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Genesis: In the Beginning

  [Youth Ministry]
08/02/2010
By Aldridge, Austin

I love August! Well, maybe I just love what August represents, the starting of a year (school terms), the last days of summer and summer heat, the coming of autumn, and the beginning of soccer and College Football. As I said, I love August. I remember the arguments with my Mom about what can of shoes I “needed” in order to be popular, which color backpack I wanted and of course, the Trapper Keeper notebooks of the 80’s. The smells of August and wet cut Bermuda grass takes my mind back to football practices at Newton County High School, and the wind-blown smells of the August blooming gardenias remind me of Mrs. Sue Padden, a family friend who allowed us to swim at her pool during the summer. Since Kim taught me to eat tomatoes, there is nothing better than a home-grown “beefsteak” or “heirloom” tomato just ripe off the vine, and the taste of homemade ice cream cools the hottest of summer days. I love August.

August as well represents the beginning of the school year, which is more than just buying the “right” clothes or getting in classes with the best of friends. August is the beginning of our daily routine. I look forward to that beginning. No more tip-toeing through the house to get ready in the morning, or having a gang of children running through my house to get ice cream at 10:00pm. Our routine begins again. We begin to read more, do more math problems, eat as a family together more, and the toys in the living room are replaced by school uniforms and class projects. Kim and I find time to talk more at the end of the day, and less video games are heard through the halls of our house. August is a beginning I look forward to.

This August represents a beginning for many of us. Maybe this is the year that you finally choose to cleanout the garage or start eating healthy. Maybe this August will be the start of your exercise routine now that your kids are heading back to school, or maybe it is the year to get more involved in their educational journey. Maybe this beginning will lead us to clean off the dining room table and start having meals together, or planning more outings for the family. This August marks a new beginning for many of us.

I love the term “beginning”. It takes me back to those inevitable words, “In the beginning…” I probably use the book of Genesis and the creation story in more conversations than ever during August, September and October. I think it has something to do with the thought of the garden. Now, I am not a gardener, but I love gardeners. I love the fresh produce that is not mass produced, but harvested through love and cultivation, much like that of God’s Garden of Eden and the relationship we have with God today. My favorite aspect of the creation story is found in verse 2 which says, “The earth was formless and void and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.” I love the beginning. God was hovering just in observation, in thought, in planning and strategy. He was there visioning the painted sky, the grass of the fields and the song of the morning doves. Before he spoke, he stopped, hovered and visioned. “In the beginning,” God prepared for us. Honestly, I love that he spent time hovering. We might not have had the painted sunsets, the majestic mountain ranges, the blue of the ocean, the silence of a snow filled sky, and the slight twinkling of the stars without that time and thought. First came the hovering and visioning of the future, then spoken word to create the beauty of the world as we know it.

“In the beginning;” what a wonderful way to start the story of God and his relentless love for us. As a Christian, the story of Genesis is my reminder of the journey God has for us. It is a reminder of his love and his pursuit of a relationship with us. Genesis is not only a story or a reminder, it is a focus that God has a plan for our lives, just as he had a plan for the creation of the earth. Jeremiah echoes that hope in Chapter 29 verse 11, “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Genesis is a beginning, a reminder, and a pursuit.

At First Baptist Church of McDonough Student Ministry, we will celebrate a sort of beginning or Genesis ourselves. On August 29, 2010 at 12:30pm in our Fellowship Hall, we are asking all students and parents to come to our “Genesis Gathering” and discover what this year’s Student Ministry has planned. We will release all events and dates, all bible study topics, as well as some new plans for our student ministry. We will have sign up sheets to help get parents and grandparents more involved, and will look at a new focus in this ministry area. I promise this will be an event that you will remember for the rest of the year. We hope that this will be a Genesis for you as we start a new year of Student Ministry here at First Baptist Church.

To Whom Much is Given

  [Pastor's Pen]
08/02/2010
By Thomas, Charles

What a blessing to be in a church that God is blessing! AND with that blessing comes not only all of the temporary and eternal benefits, but also the massive responsibilities. In fact, it is a biblical principle- "to whom much is given, much is required." Participating in a growing church is often time-consuming, inconvenient, and expensive; just three of the reasons why anyone choosing to join our fellowship must fully know what they are getting involved in. To be honest with you, I would much prefer four hundred worshippers all of whom are participating in one way or the other, over eight hundred worshippers who approach the church with half-hearted, lackadaisical attitudes.

In all of my years of ministry I have never seen more obvious signs of God preparing His people for a very important and significant pouring out of His Spirit and blessings on a church than right now at First Baptist Church of McDonough. As to the pouring out of His Spirit and blessings, YOU and I are instrumental in the how and the when and the how long. Without hesitating, I believe that God will move in might and power as soon as He sees ALL of His people at First Baptist Church giving sacrificially of their time, talents, and treasures!

Fearfully, I must conclude that if God’s people are stingy with their time, hoard their talents, and refuse to give their treasures (financial resources) to Christ’s church, then God will move on to find believers  in our area who will trust Him in a BIG WAY and show their belief and trust in God by utilizing their time wisely to build His church, taking ownership of Christ’s church by using their gifts and talents, and then giving generously to the work of the church. The work of the church is worship, evangelism, ministry, discipleship, and fellowship- all which take the time, talents, and treasures of God’s people working collectively to carry out His Mission to win the world to Christ!

I encourage you now, even as you did last year when we had a capital campaign in progress – GIVE! And give first to God, and then give whole-heartedly with faith in the God who will always provide. For then we will see God pour out His Spirit and blessings on us the benefactors of a sacrificial work that brings great honor to God!

God on the Move at FBC

  [Pastor's Pen]
07/23/2010
By Thomas, Charles

What a blessing to be in a church that God is blessing! AND with that blessing comes not only all of the temporary and eternal benefits, but also the massive responsibilities. In fact, it is a biblical principle- “to whom much is given, much is required.” Participating in a growing church is often time-consuming, inconvenient, and expensive; just three of the reasons why anyone choosing to join our fellowship must fully know what they are getting involved in. To be honest with you, I would much prefer four hundred worshippers all of whom are participating in one way or the other, over eight hundred worshippers who approach the church with half-hearted, lackadaisical attitudes.

In all of my years of ministry I have never seen more obvious signs of God preparing His people for a very important and significant pouring out of His Spirit and blessings on a church than right now at First Baptist Church of McDonough. As to the pouring out of His Spirit and blessings, YOU and I are instrumental in the how and the when and the how long. Without hesitating, I believe that God will move in might and power as soon as He sees ALL of His people at First Baptist Church giving sacrificially of their time, talents, and treasures!

Fearfully, I must conclude that if God’s people are stingy with their time, hoard their talents, and refuse to give their treasures (financial resources) to Christ’s church, then God will move on to find believers  in our area who will trust Him in a BIG WAY and show their belief and trust in God by utilizing their time wisely to build His church, taking ownership of Christ’s church by using their gifts and talents, and then giving generously to the work of the church. The work of the church is worship, evangelism, ministry, discipleship, and fellowship- all which take the time, talents, and treasures of God’s people working collectively to carry out His Mission to win the world to Christ!

I encourage you now, even as you did last year when we had a capital campaign in progress – GIVE! And give first to God, and then give whole-heartedly with faith in the God who will always provide. For then we will see God pour out His Spirit and blessings on us the benefactors of a sacrificial work that brings great honor to God!

March 2010

  [Pastor's Pen]
03/08/2010
By Thomas, Charles

What an incredible March we have ahead of us in ministry! I pray that you will engage your heart and soul and hands and feet into this month! Our activities actually culminate in early April on Good Friday as we reach out to our community in a multi-church, multi-ministry, multi-outreach effort to SHOW those in need that there is a God who loves and cares and sacrifices through the resources of His people! What better way to thank our Lord for his sacrifice on the cross at Calvary than to help someone in need on Good Friday! Contact our church office, our Outreach Director Mindy Clotfelter at 404-543-8949, or a member of our outreach team for details on how you can get involved! We will spend this month preparing for this exciting event and we need you now more than ever before! Faithfully Yours, Pastor Charles

The Myth of the Perfect Parent

  [Youth Ministry]
03/08/2010
By Aldridge, Austin

Our culture overall, and our church cultures specifically, have created an unrealistic expectation that parents must raise PERFECT kids.  Even if we could produce the “perfect” kid by the cultural standards of academic achievement, moral excellence, economic success and productive citizenship, this certainly doesn’t mean we have nurtured and shaped disciples of Jesus Christ.  Too often Christian parents are made to believe that if they follow a specific formula they are insured to raise a spiritual giant.  “If you don’t raise a spiritual giant, well, you are a terrible parent,” goes the logic. 

As Kim and I began our family back in 2002, we were firmly entrenched in a Christian culture that held the view that in a marriage relationship, if you really loved Jesus, the marriage would be perfect. (You won't even argue or disagree; well, maybe occasionally; after all, the disciples argued!). And as long as you follow the rule book, you will raise "perfect kids."  This view of Christian Parenting is not consistent with scripture.  Too many Christian parents live in shame over their roles as a spiritual formation guide for their children.  We were not made to parent alone without the help of a community of people committed to being the people of God. 

While I believe that we parents have a crucial role in the Christian formation of our kids, we have taken on too much responsibility with the idea that “we are the ones that transform them,” overlooking our role of nurturing the environments where God’s Spirit transforms them. 

Parents, we need each other.  We need resources.  We need a community.  We need to be the followers of Jesus Christ we want our kids to be.  We must quit living under the guilt of trying to parent successfully, and embrace the concept of parenting faithfully, while acknowledging that God loves our children more than we are able to and has a plan for their lives that leads to redemption.

At FBC McDonough Student Ministries, our desire is to build a Parent's Network, featuring events that would prepare us in leading and nurturing our children, as well as provide ideas for each other on spiritual formation in our homes. This is how we are entering into the engagement of parents in the formation of young people.

Also, please read this excellent article from Christianity Today filled with solid content debunking The Myth of the Perfect Parent: (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/january/12.22.html?start=1)

Happy New Year!

  [Pastor's Pen]
01/16/2010
By Thomas, Charles

Happy New Year! I hope your Christmas season was filled with laughter and love. And now we move forward into the New Year with the hopes of bigger and better things ahead. So, let me ask you…do you have a game plan for a great new year?

Sunday mornings in January, I am kicking off a new sermon series to help everyone forge into the new year with a plan in place to bring you the results you desire. Join us every Sunday in January for this exciting search through the Scriptures.

Our Annual Leadership Banquet in January will be held on Friday, January 29 at 6:30. Our special guest speaker this year is Josh Hunt. He is a giant in the field of growing churches through small groups. Feel free to check him out online. You will not want to miss this special night of fellowship and inspiration as we gear up for another great year of ministry at FBC. On top of it all, we get to taste more of Hal’s unbelievable barbeque.

Five incredible years! We have had the privilege and blessing and stability of ministry with Michael and Becca White for five strong, solid years. We can only pray for at least five more! We have celebrated with their family as they blossomed to five and have walked with him through the dark hours of losing his precious mother, but through it all we have been taken to the throne in worship every Sunday as we worship the One to whom we are most grateful! Thank you Michael and Becca for your ministry with us at FBC and for sharing your lives with us.

May we never take you for granted! We will host a time of special recognition for them on Sunday evening, January 10 at 6 pm. Wayne Smith and our Music Ministry Team are planning a special evening!

In February, we kick-off another great season of small groups as well as adding a time of worship and Bible study in the worship center with Pastor Charles for those who enjoy that format. The new Sunday night worship series begins with a cluster of messages entitled SEVEN! 

Stay posted for more details on all Sundays at Six activities in the new year. Below, you will find the Sunday evening activities we are hosting in January!

Happy New Year!!
Charles

Dream on...LIterally

  [Youth Ministry]
01/16/2010
By Aldridge, Austin

If you're feeling stuck in a logjam in life, then here's a question that can help you get unstuck: "If you could do anything in life, what would it be?"

We get locked down by reality, immobilized by the bleak prospects of limited resources and options. A featureless horizon stretches out before us and hope goes begging. But a "what if" question can crack open our possibilities and activate faith.

Your dreams aren't trash; they may seem crazy to you, but they can come to life if you dare to believe in them. So many things have seemed crazy to the dreamer…Windows Operating System by Bill Gates (that was a crazy idea to most of the computer world), the Apple/Mac computers and the three college students that created the idea in a garage in southern California, Tang Breakfast drink by NASA, and let’s not forget Chik-Fil-A. All of these were dreams that the outside world saw as crazy, and in most cases seemed as crazy to the dreamer as to those watching the dreamer. The one consistent message of all of these dreamers was the dream. When life became boring and average, they spent time with a journal and some quiet time just dreaming of a better tomorrow.

Living a humdrum Groundhog Day-existence can sap the verve and gusto right out of you. You can forget the habit of dreaming. Responsibilities, overloaded extra-curricular activities, and debt can weigh you down. For some of us, depression comes calling. And depression can lead to everything opposite dreaming. Our dreams are destroyed and replaced by fear, reclusiveness, and thoughts of failure.

But what if you could do anything? What if money were no object and you were unencumbered by responsibilities? Would you write a book? Learn to fly? Sail around the world? Start a business? Start a nonprofit? Reach out to a group of hurting people?

We need to dream more. We may be wearing the saddlebags of responsibilities, but we serve a God of miracles who delights in rewarding our faith. He loves it when we trust him and especially when we trust him with something important like a dream he gave us.

We're far too practical, asking the "glass-half-empty" question of "how?" when God wants us asking "why not?" He is the author of ideas - he drops them in our spirit all the time.

What if you could do anything? It's a beautiful, spirit-liberating proposition. We need to unshackle our imaginations and our notions of how personal and powerful God is. What is your dream? Speaking it out and sharing it is the first step in the process of bringing it to life. It's time to start asking "what if?" more.

Being Thankful

  [Pastor's Pen]
10/31/2009
By Thomas, Charles

Thanksgiving should never happen one day a year. It ought to be the daily desire of every believer, because giving thanks says so many things on so many levels. It reminds us from where our real blessings have come. It points others to the Giver of every good thing. It helps us to better establish our friendship with God. It connects us to the things that we have been given, helps us have a proper perspective of things, and then reminds us that real value is never found in things. It then helps us to become better stewards of those things. When we give thanks to God, we are giving credit where credit is due!

The opposite of thanksgiving in my estimation has to be complaining. Sadly, because of our nature, complaining is a pretty easy attitude and action into which we as humans tend to drift. Complaining, someone has well said, is the art of forgetting that God has blessed us with all that we ever need. One may laugh at the Israelites of old who wandered around in the desert for forty years never finding their way to the land of Promise because of their “sin”. They had a knack for complaining. They were skilled at it, one could conclude.

May each of your hearts this season be filled with thanksgiving – no, not the holiday where we eat weird stuff (like that red “glob” that my mother used to dump on my plate and demand that I try…EVERY Thanksgiving)…I mean the attitude and then the action to give thanks to God who has blessed us “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms”.

Above all, and this is especially true for a growing church like ours, stop the complaining! No one well wears the face of complaining any way. Remember that when we came to Christ and opened our hears to Him? He took over completely…or did he? Truly, if Christ is to “reign supreme” in our hearts, then we have no place for complaining. There is just not enough time for it…we’re too busy giving thanks!!! I pray you have a wonderful thanksgiving. You are such a gracious and loving people!

Blessings,
Pastor Charles

God Answers

  [Youth Ministry]
10/31/2009
By Aldridge, Austin

I don’t know many folks who would tell a friend, “I’m gonna call you..I’m gonna talk..but please don’t respond.” First of all, what kind of friendship is THAT? And would YOU want to be on the other end of the phone just listening, but not allowed the opportunity to respond? I don’t think so either.

How many times when in a pinch, between a rock and a hard place, in a situation when both decisions seem bad, when you’ve simply blown it, when looking for answers and direction, do you cry out to God something like this, “God help me!”

Yeah, me too.

And I believe that God hears all our prayers...in good times and of course when we have nowhere else to turn. He accepts and hears all our prayers. And He even answers them all too. Sometimes with the answer we want, sometimes with the answer we do not. But He hears and He answers. But how do we HEAR Him?

I believe there is a great number of people who have a “one-way” relationship with God...believers who say they “talk to God”…..but do they listen?? In our desire to receive clarity and direction and answers to our prayers, I think we often leave out a huge part of the equation: HIS RESPONSE, which is usually written in His Word.
Yes, as intuitive as it sounds, reading the Word is essential if one wants to “hear from God.” Many of the situations and things that we get ourselves into have happened in the past.

And the Bible is a great source to see what God says about such things.

When we go to God with our conversation, is it indeed a dialogue or does it sound more like a monologue? Do you do all the talking and no listening (or reading of His Word?) I’m convinced God is passionate about revealing His answers to our prayers. But I’m also convinced He has answered most of our questions already in
His Word. So let’s not give up praying..but let’s also not give up seeking His answers.

Austin