Passport Kids Camp Info
Posted on April 6th, 2011
Here’s updated information about our Passport Kids! Camp this summer.
Passport Kids! Camp
Eagle Eyrie Conference Center, Lynchburg, VA
June 16-19, 2011 (Thurs – Sun)
Theme: “Treasure”
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be open to you.” Matthew 7:7 (TNIV)
Total Cost: $240 (minus $60 deposit and fundraising amount credited to camper’s account)
Payment Deadline: Tuesday, April 26, 2011.
For more information and medical release forms . . . Read the rest of this entry »
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Evaluating the Pastor
Posted on March 31st, 2011
Pastor’s Column, published in The Informer (FBC Newsletter for April 2011)
As you might know, according to our church constitution, the deacons are responsible for evaluating the pastor. However, I feel that it is important that the whole congregation has an opportunity to provide honest feedback to the pastor. Therefore, last fall during a deacon’s meeting, I proposed that a survey be designed for all members of the congregation to fill out as a way to assist the deacons in evaluating my ministry. From April 1 to April 24, this survey will be available for you to fill out. It will ask for your input in these areas:
- Pastoral Ministry: communication, listening, counseling and teaching skills, visitation and grief ministry, conduct of weddings and funerals, etc.
- Pulpit/Worship Ministry: planning worship services, sermon content and delivery, involvement of staff and church members, etc.
- Church Administration: leadership of staff/volunteers, assistance to committees and councils, organizational skills, etc.
- Personal Qualities: people skills, spiritual health, commitment to personal/professional growth, punctuality, etc.
- Community/Denominational Participation: BGAV, SBA, FAMA, etc.
- Evangelism Leadership: training and commitment to evangelism.
There will also be space for you to write down your perception of the strengths, the growth areas, and overall effectiveness of my ministry. Additionally, there is space for you to give me constructive suggestions.
You can access the evaluation survey by clicking on this link. (A new browser window or tab will open.)
You will be asked to sign your name on your survey, but you are not required to do so. In any case, only our deacon co-chairs, Jay Lynn and George Carter, will see the names. Jay and George will tabulate and present the results of the surveys (without names) to the rest of the deacons and to me during a future deacon’s meeting.
Many thanks to Jay Lynn for designing the survey! I encourage all members and regular attenders to fill it out. Thank you for your input that will help me be a better pastor!
Yours in Christ, Michael
Tags: Pastor evaluation
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3/20 – Children’s Mission Workshop
Posted on March 17th, 2011
Your family is invited to a Children’s Missions Workshop for hands-on helping activities.
Sunday, March 20 at 4:30 (pizza served at 5:30) at Farmville Baptist Church Fellowship Hall
Families will rotate through four stations during an hour, during which time they will…
- prepare an entrée for our own church members who have had an illness
- make warm hats for people in our community (distributed during the winter at FACES)
- create greeting cards for Centra Hospice
- fill shoeboxes with school supplies for children in Liberia (distributed by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship)
There is no charge, but donations for pizza and the postage for the school-supply kits are gladly accepted. If you’d like to bring school supplies for the shoeboxes or if you have other questions, please email or call Beth Cheuk (b_cheuk [at] yahoo.com or 391-3616).
RSVPs (to Beth Cheuk) are wonderful but not required.
Tags: children, missions, workshop
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Covenant and Kingdom
Posted on February 28th, 2011
Pastor’s Column published in The Informer (FBC’s Newsletter for March, 2011)
Beginning in March, I will be starting a new sermon series called “Covenant and Kingdom.” The series is based on a book by the same name written by Mike Breen, formerly the pastor of St Thomas Sheffield in the United Kingdom. When he was at St. Thomas Sheffield, Mike created and pioneered Missional Communities, mid-sized groups of 20-50 people on mission together. The result, less than 6 years later, was the largest church in England, and ultimately, one of the largest and now fastest growing churches in the whole of Europe. In 2006, Mike was approached by Leadership Network to lead an initiative into church planting. Through this partnership, more than 725 churches were planted in Europe in just three years. Today, Mike lives in South Carolina, leading 3dM, a movement/organization that is helping hundreds of established churches and church planters move into this discipling and missional way of being the church. (See http://mikebreen.wordpress.com/about/)
For the past several months, I and other pastors around the state have been learning from Mike Breen through his partnership with the Virginia Baptist Mission Board. In a sense, we have been discipled by Mike so that we might be better followers of Jesus and better leaders of the churches we serve. The discipleship groups that I’m leading now are a direct result of putting into practice what I’ve learned over the past few months.
The “Covenant and Kingdom” sermon series gives a biblical and theological basis to what I’m trying to do now as pastor. It is also an attempt to give the Bible back to the “people in the pews,” so that they don’t solely have to rely on seminary-trained professionals to tell them how to read the Bible and what it means. One way to understand the Bible is to recognize two threads that run throughout holy scripture: the theme of Covenant or relationship, and the theme of Kingdom or responsibility. Throughout the Bible, God invites people to a covenant—to share deeply in a relationship of love with their Heavenly Father. At the same time, God challenges people to take on the responsibility in representing God’s Kingdom in ever-widening spheres of influence. So, throughout the Sundays in Lent, we will examine how those two themes of Covenant and Kingdom runs through all of Scripture. My prayer is that it will lead us to love God and serve God and others in a deeper and a more joyful way.
Yours in Christ, Michael
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FAMA Lenten Services
Posted on February 28th, 2011
The Farmville Area Ministerial Association invites you to attend their Wednesday Lenten Services at 12 noon followed by a free soup lunch at 12:30 p.m.
The following is a schedule of churches hosting these services:
Wed., March 16 – First Baptist, 100 South Main St., Farmville.
Wed., March 23 – St. Theresa Catholic
Wed., March 30 – Farmville Presbyterian
Wed., April 6 – Farmville United Methodist
Wed., April 13 – Johns Memorial Episcopal
On Friday, April 22, Farmville Baptist will host a community-wide Good Friday Service at noon. A soup lunch will be served after the service.
Tags: Lenten Services
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PassportChoices Youth Camp 2011
Posted on February 18th, 2011
What is Passport? When are we going?
Passportchoices, a missions-based youth camp experience for youth who have completed grades 7-12, will be held at beautiful Wingate University in Wingate, North Carolina. We will be attending Session 6: July 17-22 (Sunday-Friday) this year.
Keep reading to find links to important information for this year’s camp, including required forms, packing lists, and payment deadlines!
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3/9 – Ash Wednesday Service
Posted on February 14th, 2011
Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent and occurs forty days before Easter (excluding Sundays). Ash Wednesday gets its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of the faithful as a sign of repentance and as a reminder of our mortality.
This year, we will have our Ash Wednesday service on Wednesday, March 9 at 6:30 p.m. in the Sanctuary. All are invited to this service.
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Souper Bowl of Caring
Posted on February 6th, 2011
On February 6, our youth and children collected our “Souper Bowl of Caring” donations that will help FACES, our local food pantry. Afterwards, our youth and children and their parents hosted a soup lunch to help raise funds for camp. For more pictures . . . Read the rest of this entry »
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Ten Great Dates
Posted on January 27th, 2011
Want to energize your marriage in a fun and effective way? How about going on Ten Great Dates with your spouse?
Farmville Baptist will be hosting “Ten Great Dates” every Friday night starting February 18 going through April 29 (except on Good Friday, April 22).
Spouses come at 6:00 p.m. for a 30-minute introduction to that evening’s topic and then go on a date to discuss the topic. We are working to line up local restaurants that will give you a meal discount or offer a free dessert if you show them your Ten Great Dates book!
Cost: $12 for the book Ten Great Dates by David and Claudia Arp. The book is available for purchase at Farmville Baptist.
Starts: Friday, February 18, 2011
Time: 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Place: Farmville Baptist Church Fellowship Hall (132 N. Main St., Farmville, VA)
Childcare: $5 per child per weekly session. This is an optional service that we provide for parents. Children will be supervised by at least two Longwood students and an adult, all of whom have had their background checked. We will show an age-appropriate movie during this time. Parents must pick up their children at 8:30 p.m.
The following restaurants are giving “Ten Great Dates” participants added value during their Friday evening date nights. Show the restaurant server or the manager your “Ten Great Dates” book in order to receive the following:
Macado’s — 10% off both meals
El Patron — 10% off both meals
Golden Palace — 10% off both meals
Charley’s Waterfront Café — 50% off both meals
Country Cookin — Free drinks with meals
Tags: energize marriage, Marriage Checkup, Prepare/Enrich, Ten Great Dates
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A Gospel for Human Life
Posted on January 26th, 2011
Pastor’s Column published in The Informer (FBC’s Newsletter for February, 2011)
Several months back, I was rereading Dallas Willard’s classic The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God. In the second chapter of the book, Willard was exploring the reasons why there is a disconnect between the gospel and every day life, why the Christian faith almost seems irrelevant or powerless in the face of the realities of life. As I read, I came across this passage that was particularly convicting to me as a pastor and preacher.
Willard writes: “The situation we have just described—the disconnection of life from faith, the absence from our churches of Jesus the teacher—is not caused by the wicked world, by social oppression, or by the stubborn meanness of the people who come to our church services and carry on the work of our congregations. It is largely caused and sustained by the basic message that we constantly hear from Christian pulpits. We are flooded with what I have called ‘gospels of sin management,’ in one form or another, while Jesus’ invitation to eternal life now—right in the midst of work, business, and profession—remains for the most part ignored and unspoken. . . . The resources of God’s kingdom remain detached from human life. There is no gospel for human life and Christian discipleship, just one for death or one for social action.” (pp. 57-58). Willard then prescribes a solution: “To counteract this we must develop a straightforward presentation, in word and life, of the reality of life now under God’s rule, through reliance upon the word and person of Jesus. In this way we can naturally become his students or apprentices” (p. 58).
Reading this passage has challenged me to explore how I might be able to preach, teach and model a Gospel for Human Life here at Farmville Baptist, a Gospel that may lead all of us into a deeper life of discipleship to Jesus. On a personal level, I will begin leading a discipleship group of about six people so that we can learn to live life together as disciples of Christ. In my preaching, I will be focusing on discipleship as I begin a series on the Sermon on the Mount. Finally, I will be teaching a three-week Sunday School class session starting February 13 on how a Gospel of Human Life might impact our church as well as our lives. The class will be held in the Fellowship Hall, 9:45 to 10:30 a.m., and I invite all adults to attend. I’m excited about what I’m learning, and thank you for giving me a chance to share it with you!
Yours in Christ, Michael
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