We are heading into the final stretch of 2024! Let’s gather together Sunday to remember what amazing things God has done for the last three months, share our stories, humble our selves to remember our Lord’s sacrifice at the Lord’s Supper, and rejoice as we encourage each other to FINISH the year strong for Jesus! Don’t miss this special time of worship!
Over 75% of Americans battle loneliness. It doesn’t have to be you! Come find out why “You Belong Here” #BacktoChurch
We’re having a special service specifically designed to welcome people back to church, so now is a good time to start praying about who you will invite.
This year’s Back to Church Sunday theme is “You Belong Here,” based on Romans 15:7. The fact is that 75% of Americans admit to feeling deep loneliness. In addition, the number of Americans with no close friends has tripled since 1985. That’s why we are here – for people to get plugged in, form friendships, and have the chance to serve together in the community.
So join us Sunday September 15th for #BacktoChurch Sunday at 9:30 or 11:00 am. We’re talking about how “You Belong Here”!
This is the perfect opportunity to invite your friends, family, neighbors and coworkers to join you and grow deeper in their faith, or perhaps encounter God for the first time.
You will be taken back to the clear instructions God gives on how to grow up and please Him. This seminar will teach you how important it is to mature in your faith, God’s way, and how to measure your progress.
We will meet on the back porch and start at 11 am. If you have a Next Step notebook from a Meet & Greet, Membership Info Dinner, or a Next Step Class please bring them with you. The pages that I will give you are a manual of great detail to help you in your life long journey with God. I will not cover all of this while we have our six hours together, but I will lay down a clear and concise Bible Study sharing the foundational steps to grow up God’s way.
There are audio recordings and more details on my website Seven Steps to Maturity, thousands have found it useful. The site is at https://7steps.klptv.com/front-page/ and may help you understand what God expects of you to grow spiritually if you want the extra help. This seminar will encourage you to take your growth and walk with God more seriously than your career, hobbies, and personal enjoyments of this life.
SEPTEMBER
08 (Week 1) Introduction – The Four Phases of Spiritual Life/ The Seven Steps / Step 1 Examined
You will learn how to measure your spiritual growth, why you must be determined to advance spiritually, and how to focus on your first step of obedience. When you are convicted of your sin, admit and repent you are born again. Your sins are forgiven but just a spiritual infant! You must be changed.You must fight with every ounce of new faith you have, cling to every promise you find in God’s Word, and rush to other believers to help you.
22 (Week 2) Step 2 – With All Your Diligence Use Your New Virtue to Add Knowledge
Because we talk about knowledge and read the Bible and other books does not mean we KNOW God! You read and get some knowledge, but if you concentrate on building godly character you will begin to experience GOD! We will help you understand how.
29 (Week 3) Step 3 – Exercise Your Knowledge of God to Develop Self-Control.
When you begin Step 3 you enter strength training. Your goal is to combine your faith, your character, and your knowledge of God to become strong in the Lord. Your spiritual life will begin to reflect restraint and self-control. The desire to please God starts to merge with the strength and power to resist the devil.
OCTOBER
13 (Week 4) Step 4 – With Every Bit of Self-Control You MUST Push Forward and Stand Up and Conquer
Use your new self-defense mechanism, the power of self-control, to turn the tide and become a conqueror! Our savior expects us to go and march forward in the spiritual fight for this generation.
20 (Week 5) Step 5 – Use Your Steadfast Strength, Develop Godliness, & Become the Servant of God
Train yourself for godliness. You must learn to have complete dependance upon Him for your life. To be godly is to be like Jesus who loved and served the Father by serving others as your normal and everyday way of life.
27 (Week 6) Steps 6 & 7 As you invest in others by serving them, you will begin to love them
In Step 6 we learn to love our fellow Christians. This is where your spiritual strength and steadfastness are needed and revealed to accomplish whatever assignment your Lord calls you to tackle. The whole concept of this step is clear. It takes a godlike person, relying on the fruit of the Spirit, to love people like God does. Brotherly kindness does not come easily, it takes a lot of forgiveness and patience.
Every step of spiritual maturity leads us to the final step, developing the passion of loving even your enemies with no need of anything in return. Even though we need godliness to love our fellow Christians in the biblical way, we really need godliness plus strong friendship to actually love the world that hates us.
MISSIONS SEPTEMBER 2024 – NORTH AMERICA MISSIONS
A Mission Field in Need of Hope
The North American Mission Board serves a diverse and complex region comprised of: United States, Canada and U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa
Your prayers and gifts to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering® provide support for thousands of missionaries. These men and women are planting new churches in unreached communities and meeting needs through compassion ministries. Every day, lives are being impacted and transformed.
371 Million population 281 Million estimated lost
350 Languages 3000+ Missionaries
Because of this, Southern Baptist churches have planted more than 11,000 churches in North America since 2010
100% of your gifts go to the mission field
85% Church Planting
10% Evangelism & Compassion Ministry
03% Sending & Leadership
02% Missions Education
Church Planting – financial funding and benefits for planting missionaries, training, recruitment, ministry assistance for equipment and outreach missionary housing, missionary care.
Evangelism and Compassion Ministries – evangelism resource materials and events, financial funding and benefits for missionaries involved in compassion ministry.
Sending and Leadership – mobilization events, leadership resources and events, funding for short-term student missionaries.
Missions Education – resources and training focused on mission field education for recruitment and mobilization of church planting missionaries.
Gifts are accepted all year. 100% of your Annie Armstrong Easter Offering gifts support thousands of missionaries in church planting and compassion ministry.
The greatest problem in the world is lostness. The only solution to this problem is the gospel. Together, Southern Baptists send IMB missionaries to be steadfastly present among people and places where Jesus is not named or known.
Southern Baptists send IMB missionaries to be steadfastly present among those who have never heard the gospel — people in cities, people in hard-to-reach places, and people who are dispersed and displaced around the world. At the IMB, we believe that missionary presence cultivates gospel access, gospel belief, and church planting and multiplication. Gospel access that knows no geographic or social boundary. Gospel belief that results in lives transformed. Church planting and multiplication that leads to local ownership of God’s mission. God has made our purpose clear. Together, we seek to take the gospel to every nation, all tribes and peoples and languages. We give ourselves to this mission every day.
We are witnessing God’s movement among the nations. Let’s rejoice in highlights from this past year.
We collect and publish statistics annually. This data reflects information from the Annual Statistical Report, 2023 Data-Year (IMB) published in May 2024.
Are You a Mature Christian? How do you know? Is there a Biblical way to know if you are maturing in the faith? Does God give us a way to measure growth?
Absolutely! In Seven Steps To Maturity, Randy Bell shares powerful insights from two of Christ’s closest friends, John and Peter. You will be taken back to the clear instructions God gives on how to grow up and please Him. This class will teach you how important it is to mature in the faith God’s way, and how to measure your progress. And also Peter warns you must follow this narrow way. “But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins. So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away. Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:9-11 (NLT)
In all levels of normal public education, a very systematic and calculated program is established. Each level achieved, lays the foundation for the next level. First, basic concepts are laid as a foundation, then more complex principles are added, followed by specific applications. Simply said, a kindergartner is given basic information. Then the elementary grades lay down strong foundations for the students. Next, the middle and high school build and develop larger principles, since the basics are already understood. Finally, the college level training applies very specific applications to turn the abstract ideas, information, and concepts into real world activities and jobs.
No one in their right mind would try to teach college level math to a first grader, nor brain surgery to a fifth grader. Without a clear developed path of learning, a child would never be able to eventually become a trusted brain surgeon. The dangers of having brain surgery would be astronomical with a chaotic and random learning process. Everyone understands the necessity of carefully planned education.
But, the church is so fragmented and confused there is little thought involved in teaching the Word with the purpose of developing maturity. Few if any use a graded or measurable way of maturing believers. Because of this, there is little understanding of the Bible in the rank and file. In fact, mass confusion is leading the church into self destruction.
Research proves the vast majority of kids today that have grown up in the church quit as soon as possible. Divorce is more prevalent in the church than the culture without God. In general, the average Christian cannot coherently explain the main concepts of the Bible, let alone apply them to their lives for the promised life of blessing that God’s Word offers.
Because of this great need today, we offer a simple to understand, but Biblical, plan for spiritual maturity. Even though we mostly teach adults in the church, it is hard to see that many are only spiritual infants or children.
Registration required!
Here what is going to happen this weekend. First, Pastor Carl is back and will be teaching us about prayer and God’s amazing responses to His people when we seriously call upon Him. In Acts 12:5-19 we will see how the Lord miraculously responded to the church. Most in our day doubt God will answer, but some of them did also. He answered anyway!
Make sure you make it early too. If you attend the first worship at 9:30 come by 9:15, grab a cup of coffee and a doughnut and get to know your brothers and sisters in Christ. The same goes for the 11 am worship. Come by 10:45 and befriend others.
The song list is: 1/ Plead the Blood 2/ Strength Will Rise 3/ Same God To practice them with lyrics type WORSHIP and text to 844-870-8490.
