Journeying Into a Hopeful Future
Posted on April 1st, 2009
Pastor’s Column published in The Informer (FBC’s Newsletter for April 2009)
Easter is once again around the corner, and lately, I have been pondering that first Easter day. For us, more than two thousand years on this side of that miraculous morning, Easter is a celebrative reminder of the living power of God, and a confirmation of the wonderful future that we have in Christ. But as I read the Gospel accounts of Easter, I sense that there was not only joy and celebration, but also shock, confusion and doubt as the disciples grappled with the impact that Jesus’ resurrection would have on their futures and the future of their community. On that morning, those followers of Jesus embarked on a Easter Journey into an unknown but hopeful future.
I feel that we at Farmville Baptist Church also are about to embark on an Easter Journey that will take us into an unknown but hopeful future. On Sunday, March 22, a taskforce consisting of Mc Amoss, Anita Lynn, George Carter, Jim Davis and I looked over the nominations submitted by the congregation for our initiating leadership team of our Spiritual Transformation Journey. We came up with a list of church members to contact, and after personal conversations with each person on that list, I’m happy and excited to announce that Ken Copeland, Crystal Cupp, Don Kyper, John Slade, Doris Weaver and Elizabeth Whiley have all agreed to serve! They will join me in an all-day training session with Bill Moore at Farmville Baptist on Saturday, April 4. Later, we will join the leadership teams of West End Baptist in Suffolk and Patterson Ave. Baptist in Richmond on an overnight training retreat at the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond on April 24-25. Please pray for the members of this team as we seek to lead Farmville Baptist in the Spiritual Transformation Journey. While I don’t know exactly the future may bring, I am excited and hopeful that this journey will lead us toward a wonderful future that God has in store for us!
On the journey with Christ, Michael
Tags: Spiritual transformation journey
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Spiritual Transformation Journey to Begin
Posted on March 1st, 2009
Pastor’s Column published in The Informer (FBC’s Newsletter for March 2009)
On Sunday, February 15, those in attendance at our called Church Business Meeting formally voted to begin the spiritual transformation journey. At the end of the worship service on that day, during the time of invitation, twenty nine people filled out a response card that indicated that they would pray and support the church in this journey. Of those who responded, five indicated that they were willing to be considered to serve on an initiating leadership team, and five more indicated that they would like to participate in one of the three-person prayer groups that will be setting up in a couple of months.
I was greatly encouraged by the response of the congregation. In the coming weeks, we will ask members of the deacon body and the congregation to nominate individuals whom they consider to be very positive and passionate about Farmville Baptist and who have the spiritual maturity to possibly serve as a member of the initiating leadership team. The church staff, together with a deacon and a church trustee, will then take the input from the church and prayerfully identify seven from that list to ask them to serve on the leadership team.
Members of this team will attend a six-hour workshop at Farmville Baptist to learn more about the “nuts and bolts” of this spiritual journey. Then they and I will attend three overnight retreats (from Friday 4 p.m. to Saturday 3:30 p.m.) during the course of the next sixteen months. At these retreats, we will join the initiating leadership teams from Patterson Ave. Baptist Church in Richmond and West End Baptist in Suffolk to learn from Bill Moore, our congregational coach, and from each other about how to lead our respective congregations in this spiritual journey.
Please be in prayer as we begin this process of discerning the makeup of our leadership team. If you would like to be considered to serve in this capacity, please let me know. May God bless Farmville Baptist as we take this step of faith to journey with Christ toward a new future!
Yours in Christ, Michael
Tags: Spiritual transformation journey
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