To all the saints in Christ Jesus known as First Baptist Church, Cornelia, Georgia. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The words of the Apostle Paul to the church in Philippi come to my mind as I write this letter. “ I thank my God every time I remember you, 4 constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from our first day until now. 6 I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”
I am honored to be your pastor and to share in the Gospel story of this church. One of the greatest days in my life was the Sunday in May 2010 when you called me to serve you. Over these last 6 years, I have celebrated with you the beauty of life and joys of our church together. We have laughed often together. At the same time, we have walked together through the pain of death and hurt. We have cried together too many times.
Together, we love this big, messy family of Christians called First Baptist Cornelia. Out of love, I want to spend our moments together this morning, speaking to you about the state of our church. There are several ways we can measure the state of our church.
• We measure First Baptist Cornelia in relation to the rapidly changing religious culture of our day. Church researchers tell us that 8,000 to 10,000 churches in America will close their doors this year and 35% of the millennial generation (35 and below) are unaffiliated with any kind of Christian church compared to 11% of us over 70. Compared to what is happening in culture – our very survival and our thriving children’s ministry is a sign of the dynamic work of God among us.
• We can also measure the state of First Baptist Cornelia in relation to the Global Church. The fact is that while we don’t see it - God’s Global church is growing faster today than it has in decades. The Jesus movement is exploding in places like Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Compared to this radical explosion of the Holy Spirit, our faithful obedience in the same direction looks subdued. Yet, our partnerships in Santa Emilia, Nicaragua connect us to the energy of the Global Church.
• Finally, we can measure the state of our church through statistics. Statistics draw the outline of the picture God is painting of First Baptist Cornelia, but they can never provide the color. For example, we can record the number of people who attend Sunday School each week, but we have to hear the testimonies of individuals to see the true spiritual growth in their lives.
The greatest change in our traditional church metrics over the last 5 years has to do with church attendance. 15 years ago church attendance numbers gave us an accurate picture of the number of engaged members in a congregation. This is no longer the case.
Over the last five years, all churches - new, old, traditional, and contemporary - including ours – have seen the regular attendance in worship drop significantly. This attendance drop is not due primarily to less members – instead, it has to do with the attendance patterns of our members. 15 year ago, regular worship attenders came to worship 3-4 times/month. Today, the average engaged, active member of a church attends worship 1-2/month. This means that in order to maintain the same worship attendance numbers as we had even 15 years ago we must double the actively attending members – just to keep the same worship attendance.
For example, last year, First Baptist Cornelia had 398 active members and we averaged 175 in attendance on Sunday mornings. No one is more aware of this trend than I am as I preach each Sunday. Our staff has been aware of this trend for a couple of years and have worked to engage our membership in new ways to help us get to church.
So, while the changing culture, global church, and statistics give us an outline of the state of First Baptist Cornelia at the end of 2016, they do not tell us the whole story of God’s movement among us.
To get a more complete picture of the state of our church, we need to hear the stories of God’s work among us.
1. Story of Survivors:
When I look around the sanctuary today looking for stories of God’s work among us, I see a church filled with survivor stories. The first decade of this century was difficult. The building of our Family Ministry Center challenged us in ways we often want to forget. Conflict made it difficult to trust and without trust nothing could be accomplished.
Yet, in spite of these challenges, you did not give up on God’s future. Your bravery at calling David Turner to be an intentional interim for four years cannot be overlooked. Your wisdom in giving your pastor search committee freedom to follow God’s leading and do things differently should be applauded. And your trust in God to allow a young pastor to lead you into new and uncharted waters is one of your strengths.
God has been at work among us over the last 10 years rebuilding trust among our fellowship, growing a competent, experienced and faithful staff, and showing us there is nothing we cannot do when we depend on Jesus.
2. Story of Visionaries
Besides stories of survival, the state of our church story also includes the story of our visionaries. Beginning in 2012, First Baptist Cornelia began to dream about our future through our Walking by Faith Process. For over 2.5 years, we sat together in small groups and town halls, in work teams and initiative groups casting a vision for our future. Vision work is hard work because it invites us to look beyond our present to see a future that is yet here. Often in those sessions, we used the year 2017 as our target future year.
As we sit just a few weeks away from 2017, it thrills me to see that our vision for our Unified Mission Offering and Fund has arrived and is already guiding our mission life. It thrills me to see the new focused ministry of our deacons which we only dream about, but could never imagine 2 years ago.
First Baptist Cornelia does not wait for the future to arrive. Instead, we pray and prepare and work for God’s vision to materialize. This story of visionaries is happening right now!
3. Story of Workers
The state of our church also includes the story of our workers. I tell prospective members of our church to be prepared to work in God’s Kingdom. My mom who has been in lots of different Baptist churches throughout her life and always tells people with just a little pride about our church: “This church works harder than any church I’ve ever been in.”
It’s true! From our dishwashers on Wednesday nights to our children’s ministry volunteers today – we are a strong church because of the many ways each of you serve God through First Baptist. The part I love about this – this is not useless work. You are working out of your strengths and abilities in places where your efforts matters.
4. Story of Missionaries
The state of our church would not be complete without the story of our missionaries. Not the people we support through SBC or CBF channels – but all of you. Through your hard work, God is transforming Cornelia, Georgia and the world. I have to hold back my pride when I tell friends about Camp Agape, Camp Mosaic, the Cornelia Soup Kitchen, the Cold Weather Shelter, and our children’s and youth ministries.
You have heard God’s Great Commission and responded. At First Baptist Cornelia – missions is not something that we do, it is who we are. This statement is now more reality than dream.
5. Story of Disciples
Finally, we can’t forget the story of the disciples among us. FBC is a community of faithful followers of Jesus who have decided to walk a long obedience in the same direction together. A couple of weeks ago, I had a Sunday School teacher tell me excitedly about his class. The class had struggled together over a certain topic one Sunday. As they struggled the class gave permission for each person to have their own opinions and ideas. Rather than the teacher giving all the answers, God worked through the spiritual walks of each man and woman there. This class is evidence to spiritual growth we see happening in our church.
Our love for one another and the world grows as our love for Jesus grows. Simply, we are loving God and loving other more today than we have before.
When view the whole picture: The state of First Baptist Cornelia is strong, dynamic, and forward focused.
Still, we have challenges ahead. Here are our two most immediate challenges:
1. Facilities Usage
Through the vision, hard work, and sacrifices of many of us, God has blessed this congregation with a beautiful, functional and well maintained church campus. AND … We are debt free.
Our next task remains configuring these buildings for our ministry for the next decade. Our facility, like our church, must be an evolving organism shifting to meet the needs of the next 5 years of ministry rather than the last 5 years.
At the moment, several committees are meeting together to evaluate some short term solutions to meet the facility needs of children’s ministry. Our Media Center Ministry team is working to transform our library into a multi-functional space for study and fellowship for individuals and groups.
Soon, we will begin discussing longer term shifts in our facilities. While all of this change creates some anxiety – let me assure us - this is a good thing. We are not rearranging chairs on a sinking ship, we are building a ship to carry us to the future. First Baptist Cornelia is healthy enough and forward thinking enough to be preparing for the future God has in store for us.
2. Congregational Systems
The second challenge ahead of us will be building and strengthening our congregational systems – the things we do on a regular basis to communicate, reach out to, and care for one another. Our new deacon focuses which were outlined in this month’s newsletter is one step in this direction. Yet, we still have farther to go.
• We need a stronger system for active and engaged prayer as a foundation of all we do.
• We need a stronger system for congregational inreach and outreach – letting people know they are loved.
• We need to get better at assimilating new people into our fellowship – helping people find their place.
• We need a more defined discipleship process that invites everyone to participate.
Over the next year, we will be working on these systems as we strengthen our programs as a church to help us achieve our vision.
The state of First Baptist Cornelia is strong, dynamic, and forward focused.
We are working on the challenges that face us. Yet – I think there is one more key ingredient for us to reach our full Kingdom potential: Absolute dependence on the Holy Spirit.
In the second chapter of Acts, a small remnant of Jesus followers waited and prayed in a cramped house in Jerusalem. They were hopeful, yet uncertain, of what would happen next.
When they least expected it, the power of the Holy Spirit rushed into this cramped space like a violent wind. The spirit filled the entire house and each one of them empowering them to change the world. When the spirit was done – they left the room empowered by the Holy Spirit preaching about Jesus in multiple languages. The impossible occurred because they allowed themselves to be empowered for the ministry in front of them.
This is the Good News for us today: First Baptist Cornelia will accomplish God’s purposes because we are empowered for ministry.
God is already doing great things among us through the work of the Holy Spirit. How much more can God accomplish through us when completely depend on the Holy Spirit.
I am certain God has even greater things in store for us. So - let’s keep praying and preparing so that as God moves, we will be empowered for the new ministries set before us.
With much love and gratitude, I am your pastor –
Eric
Thanks be to God. Amen
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