Posts from 2023 (Page 3)

Mixed Emotions: “You’re Killing Me Smalls!”

Well…here we go…This is my first newsletter article as your new pastor. I’ll admit, I’m full of mixed emotions right now. Let me try to explain. Last week on vacation, we watched one of my favorite childhood movies, The Sandlot. I vividly remember going to the $1.00 theater in Lenoir, NC, with my dad to watch it on the big screen. We may or may not have snuck in our own popcorn, drinks, and candy in a duffle bag. I’ll…

You Have Been a Blessing to Our Hearts

Dear friends of Poplar Springs Baptist Church you have blessed our hearts across this past year.  Janet and I have so enjoyed walking with you during this pastoral interim.  We have been thankful to see the ways God is at work in the church and through your lives as you scatter from 1106 Poplar Springs Church Road each week to share Jesus’ love and presence with our community.  You all have ministered to us, and you have been just what…

Serving Others and Sharing the Gospel

“World Changers is a hands-on mission experience, engaging students in meeting the needs of people in communities across North America. Students can put their faith into action by serving others and sharing the gospel.”  Our Poplar Springs Baptist Church youth ministry has partnered with World Changers many times across the years and this week we have forty members of our church serving together on another World Changers project in Little Rock, Arkansas. They left out early this past Saturday morning…

The Earth is the Lord’s

Summertime is a wonderful time for praising God for the gift of the earth upon which we live. Trips to the beach, the mountains, the great outdoors, all give rise to praise as we thank God for the beauty of the earth, our home. The Psalmist leads us to sing from our hearts, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it…

What is Past is Prologue!

This brief sentence is from Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest, and is inscribed upon the Robert Aitken statue in front of the National Archives in Washington, D.C., the home of the original document signed on this date in 1776, The Declaration of Independence.  If it is true that the past is prologue to the present and the future, i.e., that which has happened in the past sets us up for future success toward goals envisioned “way back when,” then I think…

Have You Ever Been… Into the Wilderness?

Well, we surely have been “Into the Wilderness” this week at Poplar Springs because that has been our theme for Vacation Bible School at which 53+ children and 35+ adults/youth have gathered around God’s Word!  As we have so gathered, we have focused on God’s provision for the people of Israel wandering through the desert post-Exodus. We have watched God care for Elijah in his wilderness of discouragement and doubt. And we looked again at Jesus’ trip into the wilderness…

Working Together!

Working Together! As Paul writes to encourage the church at Corinth, not only does he describe the church as a body with members dependent on, and blessed by, one another, but he also refers to our life in the church with the designation, “workers together.”  It is one word in the text, a noun, a compound word combing “work” and “with” – that’s who we are in the church of Jesus Christ. We “work with” one another to share Jesus’s…

“Suit Up” for a Great Summer!

This week our Poplar Springs Youth are down at Camp Caswell, the North Carolina Baptist Assembly on Oak Island. Their focus for the week is the right focus for all of us as we look at the summer that is upon us and our opportunities to represent our Lord wherever we go and in whatever we do.  The Camp Caswell theme this year is based on Ephesians 6:10-18 and is the challenge to “be strong in the Lord and in…

Go. Share. Repeat.

“Go. Share. Repeat,” is the theme for this week’s Camp HoriSon at Poplar Springs Baptist Church! But it is also the theme of this past Sunday’s called church conference at which our congregation overwhelmingly affirmed the recommendation of our pastor search committee that Aaron Hinton should serve as our next Pastor! It is exciting to be part of this journey toward the future of ministry at Poplar Springs.  Janet and I have been richly blessed by this fellowship of believers…

Introduction to Aaron Hinton: Recommended Candidate for Pastor

The Pastor Search Committee has recommended Aaron Hinton to serve as the next pastor of Poplar Springs Baptist Church. Aaron brings a wealth of both traditional and unique experience to this role. Please read the following information to get to know Aaron better. We look forward to hearing from him on June 4th during the 11 am worship service. This is also the official announcement that there will be a called business meeting concluding the sermon on June 4th to…