Sonrise Baptist Church
March 31, 2002 – March 31, 2022
Today we celebrate 20 years of ministry together as a church family in Ozark, Missouri as Sonrise Baptist Church. Time flies, doesn’t it? How does it seem like we just started the church, yet at the same time, we realize we have been serving together here for twenty years? Best answer: just day-by-day living for the glory of God together. Step by step we move forward seeking to honor God in all we do. This journey represents nothing less than God’s kindness to us.
We praise God and rejoice in…
…in our worship of God
Our Sunday morning services have served as the highlight of our weekly interaction together. Pastor Craig, alongside so many others in the Sonrise Blend, have led us in heartfelt worship focused on exalting Christ. A ministry team of individuals for so many years volunteered to clean the church every week. Bro Jack, Mrs Marilyn, Scott, and Lori, and now Bill have been the first on campus to prepare for the day’s service. Week after week they have been faithful to prepare everything for the morning. Then volunteers for greeting, teaching, nursery, and in so many other ways have served alongside each other to make the 1,044 weekends since we started a success. In our weekend services, we have sought to preach the Word carefully, thoughtfully, accurately, and practically. Pastor Wayne, served with us for so many years helping teach in the main service and Sunday school. Bill Piatt has preached in the morning service as well over the years faithfully.
…in our celebration of friends
Relationships. Friends. Family. When you consider the past 7,309 days, they have been full of relationships. In the initial team, Craig and Karla Carson with Clayton, Wayne and Missy Slusser with Jack, Eric and Julia Hiltibital, Brad and Carmen Mills, Jack and Marilyn Drury, and Kelly, Keaton, and myself all together formed the core group. Now, twenty years later, our relationships have changed. God brought so many people into our lives over this time. Week after week we worship Christ together and seek to live together for the glory of God. Preparing for this weekend, I have looked at hundreds of pictures of our church family. So many of these dear people we get to see and engage every week. Many we have trained, and they have moved on to be missionaries, vocational ministers, and faithful followers of Christ in other cities. As time has passed, some have been discipled at Sonrise and moved on to local ministries to serve in one capacity or another. We have always asked God to let us grow older with those we had the privilege to serve alongside of in our church family. For twenty years, God has.
…in our changed lives
Praise God for changed lives. Over the past twenty years, we have experienced salvations, baptisms, and many other changed lives together. Before small groups was a national thing, we embraced life groups and began to grow together in sanctification, fellowship, mutual care, and experiencing the work of the Holy Spirit in us together. Mentors have faithfully served to help guide our groups as we have sought to apply the Bible to our daily living. We have loved each other creatively and carefully through the process of biblical change. From the early days with help from the Everetts, to the Youngs, then the Egesdals, and now the Kirkharts – and always Mrs Patty, we have had selfless people seek to provide us rich opportunities for growth and change. Accountability questions. Workbooks. Picnics. Weekly meetings. Childcare. Snacks. These individual words just begin to scratch the service of what we have seen and experienced. All in all, the goal has been to see lives changed for the glory of God.
…in our answered prayer
Since our inception, we have sought to be a praying church. Wednesday evenings have served as the primary place we have focused on prayer. Over the years, the look of the Wednesday evening service has changed; however, the primary goal has not. We continue to meet on Wednesdays to share prayer requests, praises, and think more about prayer from a highlighted text. Thousands and thousands of prayer requests have been shared. Who knows how many corporate minutes we have spend together calling on the name of the Lord for those burdens on our hearts. We have shared our burdens. Short-term prayer requests. Long-term prayer requests. I know of a few prayer requests for salvation that we have prayed hundreds of times; we still anticipate God answering our prayer. Sometimes God has not answered our prayer the way we would have desired, outside of His will being done. At other times, we have watched God completely surprise us with His incredible kindness and grace of answered prayer.
…in our service to our community
One of our values since day one has been to serve our community well. We rejoice that we have not only valued this but, in a variety of ways, sought to live this out weekly. Bill and Mary Ann Piatt sacrificed dearly to come and start our biblical counseling ministry. Since their arrival, we have trained so many in our family and others to take God’s Word and minister it to others. We have offered hundreds and hundreds of hours each year to those in our community who needed help, in addition to our service to each other in our church. Further, we have served our community through Honor Our Local Heroes, an annual community-wide approach to honoring those who serve us as emergency responders. For over a decade we have sought to lead our community in an effort to say “Thank You” to those who sacrifice for us. Johnette Davidson initially and now Jill Wiese have led our efforts. In addition to other ways we have served our community through fall festivals, Rotary, individual events, and partnerships, our church has most recently started Trail Life and American Heritage Girls troops, led by David Egesdal and Taletha Lee.
…in our shared lives in unity
As I have processed so many memories, people, and events, my mind goes back to the fact that we have desperately sought to share our lives together in unity. Just as Jesus commanded and prayed in John 17, we have sought to live out His instructions related to unity. As Paul described in Ephesians 4, we have desperately sought to protect the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Have the past twenty years been perfect? No, not one day of it. Could we…? Should we…? Can we…? Why did we…? and Why didn’t we…? questions could be asked many times. Do we wish we would go back and do some things differently? Sure, if that was possible. However, it is not. We learn, repent where necessary, commit to striving harder in the future, and continuing to follow Christ in unity. Have we tried some things and struck out? Yes. Has God still provided for us all along the way? Absolutely. As I have reflected on the past twenty years, I can’t thank God enough for the unity of His body in that time. What. A. Joy.
Looking Backward and Looking Forward
On one level, twenty years seems like just a little while. We have only begun. On another level, twenty years seems like a long time. I’m so grateful for what God has granted us these many years. Space will not allow me to discuss all the memories. Again – hundreds and hundreds of pictures. Children who have grown. Adults who have flourished. Weddings. Funerals, as some have crossed over into heaven. Yet, we believe God is not finished. We do not know what tomorrow holds, but we trust God will allow us to continue on for His glory as long as possible. Our goal – to love God supremely and love our neighbor sincerely. What an incredible time it has been doing just that steeped in dear relationships with each other. And, we continue.
From Pastor Craig
Great to be in three building locations ending up on a beautiful space on Highway CC. The building are just the tools God have given us. I wish I had a picture of every face that the Lord has sent us. Some of them have graduated to heaven, others have moved away, and some have stayed for a season and moved on to serve in other churches. Everyone of them are special and loved. I am grateful for them.
Lunch, Gifts, and Fellowship
Today, we celebrate all of these things in our service at 10:00 am followed by lunch together. We will have a commemorative gift for each person in attendance. Plus, we will get to simply enjoy each other. Let’s rejoice in what God has done for us together.
Here’s a sneak peak at some of the pictures we have in today’s celebration…
