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A Note From Mark

You were missed this past Sunday. I am thankful for leadership who make the tough calls about cancellations. I am thankful that we are on the side of safety. I was also so encouraged by the many of you who watched the Facebook live service of our partner church in Janesville, WI. What a fun and unique way to experience house church and still connect with each other as we worshipped together with Jesse Beernick and the Resonate Church, a southern Baptist church plant that we support monthly! If you missed it you can still go to their Facebook page and worship! You are going to want to be here this Sunday for worship and Sunday school. It is going to be a great day at Eastern Hills.

The future is bright for Eastern Hills Baptist Church. It is evident that God is moving. Change not only is inevitable, it is the catalyst for us to run to God and trust Him amidst the unknown. God is moving and a part of the movement of God is making way for new. I have been here at Eastern Hills for 9 years and 5 months. Eastern Hills has become family first to me and now to Meredith as well. I came as a single man and by God’s grace am leaving as a married man. Eastern Hills has blessed us and encouraged us. The church has allowed us to lead, to serve, to challenge and to try new things. We have seen God work mightily while we have been here. From mission trips to Uruguay, Wisconsin, New Orleans and locally our Serve efforts, we have seen God’s name proclaimed to the nations. From discipleship classes, our church wide focus on prayer and living an ordinary life to the upcoming marriage retreat we have seen God develop new avenues of growth. Our college ministry and our student ministry has produced vibrant and passionate followers of Christ.

God has provided deep friendships and family for Meredith and myself since both our families are so far away. Now God is moving us on. He is preparing the way for new heights and new levels of faith and trust for both the  McLendons and for Eastern Hills. We will trust God with this change and with our lives. My resume made it to a church in Texas back in March. After five months of silence, they contacted me about an executive Pastor position at First Baptist Church, Nacogdoches, Texas. A month ago it was clear to both parties that God was in this. They were aware of Brother Rick’s retirement and were gracious to slow the process down until after he retired. After all, in ministry you move multiple times but you only retire once. Sunday, October 1, we went in view of a call and the church voted for us to come as the executive pastor. Our last day here at Eastern Hills will be October 22.

Thank you church family for 9 wonderful years of doing life together. We have seen God move here. We are excited to see all that God is going to do in and through us as we run to Him. And we know He will continue to do great things through you and the incredible leadership we have here at Eastern Hills. The future is bright for Eastern Hills and we know God is already preparing and moving in the hearts of the new ministers who have yet to come. Meredith and I are praying with you as we wait to see who God will provide and in the meantime we will trust God with the change.

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FOCUSED

One of the casualties of aging to which I find myself a victim is the dimming of the eyes.  Ecclesiastes 12 counsels the young person to remember God, their Creator, in their youth before the aging process takes over and various faculties, as listed in verses 1-7, are diminished.

Clear eyesight when we are young may be something we take for granted. However, as we age the realization that our vision is not as sharp as it once was takes hold. “Readers” become standard fare for all intricate tasks. Our once keen laser sharp focus is now blurry and in need of help to restore its youthfulness. That restoration is found through glasses or some sort of rejuvenating surgery. Especially in the early stages of this degenerative eye problem we may be able to fake it and get by, but eventually we must relent and do something to correct the problem.

There is a parallel between physical and spiritual vision. “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” was written in the early 20th century. The hymn writer, Helen Lemmel, was strongly influenced by the artist and later little-known missionary, Lilias Trotter. Miss Trotter started off as an aspiring artist but early on felt a call from God to reach the lost. She began her ministry by rescuing prostitutes from the streets of London. Later she went to Africa, without missionary funding, and served for over forty years. While there she penned a poem that would greatly influence the writing of the hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.”  The poem was entitled “Focused: A Story and Song.” 

The poem centers around focusing one’s attentions fully and completely upon God. She writes that Satan knows that if a person uses all their powers of concentration on being led by God’s Spirit, they will have a great intensity and impact upon those to whom they are called to minister. Lilias Trotter, writing in a more formal use of the English language than we are accustomed, shares some timeless insights which could very easily have been written today but with a different accent. She writes: “Never has it been so easy to live in half a dozen good harmless worlds at once—art, music, social science, games, motoring, the following of some profession, and so on. And between them we run the risk of drifting about, the ‘good’ hiding the ‘best’ even more effectually than it could be hidden downright frivolity with its smothered heartache at its own emptiness.”

The “good” hiding the “best” leads us to emptiness.  Could this be true of us today especially as American Christians? Have we sought the “good” while missing the “best”? The chorus of the hymn, which we will be singing in worship this Sunday, says it best.

                Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face,                                                                                                                                        And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Keith Pate

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