Farewell to the brick-and-mortar church located at 220 North Williams Street formally known as The House of Love Ministries.
The bible states in Ecclesiastic 3:3 that there is a time to tear down and a time to build. It is now time to tear down the House of Love Ministries and build a new Veterans Memorial for Paulding County. As the former Pastor and Owner of the brick-and-mortar church, it was one of the holiest sites that I had encountered. I am not saying this because I was the pastor of this church, but because inside the church is the place where the sick and hurting seemed to converge and congregate. Jesus came for the sick not the well, the well need no physician.
During our time in this building, from 2008 – 2019, God had allowed us to baptize 275 people in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Although I have heard it said that our inner workings were sometimes messy because we did not have the long-standing traditional, denominational foundation that most other churches in Paulding County possessed; where we lacked in traditional religiosity we made up in spiritual spontaneity. Meaning, we dealt with everyone on a one-on-one case basis. If they came in hungry, we fed them. If they came in homeless, we found them shelter. If they came in needing Christ, we introduced them. If someone needed to be baptized, we normally baptized right on the spot. We did not put people aside to have a board meeting to decide their faith.
Although religious tradition has its place, I have found that this walk is more about relationship than religion. Yes, relationship with Christ. The Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20, calls for us to go into the world preaching the word of Jesus Christ baptizing all nations in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The law of Jesus Christ calls for us to love our neighbor as ourselves. That was the mission statement of House Of Love Ministries.
I would like to thank God for the opportunity to serve Him in Paulding County and to experience His miraculous healing power on His people in this town. I thank Him for the experience of building a ministry from scratch and watching Him provide for all our needs every step of the way. I thank all the Godly people he sent to help us along the way. Thank you God for the Journey, Thank you God for the assignment, it was a blessing!
— Pastor Dwayne
Richardson
