Fee Fee Baptist Church

Category: A Word From… Forerunner Front Page News

All front page Forerunner articles.

  • A Word From our Prayer Warriors – Vol. 62, No. 20

    When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.

    1 Corinthians 2:13

    Insight

    Everyone wants to be wise. Yet Paul taught the Corinthians that true wisdom or discernment requires the believer to be guided by the Holy Spirit. Because Satan’s greatest impact on us occurs when he deceives us, we need the Holy Spirit’s help.

    Spiritual discernment enables us to draw conclusions based on God’s perspective, make wise decisions in difficult circumstances, recognize the activities of God’s Spirit, distinguish the correct and incorrect use of Scripture, and identify and expose false teachers.1

    Challenge

    • Ask God to give you and Fee Fee Baptist Church discernment as we serve Him.
    • Pray that the Holy Spirit will give wisdom and discernment to our Deacons, the Personnel Committee, our Staff, and those who will be on our Search Committee during our pastor search process.
    • Pray for Pastor Zach and his family as they follow the Lord’s direction to a new ministry.
    • Pray that the Lord will begin preparing our next pastor even now.

     

    God Bless Fee Fee Church.

    Larry Condra, Prayer Warrior

  • A Word From Pastor Zach – Vol. 62, No. 19

    Church Family,

    This is a hard column to write. As you know by now, God is leading my family in a new direction, and I have accepted a call to a church in Texas. I love this church deeply and I am so thankful for my time here. While I know this is still a surprise to many, I want you to be assured that our Deacon body and our Personnel Committee have already set a great plan in place to ensure a smooth transition and to make sure that our church continues to build and pursue for the glory of God.

    As I write in the Forerunner for the last time, I wanted to share parts of the letter that I read at the end of our services on September 25:

    This has been an incredibly difficult decision to make. It’s incredibly difficult because I deeply love our church family and the community we have here at Fee Fee. However, even though it is a very difficult decision, I believe that God is opening this door and we want to be faithful and obedient to God’s will for our family.

    This is a very bittersweet time for us. I am beyond grateful that God gave me the honor and privilege to serve as the pastor here at Fee Fee. I love this church and I love how you have loved my family. God has given me the blessings of great friendships, a loving church family, and the opportunity to be a part of God doing great things here.

    I know that all the changes and growth that we have experienced have all been because of God and in spite of me, but I am humbled that God gave me the opportunity to shepherd and serve here. At the same time, my family and I have given God a blank check with our lives and told him that we will go wherever He leads. We believe He is calling, so we want to be obedient to that call and go where He is sending us.

    Know that I will be praying for Fee Fee during this transition, and I ask that you pray for my family as we are relocating and starting a new ministry. I have been praying Philippians 1:3-6 for this great church. In this passage, Paul writes:

    “I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you, always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.  I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

    Thank you for the privilege of serving you as your pastor. I love each and every one of you.

    In Him,

    Pastor Zach Crook

  • A Word From Pastor Zach – Vol. 62, No. 18

    Church Family,

    What an incredible week we just experienced as a church! During Impact Week, we were able to give 418 local missions hours to our community! It is always so encouraging to me to see our church being intentionally on mission. Thank you for being the hands and feet of Jesus and both proclaiming and demonstrating the love of God to our city.

    Just last week, I had a problem. I grabbed my phone off the charger, but it was nearly dead. I was confused because I had it plugged into the charger all night. Then, as I looked closer, I realized the charger had disconnected with the outlet. My phone didn’t receive power because it wasn’t connected to the power source. To go out and effectively live as ambassadors for Christ, we need to make sure that we are living our lives empowered by the Spirit. To stay empowered, we need to stay connected to God. We can’t do it in our own strength.

    Jesus talks in John 15 about how we must remain in Him. He says He is the vine, and we are the branches. If we stay connected to Him, we will bear fruit. However, apart from Him, we can do nothing. Let’s make sure we stay connected to Him.

    One way to stay connected to Him is by participating in our midweek activities. Every Wednesday night, at 6:00 p.m., we have a few different Bible Study options for you that will help you stay connected to the vine. Gloria Fox will be leading our Women’s Bible Study through Job in the Fellowship Hall. I will be leading a time of prayer and a study through Praying through the Bible by Donald Whitney in the Dining Room. I know that my prayer life has been strengthened by this study, and I can’t wait to see how it impacts your prayer lives as well! Also, as an added bonus, I have been given a few dozen copies of this book by Crossway Publishing. Everyone who comes to our Prayer and Bible Study time will receive a copy until we run out.

    There are also opportunities to serve on Wednesday evenings. We’d love to have you help out in AWANA with our kids or in the Rafters with our youth. Please contact Kathy Scott or Kyle Baldwin about ways to get involved.

    In addition to those options, we also will be having a meal one Wednesday evening a month before these various midweek options get underway. For September 21, we will be having meatloaf! Make sure to sign up for this meal, which is free (but donations are accepted).

    Will you join me in praying that we stay connected to God throughout the week? We want to bear fruit, and to do that, we must remain in Christ!

    In Him,

    Pastor Zach Crook

  • A Word From Pastor Zach – Vol. 62, No. 17

    Church Family,

    The day that this article is getting We are now one week away from our fourth annual Impact Week! When we launched this local missions-oriented week of service back in 2019, I don’t think any of us could have anticipated how God has worked in and through this incredible week. Partnering with great organizations in our city like Loaves and Fishes, Room at the Inn, Thrive, and the St. Louis County Area Foodbank, among many others, has been such a blessing.

    For Impact Week this year, we have projects that include each of those non-profit organizations I listed above, along with providing a meal for our police department, coffee for Pattonville’s Early Childhood Center, cleaning up local parks, hosting a blood drive, and having our monthly Mobile Market. You can sign up for any of these projects, or you can organize your own with your family or your Bible study class. From baking cookies for firemen to making cards for health care workers, there are a lot of different ways we can stay on mission and be the hands and feet of Jesus!

    In Matthew 12, John the Baptist is stuck in prison and is struggling with doubt. He even sends a couple of his disciples to go and ask Jesus if He was actually the Messiah or not. Do you know how Jesus responds to this question? He tells John’s disciples to go and share with Him what they have seen and heard.

    Jesus then alludes to prophecies in Isaiah when he shares about all the things that he is doing. He was telling the disciples that the proof was in the way He both proclaimed and demonstrated the Gospel. For Jesus, He proclaimed that the Kingdom of God was at hand. Then, He backed up that proclamation through His many miracles. He both shared the Gospel with His lips and demonstrated it with His life.

    In the same way, we have the opportunity during Impact Week to share the Gospel through proclamation and demonstration. We need to be ready to turn everyday conversations into Gospel conversations. Further, by going out and serving the community and meeting needs, we are going to demonstrate to our community the reality of God’s love for them.

    It is my prayer that we can show our community through Impact Week that we really do love where we live. I believe that our demonstration of the Gospel through our local mission work is going to allow us open doors to proclaim the truth of the Gospel to our neighbors.

    Will you join me in praying for our church during Impact Week? Let’s pray that we can be living proof of who Jesus is and what He has done for us!

    In Him,

    Pastor Zach Crook

  • A Word From Pastor Zach – Vol. 62, No. 16

    Church Family,

    The day that this article is getting published, August 22, is a big day in our community. It is the day that Pattonville ISD starts for the fall semester! When it comes to Bridgeton, our schools are some of our biggest mission fields. Please join me in praying for our schools and that God will capture the hearts of the next generation.

    Additionally, we had Promotion Sunday yesterday here at Fee Fee. This the is Sunday that our kids and students move up to their next class and get to meet their new teachers. In addition to this being a Sunday that marks the beginning of a new semester for our students, it is also the beginning of a brand new series and emphasis that we are going to walk through as a church.

    This new series is called “Love Where You Live.” Over the next few weeks, we are going to unpack Matthew 9:35-38 and examine how we can truly demonstrate to our community that we really do love where we live. As part of the vision of our church, we talk about how we want to pursue the good of our community for the glory of God. This series is going to give us practical ways to love our community.

    We are going to look at the importance of changing our perspective, changing our prayers, and changing our purpose as we seek the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to be God’s ambassadors and live out the calling of the Great Commission.

    In the midst of this series, we are going to have our fourth annual “Impact Week.” This is a week that we take part in multiple mission projects in our community to tangibly demonstrate the love of Christ. To kick of this special week of local missions, we are going to have an off-campus worship service and fellowship (and Potluck lunch with BBQ!) at Redemption Ranch on Sunday, September 11 at 11:00 a.m.

    Mark your calendars for this incredible week and make sure you come out to Redemption Ranch on September 11! We won’t have anything on campus that Sunday. Instead, we are going to have a great time of food, fellowship, and worship out at the Ranch. Just like last year, we will also get to celebrate new life through baptism at Redemption Ranch’s lake!

    Will you join me in praying for our church as we journey through this initiative of being the hands and feet of Jesus and demonstrating clearly to our community that we love where we live?

    In Him,

    Pastor Zach Crook

  • A Word From Pastor Zach – Vol. 62, No. 15

    Church Family,

    You’ve probably noticed by now that our church has been given the privilege of hosting the SBC Disaster Relief volunteers to deal with the catastrophic flooding that hit our region in late July and early August. I’m so thankful for these volunteers, but they have definitely made us be a little more flexible as a church.

    Their temporary set-up here has been a good reminder to me about a couple of things. First, and most importantly, these volunteers have been a clear picture to our area of the love of Jesus for people in crisis. I love that Southern Baptists are quick to respond and willing to step in when disaster strikes. However, there is a second thing that I have to acknowledge: it has reminded us that being in service to the Lord means we have to be willing to be flexible and adapt some of our plans for the purpose of God’s mission.

    There was an interesting study done by a group of sociologists back in 1973 called “From Jerusalem to Jericho: A Study of Situational and Dispositional Variables in Helping Behavior.” That is a mouthful, but the part of the study that I want to focus on was that researchers targeted seminary students and told them that they would be going to teach a lesson on the Good Samaritan. On the way to the event where the lesson was going to take place, the researchers, unbeknownst to the seminary students, had staged a man who needed help in an alley as they walked by. One of the groups of students were told that they were running late to the event that they were going to speak at, while the other group was not given any time restraints.

    Researchers found that the amount of “hurriness” induced in the subject had a major effect on helping behavior. In “low hurry” situations, 63% of the students helped. In “high hurry” situations, only 10% helped. What does this tell us? If we are always in a hurry, we might very well miss out on being Jesus’ hands and feet! It just might be biblical to be interrupted for the sake of the Gospel! Think about when Jesus was on the way to heal Jarius’ daughter. He was walking through a crowd and stopped when He felt power going out of Him. He stopped what he was doing and allowed this interruption to happen. He ministered to the woman with the blood issue, and He didn’t consider it to be an inconvenience at all! Jesus was always on mission for God, but He didn’t seem to ever be in a hurry.

    Maybe we need to slow down a little and allow interruptions into our lives. Maybe we need to be on the lookout for ways to be Jesus’ hands and feet. Having these disaster relief workers in our church and using our building has been a huge blessing…but honestly, it hasn’t always been convenient. We’ve had to move some events and shift schedules around. But you know what, I think that’s what God wants us to do! Will you join me in praying that we aren’t in such a hurry that we miss opportunities to serve the Lord? Let’s welcome these interruptions to be the hands and feet of Jesus!

    In Him,

    Pastor Zach Crook

  • A Word From Pastor Zach – Vol. 62, No. 14

    Church Family,

    As I’m writing this article, I am still trying to catch up on sleep after our mission trip to the Dominican Republic. It was a blessing to serve there, and it was incredible to see one person accept Christ during one of our prayer walks through neighborhoods close to our church! It makes all the time, energy, and effort that goes into a mission trip worth it when we see the eternal ramifications!

    One of our team members, Jonathan McPhillips, compared our traveling to the DR and meeting with this lady, Eva, to the parable of the lost sheep. Just like the shepherd leaves the 99 to find the one, so we left our homes to go to another country and got to see God miraculously save a lost soul! That’s why we do missions!

    Speaking of missions, you will get the opportunity to hear about this trip and others in greater detail at our Missions Celebration Night on Sunday, August 7. Come at 6:00 p.m. to hear reports from our different missions teams and members who spent time serving the Lord nationally and internationally this summer.

    In addition to hearing reports of mission work that has already been done that evening, we have the opportunity as a church to do some incredible local mission work the day before. On Saturday, August 6, we have our annual Free Market for our community. This Free Market is kind of like a community flea market. However, there is one major difference: everything is free! I want to encourage you to sign up to man a table and give away things to our community.

    In addition to giving away things that you might put in a garage sale, we also pass out new backpacks to kids in our community who are getting ready to head back to school. Would you prayerfully consider stuffing a new backpack with brand new school supplies so we can give it away to kids in our neighborhood? We talk all the time about pursuing the good of our community. The Free Market is a great way to do just that!

    One final way that we are pursuing the good of our community that weekend is that we are hosting a free Family Swim Night at the Bridgeton Recreation Center’s outdoor pool on Friday, August 5. We want our community to know that we care and a simple way that we can do this is to invite them to join us in a great time of fellowship that Friday night. Pray about inviting neighbors and friends to this outreach event.

    This has been a busy summer, but I have been so thankful for the many ways that I have seen God’s hand at work. Please be in prayer for the weekend of August 5-7. From our Family Swim Night to our Free Market to our Missions Celebration, it is a great weekend for our church! Let’s pray for God to continue to move in our church and community!

    In Him,

    Pastor Zach Crook

  • A Word From Pastor Zach – Vol. 62, No. 13

    Church Family,

    Do you know what time of year it is? It’s Vacation Bible School time! July 18-22, we are going to have a Monumental week as we get to celebrate God’s greatness through the story of Joseph. Each day, our kids are going to be important truths found in the story of Joseph. Truths like “God loves you no matter what,” and “God is with you everywhere.”

    I’m so excited to spend a week with kids from our church and community and share the Gospel with them and instill these incredible truths from God’s Word! Not only that, but after VBS in the morning, our afternoon soccer camp is completely full! Kids are going to get to learn about the great game of soccer and have a solid camp experience. But, most importantly, they are going to have the truth of God’s Word instilled in them throughout this camp experience as well!

    As you can see, VBS is an incredibly important week for our church. How important? Just look at these statistics from a study from Lifeway back in 2016. Each year:

    • 25 percent of baptisms reported by the SBC come from VBS.
    • 10 percent of people enrolled in VBS are unchurched.
    • 2.7 million people enroll in VBS each year.
    • 72,925 people each year accept Christ as Lord and Savior.

    VBS is a great outreach opportunity for our church. Please join me in praying for the kids and volunteers this week. I am believing that God is going to move in the next generation of students!

    Also, as a way to emphasize and celebrate VBS, I wanted to share with you about our plans for having one united service on Sunday, July 24. Rather than two different worship services, we will only have one service at 11:00 a.m. We will still have our Bible Study classes at the normal 9:45 a.m. time. However, there will not be an 8:30 a.m. service. Instead, we are gathering together to celebrate what God did at VBS!

    Our VBS kids will be helping lead worship and you will get to hear all about what they learned. I’m excited for us to recap the week and for us to be blessed by the next generation of our church. You definitely don’t want to miss this opportunity for us to worship together corporately and support our kids!

    Please be praying for our Vacation Bible School and the many kids who will be attending. We want the next generation building their lives on Jesus and pursuing the good of our community for the glory of God!

    In Him,

    Pastor Zach Crook

  • A Word From Pastor Zach – Vol. 62, No. 12

    Church Family,

    Do you ever get a song stuck in your head and you just can’t get it out? As I’m writing this article, there is a children’s song on repeat in my brain. What makes it really odd, is this is a children’s song in Spanish!

    Yo tango gorzo, gorzo, gorzo, gorzo en mi corazon,

    Donde? En mi corazon?

    That song, “I’ve got joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart” is one of the many songs that our Dominican Republic missions team is familiarizing ourselves with as we prepare to head out on July 9.

    It’s not just music that we will be doing. We have a packed schedule to look forward to. We will be leading a Vacation Bible School for our partner church and also doing the same at a local orphanage. In addition, we will get to participate in an evangelistic outreach night at the church as well as services dedicated to equipping men and women in the church and community. Further, we will be doing prayer walking in the community and ministering however we can. Finally, we will get to check out the water well that Fee Fee has funded for the community. And the well was put in right beside the local church!

    I’m so thankful for our church’s commitment to missions. Our youth had a great time serving in our nation’s capital. We have a college student just wrapping up his time in southeast Asia. We have a couple who will be working with Concord Builders. We have a recent college graduate heading back to the Pacific Northwest to go to advanced leadership training so she can help lead overseas trips. We have another recent college graduate serving as a journeyman missionary in North Africa. The list just goes on! I love our commitment to the Great Commission!

    I want to ask for you to continue to pray for our different mission endeavors. Also, I want us to make sure that we aren’t just doing missions in Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. I want us to be on mission here in Bridgeton! One of our deacons, Chris Fisbeck, is going to start leading some prayer walking right here in our community. Join him and let’s be missional here and now! Or help be a driver with our Meals On Wheels program on Tuesdays. Or serve in our Mobile Market the second Monday of each month. Or sign up to serve a meal to Loaves and Fishes.

    We have a litany of missions opportunities right here. Let’s take the Gospel to our neighborhoods and the nations!

    Please be praying for our Dominican Republic Mission Team and look for ways to be on mission for God right here!

    In Him,

    Pastor Zach Crook

  • A Word From Pastor Zach – Vol. 62, No. 11

    Church Family,

    “Renovation in progress” should be a sign that we permanently hang up around our church. From the youth area we updated recently, to our Welcome Center, to our Media Center update, to the lighting in the parking lot, there always seems to be something that is being updated around our campus.

    Don’t get me wrong, these renovations are good things, and necessary. We constantly want to improve and update our campus, so we make a great first impression to visitors and our community.

    These physical renovations are important (and it makes me so thankful that we have Mike Bayles working his magic!). However, we also need to allow God to renovate us, the body of Christ. We want to be molded and shaped into authentic Christians that reflect the love of Jesus to the world. What does the word “authentic” mean to you? Merriam-Webster defines it as “real or genuine: not copied or false.” I would argue that in our day and age, our country needs authentic Christians now more than ever.

    Scripture challenges us to not be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Allowing God to renovate us means that we allow him to give us a biblical perspective on our world today. We look at things from a Christ-exalting lens and we willingly die to self. It isn’t easy, but we set aside our own desires and live to magnify Christ’s Kingdom here on earth.

    It is my prayer that as we continue walking through the parables of Jesus together as a church family, we will all truly know what it means to live as Christ’s ambassadors in this fallen world. I pray that our understanding of God’s Kingdom will grow, and we will allow the Spirt to work in our lives and we will undergo renovations in our hearts!

    Let’s commit, as a church family, to see through the physical renovations on our church building and the spiritual renovations that our hearts all need as we continue our study on the parables of Jesus. These spiritual renovations are how we can truly build our lives on Jesus.

    Also, let’s make sure to take time this week to pray for our student ministry. They are currently pursuing the good of our nation’s capital as they are on their summer mission trip in D.C. Let’s pray that God is working in and through them this week!

    I can’t wait to hear stories of how God is moving, both here at Fee Fee and through our missions team in D.C. I know God is going to be on the move this summer!

    In Him,

    Pastor Zach Crook