A Word From Steve Jones
february 18th, 2019
I’m excited to share with you today a marvelous story of God’s grace in our Fellowship Atlantic Region, and what He can do when we’re willing. Open Arms Church is a church plant in Parrsboro, NS within our Fellowship Atlantic Region. It’s being planted by Faith Baptist Church (FBC) in Great Village, located and hour’s drive from Parrsboro. After praying about future ministry opportunities and sensing the Lord’s direction, in the fall of 2014, FBC began to actively pursue establishing a church plant in that town. Doug and Lillian Lake, a dynamic couple in leadership at FBC, responded to the call and moved from the Great Village area to Parrsboro. Doug Lake grew up in Parrsboro and was excited to go there as the pastor of this new church plant. He is a gifted and passionate evangelist who put together a core planting team comprised of 10 adults from FBC who live in the Parrsboro area. Doug and his wife, Lil, bought a home in Parrsboro with a large basement which they renovated to accommodate about 60 people. In the first year, they focused on building relationships offering Bible studies in their home, and launched a ‘Love in Action’ ministry which consists of various community service activities to practically demonstrate the love of Jesus. When they held their first Sunday service, over 30 people showed up. Currently, there are between 50 and 65 people consistently present on Sunday mornings and they have a small group discipleship involvement rate of almost 100 percent. Most of the growth has been through the winning of young families and to date they have seen 29 people come to faith in Christ. Almost all of these people are from unchurched backgrounds. This past Christmas and Easter, they rented a local hall and saw over 120 people out for each event. There are many exciting things happening, but lack of space is becoming an issue. The local elementary school has granted permission to the church to use its facilities beginning this Fall. While this arrangement will provide the room needed to expand and grow the congregation, it is not an ideal solution. Each week chairs and equipment will need to be transported to the school and removed afterwards. Also, the facilities will not be available during the summer months. With this reality in mind, the church is moving forward in the process to purchase a piece of property on the edge of town as a future building site.
Baptist Builders Appeals The Baptist Builders program (originally known as “Minute Man”) was established over 50 years ago to financially assist churches in the construction of their first building. Since its inception the program has assisted numerous churches who have a passion to reach their communities for Christ. There are four different appeals each year. Baptist Builders donors and churches are committed to supporting each appeal with $30 or more. Currently we need more participants to join this very loyal group. The Fellowship National Office is seeking to raise funds through a Baptist Buildersappeal to help purchase property for the future site of Open Arms Church. We hope to raise $20,000 to complete the purchase. Would you prayerfully consider how you can partner with this young church to assist them in purchasing this piece of property and help them minister to this community?
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