Pastor's Blog: Thank You

 |   |  Dr. Wayne Splawn

When Mary and I completed an internship with the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at the University of South Carolina and loaded all our worldly possessions into a U-Haul truck to make the trip down I-20 from Columbia, South Carolina to Birmingham, Alabama we could not have known the blessings we would experience in the years to come. We knew little about Mountain Brook Baptist Church at the time. We had visited the church a couple of times during our interview process to serve in the Student Ministry but had not met many people outside of those on our search committee, a few families with children in the youth group, and Dr. Jim Moebes.

Over the last 13 years, the Lord has used the people of Mountain Brook Baptist Church as a source of his richest blessings in our lives. During this time, you have shown us grace and prayed for us as we have grown in ministry, loved and supported us as we welcomed children into our family, faithfully helped Webb, Eleanor, and Mae grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and been like family to each of us.

Mary and I love you and we are humbled and honored that you have chosen me to be your Senior Minister. We so appreciate all the kind emails, text messages, and encouraging cards you have sent in the days following the vote to call me as Senior Minister on Sunday, November 21. We are filled with excitement as we consider all the Lord has for our church to know and experience in the years ahead.

In some respects, this season of transition feels like the day we left Columbia and made our way to Birmingham. There is much about the future we cannot know, and we will continue to need your grace, support, prayers, and love in the days ahead. But, one thing is different now: we know so much more about the people of Mountain Brook Baptist Church than we did 13 years ago. We thank God for you and count it a privilege to minister alongside you. May the Lord use our church to be a source of his blessing in the lives of many people in our community and around the world as we seek to more faithfully proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in word and deed in the days and years ahead.