It Starts With You

It Starts With You     Ephesians 4:11-16

What is your largest personal hurdle to investing in the "all"?:

Personal Debt. We pay our tithe, the full 10%.   I committed to God that I would do this as an answer to prayer for the job (career) he has provided.  Before my current job I did not tithe much, mostly gave at special offerings.    We have just competed Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace. We now have a plan.   Thru the efforts of the class instructors, we will have an alumni class that we can participate in and help keep us on track and motivated.

What does FBC need to do to help you make a deeper commitment to
investing in the "ALL"?

Pray.  We are fortunate to have the Dave Ramsey class and a plan in place. As God will allow, I hope that we can finish the plan early, very early.

Last week:

“then ALL died” 
All=91% of the U.S.

New word: “EVERY”

“by what EVERY joint supplies” 
Truth 1: a lack of resources without you

“the effective working by which EVERY part does it share”

Truth 2: a lack of effectiveness without you

The “All-American”

B-17 in the 414th Squadron, 97BG
North Africa in 1943

 

 

 

 

“joined and knit  together……by what EVERY 

 joint supplies”

 

Arkansas Baptist in Haiti

On Sunday, I gave you some information during the sermon regarding the efforts of Arkansas Baptists in Haiti. Here are some more detailed facts regarding exactly what has been done by Arkansas Baptist churches and organizations in Haitit. This information comes from Bob Fielding who works on the missions team for our state Convention staff.

Greg!

Great talking to you last night.  Here are the most up to date figures, not including a team that is there this week.

1) 792 AR Baptists serving on 127 teams have gone to Haiti with the ABSC

2) Those folks have reported to us 5,974 professions of faith.  We don’t count baptisms because of the situation we face with the local organized church.

3) We have about 15 house churches that we know have been established, with about four of those 2^nd generation, using T4T materials from the IMB.

4) Dr Melissa Hobbs from WBC and another fish expert will travel to Haiti in March to install our first aquaponics system (fish/veggies) at the Christian University of Northern Haiti, working with their agronomy department.  We believe there will be several spinoffs from this, providing food, economic boost, and a way to spread the gospel. 

5) 10,440 medical, eye and dental patients have been seen by ABSC medical teams.

6) A prison ministry was started in May of 2012.  To date, AR SBC prison chaplains have trained bout 40 Haitians to do prison ministry in three prisons. 

7) We were able to send a young man to Honduras to the Chorti Baptist Development Center to learn SALT (Sloping Agricultural Land Technology) and other skills which will result in life change in the mountains. He is also a church planter.

 

Here is a BRAND NEW video (too long for your service) that you can look at. Just went up yesterday.  https://vimeo.com/79216498

 

Blessings and great talking to you yesterday!

Bob

 

A Frank Discussion about the Church and the Lost

A Frank Discussion about the Church and the Lost - 2 Corinthians 5:13-15

 

“then all died” What does a lost world  - the “all” - look like?

 

Evangelical U.S. Church =

7%-9% of population

91% lost

 

Current population growth

18%

 

Current rate of church growth

-3%

 

Understanding church decline:

4,000 close – 1,000 new

2005-2010: teen attendance drops from 20% to 10%

Baptism rate lower than 1950

 

Giving trends:

Each year now, Christians set record lows

Age 75+ give FOUR TIMES higher percentage than ages 25-44

 

Age                  25-44  35-44  45-54

 % given          .80%   .89%   1.06%

 

Age                 % given by generation

65+                              46%

55-64                           22%

45-54                           17%

35-44                           11%

Under 35                       4%

 

Question: How do we reach the “all”?

 

Answer: FBC is investing in the church planting movement

 

Through:

ABSC partnership

Direct church planting

Venue @ Chapel Hill

 

Church Plant Partnerships

True North Church, Anchorage – 19

Living Water Church, Poughkeepsie – 13

Aviator Church, Wellington – 65

True Life Church, Wichita – 40

Ignite Church, Naples – (decisions) 257

 Grace Without Borders Prison Ministry – 294

Strong Tower BC, Los Pastores – 10

 

Truth 1: We must learn to live “compelled”… and “should no longer live for ourselves, but Him who died.”

 

Truth 2: Living for ourselves …will starve the evangelism movement that answers the question.

 

Question:

What is your largest personal hurdle to investing in the “all”?

What does FBC need to do to help you make a deeper commitment to investing in the “all”?

gregaddison@fbccabot.org

Let It Start with Me

Understanding the needs for evangelism   John 4

 "He needed to go through Samaria"

 First need: her need

 

Second need: Jesus’ need

“My food is to do the will of Him who sent me"