Connecting – Page 2

In this third part of our conversation about who God made us to be as a church, we talked about the fact that connecting and growing, while necessary, are not sufficient in and of themselves. Thank you for taking part in this conversation with us and reflecting on God’s design for your own community. Don’t miss next week as we put everything together and celebrate the thing that gives it all substance: The resurrection.

Reaching Further

Have you ever had a secret that was simply too good to keep to yourself? It was news that you just weren’t going to be able not to share; you were just going to have to deal with the consequences later? Or perhaps make this more personal: Have you ever gotten a bit of good news that you couldn’t possibly have not shared with the world? In our social media-crazed world, some days it seems like most folks think everything is worth sharing. “I got a promotion!” “I ran a marathon!” “My kid is on the honor roll!” “My dog really like its new bed!” “I woke up this morning!” “I’m asleep now (my fingers are set on auto-post)!” What starts to happen is that as everything gets shared, it can begin to seem like really, nothing is worth sharing. I submit to you, though, that some things really are worth sharing. What’s more, some places are designed to help us do that. And I’m not talking about Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Read the rest…

This past Sunday we began a brand new sermon series called “Who We Are.” For the next few weeks we are going to be taking a look at who First Baptist is; at who God made us to be. Along the way we’ll be talking about identity as a church and how we can stand firmly in line with God’s design for us. If you want a better idea of who First Baptist is or what it looks like for a church to wrestle together with God’s plans for them, you won’t want to miss a single part of this series. Thanks for reading and listening.

Making Connections

Do you know who you are? We talked back before Christmas about the fact that Jesus helps us become fully who God made us to be. As powerful a truth as that is, though, if we don’t have at least some kind of a clue as to who that might be, it’s hard to move with anything resembling intentionality in that direction. This applies to us as individuals to be sure, but it applies every bit as much and maybe even a little bit more as a church. The funny thing about the church is that it is made up of individuals. It is made up of individuals who might know themselves incredibly well, but who may or may not understand who God made them to be and how God designed them to work as a group. Read the rest…