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Pastor's Point - March 2024

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Dear Church Family,

Easter comes early this year, so I want to encourage you to help us celebrate the resurrection of our Savior in a few different ways.

First, I want to encourage you to participate in all that will be happening.

Easter Egg Hunt – On March 23rd @ 10:00 am we will have our community-wide egg hunt. If you have children/grandchildren make plans to enjoy this awesome event for families. Invite your friends, family, and neighbors to come for a day of fun and fellowship. Also, if you can volunteer to help make this event happen, please do so. You can call the church office @ 812-476-3450 to let us know if you can help serve.

Good Friday Night of Worship – On March 29th @ 6:30 pm we will have our Good Friday Night of Worship. This is always a moving and meaningful service that helps us to reflect of Christ’s great sacrifice as well as prepare our hearts to celebrate our risen Savior on Easter Sunday Morning.

Easter Sunday – On March 31st we will celebrate our risen Savior in three Sunday morning worship services @ 8:00, 9:30, and 11:00 am. Remember there will be no Life Groups on Easter Sunday morning, which will allow us to maximize our parking for all three services.

Second, I want to encourage our church family to get in the habit of doing three things now that will help us be ready for our Easter Sunday services. Our church is blessed with a surge in worship attendance, and we need to do a few things to make sure we have room for people. Would you do these few things to help us?

  1. Move Up - Commit to moving up a few rows from where you normally sit.
  2. Fill In – Commit to fill in the middle sections of our worship seating first.
  3. Park Away - If you are physically able, park further away from the building to allow space for our guests to park
    closer. Our pastors and deacons’ families have committed to parking on the back side of our church building to help with this situation as well. With your help we can maximize the parking that we have to help our guests park for worship.

These are simple things to do that will make a significant impact. Moving up and in will help people find a seat as they enter for worship. Also, we have recently heard of people driving on to our parking lot to park, only to not find a space and drive away. Let’s do all we can to keep that from happening.

Finally, I want to say thank you to our church family for faithfully ministering each week. Our South Campus is open and full all week long offering ministry to the people of our community. From 6:00 am to 8:15 pm Monday through Friday. Our North Campus is busy Monday through Friday from 3:00 - 6:00 pm with ministry and then on two
Saturdays out of the month our food pantry ministry is serving others as well. Then on Sundays at South Campus we have three morning worship services with Life Groups. On Sunday nights our student ministry is active ministering to students, along with a few adult Life Groups. Then we have our Hispanic church service worshipping the Lord as well with a growing number of people in that congregation.

God is so good to us!! Thank you for being willing to serve, give, and go to make the name of Jesus famous in our world!!!

I love you and I love being your pastor!

Posted by Alan Scott with

Family Ministry Moments - March 2024

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See the Example, Be the Example

The best way to learn is to imitate someone.  In many professions, this is called on-the-job training.  You watch someone perform a task then you perform it under their
supervision until you are proficient in the task.  This is also true in our Christian walk.  This type of training is called discipleship.  Discipleship has an aspect of formal training, which is what we often think of when we hear the word.  We see this in many settings like worship, small groups, discipleship groups, Bible studies, devotions, etc.  This type of discipleship is very important; however, it is not the only form.

Discipleship has on-the-job training.  This means we see the example of a more mature Christian and learn from them.  This principle is readily apparent in 1 Thessalonians 1.  In verses 2-3, Paul makes it clear that the Christians in Thessalonica get it.  They are par excellence when it comes to faith.  This is only the case because they took seriously the gospel call in their lives.  In verse 4 Paul remembers the time he shared the gospel with them, and God showed His power in their lives through the work of the Holy Spirit.  Then in verse 5, Paul reminds them of his character.

Paul along with his companions sought to live holy and righteous lives so that they could be an example to the church.  Paul says in verse 5 that they did this for the sake of the
Thessalonians.  This doesn’t mean that Paul did not seek to live a holy life at other times, but that he was hypervigilant to be a godly example for their benefit.  This led the Christians to a deeper and more mature faith and before long the church at Thessalonica became an example to all the believers in the entire region (verse 7).

The example they set was one of faith, they trusted in the Lord above everything else.  In verses 9-10, Paul points out how the Christians in Thessalonica turned away from idols and worshipped the Lord alone.  They also watched expectantly for the Lord's return.  They had a heavenly mindset as they patiently lived out their lives on earth.  This is a sure sign of maturity.  This would have been a powerful example to other believers.

There are two things I think we can learn from this passage.  One, we must find and imitate godly examples.  Paul was a great example of faith for them to look at, but Paul was not perfect. He was the first to tell you that he was a sinner saved only by the grace of God; however, there was something that Paul did very well, he made it clear that his focus was on Jesus.  Even when you looked at the example of Paul you were pointed to Jesus.  Paul did not seek to exalt himself, rather he sought to exalt Jesus in everything he did.  This is important when we look for a godly example.  We cannot just find someone who calls themselves a Christian and hitch our proverbial wagon to them.  Often when we find a teacher who makes themselves the star, they fail either morally or theologically.  If you affix your faith to that person then when they fail, you are left shattered and broken.  We must always remember that people are imperfect.  We should never exalt a person, rather we look for examples that seek to keep Jesus as the center.

Second, as we mature in our faith, we must become an example of godliness.   We should not shy away from being an example rather we should encourage it, provided we are looking to Jesus for our example.  My prayer is that my life and the lives of those in the church will encourage all the believers in our community.  We want to live a life that brings glory to God and helps others to glorify Him as well.  Let’s remember the words of Paul from 1 Corinthians 11:1,
“Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”  Let us be the example of Christ that we want to see in others!

Posted by Bryan Gotcher with

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