Happy Wednesday! I hope your week is going well. Things could not be better in the Terry househnew because Audra is now home from Brazil! Blaise and I survived the ten grueling days of Audra’s mission trip. Barely. If it wasn’t for a wonderful set of grandparents and the occasional trip to Chic-fil-a for ice cream I’m not sure it would’ve turned out the same way. If last week taught me anything, it’s that being a single parent ISN’T EASY.
You may not know this, but the city of Abilene has a higher than usual demographic of single moms when compared to the national average. Because of my experiences over these past ten days, I’ve put these women on my personal prayer list.
It’s not just difficult for females, either. Trying to do alone what God designed for two is going to be challenging no matter what gender you may be. It caused me to think through how we can better serve single parent homes in our church family. If you have any good ideas I’d be interested to hear!
Thanks to all of you who came to Brian and Taylor’s “Farewell and Thank You” gathering. There was a great showing of support for the Clifton’s as they enter in to this new season of life and ministry. For those of you who were not present on Sunday let me update you on a few things.
Dorton Canon has been doing a great job leading our 8:25 service and will continue to do so until we can find an interim. The Southern Gospel choir and front-team vocalists will also continue to minister during our 8:25 worship hour. The Southern Gospel choir will continue to rehearse on Wednesday’s at 5:00pm. Linda Colwell will step in as the choir director. Linda is a member of our church who has been particularly gifted by God to serve in this role.
Crystal Jackson will lead the music during our contemporary services at 9:40 and 11:00. Crystal has likewise been uniquely gifted by God to lead others in worship through song. She will rehearse the entire Broadview Worship Team (vocalists, instrumentalists and choir) during the week and lead our congregation in worship on Sunday mornings. The Broadview Worship Choir will also participate in a Christmas production along with other churches in our community entitled “Christmas With The Getty’s.” The production will be held in the Abilene Civic Center on December 5th at 7:30pm. (RSVP Here)
It’s encouraging to see people who previously served as volunteers in the music ministry now have the opportunity to assist in leading it. The job of a pastor is to “equip the saints for the work of the ministry.” (Eph 4:12) The proof of that equipping will now have the chance to manifest itself in an even fuller way. These weren’t the only people capable of doing the job, either. There are several folks in our church who’ve been gifted by God to serve in this capacity.
That’s why I’m confident that the coming weeks and months will not be a step backward for our church family but a step forward. We will move forward in our vision to multiply disciples, bless our city, plant churches and send missionaries because the God who inspired that vision is also the one who provides for, leads and loves Broadview Baptist Church. I hope you’ll join me in that confidence and optimism.
Concerning the Youth Ministry Search Team, the following individuals will serve alongside the pastoral team in selecting the candidate who we believe God is calling to our church: Michael Edwards, Dave Gillespie, Luke Harwell, Tiffany Lohse, Janet White and Katrina Wright. Please pray for these folks, our pastoral team and the candidates who we will be working with.
On another note, if you’ve not visited our church website recently, you should check it out. The reason I say that is because we are releasing a new series of blog posts that unpack a vision for disciple-making in our church. The first statement in our 2020 Vision is “to create a disciple-making culture of multiplication with at least 100 trained personal discipleship coaches.” In order this movement of multiplication to happen, we’re going to need to be on the same page about discipleship.
These blog posts are my way of putting into writing what I believe the Scripture teach concerning our responsibility to make disciples. You’ll remember that not long ago I took a writing leave to put all those thoughts down into a book. These blog posts are essentially the sections from that book. I think it will help our church in coming together in our effort to see God create a disciple-making culture of multiplication. Here are the most recent articles.
Towards a Disciple-Making Culture of Multiplication
These discipleship articles release every Tuesday and Thursday. Every Wednesday the blog will have my article from the weekly update. So, if you wanted to reference some of the details of how we’re going to proceed during this time of transition, but you deleted last week’s email, then you can just read it again on the blog of our church website.
The reason we even do any of this is so that we can better communicate with you. We also want to enable you to more easily communicate with us. At the end of the day, the local church is still God’s “plan A” for reaching the world with the Gospel.
We might as well use the best tools at our disposal so we can put our best foot forward in that effort. As always, if there’s anything I can pray for you about please let me know.
Blessings,
Pastor Wes
P.S. Have you noticed that we’re in a political season right now? How can you not notice? It seems like that’s all I ever see on Facebook these days. Can I encourage you to play an active role in our political process? If you’ve not registered to vote you can do so by filling out this form. You can mail it in or deliver it in person. We are blessed to live in this great country. Don’t waste a good opportunity to play your part! Tuesday is the last day to register for the General Election. (more info)
Mail:
Voter Registrar
Taylor County Elections
PO Box 3318
Abilene, TX 79604
In person:
Taylor County Elections Office
400 Oak Street, Suite 101
Abilene, TX 79602