FROM THE PASTOR’S HEART
Are we Splashing in Mud Puddles or Swimming in a Sea of Living Waters?
During the devotional for a deacons meeting, we were challenged with the following illustration from Beth Moore:
A few months ago I was taking my usual route on my morning walk when I came upon a simple scene with telling application. Four ducks were splashing in a mud puddle in the sidewalk while a large, pristine pond was just over a small hill. I stopped in my tracks and stared. I felt like God was saying to me, “Beth, that’s my church. My blood-bought, Spirit-promised church splashing in a mud puddle with a sea of living waters within her reach. Just on the other side.
That devotion brought many of us to our knees. What are we doing?
The dialogue continued in the following email:
Good morning! I feel like I am getting a bit of the mud off of me from the Deacon’s meeting. Hope you feel the same.
I realize that there will always be differences of opinions amongst church members. However, what if? What if the hour we spent on an issue that has already been addressed had been used to feed the hungry, visit the widow, or minister to the lost? What if we had spent that time in prayer or bible study? How many of those hours do we as a church let slip by? It breaks my heart.
I am so determined not to be a duck swimming in the mud puddle. Granted, there will be muddy moments along the way. But, I pray for myself, our church, and for you as our Pastor to see through God’s eyes. See the hurting and lost people. Hurt for what breaks God’s heart and prioritize our time accordingly.
I just needed to share and let you know that I believe God has a great plan for our church if we stop being our own worst enemies. Stop being divided by worship style, age, etc… I pray that we each can appreciate a ministry even if we do not feel called to be a part of it.
There is a big body of living waters that we can be “swimming in.” Will we spend the necessary energy getting out of the mud puddle and swim in living waters, or will we pass and settle for splashing in the mud? That is the question.
A big thanks to Tammy Jewell for the devotion and permission to print this personal correspondence!
See you at “the Sunday morning place to be”…swimming in Living waters!
Pastor John
From the Pastor’s Heart
“If your gospel isn’t touching others, it hasn’t touched you.”
The following is a true account:
What I saw years ago still breaks my heart. I was preaching for a small church. The volunteer receptionist told me bluntly, “Young man, you’d better do a good job preaching, because we have a visitor coming to church.” Evidently that was unusual. She explained how a lady had just called and asked for directions to the church. “Our church has been declining for several years,” the receptionist said sadly, “and we need members to help pay the bills.”
Before the service started, I stood outside with a church elder greeting people. That’s when I saw the visitor. The reason I knew this lady wasn’t a member of the church was…well, because she didn’t look like anyone else there. All the members were dressed in nice suits and pretty dresses. This young lady looked like she’d slept in what she was wearing. It wasn’t that she didn’t care for herself; it was just obvious that she’d had a tough life. As she slowly approached the church, her eyes and body language communicated that she was nervous and intimidated. I admired her courage to visit a new church all by herself. What had triggered her to come? Had she been abused? Was she at the end of her rope and in desperate need of Christ and his people?
The elder stepped in front of the young lady and blocked her path into the sanctuary. “Miss,” the man said in an intimidating tone, “at our church, we wear our best for God.”
My jaw dropped in shock. No! You didn’t just say that to her. Unfortunately, he had. This young woman’s eyes filled with tears as she dashed to her car to make her getaway.
Heartbreaking. I’d argue that people today aren’t rejecting Christ so much as they’re rejecting the church. Once, I asked a guy why he didn’t go to church. He responded without hesitation, “Because I’ve already been.”
…Churches that appear to be unfriendly to outsiders can be full of the friendliest people in the world. If you’re an insider….Jesus came for outsiders. He came for those who were lost. Broken. Hurting. Disenfranchised. Alone. Overlooked. Poor. Jesus came for those who religion rejected. Many churches unwittingly focus inward and forget those who are the very purpose for Jesus’ coming, the very purpose for our being here on earth. These churches are like a hospital which no longer accepts patients. Or a soup kitchen which no longer feeds hungry people…
Across the board, almost every with-it church I’ve observed is virtually obsessed with reaching those who don’t know Christ. A passion to share Christ consumes them in a beautiful way. Without-it ministries can be filled with very sincere Bible believing Christians; unfortunately, they’re simply more concerned about themselves than the lost.
(Adapted with permission from the book “It: How churches and leaders can get it and keep it” by Craig Croeschel. If you like to read during the summer, this is a fun, inspiring read. You’ll be blessed!)
See you at “the Sunday morning place to be”…touching others for Christ’s sake!
Pastor John
From the Pasto’r Heart
From the Pastor’s Heart
Here’s Hope Great Commission Cluster
I have a life wish for Azalea Baptist Church! I do not just want to see this church survive, but I want this church to thrive. I know that I am not alone. Some of you have had this same yearning for years, and have witnessed much of your life wish for the church come to fruition. And we celebrate God’s legacy of providence. Yet I still believe “the best is yet to come!”
I am not content to stay at the same level that we are currently experiencing. Why? Because the harvest is plentiful…
…and the workers are few….
We can rejoice that the harvest is plentiful. But what do we do about the the workers are few part?
This is where the Here’s Hope Great Commission Cluster comes into play. It is not another program to go through, not another method to study. So many of you have been through those things and the results just didn’t stick.
If we are willing to invest time and energy, the Norfolk Area Baptist Association will invest the money to leverage a breakthrough strategy for our congregation. This tested and proven approach is based on the work of empowering pastors and lay leaders to lead their church to fulfill our God-given mission of making disciples. Dr. Paul D. Borden, author of three books: Hit the Bull’s-eye, Direct Hit, and Assaulting the Gates will lead the Great Commission Cluster. This strategy is the result of tested and proven methods which have resulted in many churches fulfilling the Great Commission.
What does this process look like?
There are three dimensions of the Here’s Hope Great Commission Cluster:
1 – Monthly cluster meetings for the pastor for one year. This will be one-day events and will be devoted to training and inspiration and will include pastors who have successfully led churches beyond the size of the largest church represented in the cluster. Why the focus on numbers? Because numbers represent things, and in this case it represents lost people who have been found by the Savior.
2- Consultations for our congregation. Each church will receive a weekend consultation led by a team of consultants, who will study our church history, community context, conduct focus group and individual interviews, provide teaching, preaching, inspiration and share insights gleaned from thousands of such church consultations.
3 – Lay training events during the year. At least two training event will be held during the year in order to further inspire and equip members of the cluster churches.
The Cluster will consist of 8-10 churches. Thalia Lynn, Kings Grant, Great Bridge and others have already committed to being a part of the Great Commission Cluster. We are being extended an opportunity to join them. If we pass up this opportunity, I would not want to be the one answering to the Lord why we thought we were doing just fine without it.
Outside of the time and energy investment, the only cost is to be a participating member of the Association (which we are in good standing) and to provide a meal during the weekend training after the Sunday worship service for that weekend. This means that our kitchen crew, who work so faithfully, will be forced to “let someone else cook for them.”
That’s a small price to pay for such an opportunity. I look forward to continuing our dialogue about the Here’s Hope Great Commission Cluster!
See you at “the Sunday morning place to be”….rejoicing in the harvest and thrilled to be a worker in the field!
Pastor John
From the Pastor’s Heart
From the Pastor’s Heart
April Showers Bring May Flowers
“April showers bring May flowers” is an old saying that we have heard growing up. There is a spiritual lesson in there for us as well. When we go through the “showers” of life, there is growth in us that can develop us spiritually, like the flowers in May. No one likes to go out when it’s raining. Many fun activities have to be postponed or canceled. Rainy days also affect many people’s moods. A rainy day is a good metaphor for our challenges and struggles spiritually. We grow the most when we are totally dependant upon God. Sadly, most of us only get to that point after we have tried everything else that we can.
But like the May flowers that unfold when in touch with the warmth of God’s love, we grow after a season of challenge, despair, rainy days, you get the idea.
The most encouraging books of the Bible were written from dungeons and on the run in the wilderness with danger and tension bearing down on the author. It is from those places that the authors of those books of the Bible were inspired by God to encourage followers of Jesus for centuries.
May all your “showers” bring forth spiritual “flowers.”
This May 16th we will say thank you and good bye to Rob Sandford, the ODU Baptist Campus Minister. Rob has the record of being the longest tenured Baptist Campus minister in the United States, which pretty much means, the WORLD. Rob has been to preach at Azalea many times and we have been blessed by his time of leadership. You are cordially invited to the Baptist Student Union at the Old Dominion University from 6-8 PM on May 16th.
See you at “the Sunday morning place to be”…grateful to God rain or shine!
Pastor John
Farewell Coach Joe Gibbs
Saying goodbye is always hard to do. Especially when the person is “an institution.”Here at Azalea we are saying goodbye to our friend and Minister of Christian Education, Rev. Amy Stertz. Norfolk is saying goodbye to Old Dominion University’s President Runte. And now the Redskins are saying goodbye to legendary coach Joe Gibbs. I applaud Joe Gibbs testimony as a follower of Christ above his win/loss record. His presence, leadership and ethics will be missed. Someone said that reminded them of the old ’60’s song “to everything, turn, turn, turn” to which I reminded them that the song’s lyrics were actually taken from the Bible: Ecclesiastes Chapter 3. Now, more than ever God’s word reminds of that in the midst of change, one thing never changes: “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever” Isaiah 40:8. May this truth comfort us in these changing times.
Youth EnCounter August 2-3
I always enjoy spending time with our young people. Because of other scheduled responsibilities, I don’t always get to spend as much time as I’d like with our youth. So I always look for opportunities when I can connect with our young members. YEC is the perfect opportunity! It used to be Youth Evangelism Conference, but now is called Youth EnCounter. It used to be held partly at Virginia Commonwealth University. And, it used to have a built in time at King’s Dominion. Others can still go to King’s Dominion but I am excited about the change which will allow 100% Christian content and quality programming. I can tell that I am…aheem…maturing because I always thought “Skillet” was something you cooked in, now it’s one of the featured bands. Can’t wait for YEC!
Youth Sunday
Youth Sunday was such an incredible witness for me. The youth led the worship service, doing everything from testimony, scripture reading, reflecting on their Mfuge trip, the music, to even taking up the offering! At the beginning of the service I sat at the back. I wanted to see how people would react to “the youth’s music.” It wasn’t loud, in fact, probably could have been a couple of decibles louder! But it was different. Not everyone in attendance knew the songs, which were contemporary/praise and the lyrics displayed on an overhead projector. To the youth’s defense there were classical hymns played in the worship service, but done with guitar, not the organ. Oh, the organ did play during the offertory and doxology, but that was the only reminder of Sundays past. Youth Sunday was not about the youth, but about God working through the lives of the youth! To God be the glory!
Pastor’s Blog – First Thoughts
Well here we are up and running. There is still tweaking to be done, but our goal is to be able to communicate the gospel and have a dialogue about current events with a Biblical worldview. Some of the features of this webpage will be the blog, and the ability to access Christian content and resources to encourage spiritual growth. Guests will have online access to Azalea and take a virtual tour before they leave their home. Pages featuring exclusive ministries and functions of the church will be highlighted soon. I am excited about these early stages and can’t wait for more. God Bless You!