"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."Isaiah 43:19
Back to School Is Here! Although summer doesn't officially end until September 20th, it is, for all intensive purposes, in our collective rear view mirrors. I hope yours was a great as mine was. Our youngest, Emily, graduated high school, our "center" child, Laura got engaged, Bara did July 4th BIG as usual, another year of Young Life Camp, back out to California for Laura's wedding, and that's not all. A new home for us, new staff for Bara and so many new families have been visiting our Sunday Gatherings.
Back to School brings with it so many opportunities to make Christ known! Here are a few simple suggestions:
- Pray for our schools. Kim and I don't have students in our local schools, but we are praying for them daily and invite you to do so also. Pray for students, faculty, safety, and for God's Kingdom to come invade every campus and heart! - Serve our schools. There are so many ways to get involved. I greet at the high school, serve on the board of the Northwest ISD Educational Foundation, and mentor kids. Find your fit and serve! - Reach out to and bless your kids teachers. Our daughter Laura is a teacher. It is hard work. Volunteer in the classroom, bless them with gifts, write them encouragement notes. Do something! - Participate and support! Go to games, pep rallies, school plays, and anything else you can! If you have kids, that is natural. If you don't, your support will be even more appreciated. Trust me!
Bara's New Series: Teach Me. Last week we started the series with a message called Meet the Teacher. Here are a few tips to be a model student for this series' six weeks:
- Come to class! Show up! Like we tell our kids with school (and life) "you will get more out of it if you put more into it!" - Catch up if you fall behind. Every sermon will be on the Bara App and website. If you can't be present in the Gathering (we get it, people travel) you don't have to miss teaching! - Take notes. If you took notes last week, you know I recommended two books. If you missed it, they are Tell It Slant by Eugene Peterson and The Lord and His Prayer by N.T. Wright. I highly encourage reading those for further study. - Memorize the Lord's prayer yourself and help your kids to do the same.
Sunday's a Coming! - This Sunday is going to be a bitter sweet day as we send off the Bakers to Prague, in the Czech Republic. If you missed the announcement a few weeks ago, it's online.
(Cliff Notes: Along with the emotional announcement of the Baker family's two year journey to Prague, came the exciting news that Bara has hired two part time pastors! One of our elders, Tommy Maddox will be serving as Associate Pastor and long time volunteer in the worship ministry, Kyle Hoover will serve as our Worship Pastor!)
- This Sunday is Family Sunday! This is such an important Sunday to Kim and I personally. When God used us to plant Bara, we made a commitment to equipping the next generation to know Christ and making him known. Family Sunday is an incredible "teachable moment" or "lab" where our kids can experience the passion and priority of weekly gathering of the church body! I highly encourage everyone to be there this Sunday! - My message on Matthew 6:10 this Sunday, "Praying the Wrong Way" will challenge us to forget everything we ever learned about prayer! I'm pumped to preach! Pray for me!
I hope you "perceive" all the new things God is doing among us and for us!
Remember, the prayers of a righteous person are powerful and effective.
I love you, Bara!
PS: I encourage everyone to check out the information below about the 500k Meal Marathon with Compass and sign up today. Kim and I are super excited to serve and very grateful to Robin Nagengast for running point on this! Bara has always had a Kingdom mindset and this is a great opportunity to serve side by side with our brothers and sisters from Compass and other churches to help those in need. Remember, people are often served by the church before they are saved by Christ!
500k Meal Marathon This is an all-day (7A-6P) community event on Saturday, September 19th, where hundreds of volunteers, on teams, form assembly lines to package meals to be sent directly to people in Haiti.
There are five shifts and each Table Leader needs 10 Packaging volunteers for each shift, which means there are 50 slots to fill! :)
To select the shift you would be willing to serve just click on "Packagers" and select Green Team Nagengast. There are LOTS of tables, so if this table is full at your preferred time, you could pick another team, or choose another time! You can serve more than one shift.
This is also a great service opportunity for students. Anyone 12 & up can EASILY handle a whole shift, and even some task-oriented 10 year-olds can do it!
BSM Fellowship: Night of Encouragement If you're like a lot of people, sometimes you just need encouragement. Jesus was great at encouraging others and we want to do that together this Sunday night at BSM from 6-7:15pm at the Bradley's (4004 Shrike Trail, Roanoke). We'll also have games and a delicious ice cream bar to satisfy all willing taste buds. Come hungry and excited. We hope to see you there! If you have any questions about Bara Student Ministries (BSM), please contact the Youth Pastor, Ryan Bradley at Ryan@barachurch.com. For more information on BSM, please visit barachurch.com/bsm.
Family Worship This Sunday is the fifth Sunday of the month which means we will invite all our Wee Kids (ages 3-Kindergarten) and BKids (1st-5th Grades) to join us for the Gathering with parents. The Nursery will still be available. This is a sweet event that happens four times a year as we love getting to see whole families worship together. There will be age appropriate binders for kids available as well.
bGroups bGroups are small groups that meet regularly. They help people build community and grow in their faith. If you are interested or have questions, visit barachurch.com/b-groups. Contact: groups@barachurch.com.
M.O.B. Men of Bara, I just wanted to reach out to everyone and let you know of some things that are in the works. My goal is for us as men to lead well, serve others and create a community within ourselves to enrich our lives and our church.
We are now planning a couple of events that you will hear more about as details are finalized, but I want to start spreading the word. This Fall we would like to have a Guys Night Out so that we can get together, hang out, share stories and just have a great time together. Some other plans are for a day retreat somewhere and a golf tournament.
Please mark your calendars as we will be attending the Men’s Conference at The Hills Church on January 29th & 30th. This is a Friday night and Saturday morning local event that would be great for us all to attend. As I receive more details on this event I will pass the information along.
I am excited about what God is doing in our church and I look forward to the future and what He has in store for us. If you have any questions or just want to talk please feel free to contact me. Blessings,
Tommy Maddox
The M.O.B. (Men of Bara) meets at the Bara Offices, 100 Indian Creek Dr. in Trophy Club from 6am – 7am every Wednesday morning. The coffee is hot, the conversation fun and the fellowship is strong! For additional information contact mob@barachurch.com.
G E N E S I S This is your beginning with Bara. See who we are, our mission, vision and core commitments. Hear about our journey, our past, present and future. Learn what we do, how we connect and serve. You will be able to get your questions answered and much more. Our next GENESIS will be October 11th from noon – 1:30pm at the home of Fernando & Lizette Cortez. Their address is 2838 Earl Drive in Trophy Club .Click here for directions. For additional information click here.
Arise and Build If you love accomplishing a lot at one time (think: one stop shopping) then you need to come check out our Arise and Build Prayer Nights every Tuesday evening at 7:00pm at the BARA offices. In less than an hour, you can praise The Lord for all He is doing in and through Arise and Build while you answer His call to pray audaciously for what is to come and if that wasn't enough: you will get to build new relationships with your BARA family!! One of the sweet byproducts of our Prayer Nights for those of us that have been participating is that we have experienced the joy of getting to know each other better in ways that can only happen by praying and spending time together. Give it a try and see how God can use a time of prayer devoted to building a building to actually build His church! For directions to the Bara Church office click here. For additional information click here.
Automate the Important Would you be willing to set up an online giving profile on our website and automate the important? Not only will you not have to bring a checkbook to church, you will help us grow our ministries during all seasons of the year. If you miss a Sunday gathering or you like to do your finances with a debit or credit card. You might be interested to know that you can go to our website and make an offering online. Any offering you give will be entered into the barabase, which you can look at any time to see the up to date amount given by you or a family member. At the end of the year we will send you a year end giving statement for tax purposes. So jump in today and Automate the Important! To give right now, simply click here.
Stay Connected To listen to and watch a sermon click here. Visit us on facebook. Check the Website. Download the Bara Church App. Use the Barabase.
