Alan Weatherly, Senior Pastor

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Asbury is an Ancient-Future Church. Our mission is to Grow God's Family by Making Disciples of Jesus Christ. In so doing, we proclaim the timeless message of God's salvation through Jesus Christ, in work and deed. This "ancient" story is as relevant today as ever. Asbury understands that our challenge is to speak the Gospel in the language of the culture. We are continually seeking to share Christ's message of hope and healing to a third-millenium world.

As a family of faith, we offer one another the opportunity to build deep, lasting. and loving relationships through Christ. Each of us is blessed to be a part of God's Family here at Asbury.

Jimmy Aycock, Sr. Associate Pastor

Asbury is a church that is diverse in many ways. We have different styles of worship, different times for worship, and even different places in which we worship. We have many different programs for all different ages and groups of people. We have many different ministries and many different people involved in missions in many different places. We even have a variety of nationalities and heritages within our membership. We come from all over the country (and beyond!), are all different ages, from many different religious backgrounds (and, in some cases, no religious background), and have great diversity in our educational backgrounds and in our types of employment. There is, however, one common theme that ties all this diversity together and makes it possible for us to be together as one church. That common ground is the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Asbury proclaims Jesus Christ as Lord of all, and seeks to live under His Lordship in everything. All of our worship, all of our ministries, all of our missions, all of our diverse backgrounds and experiences are brought together under His Lordship. We do not always do this perfectly, either as individuals or corporately, but that is our desire, our aim, and our commitment. Asbury has been greatly blessed by God during her years as a church, and those blessings have come as we have been surrendered to His Lordship. Our desire is to be more fully surrendered to Christ in the future, that Asbury may become far more for God's Kingdom. We seek to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord of all, and to live out that proclamation individually and as a church.

Scott Thackerson, Associate Pastor (Contemporary Worship Leader)

Words cannot begin to express the gratitude I feel toward my Asbury family. I believe the key to Asbury's continual growth is our outstretched arms of welcome to all “newcomers.” Besides the tremendous involvement in world missions, Asbury also reaches out in our own community by providing facilities, smiling faces, and loving hearts to those looking for a church home.

There seems to be a sense of expectancy in our corporate worship settings. It has been amazing to see and hear the testimonies each week of people who are coming to worship with expectancy, anticipating the Presence of the Lord, and walking away fulfilled. I believe that as we seek the Lord with expectancy, He will pour out His Life to us: “Let Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, be upon us, in proportion to our waiting and hoping for You.” (Psalm 33:22) If we expect the Holy Spirit to move us and change us, heal us and set us free from bondage, He will be faithful! This rings true week to week in the testimonies of many.

I believe God has BIG plans for Asbury and the people of Asbury. I pray that we can come together as a Body in worship with expectancy that God will send forth His Holy Spirit through this Body of Believers.

John Ryberg, Associate Pastor

Asbury has meant so much to my family in the past 11 years. When we first moved back to the area in 1993, to be near our family, we had not darkened the doorway of a church in a long time. Before long, many of our extended family had relocated to several different states, and I wondered why we moved all the way back here only to see most of our family leave. Then in 1994, my oldest brother and his wife suggested the Asbury Child Development Center to us for our daughter, Sarah. In short order, Beth was taking Sarah to Sunday worship services.

For some time I was the caboose on the family's spiritual train, but then one morning I heard Sarah's sweet voice saying from the front door, “How come I have to go to church and Daddy gets to sleep?” I realized that I was setting a terrible example for my child and hustled to get up and ready for church. Marine training sure came in handy on that morning. I made only a few steps in to the church when I was welcomed to Asbury and invited to play on the Asbury basketball team. From then on, God moved in many ways to quicken our family's faith and to help us grow in the knowledge of Jesus. Sarah was baptized and we joined the church in 1995. It sure has been fun to see her grow up in the church and to see her enthusiasm for what Jesus is doing here.

The life of this church is driven by the Holy Spirit as evidenced by the fruit of the ministries. Every day the Word of God is lived out by the body of Christ at Asbury in countless ways through visitation, singing, teaching, praying, fellowship, and too many more to mention. I learned by the example of this loving church the lesson that Paul wrote about in Romans Chapter 12, that we are one body. One of the greatest blessings to me was the opportunity to see how God knits each member of the body into the life of the church for the building of His Kingdom and the blessing of His children. In retrospect, I see that God moved us here and He reached out to us through Asbury. How blessed we have been to call Asbury our home.

Marcus Long, Visitation Pastor

Many years ago I had an experience that I want to remember the rest of my life. Frances and I had gone to Red Bird Mission in a truck that was loaned to us by a member of the church. Included in all the things that we carried were a number of boxes of children's socks given to us by a friend. When we arrived, we carried these directly into the Thrift Store and put them on display. A while later I came back by to find a lady kneeling in the floor with a four or five year old child and I bent over to ask, “Is there anything I can do?” As she raised her head she held up a pair of those socks and said, “This is the first pair of new socks (she called the child by name) has ever had.”

When Frances and I answered God's call we had a dream of, by some way and means, helping people. I do not know what your dreams are, but I know the minute you decide that you will do what is necessary, you are in pursuit of your dream. Then you will hear your heart say, “I was born for this!”

God waits for us to dream His dream for His world. In the process He fills our lives with His spirit to fulfill His dream for us and in us and through us. My prayer for each of you is to dare to dream God's dream for your life and His spirit will fill your life. Direct your life that His kingdom will come in the hearts and lives of those you touch. DARE TO BE A DREAMER!