130th Anniversary Celebration

This past Lord's Day, our church was blessed with the presence of my friend and brother, Rev. Claude L. White, Pastor of the Greater Faith Church Baptist of Waukegan, IL, where the late great Dr. C.L. Fairchild served as pastor for over 20 years. Pastor White preached a marvelous sermon on Genesis 6 entitled Fulfilling God's Purpose for your ministry. His attempt at exposition was a true blessing to our church and his faithfulness to his assignment was a blessing to me.

Pastor White has proven himself to be a great friend to me as we have talked about preaching, visions and our goals and aspirations for our churches. He has an awesome opportunity on the North Shore to really grow his church to be the beacon of light in that community and to be the leading pastor in advancing the Kingdom of God.

I value our friendship and look forward to it blossoming to the point where we can assist each other in promoting the name of Jesus Christ to people who have not had the privilege of allowing the Gospel to change their lives. Please keep Pastor White and the Greater Faith Church in your prayers.

130th Church Anniversary Revival

This week I have had the expressed pleasure of hosting one of my heroes in preaching, the one and only Rev. H.B. Charles Jr., who is the pastor of the historic Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church of Los Angeles, CA as our revivalist. And first of all let me tell you up front, this was probably the most anxious I had ever been in hosting a revivalist for a number of reasons. Firstly, because of my affinity for the pastor, the preacher and mostly the man that HB Charles is, but most importantly because our church is in the midst of a critical transition period where we are preparing to embark upon a relocation project that I believe will transform our church into a vibrant and relevant ministry in Northern New Jersey and his church is going through a similar relocation transition and our church really needed him to encourage and minister to our situation through the Word of God and he did not disappoint.

On each night of worship, the tone was set by an outstanding collection of pastors who lectured on the theme of our church for this year...Becoming a People of Excellence. Dr. Vernon C. Walton, Mt. Calvary Baptist Church of Englewood, Rev. Andre L. Coffee, First Timothy Baptist Church, Newark & Dr. Marion J. Franklin, First Baptist Church, Vauxhall completed their assignments with outstanding precision.

But the main course was served in such an exqusite manner that it was completely evident that the Lord had indeed sent HB Charles to our church and to me on a mission to help transform my thinking and mostly my commitment to my present preaching station with vigor. Each message was tailored made for me, especially Friday night's message out of Psalms 119: 25-32 entitled Rising Up From the Dust. That message confirmed to me that although we are down now, we are on our way out of the dust.

Thank God for HB Charles, please pray for his safe return home and for the relocation of his church.