As you know, we are preparing for community outreach on April 30th at 5:00 PM. This is an excellent opportunity for us to share the love of Christ with our community and to invite them to join our church family.

You can help us prepare for visitation by filling out yellow prospect cards in your Sunday school classes. These cards provide information about people we can contact about our church.

Next, DIY Kids is coming up. Help us get the word out. Please sign up by May 3, 2023

DIY Kids is a time when young children can get together and create projects with their hands while also learning about our creator. Join us as we explore the unique abilities and creative imaginations God has given us.

First Baptist Church
Family Ministry Building

Next Workshop
Saturday, May 6, 2023
10:00 AM – 12 Noon

Click Here To Sign Up

Baccalaureate Service

We will be having our Baccalaureate Service on Sunday, May 21. Any graduates that would like to participate, please contact Jonathan. We will publish the names in the newsletter of those who have signed up in a few weeks.

Graduates, click here for more information.

Giving as of April 18, 2023

Budget for 2023 . . . . . . . .  $348,707.00
Tithes Needed to Date . . . . $107,294.56
Received to Date . . . . . . . . . $73,060.24
Needed for weekly budget . . .  $6,705.91
Tithes Received this week . . . . $4,170.00

MID-WEEK DEVOTION

Don’t forget to check out Brother David’s Mid-Week Devotion in the book of Psalms. They are uploaded each Wednesday on the sermon page.

From Our Pastor

“How can we reach the people of this generation?” That is frequently the question Christians ask one another these days. Believers look at an increasingly sinful and hardened culture and begin to grasp straws for a “formula” to reach people.

There is no new miracle formula for reaching people. In fact, the “formula” is quite old. It is the same formula used by the apostle Paul 2000 years ago.

To reach people for Christ we must first have been reached ourselves. We must be truly born again by the Spirit of God. Paul had been very religious. Unfortunately, he was a religious lost man. Only when God moved in grace and brought Paul to Himself was Paul born again (Acts 9; Galatians 1:13-16; 1 Timothy 1:12-14). Paul had to be reached by the grace of God. Paul had to be reached by the grace of God before he could be used to reach others with God’s grace.

Next, Paul shows us that to be effectively used we must be growing in our relationship with the Lord. In fact, Paul said everything else was like rubbish in compassion to Christ. He counted everything else as loss and prioritized knowing Christ (Philippians 3:1-11). No wonder Paul was so effective in sharing Christ! He was filled, saturated, and overrunning with Christ.

Third, Paul was convinced of the power and worthiness of the Gospel. He wrote in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to that Greek.” Paul knew that the Gospel was the only thing that could truly reach his generation or any other.

Last, Paul relied upon the Holy Spirit to fulfill the Father’s plan through the proclamation of the Gospel Paul did not rely on cleverness, displays of intelligence, or showmanship. He relied on God’s power to work God’s plan (1 Corinthians 2:1-4). Although Paul was one of the most intelligent and educated man of his time, he did not base his efforts on those. He wanted people’s faith to be truly based upon God (verses 6-16). Paul completely relied upon God to fulfill God’s plan.

How can we reach the people of this generation? The same way Paul reached the elect of his generation. God and His ways have not changed. The real question is whether we’ll follow those ways.