Williamsonfbc.org

November 2008 Newsletter

Pastor Fran — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 17:11:34 +0000

Check out the November Newsletter by Clicking Here!

October 5 Sermon “Becoming One” based on 1 Corinthians 12:12-26

Pastor Fran — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:09:03 +0000

Thompson Roof Project

Pastor Fran — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:32:33 +0000

On October 3rd, we will begin the Thompson roof project. We need many people involved, not only with the actual work, but meals as well. A sign-up is located on Sign-Up Central if you would like to help during any of the weekend. A schedule is below of what each day should entail. Thanks goes to Mark Scouten, Tony Gasparri, Tony Gasparri II, for their roofing expertise and time and also Tom Henderson and NyeTech for donating the dumpster for the Tear-off. This is a great privilege and opportunity for our church. Let’s come together and Be the Church once again! If you would like to donate to the cost of the roofing materials, make checks out to “FBC Deacons” and mark them with “Thompson Roof.”

Friday, October 3rd, 2008
8:00am - Meet at the Thompson House
8:15am - Prepare for the tear-off with tarps, etc.
9:00am - Begin Tearing Off Shingles
12:00pm - Lunch Break
12:45pm - Tear off some more and begin felt paper and new drip edge, etc..
5:30pm - Dinner
Dusk - Go Home

Saturday, October 4th, 2008
8:00am - Meet at the Thompson House
8:15am - Finish Tearing Off
9:00am - Begin Felt paper, Ice + Water, Drip Edge, and shingles
12:00pm - Lunch Break
12:45pm - Keep tearing and putting new on
5:30pm - Dinner
Dusk - Go Home

Sunday, October 5th, 2008
10:00am - Church
11:20am - Sunday School
12:00pm - Lunch
1:00pm-Dusk - Roofing

Monday, October 6th, 2008
8:00am - Meet at Thompson House
8:15am - Finish up what’s left

Tools Needed:
We will need many different tools for the weekend. If you have any of the tools below or others that may help please bring them with you or drop them off to the church before October 3rd.

Hammer
Roofing Nails (for Drip Edge)
Staple Hammer
Wonder Bar
Shingle eater
Flat shovel
Gloves
Tin snips
Screw Gun
2” wood screws
Clamps
Chalk Line
Ladders
Wheel Barrow
Tarps

October 2008 Newsletter

Pastor Fran — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:19:26 +0000

Check out the October Newsletter by Clicking Here!

September 28 Sermon “A Weapon That is Terrible to Behold” based on Philippians 2:1-11

Pastor Fran — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:05:21 +0000

Mallory Rynders singing How Great is Our God

Pastor Fran — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:02:17 +0000

September 21 Sermon “Teaching Trust” based on Exodus 16:2-30

Pastor Fran — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:01:01 +0000

September 14 Sermon “Be Still and Move On” based on Exodus 14:19-31

Pastor Fran — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:58:31 +0000

Being The Church

Pastor Fran — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:51:15 +0000

This past Sunday, the church came together to Be the Church to the community around us. You can check out some of the pictures of the day here. It was definitely a day of reaching out and showing the community around us that FBC is here and we want to help. Four groups were sent out. One to a local laundromat to pay for laundry. One to the police department to wash cars and also to deliver gift baskets to the fire departments, police department, and ambulance service. One out the front doors of the church and throughout Williamson picking up trash and cleaning the streets. And one door to door mowing lawns.

When doing something like this, you do a lot of planning, but when the day comes, the plans don’t always work out like we want them to. The police were called away so we couldn’t wash as many cars as we wanted. The laundromat wasn’t as busy as we first thought it would be. This aside, God still works and his plan to love our neighbor happened throughout the day.

It is funny to me that we base success on results. Will anyone come to church? Will the church grow more? Did we help a large amount of people? Did everything go according to plan? Did a lot of people attend the event?

These questions are nice to evaluate and hopefully see how we can help others better or more specifically, but the success of this event was not based on the number of people who came, or that we helped, or that may come to church because of it. The success of the event is whether God was praised and honored through our actions. To this end, I believe he was and it makes this a huge success.

I believe we reached passed the walls of our church and passed some barriers we may have had in each of our lives. We were able to love our neighbor not expecting anything in return. We were able to offer grace and love and maybe provide some needs. And we were able to see that we could do this ourselve in the everyday. As we go forward from here, remember this day. Remember the needs around us and think about how even in small ways you can lend a hand and love your neighbor.

The Need For Forgiveness

Pastor Fran — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:57:45 +0000

I came back from the Wayne Association Bible Study on Philip Yancey’s book, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, really thinking a lot about forgiveness. In the book and at teh study we discussed the need to forgive so that it breaks the cycle. In a class I took, the professor had four people stand up and pretend to be one of the characters in the Good Samaritan story. I was the robber and what we had to do was just have a talk with each other. Well as we got rolling I blamed the victim for walking alone, others blamed me for beating him up, and the cycle went around and around for about 15 minutes when the professor said, now who is going to accept the blame. Of course each one of us wanted to win. We didn’t want to look weak. We didn’t want to take responsibility for our actions. Finally the professor said, “You have just proved why churches and marriages and relationships split. No one is able to say I’m sorry and claim their part of the blame.”

We think of forgiveness as a weak act, but as Yancey says, it actually is an act that comes unnatural. We aren’t born being able to forgive. We are born with a system of right and wrong, a system of fairness. We want what is rightfully ours and if you take away my happiness, then you owe me and I’m going to make you pay because that is only fair. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. That is the system we grow up in and are taught from day one, but you see it is easy to judge and blame others. It is easy to hold a grudge, but it is entirely much harder to forgive and forget.

Weakness is shown in the person who cannot forgive. Weakness is shown in the person who has to fight for his prideful identity. You see as Christians, we don’t fight for any identity. We have an identity in Jesus that was paid for by Christ and can never be taken away. And the price Jesus paid was not only for our sin, but for the sin of our neighbor, the sin of the person who wronged us, who hurt us and abused us. Jesus paid for their sin too and all the sins that caused them to become who they are today, who we are today.

Holding onto unforgiveness does not lead to happiness. It leads to a life of resentment and revenge. It leads to a life that is suddenly controlled by the person you need to forgive. Take some time right now and search your heart on what you need to be forgiven for or who you may need to forgive and ask God to help you. Forgiveness can be a hard road to travel, but it always leads to freedom. Forgiveness is not a weak action, but one that truly shows our strength in knowing who God made us to be, who we are, his children!