Pastor Shawn Baird

About Pastor Shawn Baird

Shawn is the Campus Pastor at our Winchester Campus where he has served since 2015. He enjoys hunting, fishing and being outdoors with his two boys.

Posts by Pastor Shawn Baird:

June 15 2021

Dad Knows Best

Pastor Shawn Baird Blog, Contributor, new Father's Day, Fatherhood

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“I want to go home,” my son, Jax, told me, tears streaming down his face, his favorite Caps shirt torn, slightly bruised body, slightly more bruised ego.

Last year while on his first trip to the new bike park nearby, he’d just fallen off one of the ramps. While he wasn’t hurt all that bad physically, one of his handlebars had ripped through his Caps Stanley Cup Champions shirt. He came over to me and asked if we could go home. I said, “Yes, but after you get back on your bike and ride over that ramp.” I knew he wasn’t physically injured, just banged up a bit. But I also knew that if he left like that, defeated, it’d be really hard to come back the next time. I looked him in the eye and told him, “You can do this! Now go kick that ramp’s butt.”

And then something quite amazing happened. My son, who hadn’t traditionally been a risk taker, wheeled his bike to the top of the hill and tried again. On the first attempt, he made it over the first of two humps but had to ride off of the bottom of the dip prior to ascending the second on this obstacle. He wasn’t lined up right and it was a near disaster. But he started again and rode up and over and across the entirety of the ramp. Success!

He would go on to do a few more of the ramps there before we called it a day.

I think that one of the best gifts that we as fathers can give their children is the gift of perspective.

I think that one of the best gifts that we as fathers can give their children is the gift of perspective. Us dads may not know everything (though we may try to act like it sometimes), but we do have a vantage point that our kids don’t. By way of age and experience, we can see and understand commonly faced obstacles that our sons and daughters are facing for the first time. As their continuous observers and cheerleaders, we know our children intimately – perhaps even better than they know themselves sometimes. And most of the time, we know the general direction they should take in life before they do. This sort of perspective is invaluable, even if our kids don’t appreciate it at the moment (did you?!).

This same perspective is what our Heavenly Father offers us, only He knows us, our circumstances, and our future infinitely more than we can even imagine. In Psalm 139, the Psalmist wrote, “O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.”- Psalms 139:1-6 (ESV)

In life it’s inevitable that we will fall, bruise our bodies, hurt our pride, and maybe tear our favorite Caps shirt, but the question is, do we have the guts to get back up, go back to the top of the hill, and try again? I know one thing: it is certainly easier to do when we have a dad in our life who will give us some perspective and encouragement along the way. That’s what your Heavenly Father wants to do in your life, just the way us Earthly fathers want to do for our own children. My prayer for myself and all of the dads out there is that we will learn to listen to our Heavenly Father’s voice and take his guidance and encouragement to heart just as we try to provide the same for our own children.

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January 12 2021

The Not-So-Secret Power of Prayer

Pastor Shawn Baird 21 Days of Prayer, Contributor, new 21 Days of Prayer, Prayer

Growing up, I loved “spy” related movies, tv shows, video games, etc. I loved everything about the fantastical world of intrigue, stealth, and action. From James Bond to Jason Bourne, I loved it all. One of the main aspects of any good spy story is the concept of secret codes or passwords. The hero would often find him/herself in a scenario where they had to discover some hidden information; perhaps a code to unlock a safe or a password to access a computer terminal. It was incredibly important for the hero to gain the right information, in the right sequence, in order for the mission to be achieved and lives to be saved.

Fortunately for us, unlocking the power of prayer isn’t at all like a spy cracking a code. There is no right “way” to talk to your Heavenly Father. There is no advantage to praying in King James English. I remember growing up thinking that in order for my prayers to be heard by God, I had to pray like some of the more eloquent (and possibly long-winded! lol) people in my home church. I had the impression that wordiness equated to spirituality. Boy, was I wrong. Jesus even said so himself. Right before giving His disciples the prayer that we know as “The Lord’s Prayer”, he said this in Matthew 6:7-8 NLT,

“When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!

Don’t get caught up in how eloquent your prayers need to be, but rather, talk to your Heavenly Father plainly and as you are.

Jesus was instructing us to pray, not in a manner that resembled some sort of secret code that had to include the right elements in the right order, but in a manner that resembles how a son or daughter might have a plain, yet intimate conversation with their loving earthly father. One benefit that plain prayers have over verbose prayers is that while I’m praying, I can focus on the reality of both my situation and God’s love and guidance for me. If I’m having to try to decode a secret combination of religious jargon, I can easily spend so much energy and focus on figuring out what to say that I miss what He may be wanting to say back to me.

As we get going during this 21 Days of Prayer season, my prayer for you is that you will continue to seek God each day. Don’t get caught up in how eloquent your prayers need to be, but rather, talk to your Heavenly Father plainly and as you are. I promise that your prayer times will be more enjoyable and productive as a result.

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November 3 2020

The Opportunity Before Us

Pastor Shawn Baird Contributor, new Blog, Love

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Where we once were able to ‘agree to disagree’ along issues of policy, it seems that now disagreement (falsely) equals hatred for one another. We’ve slid further and further on the spectrum of tribalism towards territory that our nation has not seen in years.

An increasingly unfortunate thing is that I’ve begun to see this within the Body of Christ. This tribalism has caused us to see each other through the lens of our political differences first, rather than our commonality of being followers of Christ. When we come to a saving relationship with Jesus through faith, we become part of His family, His kingdom. Our primary citizenship is that of Heaven, which trumps our national citizenship, and especially our political affiliation (Phil 3:20). If we are to see unity and healing take place in our land, it won’t be accomplished without the Church leading the way. This is true regardless of who wins this election. So, how can we as the Body of Christ rid ourselves of the tribalism that threatens to keep us divided? I’ve got two exhortations to share with you.

The first thing we must do is to trust that God is sovereign and He, in His sovereignty, will delegate His authority as He sees fit. In Romans 13, the Apostle Paul challenges us to recognize, honor, and submit to the government, “Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God.” (Rom 13:1 NLT). For perspective, Paul was writing that to people who were under one of the most brutal, oppressive, and heretical governments the Earth has ever seen. In the Roman empire, the Emperor was literally worshiped as a god. If those believers didn’t get a pass from submitting to the governing authorities, then neither do we. And here’s an interesting thing to note — due to the structure of the government we are under in the US, a Constitutional Republic that allows for self-governing by way of a democratic vote of its citizens, each and every voter plays a role in the “governing authority”. So, not only would Paul’s command apply to trusting God to sovereignly delegate His authority to our President, but it also applies to trusting God to sovereignly delegate His authority to our fellow voter. Even the ones who do not vote the same way we do.

The second thing we must do is to obey the Golden Rule. Jesus said “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.” (Matt 7:12 NLT). Jesus was introducing a variation of a common sentiment of that day which was essentially “Don’t do to others what you wouldn’t want them to do to you.” Meaning, don’t be mean to someone else because you wouldn’t want them to be mean to you.

At first glance, that original statement and Jesus’ may seem very similar, but there’s a key difference. The original statement advocates for abstaining from engaging in harmful behavior. Jesus’ Golden Rule advocates for proactively doing good for others. In the context of this election season, a proactive good we can do for others that we would like done for ourselves is to give each other the benefit of the doubt when it comes to who they are voting for. When we demonize the other candidate and party, we tend to vilify the people who vote for them. This is the sort of over-simplification that tribalism has us adopt regarding those who may vote differently.

I fully believe that the season we are in, as divisive as it is, may in fact present an opportunity for the Church to shine brightly amid the darkness. It won’t be easy given that there are some stark differences between the two platforms on important policies. These issues are important and consequential for the future of our nation. If the Body of Christ is to take the leadership role in bringing about healing and unity, we must first purge from our minds the sin of tribalism, particularly regarding fellow Christians who just happen to be of a different political persuasion. We can do this by trusting that God can and will superintend over His delegated authority, even to the level of our fellow voter, and by proactively doing good to others, just as we would want done to us. This includes presuming the best about each other rather than assuming the worst, especially for those who cast a ballot that looks dramatically different than our own.

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