They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So my quarterly report will be the shortest two thousand word update you’ve ever read.
Below is a picture taken on October 18th, 2009.
This was our contemporary service in it’s infancy. We met in the youth group room so the small gathering of the handful of people didn’t feel so small. I remember at this time starting each service by standing over the drums and praying that God would bring us a drummer. I remember standing over the guitar and praying that God would bring us a guitar player. I remember praying over empty chairs and praying for God to bring us people who need to hear his word.
And this little service started to grow. And in 2012 we did something courageous and forward thinking. We made the decision to move this budding service from it’s time slot at 9:30 to 11:00. We did this largely because we at First Baptist value families and we knew it was hard for families to arrive early. And because we were hoping to connect with people who don’t yet know Jesus and therefore won’t yet value church, we wanted to remove unnecessary barriers. So by an overwhelming majority vote of the church we decided to take this budding, family-centric, service and move it to the 11:00 time.
And see now this second photo, taken from my view at the baptismal at the front of the sanctuary during the second service this past Sunday (April 16, 2017.)
At this service we had 171 people attend, between both services there were 221 people at church this day. And 47 of those 171 people were children! Folks, we had nearly 50 kids in church this past Sunday! I remember the days when we celebrated there were three kids in the nursery. Now our struggle is how do we get enough volunteers to help manage all our kids. Isn’t being faithful to God and His vision a beautiful thing?
If you look closely at this photo, for the first time in my 10 years as pastor, we actually had people sitting in chairs outside the sanctuary looking in from the side windows. This service has gone from being unable to fill the youth room to over-flowing the sanctuary. Praise God!
And the most joyful number on this day is the 12 people we baptized. We thank God for the decisions made by:
Rebekah Luker, Jamie Miller, Ruth Ann Pingley, Aaron Tomlinson, Reed Morace, Bailey Tatiano
Lily Picinich, Jeff Picinich, Chelsey Hudson, Kenzie Spurgess, Drake Anderson, Jason Anderson
May we continue to lean into the future that God has for our church as we commit fully to His mission to share His Good News with those who do not yet know Him OR as we have worded it for our church may we continue to “Lead people in an ever changing culture to the hope of Jesus.”
Blessings all! Pastor Tim