Life Matters

Imagine the fully devoted life… How Are You Doing?

Here is a friendly reminder to evaluate how you are doing in your commitments made during last Fall’s spiritual growth campaign called, “Imagine the fully devoted life”.

Testimony: Imagine knowing where you stand in Christ, remembering where it started, and sharing your story openly.

• Am I intentionally building relationships with people who need to know Jesus as Lord and Savior?
• Have I shared my story of salvation with someone in the last month?
• Who can I share my story with this week?
• Who can I invite to church? Life Group?

Time: Imagine hungering for God and managing opportunities to live for Him.

• Am I spending regular time with God in prayer and Bible reading?
• Am I being faithful to worship God with other believers at church each week?
• Do I hunger for the things of the world more than for God

Talents: Imagine the difference you will make in our community and world when you exercise concern for others.

• Am I using my abilities and skills to help other people?
• Am I supportive of my church by being involved in serving?
• Am I being faithful to the area of service to which I have committed?
• Am I seeking to serve God with the best of my ability?

Treasure: Imagine investing some of your resources in things that make a difference into eternity while also learning to conserve available resources.

• Am I putting God first in my finances by giving Him His tithe (10%)?
• Am I investing in ministries and mission-endeavors that are reaching people with the Gospel?
• Am I glorifying God with how I earn, spend, and manage the money He gives me?
• Am I putting money into savings or am I spending it all?

This would be a great time to review the notes you jotted down in your “Imagine” book. Review your beginning and ending “spider graph.” Ask God to help you remain faithful in your commitment to live for Him. “And let us not grow weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” (Galatians 6:9)

Prove The Tithe Sunday Results

I want to thank each of you who trusted the Lord with your finances by bringing a tithe of your weekly income to His house on Sunday, October 11, 2009. Our congregation gave $28,745.52 in tithes, and $6,386.57 in offerings, for a total of $35,132.33! This is a great demonstration of how God can be trusted when we put Him first. Allow me to give you a few helpful ways to continue tithing.

• Remember that God owns everything and that we are just managers (Genesis 1.1; Psalm 19.1; Psalm 24.1).
• Remember that Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20.35).
• If you are faithful with the little that God trusts you with He will trust you with more (Luke 19.17).
• Tithing is an act of faith (Malachi 3.10).
• Tithing teaches you to reverence God in your life (Deuteronomy 8.17-18, 14.22-23).
• Develop a budget, giving to God off the top, not what's left over.
• Avoid the trap of materialism.
• Live below your income so you can put money aside for savings.
• Avoid debt (Proverbs 22.7).
• Begin where you are and ask God to help you grow.
• Imagine the life-changing ministries and missions your church could fund if everyone tithed! Last week's results show that we could fund a ministry budget of $1,494,743.00 if we all tithed.
• Remember that to be like God you must be a giver (John 3.16). 

2009 Life Group Carnival Photo Album

Thanks to everyone who made today's carnival such a wonderful experience. Hundreds of people from our community had a great time! You can see more photos by visiting my 2009 Carnival Album.

How Do You Measure-Up As A Church Member?

It is a favorite pastime of church members to talk among themselves about what and how the pastor is doing. Pastors are regularly under the microscope of church members. Some people think he preaches too long, others not long enough (O.K., these people are in the minority!). Some people think he visits too much and is never in the office, while others feel he doesn't visit members enough. Some people like the way he leads the church, while others think he is out of his mind! This is a part of ministry. Every pastor learns to deal with it. We can even learn from constructive criticism. But sometimes we pastors would like to turn the microscope on the members and have them examine themselves once in a while. A helpful exercise is to remind them of the church covenant they agreed to when they joined. Perhaps we should read it again and ask ourselves, "Am I living up to my commitment?" Below is the membership covenant we use at FCBC. It is a part of CLASS 101: Discovering Church Membership. How do you measure up?

Having received Christ as my Lord and Savior and been baptized, and being in agreement with Fort Caroline's statements, strategy, and structure, I now feel led by the Holy Spirit to unite with the Fort Caroline church family. In doing so, I commit myself to God and to the other members to do the following:

"Imagine" Music Video

As we prepare for our "Imagine...a fully devoted life" celebration this Sunday, I thought about this video tribute by Tim Hawkins. He brings a humorous perspective to the song, "Imagine." I promise...you will love it!

I Want To Hear From You!

I hope to see you in church this Sunday. This is the last sermon and Life Group lesson in our spiritual growth campaign called, “Imagine The Fully Devoted Life.” We have an exciting service planned for you that will draw you closer to the Lord. God has given me a message that He wants you to hear! Remember we begin at 9:00 a.m. for the first worship service and Life Groups. The second service and Life Groups begin at 10:30 a.m. There will also be a survey sheet in your worship folder on Sunday asking your opinion about the Sunday morning schedule. I want to know how you like starting at 9:00 a.m. as opposed to 9:15 a.m. The staff, deacons, and I would like to stay with the current schedule. The extra 15 minutes gives us more time for music and the preaching of the Word in the service and more time for Bible study in the Life Groups.

As “Imagine” comes to a close I would like to hear how God has used this campaign to impact your life. Please take a moment and post a comment here on my blog. Here are a few questions to get you thinking.

• What has God shown you about yourself?
• What was your weakest area of devotion? Testimony? Time? Talents? Treasure? 
• How have you grown closer to the Lord?
• What are you doing now to be more devoted to God that you were not doing before the campaign?
• What was your favorite part of the campaign?

Let me hear from you! Encourage others from your group to come by and post on my blog. (Alright, all you facebook friends...I'm counting on you!)

Where Does My Money Go After I Put It In The Offering Plate?

Your tithes and offerings make life-changing ministries possible, here in Jacksonville and around the world. Thank you! (Note: facebook users will need to visit my blog to see the video.)

Ministry and Unity Go Hand-In-Hand

We conducted a "Ministry Fair" yesterday as a part of the, "Imagine the fully devoted life" campaign and the results were amazing. Approximately 35 people who were not previously serving in a ministry signed up to join the team! Another 15 people signed up to serve in additional areas! I am so excited to see people stepping up and using their gifts and talents to help other people. It is not too late for you to find your place of ministry. Call the church office and volunteer or ask for more information. We need help in the following areas:

• Welcome Center Host.
• Building and Grounds.
• Lawn Maintenance.
• Ladies Ministry.
• Celebrate Recovery.
• Children's Church Monitor.
• AWANA.
• Life Group.
• Orchestra.
• Adult Celebration Choir.
• Pioneers (Senior Adult Ministry).
• Ushers.
• Children's Choir.
• Media Team (Power Point and Audio for Worship Services).
• Greeters.

Jesus said, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). 

The "Prayer Walk" through our community on Saturday was great! I appreciate the many people who participated and prayed for the neighbors around our church. We covered 12 zones around the church! God heard our prayers because a young couple came to church last night. They are new to the area and are looking for a church home. They felt the Lord leading them to visit us. They live on one of the streets that we prayer-walked! As they left church last night they said, "We will definitely be back!"

Speaking of this young couple, do you know what really impressed them? It was that so many of our church members greeted them at the door and spoke to them before the service. They had tried a few other churches, but no one spoke to them or offered to help them find their place. They were so happy to meet friendly people who made them feel at home! Way to go folks! Keep up the good work by greeting everyone you meet, by offering to help them find their way around the church, and by inviting them to join your Life Group.

Let me also encourage you to go to our church website and listen to the sermon God placed on my heart last Sunday. It is titled, "The Work," from Ephesians 4. I was trying to help our members see that the ministry of our church is directly related to the unity of our church. Ministry and unity go together. We will destroy the effectiveness of our ministries if we allow petty differences divide us. Let us not major on minors, let us not give in to a spirit of grumbling or complaining, and let us not sabotage our ministry efforts by failing to do our part in building up the Body of Christ. Here is the sermon outline. Follow along as you listen to the message and ask yourself if you measure up.

1. The Goal of the Body: Developing Our Christ-like Character (Ephesians 4:1-3).
2. The Greatness of the Body: Discovering Our Commonalities in Christ (Ephesians 4:4-6).
3. The Gifts of the Body: Displaying Our Christian Love Through Ministry and Maturity (Ephesians 4:7-16).

Thank you for letting me be your pastor. I am honored to serve the Lord with you. I appreciate your support!

An Encouraging E-mail

I received an encouraging e-mail this week from one of our dear families. It is addressed to you, our Fort Caroline family as their way of saying, "Thank you," for being such a great church.

Hello to all at FCBC!

I just wanted to express how much our family (Baker/Tillis family) LOVES Fort Caroline Baptist Church!

My father, Jim Tillis, got baptized last Sunday and we were able to share our church website with our family to watch my Dad do this wonderful thing.  Our website reached our family from as far north to Alabama to down south in Boca and Naples.  Thank you for that service. 

We love the Imagine series that we have been studying!

We love the fact that Jeff and I will be starting the Crown Financial Ministries as we also went to the one day seminar at Family Chapel last month.  We picked up the books this past Sunday and have already started reading the material.

We LOVE that our children, Ashley and Kaitlyn, LOVE Mrs. Dena and Mr. Rick for Children's church.  They are joining the children's choir, which Kaitlyn is our shy twin and she came out of there wanting to do more (from the back)!  We hope to get them into Awana this week!  Little Dancing Stars just started our dance season and we hope to make it by 6:00 p.m.

So a big THANK YOU goes out to all of you (I don't know why I do not have John Shultz's email address... but him too!). We love you and am excited as to what God has in store for us all.

 God Bless!

Melissa Baker and Family

"I Am Not Ashamed" Baptismal Service

Watch the 9:00 A.M. and 10:30 A.M. baptismal service on our "church channel" at Live Stream.