If you ve been. The Encourager. Message from our pastor FEBRUARY 2015

Transcription

1 L a k e v i e w B a p t i s t C h u r c h The Encourager FEBRUARY 2015 Message from our pastor If you ve been around Lakeview Baptist for any amount of time, you ve assuredly heard the word disciple quite often. It s a niche term, in a sense, like entering a Starbucks and trying to figure out what Venti, Trenta, or Macchiato means. Confusing at first, but stick around long enough and you ll discover its meaning. Disciple is a word worth knowing. It s at the core of the purpose of the church central to the Church s Great Commission: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you... " Matthew 28: But what is a disciple? How can we make them if we don t know what one is? More is on the line than just too big or too small a cup of coffee. Fortunately, Jesus gives us a good idea in Matthew 4:19, as he calls his first disciples: Follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men. There are three key parts to this verse on what it means to be a disciple. 1) Following Jesus, 2) being changed by Jesus ( I will make you ), and 3) participating in the mission of Jesus ( fish for men ). The definition of a disciple, then, could be explained in the following way: A disciple is someone who is following Je- sus, being changed by Jesus and is committed to the mission of Jesus. That was Jesus goal for the first disciples. Nothing has changed in 2000 years. Jesus calls us to the same thing! For the past several months, a team has been formed to think and pray through the future direction and vision of our church. We firmly believe that making disciples is the church s number one responsibility, according to the scriptures. Using Matthew 4:19 as a guide, our vision is to continually inspire people to follow Jesus, be changed by him, and commit to his Kingdom purposes in this world. We have created some common language around these three important elements of discipleship a catchphrase, a tagline, a way to remember and easily communicate the vision of the church. Each of the words for these three core elements begin with the letter G: Gather Grow Go That s the essence of discipleship: to gather ourselves around Jesus, placing him first, listening to him, obeying him, worshipping him. And as we do that, he shapes us, molds us, transforms us, grows us, and makes us into who he wants us to be. And then he tells us to go as his kingdom ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20: we are Christ s ambassadors. Isaiah 6:8 Here I am, send me. ) We re going to be using the Gather.Grow.Go. language frequently and often in the months and years to come to remind ourselves of our primary task as a church. Soon, we ll... Inside: New Member Small Groups Volunteers Finances Calendar Birthdays/ Anniversaries

2 continued from front page... develop a logo that represents our vision (the logos above are just a working logo until we develop our own). We ll plaster the new logo everywhere on bulletins, on signs out front, on letterhead, on our website, etc so that we can continually remember the purposes for which God has placed us here as a church: To Gather around him, to Grow in him, and to Go for him. That s a disciple. Looking forward to the years ahead. Adam Lakeview Baptist Food Pantry Days Friday, February 6 (9:30 a.m.) Monday, February 23 (5-6:30 p.m.) Please contact Mary Kline or Ed Ritzler, if you are willing to share your time with this ministry P.S. The audio of the message series that describes our Gather.Grow.Go vision can be downloaded/streamed from our website: mylakeviewbaptist.com/media. Look for messages dated January 25, February 1, February 8. (February 1 and 8 messages will be posted after the dates delivered. New Member ROBERT LAMB was born in Norfolk, Virginia on July 3, He was born into a military family and rarely stayed anywhere more than 3 years. He graduated from James Woods High School, Winchester, Virginia in He has been in the following states: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Ansbach, Germany. He attended the discipleship class and was baptized by Pastor Adam on Christmas Eve, December 24, his hobbies i n c l u d e : v i d e o games, reading, music and cooking. His future plans include: to become an aerospace engineer and a pilot missionary (at the flight training missionary course at Cornerstone.) He is presently a technical aide to the praise team. Robert lives at 4233 W. Dickman Road, Apt. 3B, in Springfield, Michigan. We welcome you to Lakeview Baptist Church Page 2

3 Quilt Workshop Feb. 19th 10 am Noon (LBC Parlor) Plan to come on the 3rd Thursday of each month. Learn something new or bring your own project to work on. Contact Rolllie Longman ( ) or Mary Kline ( ) XYZ All retirees of the church are invited! The next meeting will be Tuesday, Feb. 17, :30 a.m. Meet in parlor for devotions with Carol Sandum. Eating out & fellowship at Old China Super Buffet Wednesday AM Women s Bible Study Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus Wednesdays, 10 AM LBC parlor Contact Deni Fry, Wednesday PM Starting March 4th In coordination with the Sunday morning message series God Heard Their Cry Wednesdays, 7 PM LBC parlor Contact Adam Metzger, Silver Club (for those celebrating at least 25 years of marriage) Dinner outing at Cornwell s Saturday February 14th Meet at church at 11 a.m. Sunday AM Young Adult Frogs David C. Cook Acts of Worship Sundays, 9 AM LBC Church Office Contact Ted Headings, ; Carl Corless, College age + Sundays, 5:30 PM Located in Youth Room & various homes Most Wednesdays 7 8:30 PM (Activities & Bible studies for school-age kids.) The Encourager Page 3

4 February: Nursery Volunteers 1 Kathy Snyder Linda Daniel 8 Mary Kline Nancy Ondracek 15 Betty Trumbull Shauneene Crowe 22 Lisa Thomas Marni Haapapuro February Kid s Church leaders: Linda & Rich 252 BASICS Greeters 1 Donna Headings Elizabeth Schenk 8 Sean & Libby Kosciuszko 15 Hal Longman 22 Deni Fry Coffee Hour Hosts 1 Mary Kline & friends 8 Snyder & Hicks 15 Deb Brown & friends 22 Monthly Financial Record Budgeted need for: January 2015 Monthly: $15,674.. Received: 1/4 3,450. 1/11 2,973. 1/18 4,526. 1/25 5,334. MEIJER COMMUNITY REWARDS UPDATE Earned in December: $ Since start of program $7,746 (9+ years) LBC earns up to 1% of your purchases each time you use your Rewards card and make a payment by Meijer Credit Card, Cash or PIN- Debit payment. To join go to: TOTAL $ 16,283. If you have any trouble at all hearing the morning worship service, listening devices are now available. Please ask an usher for assistance. Page 4

5 February 7 S. 20th Street Battle Creek, MI info@mylakeviewbaptist.com Ph Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 Communion Sunday :30 AM LBC Food Pantry Day 7 8 Memorial Sunday Valentine s Day 11 AM Silver Club PM Council 7 PM Boards meet 17 11:30 AM XYZ PM Book Club & Scrap/Craft Ash Wednesday 22 1st Sunday of Lent :30 PM LBC Food Pantry evening hours AM Quilting group The Encourager Page 5

6 7 S. 20th Street Battle Creek, MI Ph Fax: Sunday, 10:00 a.m. Worship & Kid s Church We re on the web! Birthdays 2 Jan Tichenor 4 Jon Beaver Tom Begley 5 T.C. Blankenship Terrheaia Kornoelje 6 Debbie Zesiger 8 Ryan Linscott 11 Brandon Snyder 13 Connie Summers 18 Libby Kosciuszko 22 Sandy Allwardt Anniversaries 19 Bill & Emily Blankenship