Dear Church Family,
We have gotten off to a great fall season. We are so blessed as we watch children making decisions for Christ, families that are uniting with our church, and folks that are being baptized. I’m also thankful for the huge numbers of college students that have visited with us in their first few weeks of school at the University of Florida and Santa Fe College. Our college ministry continues to have outreach events for college students. Lunch will be provided for them this coming Sunday. I’m so excited about what Jesus Christ is doing in so many hearts and lives through our church.
November 16 is a date you need to mark on your calendar! Do not miss our 90th anniversary celebration! Think of it, for 9 decades our church has had a gospel ministry in this city that has touched our state, our country, and the world. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, “I will build My church.” What a theme for our celebration! We will celebrate this event in a morning worship service that will begin at 10:00 AM and will conclude with a lunch provided for every person in attendance. All of our people need to register for this event with the link provided in this email. You can also register on our church website. We’re registering every person in order to know our number to prepare for the meal. We’re asking all of our folks to register by November 1. When you register, you can give us the names of your family and friends who will be attending with you.
We would love to know what North Central means to you! Would you answer the following questions and send your response in to our special 90th anniversary e-mail address, which is 90@gatorchurch.com. Answer these questions for us: 1) What does North Central Baptist Church mean to you? 2) What specific memories do you have of the impact that our church has made upon your life and your family? Email those memories to 90@gatorchurch.com.
We are also interested in some pictures that you may be able to share to help us for the celebration. These pictures can also be received on our special 90th anniversary e-mail address and must be in digital format. If you have pictures in a drawer or pictures that are framed, would you scan them or have them scanned and sent to our e-mail address? This will enable us to organize these images to be used as a part of our celebration.
One more thing. Some of you may have historical memorabilia from our church. You can bring these items to our church office. Make sure and label this special memorabilia with your name, phone number, and address. We want to make sure and get everything back to the right people. I’ll give you an example. In my office I have my ordination certificate that was given to me in 1985! You’ll recognize some signatures on that ordination certificate. There may be other things of interest that you have that we could display on our special day. Would you loan those to the church with an explanation so that we might display them properly for all of our people to enjoy? All of this will help us provide the greatest celebration in our church’s history, 9 decades of gospel ministry!
Singer-songwriter and author Andrew Peterson will be with us on Friday night, September 19. You can buy tickets for this special concert on our website. Andrew Peterson has won 8 Dove Awards. He’s written 10 books and is an amazing musician. We have sold nearly 400 tickets to this event, but we are looking to packing it out at 600. We can seat 600 comfortably in our auditorium and we know this event is going to be fantastic. There are actually some special tickets that are available for those who come early and want to spend some special time with our artist. Please get your tickets for Andrew Peterson. You will not be disappointed.
Our men’s and ladies’ groups are busy this fall. Our men have a men’s breakfast the last Saturday of every month so we look forward to this event on Saturday, September 27, from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM. Our ladies have a special fall fellowship scheduled for Friday night, October 3 at 6:00 PM. Other details are found in this copy of the lifeline.
Our men are also preparing for the Men’s Fish Fry on October 17 where our friend Tim Conner from the Lake Charles, LA area will be here to speak. Ray and Betty Connor and their children were a part of the North Central family many years ago and impacted the life of our church in such a positive way. Their family moved back home to Lake Charles many years ago and have served the Lord there. Tim is an avid hunter and fisherman walks with the Lord. You don’t want to miss this night. You can register on the link provided in this e-mail. We also have some invitations that you can obtain to invite your friends. The cost is only $5 for the meal. We’re praying that God would give us 200 men that would come to this event. It will be a great outreach to some men that you are trying to reach for Christ. Men, bring your sons and friends with you to hear Tim and to enjoy a great fish fry!
Our Wednesday nights are back! We’re having a great attendance with all of our children’s ministry, youth program, and other events that are taking place. I’m also thankful for our study in Second Corinthians, God’s Grace in the Church on Sunday mornings. We’re learning all types of principles related to the local body of believers and how it impacts our North Central family. God has been so good to us.
What a joy it is to be your pastor. I’m so thankful for our staff team and all who minister as leaders in the life of our fellowship. May the Lord continue to bless this precious fellowship of believers.
Love in Jesus,
Pastor Calvin