Dear Church Family, April 14, 2022
In the Midweek Update that we sent out yesterday (Wed., April 13), I invited you to join with us in a churchwide fast on Monday, April 18. Throughout history, God’s people have declared their devotion and dependence on God through the practice of fasting. Fasting is the abstaining from food for spiritual purposes and should always be done in conjunction with prayer. God’s people have fasted for a variety of reasons including in times of crises, in times of mourning, in times of uncertainty, and in times of repentance.
As a church, we are in a time of staff transition. God has been gracious to our church in the past as we’ve brought in new staff members, and we should expect that He will be gracious again. However, considering our current and soon to be staff openings, I sense a need to collectively seek the Lord in prayer together as a church. So please join with your church family on Monday, April 18 in a churchwide fast. I recognize that not everyone will be able to fast the entire day, but my hope is that you will consider giving up one, two, or three meals that day to pursue the Lord in prayer concerning the following requests:
- That God will quickly provide for our staff needs with people who will embrace our mission to proclaim Christ and make disciples.
- That God will protect the unity of our church family as we humbly seek Him and stay engaged.
- That God will give our church leadership wisdom as we consider expectations and responsibilities associated with various staff positions going forward.
Officially, we’ve been seeking a Music/Worship Pastor for over a year. We have experienced disappointments on a few occasions as candidates that we thought highly of ultimately declined to continue in our process. We need wisdom for our next steps as a committee. We seem to have exhausted our resources for securing candidates and resumes. Unless God moves quickly and provides further candidates, our Personnel Team and Church Council have approved the move to contract with a Church Staffing Agency.
Concerning our Discipleship Pastor search, my hope is to have someone here by the end of summer. We have begun to have informal communication with potential candidates and with people who may be in a position to recommend candidates. Additionally, we will be posting this position soon.
As far as our Student Pastor search, we are looking forward to Hunter and Heather Wilkerson being with us April 22-24. As a reminder, here is the schedule for the weekend:
- Friday 6-9pm - Hunter and Heather with the 5th Grade Activity (The Messy Event)
- Saturday 10-11:30am - Churchwide Meet-n-Greet in the ROC Coffee Shop
- Saturday 7pm - Youth leaders/volunteers dessert fellowship and Q&A with Hunter and Heather
- Sunday 8:30 & 11am - Hunter and Heather Testimony in Worship Service
- Sunday 9:45am - Hunter teaches combined Student Ministry BFG
- Sunday 7:10pm - Business Meeting for the purpose of voting to call Hunter to TBC.
While change is not easy, it is clearly part of life. For whatever reason, God has chosen to lead various members of our ministry staff to other churches and ministry locations. For almost 15 years now, God has been gracious to allow me to serve at Trinity Baptist. We’ve seen lots of change as a church, and we will continue to see change in the future. Even still, God is in control.
So let’s seek Him and trust Him. And let’s humble ourselves before Him on Monday, April 18 as we fast and pray together as a church.
Be Strong and Courageous
Pastor Nate