Powdersville First Baptist ChurchPowdersville First Baptist Church - Where faith and family come first!

RED Dress Sunday – Feb. 12th

telijosts — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:38:48 +0000

Everyone is encouraged to wear RED on Sunday, Feb. 12th, in support of Women’s Heart Health Awareness.

The Men’s Ministry will be hosting a breakfast before Sunday School, 830-930AM, for all the ladies. So come early Sunday to get a cup of coffee or juice with some great home-cooked food!

Great Commission Perspective: Partnerships

telijosts — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:38:58 +0000

Great Commission Perspective: Partnerships

By Brad Atkins

Published February 2, 2012

Most of us have heard the statement, “We can do more together than we can do on our own.” Our Cooperative Program was founded and guided by this statement for decades, but I wonder how many of us really believe that. Not that we do not give to the Cooperative Program, Lottie Moon, Annie Armstrong, or Janie Chapman offerings, because as SCBC churches we certainly do. But, rather, do we believe it enough to actually have partnerships in our communities to help us do more together than we can do on our own?

As I write this article I am riding, not driving, down I-85 to Atlanta to a very large SBC church that is partnering with Powdersville First Baptist Church and Connection Fellowship. I use that term “partnership” very subjectively because this partnership is very one-sided. They are creating an atmosphere of “recycled church resources” by allowing other churches to have what they are no longer using. They are donating video equipment, sound equipment, old sets from productions, and a trailer load of other things to be reinvested in other churches. Our role in the partnership is to get these resources out of their way and then redistribute them to other ministries. In a way, we feel like Fred and Lamont Sanford heading out to get a load of “junk” that others no longer want, but to us this “junk” is pure gold. The larger church is willing to partner with a smaller church in providing resources the smaller church could not afford. Together, all of us are doing more than we could ever do on our own.

The reality is that many of you who are reading this could do the same for ministries in your communities. The church that is recycling their resources is larger than the combined memberships of Powdersville First Baptist, Connection Fellowship, the Neighborhood Church, Pathways, Origins, and the other church plants and ministries that will benefit from these resources. Because of their vision for reinvesting, items that would have been stuck in a closet or boxed up and forgotten will now help other churches empower their members to be “Great Commission Living” in the coming year. Their generosity will now empower these churches and ministries to recycle their unused resources, which will help even more churches, and the partnerships just keep growing.

The other reality is that many of you who are reading this would love to have a church partner with you, to help enable you both to do more together than you can do on your own. This is where partnerships start coming together, when churches and ministries of all sizes begin to reach out to each other. Everyone needs to realize that we are all on the same team, and that we are not in competition with each other. We should never look lustfully at how God has blessed another church or ministry in the area of resources or relationships, and we should never become hoarders of the resources God has blessed us with. We are all on His team, all of our resources are His, and He has given each of us a calling to fulfill the Great Commission. Partnerships can empower all of His churches and ministries to have Great Commission Living in 2012.

— Atkins is pastor of Powdersville First Baptist Church and president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention.

FREE Community Supper THIS Tues., Jan 31st @ 6PM

telijosts — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:24:09 +0000

Join us THIS Tuesday night for a free hot meal in the Social Hall, 6-730pm.

Invite your friends and family!

“Powdersville First Baptist to offer free community meal” – Powdersville Post

telijosts — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:13:44 +0000

POWDERSVILLE —

Powdersville First Baptist will offer a free community meal the last Tuesday of every month this year.

January’s meal will be on Tuesday, Jan. 31 from 6 – 7:30 p.m.

The community meal ministry began last year and has been a great success, thanks to local partnerships said Pastor Brad Atkins.

“We were really pleased with the response,” Atkins said.

The church reached out to the Tabernacle Children’s Home on White Horse, offering the leftover food from the community meals.

“It became a weekly ministry helping to feed 120-140 people in our community,” Atkins said. “It really has been a beautiful thing.”

The meals are also feeding single mothers who are members of the Good News Club, and help assist three Romanian children sponsored by the church.

The meals are completely free to the community.

Meals have ranged from spaghetti, to lasagna to chicken alfredo.

The idea for the program came from church members Kelly and Brad Holder.

Kelly Holder teaches Culinary Arts at the B.J. Skelton Career Center in Pickens County.

“She is the one who prepares all the food,” Atkins said.

Holder is assisted by church volunteers. Sometimes her classes at the Career Center also help prepare the food.

“It is some phenomenal food,” Atkins said. “She is a blessing. She is so talented. This is a ministry that God has birthed in her heart.”

Last year, before Thanksgiving, the church reached out to area schools to ask officials if they were aware of any needy families in the area that could use a helping hand at Thanksgiving.

“This past year, we gave out 64 complete Thanksgiving meals,” Atkins said.

In addition to the Thanksgiving meals, which families picked up at the church and took home, the church also gave a special supper that week.

“The Sunday night before our community supper we set up inside our auditorium and we hosted an actual sit down Thanksgiving with all the fixings,” Atkins said. “We had the families come, so when they came to pick up their Thanksgiving meals, they were also given a Thanksgiving Meal here.”

He estimated that 75-80 percent of the families picked up their meal and joined in at the Sunday supper that night.

“It’s a beautiful thing to see our church body interacting with the body of the community,” Atkins said. “As a pastor, it just blessed my heart to see that taking place.” The church is involved in other ministries as well.

“Our youth group is taking part in a canned food challenge,” Atkins said.

The “Souper Bowel of Caring” runs from now all the way to the Super Bowl, Atkins said.

The challenge pits girls against boys to see which group can collect the most food for the church’s food pantry ministry.

“They each have grocery carts set up,” Atkins said. “Each week the community brings food to donate, which goes in our food pantry ministry.”

Hunt Meadows Elementary recently helped the church by holding a canned food drive of its own.

“They blessed us with hundreds of canned food items,” Atkins said. “We have a lot of families that really benefit from our food pantry ministry, families that come to us and say ‘We just have a couple days until our next paycheck, can you help us?’”

The youth will also collect monetary donations in soup pots, funds which will also be used to help the needy.

“We use that money to buy $20 gift cards from area grocery stores,” Atkins said. “We will give them the nonperishable canned food items and then give them a gift card they can use to buy the perishables.

“It’s a great way to get teenagers involved in ministry,” Atkins said. “We draw from Easley, Pickens, Wren. We’ve got three different high schools that we’ve got kids from.”

“On Super Bowl Sunday night, we’ll announce who won,” Atkins said.

Last year, the boys won, but this year the girls are gunning for the prize.

“The boys got treated to a pizza blast,” Atkins said. “Needless to say the girls really want to win this year. It was really close last year, just a couple cans of food and a couple dollars separating them. It’s a good competition for a good cause.”

The church also operates a clothes closet for families who have lost everything.

Donations to that ministry can also be dropped off at the church.

“We have a benevolence ministry,” Atkins said. “People in need can fill our paperwork, telling us what they need and we’ll put together some items for them. We’ve had a lot of donations to that ministry, which has been great.”

This year’s community meals are being sponsored by Powdersville Self Storage, who sponsored meals last year, and new sponsor Landscaper Supply of Easley, formerly Tri-County Equipment and Rental.

“We certainly want to give credit where credit is due,” Atkins said. “These businesses partnering with us make this possible. Powdersville Self-Storage underwrote the expense for the whole year. We provided the location and the manpower, and they picked up the expense. It was a true community ministry.”

Read more: The Easley Progress – Powdersville First Baptist to offer free community meal

via Powdersville First Baptist to offer free community meal.

FREE EVENT: “Courageous”- The Movie @ 6pm, Jan. 29th

telijosts — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:28:23 +0000

Join us on January 29th at 6pm as we will be showing this movie in our auditorium for FREE. Also, child care will be provided. Please invite your friends and family as we watch this life-changing movie together. For more information or any questions please call the church office at 864-269-2114.