Download the syllabus for this course by clicking here
Download the outline for this lesson by clicking here
How We Implement the Vision
Our December Leadership Team meeting was a follow up discussion where we discussed both the contents of David Platt’s book Radical Together and how some of its concepts may apply to our church as we pursue the vision. The November meeting was mostly a discussion of the book and its themes, so December was our chance to ask the question “How Does this Apply to our congregation?” We spent time reaffirming our vision statements (and testing them against the observed values of our church) and thinking through some questions expressed in the handout document I provided to the team, which you can download by clicking here.
Unfortunately, we ran short on time and were unable to complete our discussion on this document. I will be providing an executive summary of the group’s answers once I receive them during our next meeting on 1/25/22. Briefly, we discussed the question at the heart of Platt’s book, which is “What good things in our church get in the way of our Gospel ministry?” We started a slow process of evaluating each of our ministries and asking the question “Is this ministry making the best use of its resources for the Gospel?”
This is an intentionally critical process. Platt supposes that many “staples” of American Evangelical church culture are extra-biblical additions to Church ministry. For example, you will not read about the early church hosting a Vacation Bible School or enforcing monthly meetings of a flower committee. Platt doesn’t argue that such extra-biblical ministries are not good. On the contrary, it seems like he applauds many of these ministries as an appropriate application of the Bible to a modern ministry context.
The question, though is about whether or not the many “good things” in our church are actually the “best thing” for the ministry of our church. With the church’s steadily declining attendance, it is likely that there is something better we could be doing.
Further discussion in leadership team will revolve around analyzing our current ministries and considering where improvements could be made. Remember: this is not for the purpose of actually changing anything. The leadership team is not an executive board or committee and cannot change anything. Rather, it is the place where discussions about our church structure and planning can take place in anticipation of future growth and development.
Additionally, we will likely be discussing other books with the team in the coming months. I’m still deliberating which ones, but we will discuss this after our next meeting when we finish our discussion of the Church Vision.
As always, feel free to contact me with any questions!
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Pastor Ethan
A Vision for the Church
During July and August, I sent out a notice to all committees that they would have the opportunity to nominate an individual for a leadership group I was putting together. Last night, I had the chance to sit down with this newly-formed “leadership team” to discuss the purpose of the group and some forward-thinking ideas for the church.
Part of this discussion involved the scope and responsibilities for the group. The term “leadership team” was decided to be even a little bit misleading. In reality, it is a Study Group centered around the topic of church leadership. So, while several alternative names were suggested (“Leadership Study” and “Ed’s Commandos” being two of my favorites), we didn’t settle on a new name. Instead, we wanted to make sure that the content and discussion of this group was transparent. As such, I want to do two things in this blog post.
First, I want to make sure that anyone with interest in the leadership strategy, vision, or pastoral ministry of First Baptist Church knows that they are invited to participate in these Leadership Team meetings. This is not an executive committee, it’s simply a place to discuss the bigger-picture spiritual direction of the church. Meetings will be held every fourth Tuesday of the month. Our next meeting is currently scheduled for November 23rd, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. We will be discussing a book called Radical Together by David Platt. Let me know if you need help finding or purchasing this book prior to the meeting.
Second, we decided it would be wise to publish a summary of these meetings for members of the church to see. We will not necessarily be taking detailed minutes (again, this isn’t a committee), but the broad discussion and content of the meeting will be shared in blog posts like this on a monthly basis. What follows is a summary of last night’s meeting.
On Tuesday October 26th, 2021, the FBC Mannington Leadership Team held our first meeting to discuss the scope and purpose of the Leadership Team, and to hold a sounding discussion about the Church’s Vision. I provided the team with a document which you can download by clicking here. This document outlined a definition of Church Vision and a process for finding this Vision.
We started by identifying the values of our congregation. We asked the question multiple ways and began to notice some patterns emerging in the values held by the church. We Summarized the values of the church into these three core values:
- The Teaching of the Gospel – with an abundance of both current and former educators, there is both skill and passion for education within our congregation. Our church wants to educate its children, teenagers, and adults to know the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to live it out.
- Community Support – FBC Mannington has long been a community-centered church. Our outward mission to the community is focused on meeting needs through financial and volunteer giving. We support our community both inside and outside the church walls with whatever resources God has given us.
- Family Discipleship – First Baptist Church has a longstanding history as a family church. We value the inclusion of grandparents, parents, and children in our worship and our ministry. We encourage familial relationships across our membership, and we support one another like family, regardless of our heritage.
From this list we derived a Mission Statement for the church, based upon the command of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20:
The mission of First Baptist Church of Mannington West Virginia is to fulfill the commission of our Lord Jesus Christ by teaching the gospel to all who hear, supporting our community with all our resources, and discipling families across all age groups.
We then discussed the Vision of the Church. I highly recommend you read the reference document mentioned before to help understand the context for this vision. Vision is, in summary, the forward-thinking outcome of the mission statement. Said another way, the Vision is what we hope our church will become as we act on our Mission. Here’s what we came up with – notice that the mission statement says “this is what we do” but the vision statement says “this is who we are/will be”:
First Baptist Church of Mannington is a place where believers can grow up in knowledge of the gospel, grow out into our community, and grow together as a multigenerational family.
Or, simplified:
Growing Up, Growing Out, Growing Together
We closed with prayer after agreeing to publish these statements in this post. Discussion around these will be open and ongoing through the first of the year. The goal with this vision and mission is to have a published, official vision and goal for the church’s ministries going forward. This vision is something which (hopefully) every ministry of the church can work towards.
Because this vision is founded upon the values our church already has, we think that it actually already represents the vision of the church. That was our goal, anyway – to determine and define the vision for the church’s ministries based upon what our ministries value, what we are equipped to do, and what “success” looks like in our ministry going forward. If you feel that this vision does not represent FBC Mannington in some way, or if you feel it is lacking something, please leave us your feedback! You can email contact@fbcmannington.org (Put “Vision” in the subject line so we can look for it!), comment on this post, or contact me directly if you have any thoughts.
We will host some discussion about this vision prior to our next quarterly business meeting (Currently scheduled for January 5th, 2022) before adopting it in the coming months. I also hope to do a sermon series on our core values and vision at some point in the coming months. So, stay tuned as we continue to discuss and form the vision for our church as we grow into 2022 and beyond. My prayer is that we will be unified as a body in the ministry of our Lord. I hope this vision does exactly that.
Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or stop by my office hours. Thank you and God Bless!
– Pastor Ethan
Youth Worker Training – June 2021
Once you have watched the training video, you can download the documents below and return them to the pastor’s office in the drop boxes (on your right after entering the office.) Physical copies are also available at the church. These PDFs are form-fillable, so you can type your information before printing and signing.
Note: please watch the video to determine whether you need the “application form” or “application form – exempt.” In short; we are requesting that all who are able to fill out the normal application form.
Reminder – all youth and children’s workers in the church will be required to watch or attend this training and submit the above forms. This includes anyone working with or around children under the age of 18.
June/July 2021 Newsletter
FBC would like to introduce you to our new pastor, Ethan R. Starcher. On February 21st he presented a trial sermon after which we voted on him coming. He and his wife, Kendra, moved here from Greenbrier County, WV. He is 24 years old and recently finished his degree from Moody Bible College in Spokane, WA. His first official sermon with us was Easter Sunday. We are excited to see what lies ahead in our journey with him.
From the pastor’s desk
When Mike Hays contacted me seemingly out of nowhere with a request to interview at FBC Mannington, I was surprised. I never thought my first pastorate would be a Lead Pastor position, especially at a relatively large church. I hadn’t even been looking for lead pastorates – David Hulme, our area minister, sent my resume to the Pulpit Committee on a whim because he thought I would be a good fit. Even in my interviews with the committee, I had my guard up because I was sure I wasn’t supposed to be a lead pastor so soon after graduation. Funny how God works, isn’t it? Everyone in my life – my mentor, my wife, my parents – were all excited to hear about FBC Mannington when I told them about the vote. It was truly humbling, and God’s providence has been all over the process. God ultimately gave me peace about the decision, and has since granted me discernment for how I may best serve this congregation, and I am ever grateful. Whatever expectations we bring, God has a way of upsetting those expectations. Whatever I expected of my first pastorate, it wasn’t this, yet this has been good. I’m sure whatever you expected of your next pastor, it wasn’t me, but I hope that I can nonetheless serve faithfully. I’m sure as God continues to challenge our expectations, we will find that His Plan is so much greater than whatever we could come up with.
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:28 (ESV)
CONGRATULATIONS
On May 16th a graduate recognition was held for Jace Rinehart, who was to graduate from North Marion High School in May. Jace will be pursuing his higher education at University of South Carolina Upstate while also playing baseball for them. God Bless you, Jace, as you begin this new journey to your future.
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CHILDREN’S SUNDAY IS JUNE 13
In the United States, Children’s Day predates Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. This day to celebrate children, observed on second Sunday in June, dates from the 1860’s and earlier. There are many needs for today’s children – foster care, adoption, health care, protection from crime, education, spiritual/moral guidance, and most of all love by family and community. Children are a gift from God and they are our future. – John Ross, advocate for a national Children’s Day.
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Note – If you do not feel comfortable attending church services in person (mask recommended, particularly those unvaccinated /at risk), our worship services are recorded live and may be viewed on our Facebook page anytime. There will be no Bible Study for months of June and July.
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Volunteer Training on June 12th from 9-11:00am for those who work in any capacity with our children (teachers, helpers, VBS, nursery. etc.). Must attend or watch video.
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UPCOMING EVENTS June 1 Trustee Board/Christian Ed Board/Finance Committee June 2 Men at Food Pantry June 3 Fellowship Committee June 6 Deacon Offering Deacon Board June 7 Men at Nazarene
June 9 FBC at Food Pantry June 12 Volunteer Training June 13 Children’s Sunday June 14 Flag Day June 20 Father’s Day/West Virginia Day Food Pantry Offering/Music Committee June 21 First Day of Summer June 27 House Committee July 1 Fellowship Committee July 4 Independence Day Deacon Offering/Deacon Board July 5 Men at Nazarene July 6 Trustee Board/Christian Ed Board/Finance Committee July 7 Quarterly Business Meeting July 18 Food Pantry Offering/ Music Committee July 21 FBC at Food Pantry July 25 Parent’s Day/House Committee July 28-31 Vacation Bible School Note – These are scheduled meetings and events but subject to change or cancellation.
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FLAG DAY – On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress replaced the British symbols of the Grand Union flag with a new design featuring 13 white stars in a circle on a field of blue and 13 red and white stripes – one for each state. Flag Day – the anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777 – was officially established by the Proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson on May 30, 1916. While Flag Day was celebrated in various communities for years after Wilson’s proclamation, it was not until August 3, 1949 that President Harry Truman signed an Act of Congress designating June 14th of each year as National Flag Day. ********************************************
| Recent Prayer Requests | |
| Levi Toothman | Carol Malcolm |
| Harold & Alta Efaw | Gary Kendall |
| Piper Himes | Cindie Wilson |
| Pat Dunigan | Jim Gaines |
| Tammy Lewis | Covid-19 Concerns |
| Those who have lost loved ones recently | |
| People receiving cancer treatments & caregivers | |
| Our Community, State and Country | |
| Our Shut-in’s & Military Personnel | |
| Christians in Muslim countries |
*****Prayer Requests*****
For those of you who have prayer requests for the prayer chain, we ask that you telephone your requests to Carol Smith @ 304-986-3320 or leave message at church @ 304-986-2957.
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HAPPY FATHER’S DAY
One of the greatest blessings of a Christian father is to see their child follow in their footsteps and want to serve the Lord and tell others about Him. So, make sure you are setting a good example! Join us on June 20th as we honor our Dads. *******************************
Our sympathy to the following of our church family who lost loved ones this past year (those known) – Roger Russell, Dave Smith, Woody Malcolm, former Pastor Greg Roth, Martha Kendall, Alta Efaw, Jack Rinehart, Pastor Larry Kincell, Doug Martin, Betty Williams, Eileen Bertschy, Yvonne Pethtal, Tammy Moran, Tracy Martin, Barbara Michael, Libby Metz-Glover, Cathy Shutler, and Marsha Malcolm.
CHURCH FAMILY NEWS – Since our last newsletter, over a year ago, our church family has seen many additions, as in births: Donnie & Diane White, grandson, Michael Wayne White on May 29; Harry & Eileen Bertschy, great-granddaughter, Mauren Leigh Osborne on August 11; great-grandson, Reid Scott Leach on August 16; Rachel Roth, daughter, Lincoln Nichole Bell Roth on September 27; Hannah (Roth) & Wesley Kays, daughter, Abigail Louella Kays on December 3; Sharon Yoho, great-granddaughter, Hunnings Valerie Davis on December 22; Helen Boggs, great-granddaughter, Lainey Lynn Marie LaPointe on January 13; Libby Metz-Glover, great-grandson, Waylon James Garrison on January 30; Greg & Kristen Toothman, son, Levi Alan Toothman on February 11 (also grandson to Bob & Pam Leezer); Larry & Tonya Lodge, grandson, Grant Lane Lodge on March 7 (also great-grandson to Libby Metz-Glover); Ronnie & Kim Harris, grandson, Brian Bowen Gum on March 27 and grandson, Gideon John Gum on April 4. May God bless these little ones and their families. ***********************************************
Independence Day of the United States, also referred to as Fourth of July or July Fourth in the United States, is a federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, by the Continental Congress. It declared the thirteen American Colonies regarded themselves as a new nation, the United States of America, and no longer part of the British Empire. Be safe! ****************************************
SPECIAL MILESTONES OF ATTENDEES ACHIEVED IN 2020 OR WILL BE IN 2021 Birthdays (80-95 YEARS) Jim Leeson, Lester Hart, Mary Leeson, Roger Powell, Florence Starling, Barbara Michael, Virginia Moran, Shirley Sanders, Betty Dent, Leroy Dent, Mary Gale Price, Kate Shearer, Jean Wetzel, Jerry Wetzel and Rose Masters. Anniversaries (50-70 YEARS) Leroy & Betty Dent, Jack & Lora Rinehart, Dave & Carol Smith, John & Jean Stull, Jim & Donna Leeson, Harry & Eileen Bertschy, Harold & Alta Efaw, Jerry & Jean Wetzel.
QUARTERLY BUSINESS MEETING
The quarterly business meeting of FBC will be Wednesday, July 7th at 6:30p.m. If you are an active member of FBC you should be attending these meetings to help make decisions concerning your Church.
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PARENT’S DAY IS JULY 25
Celebrated on the fourth Sunday in July, Parent’s Day is a day for children to celebrate both parents at same time (other than Mother’s Day and Father’s Day). It started in 1994 with a signed resolution by President Bill Clinton. According to the resolution, Parent’s Day was created to recognize, uplift, and support the roll of parents in the rearing of children. Thank you parents, especially the Christian parents, who go with their children to Sunday School and Church.
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Vacation Bible School will be held July 28-30 from 6-8pm at FBC and conclude on July 31 from 4-8pm at Bowers Park. Director is Kendra Starcher. Invite your friends and neighbors to come with you to the “Gospel Express.”
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UPDATE (since last newsletter) Congratulations to Derek White and Alyssa Luketic on their marriage on October 17, 2020 and Melissa Malcolm and Larry Martin on March 20, 2021.
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HAVE A GREAT, SAFE SUMMER
If you have any information you would like put in the newsletter please place them in the office bulletin info box or call church office.
AMERICAN BAPTIST CAMPS/MEETINGS
Camp Cowen –
June 4-5 Younger Midler Camp (grades 2-4)
June 6-11 Junior 1 Camp (grades 5-6)
June 13-18 Junior High 1 Camp (grades 7-9)
June 20-25 Junior 2 Camp (grades 5-6)
June 27-July 2 High School 1 Camp (grades 9-12)
July 4-9 Junior High 2 Camp (grades 7-9)
July 10 Senior Day (graduating seniors)
July 11-16 High School 2 Camp (grades 9-12)
July 23-26 Family Camp
July 26-29 Older Midler Camp (grades 3-5)
July 30-August 1 Camp Global
August 6-8 AB Men & Boys Camp
October 1-3 Women’s Camp (18 and up)
Parchment Valley –
June 5 ABWM Women’s Conference
June 20-25 Brothers’ Keeper 2021
June 26 Bobby Wood School of Christian Studies: Baptism & Communion (E-06) one day class
Other –
June 25-27 ABC Biennial/Mission Summit @ online
July 4 Independence Day Holiday – WVBC Office closed
July 15 Bobby Wood School of Christian Studies:
Digital Learning Initiative: New Testament 1 (B-03) 12 hour class @online
July 15 Bobby Wood School of Christian Studies: Digital Learning Initiative: Ministerial Ethics (Mod-02) six hour class @online
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Online Giving Now Live
Good Morning Church!
Over the past few weeks, the Finance Committee has been putting a lot of work into getting set up with a program called Tithe.ly, an online giving platform for churches. It is a powerful giving tool that allows anyone to give their regular tithes or even special offerings to First Baptist Church. We are excited to announce that this program is up and running!
Here’s my favorite feature: recurring giving. You can commit a regular amount to the church’s fund. “Set it and forget it.” It makes giving your regular tithe pretty hassle-free. You can set the payments, one-time or recurring, to come from any major credit/debit card or directly from your bank account.
As you can imagine, there is one small downside to this. Tithe.ly makes this platform for churches and takes a small percentage of each transaction to cover their own costs. So, normally, if you were to give, say, $50, the church would only receive $49.50. Luckily, there is an option to “cover the fees” when you make your payment.
This will make your payment slightly higher, say $50.50 for the example above, so that the church receives the full $50 you intended to give.
There is also a dropdown box to select which fund you would like your payment directed to (General Fund, Missions Fund, etc.) and a note/memo box for specifying other uses and situations. You can even create an account on tithe.ly with the “Remember Me” button so that all of your credit card or bank information gets loaded automatically. You can then log into the tithe.ly mobile app with this login info.
The whole process is 100% secure. Neither tithe.ly nor the FBC Mannington website store your credit card information. It’s all encrypted and secure.
You can access online giving at any time on any device by going to give.fbcmannington.org or by clicking “Give” on the upper right corner menu of our website (in the dropdown menu on our mobile site).
We hope you will take use of this convenient new way to support the ministries of our church. If you have any questions about this service, you can contact Pam Conaway or Pastor Ethan with any questions.
Website Launch and Recommendations
Hello Everyone!
Welcome to the new church website. We will be using these announcements to keep the website up-to-date with regular information. Please use the form below to submit anonymous requests for what you’d like to see on the website!
FBC Mannington 