Pastor’s Report 2022
“Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men
shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their
strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be
weary; they shall walk and not faint.”– Isaiah 40:30-31
I
used to play a game at lunch time in high school called football. It wasn’t football…
but… it was football. I was much too small, not to mentioned scared to death,
of some 250-pound guy falling on me. So, this football was lunch time football played
inside on a cafeteria table. It involved spinning a coin and, at the right time,
placing the tip of your finger on the coin stopping it with the hope of it
standing upright under your finger facing in the right direction so that you
could roll it off the edge of the opponent’s side of the table to score a
touchdown. It might seem lame these days with the i-phones and i-pads and Switch
devices, but it was a lot of fun and passed the time away on cold winter days
when we couldn’t go downtown for lunch.
These
days, it often feels as if I’m that coin in our football game; spinning and wobbling
as I make my way towards the goal. And often it feels like I’m slipping out from
under a finger and falling flat, not making any headway or getting any traction;
much like that coin would slip and fall flat under my finger, often giving my
opponent the win. The difference between a high school mock game of coin football
and real life in real ministry is… I can’t fall out from under the Master’s touch
and the opponent doesn’t win; can never win.
I’m
so thankful that we have a God who is right there for us, even though life may
be spinning, it’s never out of His control. He picks us up and points us toward
the goal and often gives us a push in the right direction. Life can come at a
dizzying pace and trip us up and I thank Him for His love and His mercy, and
His wonderful, marvelous, matchless, grace. And therefore…
I’m
excited about what’s going on in our little church, and I’m excited for what’s
going on in many of the lives I love and care for in this little church. There are
some new-er faces around the church and it’s been great getting to know you and
hear your stories. There are many who have encouraged me by sharing what they’re
learning, and how they’re learning to lean on, and trust, our Saviour. At the
same time, my heart breaks for those who are going through very difficult times
or seasons. We have some who are quite ill and in need of encouragement to
persevere.
So,
another year has flown by and some of those things we looked forward to at the
beginning of last year are now but distant memories. I was thrilled to be able
to attend the final T4G Conference in Louisville KY last April with an old
(experienced) Deacon (Neil) and two of our young and excited to learn Deacons,
Jonathan and Daniel.
Zoom
meetings continued to hold a place in my calendar as I was able to connect
almost monthly with our BGC National and Regional Ministers. A good number of pastors
from the 106 churches came together shortly after Covid started, to encourage
the pastors across the country and our National Director Kevin Shuler continues
to host the first part and then we break into our own District with our
District Minister Ken Wilson leading us in personal sharing and praying specifically
for each church and Pastor. The BGC is a great organization of churches and
pastors who are passionate about Christ’s mission to reach the lost and
hurting.
Our
Church Ministries have slowly started to take shape and we’ve got a couple of Bible
studies running; one in person and one with attendees who work shift work or
find evenings are not as easy to get out and attend. So that group decides what
day and time the next lesson will be and meet up on Zoom.
Sadly,
but knowing all things happen for a reason, our number of Sunday School
participants dropped over the course of the pandemic and the decision was made
to cut the 10:00am Sunday School portion of our Sunday morning. Instead, it was
decided to hold a class for three age groups during the Morning Service. We
have a good number of teaching teams, some husbands and wives (good on ya!) that
teach on a rotating schedule. It seems to be going well and we praise God for
that. I admit it was a hard thing to “kill” as the Sunday School hour has been
a mainstay over the 40 plus years of this Church’s existence.
This
coming year, hopefully in January, we want to hold a seminar where the
congregation can come and gain a little bit of an understanding of our
Constitution. It needs some updating and part of the work needing to be done is
to bring it in line with the current polity of the church; it has changed some over
the past 20 years. “Polity” is just the word for the organizational structure
of the church and how it functions to achieve the desired outcome; our vision
and mission. What we believe as our statement of faith is not going to change
in any way.
Last
year in January we carried on with a series from 1 Peter and that took us right
to the end of May. We looked at month long series on giving and then a summer
series called; “Some Songs for Summer”, and looked at 9 different Psalms. And
then this past September I started a series in Ecclesiastes and we’ll continue
on with that after the Christmas/New Year break. When I first looked at it, I
was thinking I could finish the series before Christmas but, it wasn’t too long
into my studies that it went from a seven- or eight-part series to now, well, I
hope to finish it in 20 or so. And from some of the comments I hear, I think people
are enjoying it.
If
there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years is that; over the years
situations and circumstances, family dynamics, and people, change. Some for the
better, some, well… Well, what I know is that there are two things that never
change; 1: The fact that things and people will change will never change, and
2: God will never change; He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
And
so my hope is that we will hold to the truths of an unchanging God and Saviour
who loved us and gave His life for us that we might have life; true life now,
life that is eternal. And in a day and age where things change fast and we’re
expected to keep up and have all the gadgets and technologies, I pray we would
keep it simple and keep the main thing, the main thing; having Christ is better
than anything this world has to offer. What we have in Christ is far better
than anything on this earth so that when trials and tribulation come, we can
say, as one song writer put it; “Hallelujah, all I have is Christ; Hallelujah Jesus
is my life”!
“Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord
Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in
love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish
your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of
our Lord Jesus with all his saints. “– 1 Thes. 3:11-13
Pastor
Anthony