MARK KEITH, Senior Pastor

I was raised in a Christian home and cannot remember when we didn't attend church. At age 11 I joined a Baptist Church. The preacher had been preaching on hell and I decided I wasn't going there so I went forward, shook the pastor's hand and was baptized. The problem is I had joined a church but I still did not know Christ. At that age I wasn't trying to fool anyone, I just thought church membership equaled salvation.

 

As a teenager I began to feel what Billy Graham calls "cosmic loneliness." There were times I felt so alone, that something was missing in my life. I tried filling this void with things. What I discovered was missing wasn't something but Someone! At age 14 God convicted me of my lostness and rebellion against Him. By 19 I had run as far from God as I could. On Easter Sunday 1973 I realized that Christ died on the Cross because He loved me. My heart was broken. I repented of my sins and asked Him to save me.

 

That morning I began a relationship with Jesus Christ that has brought great joy, meaning and purpose to my life. I am finding daily what a great Savior Jesus is. I still struggle from time to time but His strength and grace sustains me. Church membership will not get you to heaven but a relationship with Jesus will!  

 

SHARI THOMPSON, Minister of Music and Children

There has never been a time in my life that I haven’t been in church. My best memories of church as a child were the times I went with my grandmother.  She always picked out  songs for me to sing as “specials” and would study the Sunday school or Bible school lessons with me the night before.   To her it wasn’t good enough to be a “Sunday morning pew warmer”.  She was always taking notes in her Bible as the preacher spoke.  But you can’t go to heaven on your grandma’s ticket.

 

At the age of 10 I accepted Christ for myself at church camp.  I remember coming back and being very excited about being a new Christian.  I got involved in every play, drama, and puppet skit we had at church (mostly thanks to my Mom).  As a teenager we moved to another place and church with no youth ministries at the time.  My spiritual growth stagnated without that guidance but Jesus never forgot me.  He had a purpose for my life.  He had given me the talent of music and the spiritual gift of teaching.  Even now the more of myself that I give to Him the more fulfilled I am in my life.  One of my favorite verses is Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.