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| Greetings! |
The Most Interesting Man in the World is retiring. The Most Interesting Woman in the World had a birthday yesterday (Tuesday, April 12).
My dear bride had one of her best birthdays ever. Her kids made sure of that. She didn't give me any money to spend on her, so she didn't get any presents from me. She is leaving this weekend on a girl's trip with an old friend of ours. I'm pretty sure she will get that purse I was going to buy for her if I had any idea what I was doing and any money of my own.
I plotted my way through our son's wedding in my mind. I found a way to avoid tears during the ceremony. I rehearsed again and again what I would say and how I would say it. My plans worked well until Jonathan and I strode confidently to our places at the front of the wedding venue and waited for the bridesmaids and the star of the show, the bride herself.
However, right after Erica's grandmother, my bride ascended the steps and then glided down the aisle. She was beautiful. She was more beautiful than ever. Suddenly it was thirty-one years ago and I attempted to choke down that same enormous lump. The tears found a way past the barriers I had so carefully erected.
There are gazes without words that speak more surely than a poet's pen ever could.
How I love that woman! How that love grows day by day! Three-and-a-half decades of getting to know her has in no way exhausted my interest. I am spending an extra hour in Denver today because my flight is delayed. I enjoy the travel that is involved with this job. My favorite part is the trip home. I would rather spend a quiet evening with my bride in our little Hobbit hole under the hill than a week in the finest hotel in Vancouver or Maracaibo without her.
Dear Church Leader: Cherish your spouse.
Tomorrow evening I will return home. Our dog will greet me. My bride will sleep on, dreaming dreams only she can dream. I will awake at our regular hour with bleary eyes anxious to catch a glance of the woman of my own dreams. She will ask about my trip. I will answer a couple of coffees later.
Our son and his new bride arrive in a few days on their way to Pennsylvania. Our Baby Girl is finishing her first year of law school. Our Houston-area daughter and her family may relocate to our neighborhood soon. One woman has enriched all of our lives. One woman has made all of our good things great. One woman, and only one woman, is the person I want to enrich with loving service for the rest of my days.
With gratitude,
David
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Pastor's Conference and Executive Board Meetings
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Pastors' Conference and Executive Board Schedule
Pastors, retired pastors, staff members and lay leaders are invited to participate. We hope to see you there!
Location: 
Cornerstone Assistance Network
3500 Noble Avenue
Fort Worth, TX 76111
Cost:
$7.00 for lunch
April 18 - Executive Board
April 25 - Pastor's Conference
May 2 - Pastor's Conference
May 9 - Pastor's Conference
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Upcoming Training and Retreats offered by TBA
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Upcoming Training and Retreats
April 23 - Association VBS Conference
9:00 to 12:30 (Free Event)
Wedgwood Baptist Church
5522 Whitman Avenue
May 1-3 - re:FOCUS Retreat
6:00pm Sunday - 12:00pm Tuesday
May 19-20 - Hearing God Retreat
1:00pm Thursday - 12:00pm Friday
May 24-26 - Society for Church Consulting Training
24th & 25th: 9:00am-5:00pm
26th: 9:00am-12:00pm
Catalyst Room - TBA Office
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How are you investing in your team?
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We know that your staff is very important to you! You care about what they bring to the team as unique individuals and how well they connect with one another. After all, these special people are the backbone of your ministry.
Your Association staff can provide a one day or two day training retreat for your staff team. We can tailor fit it to your needs. Some of the assessments we can offer and also explain are the DiSC Assessment, StrengthsFinder Assessment, Spiritual Gifts Inventory, and Thinking Wavelength Assessment We can also help each person on your team articulate their own Personal Mission statement and empower them as they live it out.
Your team members will walk away with a better understanding of their teammates and a comprehensive understanding of themselves and how God has made them unique for a purpose.
We can provide this at a cost of $30 per team member which includes the assessments, lunch, snacks, and training. If interested, contact Becky Biser at becky@tarrantbaptist.org.
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Society for Church Consulting Training
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May 24 - 26, 2016
9-5 Tuesday & Wednesday, 9-Noon Thursday
Catalyst Room - TBA Office
Instructor: David Bowman
Generalist Track - Levels 1-4
Cost: $500
(discounted rate of $325 for students)
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Vancouver Vision Tour
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2016 Vancouver Vision Tour
September 12-15, 2016
If your church is affiliated with the BGCT, or even dually aligned, arrangements will be made to pay your
hotel and local travel expenses. All you need to pay is the cost of travel and a few meals.
If you or any of your leadership team are interested, please contact David Bowman.
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Social Media Update
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Tarrant Baptist Association now has an Instagram account!
Please follow us on Instagram to stay connected -- @tarrantbaptist
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App of the Month
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 Expensify makes my life better because it makes expense reports easier. I loathe expense reports. They take up at least an hour each month that I would prefer to use more productively.
The app was updated recently and works better than ever.
Begin by connecting your credit cards and financial accounts to the app through the Expensify website. Don't worry about security. Concur, the parent company of Expensify, is a major player in providing tools like this for corporations and businesses of all sizes.
Expensify will automatically keep up with all of your expenses. It gives you the opportunity to select categories for each expense. You can also add cash expenses. Mileage can be tracked in one of three ways. You can enter the distance by number of miles, odometer reading, or GPS tracking. Enter the current mileage rate set by the IRS and it calculates the cost of the trip and adds it to the appropriate place in your monthly report.
Concur is the parent company of the travel app I have used for years, Tripit. Expensify can now perform several of the same functions Tripit provides. Enter your travel information and it will update you if there is a change in your flight schedule. It also keeps up with all related expenses and can add them to your regular monthly report or to a special travel report.
The best thing about this app is that Gary's life is so much easier now when I turn in my expense report. I still mess up one thing or another just to see if he's paying attention. (He is.)
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Book Review
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 The ONE Thing, by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan, is one of those books that aligns truths you already know but we're so disconnected that they were unproductive until now. This is one of those books you tell yourself you wish you had read years ago. Dr. Gary McIntosh, Professor of Christian Ministry and Leadership at Talbot School of Theology, recently recommended this book.
I read the summary of the book in the Blinkist App on a trip to California. This provided an overview of the main ideas. I highlighted this quote: Prioritize your to-dos - they are not all equally important. People often talk about work-life balance or about balancing the different domains of their lives (home, work, physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, financial). However, it is easy to begin thinking each of these areas are equally important. This is not true. Not every event on the calendar is equally important. Not every person in your circles of concern is equally important.
Keller and Papasan tell us, "The implications of this principle are clear: the tasks on your to-do list are not equally important; just a small number of them will make the greatest contribution to your success. Prioritize your tasks to focus on the ones that will achieve the greatest proportion of your results."
These thoughts would prove maddening if not for the practical helps in the remainder of the book. For example, the authors give us what they call "the focusing question": "What's the ONE thing I can do, such that by doing it everything else will become easier or unnecessary?" This question drives us toward focusing on what is most important each day, week, month, year, and decade.
There are great tools in the book on forming new habits and replacing unhealthy ones. A number of excellent resources are available for free at www.the1thing.com.
I listened to the book on a road trip to and from Houston. I have the Kindle version in my queue to revisit some of the ideas I want to most deeply embed in my mind. The notes from Blinkist and the Kindle version of the book are saved in their respective notebooks in Evernote. A page with the focusing question is found at my desk.
The bottom line quote from the book is this: "Success comes from focusing on ONE thing, not many things."
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Ideas Column
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Our grandson turns 11 in a few days. For the last few years his parents have asked him questions most parents are masters at employing. For example, completely divorced from context, see if you can figure out what is going on with each of these short inquiries.
"With toothpaste?"
"With soap?"
For the last few years I have written a daily devotional for our family. They shared it with friends who were then added to the list and so on. I express myself much better in writing than in person. I'm a borderline introvert. Sometimes groups, large or small, make me really uncomfortable. My computer does not affect me that way except when something doesn't work as intended.
What would happen if you took a shot at devotional writing for your family? What if you compiled a stockpile of reflections to season future sermons and Bible studies?
I follow the SOAP method that I learned from the Life Journal reading plan. (See LifeJournal.cc.) S stands for Scripture. Pick out a verse or two that stands out to you in your daily Bible reading. O stands for Observation. What is God saying to you through this text? A stands for Application. What difference does it make? How will you do what God says? P stands for prayer. How can you turn this text and these observations and applications into a prayer of commitment?
Here is an entry from my devotional journal this week. This is not deep theological reflection utilizing commentaries and word studies. It is lectio divina. It is listening for what God is saying.
1 Cor. 14:12 Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church.
The drumbeat Paul marches to throughout this book is edification of the whole church. There were groupies around significant personalities-Team Paul, Team Peter, Team Apollos. There were those who esteemed themselves more highly than they should due to their self-assessed wisdom and spirituality. There were those who chose their own paths and put their own spins on biblical interpretation and cultural application. Each person seemed to operate from the center of his or her own personal mission for the church and thus pulled the church sideways rather than forward. Paul wrote to reorient them toward thinking and behavior that would draw them together to build up one another. A church is not a platform to enrich a personality. A church is not an oligarchy with competition for the seats of power. A church is not a place where anyone and everyone arm wrestles for control and direction. The church is a group of believers who identify with Jesus through confession and baptism and who exist to make disciples. They live on mission together. They meet one another's needs. They serve one another in love. They are salt and light in a dark and tasteless world. Under their one Leader, they accomplish His one purpose. Together they are a powerful force for good. Individuality and self-interest draw churches off mission. Unity focuses their effectiveness. Togetherness builds up the church.
I will work to build up the church.
Our Father, I want to live on mission with you. I want to build up your church. Use me in whatever manner you see fit. Remind me as often as necessary that the church is not about me. Show me how to draw others together around your mission, not mine. Amen.
Go thou and do likewise.
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Take a Look at Our New Job Board
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Our TBA website has just had a new update to our Job Board, and we would like for everyone to head over and check it out. The new version of Job Board will be much more user-friendly than the previous version. We hope that it serves as a helpful tool in connecting our local job applicants to churches all over the area. |
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Who Lives in Your Ministry Area?
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Who Lives in Your Ministry Area?
There are two amazing resources available to our TBA churches that will help you to understand and identify the people in your community. Both are customized to your address your specific needs and are available to you at no charge.
The Ministry Area Profile is a 32-page custom demographic/psychographic study designed to help you see the numbers and percentages of ethnicity, age, education, income, family, marriage, interests and such near your church. With this report, you will see your community in great detail through a completely new lens. The MAP helps you determine potential ministries, outreach strategies, worship styles and communication tools for effective impact in your community.
The Evangelism Community Report is also a custom search tool, but this one provides the names, addresses, and occasional phone numbers for households in your community. The search can be based on age, children, income, marital status, language, ethnicity and even country of origin (like Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, etc). One TBA church recently used this tool to send 500 invitation cards to the nearby households regarding an upcoming community event provided by the church.
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| Pastor Needed in Vancouver |
Ekklesia Community Church is a new church start that is three years old. It meets in North Saanich Middle School of Sidney, British Columbia on Vancouver Island (suburb of Victoria). In an average worship service there would be 25 adults and 18 children in attendance, representing eight different religious backgrounds and five different ethnic groups.
The church starter is Matthew Bond from Athens, Tennessee, via Southwestern Baptist Seminary. He and his wife Heather have two sons Ethan (17) and Joseph (15). They have recently started an Awana program with 35 kids involved in the club, and a third of those kids come from unchurched families.
The greatest need of the church at this time is a Children's and Family Pastor. Special prayer requests are for God's continued financial provision for the ministry, protection from the enemy, steadfastness of faith and work, and encouragement.
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Pray for WestCoast Baptist Association
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- 2016 Baptist General Convention of Texas Sponsored Partnership Vision Tours: May 2-5, and Sept. 12-15.
- Pray for Brad Forlow, Church Planter at River Community Church in Steveston Village. He is in need of financial partners to replace partners who have fulfilled their commitment.
- Pray for Suzanne Perry, Southern Baptist Chaplain and International Student Minister, University of British Columbia. After ten years in Vancouver without a vehicle, she is in need of a vehicle.
- Pray for Conrad Au, Church Planter at The Common Place in Coquitlam, as he tries to balance job and church responsibilities.
- Pray for Ekklesia Church on Vancouver Island. They need a small mission team for Good Friday/Easter weekend.
- Pray for Craig O'Brien, Church Planter of Origin Church at the University of British Columbia. He needs a mission team of young adults during the first week of the fall semester in September.
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Pray for The Point Church in their upcoming Vancouver Project in March.
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With the value of the Canadian dollar, this is a great time to make a financial investment in the new church starts and other ministries in Vancouver. Pray for financial partnerships.
- For updated prayer requests, go to http://westcoastbaptist.ca/category/prayvancouver/
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re:FOCUS Journey for Pastors and Staff
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Invest in your 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: MAY 1 - MAY 3
Sunday at 6:00pm thru Tuesday at Noon
Cost is $125
- 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 May 1st and end at noon on Tuesday, May 3rd at the Riverbend Retreat Center. The cost is $125. 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: May 1-3, 2016 (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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21st Century Wilberforce Initiative - Speak Freedom
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Invest in Religious Freedom
Take Action
The 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative advocates for religious freedom as a universal right. Over five billion people, 77% of the world's population, live in a context characterized by religious persecution, discrimination, or restrictions. Twenty Christians are killed because of their faith every day. Genocide is occurring against Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East.
The 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative is creating an alliance of churches that will make religious freedom a priority. Wilberforce provides current, reliable information and training for these churches and suggests practical ways they can mobilize as advocates for defenseless people.
I have worked with Dr. Randel Everett on religious freedom issues over the last couple of years. This is a consuming passion for him and his team. I strongly encourage you to lend your voice and church support to this ministry.
With gratitude, David Bowman
For more information about the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative and
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Parenting Seminar
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 PARENTING SEMINAR!
HOW TO MOTIVATE YOUR CHILD!
April 16, 2016
Wedgwood Baptist Church
5522 Whitman Avenue, Fort Worth, TX 76133
Are you a parent? Grandparent? A person currently investing your life in the life of a child? Join us as Dr. Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller, RN , BSN from the National Center for Biblical Parenting share invaluable insight on motivating the heart of your child and provide encouragement for parents striving to raise Godly children in today's challenging culture.
Saturday April 16, 2016 from 8:45-12:00 -Cost: $5 per person or $10 per couple! Registration begins March 6th. Click here to register!
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BGCT Upcoming Events
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Registration is now open for Make Your Groups Matter, Texas Baptist Educators Retreat
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SBTC Upcoming Events
|  Heart of the Child Conference - April 22-23, 2016 : Broken Arrow, OK |
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38th Annual Minister/Layman Golf Tournament
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Brookhaven Country Club
3333 Golfing Green Drive
Dallas, Texas 75234
Check-in begins at 7:30 AM
Tournament begins at 8:30 AM
For any questions, email Don Dendy at dondendy@aol.com
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AAFC 2016
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Early Bird Rate of $96 per person (Now through May 1st)
Pre-Registration Rate of $125 per person (May 2 - June 13)
Registration Rate of $165 per person (June 14 - June 27)
One Day Registration Rate of $50 per person, per day (Onsite at Conference)
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Beach Reach 2016
|   This year's Beach Reach efforts saw the following outcome:
- 11,000 people were served pancakes (between 2-3 per person)
- 17,316 riders
- 154 came to faith in Jesus
- 52 people were baptized at the beach
- 800 meals served to police officers, EMTs, and beach patrol
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MBB Conference
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April 22-23, 2016
MBB (Muslim Background Believer) Conference
Hosted by GFM Ministries
Lake Country Church
Fort Worth, TX
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News from the Churches
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Hymnal Donation! One of our local churches is looking to find a good home for a donation of approximately 140 Baptist Hymnals. These teal colored hymnals are the 1991 edition. They are embossed with the church name and are in gently used condition. If you or someone you know is in need of hymnals, please contact Craig Burgess at 817-296-6928.
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