From the Pastors - Elder Update

Celebrate With Us:

Wow!  What an amazing month of November the Lord gave us…so much to celebrate in regards to His work!  We celebrated the God’s saving work in, Haley Mathes, who was led to Christ by Trista Van Nice!  We witnessed the baptism of Jesse Spencer who professed his faith in Christ, and celebrated God’s work in Brian Holtz who has been discipling Jesse for the last few years!  We prayed over and sent off 307 shoeboxes to kids all around the world in hopes that they will receive the saving message of the gospel!  We sat under the preaching of Brian Holtz as he continues his elder training!  We approved the sale of the parsonage, stewarding those funds towards a variety of ministry, mission, and facility purposes aimed at reaching our Desired Reality! 

Finally, we continue to see Christ’s work in each of you as you pursue, invite, welcome, and serve people in your life!  Every week I am meeting with our new guests and hear things such as, “We’ve been so loved here at First Baptist” or “We believe we have found our church home” or “Clearly the Spirit is at work in this church!”  God is on the move, church!  

Partner With Us:

As we begin December, we are inviting you to partner with us in two ways.  First, partner with us on our Christmas Eve service on December 24^th @ 7:00 p.m. here at First Baptist.  By partner, I don’t mean simply attend and worship with us, I mean be inviting those around you who need to hear the good news of Christ’s birth. 

In His sermon this past week, Brian shared about our part and God’s part.  Our part is to share our     stories with others, serve others, and invite them to know Jesus.  God’s part is to change their hearts and receive this gift.  So this Christmas Season, let’s be doing our part.  Let’s be serving those around us, let’s be sharing our lives with those around us, and let’s be inviting them to know Jesus and what He has done for them.  Then, we will get to celebrate in January how we saw God do His part to bring these individuals to our Christmas Eve Service, and Lord willing, even bring them to salvation in Christ.    That’s what each of us want to see for those we love, so let’s do our part! 

Secondly, we encourage you to give generously the month of December.  Due to God’s work in you, we will meet our budgeted giving for the year of 2021.  Therefore, our leaders have chosen to steward our additional giving in December first towards sending 3-5 members from our church on a mission trip to the Mashburns in Senegal, with the goal of strengthening our partnership with them and preparing for future mission trips.  Any additional giving above that amount will be used to fund regional mission trips that will be open to adults, youth, and kids in our church.  In other words, 100% of your December gift will go directly towards advancing the gospel in Senegal and here in the U.S.! 

Pray With Us:

We encourage you to keep on praying for God to work here in our Church.  We are experiencing fruit today, because we have been faithful in prayer over the last few years, and especially these last few months.  So let’s keep praying for God to help us worship, grow, and send more disciples in the months to come!  Specifically, let’s be praying for the guests we are inviting this Christmas season to not only hear the story of Christ’s birth but to receive the gift of salvation!  Let’s be praying for God to work His generosity in us as we give this month!  And let’s be praying for continued unity and joy and we serve Him together! 

Pastor Matt on behalf of the First Baptist Elder Team