By Gary Pinson
Homecoming – East Point Missionary Baptist Church – September 19, 2010
I’m honored to be here this morning to speak to you about what this church means to me. In case you don’t know me, my name is Gary Pinson, and I have been attending Church Services here at this church off and on since the time my family moved to East Texas from Dallas when I was 7 years old. I was blessed enough to have two loving parents and two sets of grandparents who believed in God and made it a point to go to church on a regular basis. Of course, I was expected to attend church as well, and because of this, I accepted Jesus as my savior in my early teens. Later on in my life I received the great honor to be ordained as a deacon of this church.
The Bible teaches us that the local church is a body, with many different members, all of which are important to the healthy functioning of the whole body. It is not a building, property or any other material thing. The church is a group of believers in Jesus Christ that come together to pray, worship, sing praises and fellowship. These attributes define our church.
I have attended several churches in my lifetime, but none of them compare to the feeling of the sweet Holy Spirit that you feel when you walk through the doors of this church. Over the years, we have prayed, worshiped, made beautiful music and fellowshipped together at this place. We have laughed together and we have cried together. We have always been there for one another in the good times as well as the bad because we care for one another. In our church family, you often hear the titles Brother and Sister being used. Brother and Sister aren’t just titles of respect, it’s so much more. It’s a description, for we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. The love in our church family is so real, so sincere. I know it pleases God.
This church has been important to me on many levels. In my early teen years I started to learn that God had a design for my life. I learned that church was a place I could go to grow closer to God. I realized that church helped to keep me grounded in God’s will when the trials and tribulations of life became overwhelming. I learned that I needed to be with people that shared a common love for God because it was so easy to get lead astray by the things of the world.
I wish that I could say that I have never wandered away from God or this church, but I can not. But even in those times that I was out of God’s will and wandering astray, He was always there by my side ready to take me back into His fellowship and this church was always there as a lighthouse to show me the way back home. I have to believe that this church has been a lighthouse for many people of this community and the surrounding communities as it was for me.
Over the years, we have seen many souls saved and lives changed here at this church due to the faithful witness of many of the dear saints that have served and continue to serve in our church.
Whether they be pastor, deacon, teacher, singer, musician, prayer warrior, or lay person, I would like to take this time to say thanks for their service to God and this church. And even though many of our loved ones have gone on to be with the Lord, their memory and spirit lives on in this church. Their contributions will never be forgotten.
Now, in this later stage of my life, church has taken on an even more important and in-depth meaning. As a husband, I have learned how very important marriage is and how God wants us to treat one another. As a parent, I now understand why I was taken to church as a child. Proverbs 22:6 says: “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old he will not depart from it.” How important it is for our children to go to church, see us grow closer to God, and to see us fellowship with one another in Christian love. And, as a child of God, I want to continually grow and be taught so that I may be a light in this dark world that we live in. Matt 5:16 says: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father which is in Heaven.” Church for me is now a place for instruction and a place for the understanding of God’s unconditional love and His perfect will for my life.
I guess I can sum up what this church means to me by saying my church is a little piece of Heaven here on this Earth that God has given to me. It’s a little window of the love, understanding, and sweet fellowship that awaits us all some day in Heaven.
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