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| Greetings! |
The City of Fort Worth has two new key leaders. Our staff has been praying along with you for these leaders since their predecessors left office. The new Fort Worth Independent School District Superintendent is Dr. Kent Scribner. The new Fort Worth Chief of Police is Dr. Joel Fitzgerald. If you haven't done so already, write them each a note and welcome them to Fort Worth and Tarrant County.
Now would be a good time to schedule appointments with these new community leaders and others like them. Eric Swanson and Sam Williams in their book, To Transform a City, give us two good questions to ask leaders in the different domains of community life:
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What would a healthy city/county/school district look like?
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What are three impossible problems you see that keep that from coming about?
Follow these questions with regular, systematic, strategic prayer. Make it a church-wide project. Our God specializes in impossible cases.
Our staff met with a local leader of significance and prominence a few years ago not long after he assumed his new position. He held us at arm's length for quite a while until he realized that we were not asking for anything other than the opportunity to serve him and his area of responsibility. His attitude changed and he threw open the doors for us.
The Kingdom Concept from Church Unique that I wrote about last month helps us understand how our churches can engage our communities with the strengths God brings together in our congregations. Swanson and Williams also use a Venn diagram to teach us about community engagement.
Many people outside of our churches don't understand who we are and what we want for them and for our communities. They frequently question our motives. However, they understand the power of service. Swanson and Williams remind us that as we practice community service "evangelism is our ultimate motive, not our ulterior motive."
Notice the emphases in each of the circles in the diagram: Needs and Dreams of the City, Mandates and Desires of God, and Callings and Capacities of the Church. Where these three circles overlap is the Service our churches provide in our communities and domains.
Common Grace is the intersection of "the secular interests of the city and the desires of God." This demonstrates God's goodness to all people like Jesus talked about in Luke 6:35 and Matthew 5:45. God wants everyone to live in safe places with life-affirming services.
"'Control' is the intersection between the city and the church, apart from the will of God." We have seen the tragic results when the church controls the state and when the state controls the church. Our Baptist ideal is a free church in a free state.
"'Salvation' is the third intersection where we see what God wants for the city and what the church has the calling and capacity to do for the city -- bringing the message and the work of salvation to the community." God wants everyone to be saved.
"Service' is the only intersection where we see the needs and dreams of the city, the mandates and desires of God, and the calling and capacity of the church meet together." This is the church's sweet spot. "Cities resist being reached, but they love being served, loved, and blessed."
Many doors that have been closed to churches are opening again. They are opening not because we demand it, nor because we demonstrate our political power, but through our service. God's kindness leads people to repentance (Rom. 2:4). "Barriers to the gospel often melt away when people experience God's kindness through acts of service and blessing."
We are to become the world's foremost experts in our communities and in our church's capacities to serve those communities. We are to equip disciples to live what they say they believe in every domain of community life. Let us unite in blessing our communities as Jer. 29:4-7 instructed captive Israel. Blessing a city and blessing community leaders is a powerful witness.
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Pastors' Conference and Executive Board
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Pastors' Conference and Executive Board Schedule
Our Annual Meeting will be on October 19th.
Pastors, retired pastors, staff members and lay leaders are invited to participate.
We hope to see you there!
Location:
Southcliff Baptist Church
4100 SW Loop 820
Fort Worth, TX 76109
Time:
10:30 a.m. - Exhibits
11:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. - Lunch & Reports
Cost:
$10.00 for lunch
October 19 - ANNUAL MEETING
October 26 - Pastor's Conference
November 2 - Pastor's Conference
November 9 - No Pastor's Conference (BGCT & SBCT Annual Meetings)
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Hearing God Retreat
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The next Hearing God Retreat is November 2-3 at Riverbend Retreat Center. The retreat will begin at 1:00 p.m. on Monday and end at noon on Tuesday. The cost is $50 and includes a private room, dinner and breakfast.
This is a retreat. You will have two large blocks of time to spend with the Lord, sleeping and/or taking a walk. You will be guided through some Bible readings and other readings to help you connect with the Lord.
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Our Schools Need Our Help
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Things are changing in our public schools. Manuel Jara now has 91 parents participating in Parent University. This is a 13 week course using Focus on the Family's "Raising Highly Capable Kids." Principal Marta Plata is partnering with Primera Baptist Church, Fort Worth to teach the course on Thursday nights at the school.
This is the third season of training. The school and church offer all three sessions. Session 1 has three classes in Spanish and one class in English. Session 2 has two classes in Spanish and one class in English. Session 3 has one class in each language. Mrs. Plata has had to write curriculum for sessions 2 and 3. The parents of Manuel Jara students wanted to learn more, after completing the first 13 week course.
This is some of the positive news along with Good News Clubs, Beach Clubs, Read2Win, and KidsHope USA that is happening in our schools.
Schools need prayer warriors! We have learned from several school principals that they are experiencing things they have never experienced before. Things they are not trained to deal with like spiritual warfare. Please pray that God's presence will totally fill our schools. Pray that no evil will be able to enter our schools. Pray that peace, joy, and love will be present in classrooms, hallways and throughout each school facility.
As you drive or walk by a school, please pray. We need you!
Becky Biser
Director of Leadership Development
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Life Change Journey for Pastors and Staff
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Life Change Journey for Pastors and Staff
Want to experience a life change journey designed just for pastors, staff and leaders? This is not like any other discipleship conference you have experienced. This is a time you can refresh yourself in a hands-on experiential-type of journey. Here are some of the things you will experience:
- A safe environment
- Time for reflection
- Time to spend reading the Bible and reflecting on your relationship with Christ
- Authentic facilitators who let you discover your own way
- Prayers offered over you
- Laughter and fun
- A few stretching and challenging activities
- Time to hear God speaking just to you
- A renewed excitement and expectation about what God is doing in your life
The next re:FOCUS journey will start Sunday evening at 6:00 p.m. on October 25 and end at noon on Tuesday, October 27 at the Riverbend Retreat Center. Each retreat time is unique and will focus on different aspects to help empower leaders.
Retreat #1
- Leaders will spend time re:Connecting with God and with peers in an experiential learning environment. This time will include alone time with God enhancing their dependence on the Father and time to make friends with peers that are both authentic and safe.
Retreat # 2
- Six months later leaders will come back together to re:Discover who God has made them to be. They will spend time exploring things about themselves and formulating their own personal mission statements.
Retreat #3
- In another six months leaders will re:Think what it means to be a disciple. They will explore passages of scripture and write their own definition of a disciple. They will gain a clear picture of what this disciple looks like and how they personally will help others grow to be a fully devoted follower of Christ.
Retreat #4
- The final retreat six months later will focus on re:Engaging with God in His Kingdom. How has God created me to be most effective personally on engaging others? What is He nudging me to do? How do I most effectively lead myself and others?
Between these retreat weeks leaders will meet together monthly to encourage and pray for each other.
Interested? If so, contact Becky Biser at becky@tarrantbaptist.org.
Sign up today!
Date: October 25-27, 2015 (Begin Sunday evening at 6:00 and ending at Tuesday at noon)
Cost: $125 each retreat (includes lodging, meals, snacks, books and other materials)
Duration: 4 retreats over 2 years
Register Here!
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App of the Month - Blab
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 Mashable says Blab is "like Periscope for groups of friends." Periscope, which we introduced to you a couple of months back, is live video you can broadcast from your smartphone to your followers on Twitter.
Blab is similar, but with more participants. The screen is divided and up to four people can carry on a conversation at the same time. The host can bring guests into and out of the conversation. Observers can ask questions and give input.
How could you use this in ministry? You could instruct or coach team members from a distance. You could host your own talk show around significant topics affecting our culture. You can record your sessions and post them to your Facebook page or website. The possibilities are endless.
Check out this introduction to Blab by Steve Dotto of DottoTech. Steve regularly reviews the latest apps and provides tutorials on how to make the most of them. Wander around his YouTube channel for many helpful resources.
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Baptists and Religious Liberty Review - David Bowman
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Election year is upon us. Those who put their hope in government are all atwitter about their favorite candidates. Some of us know better than to give Caesar more than his due. Our good friend and Baptist statesman, Dr. Bill Pinson, reminds us that Baptists have long championed religious liberty. His new book and study guide, Baptists and Religious Liberty: The Freedom Road, are tools every pastor and every church need to utilize in the next few months and in the years to come. These resources are available from Baptistway Press.
Dr. Pinson is a first-rate scholar with a pastor's heart. He served as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Wichita Falls; president of Golden Gate Seminary; and executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. He writes about the struggle this country endured to ensure religious freedom. He skillfully navigates the meaning of separation of church and state.
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| Coaching, coaching, coaching! |
Coaching, coaching, coaching!
Coaching is an amazing tool! It has impacted all of your TBA staff. David, Becky, Gary and Jay are all certified coaches with the International Coach Federation and are faculty with Coaching4Clergy. Coach training is available March 28 thru April 1 of 2016 and then again later in next fall.
Another special offering in the coaching experience is the ability for you as part of the Tarrant Association to avail yourself to be coached. You can receive a Laser Coaching session (a 20-minute session) once a month at no cost. Simply call TBA and reserve a time and coach. Laser Coaching will help you manage time, focus, prioritize, brainstorm possibilities, get unstuck and much more. Check it out! Give it a try! Call today---817.927.1911.
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Lead But Not with Greed - Gary Crowell
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You may have heard the story of a man who died and was known to be very greedy. At his funeral as the pastor sought to say good things about the man, the best friend of the widow was seated at her side close to the casket. She leaned over and asked the grieving widow, "Did your husband have any last requests?" The widow quickly responded by saying that he did have one and that she had honored his last request. Curious, the friend asked what it was. The widow said that he told her that he wanted to take all of his wealth with him. The friend said "Surely you didn't honor this request." The widow said, "Indeed I did. I wrote him a check and put it in his casket. If he can cash it, he can spend it."
The reality is that many people, even Christians, live life as if they can take their material possessions with them. Scripture clearly indicates that nothing have we brought into this world and nothing shall we take with us. For those who tend to think this way, they need to see a model of what it is to live a generosity lifestyle, and not a life characterized by self-serving greed. Where else better than from those they respect and trust should they learn these lessons?
The generous lifestyle in a church congregation is first and foremost modeled in both word and deed by the pastor, staff and other leadership of the church. The church leadership approaches giving from the standpoint of "let us give together to what God is doing" and not just encouraging church members to give without any apparent buy-in by those in visible roles of leadership.
Some of our human behavior patterns are by instinct. However, most are learned behaviors and practices. It has been said that discipleship can be defined as "transference of life." Those who have titled roles and perceived positions of leadership in the local church are charged with modeling for those who follow what the generosity lifestyle looks like. How can we as leaders realistically think that the members of our church will do something that they do not see their leaders already doing? There is no place in the church for leaders to say, "Do as I say, and not as I do." It doesn't hold water when we as parents use it on our children, and even so it does not work as we set the standard for our members to follow.
Let us be found faithful in teaching those who watch us, through our actions and our words that the work of the Lord deserves the best that we as Christ followers have to offer. They are observing. May they be able to quickly characterize us as leaders who know how to be generous in giving, in whom greed holds no place.
Gary L. Crowell, CPA, CCA
Chief Financial Officer
Tarrant Baptist Association
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Get Involved with New Church Starts - Jay Harris
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Brad is a church starter in Steveston, BC, a lovely area near Vancouver. It is known historically as a fishing town, but recent days have seen a transition of explosive growth of young up-and-coming families. Brad is involved in our Vancouver re:Focus group. His personal mission statement is, "I walk alongside the spiritually indifferent on their journey to become passionate followers of Jesus!"
Jonathan is a church start pastor of a 2nd Generation Hispanic English speaking church in Miami, Florida. I was privileged to worship with this 6-month old congregation two weeks ago. They have a refreshing spirit of worship and family. They meet in a performing arts theater and have about 70 in attendance each Sunday. Every member and guest has a responsibility as they set up and tear down the banners, TVs, instruments, children's furniture and the bible study materials each Sunday.
These are just two church starts I visited with this past month. The world is getting smaller. Jonathan and Brad and their churches need other churches and believers to come alongside them to pray for them, to interact with them, to encourage them, to get involved in their communities with them, to help them, and to invest in them and their work!
I want to challenge and encourage you to get involved in the support of a new church start here in Tarrant County, one somewhere in Texas, one outside of Texas, and one in another country! Let's get you connected!
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Farewell Thank You - Remey Terrell
|  Dear TBA Team,
I wanted to write and thank you so much for the opportunity that you have allowed me to serve alongside you and Texas Baptists at TCU for the past 3 years. It has been a great joy and privilege to serve college students and to be a part of the TBA family.
Each of you have been a great blessing to me in life and ministry these past 3 years and I am grateful for your many words of prayer and encouragement during my time at TCU.
I know that what we do on the college campus is not possible without the each of you and the support of our Tarrant County churches. Please share my heartfelt thanks and gratitude to the TBA churches for their continued support and partnership in bringing the Gospel to campuses such as TCU. It has been a great honor to represent you at TCU.
Thank you, again for the opportunity. Pausing to pray and give thanks for each of you this morning. |
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Training Opportunity for WMU Groups
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WMU Training Opportunity
Tarrant Baptist Association Woman's Missionary Union recommends a brand-new website developed by national WMU for leadership training. Currently available online training is for
leading WMU Churchwide, Women on Mission, Acteens, Girls in Action, Mission Friends, and
getting to know Christian Women's/Men's Job Corps, as well as a Leadership Certificate Program and Leadership Enrichment course. Cost is $20 each. Go to www.ChristianLeaderLearning.com for more information and to get started.
More course offerings will be available at the same site during this Fall of 2015, and additional courses will be offered in 2016. Also, training will be available at the annual meeting in April 2016. Information will be released later.
We regret that the statewide trainings last month were cancelled due to low registrations. But, this is a great time to respond to this new training availability online. Please help us get the word out!
Thank you very much.
Inez Stephens, Director
Tarrant Association WMU
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Folding Machine
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TBA has a folding machine in our office that we would like to give away to a church.
It is a Duplo Corporation machine, Model #DF-520.
Please contact our office if your church is interested.
817-927-1911 or frontdesk@tarrantbaptist.org
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More God, Less Crime Conference
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Restorative Justice Ministries Network More God, Less Crime Conference
SAVE THE DATE:
November 7, 2015
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For more information call Rev. Mark Pickett at 936-295-5441 or email him at mpickett@huntsvillefumc.org
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BGCT Upcoming Events
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SBTC Upcoming Events
|  Heart of the Child Conference - April 22-23, 2016 : Broken Arrow, OK |
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Prisoners' Families in Your Community
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FACT:
2.7 million children have a parent in prison.
Prisoners' children live in shadows, shamed and disadvantaged by their parent's crimes. With help from Prison Fellowship, you can deliver Christmas gifts and the Gospel to prisoners' children.
Churches, Bible Study groups, Sunday School classes, and families are invited to help a child in your community this Christmas. Sign up here
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News from the Churches
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First Baptist Church of Keller has a member who is moving and wants to donate a small organ to a church or nursing home or any other ministry in need of such. It is described as a Baldwin Organ Orgasonic w/bench Model 54A. Anyone interested can contact our church, and we will put them in touch with the couple.
Azle Avenue Baptist Church, 2901 Azle Avenue, Fort Worth, TX 76106 has the following items available for pick up from the church (donation requested) for a congregation that can use them: 13 wooden church pews (15 ft.), 7 wooden church pews (9 ft.), and 2 organs. Contact Pastor Rafael Solis at pastorrafael@azleavenue.org or
817-808-4832.
The Baptist Church of Driftwood, 13540 F.M. 150 W. Driftwood, Texas, is looking for a bi-vocational Pastor. Anyone interested in this position, please forward a resume to the church no later than October 4, 2015.
Mailing Address:
The Baptist Church of Driftwood, P.O. Box 205, Driftwood, Texas 78619. Attn: Pastoral Search Committee
You are invited to join with churches in Nepal to be a part of what God is doing in bringing spiritual healing to this hurting country. Join with other Baptist from TBA and International Commission (IC) on a short term evangelistic mission trip February 10-21, 2016. If interested, call Gary Godkin, 817-845-0440 or email him
Gary.Godkin@IC-World.org for more information on this trip!
Southcliff Baptist Church has DVD copies of Bill Hybel's "Just Walk Across the Room" series. If any church would like to have them please contact Rhonda Jackson at 817-924-2241 or Rhonda@southcliff.com.
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Becky Biser
Tarrant Baptist Association
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