Beach Blessings #2

Another great weekend for our church this weekend!! First off Saturday night was awesome at the McCrary's! We had a blast at our fall festival!! There was great food, fellowship, and fun (just as promised)! We had a great turnout and I got to meet a lot of people that I had never meet before! Special thanks to all the McCrary's for letting us use their property and cleaning up after us! It was AWESOME!

Also we went back to the beach this past Sunday night to baptize one of our young ones! The really cool thing is that both times that we have been out there there has been another church out there baptizing too! It has just been really cool to see God's children follow Him in obedience in a public setting like the beach! Just as a thought anytime someone gets baptized in your church make sure you go out there and support them! It's a great time for the body of Christ (the church) to come together and rejoice with one another!

Youth Sunday & Other Events

Sunday morning November 8th our youth will take over the 10:30 am service! That's right we will be having youth Sunday that morning as youth run the show. Over the next couple of weeks I'll be asking (and encouraging) students in our ministry to run the sound equipment, read Scripture, sing, do motions, and other tasks to help serve that morning. I'll also have the awesome opportunity to preach from God's Word that morning.

I really want to encourage you and your youth to be there that Sunday morning and participate in this fun and exciting service!

Other events coming soon:

1.This Saturday is our churches Fall Festival at the McCrary's house! This is a great time for fun, food , and fellowship! We'll have all kinds of games for the youth, a bon fire, a hayride, and other exciting things. The event starts at 6:30pm and ends around 9:30pm. Directions can be found on our church's website at www.petrabaptist.com. Hope to see you there!

2. Beach Baptism service - Sunday night October 25th at 6:00 we will meet down at Mickler's Landing and have another beach baptism service! Please let me know if you or your youth would like to be baptized! Come down and support our brothers and sisters in Christ as we welcome them into the family of Christ!

3. Crazy Hat Night - Wednesday night October 28th our student ministry is shaking up the normal schedule with another theme night. We are encouraging students to come that night with some kind of crazy hat. They will be voted on based on creativity, size, color, and WOW factor. The best hat will receive a prize at the end of the night!

4. Prayer walk - Thursday night October 29th at 6:30pm our church will go out into the community and pray for people in neighborhoods around us. Meet at the church and be prepared to have God work in your life as you pray for other!

5. Thanksgiving dinner on church grounds - Sunday afternoon November 15th our church will sit down with each other and celebrate Thanksgiving by eating and fellowshiping together! More information to come soon!

6. Last night for Wednesday activities - Wednesday November 18th will be the last night of our church-wide activities (including youth programs and awanna programs) until early January. Take this time to enjoy the holiday's by spending extra time with your family and in God's Word! See you in January!

For any questions about our upcoming events please email me at Josh@petrabaptist.com or visit our website at www.petrabaptist.com.

Petra Parents!!

Hey Parents! Just wanted to let you know that you should receive our monthly newsletter tomorrow at your home (the same one that you have received via email)! Just to echo what the newsletter says I am trying to compile an email list for all of you so that once a month I can send you the newsletter via email. The cost and the time it took to send a hard copy out to everyone was massive and this would help me out a lot. If you do not wish to give out your email address that is fine just let me know and I'll send you a hard copy every month. Thanks for helping me out in this way, if you do not receive emails from me please let me know what your email address is so I can add you to my list! Thanks everyone!

American Culture & Effective Leadership

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let everyone know that I have planned out two topics to talk about in depth over the next couple of months on my blog. I will be working hard to update these topics once a week, the topics include the following:

1. American Culture - I'm gonna spend some time talking about the culture here in America. Because I'm a youth pastor I'll talk a lot about youth culture but I do want to focus on other age groups as well. Some people just write off the concept of church and culture but I happen to believe that as the culture changes the way you do things as a church have to change as well. The good thing is that some thing never changes (even in the midst of cultural change) and that includes the Word of God and God's character! I'm excited to share some of these things with you in the next couple of months!

2. I had lunch with a great friend in ministry a couple weeks ago and he gave me a book full of useful leadership tips all of which are backed by Scripture. So I'll pick out my favorites and share them with you and I may even add a few of my own. These leadership tips will help you as you lead out in your church or as you lead people in the business world!

Be sure to comment on these posts if you have any questions, thoughts, or maybe a differing opinion and we'll talk about those in the weeks to come! I'm really looking forward to sharing things that are on my mind with all of you for the next couple of months!