50th Anniversary & Homecoming

Good morning. My name is Brian Davis, and I'm honored to be here to welcome you this morning to our 50th anniversary homecoming celebration. In particular, I'd like to welcome our special guests, including several founding members of the church, former attendees, current members and attendees. We are so thankful this morning for God's great provision for the work he established here at Jefferson Park Baptist Church. The gentleman leading music before I came up, he's been a member for less than a year. I've been a member for 14 years. Over here we have those who've been members for 50 years. And God has been good through this time to bring many people through this place and use them in many different ways. He truly has been our one foundation and the source of our vision. And anything that we have done well has only been when he's been our foundation and our vision. I hope that you enjoy this time of worship this morning as we gather together, sing praises, offer up prayers to God and hear the word preached. We also have a fellowship meal following and encourage everyone to join us for that and enjoy that time of fellowship, conversation. And then we have many events this afternoon that are scheduled. And if you picked up either one of these white programs or one of these orange programs, You should have a good list of what is available this afternoon. We encourage you to stay, come and go as you are able, and enjoy this time of fellowship together. Now let us pray. Most gracious and loving Heavenly Father, you have indeed been loving to us. You are love. And love is this, not that we loved you, but that you loved us and sent your only son to die, taking the wrath of all of our sin upon himself as a substitute, bearing the punishment due to us so that we might be saved, so that we might be truly your children, able to have abundant life here on earth and able to spend eternity with you in heaven. Father, you have been so good to us. As scripture says, we do not deserve anything that you do. It is all of grace. And you have been very, very gracious to those here at Jefferson Park. You have brought many to know yourself through faith here, which is the only way that we can know you. There's no way that we can work and earn your favor. But it's a spirit generated faith, Father, and we thank you for the mighty work of the spirit in bringing many to faith in this place. Father, we know it's only through the sacrifice of your son Jesus upon the cross at Calvary that we are able to come before you. And we thank you for this great sacrifice. Father, we know that all of this is done to your glory. Father, you make a great name for yourself in bringing believers to yourself. in establishing churches that do your kingdom work. Father, and we praise you for this. But Father, we also know that we continue to be sinners. Father, we know that we have not always done the right thing, both as individuals and as a body, that we have not always been as fruitful as you would like us to be. that we have not always been as gracious and loving as you would like us to be, Father. And we pray that you would continue to use us here at Jefferson Park, that you would continue to have your gospel preached, that you would continue to raise up the love of the believers for one another here in this body, Father. And Father, however fallibly that we might do it, that we would be a small reflection of your glory. back to this world, that many would continue to come to know you in faith, in Christ, through your grace here at Jefferson Park. Father, in that, should the Lord tarry that 50 years from now, we shall be meeting here again and praising you for your good works. We pray all this in the name of our dear Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. This morning, on behalf of Jefferson Park Baptist Church, I would like to welcome all of our special guests today in the celebration of our 50th anniversary of the Church. Our special guests, if you are not a member or have moved away or haven't been here in a while, you are very special to us and we are honored to have you with us today. Also, as one of our special guests, I'd like to recognize Ross Kirby, Deacon of Demetrius, It's good to have him with us today. It is indeed an honor to have you with us and hope that you will enjoy the Christian fellowship with us throughout the day. Thank you. Good morning. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1, we read, Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Fifty years ago, a group of people decided in faith to try and to bring a church to this area of Charlottesville. The Fry Springs Baptist Mission opened at Johnson School with the first worship service held by Reverend Don Givens in July of 1960. On October 1st, 1962, the mission was constituted as Jefferson Park Baptist Church on October 1st, 1962. We're here today to celebrate that 50th anniversary. In a little bit, our resident historian, Matthew Davison, will give us an extensive history of the church, but I just wanted to go ahead and recognize that at the beginning. Today, we have with us some of those founding members, and we want to recognize members that continue to worship alongside us that cannot be here today. We are thankful for their wisdom, for their vision, and for their faithfulness to God in bringing a church to this area. Most importantly, we thank our great God for protecting and serving this church for 50 years. So at this time, I would like to recognize some of our members. I would ask if they stand, if you're able. I would like first to recognize Mrs. Thomas R. Stager, Phyllis. Mr. and Mrs. Harold and Marie Farrell. Mrs. Patricia H. Moon, who we know as Pat Weitzel. I don't see her yet, though. Mr. T. Elson Johnson, Jr. and his daughter, Ms. Jacqueline Jackie Johnson Lockwood. Mrs. Garland E. Honaker, Rachel. And Mrs. Georgia Kirby and her son, Hayden Scruggs, Jr. Again, we thank you. We are honored to have our guests here today. Thank you. Lest any of you cringe, I am not going to provide an extensive history of the church. A church is not a building. We are not here today to celebrate a building. Rather, a church is a group of people who have joined together for the purpose of serving our Lord Jesus Christ. Today, it is neither the building nor the people whom we are celebrating. but it is the Lord who has seen fit to use us, his people, his church, for his purposes. In Mark 11, 17, Jesus quoted Isaiah 56, 7 when he asserted, My house shall be a house of prayer for all nations. And indeed, God has used Jefferson Park Baptist Church to be a house of prayer for all nations. I wish to highlight four ways that God has used Jefferson Park for his glory in our 50-year history. There is no way that I can summarize 50 years of history without leaving out a lot of details, so I apologize if I do not mention your favorite milestone or project. God laid it on the heart of the members of First Baptist Church of Charlottesville to set up a church plant in the Fry Spring area. What eventually became Jefferson Park Baptist Church was originally known as the Fry Spring Baptist Mission, which first met in June of 1960. The first pastor of this church plant, Reverend Don Givens, conducted the first worship service on July 17, 1960, and since that time, God has blessed us with a myriad of quality preachers. Some of our associate preachers, such as Clay Thornton and Greg McCormick, have gone on to serve God in other ministries. One of the ways that God has demonstrated his faithfulness has been by blessing our preaching. The times when we have had sound biblical preaching have been the times that we have seen good growth. During one of our peak growth periods, in 2002, we experimented with a two-service model, which featured a contemporary service followed by a more traditional service. Concerns that this may result in a division in the congregation led us to return to a traditional one-model system. In 2009, our missions committee formally partnered with Nine Marks and with HeartCry Ministries to further promote the proclamation of the gospel and healthy church growth. Even during a transition period in 2010, we were blessed with outstanding guest preachers. Greg Dilbert, Nathan Finn, and most importantly, Brian Russell, before we called Keith Goad to be our new pastor. And again, God continues to bless faithful preaching with good growth as the full sanctuary on Sunday mornings attempts. God's word is also proclaimed regularly in our Sunday school classes. Sunday school has been a foundational institution for Jefferson Park since its inception. Some of the original classes still meet each Sunday to explore God's Word together. These classes are also important for building fellowship. Hence the name of one of those original classes, Koinonia. And the happy class? Well, we're just happy to still be here. Our Sunday school attendance peaked at one point in the first quarter of 1991 when we had over 200 attendants in Sunday school on several occasions. And in the year 2005, we introduced a track class system, which was intended to allow us to go deeper into biblical studies and practical applications. Some track classes have featured exposition of books of the Bible, such as Isaiah. Others have emphasized practical application, addictions, depression, personal finance, adoption, and marriage. And one of the patterns in all of this has been that faithful preaching has grown not only our church in numbers, but also, and more importantly, in unity. Our recent votes on calling Pastor Keith, and on calling Sam Crosby to be our associate pastor, and on ratifying a new constitution this year have all demonstrated the potent sense of unity among God's people at Jefferson Park Baptist Church. Another way that God has used us has been to minister to our neighborhood. One way is through the Vacation Bible School program. In 2005, JPBC adopted a new Vacation Bible School curriculum. We transformed the churchyard into Bethlehem to study the birth of Christ. Students were organized into the 12 tribes of Israel with elaborate banners, and they visited a marketplace and a synagogue, and they watched a dramatization of the lives of people impacted by the nativity. This new curriculum proved both powerful and popular. Since then, we have created Capernaum to study Jesus's ministry, Nazareth for his childhood, and Jerusalem for his crucifixion and resurrection. We also used Egypt to study the life of Joseph, and this year we learned about Daniel in Babylon. And then, of course, there was 2009's Rome, in which we learned about Paul and a crazy Roman guard named Brutus. Christian preschool adventure. opened in September of 1981 under Barbara Holland. The original vision of the preschool was for it to be self-supporting and essentially independent of the church. In 2002, the church began to take a more active role in supporting the preschool, and the preschool was renamed this year as Jefferson Park Christian Preschool as an acknowledgment of this new relationship. The director of the preschool, Gretchen Davison, was eager for the preschool to be an outreach ministry of the church. Another perennial favorite outreach program is the annual Christmas caroling in the neighborhood of Jefferson Park Avenue. This is a time of fellowship among the church members, but it is also a welcome reminder to the neighborhood of the unconditional love of God in sending his son. Jefferson Park is one of the only churches in central Virginia to have a deaf ministry. This has been an important ministry of the church for decades. In September of 1982, Jefferson Park hosted the regional Deaf Rally, which saw 75 attendees. We experimented with having a separate service on Sunday conducted entirely in American Sign Language. We also reach out to the neighborhood in charitable ministries, such as WMU's annual drive for the prison ministry and our Wednesday food closet. 2007 saw Jefferson Park begin a partnership with Love, Inc. to help local families who meet sudden financial needs. And our budget also has included a benevolence fund for ministering to JPBC members who need assistance. In these ways, we seek to bear one another's burdens and to so fulfill the law of Christ. Third, God uses our church to be a light to the nations. Jefferson Park is located strategically next to an internationally recognized university, and our membership over the years has reflected this. We have had members and attendees in countries from Korea to Japan and from India to Iran. In July of 1975, the church sponsored the Vipong family of Vietnamese refugees who had come to Charlottesville. Jefferson Park Christian Preschool has ministered to families from Korea, China, Germany, and Ethiopia. Jefferson Park has also sponsored missionaries all over the world. Former JTBC members Doug and Lee Coppedge have lived in Hungary for a decade and work with the deaf in Budapest. Todd and Karen Helm have gone to... Jefferson Park also sponsors the blessings... and this summer we opened a partnership with Children's Hope Chest in Ethiopia. From its first constitution in 1962, our church has also financially supported churches abroad. For example, we annually participate in the Lottie Moon Christmas offering, and our fundraising for this ministry has grown regularly over 50 years. Most recently, our 2011 goal was $5,500. Our church budget has increased our donation to missions. Fifteen years ago we were donating roughly 12% of our budget to missions. This year that number is up to 15%. And our church has partnered for several years with Bitzke Baptist Church in Hungary. Finally, God has used this church to grow his family. Now certainly Jefferson Park has seen many baptisms over the years. One that stuck out in my mind was in January, 2011, when we had a joint baptism service with the Chinese Christian Church of Charlottesville here. But he has also grown our church in biological terms as well. In Revelation, the apostle John describes heaven as a wedding feast. Jefferson Park has given us a foretaste of this with several marriages among our members. Just in the last 13 years, we have wedded members of Jefferson Park together. Vanessa Garvey and Jacob Persiali, Hannah Davison and Chip Case, Gretchen Carroll and Matthew Davison, and two sets of artusios. And we have grown God's family in a biological sense. I don't know if this is a record, but in looking through the church records in 2009, I counted eight births and one adoption to Jefferson Park members. And that is our most recent baby boom. We have always seen children as our primary missions field. The year 2011 saw important developments in our efforts to minister to our children. One was a renovation of our nursery, and the other was the construction of the training room, which my boys are particularly grateful for. Our church has been supportive of adoption as well. Several Jefferson Park families have pursued adoption while here, including the Bowmans and the Minyards. One of our track classes in 2009 emphasized adoption, and our church recently added a line item to the budget for assisting families who were pursuing adoptions. Again, this is just a brief overview. God has done so much through our church, and we are blessed to be a part of his work here. We look back at the history of our church to see God's faithfulness to us, and that encourages us to continue in the tasks that he has set before us. The Lord is not yet finished with Jefferson Park Baptist Church, and I look forward to our 60th celebration in 10 years to see what new things he has done among us and through us. My name is Keith Goad. I am the pastor here. It'll be two years and four days. It is a great honor to be a part of what God has been doing at Jefferson Park for 50 years. As I thought about what to say and a message about the celebrating God's beginning in ministry here and His faithfulness, my mind and my heart kept going back to Matthew 16. So, if you have your Bible, please open with me. You can look at a Bible that is provided for in the pew. They're on the ends. I will read our passage, Matthew 16, verses 13 through 20. Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, Who do people say the Son of Man is? And they said, Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. He said to them, But who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Berjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. But my Father who is in heaven, and I tell you, you are Peter. And on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then He strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that He was the Christ. The foundation of the church is the confession that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. This is the rock Jesus is referring to. That confession that you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. The church must be built upon that confession. Confessing Christ as the Messiah, as the one God who died for sinners and rose again, that must always be the foundation of a church and at the forefront of a church. Without that confession, we're nothing but a social club. That confession is what establishes who we are and what we're about. We are sinners. We are sinners in need of forgiveness, and that forgiveness is only found in the death of Jesus Christ. God Almighty who took on flesh so that He suffered the wrath that we deserve. He died in our place and He rose again so that we have hope and life, an eternal life. As we think about 50 years, I want to thank the founding members for beginning this church on the confession that Jesus Christ is Messiah. I want to thank all of you who have labored for years for this body so that it is established in the gospel of Jesus Christ. What's great about the fact that it's the rock, that confession is the rock upon which the church is built, is that no matter what trials and tribulations come against the church, if that is a confession of the church, God will sustain and keep that church. This body has been through trials. This body has been through difficulties. Because this body has always been full of sinners in need of forgiveness, in need of grace. That is part of the confession that Jesus Christ is the Savior. But as we have kept that confession as our foundation, as the forefront of who we are, God has kept us. So thank you for persevering in keeping the gospel as our foundation at the forefront. Members of Jefferson Park now, we cannot take this for granted. It is by God's grace that we know the gospel. It's by God's grace that the gospel is the foundation of who we are, and it's the forefront of who we are. We must not take this for granted. We must trust God constantly to remind us of His good news, that He has forgiven us. If you're no longer with us and you were a part of Jefferson Park, please pray for us. Continue to minister with us and continue to minister to us by praying for us that this church would keep as its foundation the gospel that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, that he is the one who died and he rose again. If you are with us, pray for us that this would remain the foundation of who we are and the forefront of what we do. Let's pray. Father, we thank You that You have revealed to us the power of Your Gospel. We thank You, Father, that You have sent Your Son to die in our place. We thank You that this church has been established to be a people that unite around the Gospel. To be a people who declare the Gospel. May we continue to that end. May You keep and preserve us. May You help us to be a faithful body committed to Your Gospel. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.