The Leadership Team recommends that the Church Conference held open from December be delayed to next Sunday evening prior to the Men’s Chili Cook Off and Super Bowl game. Rather than having 2 meals back to back, the Conference will be better attended as the Chili Cook Off is planned for the following Sunday. There is important business to consider:

• Approval of the 2019 Year-End Finance Report
• 2020 Church Budget Adoption
• Transfer of Title to the new church bus
• Deacon Ministry Constitutional Amendment
• 2020 Nominating Team Report

 

​These vital decisions call for a good attendance which will be better served by the special Super Bowl and Men’s Chili Cook Off. The Conference will be held at 5:00 pm next Sunday Afternoon, followed by the Chili Cook Off and then the Super Bowl at 6:30 viewed on the big screens. We are looking forward to a great evening of fellowship and fun.
 
The congregation should be aware of the Deacon Ministry Amendment to be recommended. The following will be added to ARTICLE X, Section 10.01, entitled - Deacons Service to the Church,
 
Current statement:
“The Church shall select godly men to serve in the capacity of New Testament Deacons (Philippians 1:1, 1 Timothy 3:8-13). The Deacons are to be servants of the Church and its members (Acts 6:1-3). The task of the Deacon is primarily to protect and buildup the unity and health of the Church. The Deacon’s ministry of care includes looking after the spiritual well-being of the members, visiting the sick, and caring for the needy and homebound; encouraging the members and supporting them in prayer; helping in the benevolence ministries of the Church; and promoting the proclamation of the gospel to believers and unbelievers.”
 
The following addition is recommended:
 
“The Deacon Body (Chairman) shall consult with the Stewardship Committee in October each year to determine ministry priorities for which budget consideration is required. These considerations may include but not limited to salaries, new ministries, vision priorities, loan financing or other major issues that occur as needs and opportunities arise.”
 
Please read through this addition and be in attendance on Sunday evening, February 2nd to participate in the transition of our church ministry from 2019 into the new year. God is moving in our church and we are seeing amazing progress. Don’t miss this evening of fun and fellowship next Sunday.

PRAISE GOD! Our January marker in the MAY 200 growth in attendance campaign has been made and surpassed. Last Sunday we recorded 156 people in worship. What does it mean to reach a milestone like this?

• It means that God is at work among us, “Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:45-47). A growing church is a glad and a praising church. The joy is not in the numbers, but in God who adds to the number of those who worship together. Clearly, God is at work among us.
• It means that the first milestone has been met which points us to our final achievement of 200 worshiping together in May. A baseball team wins its game by getting the first hit and the football team has to make the first touchdown. You can do great things for God by taking the first step and then the next and then the next. Five more steps and our benchmark of 200 will be history. The Psalmist said, “You enlarge my steps under me, and my feet have not slipped” (Psalm 18:36). God blesses those who take large steps for His glory. We are on our way one step at a time.
• It means that God is encouraging this church to attempt great things. Encouragement is a great thing these days especially when God is the encourager. God is not a “Kill-Joy.” He is not someone who throws cold water on our enthusiasm. There is a reason that the Bible calls the Holy Spirit our HELPER, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (John 14:26). Meeting this first milestone teaches us that the Holy Spirit is HELPING and ENCOURAGING us to continue our work for Jesus. With God’s HELP we move ever forward.

 
Reaching 150 in worship is not he only thing to celebrate. We shared together in our first scripture memory exercise as a congregation. We have read the Bible systematically before beginning in Genesis and ending in Revelation. We hear the Bible taught and proclaimed every Sunday through Bible teaching and preaching. We even sing Bible passages as a part of our Praise and Worship. This is the first time in my ministry where the whole congregation is working together to put key Bible passages to memory. Our goal is to memorize 12 passages (one per month) that that every born-again believer should know. We started with this one, “But God commends His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 KJV). Next month’s verse will be, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12 KJV). The first passage tells us why God gave Jesus to us. He sent Jesus to die for us because of His great love for us. Next month we memorize a verse that presents Jesus as God’s only pathway to be saved.
 
This is exciting. We are reaching more people and learning more Bible at the same time. Why not CELEBRATE? We are doing what God wants us to do.

We begin an emphasis today in which we will memorize the 12 most important scriptures every believer in Jesus should know. We will work to put one verse to memory each month until we all know these vitally important passages from God’s word. Today we will start with this one:
 
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8, NKJV)
 
Here’s the way it will work. Each Sunday throughout the year, the Deacon of the Week will come to the front like he always does to lead the congregation to start the worship service with prayer. Once he prays, he will ask the people to stand to their feet and repeat the Scripture memory verse together. You will have the benefit of reading the verse off the screens in the front for two of the four Sundays each month. On the third and fourth Sunday of the month, we will quote the verse together from memory.
 

 
By the end of the year we will all have memorized the top 12 verses that every believer should know.
 
Our church is beginning a process by which we all will actually do what the Psalmist says, “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I may not sin against God.” (Psalm 119:11)
 
Why is it important to hide God’s word in your heart? When you get in trouble, you need it to give you strength and assurance. When you get confused and do not have clear direction, you can remember what God’s word says to find your way. When you sin and mess up, God’s word will help you repent and find forgiveness. When somebody you know needs encouragement or help to meet their needs, you will know how to help them hear what God has to say about it.
 
Charles Spurgeon said, “Be walking Bibles.”
 
Memorizing 12 verses this year will help us become the walking Bibles God wants us to be.
 
It will be good to be “Johnny on the Spot” with scripture verses that you can repeat without having to look them up. You won’t have to say, “I’ll get back to you on that.” The Holy Spirit will help you remember so that your recall of God’s word will be instantaneous.
 
I look forward to memorizing these great verses of scripture with you. You will encourage me and I will encourage you so that we will all be ready to say, “I have hidden God’s word in my heart so that I may not sin against God.”
 

The 2020 vision of making it a Year of the Bible is not about your reading the Bible through in one year. You may wish to do that, but it is not an attempt to challenge a greater number of our members to read God’s word from Genesis to Revelation in one year. This vision is not necessarily about memorizing portions of the Bible or knowing more completely what the Bible says about certain doctrines of the faith. This effort is a challenge to make the Bible a more important part of our lives every day. It is about becoming a “Doer” of the Word of God and not just a “Hearer.” If successful, we will become more aware of what the Bible says because we have become more active in applying it to everything we do.
 
There was a young pastor who was called to his first pastorate. The people of his congregation came in great numbers to hear him preach his inaugural sermon and were thrilled by his clarity and articulate message. On his second Sunday, the folks were surprised to hear him preach the same sermon using the same text he preached the Sunday before. They thought that was a bit unusual but did not question his repetition of a subject so obviously important. On the third Sunday when the same sermon and same text were heard again, the leaders of the church met to ask their pastor about his preaching plan. Surely, he would provide some variety in preaching and a broader exposition of the scriptures going forward. When asked, the pastor said, “Have you done what this sermon says you should do? When you do this one, I will preach a different one.”
 
Make no mistake. The Bible is to be something we do, not just something we talk about doing. The Bible is the most important book ever written, “For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also perform its work in you who believe.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
 
The Bible is a living book, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword, piecing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:13)
 
The Bible is a powerful anchor, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And when the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24-25)

• The Bible is the most important message, most relevant truth, most powerful foundation the world has today.
• The Bible is the only hope we have of overcoming the doubts and confusion of our time.
• The Bible is the only help we have in getting past the differences that divide us and foster discontent.
• The Bible is our best answer to the problems of our day.

 
Practicing God’s word is the point of our vision of 2020 as the Year of the Bible at Grace