At our five year mark we are making some changes at Pillar that we hope will facilitate growth and allow us to have a greater capacity minister people and to send out church planters and start new churches. Some of those changes are realigning the tasks of our leadership to help our elders settle more plainly on their job of ministering the Word and Praying and encouraging a more robust group of deacons who will serve the church by leading the various tasks associated with our ministry.

Other changes are a bit more obvious. First, our logo is new… when we started Pillar Church we did not know how immense our passion for planting would be but we have sat in the back seat as God has called us to project after project over the past several years. We wanted to have an image for our logo that expressed our desire to plant healthy and faithful new congregations.

We also have a new website that, although not completely finished, will soon have a comprehensive explanation of our ministry. Talk a look at our new bling and feel free to comment.

You can see a gallery of Pics from our anniversary service HERE. We had an excellent weekend with our highest attendance ever (about 160) My long time pastor/mentor/supporter Dannie Williams and his wife Gwen came to visit us and he preached the service. He did an outstanding Job challenging us… Here are a couple of email comments from I got following the service…

The service was great. The message was great.  And it is clear that he is humble in spirit and is devoted to the Lord.

I really wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed service on Sunday, I was very moved to hear the stories of how God is able to turn the key and open ones heart.

Ben Cartwright did a great job leading our worship team…

Man, yesterday was a blast at Pillar. We broke our attendance record again and had a good number of visitors. Yesterday was also the first time since beginning the church that we were able to have baptism during our worship service.. generally, we have to leave the property and go to a hotel but now we have THIS JEWEL and were able to set up right in our worship service.

One of our resident cooks laid out a mean spread of food and the church gathered for breakfast before our worship service. You can check out pictures from the entire day HERE.

There is a lot of momentum for our upcoming anniversary service and birthday bash… I hope you will  be able to attend. Yesterday we had a cartoonist who formally worked for Kings Dominion making THIS TYPE OF THING. He agreed to come to our anniversary service and set up a booth to make caricatures of those who attend. The best part… he is giving every cent of his proceeds to our project in Indonesia!

It’s a golden era at Pillar Church. Things are going great with the ministry and the church is steadily growing in number and a greater number of people previously far from God are coming and growing. This coming weekend we are baptizing 4 in our worship service and each of our church plants and are making very positive steps forward. It feels like a good time to take a break and thank God for what he had done and is currently doing. My friend and mentor Dannie Williams who serves as the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Lyons GA is planning to be here to preach for the day. Then, after the worship service we will be having a birthday party celebrating all that God has done over the past several years. Lunch is provided at the party.  So… I would like to invite you to join us on the 5th anniversary of our public worship services in Dumfries.

Date & Time: March 28, 2010

• Service – 10:30am – 12:00pm
• Party -  12:00pm – 1:30pm

Place: Swans Creek Elementary School

What to Bring: What’s a birthday party with out a gift? Consider bringing a birthday gift for Pillar Church’s efforts in Indonesia.

 Five years ago the Abundant Life Baptist Church building in Dumfries tragically burned to the ground. The small congregation disbanded and the property was given to the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia (SBCV). The SBCV decided to sell the property and use the money for church planting in Virginia. The property has been listed for sale in since 2005 with very little interest.
At the same time the same organization was helping us to get started in Dumfries. Pillar Church is now in need of a permanent meeting place and the property where the Abundant Life building formally sat is an ideal location for our ministry. We are praying that those in leadership at the SBCV will consider allowing Pillar Church to rebuild on the 5 acre

“Abundant Life” property in Dumfries. The property sits vacant and vandalized in the center of the community we are trying so desperately to reach with the gospel.
The good news is that the SBCV is an organization that is dedicated to helping new churches get started and established. They have been dedicated supporters of our ministry since our inception in 2005. The have given thousands of dollars to our efforts and supported each of our church planting endeavors over the past five years. Additionally they have given valuable instruction and training along the way that have saved us from an unknown number of mistakes.

The bad news is that they are not yet convinced that allowing us to rebuild on the property is the best use for the property. Over the past several years we have made many requests for the property but every attempt has stalled. We have written letters, met personally, sent emails and researched other possible uses for the property but made very little progress.

Here’s how you can help… In the spirit of THIS STORY I am asking folks to comment on this post telling why you believe that allowing Pillar Church to rebuild on the “Abundant Life” property is a good idea. I’m going to forward these comments to those who have the weighty responsibility of making this decision. Here are a few of the comments I have recieved so far…

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“I am pictured here with three of my six children, and as a father, I appreciate the spiritual values consistently preached at Pillar Church and their emphasis on church planting. I know my family and I would have more time to impact our community for Christ, if I didn’t spend nearly two hours a week setting up and tearing down temporary locations. You have an opportunity to bless a vibrant ministry, and I pray you do so. – RAY

I have been a believer for many years and have served on many missions teams, but never I have a seen a local congregation more focused on missions and church planting than Pillar Church. Equipping these folks with a building allows them to spend less of their time setting up and tearing down temporary service locations, and more time doing what they have proven they do well, plant churches and equip believers to live out the great comission in their daily lives. Please help us serve Him! – Shannon

As Christians we are called to use our talents and gifts to further the kingdom of God.  What is a better use of the gift given to you then to allow a new Church to rise in the ashes of the Church that once was there?  Great ideas of what to do with God’s gifts to further his Kingdom that are never realized are the same as burying them. Please help us to spread God’s word and grow his Kingdom buy establishing a permanent place to congregate in Dumfires. – Adam

Sunday morning Pillar Church gathered in a local hotel because the school where we regularly meet was closed. The winter weather prohibited us from having services for two weeks in a row and I was determined not to allow it to become three. So, with the news of another weekend cancellation from our school, we moved our operation to the Comfort Inn.

It was great to be back with the church after being apart for a few weeks.

My wife snapped this photo on her camera phone so it’s not the greatest of quality but hopefully it gives you a glimpse of what it was like.. we had several small groups meeting in the lobby and our babies and toddlers were in guest rooms. Since the rooms were paid for, my family and I crashed at the hotel for the night, went swimming and put a pretty impressive dent in the continental breakfast.