HAPPY ANNIVERSARY SHBC!!!

“Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!” (Psalm 115:1, ESV)

It is my joy to serve as the pastor of Southern Heights during this very special time in our church’s history. This month, we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Southern Heights Baptist Church. On October fourth (10/4), we will celebrate this momentous event in our morning worship service by getting together with old members, staff, and friends and worshipping the LORD of the church together. We will hear the Word of the LORD from former pastor Monty Carter, a man who has himself experienced the healing and mercy of the LORD in the past year. Following the service, we will share a meal together and then enjoy an afternoon of celebration, reflection, and reminiscing. I do hope you will attend!

However, in the midst of all of this, let us never forget the WHO and the WHY of our celebration. As the words of the Psalmist remind us, we are not the ones deserving any applause. It is not our name that should be exalted or praised at the anniversary celebration, but rather the name of the LORD. Though our church is comprised of wonderful, loving, and godly people, we are not strong enough, smart enough, rich enough, or spiritual enough to have sustained a local church for fifty years. We acknowledge that, as human beings, we are flawed people who lack full commitment and faithfulness. Had the continued existence of our church depended on any one of us, we would have failed long ago! But thanks be to God that HE is the one who has remained present in the midst of our church for all of these years. He has guided us, sustained us, empowered us, and cared for us as His people. Without the LORD’s preservation, this anniversary celebration would not be possible!

And so our celebration this month should be more than just meals, memories, and reminiscing; it should be a genuine act of worship directed to the God who birthed, grew, sustained, guided, and still lives in the midst of the Southern Heights Baptist Church. Because it is His steadfast love and faithfulness that has brought us this far, we must direct all of our praise, thanksgiving, credit, honor, and glory directly to him as we celebrate our first fifty years. To do any less would dishonor God.

However, I hope that our anniversary celebration is more than just a look backward. It is natural at times like this to reflect on the past, but looking at God’s faithfulness through the years must do more than fill us with “warm and fuzzy feelings.” It should motivate us to look to the present and the future and anticipate the great things that God has yet to do in our church. In the letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor (Revelation 1-3), Jesus always begins by acknowledging some things that the churches had already done in their past, either right or wrong. However, he always goes on to include hopeful words of encouragement about the churches and the future reward that they could attain if they would only respond in faith and obedience to Him.

I believe that Southern Heights has a rich and blessed past, one for which we should always thank God. However, I also believe that the best years are yet ahead of us! God is not finished with our church. May we look to the wonderful foundation that has been laid during our first fifty years of ministry and build on that foundation in the years to come. Until the day that the Lord of our church returns, may we continue to minister and be found faithful!

So happy anniversary Southern Heights! And thank you LORD, for your faithfulness to our church! Thank you Lord, for the faithful, godly, loving, and supportive Christians through whom you have worked through the years to make this celebration possible, and may you continue to bless us and make disciples in our midst until Jesus returns!

Honored to serve,
Pastor Terry

Look at what the LORD is doing at SHBC!

Have I told you all lately just how great a joy it is to serve as your pastor?  I believe that God is alive and well today and that He is beginning a great work at Southern Heights!

I really do want us, as a church, to learn from the children of Israel in Nehemiah’s day!  In Neh 12:43 (the text from last Sunday’s sermon), we see the children of Israel celebrating, worshipping and rejoicing in such a way that others around them knew something was going on in Jerusalem!  That’s the way I hope it will be at SHBC.  I pray that we would mature as a church, constantly moving toward greater unity, theological depth, and passionate love for Jesus Christ.  As we do that, may our worship, our words, our giving, our service, our fellowship, and everything else that we do create an environment in which others can clearly see that we are changed… different… excited about something… and as they see it in us, they will desire it for themselves… and then we point them to the wonderful cross of Christ!

I have so much to share that I felt it was necessary to drop everyone a line to keep them on top of all the great things that are happening at SHBC!  I hope that hearing these things not only encourages you, but also gives you a guide by which to pray and seek ways to get involved.  When we constantly talk about the ways in which God is at work in our church, the result is infectious!  Soon, others want to know more about our church and our Savior.  May others see the joy and excitement with which we approach ministry opportunities in our church, and may they be drawn to Christ through our joy!

Note the following updates and announcements:

1. The new (March) LifeWalk magazines are in for next month; these are the daily guides that we are using for reading through the Bible in 2009.  Be sure to pick up your copy this week or on Sunday so that you can stay on top of your daily Bible reading.  At our meeting this past week, our crowd was looking kind of puny!  We began with yearly Bible-reading commitments from at least 30 people, but only about 12 were present at the February accountability meeting.  Let’s get back on our reading plan and work hard to diligently read God’s word this year!

2.  We heartily and joyfully welcome the Campbells, Kevin and Natasha, who both presented themselves to our church Sunday morning as candidates for baptism, having just recently accepted Christ as Savior of their lives!  We welcome them and their infant daughter, Sydney, and are anxiously anticipating the baptism service in which we will see Kevin and Natasha announce their faith in Christ together through the ordinance of baptism.

3. I want to give a special thanks to all who gave to the Gideon’s offering this Sunday; we gave $147 to the Gideon’s organization for distribution of the Bible throughout the world.  Learn more at www.gideons.org

4. I want to give a VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU to all who made our Valentine’s Day Dessert Auction a great success!  Almost $2,700 was raised in one evening for the church mission-trip coming up in June of this year!  Praise God for your generosity!

5. We have completed the initial phase of our G.R.O.W. Team training, although there will continually be various training sessions offered on evangelism.  We want everyone to know that if they were unable to attend the training sessions, they can still be involved in a team.  Come and talk to me (Pastor Terry) about how to get equipped in order to serve on an outreach team.  The teams have been selected, and will meet according to the following divisions:

The “G” Team (1st Thursday, 10:30 am)- Don Carter, Lloyd Goodlett, Barb Riddle, Agnes Durbin, Sam Benge, Libby Padgett.

The “R” Team (2nd Tuesday, 6:30 pm)- Bob Dooley, Garry Reynolds, Larry Reynolds, Ashley Blair, Bill Landrum, Betty Landrum, Mike Padgett (sr.), Jackie Thompson

The “O” Team (3rd Thursday, 10:30 am)- Bill and Linda Grant, Bob Tibbetts, Lisa Wisener, Ethel Hill, Fred Meade

The “W” Team (4th Tuesday, 6:30 pm)- Ken Cornish, Jerry and Cheryl England, Betty Anders, Bill Workman, Michael Howard, Mike and Fran Stone, Monnie Leap

While we want the teams to “GROW” in members and participation, we certainly don’t want them getting smaller than they are here, so make EVERY EFFORT to be a part of your team’s first meeting in March!  You will be blessed for attending!

Don’t forget to pray for our Kids on Mission 311, who, right now as I type this email, are ministering with our friends downtown to create sack-lunches for the hungry in Lexington.  Pray for these kids and their ministry!  Also remember that we are meeting tonight for fellowship, prayer, Bible Study, and a specially-called Business Meeting to discuss some issues surrounding the calling of a new Music and Worship Minister.  If you can’t come, pray for us…but if you CAN be here, then please do make it!

Anyone interested in Winter Jam 2009 at Rupp Arena???

Hey folks, just a quick note to let everyone know about an upcoming concert tour that will be stopping at Rupp Arena on Saturday March 7th at 6:00 pm. It is called Winter Jam 2009 and you can find out the information, including the performing artists that night, at http://www.hearitfirst.com/jamtour/ You’ll hear bands like Hawk Nelson, Newsong, and Toby Mac if you go!  Sounds like some really good, positive music and a night of fun!  Admission is only $10 at the door, and there are some pretty good acts performing that night! If anyone is interested, please let me (Terry) know!

Hallelujah! This is why we do what we do!

Kim Burgess baptism...

Congratulations to Kim Burgess on her baptism yesterday, 2/8/09 at Southern Heights Baptist Church!  It was a joy and pleasure to baptize Kim upon her profession of faith in Christ as Lord, and to have her fiance, Joe, in the water with me taking part in the ordinance.  I began a couple of years ago asking people to join me in the baptistery who were instrumental in leading the person being baptized to faith in Christ!  It’s not that I need their help (believe me, I’ve immersed folks plenty bigger than Kim!) but rather it helps to mark the event for both individuals as well as communicate something important to the congregation about our role in evangelism and discipleship.

I am excited to be working with this young couple (Joe joined by letter at the same time of Kim’s profession) and looking forward to their impending wedding later this summer!  Also, it’s just a great picture…I love the way that the reflection of the water makes it look like I’m cut in half under the water.  After the service yesterday, one man said that all he could see in the water was my head and neck sticking out of the waders!  Funny!  I think he’s making reference to how high they ride up on me!

Congrats Joe and Kim…we’re looking forward to a long and fruitful relationship with both of you at the Southern Heights Baptist Church!

3 updates of note for weekend of Feb. 6-8…

1. Remember that we are having a family movie-night tonight (Friday, 2/6)!  We are meeting for fun and fellowship at 6:45 at the Lexington Greene/ Target $1.50 movie theatre.  We are going to view together some movie about “Despereaux the mouse” (I don’t know the details…my kids told me about it!).

2. Also remember that you can still bring soup or other canned goods to church this Sunday if you were unable to attend last week because of the weather.  I will be delivering the canned goods on Tuesday, Feb. 10th, so anything you can bring this weekend will still help.  We already collected over 100 cans (see post below) but could always use more!

3. Also, be aware that because of the past few weeks, we have had to cancel 2 sessions of Outreach Training.  This Sunday night at 5:00, we are going to try to make-up at least one of those sessions by meeting together (at 5:00) before the evening worship session.   PLEASE BE THERE…WE MUST BE EQUIPPING OURSELVES FOR OUTREACH OPPORTUNITIES IN THE SPRING!

Tonight’s outreach training (2/3/09)…

As much as I hate to do this, I think I will go ahead and cancel tonight’s outreach training class.  I take no pleasure in doing this, especially since I bought a new television and DVD/VCR for upstairs use and was excited to use it!  However, the side-streets are pretty bad…and I know it because I have been out in the weather.  What I WILL DO however, is go ahead and plan on scheduling the training this Sunday night (Feb. 8th) before the evening service at 5:00 SHARP!  We will use this time to catch up on session #3, and then, weather permitting, on next Tuesday the 10th, we may just squeeze in 2 training sessions from 7-8:30 and be back on schedule!

Please make these notes and plan to work with me on this so that we can have some folks trained and prepared to begin outreach in the spring. I know the weather is a pain, but the snow will melt away in a few weeks and we will need to be prepared to begin systematically reaching out in to our community with greater frequency and passion!

So hang in there!  Stay warm and safe tonight, and plan on being at the training session Sunday evening at 5:00 SHARP!

Blessings, Terry

A “Souper” effort…

Just a quick note to let everyone know about how Sunday’s collection went.  Even though the “Superbowl” didn’t finish the way I wanted it to (yes, I still hate the Steelers!), the “Souperbowl” collection, spearheaded by our Kids on Mission 311 ministry, went really well!  Just a few moments ago, I counted our final collection and we received over 100 cans of soup and other assorted goods (don’t ask how the Pumpkin pie filling got in there!) for the food pantry ministry of the Elkhorn Baptist Association! I will deliver the canned goods next Tuesday at the weekly Pastor’s luncheon.  So, if you would still like to contribute some canned goods for a really good cause, bring them this Wednesday night (2/4) or Sunday (2/8 ) and we will add them to the mix!

Thanks for your continued generousity!

Bible Reading Updates…Monday, 2-2-09

Here are the relevant updates for those in the Berean Bible Readers Program for 2009:

1. We have only 1 LifeWalk book left; most of them were taken yesterday during services.  However, we will copy and have available at the church office, photocopy versions of the book for those following the daily Bible reading schedules.  The goal for this month is to finish the Pentateuch (first 5 books of OT…Book of the Law), so we will be reading together through Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy!  These can be “snoozers” and often folks quit about this time, but you all can hang in there and do this, I promise!!!

2. We are trying to order more copies for March so that we can avoid having to photocopy the magazine.  When we tried for February, the print run had already sold out!  We will try to order early this month and get more!

3. The readings for this week are:

Feb. 1st- Leviticus 1-3

Feb. 2nd- Leviticus 4-7

Feb. 3rd- Leviticus 8-10

Feb. 4th- Leviticus 11-15

Feb. 5th- Leviticus 16-17

Feb. 6th- Leviticus 18-20

Feb. 7th/ 8th- Leviticus 21-23

Hope that this helps everyone to keep up!  Please let me know if you need any further assistance!

Keep on top of your daily Bible reading…

Hey folks, use these difficult days to keep up with and even get ahead on your daily Bible reading!  For those of you who are joining the Bereans on this year’s Bible reading journey, I want you to know that the new LifeWalk books are in and will be distributed Sunday February 1st.  If you are not here Sunday because of the weather, I will keep the readings posted up here on the blog site so that you can keep up.  When the weather clears, you can get your February LifeWalk.

Here are the readings to help you keep up:

Friday 1/30- Exodus 32-34, where you will see: The Golden Calf/ Idolatry (32), The Glorious Lord/ Intercession (33) and the Glorious Leader/ Instruction (34).

Saturday 1/31- Sunday 2/1- Exodus 35-40, where you will see: The Tabernacle Organized (35-38 ) and the Tabernacle Occupied (39-40).

Keep on top of your reading!  Don’t fall behind!  Use these cold days when there is little else to do to get ahead!

Update for tomorrow’s worship schedule, Sunday February 1st, 2009

I hope that this finds everyone well. Obviously, there are still those among our church family with no electricity who will not get to read this email. But for the rest, I wanted to get the word out that we WILL have services tomorrow as regularly scheduled. Sunday School, Morning Worship, and Evening Worship will all go on as scheduled at this point. The “melting” today should help many of the roads clear off to some degree and the church lot and walkways are cleared well enough for dozens of cars and safe walking.

Just a quick pastoral word here; if you are truly NOT ABLE to get out in the weather, please do not feel “pressured” about being present tomorrow. Some have commented to me through the years that it is better to cancel in bad weather because some will feel obligated to come if there are services, even when it is dangerous for them personally. I do not want anyone to feel any pressure at all to get out in the weather. Please use your own judgment and spiritual discernment. If you feel truly uncomfortable coming out, then please stay home and pray for the church and those who can come. No-one will be “churched” for missing tomorrow…I promise! I say this in love and with pastoral concern because I am trying diligently to find the right balance between being realistic and being faithful to my pastoral duties.

Also remember that tomorrow we are collecting cans of soup for the “Souperbowl” Sunday effort. With the conditions as bad as they are across the state and region, I am sure that there will be plenty of families who will need help with the basic necessities, and perhaps many of them will seek that help from the Elkhorn Association food pantry, to which we will give all of our collected soup.

Whether or not the individual SS classes still have their Superbowl parties will be left up to the classes themselves. If you are not attending a class party tomorrow evening, then please bring your soup to the morning services tomorrow and there will be collection boxes around the upstairs of the church.

Please pray for one another in these difficult days, and don’t hesitate to call on one another and check up on one another! In the book of Galatians, Paul instructs his Christian friends with the following words…

So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

Let’s follow Paul’s sound counsel, and while we have the opportunity (i.e. the unfortunate ice-storm chaos), let’s seek opportunities to do good to all those around us, but especially look for opportunities to demonstrate the love of Christ to one another within the body of Christ!