By Tom Jenkins on 4/29/2008 11:20 AM

We will begin celebrating Mother’s Day at FBCC with our WMU’s Mother’s Day Tea on Saturday, May 10. We will follow on Sunday with our traditional “Muffins for Moms” sponsored by the Sunday School. This year the Welcome Center will be the focus for this activity. You can come through the center, select a muffin and a beverage and then turn down the hall to the Coley Fellowship Hall and “connect” with other members of our faith family. We will have a special time for dedication of children at the morning worship and they will be presented with a Bible.

 

We will also focus on senior adults at one of our services in May. During the service we will watch a video produced by Cindy Smith as a tribute to “aging” members.

 

These activities help us to focus on families. As an institution, the family is under attack today. I will present a message in May dealing with some of the crises that families face. I’ve never known a time in which...

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By Tom Jenkins on 4/22/2008 10:48 AM

      We had a person to stop by the office today because he saw our sign on Main Street pointing to the “Welcome Center.” He and his wife were traveling through Creedmoor and thought that perhaps the “Welcome Center” was for the community. They had questions to ask about the community. Linda Bridgewater talked with him and graciously told him that information about Creedmoor could be found at the city hall and gave him directions to the city hall. She was quick, also, to offer information about First Baptist Church. You never know who might stop by when you put up a sign.

       I talked with a young man in the parking lot who saw the sign at the mission building and wanted to know what that meant. I thought that perhaps he needed help but that was not the case. He was intrigued by what I told him about the work of the mission building and immediately made a contribution for missions. You never know who might stop by when you put up a sign.

      Our prominent place on Main Street means that we...

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By Tom Jenkins on 4/17/2008 10:16 AM

Anne Clay, a missionary with Teams for Medical Missions, spoke Saturday and Sunday at FBCC. FBCC supports Anne in her work and we consider her to be “our missionary.” She spoke at the Bluegrass Festival on Saturday and at the worship service on Sunday morning. We commissioned Anne for her work with Teams for Medical Missions three years ago. She is a registered pharmacist and assists with medical mission trips to Jamaica and works in the mission organization’s office in Allentown, PA at other times. Anne’s pilgrimage to the mission field began with a commitment she made years ago to Christ’s leadership. Through some personal struggles and by exercising patience and walking in faith she arrived where she wanted to be. I was impressed by her determination to become a missionary from my first conversation with her.

Anne’s availability to the leadership of Christ made it all happen. She was available and he equipped her and called her. Maybe you’re struggling with feelings that persuade you that Christ is calling...

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By Tom Jenkins on 4/9/2008 4:37 PM

“Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

 

            I have been spending more time at the First Baptist Church Academy since the resignation of the Director Amy Holder. It will be a few weeks before Toni Anne Wheeler assumes the responsibilities of Director. So I’m making myself available to the staff. I walk the halls, look into the rooms, listen to the teachers’ teaching, and rejoice that the children in the Academy have such a wonderful opportunity to be in a Christian setting during their early years. The Academy believes Proverbs and is committed to training up a child in the way he should go.

            This morning I visited with the toddlers as they had lunch in their room. They bowed their heads, placed their hands together and prayed, “A B C D E F, thank God for the food.” Children don’t do that in a secular based childcare. Those toddlers will long remember what they learn at the Academy.

            I wonder...

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By Tom Jenkins on 4/9/2008 8:18 AM

             I was talking with someone over a cup of coffee this morning about the weather. She was thankful for the recent rain, as all of us are, but she said she is tired of the “gloomy” weather and ready for sunshine. She went on to tell me that the weather affects the way she feels—gloomy weather produces gloomy feelings.

            We’ve all had the experience of waking in the morning to a dark, dreary day and feeling a little depressed because of it. Bright, sunshine filled mornings help us to get off to a better start.

            Weather is an external factor; we can’t do anything about it. The only control we have over the weather is the way we allow it to affect us. We control whether a dark, dreary morning makes us feel dark and dreary. Stephen Covey says that we should take our weather around within us. He means that the ultimate impact that weather has upon us is our choice. If dark, dreary weather makes you feel gloomy then you choose to be that way. The weather has nothing to do...

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