Category: A Word From… Forerunner Front Page News

Preparing for the Holidays

Holiday season is officially upon us. As I write this article, home cooks are dusting off their Thanksgiving recipes, providing those well-worn pages with their annual dose of sunlight. Christmas decorations—and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You”—fill every store I enter. Holiday-themed ads play during football games, soliciting way more emotion than a 30-second advertisement should. Love it or hate it, holiday season has arrived.

I personally love it. Many of you do too. For us, the holiday season represents family, traditions, and happy childhood memories (in addition to the powerful, gospel-centered celebration of the birth of Christ at Christmas). Due to these warm connotations, the holidays are a wonderful time that we are awaiting with eagerness and anticipation.

But that isn’t true for everybody. For some people, the holiday season reinforces their feeling of loneliness. It brings up fresh feelings of sorrow, as they remember loved ones they have lost. The consumer-driven nature of the holidays places expectations on people to buy and spend, which can leave some families feeling anxious about their bank accounts or guilty about their inability to give nice gifts to their children. For some children, the holidays represent a break from school—which means more time at a home that isn’t safe, with a family they can’t stand. In short, there are people in our community—even people in our church—who are not looking forward to the holidays.

That’s where the body of Christ needs to step in. If you are staying in town for Thanksgiving or Christmas, consider inviting additional church members to join your festivities—particularly church members who are going to be alone on Thanksgiving or Christmas. Consider providing gifts to families in need through Angel Tree. Rather than assuming the people around you are excited for the holidays, go out of your way to give them a reason to celebrate.

We serve a God who met us where we were—in our sin, our shame, our brokenness. Let’s be a church that follows Christ’s lead, meeting people where they are, and encouraging them with the hope of the gospel—in word and deed. May Christ be magnified in us this holiday season.

In Christ,

Britton

Preparing for the Holidays

Holiday season is officially upon us. As I write this article, home cooks are dusting off their Thanksgiving recipes, providing those well-worn pages with their annual dose of sunlight. Christmas decorations—and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You”—fill every store I enter. Holiday-themed ads play during football games, soliciting way more emotion than a 30-second advertisement should. Love it or hate it, holiday season has arrived.

I personally love it. Many of you do too. For us, the holiday season represents family, traditions, and happy childhood memories (in addition to the powerful, gospel-centered celebration of the birth of Christ at Christmas). Due to these warm connotations, the holidays are a wonderful time that we are awaiting with eagerness and anticipation.

But that isn’t true for everybody. For some people, the holiday season reinforces their feeling of loneliness. It brings up fresh feelings of sorrow, as they remember loved ones they have lost. The consumer-driven nature of the holidays places expectations on people to buy and spend, which can leave some families feeling anxious about their bank accounts or guilty about their inability to give nice gifts to their children. For some children, the holidays represent a break from school—which means more time at a home that isn’t safe, with a family they can’t stand. In short, there are people in our community—even people in our church—who are not looking forward to the holidays.

That’s where the body of Christ needs to step in. If you are staying in town for Thanksgiving or Christmas, consider inviting additional church members to join your festivities—particularly church members who are going to be alone on Thanksgiving or Christmas. Consider providing gifts to families in need through Angel Tree. Rather than assuming the people around you are excited for the holidays, go out of your way to give them a reason to celebrate.

We serve a God who met us where we were—in our sin, our shame, our brokenness. Let’s be a church that follows Christ’s lead, meeting people where they are, and encouraging them with the hope of the gospel—in word and deed. May Christ be magnified in us this holiday season.

In Christ,

Britton

Vision Process Update

Our strategic planning committee and our staff remain hard at work to discern our church’s vision from God. Both groups have analyzed our community, evaluated our church, dreamed up a “church plant” that would impact our community, and constructed drafts of our mission statement and values. I am so excited to see our progress, and I am looking forward to sharing the final product with you in a few months.

Throughout the process, the strategic planning committee and the staff have remained separate to allow for open and honest conversations about our church.  This separation could have resulted in the disastrous outcome of two very different visions for the future of our church. However, we decided to trust the Lord to give each group his vision for our church.

The Greek Septuagint, an ancient translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek, derives its name from the story regarding its origin. According to tradition, around 250 BC, a king selected seventy-two Hebrew translators to create a Greek translation of the Old Testament. The seventy-two translators then departed and each independently translated the Old Testament into Greek. When they came back together, they found that all of their translations were exact matches—a miracle that proved God’s hand in the translation.

Several details make that account unlikely, so the story is probably an empty myth. However, Fee Fee Baptist Church is experiencing a version of our own Septuagint story that displays God’s power and provision for our church. Both the strategic planning committee and the staff— independently — have put together nearly identical visions for the church so far. The elements of the mission statement and the values are identical. The plan for discipleship in our church and the plan to reach our community are identical. In short, God is clearly directing these two groups to his vision for our church. And if God is the one setting the vision for our church, I’m excited to see how he will empower us to make that vision a reality.

In Christ,

Britton

You Are Gifted

Most school districts have some version of a “gifted and talented” program. Children who exhibit intellectual abilities beyond those of the average student in their grade are labeled “gifted” and placed in more academically rigorous courses. The rest of the kids are given fun labels like “normal” or “not special” and placed in classes taught by coaches. Some of you were placed in advanced courses as a child, and you have lived your entire life with the label “gifted” proudly hanging over your head. Others of you were not placed in that program, and maybe you have lived your entire life believing you aren’t that special—that you aren’t gifted.

Regardless of the labels our educational system has given you, I want to share a word from Scripture with you: If you are in Christ, you are gifted.

1 Corinthians 12:7 teaches that every Christian has received a manifestation of the Holy Spirit for the benefit of the body of believers. In other words, each of you has a spiritual gift—a God-given talent and ability to advance the cause of Christ. You have the ability to grow us in our devotion to Christ, our organization in service to him, our understanding of God’s will for us, our service to each other and to the world, and/or our ability to reach the lost with the gospel. You’re gifted—and our church needs your gift.

For some of you, your gifts fit neatly into an established ministry of our church. You can teach children or youth. You can be a warm and welcoming presence for guests on a Sunday morning. You can cook meals for funerals, homebound church members, or special occasions. You can sing, play an instrument, or run a sound board on Sunday mornings. You can teach English to community members who want to learn the language. I would highly encourage each of you to look at the opportunities for service that our church provides and see if your gifts align with any of those ministries.

For others of you, your gifts do not neatly align with any established ministry. God has given you a talent and a passion for something else entirely. In your case, I would encourage you to pursue that ministry to the best of your ability. Don’t wait for the church to set it up; take the ministry and run with it.

In either case, know that you are gifted. We need you. Let’s see what the Holy Spirit can do in our church through you.

In Christ,

Britton

Overcomplicating Evangelism

“I want to share with you the story that changed my life.” A teenager from the Maasai tribe in Kenya stared intently at his friend, hoping his friend would accept the invitation. He repeated, “I have a story I want to share with you.”

For the next ten minutes, this Maasai teenager shared the gospel with his friend, after which his friend also proclaimed faith in Jesus. I stood next to the two, celebrating the moment with them. I went to Kenya to share the gospel, but in that moment, I found myself watching life transformation take place in a language I do not speak among people I’d never met—and I just stood back and praised God for the encounter.

One of the most incredible parts of that story is what took place twenty minutes before it. I was walking on a trail with my translator, when I ran into a Maasai teenager. He was sitting on a boulder, eating fruit, his schedule apparently open for the afternoon, so I stopped to share the gospel with him. He placed his faith in Jesus and became so excited that he asked us to follow him to his friend’s house. Twenty minutes later, I was standing by a mud hut, watching this new believer lead his friend to Christ.

The kid had no seminary training. He had never done Evangelism Explosion. If you would’ve asked him to weigh in on the debate between Calvinism and Arminianism, he would’ve provided no meaningful insights. By all accounts, he was hopelessly ill-equipped for evangelism. Yet there we stood, celebrating with the angels in heaven as a new believer led his friend to the Lord.

Here’s the moral of the story: God can use you to lead people to Christ. If you’ve been saved by the gospel, then you can share the gospel. We should all grow in our understanding of the faith and in our ability to share it, but if you know enough of the gospel to believe it, then you know enough of the gospel to share it.

What would our community look like if we all decided to follow the lead of my teenage Maasai friend? How different would our neighborhoods look if we stepped out in boldness and shared the story that changed our lives? How would our schools and jobs be affected if we spread the hope of the gospel with the people around us? I hope we find out.

In Christ,

Britton

Watching God Work

Philip sat in the scorching desert heat just south of Jerusalem, waiting to see why God led him there. An angel of the Lord told him to follow the road south, and he obliged. But now that the blazing sun bore down upon his head and nobody appeared on the roadside, he was beginning to wonder why the Lord sent him out to that dusty highway.

Just then, Philip noticed a cloud of dust growing in the distance. Soon, an Ethiopian eunuch traveling home in a royal chariot emerged in the sweltering heat. As Philp approached the chariot, he noticed that the eunuch was reading from the book of Isaiah. Philip used the opportunity to share the gospel with the eunuch, who placed his faith in Jesus and was baptized that day. Afterward, the eunuch returned to Ethiopia, and God moved Philip to another town.

On the surface, God’s plan made little sense to Philip. God didn’t have Philip preach a sermon on the busiest street corner in Jerusalem; he had Philip travel to a desert road. He didn’t have Philip knock on doors and seek out the lost; he simply put Philip in the path of a lost man. If Philip was going to put together a list of things he could do to grow the early church, standing on a dusty roadside in the middle of the desert surely wouldn’t be on that list.

Here’s the incredible truth: God is perfectly willing to work through us to accomplish his will of magnifying Christ, but he doesn’t need us to do all the planning and the heavy lifting. He just needs us to surrender to him and allow him to guide us.

Last week, I went on a mission trip to Armenia, Colombia. Throughout the week, I saw God do incredible things—working in the hearts and minds of the people we spoke with before we ever met them, preparing the soil for the presentation of the gospel. Then I arrived home and encountered the same thing in our church. I have seen God moving at Fee Fee in ways that can only be described as answers to prayer. As a church, we are seeing people coming to know Christ, getting baptized (soon), joining in membership, stepping up to serve, and responding in a variety of other ways to God’s Spirit—and there isn’t one person in the church who can claim credit for the wonderful things that are happening.

God is at work. Let’s continue surrendering to him.

In Christ,

Britton

Building on the Foundation

I know nothing about construction. If you’re building a house and coming to me for advice, something has gone terribly wrong.

However, even with my limited knowledge regarding construction, I have learned one essential truth about buildings: the foundation matters. The quality of the construction is heavily dependent upon the sturdiness of the foundation. If I ask you for information about your home’s foundation and you respond with, “We skipped that step,” then don’t be surprised when I decline every future dinner invitation. A flimsy foundation renders a building uninhabitable, and we should not be surprised when the structure crumbles to the ground.

Similarly, a church that does not take the time to center its entire operation on a firm foundation is destined to fail. We can enlarge the building, expand the programs, and engage the masses, but if we organize our church on shaky ground, then the entire edifice will collapse.

Many foundations seem stable. We can build our church on the foundation of relevance. We can organize ourselves to be as culturally engaging as possible. But when the winds of culture change and society rejects the core tenets of our faith, we will have to choose between the gospel and our relevancy. If we choose to abandon the gospel and remain firmly planted on the foundation of relevance, then we will be left with a popular but powerless church.

We can build our church on the foundation of social progress. We can strive to meet the needs of the people around us and to create a more just society for our neighbors. But when we maximize our efforts to help the poor, the oppressed, and the hurting, we could actually achieve every goal we set—and the people around us would still be lost and without hope.

We can build our church on the foundation of tradition. We can attach ourselves to the past, clinging to “the way we used to do things.” But when the decades pass and the community changes, we could find ourselves as members of a dying church with a glorious past and a non-existent future.

Rather than building our church on these flimsy foundations, Ephesians teaches us that the church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone” (Eph 2:20). We must build our church on the Word of God, centered ultimately around the good news of salvation in Jesus. Our only hope to thrive as a body of believers is to be a church in which Christ remains at the core of all we do and our thoughts and actions are filtered through the lens of Scripture. That is a foundation upon which we can confidently build.

In Christ,

Britton

A Thriving Church Is a Praying Church

I was desperate. Over a year into my ministry at Freedom Fellowship, we were dealing with several conflicts that threatened to harm the church. Growth stalled. The energy and excitement that characterized the early months had worn off. We had gone weeks without a visitor. It felt as though the church was stuck in mud, unable to find traction no matter how hard we tried. In that moment of desperation, left with no other options, I prayed.

I’m ashamed to say that my prayer life stalled in the months leading up to that moment. As a church, we were clarifying our strategies, streamlining our ministries, mobilizing our members for evangelism—the organizational aspects of the church were the strongest they had ever been. But we weren’t praying.

We prayed all the time as a church. We prayed in our small groups. We prayed on Sunday mornings. We prayed for sick dogs and hurt knees and bedridden relatives. We prayed for safe travels and mourning friends. Our prayer lists remained filled. But our prayers remained strictly personal. We sought God’s providence at the doctor’s office, but we operated the church as if our methods and strategies alone could reach the lost and make the church healthier.

Throughout the book of Acts, we see people of faith operating through prayer. They gathered together for prayer while awaiting the Holy Spirit (Acts 1). They devoted themselves to prayer shortly after Pentecost (Acts 2). They prayed for boldness to continue sharing the gospel in the face of persecution (Acts 4). And that’s just the first few pages of the book!

If we, like them, truly believe our Creator has decided to move through our prayers, then we should view prayer as more than an add-on to a small group or a smooth way to transition on Sunday mornings. We should fall to our knees and seek the supernatural power of God in our church, in our community, and in our world.

So there I was, in desperation, doing the thing I should have been doing all along. A few days later, the Lord sent us a new couple who happened to become invaluable leaders in the church. They have grown immensely, the church has benefited immeasurably, and I hope we can learn the lesson that a thriving church is, first and foremost, a praying church.

In Christ,

Britton

Your Pastor Search Committee is very excited to be bringing a wonderful young couple in view of a call as our next Pastor and Pastor’s Wife. They will be with us on May 3rd, 4th and 5th. Here is the schedule for the weekend (all sessions will include time for your questions):

Friday, 5/3 – 6:00 pm – Dinner with deacons, church staff and spouses

Saturday,  5/4 – 9:30 am – Coffee and donuts in the dining room

11:30 am – Pizza with children, youth and families in The Rafters

6:00 pm – Dessert in the dining room

Sunday 5/5 – 9:15 am – Regular Bible Study

10:30 am – Worship (candidate will be preaching)

1:30 pm – Q & A in the Worship Center

2:00 pm – Special Called Business Meeting in the Worship Center

This is how the candidate’s resume begins: After prayerful consideration, I have humbly decided to submit my application for Senior Pastor. As a church, you need a pastor with an appreciation for all the Lord has done through you in the past while also possessing the skills to navigate a rapidly shifting cultural climate to position the church to continue fruitful ministry for another 200 years.

He graduated from Texas A&M University with a double major that provided him with a well-rounded business background and a concentration on management and leadership techniques. This educational background equipped him with the tools needed to effectively cast a vision and lead a group to bring it to fruition—skills God has used in the turnaround of the church he currently serves. He has also earned an MDiv from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas, and has completed all coursework related to his PhD in Evangelism and Church Growth from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

While attending seminary in Fort Worth, TX, he reconnected with the daughter of the worship pastor from his home church. They dated for two years while she finished her undergraduate and masters degrees at Dallas Baptist University. After a short engagement, they were married in 2021. He says “she is superior to me in every way; I would hire me just to have her in the church”.

He loves hiking, football, baseball, basketball, disc golf, and a number of other activities but says “Unfortunately, I’m the world’s worst golfer and I’m squeamish at the sight of blood, so the popular activities of golfing and hunting are off the table. Outside of those, I’m open to participating in anything athletic.”

The Committee would like to thank everyone for all of your continued prayer and support throughout our search for our new pastor.

Easter has come and gone (at least it has for Protestants and Roman Catholics; Easter is May 5 this year for the Orthodox church). But, before we move too far past the celebration, I’d like to circle back and dive into an aspect of the Easter story we often overlook: the burial. The early church proclaimed not only the death and resurrection of Jesus, but also his burial. In fact, the earliest confessions of Jesus contain explicit references to his burial. Even though the Gospels recount the life of Jesus, most scholars agree that the letters of Paul were written before the Gospels were recorded. Likely the earliest confession of Jesus is found in 1 Corinthians 15:3-7, where Paul “hands on” to the Corinthian believers what “he had received” (15:3a). The language of “handing on” and “receiving” are typical of passing on an oral tradition. In other words, Paul is telling us that what follows in 1 Cor 15:3b-7 is what believers prior to Paul were saying. These earliest Christians were confessing “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures…” (15:3-4). Later Christians clearly saw the importance of his burial, as his burial shows up in both the Apostles’ and the Nicene creeds. Even the famous “Lord I Lift Your Name on High” popular praise song from the 1990s celebrates Jesus “from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky.”

Why did the earliest Christians mention Jesus’ burial, and later Christians add it to the ecumenical creeds? Why did “the grave” feature prominently in one of the most popular praise songs? Beyond the historical fact of Jesus’ actual death, burial, and resurrection, the recurrent emphasis on the grave speaks to Jesus’ sharing in our human condition. Jesus “had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect” (Heb 2:17), which includes both his ontological humanity (“sharing in flesh and blood;” Heb 2:14) and his subjective experience of the human condition (“tested as we are, yet without sin”; Heb 4:15). As the fourth-century Cappadocian theologian Gregory of Nyssa notes, Jesus had to be united to every phase of the human story to redeem humanity. As Gregory explains, a person laundering a garment does not remove only a few stains but tries to clean the entire garment from top to bottom to achieve uniform brightness and cleanliness. In the same way, human life is stained with sin from beginning to end: from birth to death. It would be irrational to cleanse one end while ignoring the other. Therefore, Christ had to assume flesh through birth and be obedient to death in order to heal humanity. In the burial of our Messiah, we see God himself participate in the human condition. We can face the grave with confidence because the fully divine and fully human Christ died, was buried, and rose again.

Matt Easter, Interim Pastor

Fee Fee Baptist Church