School( since 2013) and the Savannah Classical Academy( a public charter school started in 2013) are confirmation of the vision of Veritas’ founders, who were almost entirely members of our church.
* facilities – We opened the current Administration Building in 1994 and have renovated it twice; we built the Whitaker Street Building in 2011; and we’ ve renovated and reconfigured the Education Building, Telfair Hall, and the Courtyard several times in order to meet the changing needs of our congregation. We also built the current Point Pleasant facility in 1990 and its reconstruction is on the drawing board.
This year This year I made some slight adjustments, anticipating the need to slow down, at least a bit. After 19 years, I taught my last Chatham Bible Study in May. It has been a great run, and I resigned with considerable reluctance. Yet I have found my weekly pace is far less hectic without the need to have a Bible Study ready on Wednesday noon after spending all day Monday on Sunday’ s sermons and all day Tuesday in the church office taking care of business. Life is a marathon, as is ministry. There will be other things that I’ ll need to surrender in the coming years. Still, opportunities to minister have opened in other directions even as I’ ve stepped back.
Seminaries and others I was privileged to teach on my favorite subject( worship, of course) first at Westminster Theological Seminary California in January, team-teaching with David Hall; then at Chinese Theological in Taipei, Taiwan in June; finally at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte in July, this for D. Min. students. I was honored in May to address the graduates of Greenville Theological Seminary at their Commencement exercises, in April to preach for the building dedication of the Sovereign Grace PCA in Charlotte.
Men Your church staff has been discussing the need to focus on the men of the church. The women of the church have their weekly Bible studies and circles. The men have nothing targeting them. So for the fourth year we aggressively solicited participation in what we now call the Dead Theologians’ Society, which met monthly either on Wednesday night, Thursday for breakfast, or Thursday for lunch. An average of 22 men met for the 12 months of 2016 for rich conversation and fellowship stimulated by classic Christian books. December we followed up with a Sunday School class for men focusing on marriage and family. We’ ve averaged 60 studying in what appears to be matters of vital concern for our men.
Publishing A book published per year has been the pace for the past several years. This year it was a Mentor Commentary on 1-3 John, consisting of my sermons on John’ s epistles. I have wondered, however, as part of my 30-year reflections, if I have spent too much time writing, writing at the expense of other important activities. Writing borders on the compulsive for me. Writing helps me to think through ideas and helps organize and clarify my thoughts. Still, has writing robbed time away from other pastoral duties, or, in the end, will writing prove to have done as much good as preaching or teaching? Only judgment day will tell.
Civic I was called on twice in 2016 to take part in civil ceremonies. The first was in January at the inauguration of our Deacon Eddie DeLoach as Mayor of Savannah. It was a happy moment for me, as I couldn’ t be prouder of Eddie’ s desire to make a difference in Savannah’ s political life. Then in February I was asked to be Chaplain of the Day, which means preach and pray for the Georgia State House of Representatives
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