Happy New Year!
One thing we know for sure is that 2022 will bring change. And some of that change has already been determined. As previously announced, Pat Ray and Faye Mooneyhan are both retiring. On January 2nd, we will hold a reception to honor their 22 years of service at HBC. The reception will take place in the church parlor at 9:30 AM. There will be no Adult Sunday School.
At the conclusion of the morning worship service on January 2nd, we will also recognize Jack Green for his years of service to the Lord and His church. As many of you know, Jack has authored two books in the past three years. His first book chronicles God’s providence in his life from childhood to recent years. It’s a really good read! His second book was just published a few weeks ago and is an explanation of The Life God Designed based on John 1-4. After the service, the first book will be available as Jack’s gift to you as long as supplies last. You will also have an opportunity to order the second book. Note: No books will be sold on Sunday morning.
State of the Church
I am looking forward to delivering the annual State of the Church message on January 9th. In spite of all of the obstacles we have faced over the past two years, God has been faithful to strengthen and guide us. Our focus for the next year will be “Advance the Gospel.” When an army invades new territory, they have two objectives. First, they have to establish a base of operation before they are able to advance. That pattern repeats itself until the army is successful to complete their mission.
For the past two years, I feel like we have been in an “establishing” phase of our work here at Huffman Baptist Church. Now, it is time to Advance! I’ll be sharing some specific information about what that means, so you will not want to miss it!
Global Impact Weekend
Our second annual Global Impact Weekend will take place on Saturday & Sunday, January 15th & 16th. On Saturday morning, we will have a community engagement mission project. Be on the lookout for more information in the next week or so. Then on Sunday morning, we will welcome Dr. Danny Wood, Pastor Emeritus of Shades Mountain Baptist Church, to challenge us to live and to give on mission. We are hopeful that many of our ministry partners, whom we support through The Blessing, will be with us that morning. Thank you for being a church that is committed to making Jesus known across the street and around the world!
The Kingdom of God is at Hand
On January 23rd we will kick off the next chapter in our journey through Matthew’s Gospel. In this next chapter we will follow Jesus through the wilderness of temptation, along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and to the mountain where he shared the values of the Kingdom. I am excited about this next chapter and ask that you pray for me as I prepare!
A Few More Changes
With the retirements of Pat and Faye, we are looking forward to welcoming Rev. Bill Sears to serve as Interim Administrative Pastor. Bill comes to us with more than three decades of experience as an education minister and executive pastor. His former churches include Eastside Birmingham; Bethel in Moody; FBC Pleasant Grove; Cottage Hill Mobile; FBC Jackson, MS; and FBC Panama City, FL. Bill’s primary role will be to help us through this transition time as we evaluate and assign the various roles and responsibilities that Pat and Faye fulfilled. Bill will be with us this coming Sunday morning.
As mentioned previously, we are also moving away from our previous church database provided by ACS Technologies. For the past several months, we have been experimenting with Planning Center Online for Wednesday night signups as well as Sunday School attendance. Effective January 1, this will be our only church database.
Online Giving – If you previously used our online giving platform through Abundant, please note that starting January 1st we will transition to giving through Planning Center. We will provide links through the church website. The last date to give using the Abundant platform is December 31st. If you have questions shoot me an email or a text, and I’ll be happy to help you!
Church, it is an absolute blessing to serve as your pastor. On behalf of the entire staff, thank you for an amazing 2021!