First Baptist Church of Doylestown

In Faith in Real Life

Chapters, Journeys, and other such things…

March 13, 2012 2 Comments

For four and a half years I have served as the Student Ministries Pastor at First Baptist Church of Doylestown. There have been times when we have laughed so hard that I cried. There have been times when I have flat out just cried. There have been times when we stayed up all night. There have been times when we served our community and the communities around us. We have seen God break through in the lives of countless students and truly be their Lord and savior. I have been given the privilege to work alongside of some really gifted individuals that love God and love others. I have had an opportunity to train and mentor others. I have learned new things about leadership, students, volunteers, myself, and God. It has been an incredible journey.

God has blessed me abundantly more than I could have ever dreamed He would.

It is with a contemplative spirit that I write the ending to this chapter in our history. I am thankful for all that God has done in and through us here at First Baptist. We are truly excited for the future. We are excited to dream about what God is going to do in and through us as we follow Him. The future is filled with unknowns for us. But whose future isn’t? So we will walk by faith, knowing that God has never left us hanging, never let us go, or ever turned His back on us.

Some of you have been asking what I will be doing in the future. I am excited to share with you that I have the opportunity to continue to serve alongside of great men and women. I will be working at Liquid Church in New Jersey. I will be working at the Morristown Campus. For those of you into details, I will be working as an Associate Campus Pastor. I’m super excited to figure out what that exactly means. I know one thing, I will be able to continue to lead people to life and growth in Christ and partner with others as they explore their journey of faith. Stay posted to the blog for more info of what I’m doing in life and in ministry!

Now onto the good stuff:

This past Sunday was my last Sunday here at FBC. The church was incredibly generous in praying for us, thanking us and being a huge blessing to us. So to all of you from FBC, THANK YOU! We love you all dearly. I had the opportunity to preach, to laugh (thanks Bob Miller), and to pour my heart out. Then later that day was my last youth group. What a great night! There were some highlights for sure. I loved being able to share with students the one thing I want them to remember: To Love God, and To Love Others. We concluded the evening and my ministry here at FBC with a baptism service. I could not be more proud of these six students! Each of them had a story to tell about what brought them to this point and why they wanted to be baptized. We cheered, hollered, screamed, and whistled in celebration of our six friends who decided to make a public statement that they are following CHRIST!

The pictures tell it all!

To all of the students at FBC, thank you for giving me the opportunity to be your pastor. Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for partnering in the kingdom mischief, I pray that you will keep it up. I’m super proud of all of you! God has great things in store for you.

~Peter

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In Uncategorized

We Win

September 24, 2010 No Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7aKaq5sHNw&feature=related]

It’s no secret, I am a huge fan of the DC*Band. I think he writes some of the best worship music out there. I love this song! Everytime I hear this song it reminds me of this verse… Matthew 16:18, “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hell will not overpower it.”

Throughout the Bible we see illustrations and hear/read stories of what is going to happen at the end of the story. There are times when I wonder what the outcome of a particular event or decision is going to be. The truth is we already know what the grand scale outcome is going to be. Here at FBC Doylestown we have been going through the book of Revelation on Sunday mornings in our worship gathering. I can tell you that in the end, we win!

I got this song stuck in my head, and I thought you should too.

~Peter

In Uncategorized

Carry The Conversation

May 5, 2009 2 Comments

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So we picked up the conversation in Psalm 52 this week in our series, Raw Worship. We are investigating what happens when worship and life collide, or what should happen when worship and life collide. It is inevitable that we are going to be faced with all kinds of circumstances, good, bad, and everything in between. The question must be then, how are we going to respond to God in the midst of these circumstances.

Dean Mellen once again picked up and smashed it out of the park. If you weren’t there and if you were unable to hear Dean, make sure you jump over here and listen… Then, jump in the conversation, let’s interact with each others thoughts and comments… See we are better together than we are apart. There is so much I can learn from you guys, and so much you can learn from each other!

Here are this weeks questions/comments with response from Dean…

1. A cruel and calculating slash of the tongue is far more painful and devastating than a wild and angry strike of the fist!

The difference between the tongue and the hand is the depth of the hurt that can be done.

When we strike someone with our hand, it causes physical pain. Physical injuries heal in a relatively short time, if the injury is not too severe. But, the tongue has the possibility of leaving what can almost be permanent damage. The damage done by the tongue can cause emotional, psychological, and/or mental anguish. Those types of damage do not heal quickly, if ever. With God’s help we can learn to forgive those who hurt us with their tongue.

When I was growing up we used to sing, “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me“. That is not true. The emotional scars that come from the tongue usually have far longer lasting results than what physical injuries carry with them. I agree that the tongue is far more painful and devastating than the hand. Paul agreed. Thatis why we rad in Colossians 4:6 “Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.”

2. We answered how do we respond to God in tragedy, but how do we respond to those who caused the tragedy?

David called upon God to deal with them according to their sin. He called down God’s judgment upon them. When we are in the midst of terrible tragedy, we tend to respond emotionally. Our first reaction may be to ask God to judge the sinner for his great sin.

Jesus taught us that as soon as we are able to, we need to move to forgiveness. When Jesus was on the cross (Luke 23) He said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Stephen was being stoned to death (Acts 7) and he responded, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!”

This is not an easy thing to do, but it has been modeled in the Bible, and repeated time and time again by the saints over the centuries. With some of the mass murders that have been committed in the last decade, there are many stories of believers who responded in love when their children or loved ones were tragicly murdered.

Only by God’s grace will we know how to respond when we are confronted by a terrible tragedy.

Carry the conversation…

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Soles 4 Souls

January 27, 2009 1 Comment

s4s

That is what I am looking at on my computer right now! Also, in print format we made the front page of the paper! How awesome is that! I believe that God was and will be honored in this shoe drive! I’ve said it publicly and I will say it again, I truly believe that God wants to use these 2700+ shoes (as more have come in even this morning!) I believe that God uses that efforts of His people. GOOD WORK CHURCH! GOOD WORK STUDENTS! I’m proud of both of you!

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Let’s see what God has in store for us next! Let’s keep being the Church! Here’s the link for the paper.

Beaming…

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

1 year later

November 5, 2008 3 Comments

369 days ago my wife Tiffany and I officially started here at First Baptist Church of Doylestown. Incredible! It has been a whole year since we arrived. In honor of this day I thought it would be appropriate to look back and think through some highlights of the year. So, here it is… The One Year Review.

WINTER RETREATS- I had an absolute blast on both of the winter retreats, high school and junior high… All I need to say is, Hot Tub Olympics. That was awesome! For those who don’t know what this is… we came up with all of these “challenges” to do in the hot tub at Lake Champion. One of my favorites was run from the tub to the slush puddle- roll in it- only to return again to the hot tub… first man in wins! Great times…

Remodeling the Student Center- This was a huge highlight to me. When we began meeting as separate groups in the student center I felt like we were so much more connected together. That we really and truly began to grow together as a family. Keep up the good work!

Teaching through “So Our Ipods are Different!” This was a really fun series for me to teach. I felt like we had a great time going through those several weeks. I will never forget the closing night of that series. Keith Dickey was leading worship, and I had my eyes closed having just gotten done teaching and I was praying that God would unite this group, and when I opened my eyes I saw guys hugging guys, arms around each other, and singing in unison praising God for who He is! We shared communion, and prayed with one another. That was a highlight to me! An unforgettable moment.

I will never forget the beginning of our Junior High worship band. There we were, 3 musicians and 2 singers. Standing around the piano in the sanctuary. Wow, we were not that good… But I am proud of where we are now! Great job guys! It is a joy to lead worship with you all when I do.

There are so many highlights of this last year. I can’t even believe that it has been a year. I know that if I really sat and thought about it I would come up with tons more! It is a privilege to be with you guys, and to have you call me your youth pastor. I love it! I serve alongside of the best team I could ever think of. I am grateful for everyone of you youth leaders! God has gifted us with you. Thank you!

~Peter