WBC REMEMBERS 2008
Westside Baptist Church has seen a lot of things happen in 2008. Let us explore some of these things together. Back on January 6th 2008 WBC started accepting charter memberships for our church. We saw over 50 members join throughout the month of January. Brother JT led the congregation through an 8 week sermon series on 8 different methods and programs of training on how to share the word of God with the lost around us. We are a small congregation, but we are all united thanks to the sacrifices that Jesus Christ endured to pay for our sins. In the spring, our choir started practicing and preparing for a summer concert in the park. Later on as summer neared, we started accepting names for the candidates of potential church elders. This took some time, but we did have three men accept the candidacy to run for elder. God even had some fun with Brother JT and Brother Brennan while interviewing Robbie Blair, God shook the ground under their feet with a 4.3 secondary earthquake that was related to a 5.4 earthquake on April 18, 2008.
Our three elder accepting candidates each gave their personal testimonies (1 a week for 3 weeks) during our Sunday morning worship services. election day came and since we were to elect our first 3 elders, all 3 of them were elected. This meant that Keith Tual, Phillip Moore, and Robert Blair became the first group of elders elected at Westside Baptist Church. Practice for the summer concert continued and then just in time for school to start back, our choir performed for the community in a wonderful concert of praise, glory, and hope for all that attended. WBC also had a hamburger/hot dog dinner for everyone in attendance. At the end of the evening’s festivities, several gift cards and back packs full of back to school supplies were given away. God must have been enjoying the concert since He blessed us with a gorgeous day of sunshine and a nice cool breeze. This is something rare for that time of year when it is usually in the 90's with humidity levels nearly that high too. As time passed, our church was also blessed by seeing our first three people to come forward and publicly accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. A time and location was arranged for them to publicly be baptized through immersion just as Jesus Christ was. In late September and throughout the entire month of October, donations were taken up in preparation for our filling of shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. Our congregation managed to fill 38 shoe boxes with personal hygiene basics and toys to be given to needy children around the world. We also started WBC Small Group BIBLE Studies on Sunday evenings with good success and many members attending. In mid to late October, the WBC choir started practicing in preparation for our Christmas concert. November rolled around, and Westside Baptist filled our spirits first with our regular worship service, then we filled our stomachs with a Thanksgiving-themed potluck luncheon, and physically filled our Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes on Sunday, November 9th. Thanksgiving Day passed, and now our attention turned to the WBC Christmas Community Concert. It was present on Sunday, December 14th with our special guest, Heather Payne. Both Heather and the WBC choir sounded wonderful. With that accomplished, it was time for the church members to rest, reflect on the true meaning of Christmas, and enjoy the bounty of gifts that Jesus blesses us with each day. Westside Baptist Church was also recognized as a fully functioning church on the local, state, national level by the Severns Valley Association of Baptists, the Kentucky Baptist Convention, and the Southern Baptist Convention respectively during 2008. Brother JT did lead the congregation through a 6 month long sermon series called "What We Believe," and it was built to give everyone a basic idea of the beliefs of our church, the 2000 SBC Faith and Message, and the WBC Constitution. Hopefully everyone learned something throughout the series. We were blessed with one final gift this year with the announced engagement of Brennan to his now fiancée Sarah. God bless you both. This does not mean that Westside Baptist had a perfect year; we did see some friends leave and go to other churches, but we were always blessed with many new visitors too. We struggled with an ever present hypnotic hum and wine from the heating and cooling system that was finally rectified. We have seen members and friends and family all effected by the current recession that our state, nation, and world is going through; and yes this has even effected our church too. But we are still here and ready to be used by God as He best see fit to use our church and the members.
What we have to look forward to as we start a new year is completely uncertain to us all, but at least we know that God will be leading our way first and for most. Who knows, we may see great growth spiritually and physically at WBC. We do have the marriage of Brennan and Sarah to look forward to. The Southern Baptist Convention will be held in Louisville KY this year to tie into the Southern Seminaries’ 150th birthday in 2009. We do not know what the future holds for any of us, but One, and that is our Lord and Savior. We do know that where He leads we better follow and the best place to prepare for the unknown is by reading His holy word, the Holy Bible and being involved and surrounded with like focused people every chance you get helps too. So if you do not have a church home, please come by and give ours a good look and trust me, you will be greeted with open arms, a great group of like believers, and a pastor that teaches straight from the Bible. With this in mind, we wish you a Happy New Year, and we look forward to seeing what God has planned for WBC in 2009.
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