FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF GASTON “ THE CARING PLACE ” A bimonthly publication of First Baptist Church Gaston Rev. Rex D. Simmons, Pastor January/February, 2018 Vol. 44 Issue 1 WELCOME REV. REX D. SIMMONS AND KAREN!! I would like to welcome to our church family, Pastor Rex Simmons and his wife Karen. Pastor Rex has great vision for God’s church here in Gaston and it’s going to take all of us praying together and doing our part to achieve this vision. From my first conversation with Rex I could tell he was truly a man of God and was only seeking God’s will in his ministry as well as our church. Pastor Rex will be moving to our area in January and Karen will be finishing out the school year as a teacher in the Greenville County. Please continue to pray for them during this time of transition. We look forward to worshiping God and spending more time with Pastor Rex and Karen. As Chairman of the Pastor Search committee, I would like to say “Thank You” to our church family for all the prayers and words of encouragement which each of you have prayed and shared with the committee. —Randy Poole, Kayla Stabler, Janice Boldt, Adam Callahan and Mike Rollison THANK YOU PASTOR LANEIR AND CONNIE SINGLETON!! W e have heard..."all good things must come to an end" however, as followers of Christ, we know this is not true. God is good and there is no end in God... So, even as we come to a place where we say goodbye to Pastor Laneir and Connie, we know that the bond we have will never end. As a church family, we want to thank God for sending them to us at a time when we needed a godly leader to guide us on our jour- ney. Their love and devotion to God is so apparent in their lives. We cherish the time that we have had together and the truth of God's Word that we have been challenged by and pray for that truth to continue to propel us to move forward for the kingdom! Pastor Laneir and Connie...we love you both dearly and pray God continues to bless you immensely.
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A bimonthly publication of First Baptist Church Gaston Rev. Rex D. Simmons, Pastor January/February, 2018 Vol. 44 Issue 1
WELCOME REV. REX D. SIMMONS AND KAREN!!
I would like to welcome to our church family, Pastor Rex Simmons and his wife Karen. Pastor Rex has
great vision for God’s church here in Gaston and it’s going to take all of us praying together and doing our part to achieve this vision. From my first conversation with Rex I could tell he was truly a man of God and was only seeking God’s will in his ministry as well as our church.
Pastor Rex will be moving to our area in January and Karen will be finishing out the school year as a teacher in the Greenville County. Please continue to pray for them during this time of transition.
We look forward to worshiping God and spending more time with Pastor Rex and Karen.
As Chairman of the Pastor Search committee, I would like to say “Thank You” to our church family for all the prayers and words of encouragement which each of you have prayed and shared with the committee.
—Randy Poole, Kayla Stabler, Janice Boldt, Adam Callahan and Mike Rollison
THANK YOU PASTOR LANEIR AND CONNIE SINGLETON!!
W e have heard..."all good things must come to an end" however, as followers of Christ, we know this is not
true. God is good and there is no end in God... So, even as we come to a place where we say goodbye to Pastor Laneir and Connie, we know that the bond we have will never end. As a church family, we want to thank God for sending them to us at a time when we needed a godly leader to guide us on our jour-ney. Their love and devotion to God is so apparent in their lives. We cherish the time that we have had together and the truth of God's Word that we have been challenged by and pray for that truth to continue to propel us to move forward for the kingdom!
Pastor Laneir and Connie...we love you both dearly and pray God continues to bless you immensely.
14 Ronald Farmer Hope Johnson Anita Nelson Mandy Nelson William Whittington Oliver Willard ♥Allen & Traci Rish
Prayer Service Mission Groups 7PM
15 Donavan Bennett Elizabeth Fallaw Shawn King Lauren Rish Landon Stabler
16 Kay Joseph Lisa Pound
17 Alexandra Peake Teddy Skinner ♥Jay & Gloria Sharpe
18 Ricky Ransbottom ♥Troy & Allison Sleeper
19 Kelley Beasley Benjamin Young
20 Natalie Bobbitt Robert Morey Nancy Shuler
21 Helen King Becky Reynolds
Prayer Service/ Conference
Mission Groups 7PM
22 ♥Michael & Becky Bryan ♥Dwain & Rhonda Smith
23 Michael Bryan Janet Daniels Mia Henderson Charlie Lee Connie Salyer
24 Joey Smith ♥Jim & Michelle Cox
25 Tasha Mack Michelle Mathers
26 Nolyn Bozard Phillip Spires Amanda White
27 Nicole Kirkland Rebekah Kuempel
28 Will Reynolds Cosette Pound
Prayer Service Mission Groups 7PM
SR Youth & Collegiate Group to Converge Feb. 2-4
VALENTINE BANQUET SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heav-
en and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened
with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you,
being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and
length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled
with all the fullness of God. —The Apostle Paul Ephesians 3:14-19 NKJV
Jesus said unto him, “Thou shall
love the Lord, thy God, with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and
with all thy mind.” Matthew 22:37
THE MEASURE OF LOVE
Happy New Year Everyone!
First, the WMU would like to say "WELCOME" to Pastor Simmons and his family.
The WMU leaders want to thank everyone for your support with the Prison Packets, Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes (132 collected) and helping reach the church goal for the Lottie Moon Christmas offering. We will slow things down a little the first of the new year with the upcoming activities as follows:
January 31 GA/RA International Mission Study on Russia
February 7 GA Camp Registration will be sent out. Please return registration info by March 28
February 12 - 18 WMU Focus Week. Please let Cindy Furtick or me know if you have any WMU, GA, RA, Mis-sion Friends, Sunbeams or Youth photos or materials from the past. We are doing a special history display of Gaston First Baptist's WMU organizations.
Start planning now for upcoming events:
March 4-11 Week of Prayer for North American Missions & Annie Armstrong Easter Offering;
March 23-24 WMU Annual Meeting, North Augusta
April 14 & 21 - Camp LaVida Work day
If anyone would be interested in participating in these up-coming events contact me or the church.
As always thanks for your support with the various mission projects of the church.
—Margie Rish, WMU Director
A new year already?! 2017 flew by! As we start 2018, please be praying for our youth as they are challenged to attract and connect with fellow students who don’t have a rela-tionship with Christ or who are not connected
with a church family. They are making strides as we’ve introduced our ongoing focus for Upper Room: ATTRACT – CONNECT – LORDSHIP CHRISTIANITY – PRAYER – ENCOURAGEMENT – MUTUAL RESPECT – ACCOUNTABILITY – WORSHIP. Youth are being en-couraged to live out their faith in a real way, attracting and connecting their friends and family to Christ and FBCG. We’re seeing progress, especially during our Wednesday evening worship gatherings!
As I type this, that last sentence makes me think. I wonder how many outside of Upper Room have any idea of what we have going on during our Wednesday evening time. I
Our deepest sympathy goes out to the Lizzie Mae Spradley Family. Mrs. Lizzie Mae passed away Friday, De-cember 8. A Memorial service to cele-brate her life was held at First Baptist Church Gaston December 11 with buri-
al in the church cemetery. Mrs. Lizzie Mae will be missed by family and all who knew her.
Luncheons January 3 & February 7 ~ 11:30 AM
Soup will be provided for January and pork loin in February. Please bring sides and desserts.
thought I’d share the general overview of what a “regular” evening looks like. We meet at 6:45 (following Joyful Noise choir practice) starting with announcements and prayer, followed by dinner in the Fellowship Hall, and then worship (typically contemporary praise), ending with a weekly sermon or lesson. That’s a “regular” Upper Room evening. Now, I will admit, we occasionally change things up (we don’t like for things to become too routine) and have an evening of games or some other ac-tivities. We like to do that, on average, once every 4 or 5 weeks. So, that’s an idea of “what we’re doing up there” on Wednesday nights!
I’d also like to report on some things we did in December. Olivia Speares joined us for one of our sessions to speak about the women’s prison ministry. After that, the youth did a great job signing and preparing a couple hundred Christmas cards to contribute toward the 800 needed for distribution at the correctional center. We also took a smaller team of youth to Connie Maxwell Children’s Home, where they spent time playing games, doing crafts, and sharing dinner with children from two of the cottages. Following that, we enjoyed the beautiful Christmas lights on campus and then went to Connie Maxwell Baptist Church to watch the same children participate in their Christmas musical. It was a great, although REALLY cold, time at Connie Mac.
Coming soon! We are registered for the Chillipepper Winter Youth Conference in Pigeon Forge, TN. The con-ference, for students in grades 7 – 10, will be the weekend of January 19th. We can still add to our group for this event, so, if you know of a student who would like to go, encourage them to get with anyone on the youth leader-ship team ASAP.
One last thing! Many of our youth could use financial assistance for the upcoming retreat. I ask you to consider sponsoring a student ($50.00 or whatever amount you’d like) in order to help defray the costs. If you’d like to do this, simply make a donation in the regular offering, mark-ing it specifically as a contribution to the Youth Fund. Or, contact someone on the Youth Ministry team to donate. What may be a small amount for you can make a big dif-ference in the life of a young person!
Thanks and Happy New Year!
Bobby Spires
First Baptist Church Gaston 121 Oakey Springs Drive,
