First Baptist. Church. Church Office Hours: Monday Thursday 8:00 am 5:00 pm Friday 8:00 am 2:30 pm. Church Office (252) Fax (252)

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1 Knowing First God, Making God Known, Baptist and Becoming like His Son, Jesus Christ, through News Worship, Bible Study, and Ministry R O C K Y M O U N T, N C S E P T E M B E R I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E : Pastor s Article 2 Church Staff 2 TeamKID, KOGS & Mission Friends 3 TLUSA & AHG 3 The Bridge College Ministry Update Operation Christmas Child 4 5 COOL Kids 5 5 Training Calendar 7 Let us know you want to participate by going to our website and signing-up! First Baptist Church 200 S. Church St. Rocky Mount, NC Church Office Hours: Monday Thursday 8:00 am 5:00 pm Friday 8:00 am 2:30 pm Church Office (252) Fax (252) Website Prayer Room (252) First Baptist Child Care Center (252) Using these 5 networks: familial, geographical, commercial, vocational, and recreational, identify one person from each network, begin engaging those persons by: praying for them, serving them, inviting them into your life, giving them Gospel centered resources, and speaking the Gospel to them. This is a tool to help you think missionally about your normal rhythms of life and who you might be able to reach with the Gospel.

2 P A G E 2 MINISTRY TEAM Dennis Darville Preaching & Leadership Tim Griffin Education & Discipleship Mike Avery Family Ministries Larry Curtis Pastoral Care Jack Heim Music & Worship Louis Griffin Music & Worship Bob Britt Homebound Visitation OPERATIONS & ADMIN TEAM Beth Thompson Operations Director Jewell Pullen Financial Administration Faye Strickland Facilities Administration Mary Helen Batten Receptionist/Admin. Assistant Kayla Dozier Administrative Assistant Nina Daughtridge Music Assistant Jane Clark Food Service Administration Life Groups Echoing Pastor Tim In this article, I want to affirm with a hearty AMEN the direction that Pastor Tim is leading our church. This article will simply echo Tim s previous three month s installments. Of course, I am referring to his emphasis on Missional communities. The primary issue that I would like to address is this we are not doing this because it is a good idea! In short, we are not reasoning from Americanpragmatism. We are reintroducing small groups with a renewed focus on those things that seem to matter a great deal to the early church in the New Testament. In other words, Missional Communities will be patterned on those truths found in Scripture. The previous three articles (June, July, and August) alluded to Acts 2: I would like to zoom in on this text and look a tad closer at how the church, just after Pentecost, conducted herself and see the outcomes of a Christ-centered, Scripture-focused, and a relationalcommunity determined to preach the gospel I will make some simple observations of these verses and add a word or two of application to our context: 1. Luke tells us they devoted themselves to a number of things. We will look at those in a moment. Before we do, let s consider this word devoted. The semantic range for this word is broad, but for this context it means something like be attached to, or closely associated with, or stand ready with. If we were to put a modern spin on it, we would say that the early Christians, freshly filled with the Holy Spirit, were all in. The church, then, was a gathering of likeminded brothers and sisters radically committed to Christ and each other. They were devoted! The church, now, in post-modern, polytheistic, and pagan America, needs to endeavor to replicate that kind of consecration. 2. Obviously, the question that begs to be answered is this what were they devoted to? The very concept of devotion demands an object or person to make sense. The text tells us that they were devoted to 1) apostolic teaching, 2) fellowship, 3) breaking of bread, and 4) prayer. Our goal, under Christ, is to replicate that kind of devotion in FBCRM. So, by God s enabling grace, Tim is currently training the facilitators to lead our Missional Communities to look like Acts 2: What do I mean? Our blueprint is, as it should be, Scripture. Scripture holds out these four categories as essential for the life and health of an Evangelical Church. Rev. Dennis Darville We are reintroducing small groups with a renewed focus on those things that seem to matter a great deal to the early church 2.1 They devoted themselves to apostolic teaching. That is another way of saying they were committed to the study of God s Word, the Bible. The center piece for our Communities will be the rational study of God s communication through his inspired apostles. We will launch with the gospel of Luke. Our facilitators will guide a group discussion by using the COMA-model: C- understanding context, O-making observations, M- discovering the meaning of the text (by the way, it can never mean now what it did not mean then), and A- making application to our lives. 2.2 They also devoted themselves to fellowship. That is to say, the early church did life together. I had a young lady recently say to me, I had a need the other day and I had no one to turn to. Maybe I should be more committed to my local church! Right on! We, as a local body of believers are designed by Christ to F I R S T B A P T I S T N E W S

3 serve one another with our Spirit-endowed gifts Missional Communities are designed to facilitate this very thing. 2.3 Further, they devoted themselves to breaking of bread. Some scholars argue that this is a sharing in the Lord s Table. Well, it very well might be! But I would suggest that is an anachronistic reading. That is, those scholars are taking something that developed later in church history and read it back into the text. Maybe I m wrong, but at the very least, here is the heart of that text. The people of Christ, the Church, were sharing meals with each other in the common course of life. There is a sense of genuine community forming around shared meals 2.4 Finally, the early church committed herself to corporate prayer. Our Missional Communities are designed to do the same. The They were imploring heaven for the benefits that came to them in Christ. P A G E 3 early communities-of-christ were seeking the presence of God in prayer. They were imploring heaven for the benefits that came to them in Christ. Consequently. 2.5 The outcomes of this kind of devotion to these four realities are nothing short of amazing. Consider-1) awe came upon every soul. 2) signs and wonders were being done. 3) they had all things in common. 4) praising God and having favor with all the people. And, 5) the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Our goal, under Christ, is just that: 1) Rational study of God s Word, 2) Relational communities that share life together and meet each other s needs, and 3) trusting the Lord to add to our number day by day those who are being saved. May Christ visit FBCRM in this way to His glory and the fame of His name! ON WEDNESDAYS 6-7:30 pm Beginning September 9 Your Choice Resource Center s Walk For Life Saturday, September 19, :15 am at Englewood Park New Member Class Begins Sunday, September 13 at 9:30am in the activity room above the Fellowship Hall. This is a 6-week class for anyone interested in becoming a member of FBCRM or for those that want to know more about our church. Sign-up online or by calling the church office. Babies 2 yrs. FMC Nursery Children 3 yrs. Kindergarten FMC M102 Children 1st 5th Graders FMC 3rd floor (large activity room) Combined Worship Labor Day Sunday, September 6 Sunday School 9:00 am Worship 10:30 am Trail Life USA & American Heritage Girls Troops NC-0834 New Year Kick Off Join us for fun, food, and games at our Parent/ Program Information Meeting and Open House Learn More Tuesday, September 8th at 6:30pm First Baptist Church 200 South Church Street, Rocky Mount, NC TrailLifeUSARockyMount.org AmericanHeritageGirlsRockyMount.org

4 P A G E 4 Christmas Musical Please consider joining our Sanctuary Choir for our Christmas music this year. We would love to have many new faces joining us in celebration and worship around the birth of our Savior. Rehearsals: Wednesdays Sept. 9 - Dec. 9 (no rehearsal on Nov. 25) 7:10-7:45 pm Choir Room Tech Rehearsal: Saturday, December am - Noon Luncheon at 12:15 pm Program Sunday, December 13 at 6:00 pm Church wide fellowship following the program. There was is a movie series that has been recently released called The Avengers which follows the lives of several fictional superheroes. On their own, the superheroes are freaks of nature, but together they combine their strengths to build each other up and overcome their weaknesses in order to defeat evil forces. I would not consider anyone in my life group a superhero as defined by Marvel Comics, however, we are all sold out for Christ and although none of us are perfect, God has brought our group together and He is using us in a mighty way to glorify Him and grow His kingdom. My family has been part of the Life Group since before we knew what to call it. We started with three families that loved Christ and enjoyed each other s fellowship. Over several years, it has evolved at God s leading into a group of seven families that love Christ, enjoy each other s company, have a heart for the lost and serve our community and each other. There are three pillars to our life group that I see: (1) Studying the Bible, (2) Serving and (3) Evangelizing. Based on those pillars we enjoy fellowship with each other as a group and sometimes it is simply where two or more are gathered. My family has been blessed by the friendships and discipleship as we journey through life. Our Life Group has shared the joys of baptism, births, graduations, and birthdays, and just as important, shared the burdens of physical pain, losses, job changes, and financial hardships. One of the MANY blessings has been to see our kids witness our Bible study, our serving, and our evangelizing. Watching them execute together without the adults prompting, whether it is praying together, serving at Wesleyan or Peacemakers, or being sensitive to those who don t know Christ, has been so encouraging. We are all called to go and make disciples and just as the Apostles encouraged each other and held each other accountable in Acts, I am grateful for the lifelong friends that God has put on my journey! To God be the Glory! -John Griffin Bridge Information Meeting September 7pm. (Wednesday in M304) Big Bridge Gatherings (Leon Russell Chapel) September 3, 10, and 8pm. NCWC Football Games and Tailgates (RM Sports Complex) September 7pm (Friday night) September 1pm (Saturday) September 1pm (Saturday) Sunday College Lunch (3rd floor FMC) September 13 (after 11:00 worship service) International Student Birthday Celebration September 7pm Please pray that God would show you what He would have you do to serve The Bridge College Ministry at NCWC. Please contact Kayla Dozier (252) or kayla@fbcrm.org, for opportunities to serve The Bridge College Ministry.

5 P A G E 5 Beginning Sunday, September 6 we will be serving Gobena coffee on Sunday mornings! Your pastoral team sees this as a great opportunity for FBCRM to use our resources and something we already purchase to make a difference in the lives of orphaned and vulnerable children. Gobena Coffee gives 100% of their profits to orphan care ministries, which means every purchase we make is helping change lives! Go to GOBENA.ORG for more information, order some coffee while you are there! It is DELICIOUS! THE BAIR FOUNDATION FOSTER PARENT TRAINING First Baptist Church 200 S Church Street Rocky Mount, NC (252) RSVP: Jill Honeycutt (919) jhoneycutt@bair.org Dates of Classes: Week 1 Tuesday September 15 th Thursday September 17 th 6-9 pm Week 2 Tuesday September 22 nd Thursday September 24 th 6-9 pm Week 3 - Tuesday September 29 th, Thursday October 1 st 6-9 pm Week 4 Tuesday October 6 th Thursday October 8 th 6-9 pm Week 5 Tuesday October 13 th Thursday October 15 th 6-9 pm Week 6 Tuesday October 20 th Thursday October 22 nd 6-9 pm Week 7 Tuesday October 27 th Thursday October 29 th 6-9 pm Operation Christmas Child Kickoff is this month, and we need your help!! Our Goal for FBCRM this year, is to send 700 boxes to Samaritan's Purse! We can t do this without you! These are the ways you can get involved: Pack a box and bring it to the narthex. Donate money for supplies to fill boxes at our packing party. We hope to fill 500 boxes that night. Our donation collection Sunday, will be September 27. Help us pack and pray over our boxes on November 4th. We can t wait to see how God changes us, and changes the hearts of the recipients of these boxes, through our willingness to serve some of the least of these. If you would like to make a donation now, you can do so by writing a check to FBCRM with OCC in the memo. For more info contact Win McCullough. Sunday, September 27 Room M103 New Volunteers 3:00-4:00pm All Volunteers 4:30-7pm November 6-14 Contact Guy Tutterow if you are interested in going. There are many opportunities for you to serve our Ecuador Church Plant, and we NEED YOU! Guy Tutterow and Win & Eliza McCullough will be in Ecuador September 4th-12 for Discipleship Training at Salasaka Baptist Church. Please keep them and their families in prayer as they go make disciples in Ecuador. UNTIL THE WHOLE WORLD HEARS

6 Sundays 8:00 am Televised Morning Worship (WHIG Channel 17) 8:15 am Contemporary Worship Service 9:00 am Church Library open until 10:00 am 9:30 am Bible Study 11:00 am Worship Service 6:00 pm Orchestra Rehearsal Mondays 10:45 am Inspiration Singers (Choir suite) 7:00 pm Praise Team Rehearsal Tuesdays 6:30 am Women s Prayer Groups 9:00 am Pastor s meeting Women s Bible Study 10:00 am Women s Prayer Group 1:00 pm Stephen Ministry (1st & 3rd Wks M103) 6:00 pm Handbell Rehearsal 6:30 pm Trail Life USA & American Heritage Girls Wednesdays 3:00 pm Church Library open until 6:00 pm COOL Kids (FMC) 5:00 pm Fellowship Meal 6:00 pm Nursery for Birth 2 yr. (M105) Team KID for 3 yrs. Kindergarten KOGS for 1st 5th Grades X-Change 6th 8th Grades Prayer Meeting for adults (Fell. Hall) 7:10 pm Christmas Musical Rehearsal to 7:45 pm 7:45 Adult Choir Rehearsal Thursdays 6:30 am Men s Prayer Group (Choir room) 12:30 pm Prison Ministry 3:00 pm COOL Kids (FMC) 7:30 pm The Bridge (@ Wesleyan College) September 2015 SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT The Bridge/NCWC Tailgate (see pg. 4) 5 API Uganda Mission Trip High School Back 2 School Retreat 6 Combined Worship Service at 10:30 am SS at 9 am 7 Labor Day Church Office Closed 8 TLUSA/AHG Kick Off (6:30 pm F.H.) 9 NEW FALL WEDNESDAY SCHEDULE BEGINS!!! The Bridge/NCWC Tailgate (see pg. 4) 13 Deacons Meeting (3 pm M201A) New Fall Schedule!! LIFE GROUPS BEGIN 14 Forever Young Luncheon (11:30 am F.H.) The Bridge/NCWC Tailgate (see pg. 4) Meals on Wheels 24 Meals on Wheels Your Choice Resource Center Walk for Life (9:15 am see pg. 3) 27 Cool Kids Volunteer Orientation (see pg. 5) COOL Kids Begins (3 pm FMC) 1 COOL Kids Begins (3 pm FMC) COOL Kids Open House (FMC 5 pm ) w w w. f b c r m. o r g