Our Blog

Pastor's Points - March 2019

Dear Church Family,

In the month of March, we are providing to our church a prayer guide that focuses on North American Missions.  Our church participates with our North American Mission Board in supporting mission work in North America.  We are asking for our church family to pray for the leadership of NAMB, new church plants, church revitalizations, and compassion ministries which encompasses things such as disaster relief, foster care, adoption, and ministering to those struggling against poverty.  But one request I have is for us to pray for our own Hispanic Church Plant.  Our church planter, Leonid Marsan and his family are here with us and is excited to begin his new work here in Evansville.  Please be praying about how you can help support this new Hispanic church plant, and his family.  Leonid and his family will be worshipping with us as they get the ministry going in Evansville.  We are asking for God to bless this new work because a solid bible believing church plant for Hispanics is desperately needed in our area.

Also, I want to strongly urge you to come out for our Family Night of Worship on March 17^th at 6:00 pm. Our worship ministry will lead us through a wonderful night of worship with the emphasis throughout the night being that of prayer. This will be a family night of prayer. We will be praying for our church family as well as for the individual families that make up our church.  You will not want to miss this awesome night of worship and prayer!!  If ever there was a time that we need to pray for families and our collective church family, it is now.  I love this quote by R.A. Torrey which states… When the devil sees a man or woman who really believes in prayer, who knows how to pray, and who really does pray, and, above all, when he sees a whole church on its face before God in prayer, he trembles as much as he ever did, for he knows that his day in that church or community is at an end.  Now is the time to pray for our church and families!  Now is the time to make Satan tremble as much as he ever has!  Now is the time to put Satan on notice that his day is coming to an end in our families, church, and community!!  Let us worship and pray to our great God like never before!!

I love you and I love being your pastor,

Spare Change - March 2019

                                                            VBS - It’s Worth It!

Vacation Bible School (VBS) is a week-long evangelistic outreach to children.  It has become a huge event that most churches participate in, however, it has a very humble beginning.  In 1894, a Sunday School teacher, D.T. Miles, started a summer Bible school for kids. Initially it lasted four weeks; over time it was narrowed down to one week.  Other churches picked it up until thousands of churches participated every summer. Recently the question has been asked if VBS is worth it. Is it worth the volunteer hours and church resources?

Lifeway, the publishing arm of the Southern Baptists, did some research and found that of the 60% of adults who attended VBS, 9 out of 10 have positive memories.  On top of that VBS is one of the only intentional ways our churches evangelize. We are in an evangelism  crisis right now-- 48% of church goers are not inviting unchurched people to visit and 61% are not sharing Christ with anyone.  VBS helps with both of those problems.

It is a huge opportunity to invite families in our community to participate in something the church is doing.  It is also a way that we can share Christ with those children and their families. We take seriously the call to share the good news with everyone we can.  Our  teachers intentionally weave the gospel through all their lessons and our Pastor takes time on one of the nights to share the gospel in a way kids can understand.  We have seen many kids respond to the gospel through the years. It is an amazing privilege to be a part of something so gospel focused and God honoring.

Our theme this year is “In the Wild”.  We will be looking at snapshots of wildlife   throughout the different ecosystems, while looking at snapshots of Jesus’ life.  Our leadership team has been to the Lifeway preview conference and we are already so excited. I hope you will be a part of it.  I have listed four ways you can be involved in this year’s VBS:

1. Pray about who you can invite to VBS, then invite them!
2. Consider volunteering to help with VBS (a sign-up form will be available in April)
3. Register your kids early (registration opens in May)
4. Pray that kids would be saved and families impacted with the gospel