Writing the chapters of your life

At Eastwood Baptist where I am the pastor we are about to celebrate next Sunday the 60th anniversary for our church. As of now, all 7 former pastors are supposed to be in attendance. As I have reflected on the ministry of those who have gone before me, I’ve realized how God had His people just where He wanted them to be at the exact time He wanted them there. Men like Sam Todd, a Sunday School teacher of men at First Baptist Church Bowling Green, and a man with a passion to plant a new church (his class became the nucleus of Eastwood and her charter members). To Bill Rogers Eastwood's first pastor, a pastor who witnessed the church explode, built three buildings, and planted two other churches in her first five years of existence all under his shepherding. Men like Jim Haskell who the Lord placed at Eastwood to among other things construct the sanctuary our East Campus currently worships in. Men like Billy Devasher, Gerald Lord, Jim Britt (who had the longest run of any pastor ... to date, as I hope to pass him in a few years), Paul Welch, and Mike Lee who helped the church navigate the tumultuous waters of changing worship styles. All of these men, faithful to their calling, stood week after week proclaiming the glory of the One who called them out of darkness into His glorious light. I could write of prayer warriors today; ladies like Loretta Faxon (a charter member), Inell Watson, Betty Lou Smith, and Delores Cook (a newer member who at 90 years old has offered many prayers to our Lord). It takes one call to these ladies and they grab hold of the ear of Lord and petition Him on behalf of His people.

But the purpose of writing today is to reflect on what I’m writing in the “chapters” of my life the Lord has me etching forever on the history that is known as my life and witness. If He tarries for another 60 years and Eastwood is still around, I pray folks will remember these days for our church in the light of Acts 1:8. How we desired to begin here in our “Jerusalem” and try and reach this community for Christ with the launch of a 2nd campus, GROW, and other local ministries we serve in. But also they would remember that our Jerusalem was never seen as an ending point but rather a launch point. How our desire today was to do everything we could to make the Great Commission a reality. I have often told our church family that I am a “missionary trapped in a pastors body”. Because of personal issues I likely will never have opportunity to serve overseas full-time but that does not stop me from going on volunteer trips and also calling out the “called”. I miss seeing people like Rob and Jenny Patterson, Trey and Bellamy, Terry and Alice, Ron and Kerri Wilson, Andy and Michelle Milam (Minister of Music at Alpha while I was there and now serving in Europe), Danielle, and Erin, who all now serve our Lord in various ways and various places around the world. It was my honor to be involved in their journey of faith and witness their following the Lord wherever He called. Three months from today I will be winding up a trip to Asia with 4 others as we seek to impact the lostness of an unreached people group. I pray these days are remembered as faithfully proclaiming the truth of His Word.

What about you? Some of you are early in the book that’s known as your life; there are still many chapters to hopefully write. Others, like me are past the mid-way of your book called life and are figuring out how it’s all going to end; what the last chapters will say about you. Still others are in the last couple of chapters and are literally deciding every day how this book of life concludes. One of the guys going to Asia in a few months with me took his family to the beach earlier this year. He said as he watched his two kids play in the surf he noticed how they would leave footprints in the wet sand that soon, with the passing of waves, would no longer be seen. He told me as he thought about his life he didn’t want it to be like that; to leave prints while here but not longer after he was gone his mark to be gone and his witness to be forever washed away. That story has had a profound impact upon me. I want to leave a legacy of faith to my kids of a life well spent for our Lord. If the Lord tarries and Eastwood gathers to celebrate some great anniversary in the future, I pray they can look back to this period in the life of the church, and if they remember only one thing may that be that we were passionate about the gospel and making Christ known.

Tom