I want to thank you for the kind words I received yesterday. I am feeling 100% better today. It is a great sign of what God is doing here that we have men who can step into the pulpit on short notice and proclaim God’s Word. I believe there are many men here gifted to proclaim the Gospel and I plan to utilize them to do just that (though preferably without all the headaches). I wanted to send you this note a mention a few things that I had planned to tell you about yesterday. I hope you will take a few moments to read this entire email, because I believe what is ahead for us is very exciting.

Staffing Announcement

Because Susan and Christy are doing such a fantastic job leading worship, I have spoken with them about remaining in that position for the foreseeable future. They have agreed to do so and are going to be seeking further training to enrich their skills as worship leaders. I hope you will pray for them as they lead us to the throne of grace each Sunday morning. I truly am grateful for their leadership and I believe God is going to continue to use them in a mighty way in our midst.

With the work in our music ministries covered, we still have gaps in our staff. To help cover some of those gaps, I have asked the Leadership Team to bring on a temporary, part-time staff member this summer to help me in the areas of Outreach and Discipleship. We wanted to create a position that would allow our church to grow stronger in our ministries in the community but also allow a young seminary student to enrich his personal ministry abilities. With their consent, I have asked Casey Evans to come to work for us at the church this summer as our Outreach/Discipleship Minister. He will begin on May 19 and will work through August 17. Casey is a bright young man and a product of First Baptist Icard. He is currently studying at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and has clearly demonstrated his call into vocational ministry. I have attached to this email a clear articulation of Casey’s goals for this summer and how he will strengthen our ministries here at FBI. If you have ideas for Casey about strengthening our Outreach and Discipleship, please email him at cevans@fbicard.org.

My hope is that as time goes along and God continues to call young men out of our congregation and onto the field of ministry, that we will be able to provide them ample opportunity to cut their teeth in ministry here. Once they go out from us, they become an extension of our ministry.

Prayer Service

Next Sunday, April 28, we will have a Service of Prayer for our Awake Church Revival at 6:00p.m. This will be a time to cry out to the Lord for the weekend ahead. I want to encourage you that this not be your only time of prayer for our revival. I hope you will take other times, both individually and corporately, to pray for this special weekend. I will make sure that we put the location for the Service of Prayer in the bulletin, but I am fairly certain it will be in one of the modular units.

Revival

I hope you have made plans to be at the Revival May 3-5 at 6:30p.m. This has the potential to be a wonderful time for our church family. I hope you are inviting friends and family as the Gospel will be clearly articulated each night. However, first and foremost, you must be here yourself to experience what God is going to do.

Mission Trip

If you are planning to go on the Summer mission trip to Skippers, VA, please email me (mpardue@fbicard.org) and let me know. We will have a meeting of the team that is going on April 28 at 5:00.

Summer Camp

On May 5, after the worship service, a couple of representatives from Hickory Cove Bible Camp in Taylorsville will be here to speak with our youth and college aged students about being summer workers at the camp. Hickory Cove is one of the most special places on earth to me and my family and I have asked them to come and share about what God is doing there. I worked several summers at the camp and Rachel and I met there. For more information you can visit: http://hickorycove.org/summerstaff/