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From Pastor Dave
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Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words...
Anybody can wear a cross, but can they bear it? Carrying the cross means many things but it all comes back to one thing: Can we as individuals and collectively as the Church move on the Lord's behalf? Are we willing to move on the Lord's behalf would be the bigger question here. The gospel is a love story about God's love for man. The Church is called to be love and since love is a verb, it is an action word. The Church should literally be love in action and to truly be the Church, we are to be the Church which means obedience to God call for us to be "a called-out people." The opportunities to be the hands and feet of Christ are all around us.
As I declared at the beginning of this calendar year, I am praying for FCN to become the Church and really go out. I want to challenge you to start with easy area of missions starting now. It is a simple calling; do something special for a neighbor or neighbors by the close of summer and once you do that would you do me an extra favor by journaling your experience and turn that in to me, I would love to share these stories in a missional message at the close of summer.
Another "Be the Church" vision and challenge that the Lord has given me for this year is "SUNDAY SERVICE". On Sunday, September 16, we will have what I have named "SUNDAY SERVICE" in which our Sunday Service will literally be that... "a Sunday in which we serve others". We will break into teams and work on several projects throughout Abilene to be a blessing to many. I am currently working on the project details and they will be coming soon. We will not have our typical service on that day and for those that are not able to do the work, I ask that team up by meeting at that church at the regular worship time for a time of prayer over this powerful FCN mission event.
Let the praying begin now for this amazing time of becoming the church to our brothers and sisters in Abilene.
I would like to close this article with a devotion which I had read on a Pastoral Leadership site and was written by Rick Warren.
Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Mark 10:43 (MSG)
The world defines greatness in terms of power, possessions, prestige, and position. If you can demand service from others, you've arrived. In our
me-first
culture, acting like a servant is not a popular concept. Jesus, however, measured greatness in terms of service, not status. God determines your greatness by how many people you serve, not how many people serve you. This is so contrary to the world's idea of greatness that we have a hard time understanding it, much less practicing it. The disciples argued about who deserved the most prominent position, and 2,000 years later, people still jockey for position and prominence.
Thousands of books have been written on leadership, but few on servanthood. Everyone wants to lead; no one wants to be a servant. We would rather be generals than privates. Even Christians want to be "servant-leaders," not just plain servants. But to be like Jesus is to be a servant. That's what he called himself.
While knowing your shape is important for serving God, having the heart of a servant is even more important. Remember, God shaped you for service, not for self-centeredness. Without a servant's heart, you will be tempted to misuse your shape for personal gain. You will also be tempted to use it as an excuse to exempt yourself from meeting some needs.
God often tests our hearts by asking us to serve in ways we're not shaped. If you see a man fall into a ditch, God expects you to help him out, not say, "I don't have the gift of mercy or service."
While you may not be gifted for a particular task, you may be called to do it if no one who is gifted at it is around. Your primary ministry should be in the area of your shape, but your secondary service is wherever you're needed at the moment. Your shape reveals your ministry, but your servant's heart will reveal your maturity. No special talent or gift is required to stay after a meeting to pick up trash or stack chairs. Anyone can be a servant. All it requires is character.
It is possible to serve in church for a lifetime without ever being a servant. You must have a servant's heart.
H
ow can you know if you have the heart of a servant?
Matthew 7:16
By their fruit you will recognize them.
Loving you and Lifting you, PD
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Puerto Rico Disaster Relief Trip
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Andrew and myself will be heading to Puerto Rico for a West Texas District Disaster Response trip. We will be assisting in repairing damage to Fuente de Vida (Fountain of Life) Church of the Nazarene in Arecibo, Puerto Rico where the Church was severely damaged and if time is on our side, we will assist in neighborhood projects of cleanup and painting.
The trip is taking place from May 21 to May 31.
We would appreciate your prayers and if you want to support us in this amazing opportunity to be the hands and feet of Christ, we appreciate anything you can do to help
You can donate directly or by going to our GoFundMe page at:
Thank you so much! We appreciate it!
Pastor Dave and Andrew
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Online Giving
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New things can often seem overwhelming. When something isn't working, we don't like to change. But everything we bring into this building is here to help us collectively serve the Lord better, and this is no exception.
There are a few different ways we're able to give. First, you can give on Sunday morning during the service. Next, you can give through the church website. It's easy to sign up and doesn't take much time. We are also offering text giving. You will find the website address and text giving # at the bottom of this insert.
Benefits of Online Giving:
* The ease of being able to sign up for, and donate all in one place.
* Even when you are traveling or visiting family away from our four walls, our giving is with
you through our website or through text messaging to help you continue to faithfully give.
* We even have the ability to set up recurring giving, meaning you set the amount you want to donate to a certain fund, and it's automatic-you decide how often.
* You can login to your giving account and track your donations for the year. You can also print a report for your taxes.
Using Online Giving, you can donate to multiple accounts. Log in to the giving link/create an account. Navigate to the box for adding additional funds. Click the dropdown menu and choose the fund to which you wish to give.
Online Giving Guides and Text Giving Guides are located on the Welcome Center table or on our website.
FCN Website: fcnabilene.org/online-giving
Text Giving: 325-221-0299
If you have questions, please feel free to contact the office at 325-677-9429.
Online Giving Security statement from Clover Giving:
Everything you enter is encrypted so it can't be spied on by anyone else. It's encrypted with 256-bit SSL (also known as HTTPS). Sensitive credit card information is stored only when necessary - for example, when a donor sets up a recurring transaction. When we do store information like this, it's also encrypted (essentially scrambled) using an algorithm called AES-256 in "cypher-block-chaining mode".
Our servers are behind hardware and software firewalls, which serve to protect your data and our code from hackers and intruders. We're also PCI Compliant as service provider, which means we've been certified to follow a comprehensive set of rules created by the credit card companies to ensure that security precautions are held to the highest standard. There are many other specific measures we've put in place to ensure safe and secure transactions.
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Youth/Children "Takeover" Service / All-Church Dinner / Graduation Celebration
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Sunday, May 20, will be a busy day!
First, the Youth and Children's Department will "takeover" the Morning Worship Service.
Come out and support our young people as they lead us in praise and worship, as well as Pastor Sherry bringing the message. It's amazing to see what God is doing in their lives.
Next, we will have an All-Church Dinner so bring your favorite dishes and enjoy the fellowship!
During the Dinner, we will celebrate out graduates with a "Graduation Celebration". We have three graduates, Hannah Cunningham, Norman Hassel, and Ashton Seigman. Let's show them how much we love and appreciate them!
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Rooted: A New Young Adult Sunday School Class
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A new young adult Sunday School Class entitled "ROOTED" will begin on Sunday, May 13, at 9:30 a.m.. This class will be led by Pastor Dave and Kathy Kessell. We will meet in the "Gathering Place" room which is the College and Career Life Group Room. Hope to see you all there.
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Nazarene Missions International
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May Emphasis: Missionary Health Care
The cost of providing insurance for Nazarene missionaries is quite high. In fact, the cost for health insurance alone for a year is approximately $1.9 million, and the costs continue to rise. Yet the Church of the Nazarene wants its missionaries to be able to serve and not worry about where they will scrape up the cost of the next premium.
Mission Money March Money for May will be sent to support Missionary Health Care, so dig deep every Sunday.
NMI COUNCIL:
There will be a meeting on Thursday, May 10 at 6:30 pm in the Dining Room. Pastor Dave will be meeting with us.
ZONE MISSIONARY SERVICE:
We will be hosting a Missionary service on Monday, May 14, at
7:00 p.m. missionaries Ashley and Tracey Hord will be with us to share about their ministries in Africa. Please mark your calendar and make plans to attend this special service. More information to come.
Gayla Hastings
FCN NMI President
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Band of Brothers Men's Group
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Our new study,
Forensic Faith
, will help readers: understand why they have a duty to defend the truth, develop a training strategy to master the evidence for Christianity, learn how to employ the techniques of a detective to discover new insights from God's Word, and become better communicators by learning the skills of professional case makers.
With real-life detective stories, fascinating strategies, and biblical insights,
J. Warner Wallace teaches readers cold-case investigative disciplines they can apply to their Christian faith.
Forensic Faith
is an engaging, fresh look at what it means to be a Christian. This new study begins on Sunday, May 6, at 4:00 p.m. in the Conference Room.
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Men's Basketball
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Are you ready for some basketball? The men of the church will meet on Saturday, May 5, at
6:00 p.m. in the FCN gym for some fun and fellowship. Bring a friend! Participants must be at least 14 years of age. Please contact Robert Hehn for more information.
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WYBT1 Youth
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Well, parents, I have good news and bad news. The good news is summer is here and the kids can spend more time outside. The bad news...they are out of school and will be with you all day long.
I want you to be aware of summer camp coming up. We will leave Monday, June 18, and will return on Friday, June 22. I am so looking forward to camp this year. Pray that we can work it out that I can take all eight youth this year. Pray for them as they prepare for camp, and as I always ask, that they will have an open heart and an open mind to what God is trying to show and teach them.
Now that I have brought up June and camp, I want to bring our three seniors to the front. I have been blessed with 2 amazing young ladies and 1 young man who is wonderful.
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First, is Hannah Cunningham. She is the daughter of Farrin and Barbara Cunningham. She will be graduating from Cooper High school on June 2. Hannah means "favor" or "grace". We were truly blessed when God found favor with us and graced our lives with Hannah. She has always had a big heart and a bright smile. She has never met a stranger and greets everyone as if she has always known them. Hannah is not afraid to try her talent and skills at new possibilities. All through school she has played one sport or another, even if it was just to see if she could. In high school, she even competed in power lifting. I, her mom, have always admired her courage to try new things. Hannah has a love for music and has shown it by performing in Youth-A-Rama in dance and sign language. She played the cello for a while. Not the prettiest music to our ears, but still music. She also learned to play the piano and has many certificates and ribbons for her recitals and sight-reading music. Hannah found her "niche" in high school with filing for the football team. She plans to pursue becoming a sports videographer at TSTC and then later at the University of North Texas.
God bless you Hannah, mom and dad love you.
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Second is Norman Hassel. Norman is the son of Pastor Dave and Kathy Kessell. Norman has been home schooled since he was in 4th grade and has been a joy to teach. He has participated in Christian Schools of Ohio competitions where he was awarded certificates and ribbons in vocal ensemble. He played baseball for Carrol County Youth League, football for YMCA city league, flag football for Carroll County Christian Academy and tae kwon do with Friday Home School. Norman has been accepted to Cisco College Abilene campus for the Automotive Technician Program. We are very proud of you Norman and love you bunches.
Love,
Dad and Mom
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Last is Ashton Seigman. Ashton is the daughter of Kevin and Sherry Seigman. She is graduating from Eula High School May 25. She has been a member of the varsity band for 4 years playing the base clarinet and contra bass clarinet. She has played softball for the past 11 years and has been the varsity first basemen for the past 2 years and on varsity for 3 years. She is a member of FCA and has been a member of Beta club for 3 years. She was elected into National Society of High School Scholars. She has been accepted to Wayland Baptist University where she wants to pursue a career in Sign language interrupter. We are proud of the strong Christian young lady that you have grown up to be and for everything you have accomplished. Love you.
Dad and Mom
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Ok, I made it through without crying. Please keep these 3 in your prayers as they move to the next chapter in their life.
One last thing, I want everybody to be in prayer for Mystery Mission Outreach 2018 (MMO). This is something new that we are doing on the district. There will be more information put out as soon as details are finalized.
Your sister in Christ,
Pastor Sherry
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College and Career Life Group Summer Retreat
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Hello!
My name is Courtney Glidden and I am the Young Adult Ministry leader at Fort Worth First. I wanted to let you know about the
WTD Young Adult Retreat!! This will be an awesome opportunity, not only for us to come together and have fun, but to dive deeper into our spiritual journeys.
Here are the details:
Who: 18-30 year olds
When: August 10-12, 2018
Where: Camp Arrowhead
Speaker: Jeremiah Bolich
Cost: $140
The cost includes:
meals (dinner Friday, breakfast/lunch/dinner Saturday, and breakfast Sunday)
lodging
activities (tubing the river may cost extra)
We are working to have registration up soon, but I wanted to let everyone know ahead of time - that way you can get your church excited, as well as fund-raise.
When registration is up, we are asking that you
register as a church
- not individually.
If individuals are not going as a church or do not have a leader, then registering individually is fine. I will let you know when registration begins!
We hope that you will join us! If you have any question, please don't hesitate to contact me. You can email me or text/call:
817.899.5412
Courtney Glidden
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| Online Sunday Morning Services |
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Our Sunday morning Worship Services can be found online! Go to: http://www.fcnabilene.org/sermons and click on "First Church of the Nazarene on Livestream"
You can view on a computer or any device through the Livestream app found at the App Store, Google Play, or Roku. Click on the appropriate link to download your app. |
| May Birthdays & Anniversaries |
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Birthdays
3 Sandy Bullock
5 Shelly Pitcock
7 Carol Ann Chappell
8 Gayla Hastings
Benjamin Turnbow
11 Winnie Miler
15 Eilene Gipson
16 Bernie Hehn
17 Carrie Turnbow
18 Jesse Brooks
Goldie Foster
20 Kathy Kessell
24 Joyce Thurman
30 Farrin Cunningham
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Anniversaries
22 Robert & Julia Hehn
Ben & Winnie Miller
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