Church family,
This Sunday (September 20), we welcome Dr. Will Brooks as a guest speaker. Will shared at our church some ten years ago, as he and his family headed to serve with the International Mission Board. We've prayed for Will and his family as a regular mission partner annually at WBC. He’s now serving as a professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
As you listen to Dr. Brooks this Sunday, be prayerful about what God would have you give to our mission offering on Sunday, October 4. We have a Member Meeting at 5:30 PM on September 20 and will be sharing two staffing motions from our Personnel Committee as well as church fostering and church growth updates.
As we think about the tensions in the world and remember 9/11 some twenty-five years ago, let's remember our obligation to hold and share the truth of the gospel.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Chris
Introducing Elder Candidate Steven Mercer
Church family, God is exceedingly good, and we should praise him. With church family suffering and struggling, God is answering prayers-we should praise him. With sinners believing in Christ and being baptized, we should praise him. With God working in our midst, giving us opportunities to trust him-we should praise him. Mark your calendars for the September 20 Member Meeting at 5:30 PM and Sunday, October 4, as our annual mission offering Sunday. For more on praising God, here is a post about saying or singing praise daily .
Church family, We celebrated baptism at 9:30 this past Sunday! It is such a joy to see believers declare publicly their allegiance to Christ through baptism. We return to fall programming on Wednesdays this week (September 2) with Awana (children) and Squads (Middle School) at 5:45. Adult Bible study meets at 6:15pm where we will begin a study through the book of Romans: the Gospel Defined and the Gospel Applied. Sunday, September 6 begins a new sermon series: Word and Witness: Vision of the King from the Book of Revelation. Remember to park as far away as you can and sit in the middle of the sections when you attend each week. Invite a friend to worship with you this Sunday! For more information about following Jesus through discipleship groups, here is an invitation for you.
Church family, we're glad to be returning to fall programming in the coming days. As folks return to worship, we are experiencing consistently high attendance each week. Please park as far away as you are able, and when you arrive for worship at 9:30 or 11:00 move to sit toward the middle of the aisle. Check out the parking map below to see available parking options and help us make space for others. As we conclude our series "More Grace: How God's Interventions Make it Possible to Follow Him," we do need more grace for our daily journey. Grace and peace, Pastor Chris
The Church We Aspire to Be?
Church family, Thank you for your prayers and support for our student mission trip to El Salvador! At worship yesterday, our students shared their experiences about how God worked in and through them. Josh challenged us to adopt Paul's mindset of embracing our identity in Christ, our responsibility to lead others to Christ, and the people to whom God has sent us. Do you realize God is sending you? Wherever you are (work, home, leisure, hobby), there are people who need to know the love of God and the goodness of his gospel. Will you look around you? Who is someone you can pause to pray for right now? Who do you need to set an appointment with to share the gospel? We should be deeply thankful that God sent someone to us with his gospel so we could experience his grace and redemption. Grace and peace, Pastor Chris God alone is worthy of our worship and adoration. For more, check out The Cure for an Idolatrous Heart
Church family, We hope you can join us Sunday, July 19, as we hear from our students and El Salvador mission team. We will also have our Member Meeting on July 19 at 5:30 pm. This past Sunday, as we looked at Numbers 21, we reflected that the course we're on is tainted by grief and sadness, littered with difficulties and battles, and often jaded by the lengthy journey. Some of us are going through situations right now. Others have been through them recently. All of us will face difficulties and trials in the coming days. I've tried to write regularly to encourage others and for the benefit of my own soul. The following post comes from the Bible study on Wednesday July 8 and the condition of my own soul. I pray it helps and encourages you through situations and circumstances. https://chrishefner.org/2026/07/10/medicine-for-a-deserted-heart/
Church family, As God's people, we should be amazed by God's grace and goodness in making us his own. That we belong to the Lord, we should pray for our nation. One of the most effective things we can do for others and for our country is to pray. This week, would you make time to pray for our church, for those who don't know Jesus, and for God to send a revival to our nation? Also, pray for our church mission team heading out to El Salvador early Thursday morning. Follow my blog for a post later this week on prayers you can pray for our mission team. Grace and peace, Pastor Chris Eight Prayers You Can Pray for Our Mission Teams
Church family, This week our nation will celebrate 250 years of freedom. We ought to rejoice in the freedoms we have as we lament the amoral condition of our country. As you go about your week, look around you for evidence of God's sovereign interventions. Be assured of his sovereignty. This coming week, I will share two additional posts to my blog. Monday's meditation is about courage and following God even out of our comfort zones. On Wednesday, I'll share a Christian perspective on our nation's 250-year celebration. I would encourage you to follow the link below for a post about God's sovereignty. At the bottom of the post, subscribe, and you'll get each of my posts sent to you. Grace and peace, Pastor Chris
Church family, what a great week at VBS! Our children traveled to Rome to see Paul in prison for the gospel. A great shoutout to our Minister of Children and Families, Danielle Hicks, our VBS Director, Rachel Rogers, and the nearly 100 volunteers and leaders who made this year's VBS possible. We had several children make decisions to follow Jesus and many more continue conversations with leaders and parents about Christ. Parents and grandparents who are reading this, let me offer this advice to you: "Lead your children to follow Jesus one conversation at a time." Ask them what they learned at VBS or in Sunday school or in Awana. Ask them what it means to be a Christian. Ask them if they would like to hear how you became a follower of Jesus. Those kinds of questions keep the conversation going about following Jesus. Whatever we do for the gospel, we do "for the sake of his Name." https://chrishefner.org/2026/06/19/for-the-sake-of-his-name/
