World Missions Day is near!

Special Offering—Dec. 6^th

A special thank you for giving in Sept/Oct to the Ingathering Offering. We received almost $50,000 in gifts to Ingathering Offering, all of which helps us toward the goal of paying off our building mortgage.

One member recently told me, “my favorite offering of the year is the World Missions Offering (aka Lottie Moon Offering). I have always loved giving to missions.” I agree. Though the majority of ministry needs are met through the faithful monthly contributions of tithes, our Special Offering Sundays are also very important, and especially the WMO Sunday. Every penny given to the WMO offering goes directly to the mission field and helps our missionaries around the world to share the gospel. Churches that give well to the WMO are unselfish and Kingdom focused, so I challenge you to prepare to give well on Dec. 6^th for missions.

Today I also wish to focus on saying thank you for giving well. Keep it up! Yes, it is so important, and it pleases the Lord when we give generously from a heart of thanks and praise!

“Be generous,” the wise author of Ecclesiastes declares (Ecc. 11:1-2).  “God loves it when the giver delights in the giving. God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done” (2 Cor. 9:7-8, The Message). 

Ryan E. Jennings: Stay Positive

Ryan E. Jennings: Stay Positive: I’m sure many of you could stand up and say and say you’ve had awful days; where you felt like you couldn’t make it to the end of the...

Stay Positive

I’m sure many of you could stand up and say and say you’ve had awful days; where you felt like you couldn’t make it to the end of the day. Why does that happen to Christians? There is a false

perception some people hold that says once you are a Christian everything will be smooth sailing; you won’t have any more problems or difficulties.

That is not true…so not true!

When Paul wrote His letter to the Philippians I’m sure there were lots of other things he would rather be doing than sitting in jail chained to a guard (read Philippians 1:1-11). Yet, even then he persisted to be positive…so much so that his letter to the Philippians is the most joyous of all his letters written…and he was in chains.

How can you stay positive like Paul?

First you must REMEMBER THE POSITIVE. We judge ourselves and other people too harshly. We see the flaws first and focus there. That is the wrong attitude and it is trouble for relationships. Instead, you need to practice minimizing mistakes, for you and others, and remember the good. Have you ever noticed how when you go down memory lane that it is your bad memories that ambush you? I love what Billy Graham says about this to help us—“there is healing power in selective memory; as humans we cannot forget our sins and hurts, but through forgiveness we can choose not to remember them.” Pray, and ask God to help you forgive yourself & others!

Paul agrees and when he wrote Philippians he focused on remembering the good in them because he put the church first and himself second. Later in the letter Paul writes, “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Philippians 4:8).

Learn from the Apostle Paul’s wisdom. Filter out the mire and work hard to focus on the positive! Be blessed!

Celebrating the McKinney Family

Tyler McKinney was officially voted in last Sunday night as our Interim Youth Pastor. We are thrilled to have Tyler on the team and ask you to pray for him, his wife Lindsey and son Cooper. Also, pray for little baby McKinney #2 who is “on the way” right now.

Let us also celebrate the great team of volunteers who have supported our youth over the past year and helped keep our Youth Ministry (YM) going well. Alongside Tyler, Danny Himmel, Galen Beck and Bre’anne Northcutt have made major contributions. Also, our summer intern Patrick McGowan and present intern Kaitlyn Baker have been wonderful for our YM.

Youth Ministry is hard work and time consuming work, and extremely valuable to our church’s mission. 85% of people who choose to follow Christ do so on or before the age of 18. This makes YM critical for the church and makes outreach to children and youth in our community an absolute necessity.

Tyler has a great vision for leading our YM toward accomplishing the mission of sharing the gospel and serving the youth of our city. He has a great team of volunteers who are also big believers in this mission. Therefore, the future is bright for our YM. So, as Tyler transitions from volunteer to the important role of leading our YM, I urge you all to support him, pray for him, and help him wherever and whenever you are able. Keep in mind that Tyler has accepted this role because He has a call on His life that is from the LORD. He recognizes this and recognizes that God’s calling on His life is for this time and this place, at Shadycrest Baptist Church. We glorify God by recognizing this and agreeing with the LORD. May the LORD continue to bless the work of our YM.

Mission—How Important is it?

Our Mission: to glorify God by sharing the gospel and serving others.

Our mission is clear and simple, yet we can easily be distracted from it. We live in a “consumer driven culture” that corrupts us to “want, want, want,” things our way. We must hold fast to the same attitude that is in Christ to overcome the consumerism of our day so we stay on mission. Christ did not consider His will or desires to take first place, instead He considered first the will of His Father in heaven (Philippians 2:6-11). In fact the bible says “he made himself nothing,” meaning he humbled himself as if His will meant absolutely nothing compared to the will of the Father. To overcome the “selfish culture” of our day and to stay on mission for God, we must do likewise.

Question: Do we exist to preserve our present brand, structure, and systems, or do we exist to advance the gospel together in our community, regionally, and around the world?

If we drift continually into a focus on structures, budgets and competing projects, rather than keeping our focus on our mission to reach the world, we will lose our identity and our reason for existing altogether. This will lead to discouragement, fall out, and lack of fruit bearing. Thus, for the sake of the gospel and the glory of God we must not drift and we must focus on that which is imperative—gospel sharing and serving others.

Our mission is too important! Our mandate is too precious! “strive together, side by side, for the faith of the gospel…” (Phil. 1:27). Truly, nothing else matters if we don’t do this first. 

Why Trunk or Treat?

I had never heard of a church based Trunk or Treat until I became a youth pastor (a long time ago). To be honest, I wondered if the idea was blasphemous to encourage trick or treating at the church facility. I found out quickly that it was an excellent outreach event to our community and that I should probably get over my legalism and celebrate every chance to share Jesus with people.

October 31^st is not an evil day. It is the Lord’s day, just like every day is. Trunk or Treat sees our parking lot become a location for hundreds of kids and their parents to safely experience the American tradition of Halloween. If you have never been to our Trunk or Treat, here is what you can expect:

On the lot you will find cars, trucks and vans that have been transformed into candy distribution locations. Many of our vehicles have been morphed into fun booths where the kids play games to earn their “candy prizes.” Each vehicle is decorated in a fun theme which makes it tons of fun. We serve food and drinks as well and we love to get to know the families that are visiting with us. Each family registers at the entrance for a door prize and that empowers us to follow up with them and encourage them to visit Shadycrest for worship services, bible study groups, and other events.

We believe in this event because it fits directly into our “Mission.” We are called to glorify God together (side by side—Phil 1:27) through gospel sharing and serving others. Trunk or treat is a bridge ministry that helps us do just that. If you aren’t already involved, join our Trunk or Treat team today. Yes, we all can have a role at the event. Sign up today!

Compassion Experience Success

Compassion literally means “to suffer together." You are a person with compassion when you are confronted with another's suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering. Empathy is our ability to feel what another person is feeling, however, feeling another’s suffering and acting upon it are two different things. The person with true compassion is a person of action. The person who steps up and sacrifices to relieve the suffering of another person is truly a compassionate follower of Christ.

So, let’s celebrate the compassion of our members. I’m ecstatic at how you responded this past weekend! Yes, yes, yes! Praise the Lord and Hallelujah!

Thank you to our awesome volunteers! You are necessary and you made the experience a great one for the people who came and for the other Compassion volunteers. And through your efforts we were highly successful.

Here are the results:

·         200 kids sponsored

·         20-25 kids sponsored by Shadycrest families

·         20 kids sponsored by Lifepointe families (our co-sponsor for the event)

·         Shadycrest became more unstoppable & more necessary in the world—success!