First Baptist Church - Chehalis

Fire Suppression System

  On Monday, January 23 the first stage of the fire suppression system installation started. The internal part of this project includes the hanging of pipe fitted with sprinkler heads. The main reason for this system is to stop a fire when no one is in the building.

  The second, part of this system, which will be completed by a second company is connecting the fire system to the water main. This contract has been awarded and is awaiting final approval by the city.

  The third aspect of this system is a monitoring system. Essentially an up-to-date fire alarm system which would alert a call center of a fire or that a sprinkler head has been activated, this helps us know that water is flowing in our building. By the way, each sprinkler head has to be set off by the fire on it’s own.

 Other details, our garage will serve as a storage and staging area so you will notice the church van parked in the parking lot. Also, the closet off the fellowship hall has been clean out. Ministry leaders were asked to remove anything of value out of the room. This week it was painted by Warren Sorenson and it looks great.  Check our website for more pictures, uploaded often!

Pastor Mark

Unstoppable Take 2

On January 1st we return to our study of the book of Acts. This dynamic study of the birth of the church continues with encouraging stories of courage and trust in our Lord in the face of opposition. The power of the Gospel is seen as Christianity breaks the bounds of culture, language and continents.

In the first section of Acts, we have studied how Peter has emerged as the lead apostle and spokesman for the faith. In this next section we see how a vision from the Lord confronts Peter’s theology and prejudice. Peter follows the Lord’s leading and will then be required to explain himself to the church in Jerusalem.

The Dickens, You Say?

The most captivating Christmas story, other than the birth of our Savior in the gospels, is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Published in 1843, it’s one of the best-loved stories to be set at this time of year. You probably know the story back to front. After all, it’s been adapted into over 200 movies or T.V. shows, and is such a powerful tale that it’s credited with helping to define our contemporary understanding of Christmas. Our Christmas sermon series will be titled From Humbug to Hallelujah. We will be using some clips from Disney’s Charismas Carol with Jim Carrey. We’ll recall the captivating characters; Scrooge, Marley and Tiny Tim. We talk about Dickens’ original intent for writing the book and compare that to the way many modern film makers look at the story.

Budget Meeting-Sunday November 6

The budget meeting happens Sunday November 6 at 10:30 a.m. Please make sure you show up early to check in and get your voting ballot. As the votes are tallied there will be an update of the current building project.

Guest Speakers Stan & Gigi Horrell-Sunday Morning November 13

This is a testimony you won’t want to miss. Stan and GiGi will share the journey they experienced as their daughter Heidi battled with cancer. The news came January 2009 that Heidi, age 27, had ovarian cancer. As you would expect they experienced all the feelings a parent would feel: shock, confusion, but they did not get angry with God during these devastating months.

Making Every Dollar Count

The Unstoppable Force

Do you ever feel like your spiritual life is on a treadmill? You try hard, do well, but fail over and over. It‘s two steps forward, then three steps back. You read the Bible more, go to church more, but you fail.  You‘re giving God everything you got but making little progress. If it‘s so frustrating, then why bother?

It seems odd that we will work so hard, giving it all the effort we can, to live the spiritual life in the flesh.  But maybe that‘s the problem. We were never meant to succeed in the spiritual life in the flesh. The spiritual life is intended to be lived by the power of the Holy Spirit. Yet for many Christians in this day and age the Holy Spirit is forgotten. Not forgotten theologically, because we all know there is a Holy Spirit, but practically.

Getting Connected

Pastor’s Porch – August 21
I am told there was a time in America when homes all had porches. People would walk the neighborhood and often stop and talk to someone relaxing out on their porch. It was an opportunity for people to stop by, catch up, shoot the breeze and connect. Today, communication seems confined to text - even Facebook is text and pictures. If ever there was a day and age where we could use face to face interaction, it would be today.
The purpose of the Pastor’s Porch is for you to stop by and touch base, pick my brain, share a thought or just connect. Maybe you have a question about something I said in a message or something our church is doing and would like to discuss it. I am not promising we will solve the problems of the world or even make decisions that evening but there will be an opportunity for us to connect and communicate with each other.

Church Picnic

  Join us for Sunday worship and fellowship at Lintott-Alexander Park on July 10 at 10:30 A.M. We will follow the same format as last year. If you have not joined us for worship at the park this is a special relaxed time of worship with a story style message, followed by a BBQ lunch and fellowship time. The message this year will come from 1 Samuel 25 ―What to do when you encounter a jerk?‖ the story of David, Nabal and Abigail.
   As far as the picnic goes here is what you need to know…bring some chairs, any kind of camping or lawn chair will do. This is a potluck – so we’re asking you to bring a salad or dessert to share. Good guidelines are to bring according to the size of your family. (Don’t worry about bringing a salad that needs to be kept cold, Judy Lyttle has a great way of keeping our food on ice ready to be served.) The church will provide BBQ chicken. It helps if you let us know how many are coming with you so we have enough of our hot, fresh, off the great big BBQ trailer pit (it’s Chicken Perfection) by Mike and Cheri Foster, so if you can sign up ahead of time, that would be great! Also, feel free to bring some lawn games and toys for our kids and families to play. Following the morning’s worship service, we will have a great after-noon of food, fun and fellowship.

A Man After God’s Own Heart
King David is one of the most inspirational characters in the bible; battling the giant Goliath, running from King Saul, leading an army in victory after victory and even falling to the temptation of Bathsheba.
He appears to be a man’s man, full of courage and valor yet he plays the harp. I don’t get that. But there is some-thing about reading the Psalms that really get me. When David writes to God I can relate to his words. He seems able to express a range of thoughts and feelings that can be difficult for the rest of us to pinpoint in our lives. Yet, you read some of his words and it hits you right in the heart. I will admit there are some Psalms I just don’t get!
This summer we will spend some time each Sunday looking at David’s life and a Psalm that came out of the experience we study. Such as did you know David wrote a Psalm after he killed Goliath, another after Nathan con-fronted David over his sin with Bathsheba. In fact that is where we get the song Create in Me a Clean Heart. But we will not look at all the Psalms, did you know there are 150 Psalms and only 73 were written by David. Of those we don’t even know the circumstance for each one.

What’s Next in the Building Project?
What an exciting Easter Sunday. I would like to thank you for inviting your friends and family members. It was a perfect day. We have never had so many people at our church. We had 422 in the worship count and then add in all the children and you that were in Sunday School but not included in the worship count I believe we actually had almost 500 on Easter.