My mind goes back to that first Sunday in December of 2002. My, what a volume of water has passed under the bridge in the years between then and now. The records I have kept indicate that I have preached or taught 2362 sermons or Bible Studies, officiated 184 funerals, 30 weddings, and 149 baptisms since coming on board here. Those, coupled with hundreds of home visits and bereavement calls and who knows how many hospital and nursing home visits, study time in sermon prep, numerous Sunday School lessons taught and scores of counseling sessions, have accounted for a lot of effort expended.
There have been good times and great times. There have been lean times, hard times and bad times. There have been times of loss and times of blessing and spiritual refreshing. Without taking anything away from the 5 other churches I have served in pastoral ministry for the past 47 years, I can truly say these 16 have been some of the most fruitful and fulfilling years of my ministry.
All of the churches I have served in Kentucky and West Virginia have multitudes of wonderful people and I remain close with a number of folks from each of those churches. But the people of Westmoreland Baptist are the faith family I have served the longest, and we have developed a wonderful relationship.
One of the true difficulties in modern churches, I believe, is the rapid turnover in pastoral leadership. I think that the amount of time that God has allowed me to spend here at WBC has been a span that brought stability to a church that had had a revolving door pastoral situation for a period of about 12 years by the time they called me. The longevity feature for me has helped my hone my preaching skills and pastoral experience. Even though I had 31 years of ministry experience when I came here, it was here that I have developed and hopefully improved my understanding of the importance of expository preaching.
Have we grown numerically by leaps and bounds? In a word, No. But I do see spiritual growth among many members, and due to the extreme number of funeral services I have done, and the willingness of surviving members to adapt and reassess ministries and programs, I do feel that we are certainly on more stable spiritual ground than when we came.
We have revised our old 23 page constitution to one of only 8 pages, seeking to simplify our organizational structure. We are seeking to do more outside ministry and have launched into some ministries that would have not been considered 16 years ago. Christian Education structure and worship styles have slowly evolved and we have truly transitioned in what I think are positive ways.
So much more I could talk about, but I just want to thank God, publicly for bringing me here and to thank the faith family of Westmoreland Baptist Church for allowing me to continue serving here these 16 years.
