J.I.B.C. SNAP SHOT FROM THE STAFF

The Staff and I have tried to put together some basic information about The Church at Riverland Terrace, James Island Baptist.  We hope it will be helpful and give you a little more insight into who we are. 

I have been the Senior Pastor at JIBC for 23 years.  Ted Baker, our Worship and Recovery Pastor, has been here 6 years.  He and I, in many ways, are typical boomer believers.  When I came to JIBC, it was a traditional church in every way.  At that time everything in the church was either down or going down.  So there was not much energy spent in explaining the need to begin changing.  I define “traditional” as “not very flexible.”  For me, traditional and contemporary are not so much about worship style or even what is working or not working.  Our Great God can use all kinds of church family styles to reach all kinds of people.  We have transitioned to a more contemporary…flexible church family.  We have the freedom to try and fail… to change and adapt.  I know “contemporary” has different meanings to different people.  I have rejoiced in the freedom and flexibility we have.  We are not, however, without some of the more traditional problems.  We just have a good deal more freedom and flexibility than many traditional churches.  That is my working description of contemporary vs. traditional. 

We have an interesting mix here at The Church at Riverland Terrace. We have a small 8:30 Worship Service centered on a softer, blended type of worship style. We have around 50 that attend that service.  The 11:00 Worship has around 200, features the Praise Band, and has the flexibility and freedom mentioned earlier.  Also at 11:00 we have a high energy Children’s Worship that has around 35 kids in grades 2-6.  We also have a preschool worship for 4-6 year olds led by a Student intern.  While we are meeting, we also have a Chinese Congregation of around 60 adults that are worshiping in Chinese.  In the Ministry Center, located behind our main buildings, we have a small Hispanic church of around 20 that meets for worship.  Sunday evenings we have our Jr. and Sr. High Worship Services; attendance can vary from 30-60 depending on what is going on.  From 6-8 PM we have our Celebrate Recovery service called Refuge Point.  They usually have around 20 or so who attend from the community as well as from a local rehabilitation facility.     

It has always been my goal to be a church family that makes a kingdom difference in our own families, in our community, in our country and around the world.  We have been trying to establish ourselves as a church driven by the purposes of God.  We try to build around the goal of bringing them into God’s family through membership, building them up to be more like Jesus through maturity, equipping them to serve the body of Christ through ministry, to reach the community through missions and to experience God in life changing worship through magnification.  

We are, as the older definitions would say, a “mission-minded church”.  Internationally, we have annual teams that go to Romania, Ukraine, and China.  We sent over a dozen teams to the 9th Ward in New Orleans after Katrina.  We have members that moved there and now operate a permanent ministry.  The Hispanic Ministry Team leads weekly outreach to the poorest of the poor Hispanics in our community.  Most Sunday School Classes/Small groups are involved in some type of mission and/or ministry project. The Chinese Fellowship is doing a good job of reaching the local Chinese community.

We are conservative in our theology.  We present the Baptist Faith and Message in our New Members Class as a basic guide for what most Baptists believe.  I am sure not many in our church family know or would care much about the differences between the 1963 and 2000 BF&M.  We don’t crusade about differences or fight with those who differ.  I have made little effort to keep our church family informed about SBC politics.  The Old Testament admonition “tell it not in Gath” applies to our church family.  They do not, as a general rule, know the SBC can get a little ugly and sometime be divisive.  As John the Baptist so eloquently said, “I must decrease that He may increase.”  We try to practice “less of us and the SBC and more of Him.”  I believe, and teach, the Bible is the Word of God.  Whatever adjective you want to put before that is good but surely not good enough.  We are Southern Baptist and do support the Cooperative program.  However, convention matters are not our primary focus.

We have a pretty good mixture of people who passionately love the Lord, those who love him, those who love Christianity and those who love institutional religion. Kind of like the followers Jesus chose.  If I were sharing my prayer list with you it would be concerning the need for starting and developing small groups outside and off the church campus and the desire to see every  group in the church move from being mission minded (a good and wonderful thing) to becoming more missional in nature, purpose and design.

We are a leader led church.  Years ago we stopped the “monthly business meeting” style of leadership.  Our Team leaders form the Ministry Management Team.  We have the required quarterly ministry conference and the annual meeting where the church budget is presented and any new leadership is presented.  For the most part, we trust ministry teams to do the work they feel called to do.  Items that need special attention are usually taken by the staff to the appropriate ministry team.  We have three “elder deacons” I select from our Deacon team, that serve as a special advisory team to our Pastor and Staff.  Church wide decisions and direction usually start with the Staff, go through the Elders to the Ministry Management Team and then to the Church family. Ministry Team decisions and directions usually are handled in the ministry team. 

We send “First Impression Cards” to all guests.  Generally all comment that they were warmly greeted and made to feel welcomed.  Guests most often comment on the friendliness and the comfort of the casual feel of our dress and worship style.  We are interested in and committed to staff members having a life outside of church life.  Our desire is to have healthy staff members that we can do life with.

Look Forward to Meeting You,

Pastor Tom Brown and Staff