READING (BRN) – Last Sunday, a long-awaited installation service was held at The Bridge Fellowship Church in Reading, Pennsylvania, for Pastor Justin Woulard.
Initially, Woulard was set to start at the church on Easter Sunday, March 2020. A Sunday many pastors and church members remember well.
“It just fell right in the middle of kind of the beginnings of COVID. We worked things out with the church that I was serving with and they agreed to let me stay there and continue to serve until it was time to move…until it was open [and] we could,” explained Woulard.
At the time, Woulard and his family were serving at a church in Walker, Louisiana, right outside of Baton Rouge.
Anticipating Woulard to be officially installed on Easter, the interim pastor at The Bridge had already committed to another position.
“We actually started streaming our service from Walker up to the people at The Bridge, and myself and the interim pastor that was there at the time would trade off different Sundays. It was all virtual and so, on some level, I did get to start then.”
Three months later, on June 1, 2020, Woulard and his family made the move from Louisiana to Pennsylvania.
“I remember telling my wife after the first or second conversation that if this (The Bridge) was a church closer to home, [then] I would be for sure saying, ‘This is what we needed to do.’
So, we kept talking to them and we began to pray about the possibility of moving up here. It just really felt like that was what God was calling us to do and it’s been really clear since we’ve been here…He’s affirmed that many times,” expressed Woulard.
The affirmation continued last Sunday as Baptist Resource Network (BRN) Executive Director Dr. Barry Whitworth spoke at Woulard’s official installation service.
After the service, Whitworth affectionately noted on his Facebook that he was “thoroughly blessed to speak at The Bridge Church” and that Woulard is a “wonderful pastor” with a “great church.”
Moving forward, Woulard hopes to see a heart for discipleship grow within his congregation and the Reading community.
“One of the things that that I’ve been saying over and over again, is I want to see, yes, making disciples [but also] I want it to be in Reading as it is in Heaven. You know, that’s what God wants us to do, He wants us to build the Kingdom.
[And] the model that I want to bring in is we have to go to the community. We have to go to where nonbelievers are, so that we can show them the way of Christ and speak the gospel into their lives and I really see that coming through discipleship.”
