Pastor's Pen

HERE WE ARE IN A NEW YEAR! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and were able to spend some time with your family. Phyllis and I were able to visit with most of our family. We especially cherish the time we got to spend with the grandchildren (Jake, Jessica, and Alex). We are so blessed. A new year means a new start and new challenges. I pray that all of us will seek to draw closer to God this year than ever before. He has been good to all of us!

I AM GRATEFUL TO HAVE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO INVEST THE PAST 27 YEARS OF MY MINISTRY AS PASTOR OF FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, BLANCHARD. This has been our home, it has been our life. I love this church family and desire God’s very best for it. I announced my retirement a few months ahead of time in order to make the transition as smooth as possible. I believe we have done that. We have an Interim Pastor in Bro. Billy Crosby. He is going to be a tremendous blessing to our church. We have an excellent Pastor Search Committee. We must pray for them faithfully. They have a great task ahead of them. We also have a fine ministerial staff that will help pick up the load. I hope you realize how blessed we are with all the ministerial staff that we have as well as our office personnel. They are the best and deserve our prayers and our heartfelt gratitude. They have certainly blessed me in my role as pastor. We also have a devoted Deacon Fellowship made up of men who are ready and willing to serve in whatever way possible. We are blessed to have such godly men serving and ministering among us!

WE ALSO HAVE A TREMENDOUS CHURCH FAMILY! Each of you is unique and different but each of you has something special to offer to the body of Christ. Some of you I have known since I came as your pastor. Others of you have come at different times since then. But God has been faithful to bring together the church family that we have today. I appreciate so many things about our church. It is a very friendly and caring church. It is a church that believes the Bible is God’s Holy Word. It is a church that believes in prayer and is very involved in missions. It is a church that loves Jesus, honors our Heavenly Father, and is dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit. We are not a perfect church but I believe God has done a wonderful work in our midst and I praise Him for all He has done!

I WANT TO THANK MY HELPMATE OF 44 YEARS, PHYLLIS, FOR BEING A WONDERFUL PASTOR’S WIFE! She has never complained about the long hours I have worked, the times I have had to be away from the family, or the times we have had to come back early from a vacation for some emergency. She is a very gifted lady and has done so much in the church herself over the years. She and my sons, Lance and Lonnie, made my job so much easier by being so understanding of my call as a pastor. And God has blessed me with two wonderful daughter-in-laws, Kim and Mari. I have been truly blessed! You have been a gracious people to pastor. I have always signed the message from the pastor in our newsletter, “Love, Bro. James.” Never have I meant it more than I do right now. May God bless you and yours in all the days to come!