Jeff Bartell

What a great day we had yesterday in church!  It was great to see the auditorium full again.  After the summer vacations, people are settling back into their normal routines for the school year and fall season.  Our annual “Summers End Celebration” was a big hit!  There was much to celebrate – from 7 baptisms, to the report of 473 young people responding to the gospel at the NE Ohio Basketball camp, to the testimonies from our recent trip to Peru and all the great things going on in our children’s ministry.  It was great watching 28 of our young ones stand and recite Ephesians 6:10-18 before the whole church!  Did you know that the curriculum on the armor of God was written by our own people here at FBC?  (Frequently we purchase curriculum.)

After that everyone had a great time at our “picnic on the grounds.”  It was a hot day, but at least nobody was sticking their heads in tubs of ice water!  (Like last year!)  Thank the Lord for that.

Truly, we have much to celebrate here.  We have much to be thankful for.  God has brought us a long way.  We are a much more healthy church than just 18 months ago.  It was refreshing just to clear off a space and brag on God for a while yesterday.

Starting immediately in September, we will be rolling out our updated vision for the rest of the year and beyond.  That will be followed by a series on serving which we are calling:  “(un)reasonable.” We want to help every member become a minister for Jesus Christ.  We will be asking each one to give a minimum of one hour/week service at FBC.  Is that unreasonable?  (Many already do much more than that.)  It is very important for all FBC members to be here this Sunday, September 5th at 10 am, expecting to better understand why and how they can serve the Lord through the ministry of FBC.  Together we can make a much bigger difference in the lives of others.  I can’t wait to share it with all of you.  See you there!

I just finished reading “Servolution” by Dino Rizzo.  I would give this book an 8 out of 10 rating.  I enjoyed reading it.  This blog post is not intended to be a book report as much as a commentary on the subject and importance of serving.  Dino Rizzo, the pastor of Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, LA, has literally started a revolution by serving people in Jesus’ name.

Here’s what I love about the book:  he emphasizes serving people – all people – in any/every way possible, just because that is the right thing to do.  They do it without necessarily connecting the service to their church’s name – but for sure connect it to Jesus’ name.  That is real Christianity.  That is how Jesus lived.  That is how we are to live too.  Interestingly, he notes, that if you concern yourself with serving people in Jesus’ name, then Jesus will concern Himself with building the church.  (Matt 16:18)

There are great examples of ways to serve people here in our community as well as all around the world.  It’s easy really.  Ask yourself:  “What do you enjoy doing?”  And then go do that for others!  The amazing thing about serving others is that it’s contagious!  Once you get “infected” you will love doing it!  Sure it can get tiring, but when you are part of a greater body of believers doing it – it’s awesome!

Another advantage of serving others in Jesus’ name is that it miraculously helps all your troubles fade!  Amazing!  It’s almost like God Himself planned it that way.  Hmmmm, what a concept – focus on others rather than yourself.  If you are hurting, why not give it a try?  Has anything else helped ease your situation?  What can it hurt to invest some time helping those who can’t help themselves?

All through September here at FBC, we are going to be emphasizing the importance and power of serving.  New Philadelphia, Dover and other surrounding communities have needs and Jesus needs someone to go and serve them.  Sure there are others doing it.  Great!  There is still MUCH room for more to serve and share Jesus’ love.  We are going to get involved in a much bigger way.

Areas of service can also be right here in our local church.  After all, we do have guests visit us every week.  If we serve them “as unto the Lord” then maybe they will stop and seriously consider that God is real and that He really loves them.

I say we go for it!  C’mon y’all – it’ll be fun!

I love the idea of working together as a team.  There is a different kind of joy when you win at an individual sport.  I’m not trying to say one is better than the other, they are just different.  When you win a team sport, all the team members must do their part together for the team to succeed.  That is a great feeling.

Similarly, the body of Christ should work together like a team.  No one person can do everything.  Everyone has their part.  Case in point:  last Sunday I preached a simple gospel message.  I used the illustration from Saul’s life from 1Chronicles 10:13-14. You can listen to the message here:

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After the service, a friend told me that another friend was deeply touched by the message of the gospel.  He finally realized that he was not actually saved, but that he needed to be.  These friends talked more about this, but ultimately the man went home to “think about it” more.  Well, that night the reality of it all was weighing heavy on his heart and he finally turned over the control of his life to Jesus Christ and asked Him to save him and give him eternal life.  He got saved that night!

This is where the teamwork comes in.  My role was simple:  communicate the gospel clearly.  The rest of the story is in the ongoing friendship between these two friends.  Also, once the message was given at church on Sunday, the one friend “took the ball and ran with it” – in that he did his own follow up and tried to help his friend better understand his condition before God.  It worked!

This is the way we need to function in the body of Christ.  Everyone has their role.  Quit expecting everyone else to do your part and quit thinking that you can do it all yourself.  There is power in numbers!  We need each other and we need to work together.  Now, we have a new member of the family because someone understood the value of teamwork!

Last week I had the privilege of visiting one of our missionaries, Chris Gardner, in Arequipa, Peru.  I was invited to preach at their annual “Youth Congress”.  Their ministry in Peru has been going on for about 20 years.  Chris’ dad, Austin Gardner, began the ministry and Chris has taken it over about 5 years ago.  During this time they have been able to start 78 churches around Peru and in other countries.  They run a Bible College in Arequipa where they train future leaders to take the gospel to new places.  I was very impressed with this ministry.

Chris is associated with Macedonia World Baptist Missions, which is an ultra-conservative Baptist mission board.  The style of music and dress is different than what we are used to, or even prefer, and reminds me of the kinds of churches that I used to attend many, many years ago.  I don’t mind that they have different styles or preferences and am more than willing to adapt to their culture when I visit their ministry.  I hope that they would have the same opinion should they choose to visit our ministry.

Chris invited me down there because he wants to help his people move from their ultra-conservative position to a more balanced one.  I am proud of him for wanting to make that move.  It will undoubtedly meet some opposition.  He will risk losing a significant amount of support.  I have experienced first hand that God will eventually test a man’s character – often by challenging him to take a stand for what he believes is right, at the expense of personal, financial support.  I believe this is what Chris is now facing.  He has some wonderful, God-fearing people in his ministry and given time, I am sure that the Lord will gently lead them to the proper balance that they need to effectively reach many more people.  That balance does not need to look anything like what we do here in Ohio.

As a result, Chris is needing to raise additional support from churches that understand his struggle and desire to help them through it.  If any of you reading this are in a position to help, and would like to partner with a missionary that absolutely has proven himself to be a “100 fold” fruit-bearer, I would highly recommend the Gardners in Peru.  You can reply to this blog (below), or contact Chris at chrisandandria@gmail.com.  He is planning on being in the US in October and will be traveling to visit churches into early 2011.  You can read his blog here.

John 4:35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.