The Messenger March 2016
March 2016 1 2 3 4 5 RESPITE GARDEN DAY 6 VISION CLASS WINTER JAM 13 7 8 9 14 15 16 Homebound Meals 17 SPRING BREAK 21 22 23 24 27 28 29 30 31 EASTER 12 18 19 25 26 Parent s Day Out Senior Adult Game Day 20 11 Testify
Forgiven Debt by Pat Kelly, Lead Pastor A few years ago, my wife and I became very serious about getting out of debt. We had enlisted the help of a friend to serve as our financial advisor. This advisor made sure that my wife and I would stay true to the plan in an aggressive manner, in order to get out of debt. Shortly afterwards, we began to see freedom in our finances. In fact, on one occasion we received an anonymous check that canceled a major debt. That day was incredibly emotional and freeing. There was a special celebration in the Bible called the Year of Jubilee. Described in Leviticus 25, every seventh year was a Sabbatical year for the nation of Israel, when the land was allowed to rest; and every fiftieth year (after seven Sabbaticals) was set apart as the Year of Jubilee. The main purpose of this special year was the balancing of the economic system: slaves were set free and returned to their families, property that was sold reverted to the original owners, and all debts were canceled. When Jesus read from the book of Isaiah (Luke 4:16-21), he was telling the men in the synagogue that this promise of a debt canceller (for eternity) was in their very midst. Jesus rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant and said, today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. The debt canceller had arrived. You talk about an emotional and freeing day, this was one for the books, and the Book. As we approach Easter this month, let us look to Jesus, our debt absorber and canceller. May we focus on work of Christ, that was done on the cross over two thousand years ago, and see the hope that is ahead because of an empty tomb. Jesus came to set captives free. Let us come and marvel at work of Jesus. Hosanna! Pat Kelly Pat Kelly Lead Pastor CONNECT WITH US: iconnect at Fredonia Hill fredoniahill.ccbchurch.com Follow us on Twitter. @fredoniahillnac Find us on Facebook. Fredonia Hill
Things to come... by Becky Weems, Children's Minister Haiti interest meeting is: March 9th at 7:30pm. The trip is planned for July 1-8th. Foster Nights: Area foster kids come on the 3rd friday of the month all through the summer to our church gym. Bring your family and serve these kids together. 6-8pm on May 20th, June 17th, July 15th, and August 19th. Living out James 1:27 Centrikids Camp: June 21-25th for completed 2nd graders to 5th graders. The theme for camp is Unseen. We will study the passage of Ephesians 6:10-20 and learn how the armor of God is powerful and real, although it is unseen. Each day focuses on an aspect of the armor of God. The beginning of the week is designed to help campers discover and understand elements of our faith that are unseen. Mid-week we ll make a shift to discussing how to make our faith visible with boldness as the things of God are not meant to remain unseen. Camp Blessings: June 28th-July 1st for all of our Joy Ministry kids and helpers. Few Christian camps in the country specialize in ministering to children and young adults with special needs and their siblings. Camp Blessing is such a camp a haven for kids who feel left out a camp where all feel total acceptance and most importantly, where campers experience the love of Christ! To experience the love of Christ in a beautiful camp setting is something every child should enjoy no matter their level of ability! If you would love to serve at camp blessing or know a child who would love to go let us know! VBS Family Camp: August 2-4th. 6pm-8pm, dinner provided at 5:15pm At family VBS your families will dive deep into the account of Noah and the Flood from the book of Genesis! Families will worship together, watch live drama together, play games together, be a part of missions together, and make a project together! Get it! Lets all learn TOGETHER as families. They ll learn to apply the spiritual lessons from Noah s life to their own. And, along the way, they ll uncover earthly lessons from the Flood: how all the animals fit on the Ark, how the Flood covered the whole Earth, and how we can still see the effects of this Flood today. Prepare for a boatload of excitement at Ocean Commotion, Family VBS for 2016! Becky Weems Children s Minister
Why are we (Still) Fighting about Worship? by Blake Russell, Worship Pastor I originally wrote this article a year ago as a response to a blog post that I saw shared around social media. In the past couple of weeks, I ve once again seen a similar post make its way around Facebook and Twitter - this one much more scathing toward what we would call Contemporary Worship Music, calling us to boycott certain artists, styles, and songs. I feel like its a good time for us to recalibrate and remind ourselves why we worship and whom we worship. We always want to be careful about turning corporate worship into an argument of our stylistic preferences (I m not implying that the author is doing that, just want to throw that disclaimer out there). Back in the 1990s and into the 2000s, the church made a grave mistake of engaging in what we sometimes call The Worship Wars. Essentially it was an argument of Contemporary vs. Traditional. For a time, unknowingly we made worship about us which it should never be. When I look at building a set list (or planning a worship service), there are two primary questions I ask myself when selecting songs: - First, does this song give glory completely to God? - Second, does this song teach Biblical doctrine and theology? These are important questions, and a filter for much of what we do. As we are all connected (the Church) as the body of Christ, each church in itself is unique. There s no model for every church to follow. What I do here at Fredonia Hill is different than many of the churches just down the road from us, or in a different state, or in Africa what we must understand is that's how it s supposed to be. Each unique church is made up of unique individuals who ve had unique experiences. My responsibility as the Worship Pastor is tap in to that and plan a corporate worship time together that we can all engage in, whatever generation, ethnicity, or background. Church history is important (and if you know me, you know how much I love history), however, we don t worship our history, we worship our Savior who is very much a part of the here and now. We must be careful to make generalizations about the depth and the way songs are written now verses 200 years ago. While some songs may tackle more rich subjects, if we ve answered yes to the two questions above, we cannot discount the content of a song that might repeat the same line over and over again (see David and the way he wrote the Psalms lots of repetition). Its also important to remember that the words God has given to young songwriters, such as myself, are no less important than the ones given to the writers of times past like Martin Luther, or Calvin. I will concede that many songs written today are lacking in depth and sound doctrine. This is why the role of the worship leader is so important. As I encourage other young worship leaders, I continually remind them of the necessity of selecting (and writing) theologically sound music for the Church. Bottom line, this shouldn't be an argument of new vs. old. Our God is the God of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Let our "worship war" be against songs that do not teach sound doctrine, and those songs that ultimately place glory and honor on ourselves and not the One who actually deserves it. We don t worship a style, we don t worship a song, we worship the One True God. "Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my true word; I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord; Thou my great Father, I Thy true son; Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one." - Be Thou My Vision Written: circa 8th century "Till on that cross as Jesus died The wrath of God was satisfied For every sin on Him was laid Here in the death of Christ I live" - In Christ Alone Written: 2001 "And on that day when my strength is failing, The end draws near and my time has come... Still my soul will sing Your praise unending Ten thousand years and then forevermore." - 10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord) Written: 2011 Blake Russell Worship Pastor
Abiding and Prayer By Kendall McDonald, College Pastor Greetings Fredonia Hill Family, Here s a question: How many of you have ever come to the conclusion that your prayer life is stagnant or shallow and needs major revamping? If you re anything like me you have come to this conclusion often. We seem to never be satisfied with our prayer life. However, most of the time our tools to fix it include waking up earlier, praying more often, reading more scripture, or some other disciplinary measure. Do any of these things ever really work more than a short amount of time? I was having one of these moments several weeks back and as I began to ask God to help me, He took me to 1 Thessalonians 5:24, He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. This is my favorite verse in all of scripture. But why was God pointing me to this place? I knew this scripture well. I was asking Him about prayer. Then as simply as God asked the question, I understood the problem. Why would I, by my effort, try and create a better and deeper prayer life. Aside from Him, I am unable to live the life of holiness He has called me to live. Why would I believe I should abide in Him for everything else in my life but prayer was on me. In his book The Ministry of Intercessory Prayer, Andrew Murray said, Failure in prayer is the result of a spirit that is not yielded to the Spirit of God. In this sense, prayer is a gauge that measures the work of the Spirit in us. To pray aright, the life of the Spirit must be active in us. For praying the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man, everything depends on being full of the Spirit The depth of our prayer life is directly tied to our willingness to yield to the Spirit of God in our prayer life. Take a look at Romans 8:26-27: Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We don t even know what it is we should be praying for. We aren't even smart enough to know what we need, much less the needs of those around us. So are we destined to a futile life of prayer as guesswork before God? Are we to simply say what we feel and hope He responds? NO! We have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit in us who knows exactly what we need and exactly what God wants to do in us and through us. Our prayer life is to be vibrant and life giving. It is to be continuous through our day as we YIELD to the Spirit of God in us all the while positioning ourselves to be obedient to whatever may come from our prayer. I am not saying discipline is a bad thing. Discipline is great. Jesus was a model of discipline. However, our christian discipline should always be in an effort to keep us from depending on our flesh and for us to, in a greater measure, abide in the vine. So draw near the throne of grace and draw deeply from the well of the Holy Spirit who is in you to pray. This will release a great deal of joy in your prayer life as you know you are praying exactly in tune with the heart of God. Shalom Kendall McDonald College Pastor
Middle School Changes by Matt Murray, Youth PAstor Middle school. I think it safe to say that this is one of the most challenging times in a teenagers life. It is during these years that so much about who they are begins to change. There are four major areas where students begin to change in their middle school years. You may find yourself not knowing how to process all the changes, but thankfully we have experts parents, teachers, friends around us who can give us insight into the middle school mind. They are people who ve been there, know what we re going through, and can help us along the way. Here are the four major areas that middle school students are changing. Physical Changes In general, boys and girls develop at different rates. Most of the girls seem like giants compared to many of the boys who still look like they could be in fourth grade. This will change over the course of middle school. Kids will grow up. Yet as they grow, the body doesn t grow at a standard ratio. The upper body may grow faster than their legs, or their feet might grow faster than the rest of their body, or kids might even start looking like bobble-heads again. They don t call these the Awkward Years for nothing. Intellectual Maturity Today, middle schoolers are more worldly than any previous middle school generation. They have access to the world at an unprecedented level, finding all sorts of information within seconds from a device that sits in the palm of their hands. They are digital natives and know how to discover anything they want whenever they want. Yet, developmentally, so much of what they find is beyond what they can understand. They are still quite shallow in their thinking and act more like children than adults. Emotional State Have you ever wanted to ask your kids, Who are you and what did you do with our son? Sometimes it seems like your kids are three different people trapped in the same body. Sometimes they can help this, but most times they can t. They are hormonal, moody, and often irritable at a moment s notice. On top of the hormones, they have a fragile self-concept. Because it s still all about them, they take everything personally, while wondering if they re good enough. Social Development Middle schoolers are experiencing a growing dependence on peers to find self-worth. They want to make friends and hang out with them without parents around. They will start to detach from family and begin to develop their independence. Yet because these kids are unsure of who they are and who they really want hang around with, their friend groups will change. Kids who were best friends in elementary school might become casual acquaintances. Don t be alarmed if your kids shuffle through different friend groups throughout the year. It s just part of the process of growing up. Throughout all of those changes, it s important to remember this: Parents are still the most important people in a child s life. Matt Murray Student Pastor
Senior Adult Game Day Each month our seniors get together for lunch and games. Join us for fellowship. All ages welcome! Mar 17th, 11:30am FLC Gym Secretary's Reports MEMORIAL Betty Fausett- Nursery FINANCIAL REPORT Financials are available in the church office upon membership request HONORARIUM 1711 South Street Nacogdoches, TX 75964