I want to encourage every person who’s a part of our fellowship to get plugged into a Life Group. I am particularly excited because our adult Life Groups are all going to be teaching the same material in the month of March. I have asked our leaders to teach The Five Assurances. These are: The assurance of 1) salvation 2) answered prayer 3) victory 4) forgiveness and 5) guidance. By having these assurances nailed down from God’s Word, think of the victory that each of us can experience knowing that God has made us promises in each of these five areas. This is the material that we like to use when someone comes to know Christ as their Lord and Savior. I would like all of our adults equipped in this material, not only for their own benefit, but for the possibility of them helping a new believer understand what it means to be in Christ. Please, if you are one of our members or an attender receiving this Lifeline, get plugged into a Life Group in order to be a part of this exciting study from God’s Word, beginning the first Sunday in March.
I’m excited about us studying, “What We Believe” as our Sunday morning sermon series. We take this material from the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, which is the statement of faith for all Southern Baptists. It covers a broad variety of doctrinal positions on things that are important to any Bible believing church. I’m thrilled we’re studying it altogether. It gives us a unity about our fellowship that is very important. Don’t miss these messages. If you happen to miss one, you can always find it on our website.
We will be baptizing next Sunday, February 8 and also on March 15. If you would like to be baptized and follow Jesus in obedience, making a profession of faith in Christ, please call the church office or speak to one of our staff about getting on the baptismal list. We are so thrilled to be stirring the waters of baptism!
Do you want to be a witness for Christ? The Bible teaches that every believer is to be a witness for Jesus. But how do you do it? It’s not always the easiest assignment that we’ve been given, and yet every Christian wants to be a positive witness for Christ. I want to invite you to be a part of our Evangelism Training scheduled for February 22 at 5:00 PM. We will be feeding you a pizza on this night and are looking forward to studying this amazing and wonderful topic of sharing our faith. This time we will be studying the topic of how to make a Gospel Appointment. These are little tools that will help you in sharing Jesus Christ with others. For so long we have had long term evangelism training courses. This is a wonderful way to do it. But one thing that we’ve discovered is that a little training goes a long way. Even if we cannot commit to long term evangelism training, it’s my prayer that every member go through this training at least once per year.
Our men will be having another wonderful Men’s Breakfast on Saturday, February 28 at 8:00 AM. I want all of our men to be a part of this. There’s huge momentum amongst our men to be a part of the Men’s Ministry of our church. God is moving in our men!
Our ladies have a special luncheon on Saturday, February 21 at noon. I hope you are planning to be a part of this! We have the sweetest fellowship amongst our ladies. These ladies love each other, they love Jesus, and they love new ladies that come our way, including those that need Christ. What a great event to bring someone to that needs to hear the gospel and get to know other Christian ladies. I encourage you to be a part of this special event for all of our ladies.
Our Wednesday nights are over the top! Recently, as I led in prayer for the dinner, there was hardly a seat around the tables at Family Supper. Our 4:00 Bible Study is packed almost every week. We sing the great hymns of the faith and are currently studying the Book of Philippians. 6:00 Awana is setting new records as well as our youth program. Every nook and cranny is filled with children, young people and adults growing in their relationship with Jesus and with each other. Come be a part of our Wednesday night activities.
Deacon nominations are being taken right now for new men to become Deacons in our church. We believe that a Deacon is called by God. We don’t just ask people to be deacons, but we ask them to pray about it and to see if God is calling them to be a part of the Deacon ministry. I have never known a finer group of men than our deacons at North Central. We need more of our men to step up to become a part of this. This is an important office in the local New Testament church. They lighten the load of their Pastor and the staff as they minister to the families of our church. I appreciate these men so much who are called of God to love God’s people. If you have someone that you would like to nominate, please let our Deacon Chairman, John Roberts, Pastor Calvin or some other Deacon know who you are interested in nominating. Our deacons handle the process, and if we have those that we want to recommend, we bring them back to the church for a vote to recommend them and ordain them to be Deacons. We have a document that is by the exit doors of our church that relates to the qualifications of deacons at North Central Baptist Church. Please obtain one of these, read over it, and pray about who you would recommend to be a Deacon in our fellowship.
A college ministry organization called “The Mount” is hosting a concert here on Monday night, February 2 at 7:15 PM. The doors open at 6:30. The Mount ministers to incoming freshmen to the University of Florida and Santa Fe College through a retreat. This retreat that takes place in August of every year identifies new freshmen and gives them an opportunity to meet Christian ministries at UF and Santa Fe, including our church’s college ministry. We are thankful that we can help host this event for this group. Please pray that God would use it in a special way.
What a joy it is to be your Pastor. I am so thankful for the recent financial report that was given to the church family covering our 2025 giving and expenses. You have given, and we have left over almost all the money that we need to pay for our new air conditioning system. Please pray that this gets done in short order. More important than anything we do financially is the spiritual work that God is doing through lives. I’m so thankful for the baptismal waters being stirred, people giving their life to Jesus, young people encouraged and challenged, our children learning the principles of God’s Word. There’s nothing more exciting than families learning about Jesus Christ and living for Him.
What a joy!
Sincerely,
Pastor Calvin