Children's Ministry Report

Hello all,

Within Children’s Ministry we have moved the kiosk from a parent check-in to Serve Team check-in at the end of the hallway.  This provides for greater safety and accountability for the children under our care.  In addition to our check-in/check-out process at the kiosk, for those who have children in the nursery, we are asking that before picking them up that the parent or guardian come to the kiosk to check them out.  We will then add stickers to the parent labels which indicate they have been checked out.  These can then be shown to the Children’s Ministry volunteers in the nursery.  By doing so, this not only allows for safety protocol to be implemented but also allows a thorough accounting of the children in our care.  If this is new to you, please know we desire to ensure the safety of your children.  Thank you for helping us to achieve excellence in this ministry.

A reminder: Please make sure you bring your parent labels back to the kiosk to allow swift check-out.

Our kids were so happy to be involved in the Christmas Eve service, wearing nativity costumes and singing “Away In The Manger.”  Overall, this event went very well.  Several adult volunteers stepped up to manage the masses.  Additionally, in the costuming process our 10-13 year old group, which has been led by Karenjean Crawford and David Hull was very active; helping the smaller kids get dressed.  This enabled the quick transition.  It was such a blessing to witness their servant hearts as they sought to be a part of, and to provide support for, the Barefoot Kids Ministry.  For the help of all, I was, and am very thankful.

Being within the Winter term of our studies the children are learning about Jesus.  YAY!  It is always such a blessing to see the children’s minds spark questions, seeking to understand God’s word.  One of the blessings of the children’s curriculum of Heart Shapers is the interaction within the classes.  There is curriculum now in place at the Nursery (0-2), Pre-K (3-5) and Elementary (6-9) year old levels. 

As always, within children’s ministry, those who volunteer have a great desire to change hearts for Christ…one lesson at a time.  Thank you for your support of this ministry.

In Christ,

Teresa D. Hanson (Children’s Ministry Leader Sub.)

Choir Director's Report

Psalm 68:3 says:   

“Let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God.”

Dear First Baptist Church Members, 

Come, rejoice with me that we have so many people in our congregation who joyfully contribute their talents to our various musical groups. 

The people in our musical groups are dedicated to serving God through music. If this appeals to you, please join in with one of the groups listed below:

    Men’s Gospel Singers Sanctuary Choir 

    SiSS Singers ( Sisters in Sacred Song )

    Baptist Belles ’n Beaus Hand Bell Choir

All total, we currently have forty plus people involved in our musical groups! Approximately twenty-five people are regularly involved in our singing groups and fifteen in our bell choirs, but we have room for more.  In addition, we have others who are able to join in with us at certain times of the year but not year around.  We welcome them also for they add much to our on-going efforts.  So, if you can be a part-time participant, we would welcome you too if you have the desire to serve God with us through music. 

Our groups prepare and present their special music with one purpose in mind. We desire to present musical messages which will significantly enhance the worship experience of each person who comes to church to worship God.    

Will you join us?

“Sing”cerely  -  Betty  -

Associate Pastor's Report

As I contemplate all that has happened in 2018, I find that there is so much to celebrate, rejoice, and give thanks for!  While change can often seem slow and so incremental to us, God is so good and faithful to walk us through His plan in His perfect timing!

This year, the Praise Team was able to welcome one new member, Greg Crawford, who has blessed us with his many vocal and instrumental abilities!

Serve Team has seen several exciting changes in 2018.  The first was to begin working on adding a security component to our serve team where specific members have been tasked with being aware of and responding to immediate issues of safety in our building. 

Serve Team has also folded Coffee & Conversation into its list of responsibilities.  In December, a sign-up sheet was posted up on the bulletin board for people who wish to provide snacks in the January-March quarter (the availability of this sign-up sheet was also announced in the worship services).  In March we will post a sign-up sheet for April-June.  In June there will be a sign-up sheet for the July-September quarter.  Finally, in September there will be a sign-up sheet for October-December.

When someone signs up to provide snacks for Coffee & Conversation, they will receive a reminder email the Wednesday before they serve and either a text or a phone call the Friday before they serve with information about who they are serving with.

On weeks where two people are signed up to provide snacks, Coffee and Conversation will run as it always has.  On weeks where only one person is signed up for Coffee and Conversation, a serve team member from first service will help them plate their goodies (along with some goodies provided by the church) at approximately 8:50 a.m. and a second service serve team member will help them move the goodies out to the table and then clean up afterwards.  On weeks where no one has signed up for Coffee and Conversation, the serve team will handle the whole process.

We are also excited to welcome Nina Nenahlo as our new head of the Serve Team Department!  While I will still ultimately be responsible for the overall direction of the team, Nina will handle the day-to-day training and implementation of the team!  I am looking forward to working closely with her and to see how God will bless and grow this ministry under her guidance! 

Finally, our Serve Team has taken some hits this year in the number of adults who have had to step away from this ministry.  If you love serving others and find joy in the behind-the-scenes details of making an empty building into a place that is warm and welcoming and love the idea of having the opportunity to welcome searching people into our building to experience God’s love, would you prayerfully consider how God might be calling you to participate in this vital ministry?

I continue to be blown away by our Small Groups program!  It is overwhelming to watch first-hand the personal growth that God is cultivating in individuals within the groups, hear about answers to prayer, and hear stories of how people were blessed by the content and other people in the groups over and over and over again!  Praise God!!

In the spring of 2018, First Baptist had 66 people in five groups. In the summer we had 18 people in two groups.  In the fall, we had 61 people in six groups and were able to introduce a new group especially for our 10-13 year old kids who are too old for Children’s Church but not quite old enough for our Youth Group program. 

Some of the projects that the groups participated in were church work parties and clean-ups, visiting shut-ins, decorating the church, providing a meal for TAFY, hosting a “Mommy and Me Pampering and Tea” event for young, at risk mothers in our community, hosting a cleaning supply drive for DSHS, hosting a Foster Parent Appreciation Dinner, picking up trash at a local park, gathering together to turn old plastic shopping bags into sleeping mats for homeless people, assisting to make hanging flower baskets for a TAFY fundraiser, hosting a children’s book drive for First Steps, hosting a suitcase drive for DSHS, and several others.

Pie with the Pastor continues to be a successful and exciting event where new guests can learn more about our church and find out how to get plugged in at First Baptist.  We hosted 23 new people over three events this past year!

Volunteer Summit has been an excellent tool for training and encouraging our volunteers, communicating vision and changes in ministry, on-ramping new volunteers, and giving our volunteers the opportunity to communicate problems.  Often, accomplishing these things on Sunday mornings alone are just not possible.  Having teams get together two to three times a year for these special events goes a long way to maintain momentum, quality, and continuity across our ministries, as well as stimulate growth!  Thank you so much to those who are giving these trainings priority in your schedules!  You are truly the back-bone of your ministries! 

It was a bit of a light year out at Camp David Jr this past Memorial Day weekend with only 53 campers for our annual Family Camp event.  Despite being small, it was still an intimate and wonderful time with a core group of campers!  Our speaker was our very own Hillary Gentile who taught on prayer. 

On August 19th, our church hosted our Celebrate Life Sunday event (with 130 people in attendance).  Following our worship service we had a free lunch (put on by Outreach), games for children, a bounce house, and a dunk tank.  Habitat for Humanity, an organization that comes along underprivileged members of our community and helps make home ownership more accessible, came and shared about all their organization is doing.  We were able to donate $2,000 to Habitat through this event! 

One of the things that I very much appreciate about serving in our congregation is the high priority placed on training.  This year I was able to attend the Northwest Ministry Conference with Tim Hughes, Hillary Gentile, Kim Ciaciuch, and David in March of 2018, a Fresh Expressions Pastor’s Conference with Tim and a fellow Mission Northwest pastor in March 2018, and finally the Leadership Tune-up at Rosspoint with Tim, Macy Marquez, David, Hillary Gentile, and Nina Nenahlo in September of 2018.  Fresh ideas, inspiration, motivation, and time to dream with other leaders about where God may be leading us as a church is so key to keeping the church moving forward and preventing burn out.  Thank you for not only offering these opportunities to us as leaders, but encouraging them!

Something that has been crucial to my own personal journey in 2018 has been realizing a distinct call to ministry within my role at First Baptist and really wrestling with the theology on women in leadership.  From this I have more fully begun to embrace and step into the role of an associate pastor over the course of the year.  Thank you so much to those who have been walking in prayer with me in this, to those who have raised questions and asked for clarification over the theology, as well as to those who have been encouraging, offered feedback, and spurred growth within me.  You all have blessed my spirit beyond what you can imagine!

I also cannot thank the volunteers across all the teams that I work with enough!  Your passion and dedication to your Lord, your church, and your ministry are such a blessing!  Thank you for participating in the body of Christ, for being the hands, feet, eyes, shoulders, etc that God has called you to be!  I pray that “...the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit.  All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better”! (Colossians 1:10)

May God bless you and build you up in His Spirit!

Lynn Crawford

Pastor's Report

The final sermon series before the beginning of the 2018 advent season was a study through the troubling book, 1st Peter.  I say it is a troubling book because it is largely about trouble, specifically the trouble we Christians should expect to face as we live faithful lives within a faithless world.  While our clear preference would be to live free of pain and sorrow, this isn’t the promise we are given in scripture.  Rather, Jesus clearly teaches that a life of faith is one which is willing to pick up our cross and to follow him (Luke 9:23).   After all, says Jesus, the world hates him and so too will it hate us (John 15:18-25).

The observant reader may have noticed that I state that it was 1st Peter which was the troubling book, but both the references above are from the Gospels, and not 1st Peter.  And you, oh reader, are correct.  This is because Peter remains true to the teachings of Jesus in his letter.  Within our lives difficulties will arise.  And as in our own lives individually, so too within the church.  Challenges, struggles, heartache, hardship - these ought not surprise us for we have been forewarned.  And yet, it seems, we are always surprised.

So then what’s it all for?  What’s it all about?  Isn’t the Bible supposed to be “Good News”?  Where is the “Good” within this News”?

Well, now I will quote from Peter’s letter, for he says:

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 

(NIV: 1 Peter 2:9)

My friends, we have been chosen out of this world into the promise of the world to come.  We’ve been taken from the darkness into his wonderful light; and come what may, we can continue to live within this hope and expectation.  And not only have we already been rescued from all that this world may do to us, even as some suffering may be yet to come …, we have also been raised up to a new life with a new purpose.  Not only have we been redeemed from the darkness, we have been made royal priests.  

Royal because we have been adopted into God’s family.

Priests, because we have be given a great commission.  We are to go out into all the world and proclaim the truth of Jesus and his gift of salvation.

It is because we have been faithful to our position as royal priests that we have seen a wonderful revitalization of our congregation over the past many years.  In the past 10 years we’ve had more baptisms than the previous 30 years combined!  Such outreach and success is only found when we are faithful to the call God has given to his people.  This is why we can celebrate that in 2018 we added 18 people as members of our church and nine of those were by baptism.

And yet …

While our trend has clearly been toward growth, evangelism, and new faith, 2018 was also a year of farewells.  While we added 18 people by baptism, we have released 27 people from membership.  There are a variety of reasons that people have left, including 5 of our faithful saints who have been welcomed into the arms of our Savior.  

A good number have left us because they’ve sought out employment in other communities.  The number of goodbyes grows even larger when we consider the people who have moved that, though regular attenders, never took the step of joining the church.  

2018 is the first time in 13 years that we closed out the year with fewer members than with whom we began. 

This loss is magnified by way of the unique demographics of our church, by and large we are missing two generations.  The 9:30 service is predominately comprised of people who are part of the Builder Generation.  The 11:00 is predominately comprised of people who are part of the Millennial Generation.  We are sorely lacking in people who are part of the Boomer Generation and Generation Xers.

Of course the good news in this is that a decade ago we didn’t even have the Millennials, which we now do.  And praise the Lord for that growth.

But because we have so few people in the age range of 40 to 65, we are missing much of the unique strengths that demographic would bring to our church.  Speaking in generalities, that age range tends to be the years where we have the most free time to volunteer within the church because our kids are either in high school or have left the home.  We also have the most freedom to be financially generous as we’ve established ourselves within our professions, but are not yet living on a fixed income.  And by our 40’s to 60's we will have enough years under our belt, or perhaps hanging over our belts just a bit, that we bring a bit of extra wisdom and experience to the church.

Of course, as our Builder Generation knows all too well, the whippersnappers among us are gonna blink, and suddenly their 30’s will be behind them; and they’ll be in the midst of their 40’s with their 50th birthday staring them down.  And they’ll wonder how they got there so fast.  

So long as we keep pressing forward, true to the royal call of our priesthood, this is where we will find ourselves come the annual report for 2028.  But, alas, that is still a decade away; and this is the report looking back on 2018 where our membership has declined, and families have moved away.  

So, what are we to do?  The answer is, we turn to scripture, and we heed the calling of our Lord.  We continue to recognize that we are the ROYAL PRIESTHOOD.  We take upon ourselves the challenge presented to Esther by her uncle Mordichi.  Esther, faced with the challenge of standing for God’s People did not shrink away, but rose to the challenge, heeding the words of her uncle:  “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (NIV: Esther 4:14).

We too have a royal position as priests within God’s kingdom.  We know there will be challenges.  We know there will be occasions to rise up and press onward.  We know that we must never lose the urgency of reaching the lost with the hope of the Gospel; and we must be willing to surrender our desires to him, to do whatever he asks, and to give whatever he demands, that more would come to know him.

When our Children’s Ministry struggles for lack of teachers; when our volunteer positions remain vacant; when our budget struggles to meet expenses; when our pews appear more empty than full on a Sunday morning this is our opportunity to rise up to our royal position, and to remember our call to “Lead People in an Ever Changing Culture to the Hope of Jesus.” 

For to such a time as this, you have been appointed to the royal priesthood of God.  Let us go forth, and declare Jesus to a world lost in sin and darkness; and which is in desperate need of being brought into the light.

- Pastor Tim