Moving Forward: Has our Church Sinned Against You?

I pastor a Southern Baptist Church (Bay Area FBC in League City, Texas) that has been seeking to serve the world with the gospel for 126 years. We are a church that is experiencing a beautiful revitalization directed by the Holy Spirit. It is exciting to experience such a move of God in an established church and it is even more exciting to think about God’s desires for our church in the days ahead. We are ready to move forward to make disciples, equip families, and serve the world with the gospel in a huge way. However, before we do, God is clearly leading us to stop, humble ourselves, and repent. It’s interesting. As a community of faith, when you have 126 years of history, you have had a lot of time to love God and love people but you have also had a lot of time to sin against God and people. We want to follow the pattern of Nehemiah 8-10 and repent of our sins and the sins of our fathers, seeking forgiveness and grace. On September 14 from 5-8 PM after several months of fasting, our church will gather for a solemn assembly. We will spiritually sit in sackcloth and ashes, confessing our personal and community sin, and we will find forgiveness and freedom. Here’s a 90 second explanation.

James 4:7-10 says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.” As a church we want to align our hearts with God as we move forward, praying that He will enable us to Love Him and Love people like He does in the Bay Area and around the world.

If you are a part of our faith community then join us in prayer and fasting on Wednesdays. Plan on attending solemn assembly on September 14 from 5-8 PM.

For those of you reading this that have been sinned against by our church in the past, I would like to hear from you. Generally, God is giving us very specific sins from our past that we must admit, repent of and seek forgiveness. A lot of us are new to our church including yours truly. There might be more and we truly want to reconcile with those we may have sinned against as God is calling us to move forward. If that’s you, email me at leadpastor@bafbc.org and tell me your story. If you have been avoiding us for a long time because of your pain, come back this Sunday. You will be amazed at what God is up to with this beautiful body of Christ called Bay Area First Baptist.

For more explanation watch the entire message titled, “What is Solemn Assembly?”