On this day, 11 June…
Today marks the 9th anniversary of our very first visit to Buck Run Baptist Church where we now worship and serve the Lord.
In 2017, this day was a Lord’s Day. I had resigned my former pastorate two Lord’s Days previously.
The following Lord’s Day, 6/4, I was in NC for our family reunion. Debbie attended worship with her life-long friend in Salvisa.
Then on this Lord’s Day, we came here. I had talked with then-Pastor Hershael York, and he had welcomed us to attend.
As we arrived, we were still very much disoriented—kind of in a state of shell-shock, very much out of our usual frame of habit, mind, and spirit. But, all we wanted to do was go to a sanctuary of worship—to worship God in His assembly of saints and be refreshed in our spirits, preferably even in anonymity.
Upon our entry into the lobby, we discovered Buck Run to be much larger in size than either of us had ever been used to. And, just the size of the buildings and the numbers of people who were there held out the prospect of the anonymity we wanted—but the warmth of welcome was immediate.
We were first greeted by a brother whom we would later come to know and love in person—Bruce McCutchen. So, everyone at Buck Run understands that there couldn’t be a more personable welcome to any place than Bruce McCutchen! His warm smile, gentle demeanor, and hearty handshake welcomed us in! We all have remembered that first encounter and have talked about it many times since. Bruce has told us, “Well, I knew I didn’t recognize you, so I wanted to meet you and let you know we’re glad you’re here!”
We made our way into the sanctuary—and, of course, down to the front rows. We’ve always been ‘front-row’ people. Then, to our surprise, who should we meet there but our long-time dear friends, John and Sherry Wehrle! Debbie and Sherry knew each other, having worked together in a school setting, and we had numerous other associations from times when they had visited our services in my previous pastorate. So, they welcomed us to sit with them, and we were very glad to do so.
Then, after the service, we were greeted by Pastor Wesley Noss as we were leaving. He, too, didn’t recognize us, so he reached out to remedy that and welcome us! As soon as he introduced himself, I recognized his name because Pastor York had told me in one of our previous conversations, “You need to meet and get to know Wesley Noss. You’ll love him!” And we did and still do! … that love and appreciation for Pastor Wesley has increased and deepened over the past nine years.
And then, after all that on that day … I received a hand-written note card three days later signed by a “Jan Harris” whom I hadn’t met yet—though I shortly would; and she and Russell have become very dear friends also and still attend the SS class I teach. But she wrote in the note something to the effect of “Thank you visiting with us Sunday, and we hope you’ll come again. We think you’ll love our church as much as we have for the past forty years [that was nine years ago].” And we have.
But, in addition to all the welcoming greetings we received along the way, and just the warmness and friendliness of the whole congregation’s spirit, it was the Presence of the Holy Spirit in the singing, praying, and preaching of the Word that welcomed us most! It was very much like being at ‘home’ from that very first visit. We were not just welcomed, we were received and embraced with love.
And those very first impressions have proven to be sincere and genuine over these past succeeding nine years. As I have often expressed, Buck Run Baptist Church has become our…
- Holy Place … because the Presence of the Lord is honored and manifested;
- Healthy Place … because the Gospel of Christ in the Word of God is honored, preached, taught, and obeyed;
- Healing Place … because the love, mercy, grace, and comfort of God is generously shared;
- and Happy Place … because the joy of the Lord is the very Spirit and ambience of all our shared fellowship.
~Dave Parks 