We Are Family
This is my seventh church to be a part of. From the time I was very young we were in church. Each of those churches was different and at least one of them changed drastically while I was there. I can barely remember that little country church with a whole crowd of people. An argument, a disagreement, over something split that church wide open. I don’t know what it was about and don’t care. But most of my memories of that little church were of just a few people who stayed on. The Hobbtown Community Church died.
That led my family to a second church. We had attended that little country church on Sunday morning for a number of years but we had no pastor and so we would have Sunday School and go home. On Sunday evening we would attend Shady Grove. That was where I really began to hear the Gospel. Bro. James Simon will always be a blessing to me because he preached the Gospel. He also led my grandfather to Jesus about two weeks before he died.
But from there my church affiliation suffered. As a teenager I began to have more freedom and I quit going to church. Then my sister started inviting me to go to Cedarville Baptist Church with her. I would go every now and then to get her off my back. I’m so glad she didn’t give up on me. She invited me to attend a revival with Bro. Rex Easterling. You could walk into a room filled with people and know immediately if Rex was there. He was loud and boisterous and God used him greatly in my life.
I went on Monday night of that revival because that way I could say I had gone and I would get it over with pretty quickly. But then I found myself going back on Wednesday night. Then on Friday night I was back. That was the one where God turned me upside down. I’ll never forget Bro. Rex pointing his finger right at me (not really but it sure seemed like it) and asking, “Are you going to let your pride send you to hell?” I was so convicted but it was Sunday night when Bro. Garland Hobbs was preaching that I finally surrendered my life to Christ. Thank God for those folks at Cedarville. I also met a beautiful young lady at that church. She became my wife.
When Susie and I married we moved to Siloam Springs to finish our college at JBU. We could have sat in a half dozen Southern Baptist churches in the area but we found a little church on the edge of town that needed us. We taught Sunday School, sang in the choir, went on visitation, chaired the finance committee and much more. Bro. Bruce Holland and the folks at Gum Springs Baptist Church were such a blessing to us.
When we moved to Memphis to go to seminary I got a job as a youth pastor/music minister/whatever was needed at Piperton Baptist Church. It was a new church in a growing area and I learned a lot there. Then I was called to Gallaway FBC. It was an older church with 20 to 25 people most weeks. I learned a lot of lessons and they weren’t all good ones. But it was a learning experience and we saw some really good things while we were there. God used that church to get us through seminary.
Branch FBC had called me in 1991 and asked if I was interested in that church. I still had the fall semester to finish so I declined. In the spring of 1992 they called again and this time I was ready. Twenty-seven years later I can truthfully say that I have been so blessed to be a part of this family of believers. God has done some great things. I have limited Him in some areas but He has blessed us anyway.
What we have at Branch FBC is a family. Now, much like any family, we’re not perfect. In fact we’ve got a mixture that is both comical and irritating, loveable and loads of fun. So why did I tell you about seven churches I have experienced? Because each of those churches was a family. Some were more effective than others and one ceased to exist entirely. I learned some valuable lessons and met some sweet people at every stop along the way.
I want to encourage you to love and appreciate your church. Every person is unique and it is only when you lose a Geraldine McBride or a Inez Hawkins or a Georgia Johnson or a James T. King or a James Cunningham that you realize what you really had. Treasure the people God has placed in your life. Love them. Forgive them. Pray for them. Share Jesus with them. Laugh with them. Cry with them.
There are a lot of ways to measure church success. But I think the greatest measurement that we have is the test of family. Do we stick together? Even when things get sticky? Do we stay united? Even with things could divide us?
My prayer for you and for our family of God’s people is that our revival with Bro. Sam will draw us closer to the Lord and to one another. I pray that we will see someone’s brother or sister walk that aisle and surrender their life to Jesus. I pray that God will move mightily. Will you pray with me for that?
Join us this month in cottage prayer meetings, Wednesday prayer services, prayer partners and our own individual prayer times as we 1)Humble ourselves, 2)pray, 3)seek God’s face, and 4) turn from our wicked ways then we will see the blessings of God poured out! Will you join me?
Your Pastor,
Bro. Tim Hobbs

“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14, NKJV)