Three New Pastors
HCBAV has three new pastors, all starting within weeks of each other :
- McCabe Memorial Baptist Church has called Dr. Jonathan Winningham as their new pastor. He will start on August 1, 2025
- Axton Baptist Church has called Chris Robertson as their new pastor. He will start on July 27, 2025
- Orchard Drive has called Rev. Michael Hendricks as their new pastor. He will start on July, 21, 2025
Delight Your Marriage
We have a new possible tool for enhancing married life. There is a Christian organization called ‘Delight Your Marriage’, that was recommended to me for the association by a former pastor of our association, Pastor Karl Hoyer. I called them and talked to Melanie Ciccarello, about how we might use their system. They are a marriage coaching program (as opposed to marriage counseling), which helps couples get to God’s plan for their marriage. They start with an assessment call (they call a clarity call) and then build their program from that. They have a particular heart for pastors and spouses, knowing the pressure that ministry puts on marriage. They are not a 501c3 nonprofit organization, but partner with one to provide scholarships for pastoral couples. Use it to enhance your own marriage, and consider adding it to your tool bag as you minister to your church family. The whole program is run online and begins at their website, https://delightyourmarriage.com/ .
Energize Ministries
Pastors who need to get away for a day or two have a new opportunity close by. Energize ministries has developed a pastor retreat lodge north of town at 1315 Serenity Dr, Martinsville, VA. And, it’s FREE. By signing up with them on their website, Energize Ministries Lodge and Retreat Center, you can book the lodge once a year for up to 10 people for a family retreat, a deacon retreat, or just to get away by yourself to commune with God privately. It’s up to you, and it’s free – no catch. While you’re in the website signing up, look around, click on the ‘What We Do’ button. This organization is all about supporting our pastors.
Invite the HCBAV Associational Missionary, Rev Rocky Rockwell, to Speak to Your Church
Next time you need to fill your pulpit, Rocky is looking for opportunities to share a 20-minute message, Our Call to Christian Service and HCBAV’s Mission, looking at how HCBAV is positioning to help our churches meet the community outreach ministry that Christ commissioned us to in His Great Commission. Please contact him to schedule this soon.
New Offerings from BGAV
In a recent meeting Andy Barnes, BGAV’s Field Strategist for our region, shared two programs that BGAV is promoting, specifically for rural churches. They are: Dinner Church Encounter and Ascent. You can use these for your individual churches or let Rocky know if you would like to see us run either or both from the associational level.
Other Tidbits
Please contact those whose names you have put up for the Pulpit Supply page and get them to supply a Speaker’s Bio to be added to their listing.
Please check your listing on the HCBAV Churches page. If you want social media connections added, help us know how to properly direct people to you.
Please encourage your church members to go to the ‘Get Involved‘ page and ‘Calendar of Events‘. Sharon and Rocky are committed to keeping our website up-to-date. At the same time, we’re asking that you help keep us informed about what’s going on at your church. We can’t let people know about anything we don’t know about. Please keep us informed.
If your church has an eNewsletter, and you have not already done so, please put Sharon and Rocky on the distribution list so we can stay informed on what’s going on in your church.