Every October 31, hundreds of kids walk through our neighborhood with their parents for trick-or-treat. (We weren’t prepared our first year, but we quickly learned to stock up on candy!)

We’ve always seen this as a great opportunity to reach out to our neighbors and be generous toward them. After all, it’s not often that 500 people walk down our street and knock on the door. We want to seize this chance to talk with neighbors and represent Christ in our community. Occasionally, we even see kids who have visited the church or attended our VBS program.

Last year, we tried something new, and it was a big success. With the help of a couple volunteers, we set up a table in our driveway and added free bottled water and hot chocolate to our standard fare of candy. Many parents responded, “Wow! Thanks so much! What a great idea!” One mom said they were looking for a church and visited First Southern.

This year, we’d like to do it again. We plan to have a table set up with water, hot chocolate, candy, and gospel tracts. We will also put a label with church information on each water bottle and on the back of each tract.

Please pray that we will be able to have some good conversations and that we can be salt and light on a typically dark holiday.

If you would like to donate toward this event, you can bring water bottles and candy bags to the church, or simply donate online to the church and write “Halloween Outreach” in the comments line.

Here’s an update I shared at our quarterly business meeting last Sunday, including some praises and upcoming prayer needs for our church…

Fall is here! As the days grow shorter and students head back to school, fall is a good time to stop and review our ministry goals for the coming year. A couple weeks ago, I met with our deacons for our annual prayer and planning retreat. Here are some opportunities we see on the horizon and invite you to pray with us:

• With Gordon Gill and Dan Bentley stepping down from deacon ministry for health and scheduling reasons, we plan to add one or two new deacons to our ministry team next year. We look forward to presenting these names for consideration as we get closer. 
• Shepherding and care for the Body of Christ is a high priority for our leaders. We have updated our Care Group Ministry and Prayer Chain, and are encouraging every member to belong to a Small Group at the church (e.g. Life Groups, Wednesday night study, 29 Palms Bible Study, Men’s or Women’s Fellowship). We also hope to add a Young Adults Bible Study to our list of available Bible Studies on Sunday mornings.
• It seems the Lord may be opening the door for a Spanish Bible Study sometime soon. This is an exciting development that would help us share Christ’s love with an entirely new demographic of our community. 

With Natalie’s improved health, we’ve been able to show more hospitality in our home. We host lunch on the first Sunday of each month for any young adults and singles. We’ve also been hosting several equipping classes in our home, and this seems to be working well. Our Sunday afternoon Baptism Class wraps up next week, then we’ll begin another New Members class in mid-October. Several attenders have already signed up. We’ve also been meeting with several young couples for marital/pre-marital counseling. It’s a joy to connect people together and to equip families in our church in a more relaxed setting.

After our study of the Lord’s Prayer concludes, I plan to preach a series on the Book of Isaiah. Isaiah has been called “The Gospel of the Old Testament.” He is quoted more by Jesus Christ than any other prophet, and is essential to our understanding of the Messiah. I’m excited to dive into this series later this fall and into the Christmas season. On Wednesday nights, we’re wrapping up our study of the Spiritual Disciplines and are beginning a new series on Basic Christian Beliefs. You won’t want to miss it.

Lastly, I encourage you to keep giving generously to the Lord’s work. Though attendance remained strong through the summer, our giving noticeable declined. We have some exciting opportunities for ministry growth and facility improvement. Often, money seems to be the only thing holding us back. As soon as funds are available, we are ready to fix our sanctuary ceiling, patch our Bldg. C roof, improve our sound system, repair bookcases in my study, increase missions giving, and create a permanent line item for internships. The church has also fallen behind several months in paying my family health insurance. If giving could increase by $2,000-3,000 per month, all these goals could be met. Please pray what the Lord would have your family to give. Every dollar makes a difference and brings glory to God.

Whenever I teach a membership class at our church, I encourage each member to get involved and not stay on the sidelines. If you have a humble and teachable heart, you will grow rapidly by doing three things in the local church. We call these the “A-B-Cs” of church membership:

Attend our Sunday morning worship service (Ac. 2:42; 20:7). This is the highlight of our week. it is a time to express our love for God as a corporate body, listen to expository preaching, give our offerings, observe the ordinances, sing, pray, and fellowship together.

Belong to a Small Group. Sunday worship is great, but we also grow through deeper relationships and relevant teaching in a smaller setting (Heb. 10:24-25).

Connect to a Ministry and use your spiritual gift to serve others (Rom. 12:3-8; 1 Cor. 12:4-11; 1 Pet. 4:10-11). Find at least one ministry where you can begin serving as soon as possible. These may include music ministry, office help, maintenance, ushering, audio/visual, social coordinator, children’s ministry volunteer, visitation, etc.

This fall, the deacons and I are spotlighting the letter “B” in this list. We want to encourage every family to get involved in a small group. Several of these are are available. Life Groups meet every Sunday at 9:15 am. Bible Study & Prayer is Wednesday at 6pm. Plus we have Men’s & Women’s Fellowship one Saturday morning per month. I don’t expect everyone to attend all of these. But I do encourage you to choose at least one.

Our Sunday morning Life Groups are especially strategic because everyone is already at church and youth & children’s programs are available. If the Lord wills, we hope to add a Young Adults Life Group and a Spanish Life Group in the coming months. But don’t wait to get involved. We already have two great adult classes on Matthew and Mark for you to attend. Come join us this Sunday at 9:15. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help your family get more involved.

Related Posts:

• 10 Ways to Cultivate Fellowship
• Sunday School in the 21st Century
• Life Groups at First Southern Baptist Church