ers with me. He taught me the trick of getting virtually infinite lives, a feature tucked away somewhere on level 3-1. It didn’t take much to keep me happy. My bedroom at my new house was large. My new 3rd grade teacher had a strange, southern accent. The new church was car-ing, and over time, I made new friends. Since that move on my ninth birth-day, I have moved several times. From Essexville, Michigan to Hamilton, Ohio. From Hamilton to Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Indiana for college. Then to the Chicago Suburbs for Semi-nary and a youth pastorate at a Presbyterian Church. From Chi-cago (and with a new wife and child), we moved to Mason, Ohio (near Hamilton) for several years. Then up to Battle Creek. And I’m not even in the military. Each time I’ve moved, it’s been heart wrenching to one degree or another. I’ve envied friends who were able to “stay put,” and live life without the disruption and up-heaval that a move brings. But as I reflect on each of these, I’ve discovered that each move has uniquely enriched my life. Had I not moved, I would have missed out on the following: Meeting and marrying Tonya. We met in the third grade at the new church my dad was called to pas-tor in Hamilton.

Message from our pastor

Lakeview Baptist church

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations.” Ephesians 3:20-21

When I was 8

years old, my parents informed my brothers and I that we were moving from our home in Mich-igan to Southwest Ohio. I don’t remember how my broth-ers felt about it, but I do re-member our compliance was bribed with Kings Island Sea-son passes. My third grade class sent me away carrying a blue sweatshirt with each of their handprints painted on it. My mom said I wore it every day for the next six months. About two thirds of the boys in the class came over to my house for a sleepover before we’d move—an early birthday celebration. My actual day-of-birthday was celebrated a week later with our family, Kathy (the secretary at our new church), two scruffy look-ing United Van Lines drivers, a big pot of Chili, and empty box-es everywhere. It wasn’t too, bad, though. One of the truck drivers played a game of Super Mario Broth-

February 2017

The Encourager

Learning Essential Pastoral skills. Indiana Wesleyan Uni-versity has some excellent pro-fessors who taught me some skills that I use almost daily. The great city of Chicago. I cer-tainly don’t miss the traffic, but it was great exploring the city with friends who would later become life-long friends. Those people are rare. A faithful congregation. In Ma-son, our congregation took a huge step of faith to follow Je-sus in bold ways—and I was able to witness it. It was not a “church as normal” experience. And that has led me to each of you. Our third child was born here. With each passing year, it’s becoming more “home” to us. I could get into more detail, but each of these moves, while diffi-cult, has been an experience that I can’t imagine having lived without. We would have missed so much had we “stayed put.”

* * *

A new adventure awaits this church as we discern our future. At a congregational meeting on Sunday, January 22, 2017, the congregation voted 37/2 to pur-sue selling the church building to the Falam Baptist Church. You’re probably familiar with this church—they meet in our build-ing! They are the church we

Lakeview Food

Pantry Day

Friday, Feb. 3rd

sponsored for membership into the American Baptist Church. It has been a joy to watch this congregation grow and flour-ish. Pursuing the sale of the church to them was one of six options the “options committee” pre-sented to the church council, and subsequently, to the entire church as a way of mitigating the significant financial short-falls we’ve experienced over the past few years. Further-more, the option to sell relieves us of the expense of taking care of a building that is diffi-cult to maintain and is much larger than our current needs.

We will now enter into official negotiations regarding the price, including furnishings, and timeframe of sale. Includ-ed in negotiations will be a pe-riod of time where our church will rent the facility back from the Falam Baptist Church until we can buy, lease, or build a new place of our own. The negotiations will also include a provision for members of our church to continue to have special ceremonies— weddings and funerals— in our beloved sanctuary long into the future. The exact terms of the sale will be presented and voted upon by our congregation soon.

* * *

The reality of moving can stir up an incredible range of emo-tions. As I’ve just noted, I’ve been there. It seems like my preference has always been to stay with something familiar. Perhaps that’s yours, too. But what if staying put means missing out? God once told the prophet Isai-ah “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 42:19). It was an invitation for

Isaiah to open his spiritual eyes to discern what God was doing. And God is doing a new thing here. So let me offer a few initial words that might be helpful. We’ll talk through these (and more) in the months ahead: *The church is the people. Most often, the heart wrenching part about moving is leaving people behind. I’ve enjoyed each place I’ve lived in—the sky-line of Chicago was incredible. The basement my brother-in-law and I finished ourselves in Mason was stellar (I poured my blood, sweat and tears into that thing. Lots of blood, actually). But it’s the people I miss most in those locations. The good news about our situation is that we’re shedding the building, not the people. Nobody gets left behind! It is my hope that you’ll commit to come with us, no matter where God leads us. *God will lead us as we trust in him. This is a general principle we see throughout the Bible, but it’s particular application is poignant in the story of Abra-ham who God called to leave his home and “go to a land I will show you…” (Genesis 12:1). The next few verses say: “Abraham went out as the Lord told him,” vs 4.

“Abraham set out…” vs. 5.

“Abraham traveled…” vs 6. God calls people up and out of places to fulfill his purposes. This is similar to our situation. We’re being called out, not knowing where we’re going yet. But as he did with Abraham, God will lead us as we trust in him. *God often exceeds our expec-tations. As difficult as each move was for me, I’ve been in-

troduced to great new people and new opportunities. God has been gracious. The land God called Abraham to was later given a nickname—“the land flowing with milk and honey.” It was a fertile land that, with some effort and God’s blessing, would serve as an abundant provision for God’s peo-ple in the future. It must have exceeded Abraham’s expecta-tions. God was gracious.

I’m praying that these next few years, God exceeds all of our dreams and plans for his church. In the words of the Apostle Paul’s Ephesian Doxology (words of praise) “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all gener-ations.” Ephesians 3:20-21 Adam

* * * * *

COMING IN MARCH:

Life Line Screening, Life Line Screening, a leading provider of community-based preventive health

screenings, will offer their affordable, non-invasive and painless health screenings at Lakeview Bap-

tist Church on 3/28/2017. Five screenings will be offered that scan for potential health problems re-

lated to: blocked arteries which is a leading cause of stroke; abdominal aortic aneurysms which can

lead to a ruptured aorta; hardening of the arteries in the legs which is a strong predictor of heart dis-

ease; atrial fibrillation or irregular heart beat which is closely tied to stroke risk; and a bone density

screening, for men and women, used to assess the risk of osteoporosis. Register for a Wellness

Package which includes 4 vascular tests and osteoporosis screening from $149 ($139 with our mem-

ber discount). All five screenings take 60-90 minutes to complete. In order to register for this event

and to receive a $10 discount off any package priced above $129, please call 1-888-653-6441 or vis-

it www.lifelinescreening.com/advantagemembers.

FOOD PANTRY FUNDRAISER:

Save your Family Fare receipts. (Box in church office)

Pantry earns $1,000 when $150,000 of receipts

Or $500 when $75,000 are collected.

Helping Bags Project: Our congregation is encouraged to support this service project sponsored by our Kids Church kids by collecting the following items. Our kids will assemble bags (gal. size freezer bags) and offer them to the congregation to keep in their cars for when they encounter someone in need within the community.

Non-perishables such as:

Granola bars

Packs of cheese & crackers / peanut butter & crackers

Individual containers of packaged fruit

Bottles of water or juice

Little Debbie or Hostess type foods

Cereal bars, etc.

Gallon size Ziploc bags

Warm items such as:

Hand warmers

Hats

Gloves

Scarves

Warm socks

THE ENCOURAGER

SMALL GROUPS

PAGE 4

February Nursery Volunteers

5 Donna Headings & Lisa Thomas

12 Shauneene Crowe & Betty Trumbull

19 Linda Daniel & _________

26 Marni Haapapuro & Christi Marsh

Kid’s Church: Rich Zesiger & Deb Brown

Sunday AM

“Creation: A Divine Cycle” Studies in Luke, Psalms & Galatians

Sundays, 9 AM

LBC Church Office Contact: Ted Headings, 832-1849

3rd Tuesday of each month

XYZ

All retirees of the church are invited!

The next meeting will be Tuesday,

Feb. 21, 2016

11:30 am

Wednesday PM

Frogs

Join us Wednesdays

7-8:30 pm

Fun, food, games and Bible study for school-age kids.

Financial Record

Budgeted need through November 2016: $ 165,832.

Received through November 2016: $ 147,538.

Received through weekly offerings:

12/4 2,823. 01/01 2,215.

12/11 1,632. 01/08 1,987.

12/18 5,509. 01/15 1,847.

12/25 1,960. 01/22 1,526. 12/31 1.575. 01/29 1,215.

TOTAL: $ 13,499. $ 8,790.

Sunday AM

9:15 AM Sundays,

“The Circle Maker”

(Open to all.)

Frog Family Dinner:

Wed., February 1st,

6:30 pm

Kids: PreK – 5th grade

Sundays at 10:30 amAsk an usher to show you the way to…

PAGE 5

Lakeview Baptist Church

February 2017

SUNDAY SCHEDULE

9 & 9:15 AM Small Group Studies

10: 30 AM Worship & Kids Church

11:30 AM Coffee Hour

12:00 PM Falam Baptist Church service

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 6:30 Frog Family

Dinner

2 10 AM Circle

Maker study

6:30 Praise Team

3 7 pm Falam Praise

Team

4

5

Communion Sun-

day

6 7 4 PM Leave for

UM group event

6:30 Circle Maker

study

8 7 pm Frogs

9 10 AM Circle

Maker study

6:30 Praise Team

10 7 pm Falam Praise

Team

11

12

Memorial Sunday

13 6-9 PM Quilt

Group

14 6:30 Circle Maker

study

Valentine’s Day

15 7 pm Frogs

16 10 AM Circle

Maker study

6:30 Praise Team

17 7 pm Falam Praise

Team

18

19 20 7 PM Council

President’s Day

21 11:30 XYZ

22 7 pm Frogs

23 6:30 Praise Team

24 7 pm Falam Praise

Team

25

26 27 28

4 Jonathon Beaver

Tom Begley

5 T.C. Blankenship Terrheaia Vaughns

6 Deb Zesiger

8 Ryan Linscott

11 Greg Headings Brandon Snyder

13 Connie Summers

22 Sandy Allwardt 28 Nick Smith

19 Bill & Emily Blankenship

The Encourager February 2017

Lakeview Baptist Church

7 South 20th Street

Battle Creek, MI 49015

www.mylakeviewbaptist.com

info@mylakeviewbaptist.com

Ph. 269.963.4979

JOIN US!

Sunday, 10:30 a.m.

“Worship & Kid’s Church”

Wednesday, 7 pm

“Frogs “

(School-age kids Faithfully

learning to Rely On God)

February Birthdays: February Anniversary