March Volume 18 Number 3

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Calendar of Events:

March 2018 4-11 Week of Prayer/NAMB & Annie Armstrong Easter Offering 11– Spring Ahead-Time Chg. 12-Milton Pastor’s Mtg. 10:30am, SRBA Office 12– West Evangelism Conf. Baptist College of Florida 12-Assn.-Bridging Your Community Conference @ Jay FBC, 6pm 13– Ministers Wives Fellow-ship, 6pm 15-Navarre Pastor’s Mtg. 10:30am, Navarre First 19-23-SRCSD Spring Break 22-Pace Peer Learning Group, Immanuel 10:30am 30-Good Friday—Office Closed April 2018 1-Easter Sunday 2-6 Navarre Dental Bus Min. 9-13 Olivet Dental Bus Min. 9-Milton Pastor’s Mtg.

10:30am, SRBA Office 10-Minister’s Wives Fellow-ship 6pm 14-REGIONAL VBS Conf./Training, Pine Terrace 14-Association Bible Drills, Immanuel 9am 19-Navarre Pastor’s Mtg. 10:30am, Navarre First 21-State Bible Drill-Children Graceville 23-Leadership Summit Conf., Location, TBD 25-Secretary’s Day 26-Pace Peer Learning Group, Immanuel 10:30am

Inside this issue:

Community Connection 2

Church Ministry –

Transformation

3

Church Ministry-Family 3

Leadership Team 4

Administrative Team 2

Director Of Missions View

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Adm in i s t r a t i v e As st . : P a t t i S m id t , p a t t i@ sr a ss oc ia t ion .o rg

Greetings in Jesus name! This month

in my view article, I want to highlight a minis-

try of one of our SRBA Churches. For several

years Ferris Hill Baptist Church has provided

a “Cold Weather Shelter” for homeless peo-

ple living in Santa Rosa County. In recent

months the church has been featured 2 times

in the Pensacola News Journal for their work

providing the cold weather shelter.

How did this ministry begin? In the

beginning Rick Harris of Santa Rosa Emergen-

cy Management contacted me, and shared

that we had a great need in Santa Rosa

County for a cold weather shelter. It seemed

that there were around 2,000 people living in

our county who were homeless. When tem-

peratures plunged below 40 degrees, these

folks lives were at risk. Its one thing to live

outside when the temperatures are moderate,

but its life threatening if it gets too cold!

In response, I said that we could use

the Association Office as a cold weather shel-

ter. So, the first night it got really cold we

opened up the SRBA Office to receive home-

less people. We had 3 homeless people who

showed up. Rick Harris, Daniel Hahn (also

Emergency Management, and myself worked

it out to stay in shifts at the office. After a

few nights of doing this, I realized that the

Association was not staffed to take on this

kind of work, even with personnel from emer-

gency management helping me. I thought to

myself, this is a ministry for a church.

By this time Dr. Brian Nall had come

to be pastor of Ferris Hill Baptist Church. I

knew that he was looking to serve the commu-

nity in anyway possible. They had started

their I-58 ministry based on Isaiah 58.

Through this ministry they started a clothes

closet and providing lunches for the needy. I

thought maybe they would be interested in

another ministry that would help the homeless.

So, I gave Brian a call and shared

what we were doing at the Association Office.

To my delight he jumped at the opportunity to

add this ministry to his church. Now that there

was a congregation behind this service there

would be a lot more help than I could provide.

You might ask—how many people

does it take to do this ministry? It takes 6 to 7

people. There are 2 workers who are the

Check-In Team. They get information on those

who are seeking shelter. Now the Cold Weath-

er Shelter does not open until temperatures are

below 40 degrees. Check-in and registration

begins at 6:30pm. Next, you have the Food

Team made up of 2 or 3 people. They will

arrived by 6:00pm to ensure the dinner meal is

ready by 7:00pm. Then you have 2 people

who are the Overnight Team. These folks stay

on campus and oversee the Cold Weather

Shelter until 7:00am, at which time the shelter is

closed.

The exception to this is when the Tem-

perature is below 40 degree both at night and

during the day. When this occurs they seek to

have 2 people volunteer to stay for 2 hour seg-

ments during the daytime. You can see that this

is a big responsibility for any church to under-

take. I appreciate the service that Ferris Hill

provides for this area.

Recently, they had a family of 8

(parents and 6 children) who stayed at the

Shelter. I know they were thankful to have a

warm place for the night. This has been a ac-

tively cold winter this year. Most years they

will have between 10-15 below 40 degree

nights in which they will open the shelter. How-

ever, this season as of January 22nd, they al-

ready had opened 32 nights (that included a

stretch of consecutive nights.) Ferris Hill Church

would welcome any people from other churches

who would like to get involved. The Cold

Weather Shelter person to contact is Tom Tur-

man at Ferris Hill. May the Lord Bless You as

you seek to serve Him. Bro. Chip

March 2018 Volume 18 Number 3

Church 1/15/18 2/15/18

2018 Total

New Life 248.48 532.47

Olivet 0.00 585.05

Pine Level 238.08 518.77

Pine Terrace 2,024.01 4,672.02

Pleasant Home 0.00 269.13

Providence 0.00 200.00

Relevant Life 0.00 150.00

S. R. Shores 0.00 297.84

Springhill 25.00 50.00

Stump Springs 0.00 0.00

Wallace 2,095.19 2,095.19

Woodbine 100.00 200.00

Total GIFTS 15,474.89 31,570.12

Church 1/15/18 2/15/18

2018 Total

Avalon 600.00 800.00

Bagdad First 142.96 313.88

Berrydale 872.74 872.74

Billory 146.00 377.00

Blackwater 107.97 219.31

Calvary 75.00 150.00

Cora 547.95 1,318.90

East Side 0.00 0.00

Ferris Hill 536.32 536.32

Floridatown 150.00 300.00

Friendship 513.25 1,237.50

Garcon Point 0.00 0.00

GB First 0.00 0.00

Church 1/15/18 2/15/18

2018 Total

Harold First 56.09 110.28

Hic. Hammock 0.00 0.00

Immanuel 1,696.18 4,550.46

James Street 24.56 44.72

Jay First 416.67 833.34

Journey 0.00 0.00

Korean Hope 0.00 0.00

Live Oak 25.00 50.00

Living Truth 1,861.00 1,861.00

Midway 0.00 0.00

Milton First 1,652.60 5,429.34

Mission Casa 0.00 0.00

Navarre First 1,187.04 2,768.55

New Bethel 132.80 226.31

We appreciate all of you and your giving; as you give to your church, the church gives to the association. In this

way, we all work together for the Kingdom of God, seeing people saved and lives changed!! Thank you so much!

View of Administrative Team

View of Community Connection Team

2018 Mission Trips

Are you planning a mission trip this year? Please

share this with us. We would like to know so sister

churches and we can pray for you and those you will

minister to.

2018 Dental Bus Dates for SRBA

Registration for both Navarre & Olivet is March 26th

Navarre First: April 2-6

Olivet: April 9-13

Jay First: July 23-27

2018

This is a community outreach that spans the week before

Easter. Mark your calendars now, March 26-31! Get involved

in many activities around the Pace/Milton communities—from

random acts of kindness to local beautification. For

scheduled events go to the website: www.onelovefl.org

March Volume 18 Number 3

View of CMD-Family Life

specifically pray for missionaries on the field, the needs of

their ministries and the needs of their families. Prayer is

the fuel enabling God to spiritually and emotionally sustain

missionaries in places where the gospel is greatly needed,

but often opposed. For resources go to: https://

www.anniearmstrong.com/resource

View of CMD-Transformation

The North American

Mission Board (NAMB)

exists to help every

church take its next step

i n m i s s i o n s a nd

e n c o u r a g e e v e r y

believer to live on

mission.

NAMB’s mission field is the United States, Canada

and the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam and

American Samoa. This region contains diverse ethnic groups,

languages and religions. Approximately 269 million people in

North America do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Through your gifts to the Annie Armstrong Easter

Offering® and the Cooperative Program, NAMB supports

more than 5,000 missionaries and more than 3,800 chaplains

who serve in difficult places where the gospel is often not

welcome.

Through Send Network, we help Southern Baptists plant new

churches. In the last 100 years, SBC churches in proportion to

population has dropped. By partnering with churches to train

and deploy church planting missionaries, NAMB’s goal is to help

Southern Baptists plant 1,200 new churches annually in cities,

small towns, college campuses and military communities.

In 2016, NAMB launched Send Relief. Just as Southern Baptist

Disaster Relief matches urgent needs with volunteers bringing

help, Send Relief is expanding that to equip churches in

addressing poverty, refugees, foster care and adoption and

human trafficking. We’re establishing Send Relief regional

ministries to meet needs and offer long- and short-term

volunteer opportunities.

THE WEEK OF PRAYER FOR NORTH AMERICAN MISSIONS

The Week of Prayer is annually observed by SBC churches to

A A N R N M I S E T R O N G

M a r c h 4 - 11

Pine Terrace Game On June 18-22 8:30 AM - 12

Jay FBC Game On June 11-15 5pm-8:30pm

Berrydale Game On June 11-15 5:30-8:30pm

Immanuel Game On June 18-22

Billory Game On June 4-8

New Life Game On June 24-29

Calvary Game On July 22-27 5:30-8:30pm

Milton First Game On June 11-15

VBS

March 2018 Volume 18 Number 3

View of Churches

View of Leadership Team

Bagdad FBC is seeking a part-time Youth Minister. Please contact Rusty Messick (850) 384-4659.

Booth Brothers @ Immanuel Baptist Church on March 3rd. — doors open 6pm, love offering event.

Calvary is seeking a part-time Music Minster. Please contact Pastor Lambert 931-580-2674. New Life is seeking a part-time Youth Minister AND a part-time Music Minister. Please call the office at 850-626-1859. Jay First Baptist Church is seeking a bi-vocational Minister of Music. For more information, please call Dr.

George Fredericks at 850-675-4587 or info@jayfbc.org

Pleasant Home is in need of a Pianist. Please call (850) 525-6447 Please pray for our churches without a pastor: Ferris Hill,

Cora, and Blackwater Baptist Church.

Ministers’ Wives Fellowship

March 13th

@ 6pm

Hostess: Look for Postcard

Ministers’ Peer

Learning Groups

Milton Group meets March 12th, 10:30am at SRBA

(book, Worship Matters)

• Navarre Group meets

March 15th, 10:30am at Navarre First

(book, Flickering Lamps)

Pace Group meets March 22nd, 10:30am at IBC

(book, CSB Bible)

Pace Group will discuss

CSB Bible (translation differences)

The Impact of Inviting

Have you ever considered the impact of a personal invitation? You take a risk to invite someone to your church or to engage with your Bible Study group and their life is impacted for eternity. In a recent article by Thom Rainer, President of LifeWay Christian Resources, in an article entitled: The Relationship Between Inviting and Church Health, Dr. Rainer gives the following observations: 1. Inviting churches tend to be healthier churches 2. An invitation is most effective when it’s one-to-one. 3. In person invitations are the most effective, but phone and digital are good as well 4. The most effective churches are striving to have annual invitations equal to the 10 times the average worship attendance.

This teaching has a biblical foundation. Consider the story of Andrew: “One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). 42 He brought him to Jesus.” John 1:40-42

Rainer concludes his article with these applications:

“Inviting unchurched friends to church takes intentionality.

When we are energized to do positive things, we have less time and

energy to do negative things.

When church members are focused on reaching out and inviting, they’re less focused on having things their way.

In-person invites to church are the most effective invites.

Wi l l you take the persona l responsibility for inviting someone you know who is far from God to join you as you gather for worship, Bible study, a ministry endeavor, or just to have coffee and conversation?

Here are some upcoming West Region events you might invite them to join you in participating: February 22 – Sharper Conference, Olive Baptist Church, Pensacola March 12 – West Region Evangelism Conference, Baptist College of Florida 4PM to 8PM April 14 – VBS Training at Pine Terrace Baptist Church, Milton 8:30AM to 12:15PM

I hope you will consider joining us for one or all these Regional events. I’m personally inviting you. Let’s determine to be guilty of inviting our pre-Christian friends to embrace Jesus personally, as was said of Andrew, “He brought him to Jesus….” John 1:42a

Lewis Miller serves the Pastors and churches of the West Region of the Florida Baptist Convention. You can reach him by calling or texting his cell phone at 352.603.2570 or at lmiller@flbaptist.org