This past Sunday, I preached a sermon entitled, "Church In A Changing Climate." In part, the sermon warned that if churches today aren't proactive in adjusting and reorienting itself to this rapidly changing time in history, then churches will die. I know that many people believe that churches can't die, but local churches close their doors all the time. In fact, it's been reported that 6,000 to 10,000 churches close their doors for good every year! That's 100 to 200 churches per week! Despite other churches facing this kind of depressing fate, Pleasant Hope Baptist Church could never die right? I mean. We're good....right? Well. Here's the truth. The demographics, data and our current congr
Some might question why would we as a Christian Church study other religions. While world religions is a topic taught in many schools, you wouldn't traditionally find churches doing such things. Shouldn't we be studying more about Christ? What happened to traditional Bible Study? What kind of church welcomes Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and people of various religions into its worship services and applauds their presence? Don't we stand to lose something about who we are as Christians when we mix too much with them? These are some of the many questions that may be on the minds of those who are nervous, uncertain, or in full disagreement with aspects of what's happening at Pleasant Hope these
I've been blessed to travel the country for the past few years at the invitation of various schools, organizations, universities and religious groups to talk about The Black Church Food Security Network. As a part of my presentation, I've told countless thousands about Maxine Nicholas. She was the member of Pleasant Hope Baptist Church that really made our church garden what it is today. It was not uncommon to find her in the garden very early in the morning before sunrise and oftentimes in the evening as well. She brought the wealth of her experience growing up on a farm with her family in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina to our small 1500 square foot church garden. With our small garden mini
