gratitude

What are you thankful for?

The past couple of weeks in the life of Wilkesboro Baptist Church have been amazing. I am thankful to our Lord for answered prayers and for souls saved.

In recent weeks, children, teenagers, and adults have placed their trust in Jesus Christ. Some of them will follow through with believer’s baptism on Sunday November 28.

Baptism on November 28 coincides with the final sermon in our current sermon series: LIFE, DEATH, HELL, HEAVEN. The final sermon in the series is on HEAVEN. We will celebrate the professions of faith through baptism and look at what the Bible teaches about HEAVEN in our services this week.

This series has reminded me of some specific things for which I am thankful:

  • I’m thankful that God answered the prayers of family and friends for the salvation of sinners. Many of those who have professed faith recently have been on my prayer list and/or on the prayer lists of parents, Sunday school classes, and discipleship groups.
  • I’m thankful for the opportunity to preach the gospel and to share the gospel personally. It is my calling and joy to preach the gospel, and I’m grateful when God brings sinners to salvation connected to our worship services. But it is also my calling to share the gospel personally. I’ve had the opportunity to share the gospel personally with some of those who have recently come to faith.
  • I’m thankful for parents who are faithful to share the gospel with their children, bring them to church, and pray for their children. The tears of joy in the eyes of parents when their children come to faith is an unforgettable privilege I am thankful for.
  • I’m thankful for our children and student ministries and our ministerial staff who lead them, Tad Craig and Danielle Hicks. Their gospel-centered teaching and leadership help saturate children and students with the good news of Jesus.
  • I’m thankful for baptism. Baptism is the public declaration of one’s personal decision to follow Jesus. It is a time for the church to celebrate with those who have trusted in Jesus Christ.
  • I’m thankful for our Trinitarian God who saves. Before the world began, God the Father planned our salvation (not just the events that occurred 2,000 years ago, but also the personal circumstances that have brought each of us to salvation). God the Son secured our salvation by his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. God the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and makes us alive by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Remember this, as much as we want God to save our friends and family, our neighbors and the nations, God wants to save them more.

What things are you thankful for? Give this question some thought this week. Make time to thank God for what he’s done and for what he’s doing.

During this Thanksgiving week, let me encourage you to not only be thankful, but to celebrate with us at Wilkesboro Baptist.

  • Plan to attend either the 9:30 am service or the 11:00 am service on November 28. We’re baptizing in both services, and we will look at what the Bible says about HEAVEN in all our services this week.
  • Invite others to attend. The willingness of our church folks to invite friends and family to attend during this sermon series has been a blessing! Keep inviting. Sunday, November 28 will be a special day that you don’t want to miss.
  • Continue to pray. God is at work. Don’t lose heart in praying for sinners to come to faith in Jesus. God is answering your prayers and mine. Keep asking God to save. Ask God to open blinded eyes, to soften hard hearts, and to rescue sinners from death and hell.
  • Share the good news. The good news is meant to be shared. God rescued us, but he also commissioned us to lead our neighbors and the nations to follow Jesus. Look for an opportunity this week to tell someone about the life that Christ has given you.

We ought to be thankful for the salvation we’ve received, and we ought to be faithful to share the good news with those who’ve yet to receive salvation. In this past week’s sermon I referenced a powerful appeal by Charles Spurgeon to his congregation at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. Let this appeal both burden and bless us this week as we pray for, invite, and share with our neighbors and the nations.

Oh, my brothers and sisters in Christ, if sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies; and if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay, and not madly to destroy themselves. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “Sermon XX: The Wailing of Risca.”[1]

[1] Quoted by Denny Burk,. Four Views on Hell (Counterpoints: Bible and Theology) (p. 43). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Generosity and Gratitude: A Church Debt Retirement Story

This week at Wilkesboro Baptist Church we will celebrate. On Wednesday April 21 and Sunday April 25, we will spend our worship services in a debt retirement celebration.

Just a little more than four years ago, Wilkesboro Baptist officially began a sanctuary renovation campaign. Church staff and leadership had the foresight to see the need for renovating our sanctuary and prepared by having the church select a sanctuary renovation committee prior to my arrival at Wilkesboro Baptist as pastor.

Church Interiors began work on the renovation in late December 2016 and completed their work in April 2017. In November 2016, Wilkesboro Baptist kicked off the fundraising campaign to pay for this sanctuary renovation.

Our campaign was titled Renovate 938 based on the following financial targets:

  • $762,000—Sanctuary Renovation 
  • $90,000—Additional property and house
  • Project Total–$852,000 
  • $85,200—Tithe to missions 
  • Total goal for the Campaign $938,000

As of the final week of March 2021, Wilkesboro Baptist Church is again debt free!

In the early months of 2020 we could see the possibility of retiring this debt near the end of the year. We were in the beginning stages of planning a debt retirement push at the church. Then the Covid-19 pandemic happened, and everything shifted.

Even with the challenges of virtual church and slowly returning to in-person worship that we’ve seen over the past year, the members and attenders at Wilkesboro Baptist Church gave generously. Not only did we meet our 2020 proposed budget, but the church gave in excess of budgeted needs. People continued to give to the sanctuary renovation debt, and we were able to see the possibility of retiring the debt early in 2021.

Not only are we now debt free, but thanks to the generous giving of those at Wilkesboro Baptist we were able to give additional funds to local and global mission partners. Through the Renovate 938 missions giving, we were able to assist mission partners in some of the following ways:

  • Help those facing disasters from hurricanes.
  • Send missionaries to other countries.
  • Feed people who were hungry.
  • Shelter people who were homeless.
  • Care for people who were struggling.
  • Encourage people who were hurting.
  • Spread the good news of Christ to those who were lost.

What is awesome is that this missions giving coincided with paying down and retiring the debt at Wilkesboro Baptist Church.

If you gave to the Renovate 938 Sanctuary Renovation campaign, thank you! Thank you for being generous. Thank you for praying. Thank you for supporting. Thank you for spreading the good news.

This celebration remembers our heritage while looking forward to the greater things God wants to do. The following is adapted from our sanctuary dedication service in May 2017:

WHO WE ARE IS WHO WE WERE. A church that prays, gives, and goes on mission is who we will be. A church that prays, gives, and goes on mission is who we have been. Our first pastor, George Washington Greene (1880-1885 and 1886-1890) left Wilkesboro Baptist Church for the mission field. He was a graduate of Southern Seminary when it was in Greenville, SC. He went from Wilkesboro to Canton, China to teach at a seminary there. WBC sent its first pastor on mission with the Foreign Mission Board. He served for 20 years in China and died on the mission field their in 1911. We are a church with a heritage of missions engagement.

WHO WE ARE IS WHO WE WERE. We are a church that will pray for the harvest because we were a church who prayed for the harvest. We are a church that will go into the harvest because we were a church that went into the harvest. We are a church that will give so that others can go because we were a church that gave so others could go. We are a church on mission because we have always been a church on mission. Let us declare boldly and live faithfully our mission to lead our neighbors and the nations to follow Jesus.

Sanctuary Dedication Service, May 7, 2017

Let us celebrate God and his blessings.