REPORT OF THE PRESBYTERY – Don Mayberry
TESTIMONIES:
Adam Anderson
The following is a response to the question, “How did you decide to become a follower of Jesus Christ?” This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” Jer 6:16 NIV Years ago when I first came across this verse while reading through Jeremiah, I was gripped by the clear the message presented in this verse; that God wants to get our attention and that He calls us to make a decision to walk in the ancient paths, to walk in the good ways that He has prepared for us to walk in so that our restless souls will be filled with the peace of God. Although I had the amazing privilege of being raised by two Christian parents, I regret that in my youth, I did not fully understand the importance of the words in this verse and until I was twenty years old, I chose to walk in my own paths. I knew and believed that I was a sinner and that the only way I’d have peace with God would be to repent of my sin and place my trust fully in the perfect work and life of Jesus Christ. But if I was truly a Christian at the young age I said I was, I did not consistently conduct myself as one. So often my flesh was weak and I foolishly chased after things I thought would make me happy – all the while resisting the Holy Spirit’s leading and disobeying God’s Word. Yet time after time, I realized that I was not being punished by God as I should be. In my sin I always found a horrible dark emptiness, painful disappointment, and overwhelming despair, but never divine punishment which is what I really deserved. And that was an amazing concept to me; why was God withholding His wrath for my sin and rebellious acts? I was often confused by this. But thanks be to God, His grace helped me believe that Jesus was the reason I had not been punished for my sins as I should have been. At twenty years of age, I understood as never before that Jesus was the Way, the fulfillment of all I would ever want and need in life. God could still love me because of what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross. Jesus took the punishment for ALL of my sins so that I could be forgiven and spend the rest of my life at peace with God. After experiencing God’s amazing kindness through his patience and forbearance, the love of God went off like a bomb in my heart. While searching for God’s leading, I was led to join a sound Bible-preaching church in Kansas City where Christians came along side and helped me study the Bible nd were great examples of godly character. About four years later I was married to my wife Julie and we’re now blessed with three children: Holly, Hayden, and Haley.
“What does your relationship with Jesus mean to you?” My relationship with Jesus means that the desire of my heart has been changed so that I can now love God and am empowered to love others with a supernatural love. It is only through this relationship with Christ that I can actually walk in the “good ways,” referring back to the verse in Jeremiah.
“Why do you want to serve Him as a deacon at Redland?”I have attended Redland for about three and a half years and even in this short time, I could not begin to recount all of the amazing ways that God has blessed me and my family through this wonderful body of believers. I want to serve as a deacon at Redland because I believe that God uses the members of this church, along with other Christ-following churches around the world, to carry out His mission on Earth, and the mission is not an easy one. But together here at Redland, we have opportunity to encourage and build up each other’s faith and grow in the knowledge of Christ. Together, with Christ as the Chief Cornerstone, I want to be, along with “you also, as living stones, [who] are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 2:5
Stuart Carroll
I am Stuart Carroll, my wife Elisabeth and I will have been married 27 years this June. We re-met at our 5th year College Reunion at Cornell University and married a year later. We were both born and raised in New York State, but please don’t hold that against us, we have lived in Maryland for all but the first 6 month of our married life. We have two great kids, our son Stuart Jr. is 24, a Purdue grad with a job (yeah !) and our daughter Anne is 18 and heading to NC State next year. I work as a Technical Sales Specialist at IBM where I’ve worked for almost 33 years. I enjoy working on home and car repair / improvement projects even though I’m not the fastest at it, so I always have several works in progress. I became a follower of Jesus at an early age during 8th grade if I recall. My family had always attended church, because that is just what you did, but the church we attended never talked about us being sinners needing Christ, it seemed that as long as you were good and attended church regularly (not necessarily weekly) then you’d be OK. Then we started attending a church where the pastor and the SS teachers explained that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” and I needed a personal faith and relationship with Jesus. I wasn’t a “bad” kid, but I do recall that as I focused more on Christ, my behavior, language and even some friends changed, for the good. This is one of the reasons I think it is so important to reach kids in middle and high school with the gospel. Over the years Jesus has provided me guidance, sometimes with a still small voice, sometimes with a louder voice, sometimes with circumstances and sometimes with a peace in my heart. And sometimes I listened, and sometimes I decided to “Do It My Way.” Can you guess which way worked out best? I’ve learned (although occasionally forget) that what Jesus said in Matt 6:33 is true: “But Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” I have been involved in many roles in previous churches, as an Elder, a Deacon, as (and I probably need to say this quietly) chairman of the property “committee,” as sound engineer, and as a SS teacher from pre-school to adult and many ages in between. So as you may have noticed, I’m not one to sit on the sidelines for long. Here at RBC, my wife, Elisabeth and I have already gotten involved by teaching 8th grade Sunday School. So through acting on these opportunities, I have learned that I have a desire (and see these as God’s gifts) to serve others, to encourage others and to teach. So I’m working on the teaching and wanted to do more as a servant and encourager for the body. So when someone asked me if I wanted to be a deacon, I said let me find out about the role of deacon at RBC. Then after talking with Mark and hearing of the Deacon role it sounded like just what I was looking for. Not that you need to be a Deacon to serve or encourage others, as many of you know, but it would present as good conduit. I look forward to Serving and Encouraging you all at Redland.
Bruce MacDonald
Good morning. My name is Bruce MacDonald and I would like to share my testimony with you. Part 1, The Beginning: I was born in Washington D.C. and soon my family moved to Wheaton, MD. I was not baptized as an infant, but I was introduced to Sunday school and grew up enjoying going to Sunday school. I met my best friends at church and thankfully, our friendships continue to this day. I was very serious about the decision to make a public profession of faith and joining the church, but I was not ready to do it. I was a caring and friendly guy making my own decisions. I desperately needed the Lord, but I did not know it. I believed in Jesus, but I was still in charge and making decisions based on what I thought best. I was confident that I could solve any problem if I worked hard enough and did not give up. I did not realize that I could be a “good guy” in my own eyes and the eyes of the world while actually being terribly sinful. I was trying to be “good” and thought I was doing pretty well at it. What sins did I have to be forgiven? Why did I need a savior?
Part 2, A Change of Heart: Soon after college, I married a young lady who had become my best friend. Our marriage did not work out as I had hoped and after 12 years it ended in divorce. About two weeks later, my boss came to town and told me that today was my last day. Our company had merged and I was being terminated. They dropped me off at home because my car was a company vehicle. There I was with a box from my desk, in front of my half empty house, alone, without a job or even a car. During this time, my dear brother Doug had me over for dinner and afterward we talked. He showed me Bread of Life booklets he liked to read. Then he asked me if I had ever asked Jesus into my heart. I told him “No I had not.” That night I did ask Jesus into my heart. And on Oct 6, 1985 I made a public profession of faith, was baptized with water on my head, and joined a small Presbyterian church in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Part 3, A New Beginning: Unlike some, my transformation has been slow. God has been merciful to reveal my sins slowly. And my life has changed step by step over the years. I took a position in Florida and our two children Ian, 8, and Sally, 10, chose to live with me in Fl. Being a single parent is an impossible job; you just wake up each day, try to do your best, knowing at the end of the day that you have not succeeded as you had hoped. Then repeat. What does my relationship with Jesus mean to me? He sustains me. I am so thankful that I was able to be with my children and that He saw us through those difficult times. When there is fear and confusion aboard a sinking ship, a child can feel safe so long as the child is held in its parent’s reassuring arms. When I am under attack He is there and I am comforted. When life is hard, I know Jesus knows what it is like and that helps me. Knowing that He has suffered more, strengthens me. Overtime I can see that He is using the battles of this world to transform me, making me better able to serve. And that is why I am here today. I know that the struggles of this world will come; and I am comforted to know, they will pass. A dear friend of mine is fond of saying, “This too will pass.” But there is one thing that will not pass. There is one thing, besides God, that is forever… Eternity. My prayer for each of us is the Good News that if we trust our lives to Jesus, He will see us through the troubles of this life. He will transform us into joyful servants. And when we die, we will live in eternity, filled to the brim with His love. Amen.
Regina Williams
I was born in Charlestown WVA to a teacher and a coal miner. Yes I am a coal miner’s daughter, and granddaughter, great niece, etc. you get the idea. Soon after my birth, my father had an accident at work. The accident was not my Dad’s fault; however, after the mine owners threatened my grandfather with a loss of his job and pension. My Dad decided to look for another career, and that lead us to DC and then to Maryland. My family briefly attended different churches, but none of them felt like home. We briefly attended Gaithersburg Church of the Nazarene and I accepted Christ there during an Easter service. This Easter I celebrated my 40th spiritual birthday. When the pastor of the church left, so did we. When I was in 9th grade, some girls cornered me during a gym class. A girl, named Phyllis Phillips, came to rescue. After that she invited me to Redland Baptist Church. It seems that there was a contest and the person who brought the most new people to Sunday school would win a tape recorder (a pretty big deal back in 75). By the way, Phyllis did win the contest. I became very active in the youth group and some of you out there remember me as a youth. I worked with the puppets, and they even let me sing in the choir. I sing in the key of off. The kids I hung out with were pranksters and the pranks usually involved flash powder, shaving cream, pepper, whip cream, and fire crackers. After I graduated from Magruder High School, I was active in the college and career Sunday school class. There I met my husband, Jim. We welcomed our first child, Jimmy here at Redland. When I became pregnant again and found out that I was having twins, you all rejoiced with us. Later when I found that I was going to lose one of the twins, you cried with us and surrounded us with love. Oh, the twin that survived is David. A couple of years later God decided that we needed a girl in the family so he sent us Rebecca Raising a family takes a lot of time so Jim and I decided early on that we would only spend two nights a week at church so that we could be with our children. Raising teenagers takes more time. Some of you have heard my son David’s testimony and what he went through with depression and bullying so you know some of our trials. Again, many of you in our church family prayed for us and offered support during these times. Our son’s and daughter became youths here at Redland. Jimmy became a puppeteer and loved it as much as I did. David and Rebecca played in the youth band, choir and bells. I thank God that the kids did not inherit my musical ability. Jimmy met his wife here at Redland and David met his fiancé here as well.
Mat Weiss
How did you decide to become a follower of Jesus Christ? I was raised in a Christian home. Both my parents came from strong Christian homes. I came to be a follower of Jesus Christ as a child. Luke 18:17 “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” I don’t think of it as much as a decision as much as it was just how the world was explained to me and I believed it. The sky is blue, dogs bark, 2+2=4 and Jesus Christ is the Savior of all who call upon His name, Who was sinless but bore the penalty of our sins and rose on the third day. My parents teaching and books like the Bible for Little Eyes played a significant role. I’m not entirely sure how old I was. I believe the depth of understanding took a few years. When I was 10 I did prayer a prayer of salvation from the back of a children’s devotional but even then I knew He was already my Savior.
What does your relationship with Jesus mean to you? It means everything. It means a subordination of my wants and desires to Christ’s desires for me. It means I order my life decisions around His Word and His Will. It means obeying even if it costs me. I don’t choose Christ as my central organizing principle because I am trying to earn something from Him or earn special favor. I live this way due to new creation He’s made me. It is caused by and evidence of the Holy Spirit He has sent to indwell in me. It is the fulfillment of Jeremiah (I will put my word in their hearts.).These seeds of this thinking were sown when I was young but lay dormant until later in my college years. God showed me the immaturity of my faith by surrounding me with other students who passionate about Christ. I asked The Lord for such passion and He granted it. One weekend while participating in door-to-door evangelism, I met a retired man. He was a Christian and said when he was my age he too participated in door to door evangelism and prayer meetings and such. But after graduation he got a job, married had children and somewhere along the way he no longer attended church, no longer saw his relationship with Christ essential. I remember leaving his home sobered. “If you are not careful, that will be you.” Through that experience and a few others I learned that my relationship with Christ was something I had to guard.
Why do you want to serve Him as a deacon at Redland? One of the many things that lead Amy and I to join Redland are the many ways to serve and the example of our Sunday school class. Any given Sunday, half the class is absent or slips out early due to serving obligations. For some time I have prayed about serving as a deacon. I’ve also been in prayer with The Lord about other opportunities to serve but none ever resonated with me. Each year hearing how deacons at Redland are expected to minister to the congregation, as an extension of the ministerial staff, just as the role of deacon was established in Acts, was motivating to me. Of course, it sounds like it can be challenging and difficult and will stretch me in new ways in my dealings with others and my dependence on our deacon team and our Lord. But because I embrace challenge, I look forward to this opportunity to serve. A little background on me, due to my study of Scripture, I consider the role of deacon in high regard, one that should not be lightly considered. Therefore, my prayers were usually along the lines of “I’m willing Lord, if You believe I will live up to it and its responsibilities.” I humbly look towards this privilege to serve.
CHARGE TO THE CANDIDATES
A few weeks back I read about a psychological test that has been given for decades called “The Narcissistic Personality Inventory” — “NPI” for short. As I said it’s been given for years but psychologists report that in RECENT years they have seen a huge INCREASE in the scores on this test—indicating that more and more people have a problem in this area. Here’s how the test works. The person taking it is given a list of statements and after reading each they have to respond to by saying whether they agree or disagree on a scale of 1 to 5. A “1” would mean you don’t agree with it at all and a “5” that you agree with it very much. Here are some examples of the kinds of statements that are found on the NPI.
- “If I ruled the world, it would be a better place.”
- “I think I am a special person.”
- “I can live any way I want to and no one has the right to tell me what to do.”
- “I can be anything I want to be if I really work at it.”
Psychologist say that these days the people who take this test put a lot more “4’s” and “5’s” down after these statements than people did decades ago. And, to me, these increasingly high scores on the NPI show that there is a growing mentality in our culture that says, “It’s all about me.”
One of the psychologists who uses this test is a professor at San Diego State University and he explains this increasingly prevalent mind set by saying that more and more parents have raised their children in an environment where we tell them they are special and don’t misunderstand me that’s not a bad thing because we ARE all special. Each of us are unique creations of God.
The problem is more and more parents don’t BALANCE this “YOU ARE SPECIAL” message by teaching their children about their shared responsibility to help OTHERS. And when you live in a world where you’re special and you have no responsibility to other people it just naturally creates these kinds of narcissistic tendencies. Psychologists who realize this dangerous trend cite examples of preschool curriculums where all students begin each day singing, “I am special, I am special! Look at ME! Look at ME!” That’s how these little very impressionable ones begin every day and I think you can see how that might create this kind of self-centered, narcissistic attitude.
I decided to mention these NPI results because this is the opposite attitude that Christ-followers should have. As Paul reminds us in Philippians 2:3-4, we should: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. But rather, in humility [we should] value others above yourselves, not looking to our own interests, but each of you to the interests of others.” And Stuart, Mat, Regina, Bruce, and Adam, as DEACONS you are to set the EXAMPLE in this. First and foremost deacons are servants. In fact, that’s what the word means: SERVANT. To remind you of this let me give you a quick review of the history of deacons…which by the way is an integral part of our recent reading in The Story.
Like churches today, the Christians in the first church, the church in Jerusalem, enjoyed getting together to share a meal. I guess this is where potluck dinners began! But, as these dinners caught on and became a regular part of the life of the church, the Grecian widows began to complain that they were being treated unfairly at these meals. And they were probably justified in their complaints. I say this because it is almost certain that “good” Jews, who spoke Hebrew—or Aramaic—held a firm prejudice against those other Jews who had conformed to the modernist trends of the day and learned Greek. Now, this senseless prejudice—and, by the way, ALL racial prejudice is senseless—this prejudice had not divided the congregation as of yet. I mean, no church split had formed. But it was, however, straining the fellowship. They weren’t really in the mood to sing “Sweet Sweet Spirit,” if you know what I mean. The late Calvin Miler suggests that it might have gone like this: The widows would come past the love-feast buffet. Picture the serving window in our kitchen over in the ROC. And, if the widow came to the window and said “shalom,” a good Hebrew greeting, she got a big piece of meatloaf, but if she came by and said “eirene,” a good Greek greeting, she got a noticeably smaller portion. Because of this, the Greek-speaking widows of course started to complain in Greek gripes and the Hebrew widows responded with Jewish jibes. This haggling in the hash lines got so bad that ultimately the apostles themselves, busy with the important matters of the Kingdom, were called in to supervise the meals so as to make sure everyone got a fair share. Can you imagine Apostles Peter and John giving up teaching or preaching—putting aside their copies of the Scriptures and instead picking up an apron as they tried to make sure everyone got the same amount of string beans and mashed potatoes? Well, that’s what happen—and because of this the early church was deprived of SPIRITUAL nourishment so the apostles said, “It would not be right for us to [CONTINUE TO] neglect the ministry of the Word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them…and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the Word.”
So, seven deacons were prayerfully chosen to help straighten things out so that harmony could be restored to the church. And it worked! With the help of these first deacons—these men who LED by SERVING—the church’s fellowship problems were solved. The church continued its growth and the apostles were able to get out of the kitchen and get back in to the study.
So that is how deacons first came to be. Now I don’t want to give you the impression that these first seven men were elected merely to be a kitchen committee in a grumbling church. No, the office of deacon meant far more than that—as can be seen by the subsequent activities of these men. I mean, they did far more than resolve this food fight. They were SERVANTS but more than that. They were also LEADERS in that they became active in many ways helping the church to function and grow. Two of the original seven, Philip and Stephen, became KNOWN for their powerful witness for Christ. Acts 8 records that Deacon Philip led that Ethiopian eunuch to Christ and baptized him and as a result the gospel spread to the African continent. The bold witness of Deacon Stephen led to his becoming the first Christian martyr. So the office of deacon was an integral part of the growth of the first church…they were important leaders—but they led by serving…and that’s how deacons lead today. I know these two words don’t seem to go together but deacons are SERVANT-LEADERS.
Mat and Stuart and Gina and Adam and Bruce, I am sure you know that serving as a Deacon here at Redland is a high privilege because Redland is a very special church family. God has blessed us with the most amazing people in the world. It is an honor to serve their needs—not a burden. And I want you to look at it that way. By being ordained as a deacon of Redland Baptist Church you are being given the privilege of sharing the crises and joys of life with some of the greatest Christians I have ever known. It is a great privilege to be a SERVANT LEADER to these people.
So every time we say the fourth part of our purpose statement together, I want you to remind yourselves of this fact that you are called to set an example for us all and serve “in the nature of Christ.”
And this morning I would remind you that this kind of servanthood will require you to minister to people in ways that often go UNSEEN. Fred Chadlock put it this way: “To give my life for Christ appears glorious. To pour myself out for others, to pay the ultimate price of martyrdom…I’ll do it. I’m ready Lord to go out in a blaze of glory. We think giving our all to the Lord is like taking a $1,000 bill and laying it on the table. ‘Here’s my life Lord. I’m giving it all.’ But the reality for most of us is that Jesus sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $1,000 for quarters. We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there.
- Listen to the neighbor’s kid’s troubles instead of saying ‘Get lost!’
- Sit through a long deacon meeting.
- Give a cup of water to a shaky old man in a nursing home.
Usually giving our life to Christ isn’t glorious. It’s done in all those little acts of love—25 cents at a time. It would be easy to go out in a flash of glory; it’s harder to live the Christian life little by little over the long haul.”
This is the kind of servanthood you are called to. So Mat and Stuart and Gina and Adam and Bruce, I charge you to LEAD by SERVING the wonderful people of this church. If you accept this responsibility would you take the responsive reading that is printed on the insert in your bulletin and stand and read as indicated. And would the rest of you also take your inserts and read as indicated.
RESPONSIVE READING
DECLARATION OF INDUCTION
Mat, Regina, Bruce, Stuart, and Adam, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the authority committed to me as Pastor of this congregation, I now declare you to be set apart and commissioned for the work of a Deacon, and duly called and installed to that ministry in this church. You may be seated.
ORDINATION PRAYER – Alvin Grant
We close now with a song of commitment…to encourage us all to follow Jesus’ example and commit to a life of servanthood. Let this be a time when each of us pledges to do all we can to mature spiritually and preserve the unity of our wonderful congregation. But if you have a special commitment to make we invite you to make it public at this time. Perhaps you need to respond by giving your life to Jesus professing publically that you have asked Him to forgive you and take control of your heart and life. Or you may feel led to publically commit to become a part of this church moving your membership here to this place. Whatever decision you have to make I invite you to walk this aisle and share it with me now as we stand and sing.