Dear Church Family,
This past month, Pastor Bryan, myself, and our wives went to the annual Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana. As we met, we heard wonderful worship
with challenging messages and took care of important items of business as a convention of churches.
One of the highlights was the commissioning service of seventy-four new International Missionaries who were sent out to the nations of the world. There were quite a few of
them who could not show their face or reveal which country they were headed to because the country is closed/hostile to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was so inspiring to see the willingness of so many ready to go to wherever God was calling them. This commissioning service is a highlight every year at the convention because it helps to practically remind Southern Baptists of the great mission work we do together as we faithfully give to the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas offering.
We also had to deal with a matter of a few of our churches who were no longer in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention. We have a confessional
statement of beliefs that we call the Baptist Faith and Message. In it, it makes clear where we stand on key theological understandings. One of those areas is that we believe the office of Pastor in the local church is to be filled by God-called, qualified men to serve our churches. This is not a new understanding that our convention of churches holds. But over the course of time, these churches ordained women to serve as pastors in their churches. As autonomous churches they can do this, but by doing so they were functioning outside the parameters of the Baptist Faith and Message. So, the convention voted to remove them from membership with our convention of churches. Having a common statement of faith that we organize ourselves around is vital for the ongoing spiritual health of our convention.
One other wonderful benefit of going to the convention is that it allows you to fellowship with other believers from around the country. As a part of that fellowship, we were able to spend time both with Jared Mitchell, a former Worship Pastor here at Oakhill, and we also got to spend time with Brian Van Doren, who just recently left us to go to Texas to pastor a church. It was so wonderful to fellowship and catch up with these two great men!
Next year, the convention is in Indianapolis, Indiana! We are hopeful that we can take a group from Oakhill up on the weekend of the convention to do some mission work in the Indianapolis area. Start praying about that possibility and your availability to go!
We need to keep praying for our convention of churches. Please pray that churches will grow, that pastors will shepherd their churches effectively, and that more of us would look for opportunities to share our faith with the lost and hurting world that is all around us.
I love you and I love being your Pastor!
