Letters from the Pastor

Everyone has a story to be told.  I have heard it said, “There’s a book inside every person just waiting to be written.”  As Christians, we can think of saying it this way: “Every Christian has a personal testimony waiting to be shared.”  On Sunday June 25, the theme...

What is the position of HRBC on the role of women in the church? (Recently, the Southern Baptist Convention amended its constitution to include a permanent ban on female pastors. This was over and above the Baptist Faith and Message which was revised in 2000 toward...

Twenty-five years ago today, on June 14, 1998, I was ordained to the Gospel Ministry by our home church, First Baptist Church (FBC), Orangeburg, South Carolina.  That May, I graduated from the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond (BTSR) and that July I began...

To persevere is to persist through difficulty without giving up. Sunday’s Heritage Day message was titled, “A Call to Persevere.” We reflected on the encouragement to persevere found in Hebrews chapter 12 . . .  Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud...

HRBC is blessed to have five strategic ministry affiliates with whom we collaborate to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) and the Great Commandment (Acts 1:8). These partners are: The River City Faith Network, Baptist General Association of Virginia,...

Each May, I am grateful to represent our church in the Bon Air Interfaith Trialogue.  There is perhaps not a more important time for faith communities to come together around that which unites us: people.  The Trialogue is an annual three-session gathering where...

Synergy results when we work together for a common good or a higher purpose. Stephen Covey, author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, defines synergy as “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts . . . one plus one equals three or more.” He points us to...

To succeed in what God has called us to do, we need to establish our priorities and remove distractions. This is easier said than done! The Apostle Paul himself struggled with this and wrote, “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I...

When we are present in the moment, we can see glimpses of the sacred in the secular.  I call these “holy ground” moments, referring to the story of Moses in the wilderness. Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, when an angel of the Lord appeared to him in...

Sometimes we change our inner voices that can cause us to be stuck. This is especially true when we face stressful situations in life. On Sunday April 23, we launched a brand-new message series titled, “The Stress-less Life.” The idea is that we will always have...