FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH 157 W. JACKSON ST. VIRDEN, IL 62690 www.virdenfirstbaptist.com REV. Diane DeSmidt, PASTOR CHURCH PHONE: 965-4028 PARSONAGE PHONE: 965-4465 DEBBIE KERSHAW, EDITOR E-mail:messenger@virdenfirstbaptist.com Church to host food booth at craft fair First Baptist will sponsor a booth at this year s craft fair on Saturday, September 10, in the park on the Virden Square. We ll be serving hot dogs, chili, and drinks. In conjunction with the food we ll be serving, we are asking for donations of baked goods to sell. If you are not a baker, but would like to donate something, please pick up some 2-liter bottles of soda to serve. We ll need coolers for ice and lots of help as well! The craft fair begins at 9 AM, so set up will begin around 7:30 or 8 AM. Please bring your baked items directly to the park anytime before noon. You may contact Wanda Hein on how you can help. You are invited to a Baby Shower for the great-granddaughter of Ettie Rae Dibler. Liliana Lynn Chantharasy was born on August 15, 2005 and weighed in at 7 ½ pounds and was 20 ½ inches long. The shower will be held on Saturday, September 24 from 2-4 PM in Pitman Hall. It is given by her aunts and Grandma Becky. RSVPs may be made to Ettie Rae Dibler at 965-4008. Little Liliana will be in attendance, so be sure to come and see her. Church Directory in final stage The new church pictorial directory is now ready to mail to the printer. It will be about 6-8 weeks before we get the finished books. It has taken a lot of time to get all the photos together to go in the directory. The Directory committee would like to thank everyone for their submissions and we look forward to the finished product. Our thanks to those serving on the committee: Ettie Rae Dibler, Gloria Smith, and Linda Gerson.
2 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 4 5 Travis Liles 6 7 Meal-6 PM Kids Club 6 PM Business Mtg 7 PM Choir 8 PM 8 9 Betty Mullen 10 CRAFT FAIR 9 AM - 4 PM Sue Langley 11 12 18 19 25 Mission Fest FBC Carrollton 2:45-26 13 14 Meal - 6 PM Kids Club-6 PM Bible - 7 PM Choir - 8 PM 20 21 Meal - 6 PM Kids Club-6 PM Bible - 7 PM Choir - 8 PM 27 28 Meal - 6 PM Kids Club-6 PM Bible - 7 PM Choir - 8 PM 15 16 17 22 29 Tony Kershaw Barb Klocke Stevenson 23 24 30 Jennifer Brown Justin Dibler Mike Hawkins Richard & Doris Weerts Greenfield Church now ready for interior work The First Baptist Church of Greenfield reports that all the wiring and duct work has been completed on their new church and they will be ready to install drywall and insulation beginning this week. Once again, if you would like to volunteer to help with the work, they are recruiting help from area churches. Experienced drywall workers will be on hand to instruct you, so this would be a great chance to learn a useful skill while helping our friends at Greenfield. We would like to take this opportunity to recognize the efforts of Mike Hawkins, Cole & Sue Langley, and Jill Hawkins who together have put in 118 total hours of work at the new building. There are some pictures of the construction stages on the table in the fellowship hall. Stop and take a look at this beautiful new structure being built almost entirely with volunteer labor. Praise the Lord!
3 Does Your Life Have Purpose? Rick Warren, Pastor of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, asked his people that question as they came to the church in its early days. He had already established some principles for church growth and development, but it became clear to him that unless the people in the church recognized their own life purpose, all his efforts would be in vain. That was his motivation for devising what is now the devotional book titled The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for? This fall, during our Wednesday Night Adult Bible Study time, we will study The Purpose Driven Life. While designed as a 40-day devotional tool, we will look at it in more detail than would normally be done in a daily devotional. The goal is to complete the book by Christmas, but if we are detained, we will carry it into January. If you do not have a copy of this book and would like order one, please notify Pastor Diane. She will send in the order on Thursday, September 15. The cost is $11.63. Christianity of our day is like a football game in which there are 22 men on the field desperately in need of rest, watched by 40,000 in the grandstands desperately in need of exercise. --Homiletics Dear Family and Friends of First Baptist, Brian and myself are appreciative of your hospitality and generosity. The lunch and wedding reception you had for us was very nice. We enjoyed being able to spend some time with you. Even though I don t make it back home very often, my Virden church family is still very special to me. Thank you for the luncheon reception and gifts. Barb & Brian Stevenson Barb and Brian reside at: 105 Lake Terrace Alabaster, AL 35007 Their town was thankfully spared from the wrath of Katrina The purpose of the Church He works on us in all sorts of ways. But above all, He works on us through each other. [People] are mirrors, or carriers of Christ to other [people]. Usually it is those who know Him that bring Him to others. That is why the Church, the whole body of Christians showing Him to one another, is so important. It is so easy to think that the Church has a lot of different objects - education, building, missions, holding services.... The Church exists for no other purpose but to draw [people] into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other reason. --C.S. Lewis
4 Dear, It s hard to believe that school has begun and the fall schedule here at First Baptist Church is about to take off. It certainly doesn t feel like fall, with temperatures in the 80 s and people in shirt sleeves, but we know from past experience that this will soon change. I spent a good part of the summer with my car in the shop because of a broken air conditioner. Now that cooler weather is soon upon us, I believe it finally works. I haven t liked driving around without an air conditioner. It was certainly uncomfortable a real inconvenience. However, the last few days have humbled me overwhelmingly as I have viewed the reports on damage from Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Not just homes, but entire communities cities have been destroyed beyond recognition. With a rate of 40% of the population of New Orleans being at or below poverty level, their future seems bleak, indeed. Some of you will soon be asking how you can help. On Wednesday, August 31, I received the following e-mail from the Executive Minister of the Great Rivers Region: Friends I know many of you will have prayer meeting tonight, or perhaps tomorrow. But even if it must wait until Sunday, I hope you will remember to keep the people of the Gulf coast in your prayers. Those who are so inclined can minister in the midst of the disaster through the One Great Hour of Sharing. Just identify it for "hurricane relief" on your regular report and we will take care of it. Blessings, Dwight Stinnett ABC Great Rivers Region I hope many of you will take this opportunity to contribute to this great need. Appeals have come from various sources requesting that gifts be in the form of cash rather than items of any kind, because these people do not have a home in which to keep any supplies. Many are left with just the clothes on their backs. Thank you for your generosity. For the praise of His glory, Pastor Diane
5 Our missions emphasis for the month of September is Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Central experienced significant change during 2005. Most notably was the appointment in January 2005 of theology professor Molly T. Marshall as Seminary President. Here is her message to the public as it appears on the CBTS website: For over a hundred years Central Baptist Theological Seminary has been offering a hospitable place for study for those called to serve Christ and the church. We believe that God has sustained us for the very purpose of equipping women and men for the ministries of preaching, teaching, leading, caring, and serving. We are a Baptist school by affiliation and tradition, yet we welcome those of other denominations in the Body of Christ. We are both ecumenical and evangelical, believing that in seeking to know and love God truly, we are preparing leaders to form the church as a community of grace. Remember, 10% of each donation to First Baptist Church during the month of September will go to Central Baptist Theological Seminary. As you do it to the least of these... In the late 1700 s, the manager of Baltimore s largest hotel refused lodging to a man dressed like a farmer because he thought this fellow s appearance would discredit his inn. So the man left. Later that evening, the innkeeper discovered that he had turned away none other than Thomas Jefferson! Immediately, he sent a note to the famed patriot, asking him to come back and be his guest. Jefferson replied by instructing his messenger as follows: Tell him I have already engaged a room. I value his good intentions highly, but if he has no place for a dirty American farmer, he has none for the Vice President of the United States. Likewise, the Lord is often pushed aside in our lives because we disregard needy believers of humble circumstances. We forget that Christ may be in the small child who needs attention, the exhausted wife who needs encouragement, or the frustrated laborer who needs recognition. He might be in the grieving grandmother, the lonely shut-in, or the struggling neighbor. They may seem to have little to offer, but if we show kindness to the least of these, it s as if we are doing it to Christ. --Our Daily Bread Remember this. We work for the Lord and not simply for other people. He is our employer, finally, and the one unto whom we live out our lives. And when we can take our own little piece of work and sign our name to it, and offer it up to God, we will have discovered the secret of the most incredible kind of life that one could ever hope to have, and truly we will have it made in the very best sense of that expression! So again, can you sign your name to it? Your little piece of work, the task that you go about doing day after day, that very common and routine task that is such an integral part of your life. Can you sign your name to it at the end of each day and be proud to do so? --Dr. Norman Neaves
6 We have experienced love... Through our parents, families, and friends, And now a new love in each other. Mr. & Mrs. Thomas D. Meehan III and Mr. & Mrs. Stephen H. Kershaw Invite you to share in A celebration of love as their children Amelia Molly S. Meehan and Adam J. Kershaw Are united in Holy Matrimony. Saturday, the eighth of October Two Thousand and Five Two o clock in the afternoon Church of the Little Flower 800 Adlai Stevenson Drive Springfield, Illinois Cocktails, Dinner, and Dance, Five o clock Little Flower Parish Center To our church family, Please consider this your invitation to Adam and Molly s wedding. This church family has played such a wonderful role in the lives of all of our children. We can not imagine celebrating his marriage to another Christian without you all being there. There is no need to RSVP. Please just come and be a part of their special day on October 8. Your friends, Steve and Debbie Kershaw First Baptist Church 157 W. Jackson St. Virden, IL 62690