The
Rev. Bryan R. Rainbow, pastor of Burlington Assembly of God in Burlington,
N.C., spoke at a noon meeting of the Solid Seniors group at Sandhills Assembly
of God in Southern Pines, N.C., on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016.
Rainbow
served as pastor of Sandhills Assembly for about 12 years. He has served as
senior pastor of Burlington Assembly of God since Feb. 2014. He has a BA degree
from Central Bible College (Springfield, Missouri), and hopes to complete soon his
MA degree from the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. An ordained minister,
he has pastored in communities in North Carolina such as Southern Pines
(Sandhills Assembly), Winston-Salem, and Morganton. He also served as director
of a residential drug and alcohol rehab facility currently located in
Greensboro, N.C.
Pastor
Gloria Latham, who leads the Solid Seniors group, welcomed Rainbow to the
meeting held in the church fellowship hall. Ty Van-Thomas, senior pastor of
Sandhills Assembly (SA), welcomed Rainbow and attendees. Around 35 people,
counting ministers, attended the meeting.
John
Taylor, a SA church member, assisted with food preparation. Attendees enjoyed
boxed sandwiches provided from the HoneyBaked Ham store (Aberdeen, N.C.). Each
box also included a dill pickle and a dessert cake.
Van-Thomas
said that his grandmother, whom he and his wife cared for during her senior
years, lived to be 99. She had served as a nursing supervisor.
“We’re
in a retirement community,” Van-Thomas said. “You have value. There’s so much
we can learn from one another.”
Rainbow
spoke on “You’re Not Obsolete,” a subject suggested by Van-Thomas, and used
Genesis 17 as his text.
“Thanks
for inviting me back,” he said. “I have been very blessed to have pastors who
are open to us.”
He
was expressing thanks that pastors who replaced him at various churches were
open to his return to minister.
“A
week or so ago, I turned 64,” Rainbow said. “Don’t feel ‘all done.’ Miriam and
Wren wear their age well.”
(He
referred to Miriam Jones, 102, and Wren Roberts, 91, who were in the audience.)
“‘Obsolete’
means ‘out of date,’” he said. “Some of you could be my parents [meaning ‘you
are in the age group of people who could be my parents’]. When something is no
longer produced, its value can increase. How we see ourselves makes a difference
in how we feel and function. God is the ‘Ancient of Days.’ The Lord doesn’t
age. Many people whom God used were old to begin with. Abram was called at 80
and lived to be 175.”
According
to Genesis 17, Abram was 99 when God came to him and made a covenant.
“When Abram was ninety-nine
years old, the Lord
appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be
blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me
and you and will greatly increase your numbers” (Genesis 17:1-2 NIV).
“The United States is not our
‘Kingdom,’” Rainbow said, stressing that God’s Kingdom should outrank politics
in Christians’ lives.
He said that previous to 2014,
he and his wife, Carole, visited the Holy Land. In a plane on the way home to
the U.S., he felt a sharp pain in one ear. His wife immediately noticed blood
trickling from that ear. His eardrum had burst, and he lost some hearing in
that ear.
Rainbow said, identifying with
the elderly in the crowd, that his hearing has worsened but he is resisting
getting a hearing aid. He has to ask some people at his church to repeat
themselves when they talk with him, he said.
“God is anything but through
with us,” he said. “It’s important to hold onto that.”
He commented on how he sees the
Church, today.
“I see the Church ‘stuck,’ now,”
he said. “It’s like we can’t get the train out of the station. We need a move
of the Holy Spirit. That’s what we need in this country. We need a move of
God’s Spirit.”
He said that people should stay
active after retirement, get their minds off themselves, and not look in the
mirror to see their “looks” (appearance) “going away.” He described his own
preoccupation with looking in “the mirror to see how I’ve deteriorated.”
“Stay away from the mirror,”
Rainbow said. “That is a snare that will do us in. Stay active in the church.
Stay on the ‘firing line.’ Stay put, unless God calls you elsewhere.”
He said that we should encourage
one another.
“And keep on encouraging the
younger generation in the walk with the Lord,” he said. “Keep believing that we
are never too old, too sick, too achy to be used by God. God, I am going to
keep on plugging. Miriam [Miriam Jones, 102 years old] tells me I’m a ‘spring
chicken.’ The Kingdom still needs building. The younger generation needs us.
Strengthen Ty [Pastor Van-Thomas] and his wife. Thank the Lord for Frank and
Rachael.”
(Frank Van Arsdale, retired AG
pastor, served for 10 months as Sandhills Assembly’s interim pastor between
Rainbow’s pastorate and Van-Thomas’ arriving as SA’s new pastor. Rachael is Van
Arsdale’s wife.)
Rainbow closed his sermon in
prayer, saying, “Bless them . . . They’re valuable, not obsolete . . . quicken
their mortal bodies.”
