The Christian IndexApril 18, 2018 | Reaching the World Through Mission Georgia | www.christianindex.org

Refuge Community Church in Austell: Seeing a positive future with an excited pastor

Will is a graduate of Candler School of Theology at Emory University while Veronica earned her Master of Divinity in pastoral care and counseling from the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. Currently, Will is engaged in the process of earning his Doctorate in Church Leadership and Community Witness from Candler, focusing on racial unity, justice, and reconcilia-tion in the American Church. The Gravelys, who were married in 2010, have four young children have dedicat-ed their lives to their work in racial unity, reconciliation, and community engagement.

Gravely’s academic and leadership awards are numer-ous, but he recently expressed gratitude for the experience he received while serving as a volunteer on the worship arts team at West Ridge Church in Dallas. It was there under the leadership of Senior Pastor Brian Bloye that Will was groomed in the area of church planting.

In a recent social media post the West Ridge pastor commented on Gravely’s message to a group of pas-tors, saying, “My friend just gave one of the most pow-erful talks I’ve ever heard on ‘racism, racial reconciliation, and the church.’ (I am) so proud of this young man.”

Culturally relevant, ethnically diverse

During his time at Westridge, Gravely focused on preparing himself to plant a culturally relevant and ethnically diverse church. As his season of preparation

was drawing to a conclusion, Ewing Road Baptist Church was looking for fresh leader-ship and a new direction as a church replant (relaunch). The church was desperately in need of revitalization.

In the providence of God, by August 2017 Will became the lead pastor and church re-planter of Ewing Road Baptist Church. Since becom-ing pastor of the Austell church, Gravely has led the church to become Refuge Community Church. He said, “The former name only identified the location of the church, but the new name lets the community know that our church is a safe place – a place of refuge and hope. We believe our community is our mission field.

“It’s exciting to see peo-ple come alive. We are in the middle of revival. We have developed what we are calling ‘The Stained Glass Project,’ which is the culmination of my doctor-al research efforts. We are working together to produce educational content to bridge cultural gaps, train leaders for cross-cultural contexts, and establish a pathway for plant-ing multi-cultural churches. Refuge Community Church will be a national model for this unique cross-cultural community work.”

Gravely indicated that the church has an external Path Forward Team made up of four churches that are assist-ing the church with prayer and financial support. Those churches are West Ridge, First Baptist Woodstock, NorthStar Church in Kennesaw, and Greenforest Baptist Church in Decatur.

experienced nearly a 60 per-cent increase in attendance and the pastor is excited about the future – really excited about the future.

The young church leader has excellent credentials. He is from Pennsylvania and grew up in the Christian faith. He trusted Christ as his Savior at age 6, but when he was 20 years old God called him into ministry and he became a seri-ous follower of Jesus Christ.

A dedication to racial reconciliation and community engagement

Gravely graduated from Atlanta’s Morehouse College, majoring in music performance. He plays six musical instruments, but focused much of his atten-tion on the saxophone. The Pennsylvania native attended Morehouse on a full-tuition academic scholarship with additional awards for track and field as well as music. Will’s wife, Veronica, is a graduate of Georgia Tech where she majored in chemi-cal engineering.

By Gerald HarrisEditor

AUSTELL — Ewing Road Baptist Church has had its challenges over the years, but a faithful remnant has remained to keep the church doors open in an effort to minister to the community around them.

Last year the church was in search of a pastor and God provided a young man who is eminently qualified to rescue

the church from a mere exis-tence and transform it into a dynamic force in the com-munity.

The man God provided is Will Gravely, a millennial scholar and leader who over-flows with a personal charis-ma and a gracious spirit that is obvious to the most casual observer.

Pastor Gravely has been at the Austell church for six months and the culture is already changing, with the church members already dreaming again and the tra-jectory headed up, up, up. The church has already

Will and Veronica Gravely serve together to help transform Refuge Community Church into a fellowship that will significantly impact their community. REFUGE COMMUNITY CHURCH/Special

THE CHRISTIAN INDEX | April 18, 2018 2

Looking into the heart of a pastorBy Gerald HarrisEditor

Pastor Bob Richardson is from southern Illinois, but enjoys grits and knows how to swat gnats from having lived in South Georgia for several years. Knowing what to do with grits and gnats qualifies Richardson as an authentic, genuine, tried-and-true, naturalized Southerner.

Since Sept. 8, 2013 Richardson has been pastor of First Baptist Church of Blue Ridge in the beautiful North Georgia mountains. The affa-ble and winsome graduate of Valdosta State and Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary served as the pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church in Waycross prior to his move to Fannin County.

In a recent interview with the editor of The Christian Index, Richardson expressed his views on three issues dear to his heart, which should be of interest to those who read this publication.

First, the Blue Ridge pas-tor expressed his views on the importance of being engaged in the lives of his wife and children. Every pastor should understand that it is not good enough for to just be around his family. He must interact with his family in a meaning-ful way.

Bob is up most mornings by 6 a.m. to make a pot of coffee for his wife, Robbin, and himself. Once the coffee is made he gets a cup and with Bible in hand proceeds to read the Word of God devotionally and reviews his plans for the day.

Robbin is a teacher at the Mountain Area Christian Academy (MACA) in near-by Morganton. While she is getting ready for her day at school Bob is getting their son, Bailey, and daughter, Ella, up for the day’s activi-ties, packing them sandwiches

or leftovers and snacks for lunch.

By 7 a.m. Bailey is off to Chattahoochee Tech, where he is learning weld-ing, and Ella, a freshman at MACA, leaves a bit later for Morganton with her mother.

“Robbin and I always tried to go to as many of the events and activities Bailey and Ella were involved in as possible. I coached the mid-dle school basketball team for the Academy; and we won the Lanier Christian Athletic Conference Championship. I got involved because Ella was on the cheerleading squad.

“I have seen preacher’s kids who said, ‘My dad loved the church more than he loved us.’ I don’t want my kids to say that about me.”

Secondly, Bob Richardson doesn’t claim to be a vora-cious reader of books, but admitted that he is in the process of reading five books at the present time and reflected on the importance of keeping one’s mind fresh

and open to new insights and inspiration.

The Blue Ridge pastor added, “I would like read more than I do, for there are books that have greatly influenced by life. One of the first books to really impact my life was The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer

“Another book that was a great inspiration to me was The Evangelistic Zeal of George Whitfield by Dr. Steve Lawson. Whitefield’s deep theology and remarkable surrender to God led him to risk all that he had to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ.”

“Another book I thor-oughly enjoyed was Preaching and Preachers by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. The book con-tains a series of lectures that the great pastor presented to the students of Westminster Theological Seminary in 1969.”

The Blue Ridge pastor added, “Reading is important because God has gifted men

Bob Richardson visits with the Jhar people, members of The Church on the Rock in Nigeria. Without a building, the church meets under a tree. BOB RICHARDSON/Special

with incredible knowledge and the ability to share their insights so that we might see God’s glory. These writ-ings stimulate me, challenge me, and help me to think Godward.”

The third issue Richardson wanted to discuss was mis-sions. His passion for reading the biographies of mission-aries fueled his love for mis-sions. He explained, “I got interested in missions from reading about great mission-aries, and from getting to know Clint Bowman, who was an International Mission Board missionary to Nigeria. We became good friends in Waycross when I was a bi-vo-cational pastor and the soccer coach at Waycross Middle School and Clint was the soccer coach at Ware County Middle School.

“Clint had plans to return to Nigeria and I told him, ‘If I ever become a full-time pastor I would love to come do some work with you in Nigeria.’

THE CHRISTIAN INDEX | April 18, 2018

In the game for fun no one loses his marbles. In the game for keeps, the winner gets to keep all the marbles and the loser could go home with nothing. Today it looks in the battle for souls the church is playing for fun and the devil is playing for keeps.

Our desire is to reverse the downward spiral of baptisms, not just improve our statis-tical trend, but to introduce lost people to the One who can forgive their sins, rescue them from the clutches of the devil, give them a full and meaningful life, and change their destiny forever.

One of our primary objec-tives is to help our churches impact our youth via the #ReachingNextGen initiative. This is the greatest way to ensure a bright future for our state, our nation, our youth, and our denomination.

However, the devil is aim-ing his greatest artillery at our

3

J. Robert WhiteExecutive Director

OPEN DOOR

Iam confident that if you have not already rendered

to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, you are surely in the process right now of getting that done. What am I talking about?

Taxes were due on April 17. We take great care to make sure we pay what we are supposed to pay to Caesar.

In Matthew 22:15-21 we read, Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men. Tell us therefore,

What thinkest thou? Is it law-ful to give tribute (taxes) unto Caesar, or not?”

But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Show me the tribute (tax) money.” And they brought unto him a penny. And he saith unto them, “Whose is this image and superscription?”

They say unto him, “Caesar’s.” Then saith he unto them, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.”

Did you catch the entirety of that last sentence? “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” Most of us do an excellent job of rendering to Caesar, the government, what

is the government’s. On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence that we are not as conscientious about rendering to God the things that are God’s.

When you go week in and week out failing to give the tithe through your church, you are robbing God of what is rightfully His. Yes, it is in the New Testament, too. In Matthew 23:23, Jesus charged the scribes and Pharisees as hypocrites because they were meticulous in the giving of tithes, but failed because they omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. Then Jesus said that they ought to have given their tithes, but not left the other things undone.

Some have argued that the tithe is no longer relevant,

that it is Old Testament law and we are now living not under the law, but under grace. Let me ask you, then: Do you think we should give less to God under grace than was required under the law?

I think not.Meeting the require-

ments of the Internal Revenue Service is some-thing we do without fail. Doesn’t God deserve at least the same level of commitment?

Okay, I know the answer to that question.

Satan is not stronger, more powerful, more potent than God, because God, our Creator, our Sustainer and our Redeemer through Jesus Christ is all powerful – omnipotent, in fact. This just seems to be a time when the devil is getting the upper hand on many fronts.

For half a century most mainline denominations in America have been in a pre-cipitous decline. Our own Southern Baptist Convention has an alarming loss of over one million members in the last ten years.

The most startling statis-tic is that in 2017 Georgia Baptist immersed only 19,576 new believers. That represent-ed a 17.43% decline over the previous year. (Incidentally, there were 245 fewer church-es that turned in a statistical

J. Gerald HarrisEditor

report in 2017, but their records may not have resulted in a dramatic change in the final report).

According to the statistical history of our state conven-tion, we have not baptized so few people in my lifetime, and that is a long, long time. In fact, according to the statistics at my disposal we have not baptized so few people since the 1930s.

We are losing the battle for souls.

The Georgia Baptist Mission Board is committed to providing resources, per-sonnel, or whatever is needed to turn the tide. But the devil is well-entrenched in our society and unleashing his full arsenal against the cause of Christ because he knows he is on a short leash. His time is limited. His doom is sealed.

There are two kinds of games in playing marbles: one is for fun and one is for keeps.

youth, because he knows of their boundless energy, their enthusiasm for life, and their limitless potential.

Most people come to faith in Christ before age 19. Recent statistics show that the average Georgia Baptist church baptized one teenag-er and three children in the course of one year.

Make sure that your church is implementing a strategy to reach kids, teens, and post-high school grad-uates. Don’t let the devil have his way with our youth because of our apathy. Let’s link ourselves with an omnip-otent God with whom noth-ing is impossible.

EDITORIAL

Is the Devil stronger than God?

This special edition of The Christian Index is distributed online the first and third Wednesday of each month at www.christianindex.org to provide additional content to readers who prefer a print version of the publication. To read additional stories of how God is working through Georgia Baptists, visit the website daily for stories that inspire and inform.

The Christian Index is a publication of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, 6405 Sugarloaf Parkway, Duluth, GA 30097. Our editorial office can be reached at (770) 936-5590. J. Gerald Harris serves as Editor.

ACROSS 1. Negative (prefix) 5. Speak without

preparation10. Furthest back13. Baseball player Yogi15. City manager16. “Go and ___ in wait

in the vineyards” (Judg. 21:20)

17. Shiny metal Philistines bound Samson with (Judg. 16:21)

18. Athletic field19. 2,000 pounds20. High naval rank

(abbr.)21. All the men of Israel

were gathered against the city, ___ together as one man” (Judg. 20:11)

23. “Ye thought evil against me; but God ___ it unto good” (Gen. 50:20)

25. Big cat (Judg. 14:8)26. Prophetess

(Judg. 4:4)28. Secret mission

(Judg. 3:19) 31. Jacob took Esau ten

of these (Gen. 32:15) 32. Taking to court33. “There ___ up fire

out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes” (Judg. 6:21)

34. King in Celtic mythology

37. Walk slowly38. Gideon was least in

his father’s ___ (Judg. 6:15)

40. Israel’s priests came from this tribe (Deut. 31:9)

41. “___ the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed” (Judg. 1:35)

42. Cob vegetable Samson burned (Judg. 15:5)

43. Mr. O’Brien44. Impressionist

painter45. Container Jael gave

Sisera (Judg. 4:19)46. Survives

(Judg. 3:26)49. Tola’s father

(Judg. 10:1)50. Divert51. Samson’s strong

limbs (Judg. 15:14)52. Kimono sash55. Dark, oily material56. Ramble59. Samson “had ___

the honey out of the carcass of the lion” (Judg. 14:9)

61. Adam’s wife62. Tiny amounts63. “Dogs came and

licked his ___” (Luke 16:21)

64. Sea Israelites walked to (Judg. 11:16)

65. Parts of speech66. If they bind me

___ with new ropes that never were occupied, then shall I be weak” (Judg. 16:11)

DOWN 1. Father (Rom. 8:15) 2. Goody two shoes 3. Trolley car 4. Tax agency (abbr.) 5. Vigorously

6. Weapon (Job 41:26) 7. Caustic substance 8. Cation 9. Thorny bush trees

asked to reign over them (Judg. 9:14)

10. Holy table (Judg. 21:4)

11. Female singer ___ Apple

12. Day people came up out of Jordan and encamped in Gilgal (Josh. 4:19)

14. Posing questions (Luke 2:46)

22. Land where Cain dwelt (Gen. 4:16)

24. Mythical Greek deity

25. Ground (Judg. 2:1)26. Pairs27. “This is nothing

___ save the sword of Gideon” (Judg. 7:14)

28. See secretly (Josh. 14:7)

29. What men asked Gideon to do (Judg. 8:22)

30. What unrighteous do in the daytime (2 Peter 2:13)

31. Main impact34. Arched, as a bow

(Ps. 7:12)35. Elliptical36. Samson’s mother

could not eat any-thing from this plant (Judg. 13:14)

38. Sharpen39. Mined metals40. Very reluctant

(var.)42. Army leader, as

Sisera (Judg. 4:2)43. Beaches

(Judg. 11:22)44. Eglon was a fat one

(Judg. 3:17)

45. Hobo46. Organic com

pound47. Samson could

not ___ his head (Judg. 16:19)

48. Healed (Luke 7:21)

49. Crush of people around Jesus (Luke 19:3)

51. A wolfhound52. Vegetable53. Honey makers

Samson found in lion carcass (Judg. 14:8)

54. Organization that promotes cause (abbr.)

57. Cow sound58. Energy unit

(abbr.)60. U.S. Navy rank