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I can’t believe I’m about to type the following words, but here goes nothing: December is here and Christmas is just around the corner. As I’ve noted in the past, as I was growing up I thought my parents lied to me about time moving faster as age progresses. As many of you know, they were shockingly right in their statement. January, 2024 feels like yesterday, but here we are in December, 2024 and knocking on the door of January, 2025. As I look back over 2024 and think about all that has taken place, I am thankful for each of you and your churches and the work you continue to do for the sake of the Kingdom of Christ. From block parties to VBS to local evangelism to church planting to Hurricane Helene relief, each member church of the Three Rivers Baptist Association has played an integral role in working to fulfill the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20). You and your church have risen to the occasion like the Kingdom outpost that you are and I could not be more thankful to see how our churches have stepped up to share Christ, disciple believers, and engage the lostness around you. Our Association has experienced growth this year as we welcomed three new churches into membership in April (Doxa in Spartanburg, Haven Ridge in Greer, Resurrection in Greer), increased our ministry to Greenville County Sheriff’s Office deputies from less than 15 to more than 40, increased our number of pastor and staff Thrive groups to 9 (with more coming), and seen an increase in church participation and giving. We also welcomed Cyndi Thompson to our staff in August as Ministry Assistant. She has provided amazing stability, an unmatched work ethic, and has jumped in head first to tackle everything we had ready for her to tackle. Overall, your Association staff have had more than 1,400 pastor, staff, and church consultation meetings, working to encourage pastoral staff and equip churches in order for them to engage lostness in their areas of influence. Steven, Tom, and I have spoken in over 100 church events ranging from Sunday morning to Sunday night to Wednesday night to special events. Scott, while also serving as the pastor at Slater Baptist, has worked tirelessly to build solid relationships among bi-vocational, solo staff, and interim pastors in order to encourage them in their specific circumstances. He has also helped with church revitalizations and, most recently, has worked to find and secure strategic partnerships for us in Western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. I honestly cannot think of a better place to serve than in the Three Rivers Baptist Association and, speaking on behalf of every member of your staff, we are incredibly thankful for your sacrificial giving and support that enables us to serve all of our Three Rivers churches, churches outside of our Association, and other Associations around the nation. As we continue working through 1 John together, this month’s passage is incredibly appropriate for the Christmas season: 1 John 3:23-24. Here, John writes, “And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, jut as He gave a commandment to us. And the one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He gave us.” How appropriate it is that the Lord saw fit to have us in this passage during this time of the year as the passage focuses on two of the main aspects of Christmas: the Lord Jesus Christ loving us and us loving others. John is incredibly plainspoken here. First, we are commanded to believe in the name of Christ. Though it is a bit more difficult for us to understand the importance of names in contemporary society because of a lack of emphasis, names in ancient culture were filled with meaning and significance. So, when John writes we are to “believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ,” this means we are to believe that Jesus is God’s Son, that He was the substitute for our sins, that He fulfilled all Messianic prophecies from the Old Testament, that He died, that He was buried, that He rose again 3 days after death, and that He now is at the right hand of the Father interceding and mediating on our behalf. All of this is a snapshot of what it means to believe in His name. Second, we are to love one another. Believers are to be different from the world and our love for each other is one of the defining marks. The 4th century Bishop of Hippo, Augustine, called the Holy Spirit the “bond of love” because it is indeed the Spirit who gives us the ability to love each other though we may not know each other and/or have differences. Finally, we know other believers as believers when we see their love for Christ and love for other Christians. There is truly no better message we can, as Christians, share at Christmas: believe in Christ and love other believers.
One very important way you can help with continuing Hurricane Helene recovery efforts, though they have not yet been specifically requested, is by helping us restock our supply of health kits (different from prisoner packs) at the Three Rivers Association building. If you, or folks in your church, would like to begin making these kits, we will take as many as can be supplied as they are in constant need. Specific items for the health kit are as follows and should be placed inside a two gallon ziplock bag with the bag closed: bath towel, wash cloth, bath size bar of soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, comb, baby wipes, and antibacterial wipes. Again, though these have yet to be requested specifically, these health kits will be a continuing need, so they will go to good use.
As we have been doing, please continue praying for each other and for the other churches in our Association. I want to encourage you strongly to pray for each other, other pastors, and sister congregations in our area as we work together to encourage pastors and equip churches to engage lostness for the sake of fulfilling our part of the Great Commission. Lift each of these pastors and congregations to the Father, asking for His providential care for them and for His mercy and grace to work mightily through them.
Camp Creek, Taylors, Danny Monroe
Christ Fellowship Cherrydale, Greenville, Matt Rogers
Christ Fellowship Northwest, Travelers Rest, Robert McKinney
Clearview, Travelers Rest, Michael Welch
Cleveland First, Cleveland, Hal Parris
Cox Chapel, Marietta, Jerry Clark
Cross Plains, Travelers Rest, Dennis Jones
Cross Roads, Greer, Jim Osteen (interim) My prayer for you for December is the same as always. May the Lord grant each of us opportunities to share the message of Christ with unbelievers and disciple believers in the message of Christ. As an association of churches, we partner together for the sake of encouraging and equipping each other to engage lostness for the sake of fulfilling our part of the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20). I pray you and your family have a wonderful Christmas and a joyous New Year as you celebrate the birth of Christ.
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