Barefoot Kids Report

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“We encourage families to reinforce each child’s confidence in the Lord’s ability to strengthen and protect them.”

Fall has returned, and with it our regular Sunday School schedule for kids.  Nursery care is available for both services, with Pre-K through Kindergarten and grades first through fourth for older children in second service.  Children in fifth grade or above may remain in worship with their families.

This quarter, we encourage kids to apply Bible truths to their lives.  We’ll be exploring how God kept His promises to the Israelites through Noah, Abraham, Joseph, and Moses.  We encourage families to reinforce each child’s confidence in the Lord’s ability to strengthen and protect them.

In order to provide the most effective learning environment for our children, each class assigned a lead teacher and assistant.  Currently, we urgently need Nursery staff for both services, and class room assistants during the second service.  If you are older than eighteen and love children, we ask that you prayerfully consider committing one or more Sundays per month as an assistant or substitute.

Let’s make this a great year for our kids.

Karenjean Crawford

Karen Gentzler

Choral Corner with Instrumental Insight

“We truly enjoy contributing choral anthems into our services for the purpose of enhancing everyone’s worship experience.”

Summer vacations are over, kids are back in school and our Sanctuary Choir is in full operation. Our enthusiastic choral singers sang the traditional Zulu song: "We Are Marching in the Light of the Lord" on Sept. 29th to our very appreciative 9:30 morning worshippers. Thank you congregation for your happy response. We truly enjoy contributing choral anthems into our services for the purpose of enhancing everyone's worship experience. Within the next three months the choir also is planning to sing on Commitment Sunday, Oct. 27th, Thanksgiving Sunday, Nov. 24th, plus three times during the Christmas Season: Dec. 8th, 15th & 22nd.

Have you noticed our newest singers: Warren Eacret, Jan Isett and Randy Bailey? They are important additions to our choir as well as three people who, after having to be away for awhile, are able to sing with us again. We are so glad to welcome back: Missi Koon, Jenny Elofson and Trent Danielson.

Our prayers now are with those in choir who are facing major health issues. We miss you and pray for your swift & complete recovery. We are so thankful that others in our choir who also have had major health challenges such as Ray Hanson plus Don & Carolyn Miller have been able to return to full participation. We are grateful to have such loyal singers. God bless everyone of our choral members in their Christian walk and in their dedication to our choir's musical purpose.

If others in our congregation are singers and looking for a place where they can serve 

God in our church, I would encourage you to consider coming to our choir rehearsals for awhile. Perhaps you also will discover the joy of serving God through sacred choral music and be blessed in the process.

“Sing"cerely,

- Betty -

Pastor's Report

Dear Flock,

Do you suppose Jesus ever had a sermon he didn’t want to preach?  It’s a question worth pondering.  Did the Father ever lay a message on Jesus’ heart that the human part of Jesus responded to by saying, “Yes, Father, I know you are right… but boy is this gonna make me unpopular.”

There is a famous sermon Jesus once gave that is now known as the “Seven Woes”.  In that sermon he said things like this to the religious leaders of his day:

“23 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. 24 Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel!”  - Matthew 23:23-24

I believe it to be very possible that going into that message that day there was part of Jesus that said - “OK Father, you want me to give THIS message?” 

We know from Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane that Jesus was not eager to go to the cross, and such sermons as this certainly didn’t win Jesus any favor among those who would later cry out “Crucify him!  Crucify him!”

We are often told in our culture today that there are three subjects we should just avoid if we are to participate in “polite society’.  These subjects are “Religion, Politics and Money”.

Well friends, guess what… Jesus spoke often about all three… very often. Indeed the passage quoted above is about BOTH religion and money, at the same time! 

Friends, I’ve a confession to make - as your pastor I don’t always want to deliver the message that I feel God lay on my heart.  Indeed, any minister sensitive to the Spirit’s leading is familiar with this feeling. This October we will enter the season of our church calendar that I approach always with a little feeling of dread because this is the time of the year we talk about one of the subjects I like preaching on the least, but that spoke about quite often… money. 

“Indeed of the 39 parables Jesus told, 11 of them were about finances. If my preaching schedule was to follow this same ratio (28.21%), I’d be preaching about money about 14 to 15 times a year.”

Indeed of the 39 parables Jesus told, 11 of them were about finances.  If my preaching schedule was to follow this same ratio (28.21%), I’d be preaching about money about 14 to 15 times a year.  

Fortunately, I’ve not (yet) felt lead to do so.  But for the month of October, we will be taking seriously Jesus’ statement in verse 23 from his sermon above that “you should tithe, yes…”

We will be discussing what a tithe is, why being faithful with our finances is part of being faithful in how we follow Jesus, and the blessings that come from following the Biblical directives in how we manage what God has entrusted to us.

And my favorite part of this season, is we are going to get to hear personal testimony from a few people within the congregation who have practiced God-pleasing stewardship in their own lives and how they have found blessings from following God’s directive.

It is true… each year as I enter this season of planning and preparation, I do so with a hint of dread.  That cultural teaching that some subjects are off-limits runs deep in my people-pleasing heart.  And yet each year that we come out of this study I find that being faithful to the prompting of the Spirit has led to blessing.  Imagine that! 

I am looking forward to this month of study with each of you.  And let me say this: If finances are a source of stress in your life, it is my belief that learning how God calls us to faithfulness with our resources will lead to joy.  Indeed, anytime we follow God’s direction, it leads to joy.

Blessings all,

Pastor Tim

Associate Pastor's Report

What a wonderful summer! I hope everyone is settling into their fall routines well and enjoying getting back to “life as usual”!

As we gear up for fall, I wanted to update you on some exciting changes coming to our tech department. 

You may well be aware that for several months now we have been live-streaming our second service on Facebook just using a simple smartphone and tripod set up. It has enabled people who have been ill, out of town, or trapped in inclement weather to be able to connect with us. While it has been a good start to our online service, it has not been without its bumps. Admittedly, the audio on the sermon can be difficult to hear, and while you can certainly tell what you are looking at on the screen, it isn’t the best quality video either.

To help compensate for some of these things, we will be training soon on a newly purchased MEVO video camera and app that allows the videographer to control the camera from their phone from the balcony and plugin directly to the sound board’s feed of the sermon! The app will also allow for smoother zooms and pans.

If helping out with this new online service is something you are interested in doing, please reach out and let us know! In our modern culture of digital content and handheld devices, reaching out online has become more and more crucial to church growth and we need volunteers who are excited to be a part of these changes that will reach the next generation.

We are also looking for volunteers in our Tech Department, Barefoot Kids, Barefoot Students, and Serve Team for the following positions:

• 2nd service sound tech

• 2nd service camera tech (referenced above) 

• 2nd service projection tech

• Two 2nd service online greeters

• Two 1st service nursery assistant teachers

• 2nd service Sunday school assistant teacher

• Wednesday evening youth group leaders

• 1st service serve team member

• Two 2nd service serve team members

• 2nd service child/youth elevator monitor

Will you please join me in praying over these positions and how God can use First Baptist to love the people around us?

May God bless and enrich your time with Him!

Lynn Crawford

Associate Pastor