Events and Activities at Bayou Drive Baptist Church

This email is distributed by Bayou Drive Baptist Church in Alvin, Texas to communicate events and activities around the church.

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February 15, 2017

Issue X

Welcome

You have subscribed to periodic email reminders of things going on around your church. Click the banner ads to read more about the event online. You can modify or unsubscribe from this newsletter by following the links at the bottom.

In this edition:

Carry your church directory everywhere - electronically!
Rejoice over our church offering to our guest evangelist and youth camp.
Plan to visit Chile. Your $500 and passport by March 1 gets you started.
What are we preaching next? Check out our sermon series sneak peek.

Events and Activities
click event graphics for more information

Carry the Church Directory on Your Smartphone
Need the number to a church friend? It's in the app. Want to email your Bible study class? It's in the app. Want to check your giving? It's in the app. Want to change your contact info? It's in the app. Get the picture? Read our online FAQ to sign up for directory access and to set it up on your mobile device.

180 Evangelism Works!

Our 180 evangelism weekend was a great success. Almost 20 people were trained in evangelism on Saturday, 5-6 people heard God's plan of salvation, and our church was obedient to God's great commission. Thank you for all who came and gave their precious resources. We were able to supply the Queen family with a $750 offering. Praise the Lord! Plan to be a part of our totally free car wash April 22-23 and let's turn Alvin 180 degrees toward Christ!

Join Your Staff - Share the Gospel
Didn't make it to our 180 weekend? No problem. Your staff visits homes in the Alvin area to share the gospel every other Saturday. Join us Saturday, February 18 at 10:00 a.m. No experience necessary.

Youth Love and Lunch Fundraiser
You helped our youth raise $731 for summer camp! Way to go, church! While eating! Does it get any better than that?!

Youth Sunday
Our youth spend the day at church one Sunday a month to fellowship, eat out, serve at a nursing home, and have fun. Plan to give mom and dad the afternoon off by hanging out with your friends at church on February 19. For Grades 7-12.

Unfinished Business Youth Parent Meeting

Parents of 7-12 graders are invited to meet with Michael Barnes, our Minister to Youth and Families, Sunday evening February 19 at 7:15 in the youth room for an update of events and parental feedback. The youth ministries at Bayou Drive are a service to the home, equipping families to rear Godly children for the glory of God. Parental participation is vital to the success of growing Godly children.

Para Dios ... Para Chile
(for God ... for Chile)
Join us June 19-30 in Santiago, Chile as we support our church plant under the leadership of Lohen Gonzalez. Lohen is a member of our church and has been sent to Chile to help us plant a church and reach people in the Chilean capitol with the gospel. The total cost of the trip will be about $1,800 (over $1,300 of that will be round-trip airfare). You need to provide your passport number and a $500 non-refundable deposit to the church by March 1. You can register to go with us after March, but airfare ticket prices might change. Contact the church office for more information.

Benevolence Offering
The offering is divided into thirds, each going to Larry Jones, ambassador for BaptistCharities.org, BaptistCharities.org helping missionaries reach hurting people with the gospel, and BDBC for local benevolent needs in our area. Our next offering is scheduled for February 26.

Wednesday Proverbs Challenge
Our Wednesday night adult Bible study group is taking the Proverbs challenge, an attempt to see weekly events through the lens of Proverbs. Join us, and learn to see life through your relationship with the wise God of the ages.

Suggested Reading

Sermon Series Sneak Peek

What job should I take? When should my kids start dating, if ever? Is prom OK for my daughter to attend? How much house can I afford? Let's be honest, living the Christian life is hard. We are constantly faced with decisions that have huge consequences while we desperately seek guidance. Worse, the Bible doesn't make those decisions for us ... or does it?

Such was the case in Christianity in Philippi. They were at the crossroads of life. Geographically they were the crossroads of Europe and Asia along the Via Egnatia traveling from Rome to to the deep East. Economically they were the crossroads of trade, their greatest financial boom after Phillip II of Macedon exploited the nearby gold mines and robbed the region of its natural resources. Socially they were the crossroads of cultures after Mark Antony defeated both Brutus and Cassius and settled many of his veterans in the region. Religiously, they were the crossroads where Christianity was a threat to Roman gods like Jupiter and Mars, the Thracian goddess Bendis, and a host of Egyptian deities like Cybele. Such was the melting pot of Philippi in which this little church began to flourish.

Yet, while the early church could be praised for much, it was this last concern that weighed heavily on the Apostle Paul. The religious crossroads left the Philippian believers attempting to make practical decisions of faith in daily life that could help or hinder them. It wasn't the big decisions that caught the attention for Paul. The church was in fellowship with the gospel (1:5), loving one another (1:9), and helping the global work of ministry (4:10). The albatross of the church would have been the navigation of these daily routines.

Can't you feel the disconnect in your own life between the theology of Sunday and the practicality of Monday? Are you like so many Christians whose pendulum swings from liberalism in the freedom Christ offers to legalism in your zeal to obey Him? We're not struggling over eternity, whether to go to church, or if we should have a devotional life. It's the daily routines that trip us, giving us grief that we disobeyed Christ or false assumption that He doesn't care what decisions we make in life or lifestyle.

So Paul expresses his prayerful desire for these believers as they navigate the crossroads of life. "And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God" (1:9-11).

Love in truth and discernment
Decipher the best among the good
Remain pure until you see Jesus
Demonstrate Christian character reflecting Jesus
Glorify and worship God

This is a life of truth, discernment, purity, character, and worship. Isn't that the kind of life we want to demonstrate as we live out the journey of Christian faith? Such a life is impossible if we settle the big things and leave the daily things to our own whims. This life demands that Christ reigns supreme in every choice, in every attitude, and in every crossroad.

These are Christian crossroads. This is Philippi. This is us.

Join us Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m. to navigate Christian crossroads.