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Contents
I. Senior Pastor’s Report
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II. Elder Chairman’s Report
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III. Administrative Report
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IV.Outreach Report
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V. Student Ministries Report
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VI. Worship Ministries Report
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VII. In Closing
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P a s t o r’ s Report “Ship your grain across the sea; after many days you may receive a return. “ Eccl 11:1 Scholars offer this perspective on this verse: Be adventurous, like those who accept the risk and reap the benefits of seaborne trade. Do not always play it safe. Once again Solomon’s wisdom confronts our own desire to play it safe and pursue only that which is most easily accessible. As a faith community, one of our Core Elements is Risk. We desire to regularly begin work only God can complete. 2012 has been both a challenging and adventurous year. Though all of it, your staff and board have continued to take the approach of regularly stepping out in faith, taking risks predicated by an utter dependence on God. I’d like to share some of the fruit that those risks produced in us and through us as God showed Himself faithful time and again. As so many of you invested your time, talents, and treasures over this past year, God took them and used them to bless many and bring glory to Himself. Consider the acute and eternal impact of the following. Because of you we… Responded to the felt needs in our church family and community by Offering 11 Food trucks with more than 100k lbs of food which served more than 300 different families. Providing strategic financial assistance for 35 families in our church and surrounding community. Hosting two large community events, distributing more than 2500 hot dogs and creating a safe, lively environment for families throughout our community. Established and invested in a partnership with City View in Grand Rapids Sending a team to serve them this past summer doing work projects and running a VBS program for the kids in their community – seeing 18 kids make a decision to make Jesus their forever friend Supporting them in their outreach to the families in their community by providing 275 gifts worth several thousand dollars to stock their kid store this Christmas season Globally invested in Kingdom work by partnering with 8 missionary families highlighted by Supporting an evangelical church in Galway, Ireland that is has seen several people come to faith in Christ, many baptisms, and empowering Tim and Joan Cumings to develop leadership as they look toward making a major ministry transition Supporting Shaws who are working with Philipinos and other Christians to serve as indigenous disciplemakers in Southeast Asia Host of other dynamic couples church planting in Canada, camp ministry in Virginia and Argentina, and teaching agriculture to and evangelizing Muslims in Asia. Renovated and updated our own Facilities Fully renovated one of our most utilized Children’s Ministries classrooms upstairs Updated the technology in two of our classrooms to give the teachers greater flexibility in their teaching approaches with this generation of kids Completely renovated 2 bathrooms; turning one of our men’s bathrooms into a family bathroom that has been a huge blessing in our children’s department Updated the milieu area with new water fountains and significant repairs of our heating systems. Lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ 28 people made personal decisions to follow Jesus Christ 11 individuals went public with their faith in believers Baptism Dozens of you moved from the stands and into the field by identifying and exercising your spiritual gifts within the ministries here at SBC 5
P a s t o r’ s Report
Marriages have been restored, families have been repaired, and many others have been cared for and blessed by the grace and loved displayed by so many of you Many of you have experienced the risk and blessing of generosity by moving from Level 1 to Level 2 giving, becoming regular financial investors at SBC Many others have stepped into teaching and leadership roles that they weren’t sure they were up for but have flourished and have seen fruit from their ministry
We praise God for His goodness, generosity, and grace. As co-laborers with Him we have been privileged to see God do some incredible things in our body. God is moving in our midst in dynamic and transformational ways. It is not primarily a matter of us becoming larger as a church, but rather becoming a more transformed community of believers. We want to become stronger, maturing individually and corporately so that we can continue to see Him work through us to “add to our number those who are being saved. “ That is the Biblical language for the kind of growth we long to experience together. As we continue to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ, please pray with our leadership that 2013 would be another year that we see many people take significant steps in that direction. Pray that we will see Him work in us to make us more aware of our dependence on Him and works through us to draw many to Himself. Greater things are yet to come. I can’t wait challenges and adventures 2013 brings our way. Please pray fervently that through it all we will be transformed and He will be praised as we seek the return of the grain we ship across the Sea.
All for Him, Pastor Nate
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E l d e r C h a i r m a n’ s Report Dear SBC Family, Looking back at 2012, we can celebrate many accomplishments through our work in Christ here at SBC. Many of them Pastor Nate mentioned in a recent sermon, and they include: 28 people coming to Christ, 11 people being baptized, and hosting 11 food trucks to help meet the needs for some in our area. Also, through our benevolence program, we were able to assist many families financially. We came to the aid of a family among us and helped situate them into another trailer, we passed out around 2500 hot dogs between Trunk or Treat and Town and Country Days, we’ve seen classrooms and bathrooms renovated, new video equipment and teaching curriculum for the kids, and we partnered with City View Church and assisted in their VBS program where 18 kids came to know Christ. Also, with your generous donations of gifts, families at City View Church benefitted. The list could go on. Through your love, your time, your work, and your finances, we were able to meet the needs of so many. Let’s not forget we celebrated Pastor Nate’s ordination this past year as well. We are blessed by his leadership, his passion, and his vision he has for SBC. We are very grateful for the rest of the staff too- Pastor Ben, Ryan, and Steve, and the wisdom, knowledge, and gifts that they bring to us. On the other hand we weren’t without some difficulties. It is true we lost some faithful friends here at SBC this past year. Yet, we remain brothers and sisters in Christ and lovingly and prayerfully wish them the best. Our prayers are that they land in a church where they can continue to serve and grow in the Lord. Looking ahead, we are pleased and blessed by the addition to the elder board of Jim Tuinstra and Irv Lister. Bryan Johnston steps off the board this year, and we thank him for his faithful service for the past six years. The 2013 elder board looks like this:
Senior Pastor Nate Wagner Pastor Ben Taylor Jim Sheckler- Chairman Ryan George- Vice Chairman Matt Carpenter- Secretary Tom Lampen- Treasurer Jason Bowers Brent Lister Irv Lister Jim Tuinstra 8
E l d e r C h a i r m a n’ s Report We are currently, as a board, in the process of developing Ministry Teams and identifying goals for these teams. We pray that if God would touch your heart that you would partner with us. We ask that you keep the elders in your prayers as we steadfastly continue in our efforts to work in the best interests of this body. We look forward to 2013 and working together in unity to advance God’s Kingdom. We pray that we may be a shining light once again, and when we look back next year, we can celebrate our work in Christ for 2013.
Jim Sheckler
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Clerk and Nominating Committee NEW MEMBERS
Dave and Amanda Thomas
Tim and Grace Brom
BAPTISMS
Mimi Lixey
Lavoy McCain
Jared Tuinstra
Caven Buell
David Clendenin
Jeremy Potter
Dianne Potter
Angie Stream
Zachary Chuhai
Madelyn Brower
Chaise Schumacher
NOMINATING COMMITTEE led by Nate Wagner
Darcy Sullivan
Irene Brake
Bryan Johnston
Jason Bowers
Bryan Johnston rotated off after two terms of service. Via the recommendation of the Nominating Committee, Irv Lister and Jim Tuinstra were elected as elders. 11
Property Ministry
Well, the primary tool used in our building this year was definitely the matching fund. With that added punch we were able to tackle several projects on our to-do list, and we're not done yet. We will soon finish the floor at the entrance to the gym and then set our sites on the ladies bathroom on our main floor. If you've enjoyed the mauve motif.... take a good look because it's days are numbered. Thanks again to Dave Rosekopf for lending his tile laying skills, as well as many others who have pitched in from time to time. Also, a special thank you to our regular custodians, Sid Ogg and Sue Miller, who, along with our volunteer helpers keep things going around our building. Your acts of service and servant hearts are a blessing to us. Brent Lister Property Chairman
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Benevolent Fund
In 2012 the Elder’s Fund, commonly called the Benevolent Fund, was able to help over 35 different families facing various hardships. Thanks to the special offering given on the first Sunday of every month by our congregation, these hurting people were able to experience the love of Christ that our church freely shares in very tangible ways. Some were assisted in paying their rent, holding off foreclosure, or avoiding shut-off notices on utilities. We assisted others whose insurance fell short of what they needed for marital or crisis counseling. We gave other vouchers for gas and gift certificates to Family Fare. We also wrote checks to assist our Adopt-a-Family program. Due to the continuing poor economic conditions in Michigan, we used our Benevolent ministry to help those in our own congregation in even more significant ways than we have to date. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this fund in 2012. Our giving was just over $9,000! We will continue to use the resources God has given us to assist those in need in our community. The goal of the Benevolent fund is to show Christ’s love to others by sharing our resources.
Ben Taylor
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Hospitality and Engagement This was a great year with new greeters joining the team and many new visitors saying how welcome they felt. We are on the way and want to keep improving. We added nine new greeters who have sparked enthusiasm in our group. We have also added the teens to help hand out bulletins, freeing our greeters to engage in longer conversations with our visitors and helping them get to their places with their children. We appreciate Betty Rosekopf who mans the Welcome Center and engages our visitors in good conversation.
We want to keep improving this next year with offering our "What's Next" after church fellowships on a regular week each month. We also want to explore ways to strategically move our visitors into membership and then service. We have all the plans in place to install new signage so everyone can find where they need to go. We also want to have an effective way to serve coffee, especially for the visitors. We will not keep reaching until every person is a personal greeter!
Here is our awesome Team:
Tom and Sue Lampen
Chris Burman
Ray and Sid Ogg
Tammy Gibson
Jim and Sunde Sheckler
Mark O'Reilly
Sue Miller
Phil VanOeffelen
Steve and Michelle Welch
Charlie and Melissa Dubridge
John and Tina Hendrickson
Sarah Spitler
Irv Lister
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Local Investment
Food Truck 2012 was another action-packed year for our Local Outreach ministry at Sparta Baptist Church. Thanks to financial help from the Rotary Club (and other local businesses), we were able to receive a 10,000 lb. food truck every month (except January) from Feeding America West Michigan. Sparta Baptist volunteers teamed up with Rotary and others in the community to help people fill their boxes with food. Each food give-away saw an average of 112 families come to the church parking lot to receive free food. Once again, we had mostly nice days and warm temperatures during our distributions. There was a rainy and cold day in October, but we were still able to feed 95 families. During one month we saw a record of 165 families receive food! This year our church had about 17 different people volunteer for this ministry. We teamed up with many volunteers from the Methodist Church, as well as many others from Rotary. For the first time, the Lions Club in Sparta sent volunteers and paid for a truck. We are truly blessed to have a community that loves to serve. During each food distribution, our volunteers were able to fellowship with the attendees, help them get around the truck with their boxes, and load up their vehicles. We were also able to distribute information about our church, as well as employment opportunities in the area. We have seen several more families come to SBC because of these distributions.
Relay for Life Sparta Baptist also took part in Sparta’s Relay for Life in 2012. This was an opportunity to join our community in raising money for cancer research. Many in our church signed up to walk or to sponsor someone else. Some in SBC just donated money without walking. SBC was proud to have Darcy Sullivan facilitate Relay for Life this year. She was able to create a lot of enthusiasm for this event. We had over 30 people from our church walk around the track at some point during the weekend. We also had volunteers set up a tent where we passed out water. When all was said and done, we raised over $2,800! Town and Country Days Sparta Baptist also took part in the annual Town and Country Days in 2012. Again, we were able to help the community in the Apple Race, Parade, and other activities. Our church took advantage of another sunny day this year. We set up tables in the parking lot, passed out free hot dogs (over 900) and refreshments, and provided the community with music as they waited for the parade. This year the parade started much earlier, so the people didn’t have to wait as long. We were able to open our doors and provide them with restrooms as well as relief from the heat. We passed out hot dogs and refreshments throughout the duration of the parade while the people enjoyed it. Trunk R’ Treat Sparta Baptist partnered with Sparta United Methodist Church for this year’s Trunk ‘R Treat for the second year in a row. We were able to use both parking lots, which gave us a lot of room. Although the weather was ominous, it stopped raining for the majority of the event. Several families from both churches decorated their vehicles, dressed up in costumes, and passed out candy from their trunks. Many people from our community brought their families to our parking lot to receive free candy, hot dogs, and refreshments, and to hear music. We even had a trunk 16
Local Investment
decorating contest, won by Jonathan Tuinstra. By the end of the night we had served over 1400 hot dogs! A special thank you goes out to Arlene Hill, who donated many gallons of Apple cider from Hill Brothers.
Sports Sparta Baptist did not host its own basketball league in 2012. Instead, we took part in the Sparta Area Church Basketball League on Monday nights. Games were held at Mamrelund Lutheran and Sparta Church of the Nazarene. We were one of 8 teams that participated in this league. We had over 12 different guys that played for our team this year. SBC lost in the semi-finals of the tournament to Bailey. SBC had 2 teams again in softball in 2012. This year saw 16 churches involved in this league, which made for a fun environment and exciting tournament. We had 32 different guys that participated on our softball teams this year. The leadership of SBC’s sports teams desires to create an environment of fellowship for church attendees as well as an outreach for people outside our church.
Adopt-A-Family Our church was able to put food boxes and presents together for several families in our community, as well as a couple from downtown Grand Rapids. People from SBC brought in non-perishable food and purchased gift items from a list given to us by families in need. We also wrote checks to a few families so they could buy their children Christmas presents.
City View We had the privilege in 2012 of partnering in ministry with City View Church in Grand Rapids. We assisted them in their Dumpster Day, where people came from the community to throw away their junk. We also helped them with their annual Carnival that they put on for the community. Several from their church came to our Christmas concert. Finally, our church gave City View 275 different presents to help them re-stock their Christmas store.
Local Outreach Team For the first time in years, SBC developed a Local Outreach team and met once in October. The purpose of this team is to develop a vision and mission for outreach at SBC. The hope is that we can share ideas and come up with dynamic ways to show Christ’s love to our community. We want each person on this team to lead at least one specific area of outreach, and to get our congregation excited and more involved in the process. Ben Taylor
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Global Investment
The Global Outreach ministry supported 9 families from around the globe in 2012. During this year, Rob and Hope Olden changed ministries and moved to Florida, discontinuing our partnership with them. After 14 years, Tim and Pam Bruckner transitioned out of Camp Evangel and out of the ministry. Dick and Lori Greenman remained in Chicago, where they coached, recruited, and cared for perspective and current missionaries. Their goal is for Lori to finish her Master’s degree next summer and for them to move to Latin America where they will continue to do missionary care. This year our Sunday morning Kidz Connection ministry highlighted one missionary family per month in their classrooms. The goal was for the kids to learn about our missionaries; who they are and where they are serving around the world. This also helped our teachers raise global awareness when talking about the gospel. Every Sunday, kids pulled loose change out of their pockets and donated to our missionary families, emphasizing our partnership with them. Here are some highlights from our missionary families in 2012: -Marty and Denise Shaw continue to train Filipinos to go into Pakistan and preach the gospel. -Dave and Nancy Greenman continue to develop church plants near Papala and Jujuy. -Gary and Nancy DeJong see continued church growth in Bangladesh. -Tim and Joan Cummings are taking part in a church plant in Sligo, which is 2 hours north of Galway. -Pepe and Rosina Morales saw 30 people receive Christ as their savior at the end of their August VBS. -Francois Picard brought on a new Coaching Coordinator to help train leaders at Gatineau Church and in the community. It is exciting to partner with these missionary families to build God’s kingdom here and around the world! Thank you to all our parishioners who make serving at SBC very enjoyable. I look forward to 2013! -Pastor Ben Taylor
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Kids Connection
This past year was another wonderful one in our KCI and KCII programs. During the KCI and KCII hours, your children learned about God’s faithfulness to us; in September, we began using a new curriculum from 252 Basics. The curriculum emphasizes three core truths: I can trust God no matter what, I need to make the wise choice, and I should treat others the way I want to be treated. Each month, a different theme is emphasized and every aspect of the curriculum points to this theme. Themes highlighted in 2012 include compassion, respect, cooperation, and individuality. The new curriculum has been a huge blessing to our students as well as our staff. It is interactive, creative, fun, and web-based for increased efficiency. Weekly take-home sheets are also sent home with children to encourage continued discussion and learning at home; parents, please take advantage of this valuable resource! Between the KCI (10am) and KCII (11am) hour, all of the preschool to 5th grade children gathered together to sing songs led by Nancy and Morgan Tidey. Also during this time, we learned about a different SBC missionary each month. Each week, we prayed for the missionary and took an offering for them, as well. In May, Gary and Nancy DeJong visited our class and gave a short presentation on their time spent in Albania. They showed us common toys Albanian children play with, talked about daily life in Albania, and gave each child an Albanian coin to take home! As we reflect on another blessed and fruitful year, I want to thank all of those involved in our children’s ministry because it would not happen without you. Thank you, teachers and helpers, for your commitment to and love for our children, and thank you, parents, for allowing us to spend time with your awesome children!
Kelly Bowers for the Children’s Ministry Team
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Kids Connection
We are having another wonderful year in Kids Connection grades 2-5. Students and teachers are enjoying learning are enjoying and learning from the new Kids Connection curriculum. It is Bible based with stories that go along with the monthly theme. After the children hear the story, we play games that drive home the point. The themes are morally focused and encourage the kids to make changes in the way in which they live their lives. It is exciting to hear them share stories that have happened at home and school where they have made good choices. The children are very attentive, respectful, and engaged. It is a joy to spend Sunday mornings with them. We bring all the kids together at the beginning of the second service. We highlight the missionary of the month. We share with the kids information that is sent to us from the missionaries. We take up a collection each Sunday for missions. The kids are so excited when they have money to put in the missionary bank. it is interesting share how life is different in the countries in which the missionaries serve. Some of the missionaries visited the classroom this past year while they were home furlough. They wore clothes from their country and shared many things with the class about their country. We also collected new and gently used articles that were taken to City View Church in Grand Rapids during December. The kids in the neighborhood of City View Church were able to pick out presents for their parents, without cost, from the things we shared. Many things were sent and it made Christmas very meaningful for all involved in giving or receiving. We also sing songs with the kids when they are all together. We have learned songs that go along with the theme of our material and we also sing some of the well known Sunday school songs. We are hoping to share the music that we are learning every few months with the congregation. The kids enjoyed sharing their “mini-concert” at the Christmas Service. They enjoyed giving Jesus their gift of music for his birthday present. The kids in Kids Connection are awesome and it will be interesting to see how God will use them in big and mighty ways.
Nancy Tidey
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Kids Connection
If the walls could talk, I’m sure that classrooms upstairs in the gym would have books of stories to tell. Some would include laughter, some tears, some celebrations and some devastation, but most of all the dedication of years of SBC staff sharing the love of God with kids from our community. This year in KCIII we moved our programming upstairs to the rooms above the gym. This move has allowed us to have separate story times for the younger kids and the older kids. It has allowed shorter transition times and more access to additional staff assistance when necessary. Our dedicated and loving group of volunteers, holds small groups with our kids by age group from kindergarten through fifth grade. In these group settings, the kids experience one on one interactions with friends and leaders, structure, discussion time and unconditional love. We are blessed this year, with each group having a leader and at least one helper. We have many faithful volunteers who have returned for another year of service to our kids. They understand the blessings that come from serving. We also have a new group of staff that have joined the team for the first time. It is so exciting to watch our seasoned staff take the newer individuals under their wings and help them to grow and learn and be blessed by serving. It has been my honor to watch this cohesive group of adults and teens each and every week continue to grow personally and to work with this great group of kids. On average we have about 50 kids in this program. We run the van twice each night to pick up and again twice each night to drop kids off. The kids enjoy a game time in the gym and a story time with their age groups. They each have their own place to meet with their small group leaders. They also get a snack and a drink provided each week by Dora Rainey. This year the kids were able to sit under the teaching of Chelsea and Tyler Seibold as they shared about God’s great creation. After the break, we began a series on Simon Peter and how we can learn to be changed by God’s Power in our lives. Each child received a book of memory verses to work on throughout the year. They are able to work at their own pace through the book and receive weekly rewards for their accomplishments in memorization. KCIII programming will run through the end of March. It is a privilege to work along side such a wonderful group of people. If these kids spark an interest for you, please let me know. We have lots of areas of service available. Please pray for our leaders; for their physical health and spiritual growth. We are in need of additional transportation options due to the growing number of kids that we transport each week. We always need additional volunteers both regularly attending staff and those that would be willing to sub occasionally. Thank you for your ongoing support of this ministry. We have a unique opportunity to connect with kids in the community that would not otherwise hear the truth of Scripture. We also have the chance to impact their families through KCIII. I appreciate all of the support that we have received including prayers, donations of money and of time. I truly enjoy every minute working with such great staff and look forward to the new year! It is a pleasure and blessing to serve in this way! Karla Wagner 22
Breakaway/Crossroads
Breakaway Sixth through eighth grade is an incredibly important time in the lives of our kids. This is the time when identity is formed and some of the most important questions they will ever ask will be answered in some form. We at Breakaway are setting out to help our kids find out who God says they are and help them answer some of these important questions. It is our mission to plant the seeds of faith that will grow as they do. We have an awesome team that helped us do all of this in 2012. I extend a “thank you” to all of you who have given of your time and energy to this worthy cause. Our adult leaders in 2012 included Chris Savage, Dan Kutzli, Jeff Lixey, Aaron Sheckler, Sid Ogg, Mary Odren, Stephanie Ponne, and Jessica Avery. In addition to them, many other high schoolers have also given of their time. I am incredibly grateful for each and every one of you. Without you, this ministry is simply not possible. Steven Lister
Crossroads The ministry year of 2012 was a very exciting and yet at sometimes a very trying time. We got to watch the ministry grow numerically as new students came into the ministry and we also got to watch students grow spiritually with God and with others as they were challenged by the teaching and leaders of the ministry. Some highlights of the ministry year were the mission trip to City View Baptist Church where students and staff were able to lead 18 students to Christ, and learn what it means to partner with local churches for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. We also participated in Snow Camp with 9 churches from the Chicago area, Winter Jam at the Van Andel Arena, tubing at Pando, and a trip to P.J. Hoffmaster Park. During this past year we also had to watch as three sisters lost their mother to cancer and help them navigate that very difficult loss in life. It is also necessary to point out that this ministry wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for the passion and effort put in by the volunteer staff that I am very blessed to work with. They are: Chris Savage, Ryan George, Aaron Sheckler, Evan Donovan, Sid Ogg, Marry Odren, Amanda Thomas, Stephanie Ponne and Rachel George. Ryan Ruth
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Worship
2012 was a great year for our worship ministry. From the new songs we were able to introduce in the beginning of the year to the high-quality music throughout the year’s services and culminating in our Christmas concert and Christmas Eve service, many of you have seen quite clearly that God has blessed our church with tremendous worship talent. I would like to take the opportunity to thank some key people. First off, our dedicated first service musicians, Peggy Odren and Nancy Tidey. They have done a remarkable job leading our first service in worship throughout the year. Also, Peggy Odren oversees all of our performance scheduling and she is invaluable in this regard. In addition, Char Dubridge is my right-hand teammate when it comes to creative ideas for both services each week. She once again did a fantastic job in 2012. Whatever the worship focus is and whatever the elements we choose to employ each week, her ideas always serve to increase the quality and effectiveness of what we do. Many thanks to her for her input and weekly dedication. Speaking of dedication, we have a great youth worship team – some of whom not only have given their time and efforts to Sunday morning but to Wednesday nights as well. These talented people include Victoria Curtis, Jared “Jareeve” Tuinstra, Ben “Tiny” Sheckler, Hope Richardson, and Dan Lampen. Our incredibly awesome and dedicated 2012 Sunday morning musician team members include: Peggy Odren, Nancy Tidey, Char Dubridge, Duane Noom, Heidi Kutzli, Ryan George, Jake Moredyke, Jared Tuinstra, Ben Sheckler, Nicole Burman, Chris Burman, Dan Lampen, Tanner Ward, and Victoria Curtis. We were also served dynamically in 2012 by a great technical crew consisting of Brent Lister, Dave Rosekopf, Naomi Shangle, Aaron Sheckler, Tamara Thomas, and Jake Moredyke. Many thanks to you all, and I look forward to an even better 2013. Steven Lister Director of Creative Arts and Middle School Ministries
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Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
I Corinthians 12:12-27
Leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
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