84th Church Anniversary

The year was 1925 when a small band of God-loving disciples met in the home of Brother and Sister William Wolfe to begin a journey that many generations would benefit from. Because of this meeting, "The Gospel Light Mission" was born. In 1930 under the leadership of Pastor L. Lemon, the church moved to a larger building and became known as the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church.

I am so honored to follow in the footsteps of great Pastors who laid the foundation that I stand on now, Pastors Young, Alexander, Lemon, Trotter & Johnson, Matthew, the legendary F. D. Johnson, C. Dewayne Williams and Anthony Pettus Sr.

We celebrated our 84th Church Anniversary beginning with a son of the church coming home Rev Dr. Erskine Jones and Sweet Home Ministries who encouraged us to "Praise the Lord", Psalms 113"1-3. Dr. Jones was sick and should be ashamed of himself for setting the bar that high, God be praised for great church.

We held a reunion musical Saturday where the voices of years past came together to make one big praise to the Glory of God. On Sunday another son, Rev Paxton Reed, Pastor of the Northlake Community Church of Huntersville, North Carolina blessed us with a major word out of Judges 11 dealing with "Family Relationships". He killed everything in the house.

I praise God for all the chickens, pigs and cows who died that I might live as we ate up a storm after church. We praise God that the former Pastor, Rev Anthony Pettus and his current church, The Greater Progressive Missionary Baptist Church in Ft Wayne, Indiana came to share with us. I am even more impressed that Pastor Pettus left his vacation just to share with us in this service. He blessed our hearts dealing with our anniversary theme, Romans 1:16-17, "Live By Faith". The Lord was certainly in the place.

Let me thank ALL of the workers, ministry leaders, volunteers, deacons, greeters, cooks, servers, inside, outside and alongside people who made this celebration what it was. I already am looking forward to what God will do for our 85th celebration.

Owens

March Gladness

I am just getting home form church service tonight where the Lord showed up mighty in His House. We worshipped at Second Baptist Church here in South Bend. This service was sponsored by a minister from Fort Wayne who has a ministry called Empowerment Ministries where he is conducting March Gladness Services all over this nation, Baltimore, Atlanta, Washington D.C. and Indiana just to name a few.

National preachers and singers such as Marvin Sapp, J Moss, Pastors Jeffrey Johnson, Maurice Watson and many others have been on this program. It was my honor to be on program tonight with the former pastor of Macedonia and now current pastor of Progressive in Fort Wayne, Rev Anthony Pettus Sr. I thank God just for being considered.

With that, I did the unthinkable. I mean preachers wait for this day, a large forum, packed house, the day where you are one of the headliners but that doesn't impress me much. I know who I am. God allowed another great preacher to be in South Bend this weekend in the person of Rev, Rickey Harvey, Pastor of the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Rochester, NY.

Pastor Harvey is here to attend the funeral services for his uncle who passed away. It was my prayer that he would stay with us so he could bless Macedonia Sunday morning but after the funeral Saturday, his plans are to drive back to Rochester. I felt God leading me to put him up to preach. It became even more evident that God would not bless me unless I was a blessing to him.

I did the unthinkable. I asked Pastor Harvey to take my spot on the preaching platform and just let me introduce him. I praise God that he accepted and I am so glad I listened to God as Pastor Harvey preached out of his heart from Galatians 4: 6-7 "Abba Father". God blessed his preaching tonight. God also used Pastor Pettus he preached from 2 Corinthians 1:8-10, "Why is this happening to Me". I thank God I was just counted worthy to be a part of the number.

One final word concerning the unthinkable. God told Joshua after he was following the leadership reign of Moses, you don't have to worry about making yourself because I will make your name great. The same way I was with Moses, I will be with you. So many times, we as young preacher/pastors become consumed with trying to establish our name, prove we are the Pastor, get our name on the circuit, slay/run and drag everything in the house and forget, we can't do anything without the help of God.

God makes us, God places us and when the time comes for God to elevate you, He will. If a man puts you up, he will tear you down, but if God be for us, who can be against us. Young preacher you don't have to make you mark by trying to rip down the cornerstone of the last administration, God will make your name. You don't have to try and out whoop, out sing, or out yell any preacher because when it's your time, God will elevate you to the place he has for us.

Let the Lord make you, not people, not churches, not events, but God. I praise God that in some small way tonight, I discovered God is making me.


Owens