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Obituary – Graceway 2006-2009

It been a bumpy ride… like an old creaky wooden roller coaster. The last time I rode one of those was at Hershey Park in Pennsylvania, and I promised God if He would get me off of it alive, I would never get on one again. But, they say, “Never say never.”
Today, the vision of Graceway came to an end. The horrible internal injuries suffered about five months ago finally took its toll. I hated to see this day come. It was no less tramatic to me than to lose a loved one. I’ll move on, but I’m not sure I’ll ever recover. I’ve lost a lot through this adventure. But, I’ve gained a lot too.
Let me talk about the losses. Friends–at least I thought they were. I realize now what the Bible means when it says, “There is a friend that stays closer than a brother.” That Friend is Jesus. I’ve also realized that loyalty and commitment in individuals is rare, although it does exist. Honestly, I have lost a lot of faith in humanity, even Christians. I’m not alone… the Bible is filled with stories of men who experienced similar things, and they poured out their hearts about how they felt. I don’t think I should feel ashamed about that.
I must concentrate on the “gains’ though. Friends… true friends, like Stephen Gray, Director of National Missions with the General Baptists. I couldn’t wish for a better friend. He is loyal, compassionate, caring and trustworthy. Dr. Franklin Dumond, is another wonderful person. His wisdom and maturity has been a mainstay for me. My wife, who is my best friend, has supported me throughout this whole experience–both through the good and bad. My son, Stephen and his wife, Shannon, whose prayers and encouragement have been amazing. I have seen Stephen grow into being a true leader, and one who was willing to fill any void when necessary through all of this. My parents, who are in their 80s, did whatever it took to help, and cry with me. And, I mustn’t forget Jimmie Davidson, who also gave me many words of encouragement during the spiritual battles.
I would also be remiss if I failed to mention others who stayed with us after the split, and I won’t mention them by name–they know who they are, and they know I love them.
One of the biggest gains for me was my association with the General Baptists. They are so “on target” with what denominational support should be. They, in my opinion, truly represent what Christian leadership should be. Any church would do well to join them. I will be happy to be their non-paid recruiter.
I don’t know what God has in store. I do know that I am going to take a year away from ministry. I plan to write a couple of books–I’ve always wanted to do that. Pray for me as I seek God’s will for my life.
All of Graceway’s assets will be given to the General Baptist National Missions to whom I am so grateful for the love and support they have given me.
This will be my last post as g2cpastor.

Graceway Reaching Out to the Community

We are thankful for the 77 folks we had at church this weekend. Many of those attending had never been to Graceway before, and it is our prayer that we will be able to meet their needs, spiritually and otherwise.
Our series “Kaleo” (Greek for “called”) continued this week with the topic being “Called to Serve.” It is amazing how God presented the opportunity for our church to serve. After Steven Furtick, pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, explained how he used Raman Noodles, Oatmeal Cookies and Fudge Rounds to reach an entire dorm for Christ, we tossed out these same items to everyone in attendance while explaining that God has called each one of us to serve. At the end of the service, practically everyone raised their hand, indicating that they wanted to get more involved in serving.
We’re looking for great things to happen at Graceway now that we are located in the original area to which God called us. We will be having an open house soon, and we expect the place to be packed!

Awesome Time with Nelson Searcy

Some valuable time with Nelson Searcy

What a blessing it was to be able to spend some valuable time with Nelson Searcy at the recent General Baptist Summit in Evansville, Indiana a couple of weeks ago. Nelson has certainly been the friend of church planters, and practices what he preaches. I am looking forward to applying the principles that he taught during the meeting.

I think Nelson was impressed with the General Baptists denomination because of its amazing support of its new church plants.

The Bible says in Proverbs 12:15, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But he who heeds counsel is wise.”

I am thankful that I was privileged to be able to spend time with one who has been successful in winning many people to Christ. I look forward to spending more time with Nelson in the upcoming months.

Our new series is Kaleo, which in the original Greek means, “calling.”  What is our calling? Is it for more equipment, more technology and razzle-dazzle? Or it simply to reach out to the hurting, the downtrodden and lonely? I think the latter. I’m thankful that we have the lights, sound and videos, but our main focus must be souls. After all, that’s really the only reason that Jesus came–to seek and to save the lost. His focus should be our focus.

I hope you will join us in this very encouraging series. Our service starts at 10:37 AM Sunday at 4747-F Hwy 33 East of Greenville, one mile on the left from the new Sheetz station.

Ed Young Discusses Church Piracy

Amazing Week

God is so good! We just returned from Indiana after attending the General Baptist Summit. It was refreshing to say the least! I have never met so many people that are on fire for the Lord. I had the opportunity to sit down with many church planters and hear their story. Amazingly, most have been through the same thing that we recently experienced. It is encouraging to know that shortly after their “Gideon’s Army Reduction” they experienced a victory in growth. One pastor’s church had grown to 200 then dropped to around 50 almost overnight. That was about three years ago. They have now grown to over 700.

I was able to spend some time with Nelson Searcy who was one of the keynote speakers. He was both knowledgable and entertaining.

The kicker for the whole event was the Commissioning Service on Wednesday night. Over 1000 were in attendance. We (Rennie, Stephen, Shannon and myself) were sitting a few rows back from the front when Stephen Gray, National Missions Director, came to the stage. He said, “Tonight, we will be commissioning several church planters and foreign missionaries. We are going to be taking up an offering, and we want you to be generous. We have decided to split our offering tonight between our foreign missions and national missions. Tonight, our offering will be divided between our missionaries going to Hong Kong, and the Graceway Church in Greenville, NC.” The four of us burst into tears. His announcement caught us totally by surprise. Our half of the offering was almost $7000! We will be using all of that for outreach.

This weekend, I had two more new people come to me who will be joining our new worship team. So far, we have a bass player, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, keyboardist and a couple of vocalists. We are still looking for a drummer. During August, these will be practicing in our new location at 111-A Firetower Road. Then, in September, our new group will begin leading worship.

Yes, God is good, and He is good ALL the time! Let’s go bring in as many as we can to His Kingdom!

Refocusing on the Vision

In the last few days I’ve had to take a closer look at myself. I found out that I was (am) very imperfect.  Actually, I have known that for quite some time. Now, before anyone starts saying, “Uh-huh, uh-huh, see I knew it,” any of us who think we have “arrived” have much to learn. Paul said in Romans 7:18 (NKJV) “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells.” In Psalm 69:5, David said, “O God, You know my foolishness; and my sins are not hidden from you.” Isaiah said, “Woe is me, for I am undone!” (Isa. 6:5).

Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC, had some interesting thoughts in something he wrote in September 2005. He was talking about how we need to be wired for worship: “For example, if you decide you don’t like someone you’ll notice everything that is wrong with that person. And you’ll probably ignore anything you could potentially like about them. The flipside is true as well. If you’re head-over-heels in love with someone you tend to only notice those things you love about them.

“We see what we’re looking for.

“What does that have to do with worship? A worshipper makes a pre-decision to look for something to praise God about even in the direst of circumstances.”

Sometimes we lose focus. We start focusing on our personal differences rather than one the One who can deliver us from ourselves.  Walt Kelly, author of the cartoon “Pogo,” wrote “We have discovered the enemy and he is us.” When we realize that, we are making one step closer to our healing.

Recently I have discovered that the more we try to defend ourselves, the deeper in trouble we get. My mentor and dear friend, Jimmie Davidson, pastors Highlands Fellowship in Abingdon, VA. That church has grown to over 3000 people in the last decade. Two Sundays ago, they had 60 people saved in one day. That same day, they baptised over 200! I often seek his advice when I’m not sure what to do (Proverbs 1:5). This past week, he called me and gave me some excellent advice:

1. Defend the vison, and let God defend you.

2. Read James, chapter 1 and learn from it.

3. Get on your knees and thank God for the trial.

Here’s the vision plain and simple: To reach the lost and unchurched in Greenville and Pitt County, and lead them into becoming fully devoted followers of Christ! We must never lose focus of that!

“‘And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Cor. 12:9)

Never, never, never give up!

My dad has been the most stable man I have ever known. Throughout his life, he exemplified true meaning of faithfulness. If he said he would do something, you could take it to the bank. When the chips were down, he could be counted on. He was never late to work, and when he was at work, he didn’t play–he worked. When everyone else wanted to quit, he didn’t. He never missed a church service unless he was sick. I hope some of these traits were transfered to me.

The saying “Never, never, never give up,” is attributed to Winston Churchill. Although his exact words were slightly different, the meaning was the same. I heard that statement several years ago, and it has been an encouragement for me to press on when everything seems to be falling apart. As a result, I don’t give up easily.

Here’s some more that I have learned and applied over the years: Winners never quit, and quitters never win. When you stick your head up above the crowd, you can expect some tomatoes to be thrown at you. When life deals you lemons, learn to make lemonade.

These are ideals to succeed in life. However, when applied to the Christian life, these take on a whole new level of meaning. I can never give up, because God has called me to a task. I will not give up until every last soul in Pitt County is saved. Then I will work on Beaufort County, and North Carolina and the world. Winners never quit–or should I say Soul Winners Never Quit. And, quitters will never win a lot of souls. I could go on, but you get the point.

When my wife and I got married, we did so for better, for worse; for richer, or for poorer; and in sickness and in health. We said, “til death do us part.” One of the problems with marriage today is, it’s too easy to get a divorce. At the first sign of an argument, people just go their separate ways rather than look back at the vow and determine to get along and make it work. Among Christians, each should do the same. When things are said to hurt each other, we apologize, say “I’m sorry,” and that should be the end of it. Then we get on with the work at hand–lives are depending on that fact.

Here’s what the Message says in  James 5:10 “Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God.”

When I was standing in the hallway after church this Sunday, a first-time visitor came up to me and said, “Pastor, you cannot quit fishing now, you have one on the hook, and I am it! I am a good man, but not a good Christian! I intend to make this my church!

That’s all I needed to be reminded of another motto: Keep on, keeping on! Thanks to my Heavenly Father and earthly father who both taught me to never give up!

Interesting Article

The following article is from Cary Monaco, Editor “Baptist Edifier.”  http://www.baptistedifier.com/why_pastors_deserve_honor_from_church_members.html

Why Pastors Deserve Honor From Church Members

Introduction

“Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.” (I Tim. 5:17,18)

The careful student of the Bible understands that when “elder” or “elders” is used in the New Testament that it’s typically speaking of pastors. The text leaves no doubt that this is the case in the verses above (i.e. – “rule well,” “labour in the word and doctrine”).

Under the inspiration of God, Paul wrote that faithful pastors are “worthy of double honor” (vs. 17). Most involved with independent Baptist churches are highly supportive of their pastors and gladly submit to his God-given leadership role. However, anyone is susceptible to developing a wrong attitude towards his or her pastor. There are few things more harmful and dangerous to the local church than a wrong heart about the pastor because unless corrected it will eventually bring some degree of discord and division.

What follows isn’t an exhaustive coverage of “Why Pastors Deserve Honor From Their Church Members;”  however, it should be more than enough to convince any humble believer of his or her need to do so.

Pastors deserve honor for their “work’s sake”

I Thessalonians 5:12,13 says, “And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; And to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace among yourselves.”

Here we see that honoring a pastor isn’t so much about “who he is” as a person, but “what he does” alluding to his God-ordained office. The carnal mainly esteem pastors for humanistic things such as doing and saying what pleases and gratifies them. In verse 13 we see that the spiritual esteem pastors “very highly in love for their work’s sake.”

What comprises the works of the pastor?

Well, as the elder (ruler), bishop (overseer) and under-shepherd (leader) the pastor’s works involve the mission and welfare of the local church. He’s to lead the church to follow God and His Word in carrying out the most paramount mission which exists, propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As part of this his works also entail following the Lord’s leadership in the care of the church which includes trying to help all members to grow in Christ, doing whatever’s required to ensure that sound doctrine and practice are maintained, leading in bringing forth God-honoring services, overseeing business matters, and a whole myriad of other duties.

So, since the works of the pastor involve the mission and welfare of the local church, the members need to do everything the Bible and Holy Spirit direct in order to help him, including giving him a high degree of esteem and honor.

Esteeming and honoring the pastor have to do with actively demonstrating great respect for his under-shepherd role, which inherently includes willingly submitting to his God-given leadership.

The word “rule” seen in I Timothy 5:17 means just what it says, “rule.” It speaks of “presiding over” and “having the care of.” Obviously, it’s indicating that the pastor has the undisputed leadership role.

The thing is, when a person or persons don’t highly esteem the pastor — when people don’t provide him with the proper respect through attitudes and actions — it hinders his work, which “is unprofitable” to the church and the entire cause of Christ. Pay careful attention to what it says in Hebrews 13:17, “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.”

Remember, the pastor’s work is the mission and welfare of the church, so when a member doesn’t respect him and his office, but instead resists and rebels against his God-appointed and anointed leadership, the work of that entire local body of Christ is hindered. And guess what can happen when such disrespect of pastors grows within churches?

Those churches may be destroyed, at least as true New Testament Churches.

Who was the first in history to refuse to esteem and honor the One in spiritual leadership over him? It was Lucifer, the devil. So who is the church member emulating when he or she has a wrong attitude toward the pastor? Yeah, that’s right!

Folks, what is the devil always trying to do to churches? He and his forces are continually seeking to hinder and destroy. The serpent will be very happy to use you to try to run off God’s man and tear apart the Lord’s church. Only a lost person could enjoy being used in such a way. Christian, don’t ever allow yourself to become a pawn of the devil against Christ’s church!

Part II

A church cannot possibly be of one accord, of one heart, and of one soul for the Lord unless every member has the proper attitudes and actions of respect for the pastor. (Acts 2:42-47; 4:32,33)

A church cannot possibly be of one accord, of one heart, and of one soul for the Lord unless every member has the proper attitudes and actions of respect for the pastor. (Acts 2:42-47; 4:32,33)

We can become so consumed with self that we refuse to see the biggest and most important picture. The mission and welfare of God’s church are much more vital than anyone’s personal whims, fancies and feelings! Every Christian must fight self. We must always love the Lord and His church enough to get “me” and “I” out of the way so that we can see and focus on the biggest and most important picture – the mission and welfare of the Church of Jesus Christ!

Pastors deserve honor for the Lord’s sake

You know, when one gets right down to it, to refuse the proper respect to a God-called pastor is to disrespect the Lord Almighty Himself. First, it disrespects God’s plan and organization. The Lord’s plan has always involved using under-shepherds in the position of spiritual leadership (i.e. – Moses, Joshua, the Judges, prophets, priests, several Hebrew kings).

To the God Who is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34), all believers are equal in person, but we’re ordained to different roles. As much as some folks might desire the leadership role in the church, it’s clearly and undeniable bestowed upon the pastor by the Lord Himself. Filled with pride many believe that they can improve on God’s plan which gives rise to board-run churches, committee-run churches, domineering man or woman run churches, family-run churches and devil-run churches.

I Corinthians 14:33 tells us “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” In verse 40 we read, “Let all things be done decently and in order.”

When there’s rebellion against a faithful pastor’s leadership, when there is slander being brought forth about him within the church, when a certain member or members are dedicated to getting their way, it certainly doesn’t bring peace. Rather, it brings chaos. We know that God isn’t the author of chaos, so who is?

Secondly, refusing proper respect to a God-called pastor disrespects the Lord by disregarding His Word. How can someone who truly fears God read Proverbs 6:16-19 and still possess a wrong attitude towards his or her pastor? There we read these words, “These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”

Not honoring pastors brings discord to churches; and God hates sowers of discord.

Pastors deserve honor for the church’s sake

If the church member believes that the pastor has offended him or her in some way, or done some grievous wrong, the Bible explains what to do. (Matt. 18:15-17) Jesus taught that we’re to “go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.” Why is it then that folks usually go to everyone except the pastor to tell about his alleged fault(s)?

We should strive to be 100 percent behind the pastor. If someone comes with complaints about him, you should immediately tell them that you don’t want to hear it, and to take the matter to the pastor alone, not to anyone else.

If fact, for the welfare of the Lord’s church, those who even smell the slightest stink of discord from anyone should be quick to report it to the pastor so that he can deal with the situation. Certainly the welfare of the church should be of much higher priority than any human relationship.

The Scriptures describe the devil as a “roaring lion.” Have you ever seen how elephants protect the herd from lions? The most mature males and females will band together, standing shoulder-to-shoulder to form a near half-circle wall. Inside the wall will be their immature and babies. Guess what happens? The lions back away!

Church members need to take a lesson from the elephants and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the pastor against those whom the “roaring lion” would use to attack. Have you noticed that it’s almost always the immature and baby Christians who are the first to be devoured? How utterly heart-breaking and angering! How dare any church allow it to happen!

Conclusion

Honoring or not honoring a pastor really comes down to a person’s heart. Those who are humble and seek to be servants will have little trouble submitting to a Godly pastor’s leadership. Those who are prideful and seek to have their own ways will not properly submit to a pastor’s leadership until they get their hearts right with God.

Indeed, we should love the Lord and our pastor so much that we love him as Jonathan loved David. Do you know what I mean? By the way things operated, Jonathan was supposed to be the next king of Israel after his father Saul would die. However, even knowing that David would still get that honor instead of himself, Jonathan stood behind the one who God had called to that position. (I Samuel 23:16-18)

The church member who truly loves God will love his pastor as he loves his own soul. Rather than tearing him down to people, we should stand up for him if anyone ever dares to disparage him, raising up in righteous anger against such enemies of the church.

(II Thess. 3:1) Let us hold up our pastors, their wives, and children in fervent prayer everyday. Let us seek to encourage them often. And, let us have the courage to stand up for them whenever anyone would seek to tear them down.

 “And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; And to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace among yourselves.” (I Thess. 5:12,13)

One Prayer

This month, we start the “One Prayer” series. It is going to be incredible! It will give us an opportunity to hear (via video) from the pastors of four of the fastest growing churches in the country. God has got us on the brink of a huge breakthrough. I am praying that lives will be touched and changed. Each week, I will give an introduction to each pastor, and we can listen as they speak on the subject, “God Is…”