Church Blog (Page 5)

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! 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…

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,” 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…

Our prayers for high school graduates have us thinking about all that is “next” for our friends who wear the “green” and will receive their diplomas soon from Crest High School. I was thankful to hear all the plans they are making about the next season of study and preparation that is before them.  Across North Carolina and down to Florida and over to Alabama, our Poplar Springs graduates are already embracing the “next” steps of life’s journey.  We pray…

The Psalmist of old sang out to the Lord, “O SING to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things” (Psalm 98:1). Our weekly gatherings for worship give us the chance to lift our voices together and sing of the Lord’s magnificent work in our lives. As we worship, we are also blessed by changing the one letter in the Psalmist’s lyric so that it reads this way: “O RING to the LORD a new song…”  Yes,…

Strength Equal! Sunday’s children’s choir musical, “Go, Go, Jonah,” was filled with enthusiasm and joy and young lives offering their gifts to the glory of God! The morning was also filled with great words of encouragement from the lyrics presented. Some days we can’t help but be “down in the mouth” – discouraged by life’s events or our hearts’ struggles. But on those days there is good news to be had – good news from the children’s choir’s voices, viz.…

The first Thursday of May each year is the National Day of Prayer created in 1952 by a joint resolution of the United States Congress and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman. This observance was formalized in keeping with the first call to prayer in 1775 when the Continental Congress asked the colonies to pray for wisdom in forming a nation. Across our country this Thursday, fellow Americans will take time to pray for our nation and its…

Each time we gather in our Poplar Springs Sanctuary we see the light of the sun bending through the large stained-glass window in the balcony. This is the “Trinity Window” in our church, and it represents the triunity of God: The Father and his creative presence, The Son giving his life as a lamb for sacrifice, and The Spirit coming to bring God’s peace to our lives and our world. As I have noticed this window across the past months,…