200 S. Church St.

Rocky Mount, NC 27804

Church Office Hours: Monday—Thursday 8:00 am—5:00 pm Friday 8:00 am—2:30 pm

Church Office (252) 446-9113

Fax (252) 446-5025

Website www.fbcrm.org

Prayer Room (252) 446-5993

First Baptist Child Care Center (252) 446-7416

I N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

Pastor’s

Article

2

Church

Staff

2

Women’s Bible

Study

3

Back to School

Retreat

3

API Uganda

Mission Trip

4

College Ministry

Update

4

Foster Parent

Training

5

Operation

Christmas Child

5

Calendar 6

First Baptist News A U G U S T 2 0 1 5 R O C K Y M O U N T , N C

Knowing God, Making God Known, and Becoming like His Son, Jesus Christ, through Worship, Bible Study, and Ministry

First

Baptist

Church

Combined Worship

Sunday, August 2

Sunday School—9:00 am Worship—10:30 am

SUNDAY, AUGUST 2 AT 8:30AM

All donations will help our Uganda Mission Team

provide Animal Projects for 3 boys, who have re-

cently been resettled with family members. The

animal projects include animals (chickens, goats,

or pigs), transportation of the animals to the

boy’s home, and materials to build an animal pen.

Please come to the FMC, have Please come to the FMC, have

breakfast with us, and leave a breakfast with us, and leave a

generous donation for these projects.generous donation for these projects.

P A G E 2

Rev. Tim Griffin

Church Rhythms For Kingdom Purposes Over the past two months, we’ve discussed our upcoming Fall ’15 plans for meeting together as a church body, accomplishing our goal of knowing God and His ways (rational), translating that knowledge into a heathy relationship with God and His people as a family (relational), and then together reaching out into God’s world for King-dom purposes (missional). That sounds quite am-bitious, and the prospects of God choosing to use a people like FBCRM to accomplish such lofty goals as Kingdom impact is incredibly exciting! Together, this is our charge. Together, this is our privilege. Together, this is disciples making disci-ples. What an amazing opportunity that is in our laps!!

This month, we want to answer the question, “How do we hope to do this?” This task needs a plan, so we need to know how that works its way out in our church rhythms and schedules. To the end of answering that all important question, we need to answer a number of obvious questions which will hopefully guide us to knowing, belonging, & impacting together… What church “rhythm” will pull

all of these facets together? Generally speaking, every

single thing that we do as a church gathered is driving at developing us as full-orbed, gospel-centered disciples. From corporate worship on Sunday mornings to specific ministry initiatives that are going on throughout the week, we (that’s every one of us, every single member) are seek-ing to grow up into mature Christians that attain unity of the faith in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 4:13). See last month’s pastor’s article to get a more in-depth idea of how this happens.

Specifically, we are going to look at the “Life 5-1-5 Groups” that will be starting up the week of September 13th. There are two major facets addressed in the very name that we are giving to our missional communities – the relational and the missional. These are both wrapped around the rational facet in our pur-suit of knowing God in His Word, learning His ways in this world, and living them out together, as imperfect as we are in the at-tempt.

How will “Life 5-1-5 Groups” accomplish the three facets of discipleship? “Life’’– These groups will be established for

the purpose of developing deep, covenant relationships with fellow believers that are wrapped around 1) love and commitment to Jesus, 2) reading & hearing God’s Word to-gether, and 3) applying God’s Word to each

other – in principle as we read and discover, and in practice as we live life together. This is more than a programmed meeting, it is family – discussing, striving, living, failing, correct-ing, encouraging, supporting, and standing together through thick and thin.

“5-1-5” – These groups will be intent on culti-vating a missional mindset that invites those without Jesus as Lord and Christ in their per-sonal lives into our collective lives with gospel intentionality. We do that in all arenas of life – individually and together.

Where and when will the “Life 5-1-5 Groups” be meeting? Multiple “Life 5-1-5 Groups” will be gathering

all across town, with 10-25 covenant mem-bers bound together by our common faith in Christ and our common mission of Kingdom living in the larger Rocky Mount area. Each group will have scheduling flexibility as they choose a gathering time that best fits with the natural rhythms of the members’ lives. As

“salt and light” (Matthew 5:13,14), we will be the church of Christ flung all

over this city, bringing the King-dom to bear in all of our rhythms of life. I can’t do this on my own! Who will be giving direction?

We have been so blessed with a number of Group Facilitators who are

going through training during the month of August. They don’t do all of the work (living this life together takes every one of us!), but they steer each “Life 5-1-5 Group” to intentionally focus on the Scripture, on our shared life in Christ, and on our shared mis-sion in life.

I’d love to be a part, but how? We’d love to have every covenant member

and their families to be involved. Go to fbcrm.org, log into the Members’ section, and sign up that you would like to be involved. As September 13th draws closer, you’ll be hearing more directives and opportunities about how to get involved.

Let’s not just be church members as most Ameri-cans think of that category, but let’s be full-orbed, gospel-centered disciples, rationally knowing God and His ways, relationally knowing God and His people as family, and missionally reaching God’s world to further God’s Kingdom in our place, in our time. Let it be said of us as it was the early Christians in Acts 5:42 – “And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.”

“… from house to

house, they did not

cease teaching and

preaching…”

MINISTRY TEAM

Dennis Darville

Preaching & Leadership

Tim Griffin

Education & Discipleship

Mike Avery

Family Ministries

Larry Curtis

Pastoral Care

Jack Heim

Music & Worship

Louis Griffin

Music & Worship

Bob Britt

Homebound Visitation

OPERATIONS &

ADMIN TEAM

Beth Thompson

Operations Director

Jewell Pullen

Financial Administration

Faye Strickland

Facilities Administration

Mary Helen Batten

Receptionist/Admin. Assistant

Kayla Dozier

Administrative Assistant

Nina Daughtridge

Music Assistant

Jane Clark

Food Service Administration

P A G E 3

September 4-6

9th-12th Grade Students

Cost is $80.00 per person (give $$ to Mike)

Register online at fbcrm.org/upcoming

Participants MUST have a completed 2015

Parental Consent Form.

Invite Your FRIENDS! Registration ends September 2

New Member Class Beginning September 13

Sundays @ 9:30 am

2nd floor activity room above

the Fellowship Hall

This 6-week class is for anyone inter-

ested in becoming a member of First

Baptist Church as well as for those

who just want to know more about our

church, our beliefs and our mission.

In June 2015 Trail Life USA (TLUSA) and American Heritage Girls (AHG) reached an histor-ic agreement whereby each will support the other in their shared missions for spiritual and charac-ter development of youth through Christ-centered programming. The alliance accelerates the phenomenal growth of both organizations by encouraging Troops to operate side-by-side (like we already do at FBC). TLUSA's mission is to guide young men to honor God, lead with integrity, serve others, and experience outdoor adventure. AHG’s mission is to build women of integrity through service to God, family, community and country. For more information go to: www.TrailLifeUSA.com or www.ahgonline.org.

P A G E 4

During the past month, through First Baptist Church,

Rocky Mount, God has provided in many ways. We have boxes full

of clothes, shoes, school supplies and hygiene items that will be

used to bless the people of Uganda, thanks to FBCRM. Multiple

Sunday School classes have committed to supporting Animal Pro-

jects for families served by A Perfect Injustice. These animal pro-jects are also benefited by a church wide breakfast bake sale. Our

team will be visiting the families receiving these animals and help-

ing them build the animal pens. The children whose families will

benefit from this are Juma, Frank and Meddie.

God has also been preparing our Mission Team (Mike & Wanda

Sohn, Pam Bodiford, Jennifer Crumley, and Louis & Jordan Grif-

fin) for service in Uganda. It has been a joy to see how God has

uniquely gifted each team member for specific needs in Uganda.

We are excited to watch God use these giftings for His glory!

How you can pray for our Mission Team:

Safety as we travel.

Good health for our team members and their families at home.

We would be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and His leading.

That many would hear the gospel and be transformed by it.

How you can pray for API:

Pray for the five children who have been resettled this month.

Pray that we would see fruit from the counseling we are provid-

ing their families and that they would remain at home and not

run back to the streets.

Pray for Yazid and Phillip (who were recently resettled) as they

face medical problems. Pray for healing and that we would be

able to care for them well during the process.

We praise God for rain on our farm after a season of drought.

Please pray for our harvest and that God would be able to bless

others through the crops it produces.

Pray for deeper relationships and connections with the boys

attending our street program.

Pray that as the children in our street program are hearing the

Gospel, it would become truth to them and they would have

personal relationships with our savior.

F I R S T B A P T I S T N E W S

Well, it’s the beginning of August, which means that the college students will be making their way back into Rocky Mount to attend NC Wesleyan College. It is exciting to prepare for over 400 brand new fresh-men, as well as over 100 international students from all over the world! As a way to make these students aware of The Bridge College Ministries we will be making welcome bags for all of these students. The bags will have information about The Bridge and First Baptist Church along with some snacks, treats, and a pen with the Bridge logo on it. The purpose behind this is to get students to come out and hear the gospel of Jesus be-cause several of them, especially the interna-tional students, have not even heard the gos-pel before.

We are preparing to host a corn hole tournament during the first week of school where students can create teams of two to come out and compete for a grand prize. Most col-lege students love and enjoy the game of corn hole, so what better way to kick off the year than with a friendly and competitive corn hole tournament?

The beginning of each school year is critical to meet and start forming relationships with students, espe-cially the new ones. Our hope is to build relationships centered on Christ. It’ll be a fun year, and we are praying and believing God for a fruitful harvest of new believers at NC Wesleyan College!

Please come to one of our meetings (below) to find out what we have planned and how you can be in-volved with The Bridge this year!

Wednesday, August 12 (7pm M304) Wednesday, August 19 (7pm M304) Wednesday, September 2 (7pm M304)

August 10-15

Pray for our High School

Students as they share

the gospel and display

Christ’s love in Philadelphia

throughout the week.

P A G E 5

COOL KIDS COOL KIDS

Beginning: September 30, 2015

Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3:15-5:15 pm

Volunteers Needed! Volunteers Needed!

Tutors & Substitutes Prayer Warriors Recreation Coaches Van Drivers/Monitors

You may volunteer for either Wednesday or Thursday or both days!

Volunteer Application packets are available through the office,

in the narthex, and at fbcrm.org/members.

Volunteer Orientation: September 27

IS COMING!!

National Collection Week is

November 15-23

Our OCC Packing Party goal this

year is 500 boxes!

We will need your help packing

those boxes and donating money to

fill those boxes.

Our goal is to have a total of 700

boxes sent from FBCRM!!

More details to come!

Beginning in September details TBA.

Would you consider sharing your life, faith, and your home with a child or teen? You can bring lasting change, provide restoration and rebuild trust while teaching children to love others and themselves through foster care.

If you are interested in becoming a foster par-ent, or would like more information, please come to our first class. You do not have to commit to being a foster parent to attend the training. Please call the church office for more information.

w w w . f b c r m . o r g

REGULAR WEEKLY SCHEDULE

Sundays 8:00 am Televised Morning Worship

(WHIG Channel 17)

8:15 am Contemporary Worship Service

9:00 am Church Library open until 10:00 am

9:30 am Bible Study

11:00 am Worship Service

4:45-7 pm Orchestra Practice & Other Music Rehearsals

Mondays 7:00 pm Praise Team Rehearsal

Women’s Bible Study

Tuesdays 6:30 am Women’s Prayer Groups

8:15 am Staff Meeting

9:00 am Women’s Bible Study (Start 8/18)

Pastor’s Meeting

10:00 am Women’s Prayer Group

Wednesdays 3:00 pm Church Library open until 6:00 pm

5:00 pm Fellowship Meal

6:00 pm Nursery for Birth—2 yrs. (M101)

GROW for 3 yrs.— Rising K (M102B)

Bold Believers Rising 1– 5th Grade (FMC gym)

Crossroads for Grades 6-12 (M301)

Prayer Meeting for adults (Fell. Hall)

7:10 pm Adult Choir Rehearsal

Thursdays 6:30 am Men’s Prayer Group (Choir room)

7:30 pm The Bridge

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

1

2

Combined Service

Bake Sale at 8:30am Sunday School at 9am

Worship at 10:30am

3

4 5

ABRO Presentation &

Prayer 6pm (F.H.)

6 7 8

9

Deacons’ Meeting 4pm

(M201A)

10

11 12 13 14 15

Orchestra Retreat

16

Orchestra Retreat

17 18

Women’s Bible Study

9am (M103)

19

Quarterly Church

Conference 6pm (F.H.)

20 21 22

23 24 25 26

Meals on Wheels

27

Meals on Wheels

28 29

God Belongs in My

City 10am

30 31 1

August 2015

High School Miss ion Trip to P hi lade lphiaHigh School Miss ion Trip to P hi lade lphia

API Uganda Miss ion TripAPI Uganda Miss ion Trip

API Uganda Miss ion TripAPI Uganda Miss ion Trip

API Uganda Miss ion TripAPI Uganda Miss ion Trip