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PASTOR'S UPDATE

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And, then Brody has just been jamming on his drum set - I told someome that my parents got him a drum set for Christmas and their response was, "What did you do to them??"

The above photo and comment are from my daughter's blog. You can read more if you follow this link. Elaine and I decided to be daring this Christmas and we decided to give drum sets to two of our grandchildren, Brody and Evan. Thus each of our children's households would be blessed with the angelic sound of little hands making glorious music to our creator. :)

We are hoping our children and their spouses will be talking to us again by the year 2009.

A Healthy Church?

How do you assess the wellbeing of a church?

In many ways 2007 was a record year for our group at Faith.

We set new records in church attendance, Sunday School and finances. This was the first year we broke the 300 average attendance barrier in our worship services with an average of 305. There were several other notables from 2007

• Faith promise offering enabled us to lower our building debt to $16,000
• We were able to send another mission team to Mexico
• We saw the addition of a new staff member (Chris)
• The man cave was born

I could go on but you get the point, God has been very good to this church in the mountains of Virginia. Church is much more than statistics and buildings, it is changed lives. I rejoice at the change we have seen in several individuals who decided to get serious about following Jesus Christ. I was talking with one of our teen leaders and they were excited about the growth they have seen in several of our teens. Our college group is beginning to gel and seems to be headed in the right direction.

All the numbers and buildings would mean nothing if they weren't leading to changed lives. I think that is what gets God's attention.

Already in 2008 we have seen a person commit to following Christ in our morning service, several boys and girls indicate their desire to follow Christ in the service with Clowns for Christ and one man trust Christ as his Savior through our nursing home ministry. Would you pray with me in 2008 that people will be drawn to Christ through our ministry and then grow to become more like Him?

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A new small group is forming at Faith based on this book. The leader will be Harry Newman and the sign up sheet is at the welcome center. Start date is 2/08.

QUESTIONS

I will begin a new sermon series this Sunday. In this five week series I will be examining questions by some of the most famous people in the Bible. This week we will be looking at Job and his question, "Where is God?". Everything in Job's life had gone wrong and he honestly wanted to do God's will but he couldn't find God.

23:3 Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat!

Job 23:3

Have you ever been there? You pray and it seems no one is listening. You can't sense the presence of God as you did at one time in your life. You haven't stop believing in God you would like some assurance from God. If you have ever struggled with feelings like this I encourage to join us Sunday at Faith.

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Chris will be preaching Sunday night, here are some thought about the sermon from his blog:

What is God?

Is He powerful?

Is He merciful?

Is He a spirit?

Is He good?

Is He serious?

Is He holy?

 

The answers are all yes.

 

What else is He though? I mean, what is He specifically to all Christians?

 

The answer is what the title to this blog says, He is our Father. He is not only our Father, but He is the Father of several different things.

To have a healthy and wholistic view of God, we must really focus in on His fatherhood.

This Sunday night at Faith Baptist Church in Covington, VA we will be doing exactly that. I will be presenting a message entitled "Our Father Who Is In Heaven." I will be concentrating on this great Father we often only relate to by idea or basic head knwoledge/lip service instead of really seeing, knowing and loving Him as the amazing father He is.

My prayer is that as a result, we will draw near to our "Abba." (Romans 8:15) and love Him as a good child should. Then by loving Him and drawing to Him more as our Father, the natural result will be that we serve Him more as servants to our God. For He is both Father and God, as we are to be both children and servants, indeed slaves, as Paul said. (Romans 1:1-2)

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MUG AND MUFFIN FELLOWSHIP FOLLOWING THE SUNDAY NIGHT SERVICE

(Please bring muffins to share and your favorite mug, church will provide drinks.)

 

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