By Brenda Cannon Henley
Pastors, associates, staff members, and ministry leaders, our local church just experienced a wonderful day that I believe will change our entire yearly outlook for all of us. Most church leaders, committee chairs, and individual ministry directors, whether paid or volunteer, are usually super busy people. It is not uncommon for these talented folks to wear more than one hat.

My former pastor and employer for many years often said, “If you want someone to tackle a project and do a really good job, look for someone that is busy working at the time…and enjoying it.” After many years of working with people in both large and small churches, I have come to believe he is right.

My son happens to be my pastor here in Florida where I moved after my husband’s death. The adult children felt I should be nearer them in case of sickness or emergency. I still live on my beloved Gulf, just on down the coast from Texas where the water is bright blue and clear, and the sand is sugar white.

Community Bible Baptist Church in Pinellas Park is a wonderful assembly of very talented local believers. They are not afraid to give, pray, and work. We have fun even when involved in hard projects. We just built a five and a half million dollar new multi center building (during Covid-19) and stayed on budget and opened on time. Our bank loves us and our people, and their guests are enjoying the new Jabez Center.

The Center is truly a multi-functional building housing not only the church auditorium, huge choir loft, Christian school classrooms, and a giant Grand Lobby. My son emphasized this building should be used every day of the week and not just Sundays. Oh, did I mention we have a full sized professional basketball, volley ball, and pickle ball court with a wonderful digital pro scoreboard?

How do we utilize such a costly investment? By using it in many ways for the good of every age group. Our planning team worked very hard, prayed through every area, asked and answered many questions, and visited and interviewed others whose building programs were successful.

Even with this outstanding building, the key to its success is still people. Today was Ministry Vision Sunday where every leader of every single ministry, group, class, project, and area was asked weeks ahead to plan and pray for this day. Each leader was asked to prepare a display table describing their ministry goals for the coming year, and to be prepared to man that table before and after service to share their vision and enlist workers.

The entire auditorium walls were lined with beautifully decorated tables. It was so much fun to see what each leader came up with and the creative ideas used to draw interest in becoming a part of that particular ministry. The membership body of people was asked to plan to spend time visiting each table and choose at least one area of ministry in which they could work.

I teach and lead a group of hard working ladies called The Broken Pots and we worked hard on our table describing that we are a study and service ministry. Our main responsibility are the shut ins or house bound members of our church. They come in all ages. We communicate our concern and care for each of them by calls, cards, contact, and staying current with their needs. I am pleased to say we fund our own budget and fully support one Haitian orphan each month and have cared for our little boy for over three years.

Does Vision Sunday work? Is it worth your time and energy? Will it benefit your ministry? I walked out of the auditorium tonight with a pretty pink notebook in my hand with the names, addresses, and phone numbers of 12 or 13 new women volunteers who are very excited about becoming a Broken Pot. So, yes, it works! Many of my fellow workers had the same experience.

Excited People Excite People!

Brenda Cannon Henley can be reached at 409 781 8788, or
[email protected]

[BCH: Jan-17-2023]