Weekly Announcements (1.31.11)

GIVE. ME. FAITH. - Yesterday's message was called "Faith Fears God". Here's the 5 truths that we found in Daniel 3:1-30.

1. The world will demand your allegiance. (1-7)
   
2. The world is not your friend. (8-15, 19-23)
   
3. Living by faith means choosing to fear God over people - regardless of the outcome. (16-18)
4. God is able to save. (24-27)
5. God is glorified through our faith in him. (28-29)

If you missed it, you can check the church sermon audio page.

Next up is "Faith Asks" from Joshua 10:1-15.



Hot Topics - Here's the lineup for the month of February...

• Feb 6 - How do I share my faith at work & how do I keep God first with a busy schedule?
• Feb 13 - How were people saved before Christ?
• Feb 20 - How can we apply the command, "Judge not, that you be not judged?"
• Feb 27 - What is the unpardonable sin?

Membership Discovery - It's only 2 weeks away, Feb 13th at 5:00pm.



"Love Your Family" Week - Valentine's Day is Monday, Feb. 14. We're asking you to set aside time every day during the week of February 13-19 specifically for the purpose of bringing your family together around the Word of God and prayer. In the coming week we'll be releasing some resources we've created for you.

"It is Finished!" Easter Passion Play - This community-driven passion play is coming to our Life Enrichment Center on April 22 & 23. Spear-headed by Trinity Fellowship Church, the play is open to area churches and their members who would like to participate. Check out the cast list, rehearsal info, and script on our church bulletin board if you'd like to sign up. Cast meeting is Saturday, Feb. 5 so don't hesitate to sign up! Parts and supporting roles for all ages available!

GIVE. ME. FAITH.

I want to do a quick review and preview with you now that we're halfway finished with our series.

Message 1 - FAITH IS...
from Hebrews 11:1-6

1. Faith is assurance about the future
2. Faith is conviction about true reality
3. Faith is living a life that is commendable by and pleasing to God
4. Faith is believing God exists
5. Faith is believing God reward seekers

Message 2 - FAITH GROWS...
from Genesis 12-22

1. Faith grows from believing God can only work thru the natural to believing God works thru the supernatural.
2. Faith grows from trying to make God’s word/promise happen in your timing and wisdom to trusting God’s timing and wisdom.

Message 3 - PRIDE & FAITH
from 2 Kings 5:1-14

Main idea: Faith demands that you come to the end of yourself.

Here's the messages and their passages for the next 3 weeks. This is where our series will really get going. These next 3 messages are about the practical outworking of faith in your life. Be here!!!

Message 4 - FAITH FEARS GOD (Daniel 3:1-30)
Message 5 - FAITH ASKS (Joshua 10:1-15)
Message 6 - FAITH RISKS (various)

Weekly Announcements (1.24.11) - [Updated]

GIVE. ME. FAITH. - Yesterday's message was from the life of a man named Naaman (2 Kings 5:1-14). Main Idea: Faith demands that we come to the end of ourselves. Pride is a faith killer and faith is a pride killer. It's one or the other. It's us or God. If you weren't here, you can listen to the message on our church's sermon archive page here.



Membership Discovery - Interested in joining First Baptist? Want more info about how our church operates, what our mission and values are? This is the place. Membership Discovery will be on February 13th at 5:00 in the Golden Circle Room.



Superbowl Sunday (Feb. 6th) - The Superbowl is a fantastic time for you to do some outreach and build relationships with people who don't know Christ. Have a Superbowl party at your house. Invite people. Get to know them. Build relationship with them.

Our evening service time will be moved to 4:00pm and scheduled business meeting will be moved to the following Sunday evening in its normal time after evening worship.

The Book of Revelation - Someone asked for the book of Revelation to be taught as part of our Hot Topics series. So, this Sunday night we will begin. Be there at 6:30pm. Update: We have had some other questions come into the box today, so we will answer them before starting Revelation - this Sunday night will be about a favorite topic of mine...come and find out.

Weekly Announcements (1.17.11)

Commitment Challenge - Our attendance has definitely improved the past 2 weeks. We've had 173 and 174. Our goal for this month (if you remember from Jan. 2 message) was to increase our average attendance to our seating capacity of 187 by the end of the month. So, we've got some work to do the next 2 weeks to continue bringing our average up. We need 200 average the next 2 weeks to hit our goal. Remember, this is not a stretch considering we have 253 active members and attendees.

In reality, (though we have been talking a lot about the numbers) this is not about the numbers. The numbers are a tangible thing that represents individuals who are gathering for worship and being impacted by the Word of God. As your pastors, we care for you, pray for you, and long for the best for you. God has placed us here to minister among you for your blessing. Check Ephesians 4:11-14, emphasis on 13-14. We need you to show up and be involved, so that you receive the fruit of our work. Each person is important to our church.

So, we really need you to be reaching out to those you are challenging to make sure they are coming. We have to do this together!!!



GIVE. ME. FAITH. - The series continues this Sunday. Yesterday in a message called "Faith Grows" we found these 2 things in the life of Abraham.

1. Faith grows from believing God can only work in the natural to believing God can work in the supernatural.
2. Faith grows from trying to make God's word/promise happen in your timing & wisdom to trusting God's timing & wisdom.

Membership Discovery - Interested in joining First Baptist? Want more info about how our church operates, what our mission and values are? This is the place. Membership Discovery will be on February 13th at 5:00 in the Golden Circle Room.



Youth Centrifuge Camp - Parents: If your child will be attending Centrifuge for the first time with the youth group this summer, there will be an info meeting for you and your child this Wednesday at 7:30pm in the youth room.

Weekly Announcements (1.10.11)

GIVE. ME. FAITH. - Our series has started. This past Sunday we looked at Hebrews 11:1-6, one of the definitive passages in the Bible that tells us what faith is. Here's the link to our church's sermon audio page where you can listen to the message if you weren't here yesterday. If you'd like to read a brief part of the message, here's the link to Bro. Mark's personal blog with a recap of the idea that "If God exists, everything changes." Series continues next week with "Faith Grows".



The Challenge Continues - We had 173 people in attendance yesterday morning (including guests). This is improvement in the right direction, but we have a long way to go!!! Remember, we have 253 active members. So, the challenge continues. Will you step up and be here every week? Have you challenged your 5 to step up? Follow up with the people you challenged if they didn't show up on Sunday. We want you here!!!

Hot Topics - Series for Sunday night. You can still submit questions (via email or box in side lobby) until the series concludes.

Membership Discovery - Interested in join First Baptist? Want more info about how our church operates, what our mission and values are? This is the place. Membership Discovery will be on February 13th at 5:00 in the Golden Circle Room.


Prayer Week - Our week of corporate prayer is finished, but our job of prayer is never finished. Keep on praying church. Our God is great!!! He answers prayers!!! And, let's be looking for the answers to our prayers.

Prayer Week - Day 5 - Heart for God

It's the last day of our prayer week. I know I have been blessed this week, and I am in great expectation to see how God will answer our prayers. Here's the prayer guide for day 5 - topic is Heart for God.

Some Ideas to Get Us Started Praying for our Hearts

• pray for a personal passion for God
• pray for people to hunger after a daily time with the Lord
• that we would recognize the sin in our lives and would repent of that sin
• our hearts would break for what breaks God’s heart
• personal commitment to growing our knowledge of God and his holy word
• pray that we would hunger and thirst after righteousness
• our personal prayer times would be a vital part of our life
• that we would long to know God’s word
• pray our personal purity in all things
• that our personal worship would be passionate
• pray for boldness for the gospel

Some Scriptures to Pray for Our Heart for God

• Matthew 5:6
• Ephesians 3:17-19
• Romans 12:1-2
• Matthew 26:41
• 1 John 2:15-17
• 1 Thessalonians 1:6
• Romans 15:13
• Psalm 100:2
• Acts 28:30-31

Prayer Week - Day 4 - Church Leadership

Today's prayer focus is on our church leadership. We're using that term in a broader sense than just the pastoral leadership (see below).

Some Ideas to Get Us Started Praying for Our Leaders

Pastors

• our spiritual lives to be strong
• Mark and Brett to preach the Word strongly
• that we have vision for the future
• ability to make leadership decisions & moves
• that we would set a godly example
• music ministry would inspire genuine worship among us
• to be encouraged

Sunday School leaders

• knowledge and understanding of the Scripture
• ability to teach
• genuinely love the people in their SS groups

AWANA leaders

• patience and understanding of children’s hearts
• ready to share the gospel

Youth leaders

• understanding of issues that teens faces
• to show youth what a godly man or woman is

Deacons

• they would lead by example with their lives
• have a ministry and people focus

Some Scriptures to Pray for Our Leaders

• Ephesians 4:11-14
• Ephesians 3:14-19
• 1 Timothy 3:8-13
• 1 Timothy 5:17-18
• 1 Peter 5:1-5

Sermon Recap - Fulfilling the Joshua Challenge

I'm praying that 2011 is going to be a good year for us church. These are the slides from Sunday's message. If you missed it...then here you go. Please read the whole thing, all the way to the end.

The basic idea of these verses is that God calls his people to commit. We need to be challenged to step up our commitment b/c we drift. Gravity pulls us away from God and the church.

253 total people represents those who are involved to some extent (not those who fall into inactive status)

The smart people who do research on church growth tell us that 80% of seating capacity is as much as a church can seat on a recurring basis. For a one-time event (like Easter) we can seat over capacity, but we won't sit shoulder-to-shoulder on a weekly basis. We like our space.

Wow.

Our 2010 average was almost 100 below our the number of our members and attendees. This is unacceptable to me. It should be unacceptable to every one of us.

Commit - we are literally asking you not to miss this year (vacations excepted) - on Sunday mornings don't be on the lake, in the bed, on the golf course, out in the woods hunting, etc...
Create - we want to have a seating problem immediately

Engage - sing with us, open the Bible, serve in ministries with us, etc.
Expect - so often we don't even expect that God will show up and work...let's start expecting

MOST IMPORTANTLY - Take this challenge and pass it on to 5 other people. We want everybody to challenge 5 other people to commit, create, engage, expect.

Prayer Week - Day 3 - Work / Neighbors

Here's the prayer guide for day 3. Thanks for praying even if you can't be here. Later today I'll upload a really important post reviewing Sunday's message and challenge.

Some Ideas to Get Us Started Praying for Our Work and for Our Neighbors.

• pray to impact your work for the kingdom of God
• pray that our church would do all things to the glory of God
• that we would live out the love of Christ
• neighborhoods impacted for Christ
• our hearts would be turned to our lost neighbors and co-workers.
• our attitudes at work and home would reflect Christ
• that we would love our neighbor as ourselves
• we would recognize opportunities to share Christ

Some Scriptures to Pray

• Matthew 22:36-40
• Leviticus 19:18
• Colossians 3:23
• John 15:12-13
• James 2:8-10
• Galatians 5:14
• Proverbs 17:17
• Luke 6: 27-35

Prayer Week - Day 2 - Church

Here's the prayer guide for day 2 of our prayer week. The topic for day 2 is our church.

Some Ideas to Get Us Started Praying for Our Church

• that the gospel would be central to everything we do
• God to do a mighty work among us, a work different than anything we might expect
• that we will be willing to let God do his work among us
• that we will be hot in our evangelism here in Smithville
• that we are inviting people to church regularly
• many people to be saved through our church
• us to grow in the depth of our faith, to be rooted and grounded in Christ
• our commitment level to God and the church to greatly increase
• our worship times to be passionate
• God to raise up missionaries out of our church who will take the gospel around the world
• the preaching of the Word to be highly valued
• that there would be no divisions among us and that forgiveness would be quick when we hurt each other
• that love would be so evident among us that it is irresistible to those outside the church

Some Scriptures to Pray for Our Church

• John 15:1-8
• Acts 2:42-47; 11:19-26
• Romans 12:4-8
• Hebrews 2:10-12; 10:24-25
• James 2:1-4
• 1 John 4:7-12

Weekly Announcements (1.3.11)

Here's the roundup for the week.

• Prayer Week - This week is prayer week. If you're unable to make it, check the blog everyday for a new prayer guide. You can pray at home also. The guide for day 1 is already posted below (scroll down past this post to find it).
  

• GIVE. ME. FAITH. - Our new sermon series starts this Sunday. In all seriousness, I think this will be the most important series that I've preached since I've been at the church. Don't miss a week of this series.

• Stepping Up Our Commitment in 2011 - Hope you were here yesterday for worship. If not, there will be a repost here on the blog later this week. Here's the basic scoop: We are challenging you to commit to being here without fail every Sunday morning this year when you are in town...and we want you to pass the challenge on to 5 other people. More to come later this week. Stay tuned.

• AWANA returns - AWANA starts back this Wednesday.
  

Prayer Week - Day 1 - Home/Family

It's prayer week at First Baptist!!! We're praying everyday at 7am, 12 noon, and 6:30pm in the Golden Circle room. Come join us...but, we've got you covered even if you can't make it. We still want you praying with us, so we're posting our daily prayer guide on the blog for you to pray along.

Each day with have a different focus topic. Today we're praying for our families and homes. Here's today's guide...

Some Ideas to Get Us Started Praying for Our Homes and Families

• pray for a God-focus in our homes
• pray for men to lead their families spiritually
• children to hear the gospel from their parents
• children to see the gospel in their parents
• families to be committed to coming to worship
• for our children as they go to school (protection from the world’s influence, God to use them as witnesses)
• husbands to love and lead their wives as Christ loves and leads the church
• wives to follow their husband’s leadership
• protection from Satan and the world’s influence
• that our homes would be fertile soil for raising children who love God and want to change the world for Christ

Some Scriptures to Pray for Our Homes and Families

• Exodus 20:12
• Deuteronomy 6:6-8, 31:12
• Joshua 24:15
• Psalm 32:8; 103:17; 127:3-5
• Proverbs 22:6; 31:30
• Ephesians 5:21-6:4
• Titus 2:1-6