Wow, I cannot believe that we are almost finished with the month of March. The year is already a quarter finished. I want to take the opportunity to provide an update on the congregation here at Chestnut Mound.
There have been a few things happen since our end of year update that I posted back before Christmas. If you will recall in that update, we had just begun a search for a new minister for the 4th Sunday. We are happy to announce that as of January 2021 Charlie LaFever stepped into that role. We also came to an agreement with Shawn Hensley to handle our four 5th Sunday's this year. We are extremely proud of our ministry team with Charlie and I heading that up. We want you to know that our phones and emails are always open with whatever spiritual need you might have. We hope you will visit the "our leadership" section of this website for that information. As ministers our focus is to be more transparent with our members and this will be done by utilizing this webpage as well as Facebook and weekly congregational email updates.
In the past few weeks we have talked about giving the men of the congregation more responsibility. This plan has already been put into action as Mark Prather has agreed to oversee our physical plant. Likewise Justin Brockett has agreed to handle worship with Stanley Loftis taking on outreach through our newly developed card ministry. Ricky Lambert will continue to be the trustee and handle all the financial aspects of the church as well as be the final authority over all decisions that are made. By doing this, Charlie and I will be able to devote more time to preaching, Meditations from the Mound on YouTube, setting up Bible studies, and outreach through physical visitation, calls, texts, and social media.
Fellowship is going to be a major theme of 2021. We have plans in the works to have a fellowship meal in either early to mid Summer of this year. There is nothing that compares to the joy of assembling with each other outside the worship assembly (1 Thessalonians 5:11). In conjunction with this, we are planning a workday at our building. Ricky and Mark have made a list of jobs that need to be taken care of around our building that will be the focus of that work day(s). Even though the building is not "the church," we are still to be good stewards of it (1 Peter 4:10).
Outreach will also be a theme this year. Throughout 2020 we were made aware of many individuals who have gone/are going through illness and had family and friends pass away. We want to show that we care about these folks and their souls (1 Thessalonians 5:11). What better way to do this than send cards? If you know of someone that would like a card let Stanley Loftis or one of our men know and we will make sure they receive one. Oftentimes, cards, while simple, can be so profound. We don't want to limit our cards to just those who are physically hurting, but those spiritually hurting as well (Mark 16:15).
Our worship is the most important aspect of what we do. It's a time where we come together for three hours (two in the morning, one in the evening) to worship the most holy God (John 4:24). It is important that we do so in a pleasing, uplifting, and organized manner. To effectively do this, we have put Justin Brockett in charge of this area. His duties will include making sure each of our men have a role(s) in worship, picking out songs to sing, and getting everyone focused on worshipping God at the times we've set aside at 11 am and 5 pm. Justin will also make sure that the Lord's Supper has been prepared as well as making sure that the contribution and attendance have been counted, with the former being given to Ricky for deposit in the bank.
We are happy to be supporting two very good works this year. House to House/Heart to Heart is a ministry we began supporting last year. This ministry sends mailers to various zip codes that are customizable to us. Through this ministry we reach over 1,000 homes in Chestnut Mound, Granville, and Buffalo Valley. We also have approximately 200 of these mailings that are sent to the building. This year I want each member to take 20 or more of these and distribute them to friends, family, co-workers, and just anyone else you think might reap the benefits of them. New this year is The Gospel of Christ Television program. In November Brother Joey Ferrell came and spoke to us during Bible Study about this work. As a result we have entered a contractual agreement to financially support this work on a weekly basis each Sunday afternoon at 12:30 on DTC-TV channel 6. This broadcast is available to all DTC subscribers in Smith, Dekalb, Cannon, Rutherford, and Wilson counties. Brother Ben Bailey's lessons can be viewed on YouTube at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/user/GospelOfChristMedia.
Ricky, Justin, Stanley, Mark, Charlie, and I are excited for the things that 2021 holds. We hope that you, but most importantly God, will reap the benefits of each of these things. Please realize that we are not perfect. We fail daily. However, we want to be more transparent. This means that if you have any questions or concerns we want you to reach out to us. The "our leadership" page has been updated with all of our contact information. As always, to God be the glory!!
In Him,
Carver Moore
