Church Update!

Here we are in May already—the end of yet another school year! Summer is right around the corner. And with the onset of summer, there will be a few slight changes to our normal Sunday schedules. Our Sunday morning schedules will continue as usual through May 18. But, then, beginning with the first Sunday after the end of school—i.e., May 25—we will be making a few adjustments to Sunday School. The Gulfport School District is planning district-wide upgrades and renovations at every school within its bounds. And this means that the number of rooms that will be available to us on Sundays at BVE will be limited. We will, therefore, be combining some of the Sunday School classes and moving rooms for the duration of the summer months.

Our Sunday evening schedules will continue as usual through May 25. Then, beginning on June 1, we will be introducing a special summertime casual evening get-together. Some of you may remember that we introduced this last year, and it was very well received. Like last year, this get-together will be held at Jeff and Gail Theiler’s house and will include swimming for the kids and dinner (pot-luck), fellowship, and Bible study for the adults. You should have received a letter from the church office delineating these plans together with the requisite dates and times. If you did not receive this letter, or if you have any questions about anything that is upcoming, please call or email Mary Beth at the church office. We are looking forward to a great summer together!

This year, summer also means something a little more exciting for us! It means, Lord willing, that we could be breaking ground on the construction of our new facility! And that is definitely something for all of us to look forward to. The building committee and the Session will be meeting together on May 6, to view and approve the proposed construction plans for the new facility. And we hope to be able to present these plans—in living color!—to the congregation beginning Sunday, May 18. Presently, our intention is to hold informational meetings on Sunday, May 18, and on Wednesday, May 21. We will also be posting electronic copies of the plans to the church’s website, as well as making them available at the church office for any who would like to stop by and look them over. Then, on Sunday, May 25, we will be holding a congregational meeting in order to vote to approve these plans. Again, let me remind each of us, that the building committee (and, most especially, Kendall Turnage and Stephen O’Mara) have invested a great many hours and a lot of effort in developing these plans. While we all recognize that the committee—just like every one of us—is fully capable of making mistakes, we also want to be sensitive to the committee process and to the amount of work and re-work that has gone into these plans. Most of all, we want to ensure that in all that we do as a congregation, we do it in a way that is pleasing to our great God and Savior and that is as charitable as possible to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

And, finally, this summer also brings with it the opportunity to elect new officers to serve within our church. We will be seeking to elect two (2) new elders and three (3) new deacons to serve 6 year terms. This really is an exciting time in the life of our church family. We are growing in many ways and taking on many new projects and opportunities. Please prayerfully consider who you will nominate to serve the church in these ways. Be sure that the men you nominate and, eventually, elect, meet the Biblical qualifications for elder and deacon respectively. Sometimes we may be tempted to look for business savvy or street-smarts in a prospective officer. But the Bible would have us look for something else. In 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, Paul gives us the qualifications that we are to look for in the men we choose to nominate. It is striking to me that of the something like 12 qualifications Paul lists for elder in 1 Timothy 3, only 1 or (at most) 2 deal with his abilities. The vast majority of them (something like 10 or 11 of them) deal with the character of the man in question. Obviously, the character of the man is more important to the Lord than his list of accomplishments in the world!

May the Lord guide each one of us to nominate and elect godly men, who meet the qualifications for serving in His church.