Winn’s Messenger Published for Members and Friends of Winn’s Baptist Church 12320 Winn’s Church Road, Glen Allen, VA 23059 Phone: (804) 798.5512 ● Fax: (804) 752.2401 ● Web: www.winnsbc.org
April 2013 Dear Church Family and Friends, God is really at work at Winn’s! So many people have shared with me how excited they are about what is going on in some specific area of the church, or in the church as a whole. I’ve availed myself of several opportunities to attend some events where they really encourage pastors to lead their churches to go all out for Jesus. At Easter we are once again reminded that He went all out for us, we can do no less for Him! Additionally, so many of you pray for me and my staff on a regular basis. God is using all of the above to put a little more spring in my step and enthusiasm in my service to Him and y’all. As we’ve been learning in the book of Acts, the naysayers will always be there. But the lost will always be out there as well, and the Holy Spirit will always be calling us to rise above the adversity and reach out to them with the love of the Lord. There is much to be done. I am committed to do all that I can do to fulfill the Great Commission, and to lead you to do the same, whatever the cost. See you in our Father’s fields! Pastor Jeff
Youth Events April 6th (Saturday) – during Spring Break – a house fellowship at Bruce and Renee Bingham’s home – Hot dogs will be provided. Bring a 2 Liter drink and a bag of chips and a friend! Summer Camp is coming up! July 22-26 – a non-refundable $50 deposit is due in order to hold a spot for you at camp – I heard space is limited so please let me know if you are interested. Lots more free events are slated for the Spring!
History in the making… As told to Rev. Tom Lacy, Historian by Dana Osborne, Director of Children’s Ministry
Here’s Why Children’s Ministry could be the first place a child has an encounter with Jesus Christ. While research shows us that parents remain the most important faith influencers in their children’s life, children’s ministries play an important part in coming alongside of families to reach their children for Jesus. I was blessed with parents that had a personal relationship with God. As a child my parents were the most important faith influencers in my life. However, I also have many beloved Sunday school, VBS and youth group leaders to thank for educating and influencing me over the years. As a result, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior at the age of eight.
Here is How In 1997 I was fortunate enough to stop working full time and become a “stay at home mom”. I quickly learned that God had allowed me to stop working for two reasons. The first of course was to be at home to nurture and care for my child. The second was clearly for me to volunteer in my church with children. I found that I needed to help share God’s love and scripture with children. My husband (Dan),
daughter (Georgia Sue) and I were living in Georgia at this time and attending a large church with wonderful children’s programs in which I could volunteer. My family moved back to Virginia in 1999 and we returned to the church in which I was raised. Unfortunately, there were only four children there including my daughter. God was still leading me to share His love with children, so I redecorated the children’s section of the church, organized a VBS and started sharing. In 2003 after much prayer, Dan and I decided to start visiting new churches. We both felt God was leading us to go somewhere new. After visiting Winn’s for two weeks, we knew that we had found our church family. It was clear to see that Winn’s had a wonderful youth program for Georgia Sue and a gospel centered children’s program for our son, Bobby. I began to volunteer with preschoolers and children as soon as possible. In 2010 Winn’s decided to hire a Children’s Ministry Assistant and offered me the job. I was very happy to accept and work with Cheryl Chadwick the Children’s Director. Under Cheryl’s leadership and guidance God prepared me to accept the position of Children’s Director.
Proverbs 22:6 Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
OH! YES! WINTER’S OVER! Winter is usually the dreariest season of the year, but in Awana it’s the most exciting. February is Bible Quiz month and March is the Awana Games. Bible Quiz is the serious event and Awana Games is the fun event. Six of our T&T clubbers competed against other churches in the regional Bible Quiz in Fredericksburg and displayed their expertise in Scripture memorization and Bible knowledge. Every clubber earned a high honors award (100% correct answers) in one of the three sections of the quiz. This is the first time this has happened for Winn’s clubbers. Team awards were: Ultimate Adventure Book 1 Group A, Second Place: Morgan Palmore, Karsyn Mason and Eli Farley, Coach Emily Hahn. Ultimate Adventure Book 1 Group B, Third Place: Jayden Satter, Garrett Walton, Coach Dana Osborne. Ultimate Adventure Book 2, Bible Quiz Champion: Gwen Farley, Coach Ashley Cauthorn.
Front row – Jayden Satter, Garrett Walton, Eli Farley, Morgan Palmore, Karsyn Mason, Gwen Farley. Second row—Coaches Dana Osborne, Emily Hahn, Ashley Cauthorn
Gwen Farley, Eli Farley, Garrett Walton, Karsyn Mason, Jayden Satter, Morgan Palmore.
Bible Quiz Champion Gwen Farley with Awana Missionary Ken and Irene Lorow.
2nd Place- Coach Emily Hahn, Morgan Palmore, Karsyn Mason, Eli Farley
The Sparks-A-Rama and Awana Games are exciting, fun filled competitions with other churches from Fredericksburg to Petersburg. Our Sparkies did great and won 2nd place ribbons with a team highly made up of kindergarteners. Our T&T kids (after a disastrous practice on Friday night) made a 180o turn and earned 1st place at the games on Saturday. They followed this up with a 3rd place finish in the Games of Champions. WELL DONE! Also, our kids were models of good behavior having to face long rides and long waits before the games began. Bible Quiz and Awana Games are part of the fun times we have at Awana. But the serious times during handbook study and the Gospel messages at Council Time (where everyone participates) are when the kids get down and deep learning about Jesus. The leaders who toil each Wednesday night might never get to see fruits from their efforts but (as God promises) they will come. It’s good to know that this carries over in their being good representatives of Christ and of Winn’s.
Big thanks to all who helped plan and organize
these events and especially to those who provided transportation. You are God’s workers. Thank you also to the coaches who worked to prepare our teams for Bible Quiz and Awana Games. The year is winding down fast and we look forward to our Book Awards Day and Awana Celebration in May. Until then we will continue to try to get as much of God’s Word as deep in the hearts of as many kids as we can! Why?? Because Kids Matter to God!!! See you in Awana,
How do I draw a picture of God resting? Recently, I had the privilege of visiting one of the children’s classes. While learning the creation story, the children were asked to draw a picture of what God created in each day. When we got to the seventh day one of the students asked, “How do I draw a picture of God resting?” That was a deep question and the teachers started brainstorming. They came up with many possibilities but, we really did not know what to say. Have you ever thought about that question? To be honest, I never have. To me the idea of Sabbath rest is going to church, have lunch, take a nap, clean the house, possibly grocery shopping, and finally washing the car. Does that look restful to you? Without any legalism, I would like to challenge you and myself to ponder on our day of rest, does it look like the way God’s rest might have been? If we could just imagine what God was doing when He “rested” perhaps we could emulate that and have a more blessed day of rest. Surely, God wasn’t doing the things mentioned above that I do on my day of rest. If we could only look back in our mind’s eye and peek in on God on that very first Sabbath day, what would we see? I have given this much thought and would like to share my ideas with you. First, Genesis tells us that God looked back over the six days and said that it was very good. In essence, He took time to reflect on His previous work week and enjoy a job well done. He stopped what He was doing to rejoice over what He did. Perhaps we can spend some rest time savoring the opportunities we had to serve Him the previous week. Second, Genesis also tells us that God rested from His work. He did not convalesce. Jesus asked, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath?” Perhaps we could do some kindness for someone that didn’t fit into our busy workweek. Third, God Himself who we know does not get physically tired, rested. He gave us the example that after a long week of work our bodies need to rest. If you are like me by the end of the week, your body might get a blessing from an extra nap on Sunday. In our Master’s service, Tati Buchanan
Good Morning Church family, As we focus on ensuring that our young people retain their spiritual walk past High school and throughout their college years, I am excited to announce a new aspect of Youth Ministry here at Winn’s. On Sunday March 17th we started the “Youth Student Leadership Team” (YSLT). The YSLT consists of spiritually mature youth who have a desire for a deeper relationship with Christ and are seeking to use their leadership abilities to serve Him in a greater capacity. The YSLT meets each Sunday for an hour before the evening service on days that we have an evening service scheduled. The initial team consists of: Alexa Madison, Luke Clark, Savannah Jones, & Isaac Nunn. The plan is to ultimately form additional teams that will be co-led by the initial YSLT, where they can inspire and facilitate spiritual development in their peers. We will be using Word of Life (WOL) materials which include a 6 day-a-week, year-long devotional, complete with space for prayer requests and journaling. I will be teaching a lesson each week that corresponds to the previous week’s devotions in order to drive home the truths covered all week long. We also have Scripture memorization cards that we will all be committing to memory as a group. Other aspects of the WOL direction include discipleship and accountability along with missions, outreach, and evangelism. All key components to a healthy and vibrant Christian walk. I am very excited about this! And so are the initial 4 team members of the YSLT. The purpose of this group is to intensely disciple tomorrow’s leaders and develop their leadership capabilities so that they in turn can influence and disciple those in their circle of influence. There is a Biblical precedent for this model. Jesus had the 12 disciples that He influenced and served with on a regular basis, but He really poured into 3 of these, His inner circle, Peter, James, and John. Jesus wasn’t showing favoritism and there wasn’t anything about these men in the natural sense that made them standout, but they all possessed one particular spiritual characteristic - Devotion. It was evident in all three of their lives as was their passion and dedication to God’s service. In other words they had leadership qualities and were dedicated to following God’s plan for their lives. Jesus single-handedly changed the world, but the dividends of His investment in Peter, James, and John’s lives continues to this very day and will until the end of time. It was all about intense discipleship. Take note that it wasn’t a cushy life that these 3 undertook – far from it! It ultimately cost them everything. It cost Peter and James their very lives. John, who was the only disciple that died a natural death, lost his freedom and lived a life in exile on the Isle of Patmos. But before their deaths God was able to mightily use them for His glory, and they brought a tremendous amount of people to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ! Pray for the YSLT for God to develop them into well versed, biblically-centered disciples of Jesus that can and will make difference in this world for eternity! Grace & Peace, Pastor Doug
Winns has accepted the opportunity to host 40 women who are trying to better themselves and make a difference in their lives. We will need to provide meals starting with supper Saturday night April 27th through breakfast Saturday, morning, June 1st. We need people willing to spend the night to act as a liaison between CARITAS Ministry and the Church, "all are welcome to help in this wonderful mission in being the face of Jesus to those who are less fortunate."
Personal Items Needed (40 of each/trial size) Tooth Brushes Tooth Paste Shampoo Soap Feminine products
For more information please contact: Danny Worrell 804-241-2092 worreld@gmail.com
Lotion Deodorant Chap Stick Bottle water (need cases)
My Fellow Servants, Who did God use to lead you to Christ? A lot of us were trained from the very beginning by godly parents, providing fertile ground for the Holy Spirit to work in our lives. Some of us were influenced by a Sunday school teacher or a youth leader. Still others are grateful for the preaching of a pastor or the witness of a faithful family member. Has God used you to lead someone to Christ? There’s a lot more to witnessing than leading someone in the sinner’s prayer. God created us to be relational, and that’s exactly how we should approach evangelism. Of course there will be opportunities to witness to someone you have never met before and will probably never meet again (a person sitting next to you on the airplane, for example), but I have seen and experienced many instances of God using relationships to bring someone to faith in Christ. Our hearts should be heavy for the unsaved around us. We should fear for them because we know that eternity without God is Hell. Moreover, if we know the truth, we should be willing to make ourselves uncomfortable for the cause of Christ. There are some simple things you can do to put yourself in a position to build relationships with the lost. First, be intentional about building relationships with co-workers. Shortly after I was hired at the Sheriff’s Office, an older Christian officer found me and introduced himself. He had heard I was a Christian and he had come to share some strategy. He explained that other law enforcement officers were not going to be interested in anything I had to say about God until I had spent time building relationships with them. I took the advice to heart. I still used opportunities that God gave me to share my faith, but as the years progressed, I saw a change in my co-workers. After working with these guys for a couple years and building relationships with them, they started to come to me with all sorts of questions about my Christianity. When they knew I cared about them, they were willing to open up. Second, use what God has given you as a tool for building relationships. If you have a roof over your head, then you have an opportunity to share Christ through hospitality. Open up your house to a family for dinner one night, and use the opportunity to share your testimony. When I was at the Sheriff’s Office, I used to see a particular convenience store clerk several times a week as I made my rounds. Over time, God gave me opportunities to tell her about my church and family. Jenna and I decided the best way to get to know this family was to have them over for dinner one night. They came, and we had great conversation. Corey knew that the purpose of this dinner was for us to build relationships with them and tell them about God. He missed the discussion after dinner because he was playing with their child in the other room, so as they were leaving, he seized a last minute opportunity. He ran out in the driveway and hollered “God loves you!” as loud as he could. He didn’t want to miss the chance to tell our new friends about God. God continued to work in the woman’s life and she surrendered her life to Him. Folks, this is a question of life or death- for eternity. Will you get uncomfortable for the cause of Christ? Ask God to show you who He wants you to work on next. Ask for wisdom to see the many opportunities that He will put before you. Thank God for whomever He put in your life to draw you to His side. Be that person for someone else. Looking forward to the days ahead, Caleb Brauer
Stories behind the Hymns 1878 Are You Washed in the Blood? “To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood…to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Revelation1:5, 6
“As a preacher, Elisha Hoffman was of average ability, but as a minister who cared for the poor and downtrodden, he excelled. He also stands among the giants of the gospel song era, the author of such favorites as: “I Must Tell Jesus”, “Down at the Cross”, and “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”. Elisha was born on Mary 7, 1839, in Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania, and died ninety years later, in 1929, in Chicago. His parents, Rev. Francis A. and Rebecca Ann Hoffman, were devoted to Christ and devoted to a denomination called the Evangelical Association. They gave their son the middle name of Albright in honor of Jacob Albright, the denomination’s founder. Elisha attended public school in Philadelphia, then enrolled in Union Bible Seminary at New Berlin, Pennsylvania, planning to follow his father’s footsteps into the ministry. When the Civil War erupted, Elisha served with the 47th Pennsylvania Infantry Division. Near the war’s end, he married Susan Orwig, the daughter of one of the bishops of the Evangelical Association. The couple moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where Elisha was hired as the publishing agent for the Board of Publications of the Evangelical Association. He later pastored churches in Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan. In 1894, Elisha became the first music editor for the Hope Publishing Company of Chicago. He remained in that post until 1912. Through his years at Hope, he published fifty songbooks and hymnals and wrote the words or music to at least one thousand gospel and Sunday school songs. Some sources put the number at two thousand. “Are You Washed in the Blood?” first appeared in Spiritual Songs for Gospel Meetings and Sunday School, published in 1878. Three years later, it was included in Ira Sankey’s Sacred Songs and Solos, published in England. Elisha Hoffman is credited for popularizing the element of “altar” into hymnology of his day. Consider this well-known hymn that came from his pen: You have longed for sweet peace, And for faith to increase, And have earnestly, fervently prayed; But you cannot have rest, or be perfectly blest, Until all on the altar is laid. Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid? Your heart does the Spirit control? You can only be blest, and have peace and sweet rest, As you yield Him your body and soul.”
WOW!! To think, “Are You Washed in the Blood,” is just as powerful today as it was when it was written some one hundred and thirty five years ago; that’s amazing, that’s God!! What a message, what a writer and what a blessing! And what a privilege it is to lead and sing this wonderful hymn in our church today!! To think that He uses me!! Kathy
“WOW” (Winn’s on Wednesday’s) is coming soon!!! Starting Wednesday June 12, 2013
Do you have a hobby, gift, or talent you would like to share with kid’s grades 1st-7th? How about spending 1 HOUR AND 30 MINUTES for three consecutive Wednesday nights this summer in “WOW”? (THAT’S ONLY 4 HOURS AND 30 MINUTES FOR A 3 WEEK SESSION!) It can be anything – things like sports, art, music, cooking, crafting—kids love it all. Don’t miss this chance to have lots of fun sharing the gifts God has given you with the next generation. We will also have a class for two and three year olds, a class for four and five year olds and a class for children who have just completed kindergarten. We need teachers and assistants for each of these classes. If you cannot commit for the whole summer, please consider serving for a month. Nursery will be provided for children of teachers and for anyone that will be attending a Wednesday night class. This is a great opportunity for those who can’t serve during the school year to spend time with the kids and allow our school-year Preschool, Children’s and Student Ministry leaders a chance to take some adult classes. If you are willing to give of your time this summer to teach our little ones, please let us know as soon as possible. I know a lot of times we feel we need a break over the summer months, but we will not be able to offer these classes for our children if we do not have enough volunteers. Remember God NEVER takes a break over the summer months and we should not either. Please call Tatiana Buchanan at 955-0938 or e-mail tbuchanan@winnsbc.org if you are interested in helping with nursery – Kindergarten. For more information, or if you are interested in sharing a talent with students that have completed grades 1st-7th, call Dana Osborne at 347-5229 or e-mail dosborne@winnsbc.org Take the time to invest in a child’s future.
Easter Celebration 2013
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