Pastors Annual Report Preview

Pastor’s Annual Report – April 2015

       We have officially been a part of the Boothbay Baptist Church family for five years, and we are blessed to be a part of this body!  We are not a perfect church, we sometimes disagree, but we love God and we love each other and together we acknowledge Him as the Head of the church. We exist to “…know God and to make Him known…”  As we look ahead to the future we need to be intentional in keeping that mission before us and constantly evaluating how we can more effectively carry out that calling.   Our current preaching series in I Corinthians will lead us through various aspects the struggles of the somewhat dysfunctional church in Corinth. I believe that God has included this in our Bible so that we can learn from their struggles to more honestly evaluate ourselves and to grow into the healthy body that He desires us to be.  At the heart that implies loving Him above all, desiring His glory, and working together as the family that He intends us to be.  

       We are blessed to have a very high involvement of our membership in some aspect of ministry in our church.  Either officially or unofficially, virtually all of our members, and a number of our non-member regular attenders are using their gifts to encourage, strengthen, and edify the church, and to help us as we reach out to our community in Jesus name with the Good News.  I am especially thankful for those who are engaged in ministry to our children, including nursery, pre-K, Sunday School classes, Children’s Church, World of Life Olympians, Vacation Bible School, and teen ministries.  These all are opportunities and responsibilities that the Lord has entrusted to us and we have a great group of volunteers who are using their gifts in these areas.  The need for more help, especially a man to help with the teens, is something we need to continue to pray about.  Could it be that the Lord is nudging you in this direction?

       One area that I hope we’ll be able to discuss further as a church family is the question of our times of corporate prayer.  There is no question we value prayer and understand the importance of praying together.  The issue that I would like to discuss is why our corporate times of prayer are getting so little participation.  I am speaking especially about Wednesday night prayer meeting and our Sunday AM prayer time at 8:30.  Has the format of these meeting not met your hopes and expectations? Is there something we are not doing that you would like to see?  Or, could it be, that the time has come to “shake things up” by doing away with the weekly “prayer meeting” and perhaps emphasizing small groups more (and encouraging a regular prayer time in all of those groups).  If we did this, we could perhaps schedule an occasional, say once a month (or bi-monthly, or even quarterly) “concert of prayer” where we could come together as a church and devote ourselves to praying together.  We are a family, we love God and love one another, so let’s talk about this at our meeting and see how we can enhance the fundamentally important ministry of praying together.

I continue to enjoy preaching, counselling, and sharing in the shepherding ministry of our body.  I believe God is at work in our church, and He will use us together as we yield ourselves to Him.

Your co-workers in Christ,

Pastor Steve and Mary Ann Nash