Happy New Year! (Jan 03, 2012)
I trust that you are off to a good start this new year. My brother-in-law posted on Facebook that so far 2012 is better than 2011. He is off to a good start. Our associate pastor stated in devotions this morning that it is hard to believe that we are already in the 12th year of the 21st century. Indeed, time is flying, and we must redeem it.
On Saturday evening, the last day of 2011, we met at Grace for our annual vision night. During this evening, we presented the plans for 2012. Our theme for this year is The Breath of Life, and our theme verse is Genesis 2:7. We feel that it is currently not necessary to add new programs to Grace, but rather to have God breathe life into the programs that are currently existing. There are six broad areas where we will seek this breath of revival - areas built around an acrostic on the word breath.
The first area is buildings. After a major remodeling of the auditorium last year, we are prepared to move forward with new exploits this year. We have already converted one of our classrooms into a music practice room and Bible study room. We will seek to make completions to our newly acquired youth house. Once the new youth house is complete, we will tear down the old youth house creating room for a new parking lot that will house 56 cars. We further propose to put our rental properties under outside management while we wait for our 40 acres north of town to sell. In the interim, a new building committee will be organized to have a completed family life center layout completed by the end of the year.
The second area where the breath of life is needed is in our resources. After thirty years of tracts from an outside publishing company, we will be designing our own tracts. Twelve different tracts will be designed - one for each month. These tracts will serve as an invitation for the big day of that month, as well as provide information about the church and a clear Gospel presentation.
The breath of life is also needed in our education. Pastor Horton has designed some goals that will help our school continue to grow in a struggling economy. Our fine arts programs will be revived, teacher training will be upgraded, advertisements will be refreshed, and there will be significant attempts to connect with our city through community service.
Adolescent programming will also receive reviving winds as we evaluate our Master Club, Patch Club, and Junior Church ministries. Over the first quarter of the year, each of these children's ministries will be evaluated concerning curriculum, personnel, and goal achievement. We want to deliver to our children an "A" program.
Pastor Arrowood has also put together a fantastic program to breath life into our teen department. Our teens will become good stewards through service, thankfulness, endurance, willingness, affection, reputation, dedication, and sacrifice. A new youth committee has been formulated to help with implementation, and relevant Bible studies will help us see our teens become more on fire for God. A good year of activities have been planned to help create an atmosphere condusive to this growth.
And finally, we are seeking this year to breath life into our homes. We will begin an annual tradition by having our first family life conference to focus on counter-attacking the onslaughts of Satan against the home. In addition, we will begin a monthly men's Bible study to help develop male leadership for the families of our church.
It looks to be a great year, and we covet your prayers that God will breathe life into our ministries. To help us get the year focused on this theme, I began Sunday a new series of messages on the breath of God. You can listen to the first sermon, Good Breath, by logging on to our website.
Baron Howerton, veteran missionary in Romania, helped us get focused last Wednesday night with a great message on living comission life. Pray that God will continue to use this place as a lighthouse until the Lord's return.