As we look forward to this next year and are excited about what’s to come, I can’t help but take a glance backward and be excited about all that has happened in 2016.
Chris and Stacie Cummings stepped down from their roles at FBC and have stepped up to work with the youth in our community through Young Life. To cover this huge void, our church was able to raise up several new volunteer leaders to take their place as well as bring me on full-time. I am continuing to lead worship in the 2nd service as well as further develop areas in our church that help us to “connect”. If you’ve received an email from me signed “Connections Administrator” that’s why! Part of my job is to help anyone who walks through our doors participate in the part of our Vision Statement that talks about connecting.
Helping to plan small groups this past year has been amazing! We tried a hiking group and a community service group that were successful. The amount of projects our groups participated in this year was exciting! Two groups in our most recent fall semester partnered together to do a clothes drive for TAFY. Our church was able to bless TAFY with 46 jackets, 23 pairs of jeans, 6 pairs of shoes, 89 pairs of socks, 45 pairs of underwear, and 15 undershirts! Wow! Praise God! Another group caroled at Crestwood and still another gave Christmas gifts to families in need (just to mention a few!). I cannot say this loud enough or often enough: good work First Baptist Church!!! I love our people’s generous, kind, and loving hearts!
We also started a new event called “Pie With the Pastor” that happens once every 4 months (purposefully placed during the time when small group sign-ups are happening and just before our volunteer training event, Volunteer Summit). This simple lunch serves as an opportunity for visitors and new members to hear about our church, learn how to get involved, and get any questions they may have answered. It is an exciting opportunity to be able to offer clear instruction on how our church operates. Things that may have taken new people many months or a couple of years to figure out for themselves can now be answered in one easy (and enjoyable), frustration-free hour!
So what exciting things are coming up in 2017 at First Baptist? Let me tell you about them!!
The first is our All Volunteer Summit coming up on January 17th. Some of our volunteer groups will be be meeting to train at the 5:30pm session and the 7:30pm session, but we are inviting ALL of our volunteers from ALL of our departments to come to the 6:30pm meal session! We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our volunteers for the amazing work that they do! Our meal will be provided by Brad Tesreau’s “Barbecue” and there will be a gift for each volunteer who comes to the meal! If you volunteer in any capacity in our church, I hope you will be able to come and celebrate with us!
The second exciting thing is that at this coming All Volunteer Summit, the serve team is going to be training on a visitor table that will stand out in our narthex as an area where visitors can go to have any immediate questions answered! Yet another thing to make our church more comfortable and welcoming for our visitors!
And finally, I get to announce our Spring Small Groups! We have a great line-up of leaders and classes they’re excited to lead! These will be starting on the week of January 29:
Christian
Sundays at 6:30pm
Led by Maureen Hartman
Hosted by Sheila Miller
Movie available for kids
Women’s Small Group: Discovering God’s Will for Your Life
Fridays at 10am
Led by Bernice Cook
Co-lead/hosted by Brooke Cowan
Make Room
Thursdays at 6:30
Led by Hillary Gentile
Co-lead/hosted by Deziree Greenstreet
Resolving Everyday Conflict
Led by Rhys Crawford
Hosted in the FBC Youth Room
Kid-friendly
I hope reading through this gets you excited for the new year! As always, if there is a ministry that you are excited to get involved with I would love to help get you connected with the right people and get you started!
Praying that God is showing you new things every day as you follow and hunger after Him!
God bless! Lynn Crawford
Worship Director/Connections Administrator