It was a great success! Outside the building, we had several bushes removed. On the inside, we got rid of two old pianos. We also cleaned up three rooms behind the main stage area.
The best part, however, was being able to baptize Troy Ballard into Christ that afternoon at FCC. Congratulations, Troy!
For the past few weeks, on Sunday mornings at FCC, I've been talking about some of the men Jesus picked to be on his team during His earthly ministry.
When Jesus began his earthly ministry, He picked some ordinary, everyday men to be on His team. We’re looking at some of those men as we lead up to Easter.
We’re also having a little fun with this as we are putting them together to form our own basketball team!
This coming Sunday (03.10.24), I am going to complete the starting five by naming a Power Forward (#4) and Center (#5). Here's a little spoiler: Our "big men" are brothers who were known as the "Sons of Thunder."
The brother duo is John and James, the sons of Zebedee. Before becoming a follower of Jesus, they along with Peter and Andrew were in the fishing business together.
John was one of Jesus’ closest disciples, known as “The disciple that Jesus loved” (John 13:23; John 19:26).
John lays out some great encouragement for loving one another in the third chapter of his first epistle. In 1 John 3:18, he says, “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”
Caring for others is a big part of our Christian walk and it is a big part of leadership. Indeed, people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care!
Therefore, we must have more than just head knowledge, but also “heart action.” John is encouraging us to not just say that we care but prove it with action.
As Christ followers, we see so many social causes that need to be addressed such as poverty, lack of education, human trafficking, clean water, nourishment, etc. We need to address them and do what we can to help.
We live in a time when the church cannot afford to “bury its head in the sand” and pretend that there are major social needs that must be addressed. At the same time, however, the church cannot devote all of its energies and resources to these and forget the real reason they exist.
We must also remember not to become so involved with these noble causes that we fail to remember why we are doing what we’re doing.
Without trying to connect lost people to Christ, the church becomes just another social agency. I feel as leaders in our church, we must carefully manage how many causes we try to tackle and earnestly seek which ones God is calling us as a church to engage in. The primary reason we engage in these is to show the love of Jesus to a lost and dying world. In other words, we do as Jesus would do.
This coming Sunday (03.10.24), we'll talk more about this and how to show Servant Leadership.
I hope and pray you can join us!
Our Bible School is from 9:30-10:15 am and our Worship Service starts at 10:30 am.
God bless,
Greg H
