Archive for January, 2009
True Love Waits-Youth Ministry
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True Love Waits started in April 1993, and is an international campaign that challenges teenagers to remain sexually abstinent until marriage. To date, over a million young people have signed covenant cards stating: “Believing that true love waits, I make a commitment to God, myself, my family, my friends, my future mate, and my future children to be sexually abstinent from this day until the day I enter a biblical marriage relationship.” True Love Waits is a comprehensive call to sexual purity that involves the mind, the spirit, and behavior.
The campaign will end on Sunday, February 22nd with a “Commitment Ceremony.” This event will be held during our p.m. services beginning @ 6p.m. This ceremony is a special picture of the commitment to sexual purity shared between a parent and his or her teenage son or daughter. The ceremony will include a ring or other piece of jewelry that will be given to the teenager by their parent(s) and/or guardian. This jewelry will be a symbol of their mutual commitment to a lifetime of purity.
While you can use a plain, simple ring, True Love Waits rings have beem specifically designed for this ceremony. Below you will find a couple of links for True Love Waits jewelry:
http://secure.jamesavery.com/index.jsp
Or visit Lifeway or the Christian Bookstore (more affordable option) These rings may take a while to come in, so please pray and plan on what you would like to give your teenager. If you have any questions, please see Bro. Rusty or call 256-335-0735 or email him @ runcj@yahoo.com
Point of Impact-Youth Nite
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(2-4-2009)-We don’t know what you have planned this Wednesday night, but you do not want to miss this month’s Point of Impact-Youth Nite hosted by SJFBC.
The speaker: will be our very own Rusty Pate/Student Pastor
Worship by: Hello August
more info on the band click here:http://www.myspace.com/helloaugust
Drama: “Give Me Your Eyes” by “Roots Student Ministry” of SJFBC
As if that was enough we will be celebrating the Pate’s 2 year anniversary as our Youth Ministers @ SJFBC. What a night! Do not miss it! You will leave that night knowing that you have encountered Christ if you come in a dilligent search for Him! Come worship with us. Cya
In Christ,
Pastor Potts
Valentine’s Day-Dinner and a Movie
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(2-14-2009)-As if the Valentine’s dinner and crazy couples games were not enough, there has been an added bonus feature for this romantic evening. Dinner and movie, WOW! Tickets are currently on sale just ask any member of our student ministry@SJFBC, or any member of our local fellowship to obtain tickets for this awesome event. Make this Valentine’s Day a night to remember. This movie reveals to all of us who have entered into the Holy Institution of Marriage, joined by God Himself, that this wonderful covenant between a man and a woman is truly a blessing that should not be took for granted. Whether you are a young couple with dreams of one day getting married, or just married, or you have been married for more years than you can count this movie will truly touch your heart and unveil what a marriage should truly be like. Remember to never leave your partner behind!!! Make sure that your marriage is FIREPROOF!Tickets have to be purchased in advance. For more info check out the Valentine’s Day Churchwide-Date nite blog post or contact us @SJFBC or any member of our church.
Valentine’s Day Churchwide Date-Nite
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Valentine’s Day Dinner- Youth Fundraiser
Date: Saturday, February 14th
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: First Baptist Church Fellowship Hall, St. Joseph
Adult tickets : $8.00
Kids Spaghetti meal: $3.00
Entrees are: Lasagna and or Chicken Fettucinni Alfredo
Meal includes: Entree, Salad, Bread, Drink, and Dessert
Advanced Tickets ONLY!!! See the Youth of church today…..
or call Christi @ (931)-279-0077
BONUS FEATURE:
Immediately following the dinner that night we will be playing:
*Crazy Couples Game- tons of fun and laughs
The Finale:
*We will be showing the nationally acclaimed movie: FireProof!!!
Make sure you don’t -Leave Your Partner Behind!
Put your prayer request here
Posted by: | CommentsDo you have a concern that you’d like to share with any and all of our website visitors as well as our congregation? If so you may email the prayer request to us for publication on the prayer-list page. Remember to check the “Please Publish this Request” checkbox near the bottom of the form.
A couple of things to consider when publishing a request on the prayer-request page:
- This page is public. It gets indexed by the internet search engines (Google, MSN, Yahoo!, etc.) and the prayer request could very well end up on search results. If your request is something that you have considered starting a prayer-chain type of email for, then this might be for you.
- More people will know about your prayer concern and will be able to pray for you. (See above)
- If you change your mind about making the prayer request public, you can always contact us and ask that it be removed from this page. We respect the privacy of our site visitors and only publish those prayer requests that we have been asked to publish. This is strictly a service for YOU.
- Please plan on keeping us updated about changes to the situation that you’ve requested prayer for. This will help us to pray more specifically about the concern.
Related pages:
Youth Testimonies of WSR-From the Pastor’s Desk
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I have to let everyone know what it meant to me to hear personal testimonies from the heart of our youth last Sunday night. It was such a blessing to hear what Jesus had done in their lives. During any youth “rewind” or slideshow and testimony of any youth event I always expect to hear from them about how cool everything was and how much fun they had, which is great! And like all the others since I have been pastor I was expecting them to comment on how “gnarly” and “off da hook” the slopes were,it being a ski trip and all and about some inside joke that only they know about because you “just had to be there.”
But this time was different, very different. This trip was alot deeper than all the others I felt. We have an awesome “Dynamic Duo” of student ministers at SJFBC who are committed to taking their students deep into God’s Word in a way that is relevant to teenage culture. And that is such a blessing to work alongside.
This “Winter Ski Recharge” was nothing short of a true “Spiritual Recharge” to say the least. The curriculum that was prayed over and selected to be used in their sessions was about “Going Deeper” into God’s Word not by just reading it, or knowing what it said as much as it was about hiding it in their hearts.(Psalm 119:11) says, “Your Word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” And it is my prayer that the youth of our church would take this awesome encounter they had with God and let it “spark” their lives in such a way that a “fire” would begin to burn within them that they cannot keep inside!
Like Jeremiah! He said, “……but His Word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not.” God Bless!
In Christ,
Pastor Potts
Super Sunday-High Attendance Sunday
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Two weeks from this Sunday on February the 1st, there will be thousands of screaming fans who will come from all over the nation and even the world to experience one of our nations favorite past times greatest platforms- “The SuperBowl!” Fans from the two teams that are still standing at the end of the playoffs will pack out the stadium in Tampa, Florida for SuperBowl XLIII!
They will come flying there banners, posters, foam fingers, and jerseys of there favorite icons and team; and some even will go to the extent of painting their bodies with their favorite team colors to express their true loyalty. Listen, don’t get me wrong; I love football! It rocks! Football is one sport that my wife and I both love to watch together, and have since we met. It’s one of our common bonds besides Christ and our family.! But, it is definitely not a priority in my life.
Back to my point of this whole post. In two weeks all of these people- thousands I may add- will pack out a stadium with only HOPES of seeing there team crowned as SuperBowl Champs. But, with all their sacrifice in travel, food, gas, airfare, there is only going to be one team standing. There will be a winner and a loser. The Superbowl only comes one time a year, but for us as Christians we get to celebrate Super Sunday every week corporately as a local church body.
The cool thing is that we know that our team has already won. We come together collectively to worship and celebrate the eternal victory of our “Champion”- Jesus Christ who conquered death, hell, and the grave for all of humanity. So we come with thankful hearts erecting our “Trophy” -A Home in Heaven, which is the destination for all that has allowed Christ to conquer the sin of their lives, and we celebrate this eternal prize. Jesus won this Trophy for us by going to the Cross and dying for the sin debt that we could not pay for or ever be able to earn.
In two weeks, on February the 1st, we would like to make Sunday as Super as possible by inviting all of you to our High Attendance- Super Sunday. This includes our church family who do not regularly attend Sunday School; to the first time visitor who has just thought about worshipping with us;to join us that Sunday to celebrate our “Main Event”- Jesus Christ- through diving deeper into His Word to gain more knowledge of who He is, and what He desires for us to accomplish as His people. I know you may be saying to yourself, ” that’s one more hour or at least 45 minutes that I can sleep on Sunday morning, but I’m praying that you will begin to think of it as another “Hour With God.” Let’s come together and pack out God’s Arena, and make it a “Sold-Out” event for the purpose of celebrating and worshipping the Son of God- Jesus Christ the “True Champion” of all champions! God Bless!
In Christ,
Pastor Potts
The Anchor in the Storm
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On October 23rd, 2006 I had been given one of the greatest ministry opportunities that I had ever been given. I was asked to fly to the city of Los Mochis, in the state of Sinaloa, in Mexico to be the speaker at a “youth conference” for four nights. As if that was not enough, I was asked to speak at a “homecoming service” for a church that had been established for 18 years. What a celebration!
After a long day of flying from airport to airport I was boarding my last flight of the day that was headed to Los Mochis. It was at that time that my conversations with God got more intimate and intense and very lengthy. Toward the end of the flight I had noticed that we had begun to hit alot more turbulence than I was ever used to experiencing. Come to find out we were flying into some inclement weather that the people of Mexico like to call “tropical depressions”. Looking back I would like to call it the end of the road! Either way for a young man from Alabama it was more wind and rain than I wanted to fly into in a large “tin can”! And even though it took the pilots that night 3 times to land the plane, I knew that God had brought me there for a reason.
The next day I took the picture of this red cross with the ivy growing up it at “Century 21 Baptist Church”, and at that moment I didn’t really see the significance of the photo; until a couple of weeks ago. It hit me that just as I had flown into a “tropical depression” physically, and our plane was being moved back and forth by the winds being displaced from it’s normal flight pattern; several were displaced by the damage of the wind and the flooding of the terrential rains in the area where we were ministering that week. It dawned on me that we are also sometimes displaced by “spiritual hurricanes”.
Have you ever been displaced by a “spiritual hurricane” in your life that has displaced you from where you once were with the Lord. You have allowed a negative experience to push you away from God from where you were once serving Him faithfully. Or is your “spiritual hurricane” one that you were born with in that you have never had an established position with God on any level especially one of committing your life to following Him, by accepting Christ into your heart as Lord and Personal Savior by believing that He is the Son of God, and He did come to this world from God in Heaven to die for sinful fallen man.
So has your life always been a “whirlwind”? No matter where you are right now in life at this very moment, just remember that you are never too displaced or withdrawn from God to either come back to Him or come to Him for the first time asking Him for forgiveness for the sins you have committed against Him!( 1 John 1:9)
As I think about the picture of this cross I am reminded that only through the redemptive work of the Cross of Christ can we have an anchor when the “spiritual winds” blow strong and the “spiritual flood waters” rise to an uncomfortable level.
In (Hebrews 6:19-20) the author of this book proclaims under the divine leadership of the Holy Spirit these words, “We have this as a sure and steadfast ANCHOR of the soul, a HOPE that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where JESUS has gone as a forerunner on OUR behalf…..
Be Blessed,
Bro. Anthony