Today I had the privilege of worshipping with the fine folks at First Baptist Church in Mt. Juliet, TN. I enjoyed meeting a lot of new people. They have been without a pastor for over a year, just about the same amount of time that Mt. Juliet Christian Academy has been without a Headmaster. I was pleased to see that the people have risen to the challenge. I went to Mt. Juliet to surprise Greg, Lori, and Stephen to encourage and support them this morning. Greg was speaking in view of a call before the congregation to become the new Headmaster at MJCA. He did a great job sharing his heart. It was a different church than the church we go to. All of us go to West Ridge Church. It has been a long time since I’ve seen an orchestra in church. It was really nice. While I was waiting for the sanctuary doors to open to head in, at least 10 or 12 people introduced themselves and welcomed me to their church. One man stood and talked to me for about 10 minutes. Really nice older guy who is obviously very excited about his church. It was nice to see that the people weren’t just floundering without a pastor. That speaks volumes about the leadership of their former pastor.
The guest speaker this morning was Michael Kelley who writes young adult curriculum for LifeWay Resources. He has also been a speaker for Student Life and Centrifuge Camps. I had run into him before and been impressed with his messages. He did a great job with his message this morning about “Newness”. He looked at John and I John and talked about how the disciple John decided that it was important to communicate that the love of Christ could not be looked upon as business as usual. He focused a lot on the word behold. I really enjoyed his message. He has a blog that talks about his ministry and his 2 year old son Joshua’s battle with leukemia.
After the service we did some running around. At 2pm, Greg had a Q&A with parents from the school. Stephen and I got in the car and headed back towards Georgia. We watched “Newsies” for about 2 hours and then we had an impromptu spelling bee for about an hour. What a great kid! I am really going to miss him 🙂
I heard from Greg a bit ago. He said that the congregation voted tonight to call him as the Headmaster of Mount Juliet Christian Academy. I am so excited for them to be going to a place that is really looking forward to them coming. I am also sad to begin the good-bye process. However…I do know it only takes 3 hours door-to-door to get from Acworth to Mt. Juliet.
Thank you God for your infinite wisdom. You have been preparing all of us for just this very moment!!