Forty-Seven years of God’s amazing grace. Throughout my forty-seven years of pastoring the Friendship Baptist Church, God has ceaselessly worked through grace to impart to this pastor/preacher and perfect in him corresponding graces. Grace is the methodology of divine dealing in salvation and in the believer’s life and service. It has been the singular desire of this pastor to serve his Lord and His kingdom. For you see grace stands connected with service. To serve the Lord’s kingdom is to serve humanity. The Holy Writ tells us in Matthew 25:40(b): “In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” A constant in our society is there will always be hurting people. Whether they are “the down and out” or “the up and at’em”, there will always be a need. A hall-mark of this ministry has always been: “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.” Luke 12:48(b). God has entrusted to this pastor/preacher as He has to all preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the word of reconciliation, the wondrous gospel of Christ. For forty-seven years this pastor has had a passion for the unsaved. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). In a summary fashion, the desire of this pastor/preacher has been for pastor, “Lead and feed”, and collectively for pastor and church, “that we will grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now (and has always been) and forever”.
Rev. J. Amos Jones
