Last year I decided that I would close out new blog posts
for the year once the holidays hit. The truth is most people do not read blogs,
nor much else except sales papers during the holidays. After this post I will
have one more that simply lays out our holiday schedule, so I wanted the last
full entry for the year to end by telling our Trinity family that I count it an
honor to be your Pastor. In January I will have been your Pastor for 4 years
and it has been some of the toughest, and yet some of the most rewarding times
in my life. I am thankful for you because you have become a church that not
only longs to hear truth, but you strive to live it. The love and grace you have shown to not only
me, but to one another during some crazy times has been nothing less than a
display of God’s grace working through you. I can honestly say that now we are
beginning to see a demonstration of what becoming a biblical church is all
about. We have seen people saved, new mission opportunities come about, new
believers baptized, disciples growing and some even married. The families that
God has left in this fellowship and the families that God has moved into this
fellowship have come together as a true body of Christ. Your hunger for the Word
of God and overwhelming encouragement to me as your Pastor is humbling and
brings joy to my soul.
The staff that the Lord has placed here are not simply men I
get to serve with but friends that I love and trust. They love and serve this
church body with passion and grace. I have been amazed throughout my ministry
to watch men falter, and succumb to a self preservation ministry when tough
decisions had to be made. I can say by experience that these men are not that
way and it has allowed this body to come through many storms. These men and
their wives are “low maintenance” and “high service” and that enables me to
better prepare to preach the Word each and every week. Thank you Trinity for
loving them.
Last but not least, thank you for loving one another! To
watch you minister, serve, pray and go after one another week by week is a blessing
like no other. To see the Lord’s grace at work in so many ways and so many
ministries in our fellowship has been exciting and encouraging. To watch as over
these past four years our membership has moved from thinking that church is
about me and my performance, to making it all about bringing glory to our Lord
and with a passion to carry forth the Gospel, makes me extremely excited to see
what the next 4 years (and the next 20 years) hold. The way the Lord has raised
up men to love and lead this fellowship has set us up to stay the course by
God’s grace. I love you and am a blessed man to be called your Pastor; thank
you for the love and grace you continually display.
