Pastor's Blog: "A Season of Renewal"
| | Dr. Wayne Splawn
I am not content with where we are as a church. Let me be clear. I think Mountain Brook Baptist Church is a wonderful church, I am proud to be your pastor, and I hope to serve this congregation for many years to come. We are in a good position in terms of our financial stewardship. In 2022, we collected more money than in any time in our church’s history and we are on pace to exceed that level of giving this year. We have new people visiting and joining our church on a regular basis. We give a significant amount of money to support mission causes in our city, state, country, and even to the ends of the earth. We experience an overall unity and peace in our relationships with one another. It is not lost on me that many congregations and church leaders would love to be able to say these things about their churches.
However, despite all these positive indicators, I think we are only scratching the surface of what would be possible if the Lord were to move in our midst in a significant way. It would be easy for a church like ours to become complacent and comfortable. But, I believe the more faithful path forward would be to ask the question, “What might our church be like if we were bold enough to believe in God’s ability to “do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20, ESV)? This feeling that God would have us to know more than what we currently experience compels me to challenge our church to embark on a season of spiritual renewal.
In Hebrews chapter 10, verses 23 through 25, the author of Hebrews writes: "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." (ESV)
In these verses, I see three areas in which the author of Hebrews calls his audience to grow spiritually.
First, there is a call to hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. Spiritual renewal begins on a personal level. Many of us have been following Jesus Christ for years. However, if you are like me, there is always a need to evaluate your personal relationship with Jesus Christ to consider how the Lord might be calling you to grow in faithfulness.
Second, there is a call to hold fast to our commitment to stir up one another to love and good works. The Christian life should never be a solitary life. Instead, the picture of discipleship we see in the Bible is one of each Christian using the gifts God has entrusted to him or her to help others grow in maturity. I recently attended the Sunday School class my brother-in-law taught. During the lesson, he made the point that one way to measure our Christian growth is to count the number of people we are helping grow in their faith. I think we would all do well to consider how many people in our congregation we are impacting for Jesus.
Finally, the author of Hebrews challenges his readers to not neglect meeting together. As I think about the facilities the Lord has provided us to use to meet together for worship, Bible study, and Christian fellowship, I am grateful for the generations of people who have gone before us who had the faith and made the sacrifices necessary to provide us a space where we can meet. At the same time, I am convinced we are at a point in our church’s life where we need to make significant changes and enhancements to our current facility to make meaningful ministry possible now and for generations to come. I trust you know that we have a Building Committee that has been hard at work prayerfully considering how we can improve our facilities to more effectively fulfill our mission to reach people with the good news of Jesus Christ.
The Building Committee is now at a point where we are ready to share these plans with the entire congregation. To that end, we will have two churchwide meetings in August. On August 16 at 6 p.m., we will have a special called church conference to hear a recommendation from the Building Committee. On August 30 at 6 p.m., we will have a special called church conference to vote on the recommendation. I have been actively involved in the work of the Building Committee at every point and I am excited about the direction the committee feels the Lord is leading us to go with this project. I encourage you to make plans to attend these important meetings in August and to begin praying for the Lord to renew our commitment to following Jesus, to serving one another in love, and to faithfully stewarding the facilities God has entrusted to us to further God’s mission in the world.