In this article, I am featuring the Baptist Center Church New Year’s Eve Worship Service.
The video features, among others, the reports of the church’s chairperson, treasurer, and the senior minister, which sums up what they went through in 2020.
A testimony of a nurse working in New York provides us a glimpse of his life and how the Lord provided and protected him.
All are testimonies of God’s faithfulness to the church despite the pandemic lockdowns. The worship service is 99% in the English language.
As with all the churches in the Philippines and around the world, the great challenge on how to hold worship services and continue to administer the ministries of the church arose when COVID-19 lockdowns were implemented in March 2020.
As of writing, Baptist Center Church is still worshipping online, which has been since March 2020.
What made the Baptist Center Church situation unique and more challenging is during the pandemic lockdown, the senior minister, Rev. Jireh John “Jack” Francia and his family, have to be in their home in Bacolod City, which is in Negros Occidental island.
Pastor Jack is at an age and condition he needs to be extra careful of his health. Notwithstanding, he and his whole household perpetuated the holding of Sunday services and mid-week prayer meetings in the first few months of the lockdown at their home in Bacolod City.
Eventually, as the lockdowns eased up in Iloilo City, the BCC Praise and Worship Team and the BCC choir joined.
[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d1689167.8464104848!2d123.64157959623925!3d10.470701593151588!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x33aee516c55438cd%3A0x8bc8db318d539712!2sBaptist%20Center%20Church!5e0!3m2!1sen!2snz!4v1609531294925!5m2!1sen!2snz&w=720&h=450]Normally, travelling from Bacolod City to Iloilo City is one hour via ferry or four hours on a car via roll-on-roll-off ferry. The pandemic lockdowns closed these two routes, except for essential services and special circumstances.
Another challenge was how the church would meet its financial obligations since the pandemic lockdowns prohibited the Sunday gatherings?
Despite all these challenges, the Baptist Center Church has consistently held online worship services and ministries. They had a choir every Sunday, established Sunday school and worship for kids, weekly Bible studies, and Wednesday prayer meetings.
Please watch the video below to listen and be encouraged with what God has done to His faithful servants at Baptist Center Church.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjybvW3D5D4&w=688&h=387]If you want to watch the reports directly, see the list below for your quick references:
- Listen to the Chairperson’s report @ 23:28 minutes
- Listen to the Treasurer’s report @ 28:46 minutes
- Listen to the Pastor’s report @ 34:48 minutes
The Baptist Center Church is located in Lapaz, Iloilo City, on the island of Panay. It was organised in 1920 by the American Baptist missionary, Dr. Raphael Thomas.
2020 is the church’s 100th year and a very memorable year to celebrate their centennial because of the coronavirus pandemic.
During the COVID-19 lockdown here in Timaru, the Baptist Center Church online services fill in for the absence of online worship from our local churches.
It was such a blessing worshipping online with the Baptist Center Church online services as it diminished that feeling of isolation due to the NZ Level 4 lockdown in March to April 2020.
Hearing Pastor Jack mentioning us, our family, and friends in his pastoral prayers gives the needed encouragement and assurance that there is a community thinking and praying for us. I’m sure that a lot of other persons and families feel the same.
It was also a period of reconnecting with Pastor Jack because we were his choir members when he was pastoring Baptist Center Church. He was our youth pastor and choir director at Ajuy Baptist Church, our home church in the Philippines.
As a pastor living in New Zealand, the Baptist Center Church story provides a vital lesson in pastoral commitment, passion for the work of Christ, and an example of a church resolving to be resilient and rising from a critical situation.
Their testimonies of God’s goodness and mercy after almost a year in the pandemic proves that the Lord God Almighty never fails.
Watch the Baptist Center New Year’s Eve Worship-Service video and be inspired by their testimonies of God’s faithfulness despite the pandemic
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjybvW3D5D4&w=688&h=387]- Listen to the Chairperson’s report @ 23:28 minutes
- Listen to the Treasurer’s report @ 28:46 minutes
- Listen to the Pastor’s report @ 34:48 minutes
PHOTO CREDIT: Baptist Center Church Facebook Page
VIDEO CREDIT: Baptist Center Church Production Team
[…] In the past months, we have seen how churches went beyond their four walls through online worship. It’s quite ironic to observe that when missionaries can’t go anywhere because of the pandemic, the local churches expanded their ministry areas via online. […]