Keeping You Up To Date
SPECIAL EVENT
Three Bridges in Concert
Thursday, February 11, 2021
7:00 pm
This community wide concert will be sponsored by our church and will follow COVID friendly guidelines. Three Bridges is an internationally acclaimed Southern Gospel trip that has been in full time music ministry for many years.
Appearances include local venues, television shows, and the Gaither Video series.
Doors will open at 6:30 pm. No admission charge, but a love offering will be taken.
To learn more about the group, visit their website at www.threebridges.net.
December 28, 2020
Dear Sparr Baptist Church family,
I hope you all had a relatively nice Christmas considering the amount of sickness and loss that circulated our community over the last few weeks. Perhaps you are already anticipating a better 2021 and will be bringing in the New Year with hope for a better tomorrow.
I’m sending you this letter to communicate some expectations you can have over the next few weeks as we move into the new year and the new Sparr 329 Community. You might remember that Galatians 3:29 says, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to a promise.” We first referenced this verse in the beginning of 2020, and with that reference we were challenged to introduce the promise of Jesus to the Sparr Community and to share our inheritance with those around us. Moving forward we will accomplish this mission under the umbrella of Sparr 329. The meaning should be obvious.
Over the last two weeks, I have heard from several of you, and the general leadership consensus is that we should move back to virtual worship services for the month of January and perhaps part of February. Some have suggested that we not gather together in a large group until the vaccine for COVID 19 is made available to folks in Marion County. The reasoning behind these decisions stems from the large majority of our congregation over age 75 and the recent exposure to COVID 19 that seems to have erupted during our gathering on December 13, 2020. While we cannot be sure that large numbers contracted the virus in our worship gathering, the occurrence among so many who do not interact in other settings seems too obvious to ignore.
You will be able to join us for an online message from God’s Word each Sunday morning at 10:30 am through our church website or our Facebook page. You will also receive a link to a new resource that we intended to introduce live. RightNow Media is a resource we now have access to that allows us to participate together online and live with multiple types of studies. More on that resource in an email to follow. I am asking each person who joins the online message at 10:30 to post comments or to send thoughts about what God is teaching us. Your response will determine what our worship gathering looks like over the next few months so your response is crucial. We will call this new gathering of God’s people Fellowship 329.
During these next few weeks, we will also not stop being the church. During the last “shut down,” I posted quite a few messages and prepared things for the children online. Other than those resources, our local of body of Christ seemed basically inactive. 2021 will be different, and as the Lord challenged us during our last gathering on December 13, 2020, your response will determine our future. We will move forward with Compassion 329. What does moving forward mean for you as you act on your convictions?
A new Compassion Center will open during 2021 where we will house items for the Women’s Pregnancy Center, for North Marion Ministries, and for local Foster Parents. The Ministry Leaders in our church for WPC and NMM will be able to pull items from the Compassion Center and take them periodically to the ministry sites. Having the Compassion Center at our building (in the rear of the Fellowship Hall) will allow each of us to bring weekly offerings of items to donate to these valuable ministries. We need some of you to donate clothing racks, shelves, and hangers. You can drop these off at the church building anytime during normal hours the month of January. Having this Compassion Center will bring the convictions you all submitted together for action. The final product rests 100% in your participation, as this project is not a one person project that ultimately falls to the Pastor to accomplish.
The Compassion 329 Compassion Center will simply be the beginning of the new Sparr 329 Community. As we move forward we will also make connections with Marion County Ag Extension and use the skills in our body to help youngsters throughout North Marion County participate in building life skills and character development as we do our part to spread the love of Christ. This part of the mission will also depend solely on you and your willingness to obediently live our your convictions.
To sum all of this information up, even though we will be doing the work of the church outside of a weekly live gathering, we will not be idle this year. Even as I write that statement, I recognize that the reality of the sentence rests with each of you. Our presence in this community in January 2022 will be determined by your action in 2021. I am willing to work alongside you as your Pastor to bring to reality what you indicated was your heart and conviction for our church and community. To come alongside you means that there are folks working together for me to come alongside. 2021 is the pivotal year for Sparr Baptist Church. Please reach out with any questions that you may still have about your role in making sure Sparr Baptist Church continues for years to come.
Sincerely
Your Pastor, Alan
Dear Sparr Baptist Church family,
I hope you all had a relatively nice Christmas considering the amount of sickness and loss that circulated our community over the last few weeks. Perhaps you are already anticipating a better 2021 and will be bringing in the New Year with hope for a better tomorrow.
I’m sending you this letter to communicate some expectations you can have over the next few weeks as we move into the new year and the new Sparr 329 Community. You might remember that Galatians 3:29 says, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to a promise.” We first referenced this verse in the beginning of 2020, and with that reference we were challenged to introduce the promise of Jesus to the Sparr Community and to share our inheritance with those around us. Moving forward we will accomplish this mission under the umbrella of Sparr 329. The meaning should be obvious.
Over the last two weeks, I have heard from several of you, and the general leadership consensus is that we should move back to virtual worship services for the month of January and perhaps part of February. Some have suggested that we not gather together in a large group until the vaccine for COVID 19 is made available to folks in Marion County. The reasoning behind these decisions stems from the large majority of our congregation over age 75 and the recent exposure to COVID 19 that seems to have erupted during our gathering on December 13, 2020. While we cannot be sure that large numbers contracted the virus in our worship gathering, the occurrence among so many who do not interact in other settings seems too obvious to ignore.
You will be able to join us for an online message from God’s Word each Sunday morning at 10:30 am through our church website or our Facebook page. You will also receive a link to a new resource that we intended to introduce live. RightNow Media is a resource we now have access to that allows us to participate together online and live with multiple types of studies. More on that resource in an email to follow. I am asking each person who joins the online message at 10:30 to post comments or to send thoughts about what God is teaching us. Your response will determine what our worship gathering looks like over the next few months so your response is crucial. We will call this new gathering of God’s people Fellowship 329.
During these next few weeks, we will also not stop being the church. During the last “shut down,” I posted quite a few messages and prepared things for the children online. Other than those resources, our local of body of Christ seemed basically inactive. 2021 will be different, and as the Lord challenged us during our last gathering on December 13, 2020, your response will determine our future. We will move forward with Compassion 329. What does moving forward mean for you as you act on your convictions?
A new Compassion Center will open during 2021 where we will house items for the Women’s Pregnancy Center, for North Marion Ministries, and for local Foster Parents. The Ministry Leaders in our church for WPC and NMM will be able to pull items from the Compassion Center and take them periodically to the ministry sites. Having the Compassion Center at our building (in the rear of the Fellowship Hall) will allow each of us to bring weekly offerings of items to donate to these valuable ministries. We need some of you to donate clothing racks, shelves, and hangers. You can drop these off at the church building anytime during normal hours the month of January. Having this Compassion Center will bring the convictions you all submitted together for action. The final product rests 100% in your participation, as this project is not a one person project that ultimately falls to the Pastor to accomplish.
The Compassion 329 Compassion Center will simply be the beginning of the new Sparr 329 Community. As we move forward we will also make connections with Marion County Ag Extension and use the skills in our body to help youngsters throughout North Marion County participate in building life skills and character development as we do our part to spread the love of Christ. This part of the mission will also depend solely on you and your willingness to obediently live our your convictions.
To sum all of this information up, even though we will be doing the work of the church outside of a weekly live gathering, we will not be idle this year. Even as I write that statement, I recognize that the reality of the sentence rests with each of you. Our presence in this community in January 2022 will be determined by your action in 2021. I am willing to work alongside you as your Pastor to bring to reality what you indicated was your heart and conviction for our church and community. To come alongside you means that there are folks working together for me to come alongside. 2021 is the pivotal year for Sparr Baptist Church. Please reach out with any questions that you may still have about your role in making sure Sparr Baptist Church continues for years to come.
Sincerely
Your Pastor, Alan
