THINKING OUTSIDE OF THE "BOX" After much prayer and consideration, the Board of Deacons, Board of Christian Education and Music Committee met jointly on Monday, August 22, with 12 people present. Our goal was 2-fold: (1) to create a more focused time of worship by eliminating distractions before the worship service and (2) to encourage more adults to attend Sunday morning Bible study by eliminating an overlap in Sunday morning activities. This schedule seemed to be the direction the Lord is leading us. The decision was unanimous to try this schedule for one year. The boards and committee will meet again to review the effectiveness of the "new schedule" at the end of next Summer. 9:00 am Coffee's on in the kitchen! 9:15 am Join the Deacons and others for a time of prayer in preparation for the service. The prayer fellowship will meet in Schaaf Hall just off the kitchen. 9:45 am Prelude begins. Please prepare your heart for worship. New songs we are learning may be introduced by the Worship Team at this time. 9:55 am Announcements 10:00 am Worship 11:30 am Christian Education for youth and adults. The pastor is leading an adult class in a program called Kerygma, Discovering the Bible. This is a survey of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, designed for students with any level of experience with Bible study, from someone who has never studied the Bible to someone who has been studying the Bible an entire lifetime. We have some great (and provocative) discussions. Everyone is welcome. At the moment, we have some great children's teachers eager to teach Sunday School, but we are missing the key ingredient - children! If you would like to get involved in Christian Education as a family, just let us know and we will be more than happy to share an age-appropriate story and activity with your child while you join the adults. WEDNESDAY 7:30 pm Worship Team Rehearsal at the church 2nd SUNDAY OF EVERY MONTH Worship for the Elderly, Valley View Nursing Facility, Route 513, just north of Frenchtown, 2:00 pm THURSDAY EVENINGS... ADULT SMALL GROUPS Thursday evenings around Baptistown are busy with two small groups meeting on alternate weeks, punctuated by other meetings from time to time. Our goal is to move closer to following the two great commandments given by Jesus: to love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. Both groups are meeting at the parsonage, 1024 County Rd. 519 in the pastor's living room. Come at 7 pm for fellowship and conversation. The studies begin at 7:30 pm and dismiss at 9 pm. If you're not sure where the groups are meeting, please call the church office Thursday morning, between 9 and noon. 1.) Loving God is an in-depth study of Isaiah. Let's get a fresh view of God as Jesus worshiped Him... God as He reveals Himself in the Old Testament. Isaiah is quoted in the New Testament more often than any other Old Testament book except Deuteronomy. It reveals a comprehensive view of God's glory, God's plan for history, and God's attitude toward human sin. Be sure to bring your Bible. Call the church office for the current Thursday night schedule. 2.) Loving Others ... Building healthy We began this fall by studying the book Personality Plus; How to Understand Others by Understanding Yourself by Florence Littauer. Your personality type sets your "default" behaviors in most situations. You were born with your personality and you can't change it, but when you become aware of how you are most likely to react, you can choose to modify your "default behaviors" and respond differently. Persons with different personality types will have different sets of default behaviors. As you learn to understand personality types, you will understand why people act the way they do and how to take another's personality into consideration for a better relationship. After the break for the Holidays, we will resume our study with Boundaries; When to Say Yes, How to Say No by Henry Cloud and John Townsend. Boundaries are learned responses in interpersonal relationships, but we have often learned unhealthy ways of relating as we were growing up. Boundaries will help us examine our learned ways of relating and help us to make informed decisions for better responses in interpersonal relationships. Call the church office for the current Thursday night schedule. Both groups will take a break from mid-December to mid-January. We will re-group by sponsoring a pot-luck dinner on Thursday, January 12, open to the whole church, and then resume a regular schedule of studies on January 26 (Loving God) and February 2 (Loving Others). |