I’m very encour­aged and hope­ful con­cern­ing the advance­ment of the gospel local­ly over the next few years. I can see God putting some pieces in place for sub­stan­tial spir­i­tu­al devel­op­ments. Although it seems we’re play­ing the long game, if we con­tin­ue to lean-in and apply pres­sure, I’m believ­ing we can expe­ri­ence great gains for the king­dom in our area. Stay the course, pray and let’s keep our hand to the plow.

One thing that I expe­ri­ence in my role in our DBA, is that many of our pas­tors go through dif­fi­cult times both phys­i­cal­ly, emo­tion­al­ly and pro­fes­sion­al­ly. They often seem to be going through these things with­out the sup­port that comes through being con­nect­ed to their good broth­ers and fel­low pas­tors in our DBA. I often call a pas­tor, eager to hear about the vic­to­ries of the gospel, to hear pri­mar­i­ly about tri­als and even dis­cour­age­ment on the oth­er end of the line. I am inclined to think that being a mem­ber of our asso­ci­a­tion should mean that you have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to be con­nect­ed to oth­er pastors.

Some of you are con­nect­ed to some of your fel­low DBA pas­tors. I encour­age you to deep­en those con­nec­tions and sup­port and pray for one anoth­er. Some of our pas­tors are not con­nect­ed. Let’s change that. Let’s make one of our goals in 2019 to build a stronger net­work among our pas­tors for the ben­e­fit of the church. If you are not con­nect­ed, be open and ready to say “yes” when the oppor­tu­ni­ty presents itself.

Bro. Bil­ly Puckett