Skip to main content

Seven Questions Facing FBC Rockport in 2018, part 2

I think our church is a work in progress right now. We are in a process of discovery, learning how and what kind of church God is making us into. The process is far from over. I think we will know much more by the fall of 2018. Until then, I ask for patience, courage, and commitment from all our members. Please join me in seeking the Lord concerning the answers to the following questions. I have included my thoughts as of right now, but nothing is final or written in stone.

Here are the seven questions I think are facing us as we enter 2018:

1. How will we be connected to one another?
2. What will our worship and weekly schedule look like over the course of a year?
3. How will we reach out to and serve our community?
4. How will new people be connected to our church and what will that mean for our space usage?
5.  What kind of volunteer base and financial resources will be available to us as we plan for ministries, outreach, mission endeavors, personnel needs, and developing our physical space?
6. What kind of organization and expressions of church government allow us to best fulfill our mission?
7. How will we keep people safe and secure will on our church property?

Over the next few weeks I will share my thoughts on the answers to these questions. All of my answers will be available in my report to the church at the First Family Meeting at the end of January.

Last week I answered questions one and two. This I week I answer question three.

3. How will we reach out to and serve our community?
There are four specific ways I have committed FBC Rockport to the recovery efforts in our community. First is the Volunteer Reception Center (VRC) for Aransas County. Jordan Mims and Cyndi Powell currently run VRC and there are many volunteers, including some church members, who help operate the VRC every day. The VRC will remain open until either we or the county decide it is time to close it. Church members can help to operate the VRC or ask for work orders to do jobs out in the community.

The second way I have committed us to the recovery effort is through Samaritan’s Purse. Soon they will begin construction of the building on our property in which they will house their volunteer groups. We have committed to two or three years with Samaritan’s Purse. I trust that soon they will let us know how our church members can volunteer with their work groups, and I want to encourage all our members to do so.

The third way I have committed us to the recovery effort is through Texas Baptist Men (TBM) and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. Each week volunteers come from all over the country to work in our community and they are housed and fed on our property. They have a new “rebuilding” group that is different from their disaster relief group. Because this is new, we are still learning how we will work with them long term. But, they will be on our property if we will have them. I have committed us though the end of this summer. At that time the church can decide whether to extend an invitation for them to stay. As we learn more we will let our members know how they can participate with TBM in their rebuild efforts.

The fourth way I have committed us to the recovery effort is though volunteer and church groups not associated with TBM that will be housed and fed on our church property. Right now Jordan and Cyndi are booking and coordinating the logistics of these groups. This past week there were about 90 people staying on our property, which includes volunteer groups and TBM. I have committed us to hosting these groups through the end of this summer. We will need to decide at that time whether we will continue to host groups or not. Cyndi is working with many other area churches to accommodate these groups. We hope to get as many people as possible into Aransas County to help with the rebuild and continued recovery.

Beyond this, let me challenge our church members with this question: in what specific, concrete, and/or ongoing ways can we serve the people in our community in the name of Jesus? I encourage your family, friends, ministry teams, and Life Groups to find ways to serve people so that the love of Jesus is revealed. I encourage all our members to find ways to volunteer in the community, especially in ways that will bring you into contact with those who do not attend church. I volunteered at Sea Fair this past fall. I encourage you to consider volunteering at Oyesterfest, or Wine Fest, or some other way that will allow you to serve while also meeting new people you might not meet otherwise. Remember also to invite the people you meet to church and ask God to help you to know how to reveal Christ to them.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Her Own Woman

Kathryn is here now. She was born Sunday night, 5:57 p.m., and weighed 7 pounds, 10 oz., and measured 20.25 inches long. Kim was in labor since about 9:00 a.m. Saturday. After hours of waiting and miles of walking around that hospital, Kim never progressed beyond 6 cm. Every time we came close to making a decision about what to do next, it seems Kathryn would change the game on us and we would have to wait for another couple of hours to see what would happen next. We almost went to the OR at least twice before we finally did because Kathry would do this or that. She was letting us know she was in charge. After whe was born I stood with her in the nursery while they cleaned her up and checked her out. She cried for a while and then got real calm and collected. I watched her as she sized me up with her eyes, took a good look around the room, and then looked at me and kind of smirked knowingly. I got the distinct impression that she was very much amused by everything that had gone on the
7 comments
Read more

Racing with Horses, Walking on Water, and Accepting My Weakness

I am tired of Hurricane Harvey. I am ready for all of this to be done and for things to settle down. I long for the routine, familiar, and predictable. I have had enough of trying to limit or mitigate the effects of Harvey on my family and property. I have become worn out trying to control and make sense of how my church is recovering from the hurricane. I am just about through with the ongoing, and seemingly never ending, management issues related to hundreds of volunteers funneling through my church on a weekly basis to assist our community in the recovery efforts. The logistics of making it all work week in and week out, the delicate dance of being the pastor to all the personalities involved, is exhausting. Add to this my broken heart for our community. I receive gut punches every day as I listen to the stories of evacuation, recovery, and rebuild. I steel myself to being able to do what I can each week and letting everything else go. I am sick of people saying the Lord will
3 comments
Read more

A Eulogy for Dan Smith

One of my oldest and closest friends, Dan Smith, has lost his battle with cancer, but is now experiencing victory over death in the presence of the Lord. I am feeling so much as I write these words, but I want to capture some of what he meant to me…what he still means to me. I met Dan in August of 1989, the Fall Semester of our freshman year at Howard Payne University. We were both outsiders, of sorts, who were thrown together in one of those “get to know you” small groups they put you in at college boot camps. For some reason we clicked, and became pretty close very quickly. It must have been Dan’s cool Tom Selleck mustache. I couldn’t grow a mustache. For about two years we remained inseparable. Dan Smith taught me how to live in Christ. When I met Dan I was at a sort of crossroads in my life. I spent most of my teenage years as a juvenile delinquent, running from the Lord. By the time I wandered in to Brownwood to go to college I had stopped running and surrendered my life to Christ
1 comment
Read more