So, I’ve decided that, instead of sermon outlines - which I am putting on the pod cast pages now - I might use the blog to talk about the church or post  a few of my thoughts, or whatever.

 

    This July ’07 will mark the 16th year of Peace Hill’s existence as a church.  Sue and I graduated from Westminster Seminary in 1991 and came down to VA to start the church with Sue’s parents, (Jay & Jessie Wise).  

    For the first couple of weeks, that July, we had ten people:  Jay and Jesse, Sue and me, Jesse’s nephew, Jesse’s niece and her baby, John Barrows and his daughter Brooke (age 12), and Christopher (also a baby).   So, two people who weren’t technically family (although as close as family).   The church, then,  was called “Providence Christian Fellowship”.

 

    I smile when I think about the beginnings of the church - it was not what Sue and I had in mind.  We were full of ideas and were going to start a really amazing church.   But I think God wanted to teach us the humility that is truly necessary to care for - about? - people’s souls.  

    Within three months I was talking about leaving and going somewhere else, (I have never been a particularly fast learner).    Jay and Jesse, whose infinite (seemingly) patience has been an anchor for us, told us that we could go if we wanted, but that they were committed to this church and that they would stay here and find someone else to come and help them.   Obviously, we stayed.  I think that I was not only ashamed of myself, but also too competitive to bear the thought of someone else coming in to take my place.

 

    Now, sixteen years and four kids later, the church is still a small, humble country church, but has grown enough so that we have been able to extend the call to another couple, (Justin & Melissa Moore) to come down as fellow ministers.  

 

 

 

 

 

    This, to me, is evidence of God’s faithfulness.   I don’t know how our fellowship grew to become what it is - certainly not through our own plans and strategies - definitely not because of demographics (our county has something like 6,000 people and is actually shrinking) - and I can tell you in all honesty, not because we have been unusually godly or faithful people.  I am very comfortable saying that God brought it about for his own purposes and glory.