Men's Ministry November 2007 Update

Men,

We strongly believe that the men of the church set the spiritual climate of the church. We also know the many difficulties a man in today’s world has in becoming a spiri­tual leader. Our aim is to help you do just that, become a spiritual leader. That does not mean you will be ready to preach at church next week, but it does mean you will grow reverently comfortable in the presence of your God and in the learning of His Word. Then you will be able to lead your family in the spiritual paths you have walked yourself.

This Saturday, Nov. 3, we'll be having our monthly men's Breakfast, Bible Study and fellowship from 8-9 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall. Expect an inspiring lesson from one of our staff or elders.

Opportunity to SERVE:

Afterwards from 10am to 2pm, we'll be "setting up shop" in the parking lot. It's the annual Automobile Winterizing Day when senior citizens, single mom's and other needy individuals in our church family can bring their car for a pretty comprehensive inspection with minor repairs. We need guys to both do the work as well as man the checklist, run for parts, etc. Please see Alan Richards after the breakfast Saturday to see how you can help. Be sure to bring your work clothes and a willing spirit.

In His Service,

Tom

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Upcoming Events:

• Nov. 3 - Saturday Breakfast & Bible Study: 8:00-9:00 a.m., LBC Fellowship Hall; Auto Winterization, 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m., church parking lot.
• Ongoing – Thursday Morning Prayer Time: 6:30-7:00 a.m. every Thursday morning in Tony Rose’s LBC Office
• Ongoing – Pastor’s Support Prayer Time: 8:30-9:00 a.m. every Sunday morning in Tony Rose’s LBC Office
  

Do Not Love The World

As Pastor Tony begins his 3 week sabbatical, Pastor Lisle challenges us to see the goodness of God in the command given in 1 John 2:15-17 - Do Not Love the World. Unlike John 3:16 where God loves the world, the context of 1 John defines the world as a system of beliefs that is hostile toward God. Here we are commanded to not find our passion in this system, because God does not want us to waste our lives. Pastor Lisle concludes with 4 questions for each of us to take a close look inside ourselves to answer:

1. What am I passionate about?
2. Is there something in this world that is attractive and I am pursuing?
3. Am I being influenced with someone who loves the world
4. Have I informed the right people that can help me in this fight?

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What is...Subscriptions, Podcasting, and Feeds?

This is the latest in a series of "What Is ..." (see also Website Tips for more of this series).

Podcasts: Podcasting is a way of distributing audio and video automatically to your computer through a podcast reader. Two popular readers are iTunes (Windows or Mac, free) and FireANT (Windows or Mac, free).

Feeds: Feeds (also known as RSS/Atom/XML) allow you to automatically be alerted when new content for a subscription has been posted. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is a web standard for publishing news headlines. By subscribing to RSS feeds from your favorite sites, the latest news is gathered for you into a single application or reader and organized into small news bites. This allows you to quickly read through the latest headlines without having to visit each site. If you are interested in reading more, it is a matter of simply clicking the headline title and it will take you to that site. Atom is the name of syndication standard. XML stands for eXtended Markup Language and is the language that these feeds are written in. To use feeds you need a feedreader program. Here is a list of popular feedreaders:

Windows: SharpReader, Internet Explorer 6 via Pluck, IE7, Firefox via Livebookmarks (built-in) or Sage (plugin).

Mac: NetNewsWire Lite, NewsFire, Firefox (see above).

Web-based: NewsGator (not free), Bloglines, Google Reader.

Subscriptions: You can subscribe to Podcasts, Feeds, and Email lists. Email lists allow mass distribution of one email to a virtually unlimited number of email inboxes. While this may sound eerily familiar to SPAM (or unwanted, unsolicited emails that never seem to stop), the key difference is that you can generally safely subscribe and UN-subscribe from these email subscriptions.

For a complete listing of all the Podcasts, Feeds, and Subscriptions available on our website, please see our subscriptions page.

Gaining Clarity

Pastor Tony continues our series on the Purposes of God with striving to gain clarity of what our time here is all about. After a brief review of the past 2 sermons ("The Blessing and Burden of the Bible", and "If This Is True, Then What Do You Do?"), we are challenged to take a simple look at knowing who you are (Genesis 1:26-27 and Psalm 139:13-16) and knowing who Jesus is (1 Corinthians 8:6, Romans 10:13, and Joel 2:32). Only then can we begin to understand that we are not here for God to make us feel good - we are here to meet God through Jesus Christ.

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The Blessing and Burden of the Bible Part 2: If this is true, then what will you do?

Pastor Tony continues our series on the Purposes of God with part 2 of The Blessing and Burden of the Bible. He starts by asking two pointed questions: (1) "Do you know who you are or why you do what you do?"; and (2) "If [in today's technological world: MySpace, Facebook, etc.] it is so easy for one human being to know so much about another human being, why is it so difficult to believe that God is omniscient? It all boils down to this: if we believe that we have been given both a blessing and a burden with the Bible, then what are we going to do about it?

Several Biblical texts are then called upon to look at this "If-Then" relationship: Philippians 2:1-5, Colossians 3:1-5, and 1 Peter 1:14-17; the "Indicative-Imperative" relationship: Exodus 20:2, Deuteronomy 6:4-5, and Matthew 28:18-20; and our "Identity-Responsibility" relationship: 1 Peter 2:9.

If this is true, then what will you do with how you see life? If this is true, then what will you do with how you live life?

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From the Heart

Music plays an important role in our Sunday morning worship experience here at La Grange Baptist Church. Whether it's congregational singing, a solo, or a special presentation by our Celebration Choir and Orchestra you sense a spirit of adoration and praise as we worship together in song.

"From the Heart" is a collection of music used in our services. It is our prayer that this album will be an inspiration to you and your family.

CD's are available for $10 in the church foyer.

Songs included:

1. There is a Fountain / I Live
2. The Rock of Jesus
3. I Know a Fount / No Other Name
4. Much Too High A Price
5. Lord, I Lift Your Name On High
6. You Are My Glory
7. Give Thanks / Crown Him King of Kings
8. Thou Art Worthy
9. He Did Not Come Down
10. O Precious Lord

Operation Christmas Child

Christmas will be here before you know it. And you can have an opportunity to make a world of difference. Every year our AWANA program participates in Operation Christmas Child, the unique project of Samaritan's Purse that shares God's love with millions of hurting children all over the globe. We invite you and your family to join us as we take an ordinary shoebox filled with toys and other presents and turn it into a great opportunity to tell children about the greatest gift of all - Jesus.

Brochures are available in the foyer and more information is available online. Please read these materials closely. They give instructions on how to pack your shoebox and what to include and not include. DON'T FORGET to enclose a $7 check in the envelope attached to the brochure payable to Samaritan's Purse with a note in the memo line that the gift is for Operation Christmas Child. If you are unable to afford the $7 check or fill an entire shoebox, we still encourage you to participate in bringing in whatever you can and we will supply the rest. PLEASE RETURN YOUR FINISHED SHOEBOX TO THE TABLE OUTSIDE THE CHURCH OFFICE NO LATER THAN NOVEMBER 14TH.

We are excited to spread the love of Jesus with you. Take this opportunity with your family to make one small shoebox that promises to make a big difference in the life of a little child this Christmas season.

Blessings to you and your family,

Doug Woltor

Children's Pastor

LIFE Basics - Evangelism Video

While not as tongue-in-cheek as the Evangelism Linebacker or 8 Reasons I Don't Share My Faith videos, this video shows some insight in what to do and what not to do when talking with others about what it means to have a meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ.

For more information, please see LIFE Basics on our website.

New Online Resource Materials

We are excited to announce the addition of several new daily devotional materials to our website. First, there's a daily Bible verse on our home page. Second there are 3 different daily devotional resources found under the new RESOURCES menu in the menu bar on virtually every page of our website and blog. The devotionals include the Daily Light on the Daily Path, a Read the Bible in 1 Year program, and a Chronilogical Bible reading program. Lastly, we have also added a search feature to search the Bible by passage or topic/keyword. This search feature is available both from the new RESOURCES menu and from the SEARCH menu.

The Blessing and Burden of the Bible

Pastor Tony starts a new series on The Purposes of God by looking at both the Blessing and the Burden of the Bible to the Christian. He calls our attention to the fact that then entire Bible is designed to point to Christ: the Old Testament looks Messianically foward (toward the Messiah) and the New Testament look Missionally forward (from Christ out to the world in missioins).

Pastor Tony uses multiple passages of scripture, including Luke 24:25-26, 44-48 and Genesis 12:2 to point us to the Blessing (the Gospel) and the burden (Missions) of the Bible.

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Men's Ministry October 2007 Update

Men,

Men’s Ministry aims to help men to be godly agents of influence and encourage them as they strive to be the spiritual leaders in their families. We are currently building a base of active men through regular involvement in a variety of focused activities. Of course we’ll be having out monthly Breakfast and Bible Study this coming Saturday morning at 8 am in the Fellowship Hall. Other events, i.e., Times of Prayer, Bible Study, Service, Special Events, and Small Groups are planned throughout the year with the expectation that relationships will form that will help men to become stronger disciples of Jesus Christ.

If you made improving your Service to Others a priority for 2007, grab a buddy and …

- Consider helping prepare breakfast for this Saturday’s Men’s meeting and delivering food to needy folks in the LaGrange community. Come to the LBC Kitchen this Saturday, September 1st at 6:30 a.m. and see Johnny McRoberts. Then stick around for Breakfast, Bible Study and fellowship from 8-9 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall and hear an inspiring lesson from staff or elders.

- We will also be having another “Repair Day” – this time there are 2 projects identified, one gutter repair on a local home and the other repairing the flooring in a mobile home. If you have electrician, plumbing or carpentry skills, we need you. Please see Rick Davidson or Alan Richards after the breakfast and be sure to bring your work clothes and a willing spirit, dressed ready to work.

--> Did you see the comprehensive list of Volunteer Service Opportunities in the bulletin a few months back? If not, check it out at

www.lagrangebaptist.com/about/LBC_Service_Opportunities.pdf.

Perhaps God is leading you to new areas of service where he can use your gifts and talents to benefit others.

In His Service,

Tom

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Upcoming Events:

• Oct 6 - Saturday Breakfast & Bible Study: 8:00-9:00 a.m., LBC Fellowship Hall
• Ongoing – Thursday Morning Prayer Time: 6:30-7:00 a.m. every Thursday morning in Tony Rose’s LBC Office
• Ongoing – Pastor’s Support Prayer Time: 8:30-9:00 a.m. every Sunday morning in Tony Rose’s LBC Office
• Ongoing – Small Groups