SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to be here.
SPEAKER_00: It's good.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you for today.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for a great chance to fellowship and be here with everyone.
SPEAKER_00: We do pray that you'll give Dave a great visit with his mom.
SPEAKER_00: And as he and uh Nicole and Marion go home and visit family, I pray you'll give them a good weekend.
SPEAKER_00: Bless our time together today.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for this food.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that you use it to the strength of our bodies, and we pray your blessings on our wonderful folks that feed us every week.
SPEAKER_00: We are so grateful for them, and uh and they are a blessing to us, and so we pray you'll bless them the way they blessed us.
SPEAKER_00: We pray these things in Jesus' name, and everybody said fantastic.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it really is fun to come in.
SPEAKER_00: I have to make Dave leave town just to let me come in here.
SPEAKER_00: So thank y'all for letting me do that.
SPEAKER_00: Um we're uh we have sort of the announcement things that we do, and uh there's some wonderful stuff going on at church want to make sure you know about.
SPEAKER_00: This Sunday is the Lord's Supper.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so we're excited about that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh deacons in the room be reminded of that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so we're really excited.
SPEAKER_00: It's always a wonderful deal, and it's fun for me.
SPEAKER_00: I get to actually do two Lord's Suppers when we do that.
SPEAKER_00: So we do that out at Chaffee and then uh come over here and do it here, and so it's really it's really fun.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so we're looking forward to that.
SPEAKER_00: It's always a special service.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we're moving towards school.
SPEAKER_00: Can you believe that July is halfway over?
SPEAKER_00: It's just amazing.
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't believe that.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, so we're approaching our school supply times, and we do that every year.
SPEAKER_00: That's a wonderful blessing.
SPEAKER_00: It allows us to really get into uh get into the schools and to serve and and minister, and it's a great deal.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you saw or caught uh at the end of the school year last year uh the elementary school on the other side of Derby over there.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Eli has really spearheaded a great relationship for us with that church, and we've served them a number of times.
SPEAKER_00: They've had teacher meetings over here, we've really built a relationship there.
SPEAKER_00: And Eli uh spearheading us for the church, and the church we were we were given an award collectively for being one of the largest donors invested in that elementary school.
SPEAKER_00: So that's an incredible thing, the impact of the church being involved there and all the ways we're serving.
SPEAKER_00: And so our staff is doing a great job uh digging us in the schools and being connected.
SPEAKER_00: So that's a really important part of our evangelism time.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Wednesday nights, we have had great a time.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have been last couple times?
SPEAKER_00: Several of you I know have been.
SPEAKER_00: Big crowd last night, great folks.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and we've been doing it two weeks, and so here this is what's exciting.
SPEAKER_00: Last night we had two different testimonies of people who were sharing since the Wednesday before.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning, on my way to a breakfast meeting, got a call from one of our folks, had a chance to share with somebody this morning after last night.
SPEAKER_00: And so our church is doing a great job jumping in and being a part of that and really uh taking on that challenge of us sharing the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So I thought I'd just share that testimony with you.
SPEAKER_00: It's wonderful to see everybody dig in and get to be a part of that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then, as you guys know, y'all are heading off to Branson again.
SPEAKER_00: We can finally have some peace and quiet at church.
SPEAKER_00: And so you'll want to be a part of that.
SPEAKER_00: Pay attention how to sign up and do all those things.
SPEAKER_00: There's one other sign-up sheet that's moving around.
SPEAKER_00: I think it was on that back table.
SPEAKER_00: If you have not had it, you can get up and get it at your table.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Jacob and some of the folks in the music ministry are going to come in and do some hymn singing with y'all and lead some of that.
SPEAKER_00: And so they're passing around a sheet for you to vote on your favorite hymns that you want to hear.
SPEAKER_00: And so you need to make sure you see that and get that circulated around at your table if you haven't gotten a chance to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Is that good?
SPEAKER_00: All right, fun.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, one of the things I like to do when I get together with y'all and with every group is just give you a chance to ask questions.
SPEAKER_00: I have a Bible study we'll do in a minute, but I just like to give you a chance to ask questions.
SPEAKER_00: What's going on, you know, Pastor, what about this?
SPEAKER_00: And you know, all that.
SPEAKER_00: So uh I thought I'd just give you a chance to do that.
SPEAKER_00: So if you got a question, holler at me.
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand, wave at me.
SPEAKER_00: Anything about church or whatever I can tell you.
SPEAKER_00: Great question.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, progress on the Chaffee property.
SPEAKER_00: The project is done and paid in full.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's in great shape out there.
SPEAKER_00: Um we uh we have paid for all of it.
SPEAKER_00: We finished all the bills, we had finance committee last night, and so we celebrated it's all paid for, and we still have money in the bank on top of that.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So uh God's been really good, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to think about it, uh it that this is uh really, I was had breakfast with one of our deacons this morning, and it's incredible.
SPEAKER_00: We we that was about a million and a half dollar project.
SPEAKER_00: We spent almost half a million dollars on the chiller, right?
SPEAKER_00: And by the time we get to the end of the year, first of next year, we'll still have two million dollars in the bank at that point after all those projects.
SPEAKER_00: So God is really good.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all are faithful, the church is faithful, new families in the church are giving.
SPEAKER_00: It's really, really a blessing uh to see those things.
SPEAKER_00: Folks at Chaffee are invested and they're giving.
SPEAKER_00: And can y'all hear me?
SPEAKER_00: Is this my?
SPEAKER_00: I don't feel like this mic is working.
SPEAKER_00: Can you hear me?
SPEAKER_00: No?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, is that better?
SPEAKER_00: That's a lot better, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, now I feel like I have a mic on.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'll just hold it up here.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's so all those things are really good.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, folks are giving out at Chaffee, it's really it's good.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, God's good, and those things are wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: One other update, and then Miss Sandy had a question.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we have decided the property is really good out there.
SPEAKER_00: So they put in a road from Mazard about 75% of the way back to the custer side.
SPEAKER_00: So it's pretty close back there.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's it's a you know dirt road, but it's a dirt road, it's mounded up because on the other side of that dirt road is the floodplain creek.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all with me?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So that road is really wide.
SPEAKER_00: It's wide enough you could you could park three lanes of cars back to back and have two lanes in between those three lanes to be able to pull out and all that.
SPEAKER_00: So it's really easy to park out there.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's a big wide open area that they seeded with rye grass, and it'd be kind of like being in a state park.
SPEAKER_00: And so it really functions well, and we are tentatively planning.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all know the Sunday when we would take the whole church to the river and do that service and picnic and all that at the river amphitheater this year, first Sunday in October, to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Chaffee campus.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna take everybody out to the property and we're gonna do that Sunday deal out on the new property.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, how fun is that?
SPEAKER_00: Is that cool?
SPEAKER_00: How many of you been on the property?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so a few of you, so three, you know, two-thirds of the room hasn't been there.
SPEAKER_00: So, how cool is that to be able to take everybody out and get to the position where we can be out there, we can pray, fellowship, we enjoy that.
SPEAKER_00: So we're excited about that.
SPEAKER_00: First Sunday in October, Miss Sandy.
SPEAKER_00: The question was will we have a sign out there that says future home of First Baptist Church?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is yes.
SPEAKER_00: We just had to get it to that point where we could do that.
SPEAKER_00: So there you go.
SPEAKER_00: See there?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: We're excited.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and we've gotten it to that point.
SPEAKER_00: It's good to get to this point where you can do those things now.
SPEAKER_00: We're looking at a fence, uh, putting a fence across the entrance to the road.
SPEAKER_00: So now you can get on and off.
SPEAKER_00: You just unlock the fence and drive in on the road and all that.
SPEAKER_00: So we're about to get to where we can start doing some things out there.
SPEAKER_00: So uh October 1st, it'll be us, the snakes, and the tiggers all having worship together.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so it's really fun.
SPEAKER_00: It's these are fun days, aren't they?
SPEAKER_00: It's exciting.
SPEAKER_00: So, yay, future home.
SPEAKER_00: First, yeah, big signs.
SPEAKER_00: Great.
SPEAKER_00: What else can I tell you?
SPEAKER_00: How's the attendance?
SPEAKER_00: That's great.
SPEAKER_00: I was gonna bring that up, so that's a perfect question.
SPEAKER_00: We are really blessed.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so let me give you a couple of ways to count that.
SPEAKER_00: So, like last Sunday, uh, this past Sunday at our Chaffee campus, we had 70.
SPEAKER_00: We had six toddlers in the extended session, and that's in the dead of July.
SPEAKER_00: And so all of our college students are not back, our med students are not back yet.
SPEAKER_00: And so I was really nervous about the summer.
SPEAKER_00: That's a great summer.
SPEAKER_00: We had a Sunday in June, we were over 80, and then uh Sunday we were over set, you know, we were at 70.
SPEAKER_00: So those we were in the 90s during the normal part of the year.
SPEAKER_00: So as if we're doing that well in the summer, I'm anticipating the fall to be really good.
SPEAKER_00: We are also starting children's Sunday school and children's ministry there this fall.
SPEAKER_00: So uh we have expanded the we're now renting the whole building on Sunday mornings, in effect, to be able to have room to do children's Sunday school and all that.
SPEAKER_00: So we expect that to be really good.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me give you our overall attendance where we were.
SPEAKER_00: We have crossed a great point in church life, right?
SPEAKER_00: So last year, now keep in mind these are July numbers, so it they're lower than they would be in the fall.
SPEAKER_00: But last, this past Sunday, we had 500 people in attendance on campus here.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Then we took 35 to 40 people, depending on however it was that much, in September, and we went out there.
SPEAKER_00: So you automatically are down, say, 40 people on this campus this year versus last year.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all with me?
SPEAKER_00: Because we sent them out there, right?
SPEAKER_00: We also, as you know, we have lots of funerals and all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: So we have lots of people that we've graduated to heaven between this past Sunday and the Sunday before.
SPEAKER_00: If you take all those folks that are not here that were in that 500, right?
SPEAKER_00: This past Sunday, we were five hundred and two on this campus.
SPEAKER_00: So with all of that, we were still larger on this campus uh over last year, and then we had 70 at our uh new campus.
SPEAKER_00: So we were up 72 last Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty awesome, don't you think?
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty incredible.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we now have hit this point where this campus is actually growing as well as the other campus growing, that's what we're trying to do as a multi-site church.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: And so we're very excited.
SPEAKER_00: Attendance is really good.
SPEAKER_00: So when you when you look at those numbers and you understand them, it's very exciting.
SPEAKER_00: The other thing that's happened is, if you'll notice, if you pay attention and all that sort of stuff, on this campus here, our average age is continuing to get younger.
SPEAKER_00: And we are continuing to add in Miss Janah's area and Eli's area, and which is important, right?
SPEAKER_00: If we don't keep reaching young people in five years, we won't have a church.
SPEAKER_00: We'll all be in heaven worshiping together, not here, right?
SPEAKER_00: And uh and so it's exciting.
SPEAKER_00: So this year on Promotion Sunday, when we do Promotion Sunday, this will be the first time in the four years that I've been here that this happens, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Miss Jana will graduate from her area a large number of children into Eli's area.
SPEAKER_00: Eli will send over 30 fifth graders into the student ministry.
SPEAKER_00: The student ministry has sent 12 or 13 young adults into the various ways we do young adult ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And so we've actually had, we'll have this year a full every age group matriculation of first Baptist people from one group to the other.
SPEAKER_00: Am I explaining that where that makes sense?
SPEAKER_00: That's that's pretty exciting, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's really exciting.
SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, it's really, it's really fun.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, these are really good days.
SPEAKER_00: God is really good and and it's wonderful uh to see what he's doing.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, we always know we are not bragging, we are not proud, prideful.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that's good that happens in the church, it happens because Jesus did it.
SPEAKER_00: And so all of that is God's work in his church.
SPEAKER_00: And so we are very, very excited about it.
SPEAKER_00: We're working on three baptisms out of uh out of uh camp.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, with kids, you're trying to be, you know, sensitive and careful and you want to make sure they understand.
SPEAKER_00: We're discipling two or three other students, uh, kids that have been in that process of salvation decisions.
SPEAKER_00: We have a young adult, we're processing baptism-wise at our Chaffee campus.
SPEAKER_00: And so hopefully we're we're we're the one thing I'm not, the one thing I'm frustrated with is we're not baptizing enough.
SPEAKER_00: We're we're just not, it's just not happening for whatever reason.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why the emphasis on evangelism and the other things we're doing is we're really, really praying for more baptisms.
SPEAKER_00: We're just praying for more people to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we just need to, and so as you're praying, I would like it if you would really focus on people getting saved.
SPEAKER_00: We're that that part of it we're still figuring out.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: We're still learning that part.
SPEAKER_00: But we, you know, we have baptisms this year.
SPEAKER_00: We've been baptizing consistently and we have them in the pipeline.
SPEAKER_00: We just want to see more people saved, amen?
SPEAKER_00: That while we're here.
SPEAKER_00: That's why so, but God is good and he's the Lord of the harvest and he's providing and growing and impact, and it's really exciting.
SPEAKER_00: So uh so we're we're we're excited about that.
SPEAKER_00: That was a great question.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for letting me praise the Lord for what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: What else?
SPEAKER_00: That that's a great question.
SPEAKER_00: What happens to our church when we build a building out on the chapter?
SPEAKER_00: What happens to this building when we build a building out there?
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's why I took some time to explain that multi-site impact that our numbers are growing here as well as there.
SPEAKER_00: That is the goal, that is the vision.
SPEAKER_00: We want both campuses to keep growing.
SPEAKER_00: So hopefully, as we build that building out there, we're reaching more people out there, but we continue to reach people here and grow in this building as well.
SPEAKER_00: And this building has a number of advantages for us.
SPEAKER_00: Um, first of all, Darby is there and Northside is there.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord, that's a massive advantage and help for us.
SPEAKER_00: Oklahoma is only one mile that way, and there is over 40,000 people within a 14-minute drive or so to our building here from that side of the river.
SPEAKER_00: And so they're not gonna drive to Chaffee, but they'll drive here.
SPEAKER_00: And we're seeing more growth of that as we focus on Oklahoma, aren't we?
SPEAKER_00: We're seeing more Oklahoma families come, and we have a lot of great Oklahoma families involved, so we really have a footprint there already that as we intentionally focus on that.
SPEAKER_00: Again, this campus geographically is an advantage.
SPEAKER_00: Another advantage is it'll be a it'll be several phases before you have near this much facility on that campus, just because it takes time to build stuff and pay for stuff and all that kind of a deal.
SPEAKER_00: So for a long time, this facility will be a larger building than that one.
SPEAKER_00: And so that creates advantages.
SPEAKER_00: Matt and I, you've heard me mention this before, but here's an example why that's an advantage.
SPEAKER_00: Matt and I have been praying for uh God to bring a leader for us that would help us start a ministry to families with disabled children or have physical or mental challenges because there's not really a church that, I mean, people try, I'm not being negative about churches, but we there's not a church, including us, that has a full-blown ministry to those families.
SPEAKER_00: And there are a ton of those families in the River Valley, and if somebody will minister to them, they'll come to church.
SPEAKER_00: And they don't care where the building is, they want there to be enough room to do that ministry with their family, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so we have room, we will continue to have room.
SPEAKER_00: It's a long time before we fill up this building.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's another advantage that this campus and building provides for us, another example of how this campus has plenty of vision to grow.
SPEAKER_00: It's not one or the other.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: And that's why it's good to be able to look at things like we now have in less than a year replaced all the people that we sent out there, as well as the people who graduate to heaven every year.
SPEAKER_00: Our growth here is outpacing that which tells you that this campus has every opportunity to be a viable, growing, baptizing campus.
SPEAKER_00: So that's why our focus is on being a multi-site church rather than you know trying to hurry up and sell this or do whatever and move everybody over there or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: This is an asset here, it's a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: We have opportunities for ministry and evangelism here, and we certainly need to be out there because of all the ministry and evangelism opportunities out there.
SPEAKER_00: So that's a great question.
SPEAKER_00: Did I explain that?
SPEAKER_00: Would that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: Y'all with me?
SPEAKER_00: No, the that's a good question.
SPEAKER_00: The question is um, is there a certain size, number, or core out there that triggers the decision to start building?
SPEAKER_00: And I no, the answer is not.
SPEAKER_00: That is number of people is not what will trigger doing that.
SPEAKER_00: Um as much as anything, the two things that will happen that will trigger that are um we have a plan that the church as a whole feels comfortable with, and that's what our master planning committee is doing.
SPEAKER_00: So we have re-engaged them as the property is now, that project's gotten fixed.
SPEAKER_00: So we have re-engaged them.
SPEAKER_00: We can't do anything until we have a plan.
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, we'll have a plan sometime the first part of next year that we can present to the church and that we can start talking about as a church, you know.
SPEAKER_00: The second phase of that is the church has to be as a whole, has to be behind it.
SPEAKER_00: So there's not going to be enough people out there for a long time to pay for it or do whatever.
SPEAKER_00: So we're all in this and we're doing this one and that one.
SPEAKER_00: So everybody's got to be globally behind it.
SPEAKER_00: So as we get that plan and everybody's behind it, that basically is the trigger point to start that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so there's a lot of ways to approach that.
SPEAKER_00: We could start doing some small projects out there that get us moving.
SPEAKER_00: We could marshal our resources and just build the first building.
SPEAKER_00: There's just a lot of ways to do that.
SPEAKER_00: The way Chaffee attendance would affect the timing is the faster that grows, the faster it escalates the need to do it because there will be a physical limit at some point to what that campus can handle.
SPEAKER_00: And that's more people who are helping, serving, inviting people to church, giving, praying, sharing their testimony.
SPEAKER_00: And so the more people there are, the bigger and stronger and faster we can go do that and get and move on to the next phase.
SPEAKER_00: So it's really driven by when we have a plan and when we're ready, and we're working on the plan, and then the church all together decides when we're ready, right?
SPEAKER_00: Make sense?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if it's Pastor Greg, we'd already be out there having a work day building around it, but it's not it's not just Pastor Greg.
SPEAKER_00: Those are see, I knew y'all had great questions.
SPEAKER_00: Those are awesome.
SPEAKER_00: You're doing really good.
SPEAKER_00: That's way more interesting hearing me preach, right?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir, Randy.
SPEAKER_00: Uh any projection on when we'll have a campus pastor out there?
SPEAKER_00: That's a great question.
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited as about that as you are.
SPEAKER_00: Um, not because I don't love preaching both of them, but it like it's all the man hours of you know, all the visitors and everything.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's only so many people I can get to in a day, right?
SPEAKER_00: So um I actually had a had a meeting this morning, Zoom call this morning with a large church.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's a wonderful church.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you would know it if I I said the name of it.
SPEAKER_00: And they have a college, they have an intern program, they have like 15 campuses or something.
SPEAKER_00: And they're, you know, they're training and producing ministers and all that.
SPEAKER_00: So I actually had a Zoom call with the leaders of that part in that church today to get us into their queue where, you know, people that they're training and all that can be a part of that.
SPEAKER_00: So we're we are aggressively praying and networking and all of that for a campus pastor.
SPEAKER_00: We're also doing that for more student ministry staff.
SPEAKER_00: If you'll remember a couple years ago, we started trying to get to three, and then we've sort of backed down with some of the other needs we have, and now we had started in the fall working back towards getting to at least three again, and then Brad's journey.
SPEAKER_00: So we're back down to just Abigail, and then of course Frisco and Maverick help a lot with the students.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not just Abigail, it's you know, Frisco's in that, Maverick's in that, Matt and I are helping, Trey helps.
SPEAKER_00: So we're, you know, they're we got, but we want more.
SPEAKER_00: So we're both in those very aggressively doing that.
SPEAKER_00: And the timing is what God determines the timing.
SPEAKER_00: I can't, I can't really give a time.
SPEAKER_00: It just is what it is.
SPEAKER_00: Um it's turned out to be good.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's been helpful that I've been there.
SPEAKER_00: I guess.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Some people may say, when are you gonna stop coming here and torturing us?
SPEAKER_00: But I think it's been helpful.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's made sure we have the same DNA, the same connection.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they think the way we do, they are praying for the same mission trips that we're praying for and all the other stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I think that's been helpful.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's been a good project, um, but we do need more hands reaching more visitors and all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: So we're looking.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the plan would still be, like it was when Jared was here, to tag team the preaching out there because they are that is first Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a church plant to become Mount Piscah number two or something.
SPEAKER_00: It's that's first Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: And so I am the pastor at First Baptist, so that connection is important.
SPEAKER_00: Plus, it is a that is the beginning of the campus, and we're building out there so that you know you have to maintain some connectivity between the two campuses.
SPEAKER_00: And so, even with a campus pastor, the plan would be for him to do some of the preaching and me do some of the preaching, and we kind of platoon that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but the preaching part of it is easy.
SPEAKER_00: I that's fun.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, you get to you write a sermon.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Jacob and Maverick, those guys get to sing a song over and over and over and over.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how lazy are are they?
SPEAKER_00: They work up one song and sing it four times.
SPEAKER_00: I work up a new message every time and only get it due once.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and uh the preacher doesn't get greatest hits like you know, the music people do, but we're smarter than the music people, so that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Um so the preaching it twice is actually fun.
SPEAKER_00: I I enjoy that.
SPEAKER_00: And most of my ministry career, I have preached at least twice every Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not hard, and the drive is not difficult.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, on Sunday mornings, it's you know, it's easy, it's 20 minutes, it's not hard.
SPEAKER_00: Um I think Dave has Pastor Dave has more stress over my drive than I ever do because he's sitting on the front row panicked until I walk in the room.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not the only one, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of funny.
SPEAKER_00: Well, usually I'm here, I usually I'm in Bobby's room, Bobby's area.
SPEAKER_00: So I'll get here, and a lot of times I walk in, they're taking the offering.
SPEAKER_00: So that's a most Sundays, that's about when I get here.
SPEAKER_00: So I go into the in Bobby's area, and Bobby and I have a routine.
SPEAKER_00: He's got his team in there.
SPEAKER_00: He has orange Starburst sitting out on a desk organized for me every Sunday next to my microphone.
SPEAKER_00: And I always have a bottle of water and an orange starburst before I walk into the sanctuary, and uh, and so it works.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and so we're so usually I'm here and I'm seeing what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times when I'm driving, sometimes I will pull up the live broadcast and I'll just stream it through the speakers in my truck so I hear what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: Then sometimes I just need to be sort of quiet between the services.
SPEAKER_00: And again, I've done two services, so I know I'm familiar with so sometimes I'm just quiet in the truck trying to think through you know how it's different, what I need to do, just kind of pray through that.
SPEAKER_00: And so, but I'm usually here, and even if you don't see me when I walk in, I've been here.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like I'm rushed in and ran at that point, except this Sunday, I was not here.
SPEAKER_00: We have an arrangement how all this works.
SPEAKER_00: So, Jacob is supposed to have the service covered until 11.
SPEAKER_00: So that's supposed to be the trigger point, 11 o'clock.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm here by 11, I'm in the room by 11.
SPEAKER_00: Most Sundays I'm here earlier than that.
SPEAKER_00: Most Sundays it's about 5 till.
SPEAKER_00: There have been a few times that I left there late.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I am the pastor there too.
SPEAKER_00: So somebody has ministry going on, I'm ministering, I'm meeting a new visitor, I'm praying over somebody that had surgery last week or something, and I'll get a little bit behind, and I will text Matt, and Matt knows to be watching, and I'll text Matt and say, um, it's it's 10 31, and I'm just leaving.
SPEAKER_00: You know, just be aware.
SPEAKER_00: And we have a plan where Matt can step in.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob usually has a plan to extend with another verse or something, and then Matt has a plan to step in and to take over the pastor prayer time before the sermon that we started.
SPEAKER_00: That wasn't why we started it, but but it's good.
SPEAKER_00: And so we have a plan.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Sunday was the first time we've had to do that since the last Sunday in September.
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty good, right?
SPEAKER_00: And that happened not because of me.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob finished 10 minutes early.
SPEAKER_00: So it's Jacob and the choir's fault.
SPEAKER_00: So if y'all were stressed out Sunday, blame the choir and Jacob, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's their fault.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I walked, I, I, I walked in the building and Jan was waiting at Jan Dyer was waiting at this corner right here, and it was still like 13 till.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was way ahead, right?
SPEAKER_00: And she's waiting at that corner going, men are looking for you, Greg.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what?
SPEAKER_00: It's like not even 10 till yet.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and so I go in there and Matt's already started prayer time, and so I grabbed my microphone.
SPEAKER_00: It cost me my Starburst Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_00: So if y'all thought that was a bad sermon, it's because I didn't have my star burst before I walked in the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and so I came in with Matt, you know, and he was doing a great job of the prayer time, and that and that's perfectly good.
SPEAKER_00: We need that, we've started that prayer time.
SPEAKER_00: So Sunday morning was the first morning.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm giving y'all some in inside baseball now, right?
SPEAKER_00: So usually it's not stressful.
SPEAKER_00: So just because you don't see me out there, I'm still in the building, usually at that point already.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and so I'm just in there with Bobby and putting on a microphone since I grew my beard.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they're all worried about it, scratches, and they're all trying to figure out where to put, you know, all that kind of going on.
SPEAKER_00: So it's good, yes, ma'am.
SPEAKER_00: That's a great question.
SPEAKER_00: So if I'm here, who's at Chappie Crossing?
SPEAKER_00: That's a great question.
SPEAKER_00: And we have a great team there, they're doing an excellent job.
SPEAKER_00: So, first of all, Maverick is there, right?
SPEAKER_00: So Maverick stays the whole morning and he's there and he's ministering, and he is really good with people.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if everybody's gotten a chance to be around Maverick much, but he's a wonderful young man.
SPEAKER_00: He loves everybody.
SPEAKER_00: They love him.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's really good.
SPEAKER_00: So he's really a good pastor.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Maverick is the worship leader over there, the young guy with the guitar and all that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, then the second person that's over there is Trey Overton.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Trey interned with us and helped us help us get it started last year.
SPEAKER_00: And we had worked, he was just interning, finishing his seminary degree at Liberty University Online.
SPEAKER_00: And he was here about a month, and Matt and I started talking about man, we're not letting him go.
SPEAKER_00: He's really good.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and he's you know, he has a business background and all that.
SPEAKER_00: His mom owns Rolando's restaurant.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if y'all knew that.
SPEAKER_00: So he's run the restaurant for her, he's been a football coach.
SPEAKER_00: He's done, I mean, he's done all kinds of incredible things.
SPEAKER_00: He sold insurance, he's a really good business guy.
SPEAKER_00: So that's why he was a great hire into the business administrator role, because we've been looking for that since Randy had graduated to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And so he does that really well, but he also has a pastoral heart, ministry experience.
SPEAKER_00: So Trey really and his family have dug in at Chaffee.
SPEAKER_00: So he would be the second staff person there, and he's very good at that.
SPEAKER_00: He he really is wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: We're blessed God brought him and his family here.
SPEAKER_00: So you already have Trey and uh and Maverick there, and then we have some incredible lay leaders over there.
SPEAKER_00: Stephen Leonard is a deacon, you know, is David Burton's son-in-law, Stephen and Brooke, and so they're out there, and we've been doing ministry with them since I got here.
SPEAKER_00: We started that Sunday school class together and all that, and he's incredible.
SPEAKER_00: I I he can he's better at a lot of stuff than I am, so I he he's just running it.
SPEAKER_00: Robert and Beverly Turner, if y'all know the Turners, and you know, Robert is a deacon, and she's been a children's pastor, and so they get they totally get it.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so they're running around taking care of stuff, and then we have just some great lay leaders, Grant Johnson, who is Johnny Johnson's son.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Grant's out there helping, doing stuff.
SPEAKER_00: He helps Robert and Trey, uh, Stan and Georgiana, Yurtin and Sarah Howe are out there, and they're a godsend, they're an incredible blessing.
SPEAKER_00: They're, you know, longtime First Baptist done everything here on top of that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so we've got some great folks like that who are really on top of those things.
SPEAKER_00: Lee Young, I don't know how many of you know Lee.
SPEAKER_00: Um Lee did the narration on the July 5th service, right?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So Lee has jumped in out there and is doing incredible work.
SPEAKER_00: Lee runs the door and meets everybody, grabs visitor information for us.
SPEAKER_00: He um Stephen teaches a Sunday school class that meets after the church service.
SPEAKER_00: So while I'm driving over driving over here, they fellowship, then they go into Sunday school.
SPEAKER_00: So Stephen is the primary teacher, but Lee does a lot of backup teaching for that.
SPEAKER_00: And Lee has just been, I mean, he's been incredible out there.
SPEAKER_00: So we have some great people who've jumped in and are really handling that well.
SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of how that looks uh when I'm on my way back here.
SPEAKER_00: And it's really, they're really doing a great job.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's really good.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, there are.
SPEAKER_00: Did y'all hear the question is what other staff people are we in line for out there?
SPEAKER_00: We're working on a part-time person to help us do children's because we're starting children's Sunday school and all that this fall in August and September.
SPEAKER_00: So we're working on a part-time person for that.
SPEAKER_00: But the main person we're looking for right now is this is the uh is the campus pastor.
SPEAKER_00: And then as we're adding student pastors here, you know, we're I mentioned that we're looking for that.
SPEAKER_00: We'd like to get enough capacity that we can assign someone out there, and we'd like to get to where if we can get enough students, we'll do Wednesday night student ministry there and here, both of them.
SPEAKER_00: And we're pretty close.
SPEAKER_00: If we just get the lead people, we're pretty close on enough to be able to do that.
SPEAKER_00: So we'd like to be able to do student ministry on Wednesday nights out there, also.
SPEAKER_00: But the two main ones, a part-time person help children's, but the main one is the campus pastor.
SPEAKER_00: See, those are good.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all are doing great, yes, sir.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a great question.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and a great conversation.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the question was, you know, we used to do church albums, everybody used to do that, you know, that kind of that was cool, we've done that.
SPEAKER_00: I I want you to know, you know, people sometimes will make the joke about, you know, they they're they can break a camera when you take their picture, right?
SPEAKER_00: I actually broke a camera.
SPEAKER_00: Like I actually broke a camera.
SPEAKER_00: We were doing in Cabot a family album, church album like that, and they were taking the pictures, and so you can picture it's like a Tuesday night, and there's you know, you schedule those every 10 minutes or so, and so there's like seven or eight families out in the hallway, and it's the Addison family time, and we go in there and they take a picture of our family, and then they take Janet and the kids aside, and they're gonna take just my picture for the staff picture, and they literally took the picture, it broke the camera, and they had to come out in the hall and tell everybody to go home because Pastor Greg broke the camera.
SPEAKER_00: That's a true story.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so, but uh, we also mentioned in modern life it's very awkward because people are so concerned about security issues and all that kind of stuff, and that's a real thing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh because now most churches that it's hard to find somebody that will do a physical church album now because they do them all online and they tie them to church apps, and then all of a sudden now everybody's worried about information sharing and all that kind of stuff, and that becomes a problem, and security issues are a problem.
SPEAKER_00: So that really is the discussion that's going on with people as we're talking about whether to do that or not.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things that they did at home, uh, that Bellevue did at home that I thought was really helpful, because my my mom and dad, for example, were in a married Sunday school class that would be like Tom Bull's class, basically.
SPEAKER_00: So, and they had they were they averaged 115 every Sunday in Sunday school, and my dad taught the class.
SPEAKER_00: So, what they did was they just did a class deal.
SPEAKER_00: And so they took everybody's picture and they would add new members, and they did it in paper that you stapled together.
SPEAKER_00: So if you had a couple of new members, you just added a new page on the back.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: And so it was easy to do that, and it's only distributed within that group, so you're not worried about the security issues of it getting expanded.
SPEAKER_00: So, one of the things we've talked a little bit about is maybe encouraging classes to do it within the class so we get some of that benefit, but we're not risking the security issues.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's true.
SPEAKER_00: And we're getting bigger all the time, so more people, so it's true.
SPEAKER_00: I'm beginning to understand that myself.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that's a great conversation, and I would love it if y'all would keep talking to us about that because we're trying to figure out the best way to do that.
SPEAKER_00: And if and it's a generational conversation.
SPEAKER_00: This generation is used to doing that.
SPEAKER_00: People in their 20s with babies, they're freaked out, like they don't even put pictures of their kids online because they're so worried about it.
SPEAKER_00: So it's a different and then it's changed even with them because now they're all selling junk on TikTok and got stores and influence, and they're putting the kids on.
SPEAKER_00: It's a it's a constant moving target.
SPEAKER_00: And so it'd be great for y'all to keep talking to us about that like this, because that we need to figure out what we can do.
SPEAKER_00: And it's just it's just hard.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of issues to that.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that I have a good answer.
SPEAKER_00: That's just what the discussion is.
SPEAKER_00: That's a great, those are great questions.
SPEAKER_00: Coach.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we are paying the bills and more than that.
SPEAKER_00: We're good.
SPEAKER_00: God is good, right?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: God's good.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, we're actually we're actually ahead for the year.
SPEAKER_00: We're ahead of last year's giving.
SPEAKER_00: We're uh it's there's a it's really good.
SPEAKER_00: Usually what happens is because our Januaries are so bad, right?
SPEAKER_00: Our Januaries are terrible.
SPEAKER_00: And this year we actually canceled a Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: So usually we go 50 grand in the hole in January and we drag that around till the end of the year, and in December we go over into the black.
SPEAKER_00: We're actually ahead already this year for the year.
SPEAKER_00: Like we don't, I told Matt, you need to go spend some more money because we need to be behind like we're supposed to be.
SPEAKER_00: I can't tell that to Jacob because Jacob will spend he'll spend all the money that God can generate in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: So uh, you know, but it's good.
SPEAKER_00: God is good.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, ma'am.
SPEAKER_00: The Hispanic Church, yes, the the base on Sunday mornings is Hispanic Church, and they're running, you know, they're 70, 80.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're you can see the parking lot.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of people over there, and so they're doing well.
SPEAKER_00: It's good.
SPEAKER_00: Um it's good.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, that's good.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all did good, like I you like we're done, right?
SPEAKER_00: No, that's good.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you a quick word.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna preach, let me give you a quick word.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of fun.
SPEAKER_00: I had breakfast this morning with somebody, like I said, we were talking about the chronological Bible, and this is the way the conversation goes.
SPEAKER_00: It was really fun when we were all reading the story of Genesis and the story of Exodus, and it was all kind of smooth and all that.
SPEAKER_00: Well, now it's chaos.
SPEAKER_00: We're reading from like five books this week.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's you know, you got these kingdoms and this and Amos and over here, and then Chronicles and Isaiah, where is he showing, you know, you got all this kind of stuff, right?
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's one reason it's good to do it, because we need to know at least some idea about where all that fits in, right?
SPEAKER_00: But here's the second reason we need to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Because we need to know, have a deeper understanding how vitally important all those prophets are, because they're the ones that God used to give the next round of prophecies so that we would know that Jesus, the person of Jesus, is actually the person who God sent to be our Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: The reason that we know that Jesus was the Messiah is because of all these prophecies about the Messiah that God would send that identify him as the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: For example, in Micah, we just read Micah, Micah chapter 5, that's the prophecy of Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_00: When the wise kings were coming to worship the Savior, the reason that they knew to look for him and to look for him at Bethlehem was because they had read the prophet Micah, and Micah's prophecy was he would be born in Bethlehem, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so here's why that's wonderful, and I'll give you this thought.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Peter chapter 1, Peter begins his letter and he talks about how God has given us these incredibly powerful and gracious and precious promises that teach us how to walk with the Lord and how to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And then he ends that chapter by saying this for we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
SPEAKER_00: So the first reason we know that Jesus is our Savior is because the people who walked with him gave testimony to him.
SPEAKER_00: First thing Peter says.
SPEAKER_00: Then he says, For Jesus received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the majestic glory.
SPEAKER_00: This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.
SPEAKER_00: We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.
SPEAKER_00: He's referring to the what we call the Mount of Transfiguration when Peter was there and God identified him.
SPEAKER_00: So the first thing he says is we know Jesus is our Savior because we are eyewitnesses to that in God's affirmation of him.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the next thing he says that is how we know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing this, first of all.
SPEAKER_00: That no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.
SPEAKER_00: For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were moved and carried along by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And so what Peter says is we know that Jesus is the Messiah, not just because we were there with him, but even more important, we have the Old Testament scripture and the prophetic word that the Holy Spirit gave these holy men of God that told us how we would know that that's Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we read Amos, when we read Micah, as we've started reading Isaiah, and we see those testimonies, those prophecies that tell us that's who Jesus, that's who the Messiah will be, and Jesus fulfilled those prophecies in an incredibly miraculous way.
SPEAKER_00: That's how we know that Jesus is the Savior, and why we place our faith in him.
SPEAKER_00: And so Peter reminds everyone that the Bible that they studied every week was Micah and Amos and Nahum and Isaiah and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: That's who they studied.
SPEAKER_00: And so they read about Isaiah, and they read about him pointing to Jesus, who would be our Savior, you know, the Lamb of God.
SPEAKER_00: He was beaten beyond recognition, you know, all that sort of stuff, wonderful counselor, mighty God, all those things that we love to quote.
SPEAKER_00: He said, listen, we know that that was Jesus because the Holy Spirit told those prophets of God to write those specific prophecies and that it would be fulfilled in the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: And then Peter's testimony is we saw Jesus who fulfilled those prophecies, and that's how we know he's our Savior.
SPEAKER_00: So hopefully that's an encouraging word to encourage you as we plow through Habakkuk.
SPEAKER_00: Like, where in the world is Habakkuk, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like we have to find Habakkuk.
SPEAKER_00: But as we go through those, it is a blessing to know how important those are to our faith because they pointed the way to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And then those New Testament authors, Peter and James and John and Matthew and Luke and all, they were eyewitnesses to how Jesus fulfilled the prophecies that we're studying now.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a beautiful picture of the incredible truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: So love those prophets, dig into those prophets, see those pictures, and as you read them, read them with a view towards the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Good?
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for y'all.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you for today and a chance for me to be with our group today.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you as we read your word, the more we're in it, the more we're astounded and amazed at the beauty of your word.
SPEAKER_00: And so we thank you for those prophets that we're studying, Micah and Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that they were faithful to you to give your message you gave them, and they pointed us to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And now we can know that He is our Savior in whom we trust because how your word teaches us who He is.
SPEAKER_00: Bless them, keep them, give them a wonderful rest of the day.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray, and everybody sit.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for being here today.