Pleasant Hope Baptist Church

The Green Team of Pleasant Hope is coming!

Heber Brown — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:18:55 +0000

We are gathering people in our church and local community who have an interest in creation care and environmentalism. Being “green” today is pretty popular, but people of Faith have long had an invitation from Holy Scripture to be good stewards of God’s good earth. Check out this video announcing the release of The Green Bible – the first customized Bible that highlights God’s concern for creation throughout scripture. (The highlights are in green! It’s so cool.)

Let us know if you’re interested in joining the Pleasant Hope Green Team!

NAACP College Scholarships Available!

Heber Brown — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:37:50 +0000

Stefanie Brown, National Field Director of the NAACP, provides information on scholarships for undergraduate and graduate college students.

Unity Day a HUGE Success!

Heber Brown — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:30:08 +0000

Unity Day 2009 was a great day in the life of Plesasant Hope Baptist Church. At our morning worship, Pastor Brown reminded us about the importance of “Staying Power” and after a hearty early dinner, we gathered for an afternoon choir celebration. It was a truly tremendous day. Check out this clip of one of the groups that ministered…a group called DiVine of Annapolis, MD. Enjoy!

Pastor Alvin Gwynn takes us “out for a walk”

Heber Brown — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:12:28 +0000

Our final Pre-Unity Day Service was a blast with Pastor Alvin Gwynn, Sr. and the Friendship Baptist Church family joining us in a high time in worship. Great music, wonderful fellowship, and a powerful sermon served as the fitting conclusion to what has been a month’s worth of joy.

The grande finale of the Unity Day Celebration is this Sunday, November 8, 2009 11AM and 3:30PM. The afternoon service will be a choir concert with groups from as far away as Virginia coming to share with us. All are invited!

For those that missed Pastor Gwynn’s powerful sermon, here is a clip for your enjoyment and edification.

Intergenerational Relationships: A Necessity for Today’s Church

Heber Brown — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:16:34 +0000

I just finished reading a great article entitled “A Gift for the Next Generation” by Carol Howard Merritt author of Tribal Church: Ministering to the Missing Generation. In this article she talks about her experience pastoring a church of people who she believes she would naturally be friends with if – let’s say – she met them on the street. However, in that article she also talks about a previous pastoral appointment where she was nearly 30 years younger than everyone at the church. The dynamics that she described in that portion of her piece are very familiar to me.

For I share that testimony today that I am as pastor more than 30 years younger than the next person in leadership at Pleasant Hope. I’m a young husband and new father with endless energy and wide eyes for the future who has never known a world without modern technology. However, most in leadership at the church I serve are 60 or older, retired – or about to retire, extensive travelers, and in some cases technological neophytes who aren’t interested in making the computer a regular part of their day.

So these past 16 months have been a time of great exploration, joy, discovery, and frustration. Like any new relationship, it is taking some time to really get to know one another. In a society that promotes age prejudices, we have to be all the more vigilant about breaking down the barriers that divide the generations at Pleasant Hope.
No older adult should be considered “too old” to contribute to the future of our church. Likewise, no youth or young adult should be patronized or despised because of their age. We won’t dismiss the hymns and old songs of the church. Neither should we shake our heads in shame at every new gospel song. We will honor the sacred traditions of how church used to be, but we won’t let that reverence blind us to how things need to be today in order to effectively minister to the world around us. We will acknowledge the ways in which the church of yesterday thought about church leadership, but we’ll also acknowledge that the emerging generation has a different view of the church and its leadership.

No doubt there will be times of friction as we struggle to speak each other’s language and understand each other’s worldview. But the more we commit to be in true relationship with each other, the more we will understand where the other is coming from – even if we ultimately still decide to disagree. We can disagree without being disagreeable.

What we all should be able to agree on is the need for intergenerational relationship and partnership. If you take a mental snapshot of our church, we have seniors and children- not many teenagers or young adults. Young people today don’t want to be patronized, disrespected, or pulled into plans that were already decided for them. They want to be real partners whose opinions are valued, whose gifts are let loose, and whose creativity is not stifled by controlling elders. If we don’t figure out how to be partners, then a very sad time is around the corner for this congregation: as the seniors make their last earthly transition we might just fall into a day where there is no one to pass the blessing of Pleasant Hope on to.

I am enjoying the journey of building intergenerational relationships and while we have much more walking together to do, I’m encouraged by the example of Jesus who was one who tended to attract people who wouldn’t naturally share space – bringing together revolutionary zealots and tax collectors, pharisees and prostitutes, the convicted and the convinced. The Gospel of Jesus Christ isn’t a story of homogeneity. It’s a story of radical diversity within community.

We’re about to start some intergenerational small groups at our church focused around a book that I’m currently reading and have not been able to put down. It’s called The Leadership Jump: Building Partnerships between Existing and Emerging Christian Leaders by Jimmy Long. I’m asking for young folks and older folks to sit down together and read this book so that we might sidestep intergenerational pitfalls and experience the blessing that comes about when everyone is loved, respected, and encouraged as the beautiful gifts from God that we all are.

Pre-Unity Day Party Continues!

Heber Brown — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:10:57 +0000

Pastor Terry McCullum and the Timothy Baptist Church blessed our hearts this past Tuesday night at the third installment of our Pre-Unity Day Celebration. Preaching from theme “When Jesus Came To Church,” Pastor McCullum reminded us about what happens when we fully embrace the liberating power of God within the community of Faith.

Next Tuesday night, November 3, 2009 7PM, Pastor Alvin Gwynn, Sr. and the Friendship Baptist Church will be our guests. Don’t miss this amazing night of praise, worship, and song. You will be blessed!

For those who didn’t make it to worship this past Tuesday, here’s a taste of what you missed. Enjoy!

Angel Food Ministries in Maryland

Heber Brown — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:51:11 +0000

Here’s a great ministry designed to help give people a hand up during this season of a heightened awareness of simple living.

Pastor Gregory Perkins encourages us to “keep our eyes on Jesus”

Heber Brown — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:13:35 +0000

Pastor Gregory Perkins and the St. Paul Community Baptist Church were our guest on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 as we continued our pre-unity day celebration. The choir of St. Paul blessed our hearts with soulful singing and Pastor Perkins provided a timely reminder to keep our eyes on Jesus.

The Pre-Unity Day Celebration is going wonderfully and we have two more Tuesday night services to go. Next week our guest will be Pastor Terry McCullum and the Timothy Baptist Church of West Baltimore. All are invited.

Check out this clip from Pastor Perkins’ sermon and a few bars of the great singing that filled the house that night as well.

Pastor Gregory Perkins Sermon Clip

Pastor Guy Robinson kicks of Unity Day Celebrations!

Heber Brown — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:14:17 +0000

Pastor Guy Robinson and the Jones Tabernacle Baptist Church were our guests on Tuesday, October 13, 2009. They truly helped to kick off Unity Day festivities at Pleasant Hope Baptist Church. For the next three Tuesday nights at 7PM, we’ll gather for worship.

For those who were not able to attend this past Tuesday’s worship, you truly missed a treat. Check out this clip from Pastor Robinson’s sermon: “A Critical Intervention.”

Analyzing The Church Covenant: An Invitation to Deeper Understanding

Heber Brown — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:40:18 +0000

This past Sunday, after 6 months of asking the congregation to be prayerful about the Baptist Church Covenant, which we traditionally read on 4th Sundays before Communion; I made the decision to discontinue reading it until the church could explore both its origins and the context of its creation. In small group settings I learned that some members of the church had questions about it. Other members took issue with parts of it. Some questions were raised about it that I could not answer. I didn’t know the full history behind where this document came from and surprisingly neither did those who had been reciting it for years!

The other thing I learned in small group settings is that there were parts of it that people didn’t agree with it, so instead of joining the congregation in reading it in all parts; they would be silent on different parts that they took issue with. For those who did read all of it; they couldn’t stand and say that they practiced its words or were even trying anymore. (For example, in holding family devotions.) Sadly, the Church Covenant had become a stale and hollow document. It did not truly convict nor did it inspire. It was a recitation that could be mindlessly read with no true attention to anything it said.

It gave birth to a question in mind: Why is this church reading a document that they don’t know the history on, don’t agree with it in all parts, and aren’t even convicted to strive to the standard it sets?

So we’ve launched a churchwide campaign to analyze the covenant and our relation to it. The Lord’s question to the prophet Ezekiel was, “can these bones live?” And our question as a church family is, “can this covenant live?”

Below you’ll find the Church Covenant that we read congregationally every 4th Sunday before we take Communion. I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts, questions, or opinions on it. Send me your “covenant story.” How has the covenant impacted your life? What don’t you understand about it? What would you like to learn about it? In what ways do you agree or disagree with its contents?

The Baptist Church Covenant

“Having been led, as we believe, by the Spirit of God, to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour, and on the profession of our faith, having been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, we do now in the presence of God, angels, and this assembly, most solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with one another, as one body in Christ.

“We engage, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, to walk together in Christian love; to strive for the advancement of this church, in knowledge, holiness, and comfort; to promote its prosperity and spirituality; to sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines; to contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the gospel through all nations.

“We also engage to maintain family and secret devotion; to religiously educate our children; to seek the salvation of our kindred and acquaintance; to walk circumspectly in the world; to be just in our dealings, faithful in our engagements, and exemplary in our deportment; to avoid all tattling, backbiting, and excessive anger; to abstain from the sale and use of intoxicating drinks as a beverage, and to be zealous in our efforts to advance the kingdom of our Saviour.

“We further engage to watch over one another in brotherly love; to remember each other in prayer; to aid each other in sickness and distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and courtesy in speech; to be slow to take offence, but always ready for reconciliation, and mindful of the rules of our Saviour to secure it without delay.

“We moreover engage that when we remove from this place, we will as soon as possible unite with some other church, where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God’s word.”