Monday, November 10, 2008

83rd Church Anniversary and Homecoming Services




If only pictures did justice to what took place at Macedonia Baptist church on Sunday as we celebrated our 83rd Church Anniversary and Homecoming services. God blessed us all day as He allowed us to see many take place. Our website went live this weekend, macedoniahelps.org

In our church we put back up the pictures of former pastors who served Macedonia faithfully starting with Pastor F.D. Johnson, Pastor Anthony R. Pettus, Sr. and Pastor Carlos Williams and we also put those pictures up on the website.

Two churches came together to worship God jointly in South Bend at the morning worship hour. I realize that doesn't sound like a big deal but for two local pastors and churches to come together is amazing, out of town we are used to this but in town is usually an evening affair. What makes it more amazing is, this is South Bend, the preacher fellowship is still a work in process but God is Good.

Rev Andre Wells and the Second Baptist Church came over and the Lord blessed us with a high time. Rev. Wells preached a relevant word out of Lamentations 5:21 entitled "The Road to renewal" His outline was:

Repent

Restore

Renew

Rejoice

Pastor Pettus and the Greater Progressive Family came and shared with us in the evening service so we could say together in one voice "THE DEVIL IS A LIAR". There were people who said this day would never happen, that Pastor Pettus would never step foot back in the Macedonia pulpit, many people were initially upset with me when I announced he was coming back.

Sometimes people try and drag you into their past battles but God showed me that there were certain blessings that He could not give Macedonia or myself because of how they treated Pastor Pettus and my blessings would be dependent on where I stood on this issue, so I stood with God. Macedonia is a wonderful church full of great people but in all of our churches sometimes we see the pastor as our property rather than God's possession. God can do what he wants when he wants how he wants. Pastors don't assign themselves, We go where God leads. Pastor Pettus has been nothing but good to me, He left me a church not in shambles but one that enjoys worship and the Word.
When My daughters became sick and I was scheduled to attend a service where he was preaching, I called him to let him know what was taking place and that I didn't want him to think I didn't want to fellowship. He told me family comes first, take care of them and I will take care of this. When I asked him to come, I told him whenever he could come that's when my anniversary service would be, Pastor Pettus said I will be there the second Sunday in November when Macedonia normally holds the service and I will bring my church and they came in great number.
Sunday, God set things back in order at Macedonia. Worship was amazing and Pastor Pettus wrecked the house. He preached out of Hosea 6:1-3 entitled "The Road of Recovery" He said we must have:

An attitude of Returning

An attitude of Recognition

An attitude of Reliance

An attitude of Resolve.

God blessed us in a mighty way. I am grateful I Pastor such an awesome church following behind such great Pastors. I also thank Pastor Wells and Pastor Pettus for consenting to come and for allowing me to post their outlines on my blog. I look forward to what God will do in our church because of the spirit of obedience that reigned on Sunday morning to his will and his way.




3 comments:

Pastor Lance A. Mann said...

Dr. Owens, congrats on your church anniversary and it says a lot about the type of Pastor that will reach out to bring parts of the church's history back home.

Lance

Pastor A. A. McGhee said...

So glad your church anniversary was all you prayed it would be. It was my intention to come by and share, but, I was invited to dinner at one of the members home and I left hurting. I was in no condition to be there if you know what I mean. Thanks for sharing snippets of your day. Great post!

Keith D. Witherspoon said...

I am glad that you had a great day in the Lord!

Your commitment to doing things God's way is commendable!!