Fallingbrook Heights Baptist Church

FHBC News from the Committee Chairs

Pastor's Report - PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE The Pastor’s Annual Report 2007
Rev. Mel Finlay

After more than a decade as your Pastor, it’s appropriate to look to the past in the present as we move toward the future.

What a marvellous journey it has been! Faith-filled people who were faith-full trusted the Lord to guide them more than 10 years ago. They sold their church building, saw their Pastor off to another church in another city, and wondered about their future. Since then several of them have gone to be with the Lord; the rest, because of the growth we have experienced in the past ten years, form a minority of our current congregation.

God’s guiding hand has been evident throughout. He brought Susan and me to guide you through a time of major transition:

Our church covers a huge geographic ‘footprint.’ It also includes people from many countries around the world. We are living proof that God calls His people from every nation, every tribe, every race, and calls them to travel long distances to worship Him – even on Sunday mornings!

We serve an awesome God!

He has been faithful to us in the past, He continues to be faithful to us in the present, and we can be confident that He will be faithful to us in the future. If we remain faithful to Him.

2007 has been filled with God’s blessings, as He has seen all of our church families through both triumphs and tragedies. As a church, we have witnessed amazing healings of people for whom we have prayed, and we have shared the heartache of those who have lost loved ones and seen family members go through great difficulties. We have seen people touched by that peace that passes all understanding, and agonized for those who do not seek direction from the Lord.

We are a church undergirded by prayer. In the privacy of our homes and workplaces, with our families and friends, in company with others – we pray. And God, who is faithful, hears our prayers and answers. Not always as we would wish, but always in a way that brings out the best in us and leads us to a deeper understanding of Him. I know that when I send out a prayer request, many of you respond. And Susan and I can testify to the countless times we have been strengthened and kept safe and uplifted by your prayers.

We are a church of selfless people, who give freely of money, time, and talent to benefit others. Whether it’s working at the Food Bank, dropping off a casserole or other food dish to someone going through a tough time, making a call to someone experiencing personal pain, setting up and taking down at the Centre, singing, rehearsing, teaching Sunday School, giving rides to people, encouraging one another, participating on Committees, volunteering for the Baseball Camp and numerous other things we get involved in – the list of ways we give to others is almost endless.

We are a church that is always experiencing experimentation, transition and change. Some things we try work; others don’t. Some succeed for a season, then need to be adjusted or dropped.

The Baseball Camp has been a notable success in giving access to families in the community, but we need to continue working at maintaining ongoing contact with those families. This year, for the first time, Chris Lortie, our Youth Worker, has achieved a break through, with a couple of the youth from the Camp now attending Youth Group.

Chris has been successfully engaged at Birch Cliff Public School and is looking at ways to expand that to Birchmount High without losing our own youth.

The Church Retreat, an annual fixture for the past few years, was put on hold in 2007 as a suitable location was not available the first weekend in November when we were out of the Centre because of the Lions Club Craft Show and Sale.

After various attempts at finding a suitable location and format for our Christmas Eve service I think we finally got it right, as Extendicare Guildwood proved hospitable, worshipful, and attractive.

We are a church where people feel comfortable and at home, that they look forward to attending during the week and are reluctant to leave when the service is over.

At the same time, we are a church that is greatly impacted by geography. While it does not affect us on Sundays, it does affect our ability to program events and activities during the week.

Recognizing that, we reinstituted the post-worship service time for Adults on Sunday mornings, thus providing greater opportunity for programming for children and youth as well. Unfortunately, our timing was off and the experience was less than satisfying in the Fall. We are reactivating it on January 13, 2008 with what I know will be much greater success.

And we are a church of multi-generations. Infants and babies through octogenarians and over, we run the gamut of ages.

All of these realities pose challenges for us. Our church now has more of the characteristics of an extended family that gets together on Sundays than a nuclear family that lives under the same roof. Just as many events go on in the lives of members of an extended family that do not include other members, so in our church ‘family’ not everyone needs to, can, or desires to participate in every activity, event, or program of the church. And just as an extended family plans events in different geographic locations to accommodate people living in different places, so our church needs to look at being more imaginative in terms of both types of activities/programs and suitable locations to hold them. While we may wish that we were still a tight-knit nuclear family, that is not what God has given us, and not what He is calling us to become. Just as extended families can remain close to each other and supportive of one another, so can we – it just requires some thought and planning to maintain that closeness.

It also requires that we be more intentional about what we do by way of programs and activities, and clearer about who the intended participants are.

If we use the extended family model to undergird our planning we will be able to continue responding to the increasingly diverse needs of our people.

It is clear that God is continuing to lead us all in new directions. In September I gave a detailed account of how He had called me to join Susan in the national ministry of Nation At Prayer, effective September 1, 2008. In the short-term we will all experience more transition as we make the adjustment to a change in Pastor. The Pastoral Search Committee is comprised of wise and diligent individuals of deep faith who will be as open to God’s leading as the search committee was more than a decade ago when I was called to come to you. They are supported in prayer by all of us, and God is preparing the way for the next Pastor. There will be other occasions for me to reflect on that aspect of the future. Suffice it to say that it is God’s future that we are moving into, and His hand is sure. Just as He has entrusted us with the experiences of the past, so He is entrusting us now to walk with Him into renewed ministry with a new Pastor.

Susan and I want to say a heart-felt “Thank you” to each of you. It is a privilege and a joy to serve you, “the gold of the Kingdom.” Thank you for your support, your prayers, your faithfulness. Thank you to those who give unselfishly Sunday by Sunday and throughout each week to ensure lively worship services that honour and glorify the Lord. Thank you to those who serve as volunteers, work on Committees, fill leadership positions so capably. Thank you to the ‘unseen’ ones who visit, phone, provide rides, and bear witness to your family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, and strangers. You know who you are, even if what you do is not publicly recognized. God sees it, and rejoices.

A special “Thank you” to Chris and Leona for their dedication to youth and modelling of partnership in ministry.

Of the many highlights of 2007, the greatest for Susan and me was our trip to Turkey. Thank you for making it possible, through giving me the time to be away, through your financial support, and through your prayers. You have impacted eleven younger Pastors, not to mention the church in Turkey, through your generosity. And you have given us the opportunity to grow in our understanding of how God has worked through the centuries to ensure that He is never without His witnesses, even when the church seems to have been wiped out.

May God bless each of you richly as you “press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of (us). …. one thing (we) do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, (we) press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called (us) heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12 – 14)

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