The "last" weekend of an era

This weekend, we'll take another step in the changing of an era...we'll say "goodbye" to FBC's Senior Pastor Dr. Larry Bazer and his lovely wife, Gayle, in their role as "first couple" (so to speak, you know what I man) of FBC Melbourne.

For 25 years (he became the pastor here the year I graduated from high school and honestly before a lot of folks who'll read this were even born), Larry has been the leader of FBC Melbourne. He has baptized, counseled, married, buried, effected, launched into vocational ministry, taught, visited and cared for a boatload of people in his time here.

God has blessed and multiplied Larry & Gayle's influence to reach over county lines, church lines, state lines, country lines, denominational lines, philosophical lines and governmental lines in this area. Many of the churches in the area have been either started or guided or directly effected by his desire to teach, mentor and make disciples...which is shown by his reassignment to continue doing that fulltime in the US and the rest of the world by devoting himself fully to training/mentoring pastors from Melbourne to Ecuador to Panama to Romania and beyond.

We should be especially thankful for Larry's determination in following what God has set before him in Palm Bay. After many short-lived works in church planting, the Bay West Campus began in 2009, under his direct influence and work and we will hit 2 years next month....two months of being a church in Palm Bay, Florida. That's two years of continuous steady growth, leaving us poised to continue the growth of God's kingdom in a historically tough place to grow.

I think that as we celebrate the God who Larry follows with a different spin this weekend, we shouldn't ever forget that MANY churches have been started in Palm Bay (many in conjunction with FBC Melbourne during Larry's tenure), that have not made it as long as Bay West has. A lot of these churches struggled, but all of them were collectively part of God's work to get us to where we are now...just as Bay West is another link in the chain of God's work in Palm Bay, along with 63 or so more churches in Palm Bay currently trying to reaching 103,000 people approx.

Bay West is truly blessed and a lot of that has come from Larry's faithfulness in the midst of what the world would mistakenly call "failure". The truth is that we are as ill-qualified to pronounce the judgment of "failure" on something as we are ill-qualified to definitively say that all scientific discovery is over or that we have measured the Universe to the inch. God works and plans far beyond the scope of our analysis....so what does that mean for us personally?

Here is what it means. Do what you know honors God with every decision...no matter how small or how great, then let God judge the failure or success. Live this consistency in belief and in 25 years, maybe you'll look back at your journey and be pleasantly surprised at the trail that God has left in the wake of one God-honoring decision at a time...just like we are doing at the end of this era with Larry & Gayle, as they move on to a new thing in God's journey for them. Thanks, guys.