Dear Congregation -

May God continue to bless you richly as you grow in him, “rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” (Colossians 2:7)

This week, we’ve had the opportunity to play host to the members of our community who will be working the polls on November 4.  The Trumbull County Board of Elections rents our building for the week prior to the election in order to train all the poll workers from each precinct.  Our church will also be hosting four precincts from the southeast side of Warren on November 4, in the Fellowship Hall.  We anticipate having a lot of guests - perhaps numbering even 1000 - in our building that day.  So I, with the help and suggestions of a number of you, took the opportunity to start to spruce the place up, to get ready for our guests. 

The first thing we did was to update all the bulletin boards in the hallway leading from the parking lot to the Fellowship Hall.  We designed the new information on the bulletin boards to help our guests get to know us and feel welcome in our building.  We set up the boards so that as people walk down the hall from the parking lot, they learn a little about us along the way, so that by the time they reach the Fellowship Hall, they may be open to the invitation on the large bulletin board to join us for worship at 10:45 AM Sundays. 

Along the same lines, we placed an order for some banners that we will place on the outside of our building in order to be more welcoming and to help our guests navigate to where they need to be.  Over the years, it has become obvious that those who are not currently an active part of First Baptist Church have trouble finding which door to come in for worship, for the offices, and even where the restrooms are once they get in the building.  We are going to do our best to update our signage without spending a significant amount of money.  As a congregation that is seeking to reach out to others, we must do our best to increase our accessibility to outsiders through making navigation easier. 

This week in worship, we are looking at Joshua 3:7 - 17, where the Jordan River is parted and the people of Israel walk through it on dry ground in order to take possession of the Land God promised to them.  The miracles God did in the desert did not cease when the people entered the Land, but the changed.  Let’s look for how God does new kinds of miracles as we begin to enter in to what God has for us. 

Coming up on November 9, we will look at Matthew 25:1 - 13, the parable of the 10 bridesmaids, with the theme, “be prepared for God to act.”  We don’t want to be having to scramble around when God does show up in a powerful way, so let’s start thinking about (and acting upon) how we can be prepared for God to do in us “exceedingly abundantly more than we can ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). 

I look forward to worshipping with you on Sunday!