Pastor’s Corner: Alex Shipman

The Village Church

 

Tell us about yourself

Well, I’m married to the most amazing woman, Wyketa Shipman. We have two wonderful kids who keep us on our toes. I am the senior pastor of The Village Church located in NE Huntsville. My favorite hobbies are cooking, working out, mystery books and watching movies. We’re all broken people trying to navigate our way through a broken world.

What motivates you to do what you do?

I know the Sunday School answer to this question is Jesus but when I take an honest look at my motivations Jesus is not always at the center. I’m often motivated by fear, the praise of man, success, approval, competition and even failure. These are the functional motivations of my heart as a husband, father, son, brother, friend and pastor. But Jesus gives me greater grace and mercy! For he brings resurrection to by motivations. The Holy Spirit is giving me freedom from living in those functional motivations and bringing me to a place of being motivated by Jesus’ view of me.

 

What is God speaking to you right now?

I’m currently preaching a sermon series called ‘A Reluctant Cultural Prophet.’ It’s based on the book of Jonah. Many know that Jonah fled from his call to go to Nineveh. He didn’t want to be a prophetic witness of Yahweh to the people of Nineveh. And similarly, this is the current state of the church in America. She flees from her call to be a prophetic witness of Jesus to our country. Her prophetic witness is on the decline. We’re becoming a clinging symbol. We’re becoming irrelevant. Many factors contribute to its decline: Like consumer Christianity, Health and wealth Christianity, Celebrity Christianity, Political Christianity, National Christianity etc… The list can go on and on! Christianity in our country is becoming more and more a system of strategies, techniques, marketing and entertainment to simply get people in the pews. As a result, our prophetic witness suffers. Even a great country like ours needs the church to be a prophetic witness with a prophetic voice. The church in American needs to be broken into repentance in order for her to be the prophetic witness, who passionately lives out the Great Commission.

What does unity in our city mean to you?

True unity in our city means people will relate humbly to one another. They will lovingly strive to have diverse relationships that are both multi-cultural and multi-ethnic. These relationships will crossover racial, social and economic lines. This unity also means it must be first reflected within our churches before we can expect it to be reflected in our city.

Prayer for our city:

May we be in faithful prayer for our leaders who have a huge responsibility to serve our city. I pray for our schools and teachers.

Rev. Alexander M Shipman

The Village Church of Huntsville (Presbyterian Church in American)

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