I am sure you are wondering why in the world I am showing three pictures of the top of a building that is under construction. This building is a building in Phoenix, Arizona, next door to the hotel where I stayed for the Southern Baptist Convention. First of all I want to thank you for sending me as a messenger of First Gallatin! It was a great time of spiritual enrichment, and it was a great time to be present for the business sessions of the convention. I will tell you more about the trip in the near future.
One thing that I feel like the Lord impressed upon my spirit while I was there is the fact that functioning as a team is key. Football, baseball and basketball teams must have unity and function as a team, but it is also key for churches to function in the same manner. We have been able to see in the book of Acts that the early church had a team like effort in all they did—they prayed together, studied the Word together, worshipped together, evangelized together, and they fellowshipped together.
The pictures above show the progress that I witnessed outside my hotel window. Early Monday morning, around 5 AM, I heard the construction workers making noise. By 5:30 AM, there were around a dozen men collaborating in an effort to pour the concrete floor over the massive amount of steel rebar that ran like an electrical maze across the floor. There was also a cement pump truck in place pumping the concrete up to the guys who were making sure that the cement was poured evenly. It was fascinating to see how the first picture shows the early stages of the project, and the second picture is a couple of hours into the project, and the third picture shows the amount of work that had been done close to quitting time that same day. Each person did his part to make sure that the task was completed.
Similarly, when we as the church move forward with the dual purpose of glorifying God as our Creator and fulfilling the Great Commission as the hands and feet of Christ, we do this as a team. I am excited to see us function this way at First Baptist! There are numerous children who have recently confessed Christ as Lord and Savior, and we will move forward with their baptisms in the very near future. My prayer is that we might continue to see people come to accept and profess Christ as Lord!
To further illustrate how we are working as a team to fulfill our two-fold purpose as a church, I close by sharing a big win from our co-ed kickball team. One of our young ladies recently invited the opposing team’s pitcher to come to a service at First Baptist. Well, he showed up to our early service on Father’s Day, and he attended lifegroup! It’s amazing to see our people connecting with the community by being the church outside of our four walls. May we continue to do this as a unified team for the Lord Jesus.
Thank you for all you do as His church!
Grace and peace,
Pastor T
