continued function of ministries through the crisis and on and on. 

Some of the things that I am learning from all of this, #1 the church has gotten far too slack and lazy.  Even more so than I realized.  #2 Much of the church finally actually believes that the establishment, is the church of the Bible.  #3 The new testament Biblical Outreach pattern is even far more powerful than we understood it to be.  #4  We can do way way way bigger things than we have ever tried to do…as long as Christ is our pattern.  

Lastly, we WILL get past COVID-19.  We WILL come all the way back and then some.  And there WILL be something even scarier coming along at some point.  Learn through this, grow through this, get less carnal and less selfish and more spiritual and more giving through this.  And keep that growth, and build on it.  We are going to need it. 







Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Brief Testimony of Todd Sloggett

My name is Todd Sloggett.  I had a very obscure past.  My Mother left us when I was six and my other brothers were 8 and 2.  By 10 years old, I was already bouncing around the west coast getting into all kinds of trouble.  By 14 I had lived in multiple places in Oregon, Idaho and California and was now homeless and hopelessly addicted to just about every vice that I could get my hands on. 

I tried to act and live a “normal” life but found myself living a “double” life instead.  I went to high school, played basketball, had a good girlfriend and even went to church some.  All the while addicted to drugs, alcohol and partying and breaking laws.  

I got away with it for almost 5 years.  My freshman year of college, it all came crashing down.  I dropped out of college, married my long-time girlfriend and got a full- time job.  Once again, taking another shot at “normal” and once again just recreating a double life in a different place.  

This time I ended up working for a respectable company, living in a house with my wife and even beginning to raise our 2 sons.  And the whole time I was drugging, drinking and building up a small local gang.  I had learned a lot about the gangs by running with them when I was on the streets of California.  

Life spun out of control very quickly and it became so hard to tell what day it was, what time it was, which way was up and what hat I was supposed to be wearing at any given moment.  I was losing it again, just like I did a few years earlier in college.  During the first few years of being married and being a father, I did everything from grocery store manager to firefighter, from repo man to police officer, from salesman to bouncer to personal security.  Still trying to break through in the gang world the entire time.  

Finally, as sin always does, it caught back up to me.  I couldn’t take things the way they were anymore and I had to decide to straighten up and stay home with my wife and kids or go back to the streets.  I of course made the wrong choice.  

I was probably never going to see my wife and 2 sons again…But God had different plans.  After a few months of being on my own again and everything blowing up in my face over and over, I began to feel what I would later understand was nothing less than the wooing of The Holy Spirit.  

The only real churches that I knew much about were the Nazarene Church that my wife went to as a kid and a couple of Pentecostal Churches that a bunch of my relatives on my mom’s side went to.  I ended up going to one of the Pentecostal churches with my older cousin on a Sunday morning.  

That morning, I got under the strongest of conviction.  I went to the altar expecting to experience some miraculous change…or die.  I was really messed up that morning.  I had taken some bad stuff and wasn’t all together in my right mind.  But when I got up from that altar, after about 2 and a half or 3 hours of prayer, repentance, bawling, asking questions and receiving instruction from the pastors; Todd Sloggett was a brand new man!  I was clean, saved and sober and I have not drank or drugged since that moment.  I have been serving the Lord with a clean and sober mind and body for 24 straight years as of this writing.  

In less that 6 months I entered the ministry as a part time preacher of the gospel.  For the next 11 plus years I was an Evangelist, an Assistant Pastor, a Sunday School teacher and a Missionary.  What I learned was this.  

The Church is comfortable being whatever definition of the church that it decides at the time.  It bothered me so bad.  I read, studied, prayed and fasted until it almost ruined me.  Once I believed that I understood what I was supposed to be doing, I set out to do it.  

With my wife and children and several others, we started a nursing home ministry in Oregon, a homeless mission ministry in Oklahoma, a national drug awareness program out of Texas that eventually spread to all states, an Affair Proofing Your Marriage seminar, a hard copy and online production company, a thrift store, a furniture company, an apparel company, an annual outreach retreat conference, we partnered with more than a dozen churches and more that 700 different ministries.  Ministries from pregnancy centers to African missions to teenage run a way, rescue and return centers to women and baby’s homes to sex trafficking victim centers to Christian Podcasts and Blogs to community feeding and clothing programs. 

We initially did it under the name of Sloggett Family Ministry.  It was later changed to Holiness Missions to America and now we operate in 18 states and 5 Counties as HMA Ministries.  Our ministry material is used in all 50 states and at least 10 countries.  

These things were done by staying true to some very basic and Biblical tenants that I refuse to compromise on.  Here are a few of them:

The Bible is right, not men.  Scripture doesn’t change, cultures do.  Preach against sin, not things.  People are allowed unlimited amounts of chances with God.  So if we are going to represent Him, we must do so in a way that allows for those chances.  Do not minister according to culture, religious dynamics, demographics or denominationalism.  Minister according to truth.  Think outside the box but inside the Bible.  Make a life of reaching the Least, the Last and the Lost.  Understand the spirit of the scripture, not just the words of it.  Love people and use things, not the other way around.  The Great Commission is the purpose of life.  Once you are saved, your first calling is that of an Evangelist.  You just have to figure out to who.  Your children, your community, Budapest, bikers…?  You can’t out preach your life.  God can afford anything that is done in His will.  All sins are rooted in selfishness.  Addictions are pure selfishness.  If you want to raise a generation for Christ, raise a generation of selfless people.  If you must err, err on the side of mercy.  Christ was the most selfless individual that ever lived.  How do I live like Him in the light of that statement?  Do not live by indoctrinated principles.  Neither by stale traditions of men nor by stagnant denominationalism.  Be brave, be bold and be Biblical.  Most church problems stem from a lack of Biblical structure OR worship of money, men and movements. 

By following this course over the last quarter of a century, I have seen drunkards, drug addicts, divorces, pimps, prostitutes, gambling, anger, lust, hatred, pornography and many others chains, fail and fall at the feet of Jesus! 


-An EXTREMELY brief overview of the life of Todd Sloggett up to the age of 48


Friday, January 3, 2020

A Salute to the Seconds in Command!!

Today I salute the Lieutenants of the world!!  The “assistants”, the “second on commands”.  It is one of the most complicated jobs out there.  To be the Assistant Pastor, the Assistant Manager, the Vice President.  You have to have everything that your leader has but don’t over-use it.  A leader that doesn’t over lead.  The highest ranking of the followers.  

I have overlooked these positions for a very long time and lately they are what come to my mind most days.  Think about it.  The heads, the leaders, they are in charge.  They are the buck  stops here guys and gals.  They run the most risk and have the most to gain.  It is hard but it is exhilarating and pays the best.  Everyone else is almost, along for the ride sometimes.  They just either show up or they don’t.  They just fill the seat or collect the check or do what they are told…but #2, he or she is running a risk too.  There just isn’t quite as much to gain from it.  

I have spent a lot of time lately watching #2s.  I have thought long and hard about them.  Many people that I watched go through their #2 stage, taught me a lot.  This is often where the skills are honed and developed to be a #1.  The guys that are great at being #2, #3 and #4 are often times prime candidate to be excellent #1s.  The folks that spend all of their time at #2, #3 or #4 just chomping at the bit so much to be #1 that they rarely develop all of the skills and attributes necessary to survive up there…Well, those are train wrecks waiting to happen sometimes.  

Being part of the crowd has it’s share of difficulties and being at the top definitely has it’s heavy load, but I have just been pondering lately about watching those secondary leaders.  Often times, that is where we pick our best leaders from.  

I know a young Pastor right now that some might have questioned his leadership skills when a church began to look at voting him in.  I didn’t.  He once worked directly under me.  He was more honest, more diligent, more on time, harder working, quicker thinking than almost anyone that I had ever met.  When he worked in our business, he seemed to care as much or more about our things, our products, our property and our money as we did.  When he worked in our ministry, he was so prayerful, careful and spiritual about it.  And it didn’t matter if he was sweeping the warehouse, carrying chairs, preaching a sermon or checking on the elderly…He did every one of them with sincerity, accuracy and a sense of urgency.  Nope, I didn’t have any doubt.  He had the right character.  Things mattered to him…whether anyone was watching or not. 
 
He quickly moved up and on.  I did not promote him.  God did!  Watch these types of 2nds.  They are going places.  They are going to be accomplishing things.  They are going to be IN CHARGE of things.

They are the exact opposites of those that won’t give it their all until it “really counts”.  There are plenty of those.  

I remember when my wife and I got married and I dropped out of college.  I desperately needed a job.  And not just a job.  I needed a good job.  We had our first son that first year and we were still living at my dad’s house.  But the only jobs that I could get were very low paying entry level jobs.  I wasn’t educated enough to earn what I needed to.  I was 19 years old and I spoke with a teacher and mentor of mine.  He said, “Todd, take the first job you get and show them what you can do.  They’ll catch on.”  I applied at the grocery store down the street.  They hired me immediately and made me a box boy.  My job was to stock shelves and carry people’s groceries out.  There were 7 box boys.  They all worked there before me.  I was a box boy for ONE DAY.  The second day they trained me to be a cashier and gave me a raise.  There were 9 cashiers.  I was a cashier for about TWO WEEKS.  After two weeks they trained me to be the backup night manager and gave me another raise.  I was the backup night manager for a few months.  The grocery store from the next town over needed a THIRD MAN (most grocery stores have three or four managers.  This one was supposed to have three and only had two).  They came and moved me over and gave me a BIG RAISE.  At this point I probably hadn’t even been working for the company for anywhere near a year.  Perhaps 7 or 8 months.  I worked for that store for a couple years and the manager gave me several raises and then came to me one day and said that I should move on.  That I was worth more than they could pay me.  I stayed and learned all that I could and when I eventually left because of outside circumstances, I had to take another bottom of the rung low paying job in a different town.  

Once again, I moved up several times very quickly, passing all of the people that worked there before I came and ended up getting my own retail store.  Now I was #1.  But something happened.  Something that happens a lot.  Something that I am ashamed of.  Once I arrived, that was it.  Oh, don’t get me wrong, I worked hard, treated their money like mine and all of that.  But I had many opportunities there and other places to search out, bring in and raise up some really good #2s that would eventually, somewhere, make excellent #1s.  Like others did for me…and I didn’t.    
 
I’m really not sure where I am going with this right now except I just felt like I needed to get it off my chest.  A few things I have learned.  The best #2s generally make the best #1s.  Some times a #2 is always going to be the best #2.  If they move up and out, they don’t do as good and the organization that they moved from, suffers and realizes how important that #2 was.  #2s, as a general rule, should watch their #1s.  If he came from a #2 spot, he may very well be able to help you and train you and possibly even know when you are ready before you do.  But regardless, some #2s come up under horrible #1s.  It doesn’t matter.  Life has a way of sorting out the best workers for the best positions.  And there are so many things to garner from all of this.  For example, sometimes it is far better to be #2 over something big and accomplishing than just go be #1 over some little something that will never amount to much. 

The truth is, this entire thought process can be boiled down to this:  You are not all of a sudden going to become diligent, hard working, honest and sincere when you get put into leadership.  Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, do it like you are running a fortune 500 company or like you are leading the largest ministry in your state or you are Pastoring the most important church in your county.  God sees and that is ultimately what matters.  But…sometimes…some of us see too.  And sometimes God uses some of us to move you up.  

As a captain over many, I humbly salute all the lieutenants that I encounter on a regular basis.  Those in our ministries, those in our company, those at my home church and at all the other churches that we attend and minister at, those that we deal with in other companies…I see you and I appreciate your efforts.  

And I have decided that my lot in life wasn’t just to become the top man of several companies and ministries.  MY job is to search out, equip, help and promote many others into key positions that fulfil their God ordained destiny.  And then someday I will sit back and watch a bunch of you go farther, faster than I ever could and I’ll take a sip of coffee and say, “I’m thrilled to have had a little something to do with that.”  Then I’ll say, “Mmmmm, this is good coffee!”


Your humble servant,
Rev. D. Todd Sloggett 


Thursday, September 5, 2019

We Need Real Men!!

The world will go the way of the free countries within it.  The free countries go the way of the greatest free country, America.  America goes the way of her religious bodies.  The religious bodies go the way of the families that make them up.  The families go the way of the marriages and the marriages go the way of the men that lead them.  If we do not get the manhood of the American fathers back...the whole world is doomed. 

Today men are soft, selfish, sculpt their bodies and wear designer sunglasses.  They chase women like they are different types of cuisine at different restaurants and they raise their children like they are burdens OR toys to play with and put back on a shelf until later.  

More than anything, the world needs men again.  Real men! Hard working, self-sacrificing, wife loving, women respecting, child raising, pickle jar opening, hand holding, money saving, walk taking, talk having, stay to the bitter end, never give up, back bone having men!!!

The majority of the evils that The Church is having to face today can be traced back to weak or absent men and Jesus already knew that it would come to this when He walked the Earth. He told the church from the beginning that a man was to keep his house in order and rule his family well.  He also told the church in it’s inception that many of her continual efforts were specifically to be toward THE FATHERLESS, THE WIDOWS, THE ORPHANS....Those without real men in their lives!!

Viable studies show that the majority of abortions are performed on women that have no “father of the baby” involved, the majority of federal prison inmates were raised without a father and the majority of rapists were raised without a father.  We also have studies concluding that most prostitutes had no father in the home or were abused by their father or a father figure.  

One more.  There is a study recently out, claiming that almost all mass shooters in the modern American era...were raised by a single parent…No father! 

Christ’s teachings were right from the beginning, they are still right.  We had a stirring and a little preaching about this just a couple of months ago.  Please don’t let it be just another fleeting thing.  Lives, souls…our community, culture and society depend on us!

  
-Rev. D. Todd Sloggett




Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Witnessing 101

The center of the Christian life is loving God and the center of loving God is evangelism.  The simplest and most effective way to evangelize (and the most common) is witnessing.  Witnessing, like any other outreach, involves consistency.  To be consistent in witnessing you must first have a lifestyle that consistently puts you around lost people.  It is quite ineffective to attempt to “go find some lost people” at a designated time to witness.  It works much better if they can get to know you.  Of course, in order for this to happen, you must vulnerably be outside of your religious bubble on a regular basis.  You must live and present yourself in a way that the lost perceive you to be both happy and kind.  Nobody wants to put forth effort to go from their kind of misery to your kind of misery.  

Next, you need to consider them and their needs in order for them to believe that you are sincere in your efforts. If all you do is show up and do all of the talking, then they can easily decide that the interaction is really all about you.

Make sure that you are witnessing the truths of the gospel. Just telling about your own experiences, or worse yet, the experiences of others, isn’t good enough. You need to tell the facts of the gospel message to establish a foundation to build on. How God loved us and sent His son Jesus. How Jesus suffered all of the fleshly evils of this world so that He could experience them, carry them to the cross and die for us. Then how He rose again victorious over death, hell, the grave and such things as depression, anxiety and lust. That we owe Him our lives for doing all of this for us and He in turn promises us access to share in His victories over our hurts and our sins.

You may think that everyone knows all of this but they do not. And even the ones that have heard it, have usually only heard it through the skewed particular religious groups that presented it. The Baptist version, the Mormon version, the Holiness version, etc. You need to be the one that brings them the Gospel version!

Once given opportunity through the open door of the power of truth, then tell what God has done for YOU. Do not exaggerate but do not fail to give the full glory for all that The Lord has really done for you. Be sure that in your testimony, God receives all the praise for what He has done and none of it is given to a man, an idea, a theology, a church or a doctrine. Be real and sincere and talk like you would at work or at home. Do not use a bunch of silly or strange religious terminology that the common unchurched person wouldn’t know or could easily get confused by. Avoid terms like trinitarian, oneness, holiness, fundamental, praying through, hitting the rock, sanctification, Calvinism and holy roller. Also avoid terms and phrases that would mean completely different things to different people. Like, old fashioned, standard, modern culture, charismatic. Instead use universal and profoundly Biblical terms like, love, power, strength, sin, freedom, evil, Savior, help, hope, prayer, faith and healing.

Do not complicate the basic power and beauty of the Gospel. Most people are hurting and sinning and would love to believe that they know someone who has found a way out and is willing to share it. It is your calling in this life to be that someone to as many people as possible. This is what Christians do and this is the most powerful way to show our love and appreciation to Jesus Christ.

Lastly, be dually prepared for good responses. #1 Always be prepared to pray with people. If we do not have faith in praying to the Lord and His promised responses to those prayers, there is no reason to expect others to believe either AND #2 Have a particular place, time, event and atmosphere that you already trust and are already prepared to invited them to. Don’t just witness to them and then leave them hanging, because after witnessing should come conversion and following conversion should always be discipleship. Discipleship is what the church structure is supposed to be about…but that’s another lesson...

-Rev. D. Todd Sloggett




Monday, November 26, 2018

Sneak Peak (Evangelism)

I want to share with you a little back and forth "rough" email conversation between myself and some ministers from around the country.  Hopefully this will encourage and inspire some of you as you see some of the behind the scenes communication that I am blessed to be a part of almost every day.  I have added some graphics to help with the mundaneness of it all.  Here you go:




 From Preacher 1:

I ran a revival a little over a month ago for a Pastor friend of mine, Bro.
B.L Horne. He pastors South Thompson Baptist Church near Vidalia Ga.( *I
caught some heat from teh Holiness Powers that Be for preaching at a
Baptist Church but I have felt it heat for other stuff so I knew I would
survive it !)*

After the last service we were talking outside and I could see he had the
burning desire to reach out to folks but had not had success in the past.
Literally across the street was a large trailer park. I asked how often had
he and his church made contact with these folks.
Bro. Horne told me they had knocked on doors over and over and invited to
church but very little response. He said his church folks are not as
engaged in it as I would like them to be and they don't seem to enjoy the
experience of meeting strangers.

I told him about Holiness Missions to America, Bro. Todd Sloggett and I
also told him what I knew about Bro. Kevin Vickers outreach efforts in
Waycross. I told him, " You know BL , my buddy Bro Todd Sloggett says, "
Its Amazing what you can accomplish when you don't care who gets the
credit!" and He also says       " Lets build the Kingdom of God first and
the Church Membership second."

I told him of all the things Bro Vickers and his church ws doing and the
impact it had made in his Church's community.

I thought to myself, What would Todd and Kevin say to this man!! So, I
asked him , Have you considered that you and your church folks could
establish a relationship with the neighbors in the trailer park and
minister to them even if they never came to South Thompson Baptist?

His face lit up..He said, We could fix Thanksgiving Dinner and go invite
them all to eat with us at the Social Hall! I said, Or you could just setup
a tent in the middle of the Trailer park where they live and bring the food
to them on their own turf?

I think it was the best sermon I preached the entire week and it was in the
parking lot to the pastor after the revival was over !

Attached are the 2 photos he sent me this morning and I have copied his
texts into the 2 entries below for your reading pleasure:

We did it yesterday and it was awesome. We prepared smoked chicken plates
(150) and carried them out. We went door-to-door last Sunday and met with
108 people and told them what we would be doing yesterday. They came to a
central location in the trailer park to get the plates, many of our church
members were there to meet and greet, Some went door to door delivering
plates. The chicken we had left over was delivered afterwards to the Mel
Blunt youth home Which is opening a completely new door of ministry for us
in December. The best is yet to come!

There is so much that has already come out of this that I just stand in
awe! The participation and turn out from going into the community and
surveying every house, To those that participated in preparing and cooking,
assembling the plates and what really blew me away those that went into the
trailer park to deliver from the STBC family. I realized last night after
reading some post that to some it was their very first trip into the
mission field and their eyes were opened and are excited. - Pastor B. L
Horne


*Now throw your hands in the air and SHOUT HALLELUJAH and keep on keeping
on !! -BF*








Also from Preacher 1:


I want to put you 3 guys together in this email. I have shared already with Todd and Kevin what I know about STBC outreach experience yesterday but Bro. B.L can tell it better himself .

Bro BL told me so many positive things that has happened since the revival I cant name them all but he can. I'm just putting good folks together that share a love to help others in hopes y'all can compare notes.

Let me introduce yall:

Rev. B.L Horne, Pastor STBC 
https://www.facebook.com/souththompson.baptistchurch.35

Rev. Todd Sloggett, Evangelist and President of Holiness Missions to America
https://hmaministries.com/about/

Rev Kevin Vickers, Pastor Waycross Holiness Baptist Church








From Preacher 2:


Bro Brian I want to thank you for your prayers, encouragement, and challenge to me when you didn’t even know you were challenging me.  The Holy Ghost prompted you, convicted me and is now working in our church and community in an incredible way.  Here are my thoughts.  Excuse my rambling but my heart is just full of little things that God has done over the past few weeks.  And I KNOW that He has more to come our way.  Just keep us in your prayers.

Bro. Todd and Bro. Kevin,

Let me just take the time to introduce myself.  I’m a nobody that became somebody because Jesus cared enough to call me to Himself.  I have pastored Southern Baptist Churches for the past 21 years. I am not an evangelist but I have an evangelical heart.  I thank you guys for what you do for our Lord.  My goal is 2 fold.  In all I do, bring Glory to His name and see lost people saved.  Brian asked me about using our story of our recent outreach and you may under one condition.  Give God Glory.  It is not about me or South Thompson Baptist Church.  Our story may seem really insignificant to many but I have seen Him work through this process and truly believe the Best is Yet to come!  I look forward to hearing some more ideas from each of you and  one day getting together.  Here is what happened,

The last night of revival, Bro. Brian Fowler made the comment that we (South Thompson Baptist Church) had a gold mine across the road in a trailer park.  I agreed and explained that we had set up a bounce house, slide, snow cone stand, door to door invitations to festivals, VBS visits, just about everything I could think of to reach the unchurched.  Efforts had not been useless, we had seen some response, and a small number of salvations but over the 8 years that I had been at STBC, the community that we call John’s Trailer park, showed little to no interest in anything we attempted.  In fact, the day we set up the bounce house, slide and treats, only one child came. 

 

But as Bro. Brian shared how another mission minded, gospel loving Brother had reached the low and lonely by feeding them, I felt inspired.  Well it was more encouraged and conviction than inspiration.  I felt like I had given up but God hadn’t.  I all of a sudden became excited about a new direction, a new idea that God had delivered.  I quickly assembled our Church Council and we began sharing ideas of how we could reach these people by feeding them.  Not preaching to them or trying to get them into our church service, but just feeding them.  After a couple of meetings and discussions, we decided to not invite them to a thanksgiving meal as we initially planned but take a plate of food to them.  The idea popped into my mind to do it on a Sunday during regular worship time.  To “Be” the church instead of “having” church. 

 

The idea was saturated in prayer, shared with the church and quickly developed into a plan.  The plan was in 4 stages.

 

1.) Planning- Map the area and go to every house, not asking names or any private information.  Just simply identify who we are and ask if they would like a smoked chicken plate at no charge.  If they said yes, ask how many plates and invite them to pick them up at a central location under a white tent located in the middle of the trailer park.   This was to be carried out by the council but I invited anyone to go.  On Sunday November 11 we assembled and instead of 5 people, we had 18 people show up.  We went out to 50 houses making 108 contacts and invited them and presented them with a card  to remind them of the location and the time.

 

2.) Preparing – Each Sunday School class hand wrote cards with a personal scripture to be placed inside each chicken box.  The men’s ministry gathered together early Sunday morning to prepare the food.  A group peeled, cut and cooked potatoes for potato salad then mixed it.  Other men sliced and bagged pieces of cake. Yet others smoked chicken and cooked green beans all while fellowshipping and eating breakfast together.  At 10:30 others from the church joined the men to prepare the plates.

 

3.) Presenting – Once 150 plates were prepared, they were loaded into the church van which is marked with the church name on the side to identify who we are.  We then took the plates to a designated area in the center of the park under a white tent.  People were waiting when we arrived.  Plates of food were distributed as people from the trailer park and surrounding area came.  They were met and greeted by about 25 members of the church, both children and adults.  I took the van, loaded with children and a few plates and went to houses that did not come to pick up plates.

 

4.) Pray, Pray, and Pray – Prayer surrounded every part of this mission.  

 

 

Once we were finished, we gathered around the table as a church family to share a meal together and individually give thanks for God's provisions and gifts in this life, things we call blessings.  Upon cleaning up, an abundance of chicken remained even after all had eaten, (like 12 baskets after Jesus fed 5K).  One of our members, Jim, suggested that we give the chicken to a boys home a few miles away and he and his wife agreed to take it.  A short time later I received a text from his wife that said “What a blessing. 20 more fed and praising God for His provision.”  Later that night Jim called telling me of the experience and how each boy personally introduced himself and gave thanks for the food.  Once Jim told me this, I began thinking of how we could minister to these boys.  Plans are already underway. 

 

 

Even though no one has come to the Lord since this took place yesterday, as we know of.  God has already worked in this opportunity.  First I saw the response of those willing to serve.  It has opened people’s eyes. I was surprised at the turnout of STBC members.  Some of them commented that they had doubts but were excited when they went into the community and saw the needs of others being met by our church.  This caused me to realize that this was the very first mission trip that some of our members had ever been on and it was 500 feet from our church steps.  Three people that live 2 counties away heard what we were planning and came to help.  A hospital heard and volunteered to cook for us and only charge what it cost them. Secondly, I saw the response of the community.  They came.  Even if it was to get food, they came.  Jesus met people’s physical needs first by developing a relationship.  I feel for the first time in 8 ½ years that I have been there, that STBC has begun a relationship with our community.  Thirdly, other opportunities have developed.  We now have a foot in the door to minister to 20 teenage boys at a boys home that is only a few miles away, this was not in the scope of our mission area. (God is so good!!!)  An elderly lady the stepped across missing boards on her back porch to come out to talk when we knocked on her door is willing to let us repair her porch.  The last house that we took plates to, a Hispanic family of 6 wanted to know from another Hispanic lady that is a member, about our services, times, and child care.  THE BEST IS YET TO COME!!!




I did have some back and forth in there with each of these ministers but I left my part out.  Just wanted some of you to catch the raw dialogue of the beginning stages of what something like some of our ministries might have looked like as God began to spark a dry field.  Please be in prayer for all that are involved that God's will and Holy work is done. 

While so many are arguing, fighting, splitting, building up power, wealth, influence and clout, we have worked with a couple hundred cases such as these and are in daily workings with about 50 of them right now.  We have seen hundreds and hundreds of conversions in a little over a decade.  To God be the glory.  Fight, work, love and pray on!












Your humble servant,
Rev. D. Todd Sloggett