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Let’s be good stewards in God’s house.
When you’re working in the church during the week, please remember if you turn the lights on, turn them off. If you turn the heat on, turn it off. This may sound a bit trivial, but every penny counts.

We will be closing our financial books for this year on Friday, December 30th. Any contributions for this year must be in the office by noon that day.

The church office will be closed on Monday, December 26th and Monday, January 2nd in observance of Christmas and New Years.

Summertime is Wonderful

by Pastor Rick Watson

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens. Ecclesiastes 3:1

We are so blessed to live in an area where there are four seasons! Nancy and I lived in Alaska for four years and in Alaska there are only two seasons: winter and summer. Spring-time in Alaska will last only a few days and fall is the same way. It is either cold or hot in Alaska and yes it does get hot (85 to 90 degrees)!

West Virginia has many wonderful attractions that we can enjoy during the summer months. The Beckley area is famous for its Rhododendron Festival. My only regret is that this plants’ bloom is gone so soon! Did you know that this bouquet of beauty symbolizes beauty and energy? And it can also symbolize love and positivity?

As wonderful as summer is, as a pastor I have also learned to dread summer. You may ask why?

Even though I love the spring flowers, green grass and the warmth of the season. Even though I truly love Vacation Bible School, hearing the children talk and sing in the church, what I have come to dread is the summer time attendance at church!

A few weeks ago in Sunday morning worship I mentioned that June should be the month of commitment. Committed to serve, to give and to attend all church activities. What June has become is the month where everyone plans their vacation to the beach! I love vacation time just as you do but I also love the church and worshipping God and I know you do too! So what I am asking is when you are in town be sure and be in church. We miss you when you are gone.

I mentioned that the blooms on the rhododendron symbolize beauty and energy, also love and positivity. When people are looking for a church to attend, often times they look for the church with a “full parking lot” on Sundays. The assumption is that this is a good church, one you would want to be a part of. Conversely, an empty lot speaks volumes as well!

Help us fill the parking lot this summer revealing the beauty-energy-love and positivity of Christ and this church. We need you to be an active participant and attender at Beckley First Baptist Church.

Ecclesiastes 3:9-12 says “9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.”

Come and be blessed and then be a blessing to someone! My favorite song “I’m so glad I’m a part of the family of God.” What about you?

Hope to see you this Sunday with a smile on your face and a song in your heart.

Pastor Rick

Pulpit Committee Update

As Pastor Sisson shared with us in March, this is a process that we have to be patient with and wait for the right person that God has picked to be our next pastor. We ask for your patience and prayers as we move through this process.

Wednesdays Starting in March

WEDNESDAY NIGHT BIBLE STUDY is resuming on Wednesday, March 2nd at 6:00 p.m. in Fellowship Hall. Pastor Rick is anxiously going to be sharing with us what God has put in his heart to say to us. Please make a point to be here on Wednesday evenings.

CHOIR REHARSAL will be following Bible Study at 7:00 p.m. in the Choir Room. The Bible says to make a joyful noise – it doesn’t have to be pretty – just joyful. We hope to see many of our former members as well as some new faces.

BUSINESS MEETING – We will be resuming our monthly church business meetings on March 16th at 6:00 p.m. We need 35 people to make a quorum. We need your input as to several important items that need to be discussed. Come and be a part of what’s going on.

Lots of Great Christmas Gifts – Thank You!

Christmas has come and gone but I am sure our Backpack Children received lots of great Christmas gifts. We shopped foChristmas has come and gone but I am sure our Backpack Children received lots of great Christmas gifts. We shopped for 24 children this year and purchased clothing and toys for each one. I want to thank everyone who shopped for our children: Linda Ramsey, Jane Smith, Mary Gregory, Tracy Salango, Verna Andrews, Sharon Volpe, Debbie Vanaman, Connie Neil, Nancy Hall, Katie Cook and Jennifer Stump. You all did an awesome job! Thanks to everyone who has donated food, cash or prayed for our Backpack Children. May God bless each of you.

For the month of January please donate cans of pork and beans.

Summer is Coming

by Rev Tim Mitchem

We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps. Proverbs 16:9 (NLT)

May brings flowers, graduations, promotions, pools opening and the beginning of SUMMER. It has been a crazy winter, and a wet spring so far. But with students graduating and being promoted and knowing I was going to write an article, I found myself praying this proverb. We can make our plans, what college we plan on going to, what next year’s school is going to be like. What we want to do over summer break, who we want to hang out with and the list goes on and on.

We are good at making plans, and even good at breaking plans. But we are reminded that it is the LORD who determines our steps. We can make all the plans in the world and they can be changed in just a second. Sometimes we begin making plans in our own way of thinking. I remember being a teen and making plans to be wealthy and own businesses and having everything I thought I wanted in my future. But God has a way of ordering our steps in ways we are not thinking.

Students, be praying about what you desire and ask God to show you the plans He has made for you. Jeremiah 29:11 says he has made plans for your future, Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. God has a special plan for each of you, I hope as we go into the summer months of 4th floor Worship and bible study we can begin that focus; What’s God got planned?

Summer is coming, and I hope to have a planning meeting for all the fun we are going to have, kicking off summer with a Lock-in, fun times together and a trip to Carowinds!!! Plus an awesome week at Camp Cowen, Where we will learn how to Live Loved!!! We are just getting started on our journey together, so don’t miss an opportunity!!!!

Young People: Handle with Care

by Rev Robert A Wendel

“Children are an inheritance from
the Lord. Train up a child in the way he
should go. A Child is known by
his doings” (Psalm 127:3; Proverbs 22:6, Proverbs 20:11 (Geneva Bible)

“Children and young people are the future of our Church.” Senior members around churches have whispered that truism many times knowing: 1) Youth require their own separate ministry; 2) Kids live a kinetic, up-beat pace; 3) For them, traditions only matter at Christmas and Easter; 4) Newbies appreciate church time as time to be with classmates and friends; 5) Still, the continuation of any congregation is on the shoulders of today’s up-and-coming folks. Handle with care.

Most worshipping fellowships divide themselves in three generational groups: Cradle roll (Infants and pre-public school youngsters); Public school young people and adults. Out of his love and mercy, God wants all his children to be happy, however they define it, under the Law of Moses (Deuteronomy 6:24-25).

Once and for all, we must put out of our minds that the purpose of life is to enjoy ourselves, to be happy, to have a good time, to make money and to live worry free in ease and comfort. Real Christians are to attempt to live their lives in service to others laying aside their own desires.

In both Jewish and Christian theology, the much desired birth of a son or daughter is a heritage or reward thought of as a gift from God. Folly is bound up in a child’s heart. The righteous follow a clear path in life. The Lord delivers them from trouble. Wisdom is gained through discipline. (Proverbs 4:3-5).

R. Benjamin Garrison said “If God has made an impact on us, it will be evident in the children we raise, the ideas we share, the money we earn and spend, in the church we love, the nation we build and protect and in the souls that kneel before Him, each one of us, sometime, caught in the living net of the gospel.”

Things You Might Not Know About Beckley First Baptist

We have a very active prayer chain ministry. Call the church office at 304-253-4252 if you have a prayer concern or if you wish to be added as a prayer warrior to one of our three prayer chains.
We have a birthday list and birthdays are listed every month here in the BEAM as well as receiving a birthday card from Pastor Doc. If you would like your name added, please contact the church office.
We have a mass email messaging system for cancellations or other important events as well as reminders of board and committee meetings. If you would like to be included, drop an email to the church at [email protected] with your name and email address and we will be glad to add you to the list.
If for any reason church services are cancelled, it will be shown on WVVA TV’s closing announcement that usually scroll at the bottom of the TV screen.
We also collect used printer ink cartridges to be recycled at Staples. We receive $2.00 for each cartridge and this helps in purchasing office supplies. They can be left in the church office on the long counter.

Helping Hands Needs You

We continue to need toilet paper, bar soap and winter clothing. Donations can be either delivered to Helping Hands Tuesday through Friday from 9:00 until noon or left in the large black container outside the church office. We are still in need of volunteers to help out. See Edna Nasby if you can donate even a few hours a week.

As always, please keep us in your prayers as we continue to minister to the less fortunate in Raleigh County.