Dear Church Family,
Happy New Year! What a wonderful 2024 we had, and now we look forward to the 2025 year. We’re praying for our greatest evangelistic impact ever in the life of our church for 2025.
I’m beginning a new Bible study on Sunday mornings starting January 5 on the book of 2 Corinthians. Several years back we did a series on 1 Corinthians which really emphasizes the core values of a church. This series on 2 Corinthians is entitled “God’s Grace in the Church”. It coincides wonderfully with our 90th anniversary year that we will celebrate in the fall of 2025. It was in the fall of 1935 that our church had its birth. As we think about the grace of God in the life of our church, we will study in 2 Corinthians how God used His truth in the church at Corinth. This will prove to be a great series for us at this time in our lives. We have had a tremendous year in giving. Even though we paid for a $1 million plus expansion we also gave more than we’ve ever given at North Central to the budget during my pastorate here for the last 17 years. I’m so thankful for the faithfulness of God’s people in giving. Our growth has been steady. Spiritual victories have been made as people have been saved and baptized. We have had a tremendous year in all of these areas. We’re so thankful.
We begin our Wednesday nights back on January 8. Let me encourage each of you to be a part of our Wednesday night ministry. We are always in need of workers for our AWANA program and our Youth Ministry. Please let us know where you may be able to serve. We begin with a Bible study at 4:00 PM for those who can make. It’s a great time of fellowship and worship. Then at 5:00 we have a wonderful meal that is $6 per person (first time guests are free). Following dinner we have AWANA, youth ministry activities, and other meetings that take place at 6:00 PM. It’s just a great midweek encouragement time for our people.
Seven of us will be going to Cuba January 18 – 25. Please be in prayer for our team as we go to Punta Brava Baptist Church right outside of Havana. We’ll be conducting Vacation Bible School for children, doing Bible studies with adults, and doing evangelism as we reach out to that community. Also, if you can help us, we are collecting $3000 towards building materials. These funds will all be spent on materials that will be used in a construction project. We are putting the roof on a building that we’ve been working on now for about 3 or 4 years. You can write a check to the church and just put Cuba Construction in the memo, and we’ll make sure it gets to that project.
Our Men’s Breakfast is Saturday morning, January 25 at 8:00 AM. We begin promptly at 8:00 and we’ll be dismissing at 9:00. There’s no charge for this breakfast, but there is a place if you would like to give to offset the expenses. A full
breakfast will be served.
We will have a Business Conference on January 26 to report on the fourth quarter of our financial year ending in December 2024.
Evangelism training will take place on Sunday night, February 2 from 5:00 to 6:30 PM in the main auditorium. We are encouraging every member of our fellowship who wants to learn how to share their faith to be a part of this training. We will also be doing an outreach at Santa Fe Oaks Apartments on Saturday morning, February 8 from 11:00 to 1:00 PM in order to give us opportunities to reach out to that community and share the gospel with people individually. This is one of many efforts this year to equip our people in evangelism. Many of you would love to know how to share your faith. We will have all the tips and encouragement and helps that we know to give you in this one-time training course that will take place on February 2.
There are two other dates I want all of our teenagers and their families to mark down. February 14 – 16 is our DNOW weekend. What an amazing weekend this is for our middle and high school young people. Please get your students
signed up. Youth Camp is scheduled for July 14 – 18 at beautiful Ridgecrest, NC. We are in for an exciting change this year as we take our young people to the beautiful Smoky Mountains for their summer camp. We have already enlisted a motor coach and other transportation that will take our students to Black Mountain, NC for a camp of a lifetime. It’s important to get your students registered. There is a deadline of February 1 to get your student locked into this camp. It will be a tremendously awesome week that your student will not want to miss! Your deposit can secure their spot on this amazing trip. Get registered today!
What a what a pleasure and blessing it is to be your Pastor. We have had so many milestones take place in 2024 and look forward to some great things for 2025. I’m so thankful for the continued witness of this precious fellowship of believers we call North Central Baptist Church.
God bless you!
Pastor Calvin