{"id":41523,"date":"2021-12-22T12:47:54","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T18:47:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mbcpathway.com\/?p=41523"},"modified":"2021-12-22T07:00:29","modified_gmt":"2021-12-22T13:00:29","slug":"lottie-moons-home-church-stays-true-to-her-vision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mbcpathway.com\/2021\/12\/22\/lottie-moons-home-church-stays-true-to-her-vision\/","title":{"rendered":"Lottie Moon\u2019s home church stays true to her vision"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (BP) \u2013<\/strong> First Baptist Church (on Park Street), where Lottie Moon was baptized, is regaining its health.<\/span><\/p>\n

All it took was a new pastor who said it was too historically significant to wither away, who believed it could become vibrant again, and a congregation that responded to the pastor\u2019s message.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, I believed it could rebound,\u201d Rob Pochek said. He\u2019s been pastor of First Baptist Church on Park Street since 2016. \u201cIf you don\u2019t believe God can breathe life back into the church it won\u2019t happen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI believed if we were committed to Him, His word, His Gospel, He would take care of breathing life into this congregation. My plan was \u2013 is \u2013 to preach the Word of God, and let Him do the rest, and that\u2019s what\u2019s He\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Even as First Park Street declined from nearly 1,000 to not many more than 300 in Sunday morning worship \u2013 it\u2019s now back to nearly 500 \u2013 its commitment to Southern Baptist missions causes continued. Between 1980 and 2020, church members gave between 10 and 18 percent of undesignated offerings to missions through the Cooperative Program, the way Southern Baptists work together in state conventions, across North America and throughout the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWilliam Carey [British missionary in the late 1700s who served in India] talked about going in the mines,\u201d Pochek said. \u201cSome people get in the buckets and some people hold the ropes. I look at the Cooperative Program as 47,000 churches holding the ropes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can help a lot more people \u2013 thousands of missionaries, thousands of seminary students, hundreds and hundreds of church planters \u2013 with 47,000 of us [churches] working together. If you were lowering a basket down into a mine and two or three people were holding the ropes, it would be very heavy; but all of us together? It\u2019s not so hard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Few churches in the Southern Baptist Convention are as historically significant as First Baptist Church (Park Street) of Charlottesville, Va. The plaques on the back wall of the worship center attest to that.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to John A. Broadus and Lottie Moon, who have national recognition to this day, two people from the church were instrumental in the nation\u2019s first college YMCA, at the University of Virginia. Member M.C. Thomas cast a decisive vote that brought into existence the first Baptist Young Peoples Union in Virginia and possibly the nation. Member Virginia Sinclair Hawes in 1906 started Vacation Bible School (and last summer, 400 youngsters attended a COVID-restricted version of the church\u2019s annual weeklong event that drew 600 in 2019).<\/span><\/p>\n

Leading up to the Civil War, First Baptist Church was the only church in Charlottesville where all races worshiped together. The church later helped the African American group start First Baptist Church on Main Street in Charlottesville.<\/span><\/p>\n

John Broadus, the church\u2019s pastor from 1850-1859, went on to be one of the four founders of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1859.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1857, Broadus led revival services at Charlottesville\u2019s Albemarle Female Institute, which he had founded in 1853. One of its students who attended the revival services and surrendered her life to Christ was Charlotte \u201cLottie\u201d Moon.<\/span><\/p>\n

She was baptized at what then was known as Charlottesville Baptist Church, which had been started in 1831. Sixteen years after her conversion, in 1873, Moon sailed for China as an unmarried Baptist missionary.<\/span><\/p>\n

While serving in China for 40 years, Moon frequently wrote letters back home explaining the need for funds, for more missionaries, for women\u2019s equality. Her letters led to the formation of the SBC\u2019s Woman\u2019s Missionary Union, and, at Moon\u2019s request, a Christmas offering for missions.<\/span><\/p>\n

That first national offering \u2013 in 1888 \u2013 came to $3,315. The 2019-20 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions came to $177.6 million. Of that total, First Baptist Park Street in Charlottesville gave $147,900.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur folks are incredibly generous,\u201d Pochek said. \u201cThey recognize all gifts come from God, that they\u2019re managers and stewards of what God provides.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd our folks are passionate about missions. They believe we go, send or disobey. We have folks who recognize they don\u2019t have a sense of call to go or can\u2019t go, but they can give.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Members believe \u201cthe church that introduced Lottie Moon to Jesus needs to be one of the leading churches when it comes to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering,\u201d Pochek said. \u201cEvery year I\u2019ve been here we\u2019ve continued to increase in our giving to [the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions,] and every time we set a goal we blow right past it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

First Baptist Park Street is as committed to hands-on ministry as it is to financial support of God\u2019s work in Charlottesville and throughout the world, the pastor said.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the church\u2019s ministries is Pathway, for special needs families. It started in 2017 and now has up to two dozen families involved. There is a section set aside in the worship center for special needs children and adults, with \u201cbuddies\u201d trained for one-on-one interaction.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCOVID changed some things,\u201d Pochek said. \u201cWe used to have a once-a-week soup kitchen and clothes closet; that has stopped for the time being. The Mom-to-Mom ministry is thriving, with lots of young families involved in that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The church\u2019s involvement in its community include grief, divorce and addiction recovery ministries, jail and prison ministries, a transitional housing ministry and others.<\/span><\/p>\n

Internationally, First Park Street focuses on Guatemala, where former members Tim and Cathleen Pfeuffer minister in several villages. In addition to its Cooperative Program giving, the church helps support eight missionaries. Two are with IMB. \u201cWe\u2019re helping to fund some of their activities,\u201d the pastor said. All are or were members of First Park Street.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe if you feel God is calling you to the mission field, as your home church we want to come alongside,\u201d Pochek said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe plaques on the wall are markers of innovation. God is still in the business of raising up new ways to reach people with the same old Gospel. Every generation needs a way to hear it, a new way of reaching people.”<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First Baptist Church (on Park Street), where Lottie Moon was baptized, is regaining its health. All it took was a new pastor who said it was too historically significant to wither away, who believed it could become vibrant again, and a congregation that responded to the pastor\u2019s message.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9192207,"featured_media":41524,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_selected_social_profile":[]},"categories":[177,40,42,45,8,10,15,16,18,19,25],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nLottie Moon\u2019s home church stays true to her vision<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"First Baptist Church (on Park Street), where Lottie Moon was baptized, is regaining its health. 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