Dear Central Members & Friends

I hope your week is off to an excellent start and you are asking God to grant you the grace to walk in the footsteps He has ordered for you this entire month!! I am going to ask you to be extremely focused spiritually this entire month as we celebrate 100 years as a church body. What an awesome wonderful blessing and demonstration of God’s grace to achieve such a significant spiritual milestone!!!

This is truly a “Journey of Faith” as noted in Hebrews 11:6 which is our anchor theme and scripture for this Centennial Celebration!! I have attached the slides from the message I delivered on yesterday during our worship service with Fort Robinson, our partnership church in the Kingsport area. The message is practical truths about our future and what each of us must do individually and collectively as leaders as we move forward as a church on “God’s Agenda” to have an even greater impact on our future and the future of our city.

I would like for you to read and study the book of Nehemiah during your personal devotional and study time this month. Nehemiah is a great example for us all, of someone who stayed steadfast as a leader on God’s agenda, persevered during times of great opposition, had a caring heart and led the people during a critical rebuilding project!!   Nehemiah was a cupbearer, not a King or Priest, but a layman who served under King Artaxerxes, who ruled Persia from 464 to 423 B.C. Nehemiah’s name means – “The Lord has comforted.”

Remember the four principles I shared on Sunday and put them into practice in your life  from Chapter 2 of Nehemiah verses 1-20:

1.      Opposition is certain from within and without

2.      Prayer is essential

3.      People must be willing to work

4.      The leaders & workers must be determined to follow God’s agenda

As we examine our bible, we see it littered with people who failed because they submitted to their own agenda instead of God’s agenda with noble intentions only to realize too late the mistake they had made. Let’s start each day off determined to stay on God’s agenda instead of our agenda!!

I hope you enjoy the slide deck from the Sermons page and find it a useful tool in your deeper study of Nehemiah this month!!

Grace & Shalom!!!!

Pastor Perry Stuckey