6 Years and what a year 6 has been!!

Greetings,

Thursday begins my 6th year Pastoral Anniversary as the pastor of the Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church of South Bend, Indiana. During this time I usually reflect on the past year of ministry as well as family events and other things.

The thought that permeates my mind the most is the passing of my grandfather, Alston Witherspoon. My grandfather was an impeccable individual. He grew up in the depression, served in World War 2, and worked in the mill for 37 years while working other jobs as well. He was married to my grandmother for 64 years and raised 3 children. If that wasn't enough, he also raised his grandsons like they were his own children.  I grew up without my biological father, but did not miss a beat because Granddad was always right there. I am the man that I am today because of him.  As a matter of fact, I cannot recall one major life experience that he was not there to guide me, scold me, encourage me, congratulate me, and love me through.  This anniversary celebration will be the first major event that he will not be present for other than the birth of our new daughter Elyssa, who was born minutes after his burial. Words cannot express how much I miss him.  Now more than ever I proudly carry the name "Spoon". I only hope and pray that I can be half of the man that "Spoon" was.

We have a new addition to our family, Elyssa Nicole Witherspoon. She's truly a blessing from the Lord! Her whole journey here to us has been nothing but a testimony to how good God is. She had to overcome so much just to be born healthy and now 2 months later she is very healthy and doing well. She has brought  youthful joy to our hearts that we thought  was long gone.  Pray for me as I have to raise another beautiful little girl.

Our oldest son, Derryll has graduated high school and is now in college. Praise God! There were times that Nicole and I didn't believe that he was going to make it. It seemed as though he wanted to travel down the wrong road, but the Bible is true, if you train them in the way that they should go, when they are older they will not depart from it! To God be the Glory! Deonne is now in high school and that brings on another set of issues. Erynne is in 7th grade and is growing into a young lady at a rate that is way too fast for me! As she is growing i have made sure that my NRA dues is paid and everything is in well working order if you know what i mean, lol.

As far as ministry goes, there is so much that I can say. I have seen growth and development, I have also wrestled with thoughts of my effectiveness and relevance.  As I toss between the two, several things have gone through my mind that have pushed, stretched, and tested my faith beyond where I thought it could go. I can gladly and truthfully say that God has been faithful through it all. I believe that I'm better as a result of what I have experienced. I guess I can say like the songwriter, "After all I've been through, I still have joy!"

Well I believe that enough for now. I won't make any grand promises on blogging on a regular basis, but I will say that this won"t be the last time that you hear from me!

Motivation for Ministry

Greetings,

This past Lord's day at BBC was a wonderful worship experience!  I am always blessed when I attend Early Morning Prayer Meeting. As always, I was lifted and inspired as I watched and heard the people of God make their requests known.  There is power in prayer, and God's power is always present at prayer service.

Morning Worship for the past few week has been very high! I am elated to see God's people with a spirit of expectation. When we come to church, we should expect God to do something transformative in the lives of His people.  Our Mass Choir really ushered in the presence of the Lord, after a very inspiring devotion by our Deacons Ministry.  I really feel like the choir sometimes tries to set me up for failure by singing so well.  Nevertheless, I approached the preaching moment with great anticipation. We continued our 2 Corinthians series, and I preached a message from chapter 4:1-6.  The message was entitled, "Motivation for Ministry". Here's the outline:

1.  Value of Mercy (1)

2.  Validity of Ministry (2-5)

3.  Victory of the Master (6)

God really blessed the exposition of the text!  I thank God for the wonderful privilege and awesome responsibility of preaching His Word.  I am already excited and anxiously waiting for next week, so I can preach again!

Well, its time for me to go for now. I must start sermon preparation and Bible Study.  I also have a few meetings on this week as well as my coaching responsibilities for the Washington High School Track Team, who are preparing for their 1st meet of the season on this Saturday.  They are well prepared and they work very hard,s o I know they will do well. God Bless you and keep you is my prayer!

The Content of our Confidence

Greetings,

It is always a pleasure of mine to communicate with you in this fashion.  The past 2 weeks have been incredible!  On last Friday, we traveled down to Bloomington, Illinois for my youngest son Deonne to compete in the AAU National Indoor Tack and Field Championships.  I am pleased to announce that Deonne finished 5th in the nation in the 400m dash and 7th in the nation in the 200m dash! I forgot to mention one important factor. He ran injured and still did very well! I am very proud of him.

The meet was not over until Sunday, so I was not able to attend any of our Sunday Morning services. I was told that they went very well.  I want to thank Rev. Terry Tate for preaching in my stead.  I was also told by some of the congregation that I was missed. That made me feel good to know that there are some people who genuinely care about you.  We rushed back to South Bend because we had a Deacon Ordination service at 4pm. It was a very close call but we  made it!  The Ordination service went very well and the candidate passed with flying colors. Congratulations Deacon Cory Brazier. He is a young man on fire for God and has a passion for the youth. I look forward to working with him in ministry. 

This past Lord's Day was a day of rejoicing! I was unable to attend Early Morning Prayer Service, but I know it went very well.  I taught the New Members Class while Sunday School was going on and it was a treat for me to teach our new members. 

Morning Worship started out with a bang! Our Deacons really ushered in the Spirit of the Lord in the Devotion Service.  The Music Ministry kept the fire going and Rev. Derick Buggs added another log in the fire during Altar Prayer.  It was getting close to preaching time and all I was thinking was, " I hope I don't mess this up." I approached the preaching moment with great anticipation.  I preached a message from 2 Corinthians 3:1-6, entitled, "The Content of our Confidence".  Here's the outline:

1.  Confidence cannot be based on Human Approval (v. 1-3)

2.  Confidence cannot be based on Heartfelt Ambition (v.4-5a)

3.  Confidence can only be based upon a Heavenly Appointment (v.5b-6)

God blessed the exposition of this passage! I feel as though preaching and teaching in the same passage on Sunday and Wednesday is helping to strengthen our congregation. 

Well, it's about time for me to go for now. I'm in preparation for our Wednesday in the Word Services.  I look forward to talking with you again real soon! God Bless and keep you is always my prayer.

The God of all Comfort

Greetings Everyone,

It has been over a year since I have posted a blog entry. This past year has been a season of severe tests, trials and ministry challenges that have taken me through the full range of emotions from extreme depression to overflowing joy. I can honestly say now without a doubt that trials not only come to strengthen you, but they also come to strip you!  Sometimes there are some things in our lives that God wants to move in order to make us more like Him, and sometimes He uses chaos and calamity to achieve those ends.  I am now living the words of the famous song by Marvin Sapp, "I'm stronger, I'm wiser, I'm better, so much better!!!  Thank you Lord for bringing me through!!

This past Lord's Day proved to be a great day of corporate worship at BBC.  Our day started at 8am at our Early Morning Prayer Service.  I  really love this service.  The saints that participate in this service play an integral part in setting the tone for the entire day.  I am always encouraged to hear the people of God praying for the well being of their pastor.  the service was very warm as the people of God offered up their petitions.

Morning Worship was well attended in spite of the snow that started falling that morning.  We were blessed our Music Ministry. There have been some changes to our Music Ministry that has really help to lift the overall quality of the music ans well as the choir.  I may be biased, but we have one of the best choirs on earth and it is a joy to hear them sing!  They make the preaching moment easier to approach.  I was excited and ready to preach and the people were ready to hear a word from the Lord.  I am experimenting with something new for me, and that is teaching on Wednesday and preaching on Sunday from the same book.  I preached from 2 Corinthians 1:3-9.  The message was entitled, "The God of all Comfort".  Here's the outline:

1.  God comforts us because it is His Divine Character (3).

2.  God comforts us so that we may be Devoted to our Commission (4-7).

3.  God comforts us so that we may Develop Confidence in Him (8-9).

God truly blessed the preaching moment!  I am truly amazed at how God orchestrates corporate worship to send out a single message.  Throughout the day at BBC, from Early Morning Prayer through 11am worship the focus had been on people being comforted! Praise God for people being sensitive to the voice and move of God!

Later on, I would need some of that same comfort.  I am a die hard Chicago Bears fan! The only thing that was worse than watching them lose to the Green Bay Packers was watching the win the Super Bowl!  As a football fan, it was a very good game.

Well it was good communicating with you on today and I look forward to blogging again real soon!  I promise it wont be another year before you hear from me again!  I want to thank all of my readers and those from "The Blogging Bunch" for encouraging me to continue in this avenue of ministry and for praying me through my season of storms!  God Bless You!!!

Sunday Summary

Greetings Blogosphere!!

This is the day that the Lord has made! I will rejoice and be glad in it!! This past Lord's Day was an awesome experience in the Lord! I was not feeling my best at all, but the saints at BBC prayed me through. Our topic for Early Morning Prayer was "Walking in Love". The service was very high and there was expectancy in the air! I got a real good feel that the people of God were expecting God to do something great!

From devotion to the benediction the saints worshipped the God of their salvation. The choir really blessed our hearts with songs of Zion! As I stated earlier, I was not feeling my best, but I was really expecting God to use me in a mighty way. God desires to get the glory out of our lives and sometimes He has to move us out of the way so that He can use us.

I approached the preaching moment with great anticipation and expectancy! We continued in or series on "The Word of God" taken from Psalm 119. This week, the message was from verses 9-16. The message was entitled, "Washing with the Word". I only had 2 points but here's the outline:

1. Delight in the Word
A. Heed (9)
B. Hold (10)
C. Hide (11-12)

2. Duty to the Word
A. Tell (13)
B. Treasure (14-15)
C. Try (16)

God really blessed the exposition of this passage!! This series on the Word of God has breathed new life into our church family. I believe that a serious spirit filled revival of the saints has started and I look forward to watching God transform the lives of many!! I was very elated to see a young man that had been visiting for several weeks, give his life to the Lord as a Candidate for Baptism!! God is truly worthy to be praised!!

Well now I am off to a week full of meetings and readings, along with all other pastoral preparations. I will ask for your prayer for CURE. It is the organization that I help to oversee. We are engaging ourselves in study circles to see what God wants us to do about institutional racism. I know this sounds like an impossible task, but we believe that " We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!" Be Blessed!!!