For the past twenty-one plus years, I have had the great honor and glorious privilege to serve as your Associational Missionary. Across these years, I have viewed this call from God to serve with you as a stewardship of sacred trust. Now as I am only a few weeks away from my time of service with you coming to an end, I look back at two verses of scripture that have been a great source of guidance to me.
The first one is found in Psalm 78, where the author of this Psalm gives a brief review of the history of Israel from their Exodus from Egypt to the time of David’s kingship. The concluding verse in this chapter gives us the key to David’s successful leadership. “So, he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands,” Psalm 78:72. Two words in this verse have always stood out to me: integrity and skillfulness. Integrity is that irreplaceable character trait that reveals who we really are and is absolutely necessary if we are to ever become the leader that God can use. Skillfulness has a two-fold meaning; the first meaning speaks of the exceptional abilities that David possessed. God has given every believer a spiritual gift or gifts in order that we can provide exceptional ministry to the Kingdom of God. The second meaning of this word refers to doing whatever God has entrusted to us with superior excellence.
The second verse of scripture that has guided me is II Corinthians 11:28, which states, “Beside those things that are without, what which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.” In the entirety of Chapter 11, Paul is defending his ministry. In verses 24-33, he summarizes the dangers, hardships, and near-death experiences he has encountered in serving the Lord. Paul tells us in this verse, in spite of all the external hardships he faced, the thing that weighed the heaviest on his heart was his care for all the churches. Across these many years of serving as your Associational Missionary, I have always tried to base my ministry around the collection of local churches that make up the Cherokee Baptist Association. Why? Because the local church is the only thing that Jesus left in this world to carry on His work.
So, in closing, the principles of these two verses have always served as my guide to serving you: live a life of integrity, seek to do everything with excellence because God deserves nothing less, and to share in and carry the burdens of our churches
Thank you for the awesome opportunity you have given me to serve alongside of you for twenty-one plus years.
Bro. Wendell
Philippians 1:3-5