Last year we celebrated our church’s 125th anniversary. Today a lot has changed. 125 years after our churches humble rural beginnings we find ourselves in the heart of a vibrant growing community desperate for spiritual guidance. Every week God sends new visitors to show up at our doors and join our services. Given this current response, I think everyone can recognize the huge impact we could make by actively participating in our local community. If we only knew how?! We can no longer depend on the social conventions of yesteryear that stressed most would be in Bible Study and Worship (morning and evening) on Sundays and participating in all the various activities throughout the week. Time has moved on and we are called upon to continue the Lord’s work in Haymarket given these new conditions. After much discussion the deacon board was presented with an opportunity last year to address this need and choose to invest in the future of our church by focusing the search for our new Associate Pastor.
Prayerfully the deacon board charged the Search Committee with the task of finding a candidate to tackle this important outreach effort. A candidate who would work with Dr. Olson to lead, educate and equip US, the congregation for the task of taking God’s word to our local community. This effort is bigger than any one person, this is a job for the entire congregation. Everyone will have some role in supporting the effort to carry God’s word to our local community.
Today I’m pleased to announce that the Associate Pastor Search Committee would like to put forth Rev. Allan Smith currently of Raleigh, NC as our candidate for Associate Pastor of Outreach for HBC. Rev. Smith does NOT have all the answers. He cannot do this outreach on his own and he’s not expected to. What Rev. Smith will bring to our ministry is his passion for community engagement.
In the coming weeks we will be sharing more information about our candidate and the selection process. An initial article about Rev. Smith will be available on the church website later this week as well as in the upcoming March newsletter.
Rev. Smith will be presented to the church during the March 8th service with a time of fellowship to follow so the congregation can ask questions and get to know the candidate.
A special called business meeting will be held the following Wednesday March 11 to vote on Rev. Smith as our new Associate Pastor. Over the next month please be in constant prayer about God’s direction for the role of our church in our local community. Thank you.