Even though the day be laden
and my task dreary
and my strength small,
a song keeps singing
in my heart.
For I know that I am Thine.
I am part of Thee.
Thou are kin to me,
and all my times
are in Thy hand.
By Alistair Maclean
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does. (James 1:22-25)
Our good thoughts are not enough. If we talk about loving others and taking care of each other and are not involved in doing it, or not allow ourselves enough time in a day to be able to help a neighbor, then our words are meaningless. We have looked in the mirror only to forget what we look like. We have lost the teaching.
Instead we need to continue looking into the perfect law and doing what God has laid on our hearts to do. Is there something today that God has been speaking to you about that you have been putting off? Is there something you have been making excuses about? Maybe something that you have been busying your life so you won’t have to deal with or do? Now is the time. Now is the moment. Drop what you are doing and go. You don’t go alone, you go with the best help you can get, with the Holy Spirit. Trust him as you go and he will lead you.
Here am I, Lord,
I’ve come to do Your will.
Here am I, Lord,
in your presence I’m still.
I came across this short prayer in my devotions this morning. So small and easy to memorize and yet so powerful. How often do we say Here am I, Lord? How often are we open and available for God to use. We fill our lives as full as we can and usually it is overflowing with things to do. This short prayer though makes space, makes time, makes a moment to sit with God. It reprioritizes our lives with the focus back on God. We are here to do His Will. We are here to sit in His presence, open and ready and waiting on Him. Take a moment today to prayer this prayer. Say it throughout the day. Remember it and breathe it as you go throughout the busyness and remember who you belong to!
Saturday, February 13, 2010 4:30-7:00 p.m.
First Baptist Church of Williamson Fellowship Hall
Adults - $8.00 Children 10 and under - $4.00
The First Baptist Church is raising funds for materials needed by our Dominican Republic Mission Team for their trip in April. Come out on February 13th and treat your valentine to a special night with friends!
Tickets are $8.00 in advance for adults and $4.00 for children 10 and under, limited to 100 dinners and you get a full plate of: Homemade Lasagna, Tossed Salad, Warm Garlic Bread, Chocolate Dessert, And Choice of Beverage
Call the church at (315) 589-2384 to reserve your ticket
or e-mail us at info@williamsonfbc.org.
For Takeouts please call the church. Hope to see you there!
Ever since the conference this past November with Dr. Jeff Johnson, I’ve been thinking about a word he used over and over, Intentionality. When I look through the pages of Acts and see the thousands of people coming to Christ, it makes me wonder why that doesn’t happen today. It seems that all these disciples had to do was preach and people would turn their lives over to Christ. The Great Commission was happening spontaneously as the Spirit led them.
Today though, the mission field is a little different and the Great Commission cannot be expected to just happen on its own. Yes there will be times that people step through our doors miraculously and become a part of Body of Christ, but more and more we are finding that the people outside the doors of the church do not think they need Christ in their lives. Also we are finding that there are less and less ways that we come in contact with people. Drive-thrus, ATM machines, self-checkout lines, pay at the pump have taken the place of face to face contact. Most people do not sit on their porches anymore and many use their back or side doors instead of the front ones. Computers and e-mail are replacing phone calls and visits and this trend is continuing to separate us further and further from each other and community.
What does this mean for us? No longer will evangelism happen on its own. We now need to be more intentional than ever in how we reach out and do things. We have to be more intentional in praying. We have to be more intentional in how we greet others and welcome them into our midst. We have to be more intentional in making personal contacts with others. We have to be more intentional in listening for needs and opportunities we can help.
These are just a few of ways we need to be more intentional but there are many others. This year I’m asking that we begin to change some of our habits. At board meetings we will tithe our time. This means that if we meet for two hours, 12 minutes of that time will be spent in prayer for our church, our community, our empty pews, etc… At each February board and committee meetings, I’m asking that they begin looking over their whole year of events and programs and begin praying about and asking these questions, What does God want us to stop doing? What does God want us to start doing? And what does God want us to strengthen?
Also as we begin to intentionally reach out to our community more, I’m asking that each of you do three things. First, take a moment to think of 6 people. 6 people that need to know Christ. 6 people that need the Lord in their lives and begin praying for them. Pray for the voice to speak to them and show them the love of Christ. Pray that they will be shown the love of Christ each day. Pray that they will see their need for the Lord. As we pray for others God will speak to us as well on how we can reach out to them. If you can’t think of 6 people, pray that God begins to show you who your 6 people are pray that he does that.
Secondly, begin seeing every person as a person who needs the Lord., as a person you could form a relationship with in some way. Make extra time in your schedules to visit with others and not rush from here to there. Make a connection and begin to build relationships.
Finally, I’m asking that you be involved in some training events that will be coming up in the near future. The first training event will be on hospitality and prayer and will teach us how to better welcome the visitor and be a stronger community together. The second training event will be in your style of evangelism which we will find out through a personality assessment. Most of us aren’t people who will go door to door for the Lord, but using our own personalities that God gave us, we can still reach others with the love of Christ.
As we focus more on evangelism and being intentional about it, I’m looking for a few people that feel God calling them to be part of an evangelism planning and visioning team. This team will revisit the vision of our church and then begin a process of discernment and prayer for where God is calling us further.
God has a lot in store for us as a church. He is not done with us yet and I encourage you to be part of this thrust and support the ministries and vision God is giving to us. Thank you church for your commitment and may we begin to see our community changed by the love of Christ.
The scripture this morning is a very near and dear scripture to me. Being 14 when I received my call into the ministry was in many ways tough. I heard and still hear today how young I am. It was ingrained in me in some way that because I was young that I did not know enough. That I just couldn’t do the things that other more mature people could do. My home church supported the things I wanted to do with the youth, but the adults did their own things. I became the youth representative on each board, but did not have a vote or a voice. It seemed that my youth kept me from advancing in my calling.
In college I suffered with taking initiative because as others had continued to tell me, I was only a child. I was too young. Seminary led me deeper into this feeling of inadequacy because 90 percent of the students were second career and much older than this 21 year old. I happened to be the youngest student enrolled in seminary, which many people picked up on and told me about. And even here this past year I was told that flannel shirts were older than me.
Coming up on September 13th is your chance to
Be The Church!!!!
On September 13th, morning worship will be canceled for you to be the church in our community. What does this mean? It means that your task for September 13th is to find a way of not just going to church, but being the church. Below you will find a list of groups that you can be involved in, or you can come up with your own, but this day will be dedicated to being the church to our community. Please sign-up for how you will be the church on September 13th.
Being the Church Groups:
The above groups also will need some prep help.
Appreciation Baskets - We will need many items for the baskets, see below:
Quarters - Do you have a spare change bucket around? We need to collect quarters for the Laundromat Lenders as we take some burden off people and provide free laundry service.
Coolers - Do you have an extra cooler we could use for the day to keep our ice cream cold? Bring it in on Sept. 13th
Sign-ups can be found at Sign-Up Central and in the Fellowship Hall. Please sign-up as soon as possible for this great event and let’s be the hands and feet of Christ in our Community!
ALL ITEMS MAY BE BROUGHT TO THE FELLOWSHIP HALL BOX PRIOR TO SEPT. 13 UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED.
DON’T FORGET TO WEAR YOUR YELLOW T-SHIRTS!!!
If going door to door, preaching on a street corner, distributing tracts, and standing up before a large crowd is what you think of when you think of evangelism and such thoughts make you feel bad about sharing the Good News, then this engaging and exciting event is for you!
Coming…
Friday and Saturday,
November 20-21, 2009
First Baptist Church of Macedon
58 Main Street, Macedon, NY 14502
Host Pastor: Rev. Carol Holtz-Marten
Simply Put, Got Style®:
Dr. Jeffrey A. Johnson will share what evangelism IS and what it ISN’T. You will discover your own style of evangelism and that of others present from your church. This will be a time of inspiration, instruction, and interaction. You will leave with a knowledge of how to assess and empower yourself to do evangelism and outreach that builds meaningful relationships and flows naturally out of the way you are wired by God. You will leave this training event with things you can use right here and right now, even as soon as you walk out the door. You don’t want to miss this opportunity to grow closer to the Lord and as a church.
Schedule of the Training Event:
Dr. Jeffrey A. Johnson serves as National Director of Evangelism for the American Baptist Churches USA under the auspices of the Board of National Ministries.
As National Director, Jeff collaborates with American Baptist national and regional staff committed to the denominational NEW LIFE 2010 goal to make 1,000,010 new disciples for Christ by the year 2010. Part of his responsibility is to assist our 33 regions and 3 geographic areas in developing strategic evangelism plans and programs. In order to accomplish such, he travels extensively, since coming on board in 2001, to speak, teach, equip, consult, and interact on local, associational, regional, and national levels. His strong Christ centered emphasis on personal evangelism is rooted in the Word of God. He believes, as does our denomination that each of our 6000 local congregations are individually the fundamental units of ministry, not the least of which is where the most effective evangelism occurs.
Dr. Johnson holds a Ph.D. in Theology from Tyndale Seminary, an M.A. in Ministry from Carolina University, and a B.A. in Philosophy from California State University.
Jeff is married to Karen Kinney, his wife of nineteen years. They have two children, an eighth grade, 13 year old daughter, Jonae, and a second grade, 7 year old son, Judson Adoniram. They make their home outside Charleston, West Virginia.
Your support of United Missions and American For Christ allows Dr. Johnson and other national as well as regional staff to assist our local congregations to impact their communities for Jesus Christ. Thank you!
We’re doing it again on May 16th!! From 1- 3pm on May 16th FBC will be giving out 300 FREE HOT DOGS! Don’t miss out! Stop by the church and get a hot dog and drink during Apple Blossom!
