From the Pastors - Elder Update

Celebrate With Us

What a great month God gave us in August!  Here are just a few of the things we are celebrating.  First, we were able to baptize Tyren as he publicly professed his faith in Jesus!  Secondly, we were able to share with you all our Next Steps as we seek to accomplish the vision God has for us.  Thirdly, we started working on several of these next steps, such as strengthening our Missionary Partnerships, moving towards Regular Sunday Worship Engagement, launching our two different 10-20 person groups, exploring 3-5^th grade Sunday Worship options, and launching our first Discipleship Groups.  Simply put, we have hit the ground running, and it is mostly due to our dependence on God during our 28 Days of Prayer!  Finally, on a global scale, Phoenix received her work visa approval, moving she and Mao one step closer to their return to the mission field.

Partner With Us:

As we head into September, we invite you to partner with us in the following two ways.  First, we have been asking you all this entire year to commit to growing in a group.  Our Desired Reality is that every member would be growing with others, and this is our Desired Reality, because God tells us in His Word that it’s part of following Jesus.  We have all of our Groups listed in our Ministry Resource Center and on our website (fbc-musc.com/next-steps/small-groups).  Therefore, we are inviting you to pray through which group to be part of this Fall.  As we saw in Nehemiah 6, don’t let the Enemy’s attempts to manipulate or intimidate keep you from following Jesus.  

Secondly, we encourage you to fill out a Next Steps Card and serve on one of our short-term task teams, helping us discern the details of these various Next Steps.  We could use your passion, your gifting, your wisdom, and your love for Jesus as we carry out these Next Steps!

Pray With Us:

Though our 28 Days of Prayer season is over, we encourage you to continue to be in prayer as we set out to accomplish God’s vision for First Baptist.  Pray for these Next Steps we have started, pray for our members who are leading those initiatives, and pray that God would bear fruit from each of these steps.  Secondly, be praying for God to work in the lives of our members to grow in a group this Fall.  We want our church to experience the joy of growing in Christ alongside other believers! 

I’m eagerly looking forward to this month, First Baptist, and I pray you are as well! 

Pastor Matt on behalf of the First Baptist Elder Team