Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. – Proverbs 16:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 9, 2013): Proverbs 16

Leonard Gaston Broughton was a medical doctor and a pastor. In the closing years of the 19^th century he was called to Third Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. It has been said that when Third Baptist Church called him to come and be their pastor, his response was that the only way that he would come to the church was if they agreed to move the church closer to the downtown area of Atlanta. Unfortunately, that common telling of the story cleans up the rough edges of the tale. In actuality, Broughton came to Third Baptist Church before the church moved. A year after Broughton arrived at Third Baptist Church he started building the new and larger church facility. But the older members of the church opposed the move. So the matter was taken before the congregation and Broughton plans were confirmed by a positive vote of 69%. The vote sounds good, but in church circles it is a very marginal win – and one that would cause a lot of churches to step back and re-evaluate whatever it was that they were doing.

But Dr. Broughton believed that it was God that had brought him to this point. So he continued the plans to move the church. And then the church split. Dr. Broughton had been at Third Baptist Church for a little more than a year, and already he was a failure. Some of the church would decided to stay at the site of Third Baptist Church – others simply left the church – but still others decided to move to what would become Tabernacle Baptist Church. But the story does not end here.

Dr. Broughton now ministering in downtown Atlanta discovered a need (okay, I think he already knew the need was there.) And he decided to do whatever it was that he could do to meet the need. The reality was that there were people who were being turned away from medical care in Atlanta because there was no place for them. And so Dr. Broughton opened up the Tabernacle Infirmary in a rented house to help out those people.

Tabernacle Infirmary became Georgia Baptist Hospital. Today it is Atlanta Medical Center – a top level trauma care center in Atlanta – and really all because Dr. Broughton understood in some of the darker moments in church leadership this Proverb. Our job has never been more than to follow God and commit to him the things that we feel he has called us to do – and it is up to him to establish the plans that he has given to us – and make them his reality.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Proverbs 17