Perhaps it was one of the finest and most productive
"Leadership Conferences" ever. Though some of my Leaders were on travel, at work and/or commited otherwise about sixty of them showed up for our
Pastor's Leadership Conference 2010. We covered both our
Vision and Mission Statements which we always want to keep before our Leaders who in turn will help keep it before the Congregation. Because we believe that above all the the church is soulwinning organism established by God to bring souls in, build them up and send them out; we open all of our Conferences and Ministry Meetings with the reading of the
"Great Commission" Then Jesus said unto His disciples, "
Go and make disciples of all nations, Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; and teaching them to observe all things I have commanded of you, and Lo I am with you always even until the end of the world. This is always our focus and we thank God for it! We thank God for the fruit of His Commision which is ALWAYS souls to BAPTIZE and Celebrate each month.
There are no NEGATIVES AND POSITIVES in our Church.
Not even the Language. There are of course things that
we are THANKFUL For and then
there are GROWING AREAS. During a Breakout Session eight groups made a list of both and one person from the group presented the findings. We were all pleasantly pleased with the results. The list has been compiled and Pastor will present it to Church Council and Diaconate for further and continued processing! As we move toward the
Home Stretch of our 2010 - 100th Church Anniversary Celebration we had updates on our Building Project that is before us, The 2010 Events Past and to Come, as well as where we are financially and how we hope to reach our goals for the Spectacular 2010 100th Church Anniversary... Of course we are an African American Baptist Church, so yes there was food, But coming off of the Country Styled Holy Week Breakfast, this was by all means a light and healthy lunch. Interestingly, we only eat the fried everything meal during Holy Week!
Nearly One Hundred and Fifty or more of the members of Mount Olivet Baptist Church and our friends in the city joined us on a trip to Buffalo, New York on Good Friday to be with the my Pops and Mom William and Wanda Bunton and the Antioch Baptist Church 1327 Fillmore Avenue. This was so special to me in that I started in my formative years preaching here in Buffalo back in the late 1980's. This was of course the first time that I could attend with my church and boy oh boy did we have our church there. Mount Olivet is second to none in supporting their pastor. They make no bones about it; they love me and they know that Yvonne, Rishard, Rickey Jr and I love them. Ricketa and Rico love Mount Olivet dearly as well.. and would be right here with the family if they were in Rochester. Antioch cooked and served our people a wonderful hearty meal filled with so much love that you could taste it in the food. While we had been in service each morning at 5:00am for Holy Week Services it didnt stop the choir from piling onto the chartered bus and vans and cars for Buffalo. Yvonne and I are so thankful to have such a congregation! It was clear to Antioch that we came to worship just as Antioch's choir made it clear to us that they came to lift him up as well. I really enjoyed preaching the "Story of Good Friday"
