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Non Profit Organization
US Postage Paid
Pearsall, TX 78061
Permit #29
Frio River Baptist Association
PO Drawer P
1716 B I-35 E
Pearsall, TX 78061
Phone: 830-334-2061
Fax: 830-334-3025
E-mail: [email protected]
Director of Missions
Jimmy D. Smith
Ministry Assistant
Laurie Beth Scantlin
6:30pm -
OCL Meeting
West Zone
Pastor’s Prayer
Meeting
9:30am - FRBA
Executive Board
Meeting Winter Youth Retreat (Alto Frio)
Minister’s Prayer Retreat - Alto Frio
Winter Youth Retreat (Alto Frio)
FRBA Office Closed
NEW YEAR’S
DAY
MARTIN LUTHER
KING, JR. DAY
FRBA Office Closed
January 2015
The Update Volume 34, Issue 1
Inside this issue:
-- FRBA Partnership
with Wycliffe Begins 1
--Three Reasons to Be
Excited About Bible
Translation
1
--Minister’s Prayer
Retreat This Month 2
--Prayer Requests
from Bobby
Higginbotham at The
Pathway in Tacoma
2
--Discipleship Must
Take Place in Your
Church
2
-- Seven Myths about
a Pastor’s Workweek 2
-- Around the
Association 3
-- Operation
Christian Love 3
-- Calendar 4
Upcoming Events:
Jan. 5th & 6th -
Minister’s Prayer
Retreat at Alto Frio
Jan. 13th - FRBA
Executive Board
Meeting
Jan. 16th-19th -
Winter Youth Retreat
at Alto Frio
Frio River Baptist Association
FRBA Partnership with Wycliffe Begins Jimmy Smith You will remember that our association voted
unanimously in October of last year to accept
the challenge to fund the translation of the
New Testament into ten (10) languages in Pa-
pua New Guinea. Wow, it’s still hard to believe
God is allowing us do something like this.
We are asking
that in partici-
pating churches,
each member
make a one-time
gift of $30.00. If every church participates and
we do that we will reach the needed goal of
$102,000.00. There is a promotional kit availa-
ble to each church that wishes to help us out in
this partnership. I am praying for 100% partici-
pation.
The kit includes: Arop DVD, letter to your
church, leader letter, informational piece and
posters, bulletin inserts and signup posters. If
you don’t have the kit please call (830-334-
2061) and we will send one your way.
Wow, it’s still hard to
believe God is allow-
ing us do something
like this.”
1. God’s Word is foundational. How do people step out of darkness without the light of Scrip-
ture? How do you plant a church, make disciples and grow God’s people without His Word?
Where do people find peace and hope without the promis-
es of God? The Bible is essential to every part of the great
commission.
2. 180 million people are still waiting for God’s Word in the
language they understand best. Translation has not yet be-
gun for around 180 million people speaking at least 1860
languages that definitely or likely need Bible translation, but
3. The last languages are in sight. Bible translation is cur-
rently in process in more languages than those still waiting
for translation to begin. God is accomplishing His mission
through His power and through partnership. It is very possi-
ble that our churches and members among us may be part
of the very last Bible translation projects.
God is inviting us to participate in His global mission. Our
churches can join together with Wycliffe to bring God’s
word to 10 people groups in Papua New Guinea through
the “Aitape West Translation Project”.
Three Reasons to Be Excited About Bible Translation
Page 2 The Update
Around the Association
Page 2 The Update
Minister’s Prayer Retreat
This Month We invite all of our
ministers to a great
time of prayer a fel-
lowship at our Minis-
ter’s Prayer Retreat,
January 5th & 6th. As
usual we have rooms
reserved at Alto Frio Baptist Camp &
Conference Center in Leakey. The cost
to attendees will be $30.00.
This year we have asked Larry Mayberry
and Larry Martin to come and lead us.
Larry Mayberry is a Church Planter in
Astoria, NYC and son of Duane and
Sharon Mayberry (pastor & wife at FBC
Charlotte). Larry Martin is a former Pas-
tor and Director of Missions for the
Coastal Bend Association. Both men will
have very helpful things to share about
prayer and ways to lead us in praying.
Prayer Requests from
Bobby Higginbotham at
The Pathway in Tacoma
1. Mission Team from The Austin Stone is
coming to Tacoma! They are going to
saturating downtown Tacoma, specifically
the University of Washington in Tacoma
(UWT) with the Gospel. We have not
done much work in downtown Tacoma
or with UWT & so we are excited to see
what God has in store. The team will be
here Jan. 7th-11th. We are
planning on hosting an
event at a coffee shop for
UWT students on the 10th.
Please pray for our connec-
tions with the students at the
event on the 10th.
2. New Intentional Communities! Current-
ly we have 5 ICs. We are planning on
training leaders during the month of Janu-
ary to launch 2 more around February.
Pray for our current leaders & for our fu-
ture leaders...that our future leaders would
be well equipped & that our current lead-
ers would be able to send them out effec-
tively.
Discipleship Must Take
Place in Your Church
We talk about it, write about it, teach
and preach about it, but for discipleship
to be working it must be someone’s
responsibility to be sure it is taking place.
Imagine you have a brand new Chris-
tian friend. She is 28 years of age. She is
hungry to learn about God. She wants
to understand the basics of the Bible.
Why all the books? Why the two
halves? She wants someone to teach
her all about prayer and she wishes she
understood why people do the things
they do at church.
Is there a place in your church where
she can find those kinds of things are
being taught this next week? If not, why
not? -- Jimmy Smith
Seven Myths about a Pastor’s Workweek Thom Rainer
It is an old joke, one that is still told too often. You go up to your pastor and say, “I wish I had your job; you only have to
work one hour each week.” It is likely your pastor will laugh or smile at your comment. I n reality your pastor is likely hurt by
your statement. Indeed the reality is that too many church members have made wrongful and hurtful comments about
the pastor’s workweek.
Sadly, some church members really believe some of the myths about a pastor’s workweek. And some may point to a lazy
pastor they knew. I will readily admit I’ve known some lazy pastors, but no more so than people in other vocations. The
pastorate does lend itself to laziness. To the contrary, there are many more workaholic pastors than lazy pastors.
So what are some of the myths about a pastor’s workweek? Let’s look at seven of them.
Myth #1: The pastor has a short workweek. Nope. The challenge a pastor has is getting enough rest and family time. Ser-
mon preparation, counseling, meetings, home visits, hospital visits, connecting with prospects, community activities, church
social functions, and many more commitments don’t fit into a forty hour workweek.
Myth #2: Because of the flexible schedule, a pastor has a lot of uninterrupted family time. Most pastors rarely have uninter-
rupted family time. It is the nature of the calling. Emergencies don’t happen on a pre-planned schedule. T he call for pas-
toral ministry comes at all times of the day and night.
Myth #3: The pastor is able to spend most of the week in sermon preparation. Frankly, most pastors need to spend more
time in sermon preparation. But that time is “invisible” to church members. They don’t know that a pastor is truly working
during those hours. Sadly, pastors often yield to the demand of interruptions and rarely have uninterrupted time to work on
sermons.
Myth #4: Pastors are accountable to no one for their workweek. To the contrary, most pastors are accountable to most
everyone in the church. And church members have a plethora and variety of expectations.
Myth #5: Pastors can take vacations at any time. Most people like to take some vacation days around Christmas. That is
difficult for many pastors since there are so many church functions at Christmas. And almost every pastor has a story of
ending a vacation abruptly to do a funeral of a church member.
Myth #6: The pastor’s workweek is predictable and routine. Absolutely not! I know of few jobs that have the unpredicta-
bility and surprises like that of a pastor. And few jobs have the wild swings in emotions as does the pastorate. The pastor
may be joyfully sharing the gospel or performing a wedding on one day, only to officiate the funeral of a friend and hear
from four complainers the next day.
Myth #7: The pastor’s workweek is low stress compared to others. I believe pastors have one of the most difficult and
stressful jobs on earth. In fact, it is an impossible job outside of the power and call of Christ. It is little wonder that too many
pastors deal with lots of stress and depression.
Pastors and church staff are my heroes. They often have a thankless job with long and stressful workweeks. I want to be
their encourager and prayer intercessor. I want to express my love for them openly and enthusiastically.
I thank God for pastors.
Salvation is free,…
but discipleship will cost you your life.
-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer --
Around the Association
Volume 34, Issue 1 Page 3
Operation Christian Love Beth Ann Brundrett
Around the Association
The struggles of so many, as they endeavored to help the
Living Stones reopen His Island shelter, culminated in a beauti-
ful Christmas among the residents. The home is at capacity,
the cupboards are full & Christ’s love is being shown through
many. The residents are blessed by the care,
food, & fellowship they receive there. They, along
with the resident staff, prepared a Jesus Birthday
Party for the poor children in the area. They
handed out stockings, gifts & cookies as the chil-
dren arrived. OCL donated venison for the home
& helped provide the stockings, candy & cookies
for the party. The New Year there is exciting as
the Living Stones continue to minister & the veterans in turn
respond with gratitude & reach out to others. Please contin-
ue to pray for them all.
Excitement filled the air as the volun-
teers, loaded with hundreds of gifts,
Bibles, toys, stockings, candy & shoe
box gifts, began to arrive at Iglesia
Bautista Jerusalen in Eagle Pass. Br.
Roy Reyna from Leming brought the
association’s tent. He
along with volunteers opened the large area &
sent the bright stripes up into the air for all to see.
Tables arrived. Scurrying volunteers put them in
place. The flow from trailers, cars & pickups be-
gan. All the gifts were sorted & checked. Twelve
assigned areas soon filled with gifts for
children from 12 children homes in Mexi-
co. Gifts of clothing, shoes, jackets, stock-
ings with candy, & shoe box gifts lovingly
filled with many small gifts &
toys to thrill a child’s heart
were counted & placed in
their specific area. Local vol-
unteers from both sides of the
border along with some of the directors of the
homes arrived to gather the gifts & continue the
gift journey from loving hearts & hands on into
Mexico.
Gifts for Gatherings for Christ on both sides of the border were
sorted. Bibles, gifts, games & Bible study of the birth & love of
Jesus were prepared for these gather-
ings. As the last gifts were delivered to
Terlingua to continue their journey
into & the Big Bend area of Texas &
south into this very remote area of
Mexico, the excitement only grew.
Preparations for the next Christmas
season were planned as the
volunteers returned to their
homes. Watch for next month’s story of some of the
Gatherings & Christmas moments in the children’s
homes. Thank you for your help & prayers for this
ministry. Please join us in next year’s adventure for
Christ.
The Black Creek Baptist Church choir
performed a beautiful cantata on
Sunday, Dec. 21st.
The FBC Cotulla
youth group sang
carols on the
Riverwalk and
then ate together
at Rudy’s BBQ in
San Antonio.
FRBA Christmas Dinner We had a full house for our annual Christmas dinner this year! John & Bonnie Nystrom shared their story of
Bible translation ministry in Papua New Guinea, and everyone enjoyed singing Christmas carols together,
The youth of
FBC Jourdan-
ton enjoyed
an Ugly
Sweater &
Movie Christ-
mas party.
Pastor Mike Heard leads Christmas
dinner guests (at Trinity BC in Lytle) in
playing a
game
involving
answering
questions
about
Christmas.
The
church
later surprised him with a birthday