This is a photo of our choir kick off in August 2016. Each year, the #fbcboro choir kicks off the year with a party and a time to invite new people to choir. We have 14 new members and a total of 128 people join us for rehearsal. I love that my church still supports a choir ministry. I love hearing this people sing with harmony, passion and power. There really is nothing like sitting in front of 128 people who love to sing.... it's like a wall of sound. I love it. As much as I love this, today I was invited to a local retirement home, Bethany Village to come and sit at the piano and sing for the residents. I had not idea of who would come. I arrived a few minutes early and was greeted by a volunteer who showed me to the small beautiful chapel. One elderly lady was 12 minutes early, and so I just started playing whatever came to mind. It wasn't long until the door opened and a few more residents came into the room. 10 minutes into my time the room was comfortable with me at the piano and about 8 - 10 residents. The Lord in a moment while playing reminded me what an honor it is for me to play and sing for people. I am glad that the crowd can be over 100 on a Wednesday night, or over 1000 on a Sunday morning for worship, or just 8 people in a small retirement village chapel, and HE is with us. He is my audience, and the people who attend just get to be participants with me to sing and worship Him. I also was reminded that when He is our audience, our passion stays the same. I sang my heart out today for that small crowd and when I left, I knew I had met with my creator and gave Him all the glory, and did my best to lead others to him.
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This is one of the most important people in my life. Passionately known as Mimi, this lady helped me develop into the man I am today. Her compassion for other people is her drive and she always puts other people first.
My mama is one of the most kind ladies I have ever known She loves the Lord and her church. She has been teaching preschool Sunday School for over 40 years and all of the children love Miss Sylvia. I have had the chance to spend some time with her this week at the beach and this photo was a reminder of her love for me and my love for her. I am a pastor today who loves God and loves other people and I am aware that my mother was the one to help shape me into the man I am today. I love you Mama! One of the greatest events in my life has been to lead this music ministry for 8.5 years. The Emmanuel Baptist Church Choir and Band from Blackshear Georgia are some of the most talented and gracious people I have ever met. I am thankful to God for allowing me the opportunity to experience Christ honoring worship with this group of people. God will continue to do a work in Blackshear, and as I leave, I am excited to see the new and better chapter for EBC music ministry...... Sunday July 13, 2014 will be my first Sunday at First Baptist Church, Statesboro, Ga. I am very humbled and excited about this new chapter in my life. God has done some incredible things to get me to this place, and I look forward to sharing all of them for HIS glory in the future.
I look forward to getting to know new friends and using the talent God has given me and others to minister to the people of Statesboro and beyond. I sense awesome times of Spirit and Truth worship in the days ahead for FBCS. This week has finally arrived after many months of praying and seeking God's direction for my family and me. I will be going to First Baptist Church, Statesboro this weekend in view of a call to be their new Worship Pastor. God has been doing some incredible things in my life as I have sought His will for my life and my ministry. God has taught me that His will is not a "hide and seek" game but a series of obedient moments. I have had to learn that God's will for the believer is discovered moment by moment. To live your life in God's will, means you strive to live year by year, month by month , day by day, hour by hour and moment by moment in obedience to Him. God's will is really not difficult if you keep the Word of God close to you and live according to it. I have an incredible peace that passes understanding about going to Statesboro, and I so look forward to what God has in store. God use me for Your glory! One of life's greatest treasures is being "daddy" to Barhon. Barhon has grown up into an incredible young man, and I am so proud to be his dad. This photo is just one of the many reasons I love him. He spent his Spring Break this year ministering to Haitian kids in West Palm Beach. He loves people and is always looking at how to make everyone feel comfortable by putting them first. This week, I have been reminded that life is really very short. I have been the "morning crew" around our house since Barhon was in 2nd grade. Now he is about to finish his Freshman year at Pierce County High School, and I have been his driver for almost every day since then. He reminded me this morning that today begins the last week (his official last week of school) that I will be driving him to school because he turns 16 this summer and will start driving himself to school next year. WHOA!!!! It was like someone stabbed me in the stomach and then turned the knife. I was not ready for this part of parenthood, but I know it's coming like a freight train down a mountainside. I am sure my prayer life will go into turbo mode! I pray God will continue to use Barhon however He sees fit for His honor and glory! Daddy Loves You, Stick! It has been another incredible honor to lead worship for the Georgia Baptist Prayer Conference. Ken Jenkins, Michael Catt, and many others have challenged my prayer life. I want my life to be in tune with the God of the bible and it's amazing He wants to have a relationship with me. Why would I do anything to hinder that? I have just got back from one of the most amazing mission trips ever. I have been on many mission trips, but I believe this one was special because my church, Emmanuel Baptist, decided we would do a "family" mission trip. Six families from our church traveled to Anchorage, Alaska, to help Scott Kirby and Graceworks Anchorage minister to their community. Our team of 18 people spend time in a city park with about 45 kids each day just playing and ministering to them, as well as telling them Bible stories at every chance we would get.
Our team also spread love around Anchorage, by ministering at a local Senior facility, cleaning up a local church, painting the outside of a church, and delivering homemade cupcakes. I believe having Barhon, my son and Vickki, my wife accompany me on this mission trip made it the best ever. I not only got to tell my son about missions, but I had the opportunity to show him how to do mission work and then to see him in action himself. I hope and pray that I will always live a life of being on mission. This past weekend I had the chance to spend some incredible time with some friends, Mark and Suzanne Perry. Mark is the minister of music at Sunrise Baptist Church. I had the privilege to lead a musicians retreat for their church. We had a great time of rehearsals and worship on Saturday, and then it all came together as we worshiped together in two services on Sunday morning and them came back for an evening worship ministry concert. I was honored to get to sing with his choir, play piano with his band and lead his congregation to worship.
As a musician, I am always taking request from people, and I believe that the two most requested songs I have ever been asked to sing are "Midnight Cry" and "Beulah Land". I am honored that people ask me to sing a song for them.
Last week, one of our soloists was not able to be there for the Sunday night worship service at Emmanuel, so they called me and asked me to fill in for their time, so I said ok. It was late Sunday afternoon, when I remembered that I was suppose to have the special music for our Sunday evening worship service, and so as I thought about what the Lord would have me sing, I had remembered just last week someone in our church saying, Rhon if you can, please sing Sweet Beulah Land for me, so that is what I did. We are blessed at our church to have a wonderful, audio/visual ministry, and so I was able to receive a copy of the song from last Sunday night. I wanted to share it with everyone, and I pray it will be a blessing and encouragement to you as we long for the day to be in the presence of Jesus Christ in Beulah Land. I realize we all have times in our life that we call a mountain top experience and I had mine this past weekend, when Travis Cottrell brought his worship team and did a worship concert with the choir that I am honored to lead each and every week.
I was actually scaling to the top of this mountaintop during the sound check and what was so incredible, it really didn't matter what song it was, because God was the Audience of One and everything was about HIM. Most of you know, I am a southern gospel music fan, and when we just kicked off "He Touched Me", I almost could not stand myself. I am very thankful to my choir for all the hard work they put forth to make this night such a wonderful expression of worship to an Almighty God. The EBC Choir is such a great group of people that faithfully lead each and every week at Emmanuel Baptist. With all of this discussion came the heart wrenching, sould |
Rhon CarterI am the Worship & Music Catalyst for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board. Archives
February 2024
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