October has arrived bringing cooler temperatures and the beautiful colors of Fall. It is also a time of several notable events for our churches.
The month of October is “Minister Appreciation Month,” a time when we honor and recognize our pastors and church staff. Our pastors and staff give so much, and their families often have to make sacrifices to fulfill the Call of God in their lives. So, please make time to say “thank you” to these choice servants, and publicly honor them in your church.
October is also “Cooperative Program Month.” For almost 100 years, the Cooperative Program has been the means of consolidated giving by churches across the Southern Baptist Convention. It has and continues to be the channel of support for fulfilling Great Commission Ministries locally, nationally, and globally.
This is also the month we collect Christmas Backpacks. Again, this year we are partnering with Alabama WMU and Church Planter, Theron Hawkins, to collect and deliver backpacks with a distribution event in Uniontown, Alabama.
On October 16, our churches will gather at Cedar Bluff First Baptist Church for our 190th Annual Meeting. I am excited that we will be meeting in their new sanctuary. My good friend, Gary Brittain, will be preaching. Gary has served for more than 30 years as the Baptist Campus Minister at Jacksonville State University. He will be retiring at the end of this year. Gary is widely known across our association and has ministered to countless numbers of students from our churches through BCM at JSU. He has a heart for making disciples of each generation of new church leaders. Also, he leads students to engage their surrounding culture in evangelism and to impact the world through mission involvement. It will be a treat to get to hear from Bro. Gary and fellowship with him at our Annual Meeting. We look forward to seeing our messengers, associational leaders, pastors, guests, and many others as we come together to celebrate what God is doing across our association.
It is an honor and privilege to do ministry with you.
Bro. Wendell