Good morning on this Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, November the 29th. Today's blog will focus on the theme of the season which is of course, Thanksgiving. What a wonderful week it has been with the celebration of my 40th anniversary as pastor of Edgewood last Sunday followed by a family and fun-filled holiday with all of the members of my family home for the Thanksgiving weekend. Lots of great food, fellowship and fun have overflowed during the past seven days and I am so thankful for every moment of it.
Thanks to the Edgewood people for every part of my anniversary celebration, the gifts, the warm words, the many notes and cards, the dinner, the presentation, and most of all your presence and good wishes. I will continue to savor every memory of it. So this Thanksgiving I have had all of that and all of your thoughtfulness and appreciation for which to thank God.
As I have had the pleasure of spending extra time with each member of my family, I have given thanks for each and every one of them and especially enjoyed the presence of our newest grandson, Kai - what a little jewel he is to us all. I am so thankful for every blessing and give God all the glory. He is great and greatly to be praised for all of His wondrous works and blessings.
To Him and Him only be all glory, honor and praise!
Tomorrow's sermon is entitled, The Two Parts of Thanksgiving. I am so excited by its content, I can't wait to deliver it. I hope I'll see you there.
Mel Brown

Good morning on this Saturday morning, the 22nd day of November. Tomorrow is a major milestone as we celebrate my 40th anniversary as pastor of the Edgewood Baptist Church. Tomorrow's activities will include special services in the morning, cap stoned with a sermon entitled, Do You Hear What I Hear. The evening festivities will begin in the multipurpose facility at 6:00 PM and will include a dinner, a video presentation, some short testimonies by a select group of people, and some brief comments by me. It should be a wonderful day in every way and I hope your plans include everything planned by our Board of Deacons as part of the celebration. It will be great to have all of my family together for the day's activities including my three children, Lori, Cheryl, and Tim; their spouses, Greg and Kevin; and five grandchildren, Maelynn, Ryan, Kaitlynn, Brendan, and Kai - 12 in all. Of course, we are looking forward to having so many of our church family together as well as the Edgewood staff and their families. It will be quite a family reunion. I'll look forward to seeing you all there.
Pastor Mel Brown

Good morning on this 15th day of November. Ah the wonders of modern technology when everything works as it is supposed to work, such as this blog which I write every Saturday morning. Last week's blog was an excellent example of things not working as they are supposed to work. I wrote the entire article and clicked on the button which publishes it to the church's web site just as I had nearly 200 times before, but something went terribly wrong. Only the first sentence of the blog was published and the rest of the article was no where to be found, even though I searched every corner of the blogger site to find it. After realizing that it was gone forever, I rewrote the entire article and again published it to the Edgewood web site. When I called the secretary to tell her it was posted so she could print it and make it available on Sunday for those who like to read it when they arrive at church, she told me it was not available on the church computer network, then when she tried to access it on another of the church's computers, the whole network went down and froze out all access period. Consequently, most of you missed the blog which was a tribute to the Edgewood staff; therefore, I am posting it as part of this week's article. Hopefully there will be no technological problems this time. Tomorrow's sermon is entitled, When Conqueroring Is Not Enough.
Good morning on this Saturday, November 8th. As the church is preparing to celebrate my 40th anniversary as pastor of the Edgewood Baptist Church on Sunday, November 23rd, I thought I would take this opportunity to brag on the Edgewood staff. They do an great job in their respective ministries in addition to teaching, preaching, visiting, and handling various problems brought to them by our people. Many of you have complimented them to me telling me about how they have helped you with a problem, provided Biblical counsel about a situation, or assisted you in some way. They routinely work many evenings in addition to the extra hours required to handle emergencies, make unexpected hospital visits, or take calls to meet special needs. The work of the ministry is never done, there is always another hospital call, another crisis, another death, another problem, another meeting or another call to handle. Many days off are not a day off because of calls or needs which must be met. They are faithful in fulfilling the extras of their ministry and do so without complaint. I thank God for them and ask you to do the same. It is often said that fortunate is the church that has an excellent staff to represent Jesus Christ in a congregation - that is certainly true at Edgewood. I appreciate every one of them and am grateful for them. Tomorrow's message is entitled, How To Search The Bible And Allow The Bible To Search You. I hope I'll see you there.
Pastor Brown

Good morning on this Saturday, November 8th. As the church is preparing to celebrate my 40th anniversary as pastor of the Edgewood Baptist Church on Sunday, November 23rd, I thought I would take this opportunity to brag on the Edgewood staff. They do an great job in their respective ministries in addition to teaching, preaching, visiting, and handling various problems brought to them by our people. Many of you have complimented them to me telling me about how they have helped you with a problem, provided Biblical counsel about a situation, or assisted you in some way. They routinely work many evenings in addition to the extra hours required to handle emergencies, make unexpected hospital visits, or take calls to meet special needs. The work of the ministry is never done, there is always another hospital call, another crisis, another death, another problem, another meeting or another call to handle. Many days off are not a day off because of calls or needs which must be met. They are faithful in fulfilling the extras of their ministry and do so without complaint. I thank God for them and ask you to do the same. It is often said that fortunate is the church that has an excellent staff to represent Jesus Christ in a congregation - that is certainly true at Edgewood. I appreciate every one of them and am grateful for them.
Tomorrow's message is entitled, How To Search The Bible And Allow The Bible To Search You. I hope I'll see you there.
Pastor Brown

Good morning on this first Saturday of November. It was forty years ago on the second Sunday of November that I officially began my duties as the new pastor of the Edgewood Baptist Church. Barb and I arrived with our six-month old baby, Lori, and settled into the parsonage as our new home. My what changes God has wrought during these intervening years to our church, our family, and our lives. Although my anniversary will fall on November 9th this year, we are having the anniversary dinner and program at 6:00 pm on Sunday, November 23rd to better accommodate the scheduling of activities. Please plan on joining us for this special evening. You may sign up on the sign-up sheet posted on the bulletin board in the south corridor to reserve your place. The dinner and entire program will be held in the multi-purpose center that evening.
Many of you have been asking about Barb's mom knowing that she experienced cardiac arrest for the third time last summer. She has had an amazing recovery and is now living once again in her own home after completing her stint in rehab. We are hearing that she is stronger now than she has been in some time and will be celebrating her 94th birthday this month - an amazing feat given all that she has been through!
Tomorrow's sermon is about prevailing prayer and will focus on getting our prayers answered. I hope I'll be seeing you in the services.
Mel Brown