I’m interested to know your thoughts on baptism.

This weekend, one of the things we’ll be focusing on at Fellowship Church is baptism.  If you know someone who is thinking about who God is or who has just started reaching out to Him, this will be an incredible message for them to hear.  For those of you who are already full engrossed in all things baptism , then it will be a good reminder of that time that you took a step to publicly identify yourself with Christ.

But we will also be focusing on something new – a new way that Fellowship Church uses technology to fulfill our mission of leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.

Also, I’ll be sharing with the church about our upcoming new series we’ll be starting in June.

Have a fantastic memorial Day weekend, and with all the parties you’ve been invited to, don’t forget to join your Fellowship Church family this Sunday morning.

“To reach who no one else is reaching, we have to do what no one else is doing”

p.s.  I had this fantastic story to share with you in this post, but after I finished, for some reason it didn’t save,and I lost most of my work.  So, either because I was too lazy to type it again or because I felt that probably I wasn’t supposed to share it, It remains in my head.

So, assistant to the pastor Darren just came into my office, and he said he had an idea.  He is starting a project where he is painting some walls and so he needed some painting equipment.  Now in the back hall of our church, there is one of those dark rooms where paint cans from 1978 still hang out and equipment from past painting ventures, but right now, there are several boxes in front of that door.

So Darren comes to me and tell me his idea – He feels like I should give him the church debit card, let him go to Nal’s Paint Center, and buy new equipment.  I said, “Is there any equipment we could use in the back room?”  He says,”I don’t know, there are boxes in the way.”  I reply, “So you want to leave the property, drive to get paint about 7 minutes away, spend money on things we might have here already, and come back, just so you won’t have to move boxes?”

“But there are several boxes in front of the door, Marty.”

Which would you choose?

Yes, it’s that time of year again.  My wife tells me that her students are getting spring fever already, and I can feel the college students in our church getting busier, more studious, and ready to go home for the summer.

Here in Massachusetts today it’s even going to be a sunny 72 degrees.  A true sign of change.

For churches everywhere it’s time for vacations and here especially it’s time for hanging out at places called “the Cape” and Old Orchard Beach.  And time for church to be expendable.  Every year since I’ve been at Fellowship Church here in Central Mass, I’ve realized this great phenomonon where everyone goes on vacation (not a bad thing, a good thing) and also takes vacation off from church too.

The course, The ocean, the lake, the fair, the Big E, the sales, the sun, and the bed are all things that compete with church each Sunday morning during the days of summer.  And rightfully so.  I believe all these things are a blast, and at times, some of these things demand my attention as well.  So because I go on vacation and because I like all these things, I’m going to refrain from giving you (who attend church) and those who attend Fellowship Church a manipulated guilt trip for missing out this summer.

I’m going to try this another way.

Sometime late last year, I had dinner with this guy, who told me that their church grew last summer, which stoked a fire under me that I cannot recover from.   I then went to my lead team at Fellowship and challenged them to make this summer the best summer ever at FC, and that this would be the first summer ever where we would grow in attendance as a church, and to do that, we will have to compete with the aforementioned activities to do on any given Sunday morning.

So this summer for those of you who attend Fellowship, I cannot promise you a round of golf, but I can say this as the weather becomes beautiful here in New England:  That you and your friends and all of us who  attend Summer Sunday Mornings @ Fellowship, will be led into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ in a relevant and an exciting way.  Of course whenever we grow in Christ it’s exciting, but I’m looking forward to seeing what God has in store for us as we come together as a church and allow meeting together (Hebrews 10:24,25) to be our favorite activity this summer!

Here are some highlights of the summer so far:
May -  New Series:  Family Matters
A month long Steve Erkyl dress-up contest (I’ll explain later)
May 11 – Mother’s Day
( I know this isn’t the summer yet, but that’s okay, it’s still all about moms!)
June 1st - Baptisms @ Fellowship
June 8th – New Series:  One Prayer
This is going to be an incredible series, and something that we’ve never done before.
July 6th – Outdoor worship service & Picnic
New series:  Nature Lover
August – New series:  An apple a day
August 31st – Baby Dedications

By the way, this weekend @ Fellowship, Al, our Sunday Morning Programming Director, has thought of something so creative, that it blew my mind!

Can you write something right now that blows my mind?