Sunday Sunday

Greetings,

I greet you in the name that is above every name, Jesus! I hope that this finds you doing well. Today has been a very good day. God has been faithful toward us at BBC. Our day started with Early Morning Prayer service. I know that I say it often, but this service really inspires all who attend and sets the atmosphere for the corporate worship experience.

New Members class today was awesome. It is amazing to see new lives in Christ being shaped and transformed by the word of God. The students pondered and promised to spend some time in prayer to discover their God given purpose.

I was extremely happy to have my mother and grandmother, who came to visit for the weekend in church with me on today! Today we were blessed with selections from our Male Chorus and their ministry of music lifted the hearts ad minds of the people and prepared everyone for the preached word of God. I preached a message from Ephesians 6:10-13, entitled, "The Invisible Battle". There's a war going on with opposition that we cannot see with the human eye, stand against with our own power, or fight with carnal weapons, so to fight this invisible battle:

1. There is a Charge of Power (v.10)

2. You must have a Commitment to Prepare (v.11)

3. You have to Clarify the Problem (v.12)

4. You must Carry your Protection (v.13)

God blessed the exposition of the text! Thank God for this awesome privilege to carry His Word! My day ended with my family and I traveling to Believer's COGIC for a musical. Our choir was invited to sing and they did a wonderful job in song ministry. I'm really excited about the future of our Music Ministry and the direction it is taking. To God be the Glory!

Pray for me on this week as I prepare to preach the eulogy of Pastor Albert Miller, pastor of the St. Matthews MBC of Buchannon, Michigan who went home to Glory on Saturday morning. This is a very humbling task as well as a hard task because preaching in front of a group of preachers can be uneasy to say the least. I am honored to preach a eulogy of someone who lived so well and pastored for over 25 years! He was my son in the ministry and I will miss him greatly.

I want to close by saying that God will answer prayer! We have been praying for specific at BBC and today God gave me a sneak peak of how He's going to work it out! I can't tell you what it is yet, but when it happens, I will be more than happy to share it with all of you!

Until we meet again, may God bless you and keep you is my prayer!

Sunday Summary

Greetings,

This is a day that The Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it! I hope that this finds you doing well. We had a great corporate worship experience this past Lord's day at BBC. Our day started as it always does in prayer. Thank God for a group of people that have dedicated themselves to the ministry of intercessory prayer. I truly believe that prayer is the life blood of our church.

I have the wonderful privilege of teaching our New Members Class. I believe that this gives the new member a direct contact with the pastor and the relationship can bloom and blossom from there. It was also amazing to see the faces of the new converts light up as their understanding of faith in Christ begins to grow and they begin to develop an appreciation for the Word of God!

Corporate worship began with believers baptism. I always smile during baptism because it reminds me of my conversion experience and the mothers of the church sing those old baptism hymns that remind me of good old fashioned church! We were truly blessed by songs from our Mass Choir. I was excited and ready for preaching! I preached a message from Lamentations 3:21-23, entitled "It could be worse". The passage lets us know without hesitation that no matter how bad things are, if it was not for the Sovereign hand of God, they would be worse. It could be worse if:

1. His Mercy didn't Manage our Misery

2. His Compassion didn't Cancel our Completion

3. Not for the Longevity of the Lord's Loyalty

God blessed the exposition of the text! I truly thank God for what He is doing in the life of our church. I truly look forward to what the future holds! My day ended with friends and family watching the Super Bowl. Congratulations to the Baltimore Ravens, who overcame "Light Gate" and defeated the San Francisco 49ers to win their 2nd Super Bowl. After all of the food that I ate, it will be a must that I get in the gym today! However, we are supposed to get between 4 and 6 inches of snow, so we'll see how that goes.

Well that's enough for now. I have a busy week of teaching, sermon preparation, and preparing some of our football players to compete at the Nike Sparq Combine on February 16. God Bless and keep you until we meet again!

Sunday Summary & Monday too....

Greetings,

I hope that finds everyone doing well! All I can say about this past Lord's Day at BBC is wow! Our day started off at 8am with Early Morning Prayer. I always enjoy hearing the people of God offering up their petitiions. After prayer meeting was over, I figured that we were in for a grand celebration at corporate worship.

After prayer meeting I received some news that really shook me to my core.  One of the most faithful men in the church, Bro. Ocie Richie made his transition from labor to reward at about 9am. I was very saddened by his passing as he was always very supportive of his church and his pastor. Please keep his family in your prayers as they prepare to funeralize him and for me as I have to eulogize him.

Sunday served as our Officers Installation Day. Its the day where the congregational leaders are installed to their office, given the charge of leadership, and discharged to their duties. Normally I would bring a guest pastor in to preach this service, but my leaders said that they wanted to be preached to and installed by their pastor. This was a very humbling experience for me.  Our Mass Choir really blessed us in their ministry of song and we all were very surprised when one of our young ladies came out of the choir choir stand and got on the organ to play, "We Worship You". I thank God for the young people at BBC, they never cease to amaze me!

By it being installation day, I wanted to preach something specific to encourage and strengthen the leadership for the upcoming year of service. The Lord led me to Philippians 2:5-11.  The sermon was entitled, "Serving with the mind of Christ". To serve with the mind of Christ, you must :

1. Have the Correct Psyche

2. Be Content with your Position

3. Exhibit a Charitable Performance

4. Then you'll receive a Celebrated Promotion

God truly blessed the exposition and the people rejoiced in the Word! If that wasn't enough we really rejoiced as people came to give their lives to the Lord! God be praised for the converts and additions to the fellowship.

I was truly exhausted after such a powerful worship service. However I did watch the football games, and I'm looking forward to the "Harbaugh Bowl".

Thank God for the inauguration of our President as well as the celebration of the life and legacy of the Rev.Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. we at BBC spent our King Day celebrating at the St. Joseph Regional Medical Center, Mishawaka Campus. I am grateful for our choir who sang out of their souls and the opportunity that I had to say a lil something.....

With such a big kickoff to the week, I am really looking forward to this upcoming week of meeting, teaching, and preaching. may God Bless and keep you is my prayer.

Sunday Summary

Greetings,

I pray that everyone is doing well.  I want to start off by wishing everyone a very happy new year! I pray that this year be the best year of your life this far.  I am truly excited about all of the possibilities that 2013 hold in store for all of us.

Today was a wonderful day of corporate worship at BBC. Our day begins at 8am with prayer. This has great value in the life and vitality of our church, especially since I have been led of God in this season to draw the church closer together in the area of prayer. I've clearly heard the Lord say that all that we desire as individuals and as a body of believers according to the will of God will happen as we seek after God.

I was very eager to preach this morning but also somewhat hesitant. As many of you know, I am a competitive weightlifter amd while training for a competiion that I have on March 9th, I seriously injured my lower back. It has been difficult to walk and at times even to stand, but after a week and a half of therapy and much prayer, I felt as though I could preach. Our Male Chorus graced us today with the music for the day. It always does my heart good to see men leading in the worship service.

I preached a sermon from Psam 127:1-2, entitled, Lord, build us a house! I argued that it is better and we obtain greater results in trusting the Lord rather than exerting oursleves in tireless labor. We want the Lord to build our house because:

1. God will produce

2. God will protect

3. God will give us peace

Thank God for the exposition of the text and the response as a result of the preaching. There were members that came to rededicate their lives to the Lord, and one even desired to be baptized again. 

I look forward to this week of meetings with our new ministry leaders. I also look forward to resuming Bible Study on this week. We will be studying Daniel chapter 2.  I ask that you would pray for my continued healing and hopefully I can return to the gym soon. I look forward to sharing with you again real soon! Until then, peace!!!!!

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!