A network of Pastors and Ministry Couples. Blended Souls is a gathering of "sista's" and "brotha's", from various Christian denominations, ages, economic and ethnic backgrounds. Our goal is to purposefully make an impact for change in the world by promoting unity, opportunities for ministry couples to network, and exchange ideas so that our churches can partner together within our communities. We strive to reach out to women and men from every tongue, tribe and nation!

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Summer Break!


Sometimes in ministry you need to take a break and spend a little time with family. With summer approaching the BSN team will be taking a mini break from our blog during the months of June, July and August to spend time with family and friends. You can still connect with us on our facebook page. We had hoped to do some travel this summer to promote BSN, but we are still available for local gatherings if you are interested. You can contact us at blendedsoulsnetwork@gmail.com , or via twitter . Pastor and ministry wives are encouraged to join our private facebook community page. Of course if any of you attend or hold an event with other churches and would like us to promote or write about it please let me know. We should be back up and running in the fall. Enjoy the summer!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Let's Get Together!!!!!





This weekend my family and I attended an annual community picnic in my hometown of Gloucester, VA hosted by several churches in the Ware Neck area of Gloucester County.  

This includes my family's church, Union Zion Baptist Church, Buelah Baptist Church, and Singleton United Methodist Church. 

The pastors of these churches all belong to the Gloucester Ministerial Association, which is non denominal organization comprised of various church leaders in the community. 




In the four years that the three churches have met for fellowship they have held the annual picnic, conducted a unity service, and this weekend even sponsored a 5k Walk to raise money for the Gloucester/Mathews Free Clinic. 

Pastor Cohick from Beulah Baptist and Pastor Dickerson from Union Zion have even switched pulpits on Sunday morning to demonstrate their committment to unity within their community and the church! 

Although the turn out this year was smaller than usual (probably do to the fact that it was Mother's Day weekend) I'm very proud of my hometown, especially my home church for being so open to partnering with other churches in their community.



The theme for this years walk was "Connecting Our Community Together Thru Faith and Fellowship". I don't know about you but I get goose bumps when I see God's people not just living, & working with one another...but showing genuine "L-O-V-E for one another. How can we as a community of believers get together; not so that we can shine, but so that the LOVE of Christ that is in us can S-H-I-N-E ?

 


2 Chronicles 7:14

 14if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face,

and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal

their land.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

You're Not Welcome

Pastor Tubs wife Melissa and I connected via twitter and eventually through Facebook. Melissa is a big part of our BSN community and after several conversations we realized our husbands had a few things in common, including the fact that they are both bi-vocational. I can tell you from my own experience that you have to be a very special man to not only hold down a full time day job but act as a full time  pastor as well(are there really any part time pastors?). After hearing about Pastor Tubs (did I mention I love saying that name...lol?) bible study with other men from varying denominations and backgrounds I knew he would be a great contributor to BSN. 


At Acts2 Church we meet on Sunday mornings and you are not invited. Yes, I am the pastor. Yes, I have said this to people.

Anyone who stopped reading at those three sentences is now switching over to their Twitter pages to write about a pastor who doesn't want people at his church. I am sure the  tweets would range anywhere from "doesn't love his people and stay away" to "clearly this guy doesn't understand the Gospel" (sorry not good at twitter abbreviation). However, like many things in life that people don't want to wait to find out about before speaking, there is an explanation.

On Saturday mornings we meet at the church for men's Bible study. We do a verse by verse study of Scripture and often discuss how the particular verses help us be better husbands, boyfriends, fathers, and most importantly Christians. (Yes, most importantly Christians, if everything in my life is taken away today I still have God.) Although the group is not always large there is something still very special about it.

This group of varying size is usually always made up of men from different churches. Even in a small group it is not uncommon to have anywhere from three to five different churches represented. What makes this even more uncommon is that the churches range from Independent Baptist to Pentecostal to non-denominational. (And as we study the Book of Acts you can imagine some of the conversations.) Furthermore, this group has been known to have various ethnic backgrounds represented.

 For all the men involved we simply see this as an opportunity to grow and improve in our walks with God. We tend to celebrate the different viewpoints that are offered. In fact, I believe it has shown many of us the places where we have allowed division to enter our own thinking. We have learned that it makes no difference how you "perform" church as long as Christ is always the center of all that is done.

 Now, back to my initial statement. At the end of our time together on Saturday mornings I thank all the men for coming and tell many of them that they are not allowed to come back the following morning. Why? Because our church is not interested in merely moving sheep from one church to another but instead on bringing the unchurched to Christ. Perhaps, this concept may not allow us to ever have a church of thousands or maybe even hundreds but we can rest in the fact that we were not simply concerned with growing our little portion of God's Kingdom.

 I pray often that our church will always remain focused on bringing people to and growing them in Christ even if it means we never grow over a hundred people (and I stay bi-vocational). How nice would it be if we had more churches simply looking to grow people in Christ instead of growing attendance numbers and campuses?

Pastor Tub Rorabaugh is a devoted Christian, husband and father. He is the senior pastor of Acts2 Church in Jacksonville, FL. Acts2 is a church plant based on the concept of making better Christians through disciplining and community (Acts 2:42-44). Tub has been involved in Christian education at Temple Christian Academy for five years. 
He is a graduate of Liberty University with a Bachelor of Science in Religion. His desire to remain in God’s will leads and directs his daily walk. Tub is married to Melissa and they have two teen aged sons, Danny and Hunter.