New Members Class Part 1

and there would be a benefit to folks who maybe can't come to every session or who maybe later on would like to view them as part of learning about Sunnyside and I think about becoming members and wanted to do it in Collaboration with my normal Sunday school class so that we can get some context and perspective from folks who've been members here for much longer than I have so And it's a little odd.

I feel The least qualified among the elders to lead this class because I've been here

The fewest amount of years or so, but we'll see how it goes And I expect

Megan and Ryan and Haley to correct me When I get details wrong

So you joined I suppose before October 10th 2004

Because that's when the I've noticed the notation in the bylaws when they put the class together So ah, so good you get to have a class benefit

Very good. Maybe we'll all learn something new Let's begin with a word of prayer father.

I thank you so much for gathering us together this morning I pray that she would bless our time as we think about the meaning of a local church and The importance of our joining together in in covenant

Commitment and what I pray that you would help us to grow closer to Christ and closer to one another

We pray these things for his sake. Amen Okay, well there's a few documents and I'm sure we haven't passed them all out yet Ryan if you could help me out just a little bit

I know I've got David and the houries covered but if one copy of each of these for you three back there and Then if anyone else comes in if you could just kind of make sure that they get the documents now what we have in front of us is a definition of the local church

That we can reference we can come back to kind of as a go -to page when we need to answer some questions we also have a

Copy of two particular pages front and back from the bylaws that talk about membership in particular.

It's going to be a helpful Guide for our class for this in the coming weeks on the very back of the two page handout

It'll say page 14 or 24 on the bottom and you'll see a Sunnyside membership class course outline that we're going to be following over the next few sessions now,

I've I've already misspoken and said it's going to be three weeks long and it may end up being four weeks

But I want to aim for as most efficiency as I can and we'll see where we end up and then for David and the houries.

I've also handed out one of these Mounts and Megan have you got one of these before we're down to one left in the office and so I'll ask

Marsha to maybe Make some more see if we can I don't know if we still have the materials too, but I think we do but in About 15 years ago somebody put together the 50th

Anniversary history of Sunnyside Baptist Church so we can reference that a little bit Okay, that's to get us started

We're supposed to talk about the history of Sunnyside which let's talk about our church polity. How are we organized?

How do we go about doing things? We're also going to talk about the threefold purpose of the church something that every bulletin references on the front

Anybody if you want to quote our threefold purpose Very good glorify

God build up the body evangelize the lost And we'll also take a look at our doctrine our statement of faith

And talk about our ministries and special meetings. So that's right there on your outline. That's what we're headed today

So what is Sunnyside like? Yeah, what is it?

Like? What is what is our church like? It's a lot like a family I would say and that's been my experience on my wife's experience here

It feels a whole lot like a family I always found it interesting as I got to know people here at Sunnyside From how folks would drive in from all these different Quadrants of Oklahoma City about 20 % of our membership lives somewhere close to the church but everybody else lives here and there and everywhere and the connections that have been made over the years because of Ministries like CHA and other things we'll talk about These bonds have been made and the folks just stick together.

And so we've very much. It feels like a large family now as far as the history of Sunnyside and I've read through this probably three or four times and Learned a few things

Noticed a few more things every time I've read it I've also talked to some of our charter members and the members who have been here almost exactly from the beginning and so I've learned a few things about the history and I've been told a lot about the good old days

Ever since I've been here, so hopefully I have something to share about that. But Sunnyside Baptist Church was

Planted on this property. We own about three quarters of the of the block. There's some houses

My orientation is always very terrible. So there's some houses That way that we don't own but the two houses over here behind the church the missionary houses and then everything on this side of the block is property of the church and Part of it back there was donated by somebody and I forget their name but I found

I was going through the deeds the other day and Kind of compiling little bits and pieces of the history and somebody noted it at the property back here to the to the

Baptist General Baptist Convention of Oklahoma and then all the rest of it was just property that the

Baptist Association Southern Baptist wanted to start a church in this area and So the

Money that was gathered together part of the money was gathered together to purchase this property and to start this church was gathered together from vacation

Bible schools throughout, Oklahoma That children bringing their nickels and dimes to VBS and of course

VBS was two weeks long and three hours in the morning in the good old days and and And so and they had very much like church every single day and and they gave offerings back then.

So that's part of our background It was in June 22nd 1952 that the church was constituted

And it was in September that they had a groundbreaking ceremony to begin to put some things together the parking lot used to be a field and that's where they met originally to have their initial church service and They built a small structure

Kind of a pavilion to help them stay out of the elements and they had a wood heated stove in it

And when it got too cold, they just gathered around the wood heating stove for a prayer and an offering and they all went home

And that's the kind of humble beginnings of this church W. E. Cresswell was the first pastor and he pastored somewhere around five years the list is in here and W.

E. Cresswell was actually the pastor of Now somebody correct me if I'm wrong. I think central Baptist Church in downtown and they were doing some

Improvements and they were putting in a highway and it was going to split up The neighborhood and certain people who went to the church wouldn't be able to get to it easily anymore

And it was going to be very disruptive for this community -based Neighborhood church and some of them wanted to continue on even though and some of them said we need

To plant a new church and those who wanted to plant a new church went with Dr.

Cresswell and I don't know if he was a doctor or not, but W. E. Cresswell and they came Here to plant this church and the rest stayed and that church continued as well the

Second pastor was Harry Boydston who pastored for just a few years before his brother

Emmett Boydston Pastored for five years and then left for work in California And then we had a brief pastor of Jack James and then

Harry Boydston came back and pastored on direct ministry from 1966 to 1996 he's very much as the definitive pastor of Sunnyside Baptist Church and Anything that gets compared present is always compared to when when when

Harry Boydston was here And so he's just kind of the defining landmark of the history of the church Now the history says he was here to 2001.

Well from 96 2001. He was pastor emeritus Which I don't really know what a pastor emeritus does and But he was not the the go -to man in those years, but he was still around And then

Jack Renfro and you'll see in your 50th anniversary that Jack Renfro is still pastor from 1977, which is inaccurate

Actually Jack Renfro started pastoring in 1996 and taking over from his father -in -law

Harry Boydston and Co -pastored with Harry Boydston's son for a year and then

Jack Renfro continued on from 1997 to for quite a few years

In about ten years in 2007 Jack Renfro left for Colorado and I was looking for a job and there was some pastoral needs in the church and There was president of family the

Smith family Ken and Cheryl Smith and their children and Ken Smith had some experience in pastoral ministry and he really stepped up to the plate and began to do things in the absence of a pastor and was very ministerial

In in helping the church and as the story it was related to me The church kind of looked around and said well, he's doing the work of a pastor.

Let's call him to be pastor Which he said that he did with somewhat of a fear and trepidation

As he knew what it took to become a pat to be a pastor of a church. And so he served faithfully for the ground almost seven years and Then he and Cheryl left to go take care of Cheryl's parents who were in very poor health and very needy up in,

Illinois And they left and were there for 18 by 18 months I think and were really instrumental in helping her parents and doing everything they could

To be of help to them in that interim time Sunnyside Baptist Church found itself in a very unique position having to look for a pastor that wasn't directly related to The church body as you can see from the from the history

Harry Boydson and Jack James perhaps were the last ones that they had to find who weren't directly perhaps connected

But since then it was you know It's Harry Boydson his brother Emmett and then Harry Boydston and there was Jack Renfrow his son -in -law and Ken and Cheryl were already members here at the church.

And so everything was very much in -house and so the elders of Sunnyside Were set up for success by Ken as he kind of helped them get things ready to go and And so they they labored to find a new pastor and God Saw fit to bring myself and my family here and we've been here since July 1st of 2014

So I know there's probably some really important parts of the history that I'm missing one of them would be

CHA Christian Heritage Academy was started in 1972 here

The school was started it was to be a unique kind of school not only because it was a

Christian school, but also in the way that they structured the curriculum and the way the style in which they went about educating the kids and they really wanted to stress the connection between Christianity and the founding of the nation and the fact that We're a republic if we can keep it and Our government was designed for a moral and religious people and not for anyone else

And so how do you you know? How do you be good citizens of the United States by being good Christians and being involved?

and that was really the focus of CHA and Not the very first but it's

Basically the first Headmaster was Ralph Bullard who Ralph and Starling are still members here still faithful here and He became the headmaster and Shirley Wigley one of our

Elderly ladies charter member of the church was also the secretary for the school Really helped Ralph says she's the one who started the school.

She's the one who got us got it started and Quentin Hall who was sitting over here?

Just he was on the board that called Ralph to be to be the headmaster of the school and so there's a lot of connections between us and CHA the reason why we have so many classrooms everywhere and Facilities here and there is because we there was a school here for quite a few years

But my brother -in -law came here during some of his elementary and my my wife was in preschool going to CHA Just a little bit and my cousin

Emily graduated from CHA and There's a lot of good that's happened now

CHA grew out of the capacity that the facilities here could afford and And after that Sunnyside still had a very good connection with CHA five of the nine members of the board were

Sunnyside folks and that stayed for a while and then it was three out of the nine and now it's

I don't know if any of them are But they certainly outgrew us and they you know, they're they're doing great

We used to be called the supporting Church now We're the founding Church our role with CHA is one of legacy and memory more than anything else we do have some folks who are still teaching there serving there a couple of our

Youth still go to school there so we still have those connections and it's It's I think it's overall.

It's a good relationship, even though it's not as strong today as it was in previous decades

I Suppose the other bit of information we have to cover is why we have the name

Sunnyside Legends abound about why we're called

Sunnyside Baptist Church. I've heard a variety of tales. I Don't know if anyone knows for sure.

It's something something been lost, but it's fun to trace the myths one of them was that The church was planted on the sunny side of the street

Now why might that be so I believe there was an apple orchard in the area and Perhaps the orchard was on one side and the field was on the other and so it was the sunny side of the street

It wasn't in the shade. Perhaps that was emphasized by the fact that the first meeting People left afflicted by severe sunburn

And perhaps that contributed to the name and I was also informed by some of the elderly folks who resent that kind of Unspiritual origin of the name that Sunnyside refers to the joy that was in the hearts of the people as they started the church so I'll leave it to you to Poke through the details.

This is a great little document. I hope that you will take the time to to read it And if anything else

You can find out what folks Fifteen and a half years ago. I thought about the church And then you can compare to it how things are going now

So there's the history any questions about the history of Sunnyside Baptist Church, okay something else

I'm forgetting When Jack Renfro was Pastor the church ceased being a

Southern Baptist Church and became unaffiliated This was due mostly to the fact that Sunnyside had hardly ever

Contributed funds to the the

Southern Baptist Convention or the local Baptist Association that at one point there was a percentage that was being given which is traditional for something about this church about 10 % and Then I got reduced to a hundred dollars a month and then that was done away with and so there was a big fat zero next to Sunnyside's name on every document that went through the the the

General Baptist Convention of Oklahoma and and finally Jack Renfro There was a big meeting and I've read through some of the notes and I've read through some of the letters that were written to brother

Jack and Plumbing digging through some of the old history and it just came came down to the fact that you know if we're gonna be a part that we should give them the money and play the full role of being a part and We're not we just don't do that We do support missionaries.

We support I think about 11 different missionaries across the world. We also support several local

Ministries that reach out with the gospel But we do so in a very focused way a very local localized way personal way we like to host our missionaries in the missionary houses and get to know them and So that not to say that that is a superior version to the cooperative program

I've heard from missionaries on the field who are not part of the cooperative program not part of Southern Baptist that sometimes the

Southern Baptists are the only ones who get the supplies in on Time and they help keep a lot of the independent missionaries alive and going when their stuff does not come through on time

So I'm not saying either one is superior But the fact is we wanted a more personal accountable relationship to the missionaries that we support.

Let's talk about our government This is just talking about the polity of the church How does the church make decisions how does the church move forward

If there's a question about what we should do with the funds who's deciding that If there if we recognize that we have a problem with the way that we're doing something in the church

How does those how do those problems get resolved? How do we make decisions? So that's that's what this is.

This section is all about Originally Sunnyside Baptist Church was

Designed in a very traditional manner, which means you have one pastor and Bunch of deacons and then a bunch of committees and so decisions are very often made by the committees and Decisions are made by the deacons and decisions are made by the pastor and hopefully they all agree when there's conflict usually it turns out that The one in the spotlight is the most wrong.

And so in traditional Baptist polity usually Traditionally in Southern Baptist churches the pastors get fired

Fairly often and they're moving on. I think the last Stats were about four years for the life of a pastor in one particular church in ten years for the whole scope of a pastoral

Ministry is average So pastors don't stay long and they burn out quick Is the kind of situation we're at now.

I was not raised that way Early on in my life. I was part of a church where there were elders

Which meant that there was more than one visible spiritual leader making decisions

And they try to make together in unity about what would happen and the deacons were there But the deacons weren't necessarily calling shots

They were looking for needs to fill and the word deacon in the Greek diaconess. It means one who stirred up a lot of dust so someone who's like I see a need and they serve a lot of dust and getting things done and trying to meet those needs and that was that was my background that the

Members were involved they were asked to serve in various ways. They were they were stirred up to ministry by the deacons they were stirred up to discipleship into into meeting those spiritual needs by the elders and that was my background and That stayed true for the church.

I went to In my college years my collegiate years at Grace Rebaptist Church for five years four years

They were they had elders and they had deacons and they had a congregation and the elders made decisions together and And if there was disagreement, they would wait and pray and look for unity

And that would never be hashed out in front of the people And there were a lot of deacons. My father -in -law was one of them and they would seek to meet the the basic needs of the church

Was there a widow who needed some help did does this Single mom with a big with a lot of kids need to move from one house to another

What are the needs of the church? Let's let's let's get in there. Let's help and then

I went to Memphis for my for my Masters of Divinity and my wife and I joined with Southwoods Baptist Church and they also were elder led and deacon served and Congregationally ruled is the way that it said in other words that the congregation

Whereas we're directly involved in there They did have committees and if you were a member of some of Southwoods Baptist Church, you had to serve on a committee because you had to be active in ministry somehow some way and And so that and that helped and then they had several elders

I got to sit on sit in on their meetings and learn from them as they Led the church and there were several deacons and It was something that was very healthy

The Pastors at the churches where there were elders when I was at college. He's been he's still there

He was there 12 years when I was there. He's still there. So he's been there Almost 25 years now the pastor at Southwoods Baptist Church has been there over 30 years now

And why is that? Why is there stability because you have a group of spiritual leaders? it says that in Acts that Paul went through Asia Minor and Macedonia another plate that he was helping to establish elders plural in every church singular and That's repeated throughout the

New Testament. That's the model that we're given and You know in the qualifications for elders are given to us in Titus and in the

Timothy and this is what they're supposed to be It's what's supposed to look like and so I'm very blessed here to have five of their elders including

Ken Smith who was a former pastor and we all work together to try to Make decisions for the direction of the church and we want to do that in unity if one of us is

Out of source about something we don't you know, you know, well, we have a majority so you better get on board We try to do everything in unity to make sure that we're moving together.

That does mean we move a little bit slower perhaps But we want to move with a surer pace

I am NOT the the end -all of this church. I don't have all the wisdom I don't have all the authority

I may be a little bit more visible than some of the other guys But I sure don't want to be the one making the decisions without without them.

We want to be making decisions together We have so we have six elders. We have seven deacons and the deacons

Help by Serving the physical need to the church. We have a lot of physical needs in terms of facilities

We were trying to invest in so that we can be have an active effective ministry in this area of town

Which I pray that that will grow deacons also each have been assigned a

Couple or three widows that they're supposed to be focused on ready to help if they have any particular needs

We've also gone through some training with the deacons recently about how we Minister to those who are in need the homeless people who perhaps come by knocking on the door asking for help or those kinds of things

So we try to train the deacons to lead out in service to be thinking about how we

How are we supposed to use the funds that God has entrusted it to us to meet the physical needs of the church? That's the model we have in Acts there were some physical needs in the church and the elders the

Apostles said you know We've been handling this for a while and you read in Acts 4 about that money was laid at the

Apostles feet And so they were the ones managing all this stuff and then all of a sudden they didn't have time to do the work of Elders and this other work at the same time.

So they asked the church. They said church we have a need Can you can you nominate or appoint?

seven from among you fill with the Holy Spirit who can meet these physical need to the church and they did and We have the birth of the deacons of the diaconate along with the the elders and so the deacons do their job and the elders do their job and we're strengthened by Folks doing what we're called to do and we're more like a body

We're like a body of Christ where we don't have one person doing it all we have a lot of people working together

As far as the congregation isn't is concerned We do

Call for the congregation to step in and to help and for a variety of ways There's always ways to serve in terms of things, you know

The normal things like Sunday school and nursery and you know all the different kind of needs of of the body will call for extra help when we want to give special offerings to missionaries if we want to Try to do something new we'll begin communication with the congregation asking them to step up and then the congregation also

Is involved when we have any kind of major decision or something really major like calling a pastor?

Okay, or something even less? We stop and say okay, we're not going to the elders are an agreement

But we don't know where the congregation is at and we're just gonna put this decision out before the congregation

We're gonna explain it to you answer any questions that you may have And we're gonna give you all two weeks to pray about this with us.

Would you read the Scriptures? would you pray with us and then would you get back to us and If you have any concerns, we want to hear from you.

Okay, so there have been many decisions that have been stopped because the Congregation wasn't ready for it yet.

Maybe they weren't stopped forever Maybe they just they were there was a time of waiting before things could be put in order and then we move forward

Maybe a direction of the church was halted because the congregation well, we just we just don't know about this and that so we don't

We'd want to hear the concerns of the congregation and not just make decisions behind closed doors and and move on There's a few things that happen behind closed doors that you never know about Part of it you should know about and part of it.

You probably don't need to Part of it that you should hear about is is Elders fault if we fail to communicate well, and we we do struggle with that And so we're gonna be trying to make a correction in that as much as we can to be in better communication with everybody but Some of the decisions that have to be made have to be made about the direction of the church

Where are we headed and things like a budget a budget is a mission statement saying this is what we value

You know, this is what we should be doing And so the elders are involved with that setting the focus of where we're headed

And and then we make adjustments as we need to and talk about it with the congregation So those are some items that we could

Think about and digest about the government the particularities of it You'll find in the bylaws any questions about polity and I failed to address.

That's a great question. That's a great question Traditionally in a

Baptist Church the deacons are functioning as elders and sometimes they have trustees who function as deacons

I pass it a church like that and the trustees were always going about trying to take care of the

Facilities and the deacons were acting like elders in our particular case the elders are the ones who would

Send out a call with an agreement with the congregation. Hey congregation. We need a pastor Yeah, so we're going to send out a call and we're going to see if you know

Anyone fits and they're gonna read, you know they what they did with me is that the elders kind of reduced the options to about three different people and they set up opportunities for the people to get to know the

Candidates and one came before me and and preached and accepted the call and was going to be pastor of Sunnyside And then he decided not to Okay And But through that process

The the elders are setting that up and then communicating with the congregation

After they get to know this person to some degree You know, what do you think?

Do you have any concerns? Do you need more time? What are your questions that you want him to answer? There was a

Q &A session we had here May 31st 2014 In the evening where everybody in the congregation got a chance to ask me questions

Things that were important and they needed to know Before they could talk to the elders about whether they were comfortable with the idea

So that's kind of how it's set up that the elders Send out a call and then involve the congregation to see if we're all in agreement

So that's how that works. Anything else?

Okay We have a threefold purpose you see on the front of your bulletins To glorify

God build up the body and evangelize the lost. This is a traditional kind of purpose mission statement kind of thing where it's the way they used to teach it in seminary is upward inward and outward and Come up with your own terms

But the idea is that we want to be a balanced Church and the way that we glorify

God it's There's a variety of ways when you glorify God, that's almost a catch -all

But perhaps the specifics of what that's about is that we would be worshiping God That we would be giving him praise and honor and glory that we would

Demonstrate through our lives and through our gatherings what we do here We would demonstrate the worthiness of Jesus Christ and we would praise him and honor him and glorify him

And then we would be in that sense this is connected to Building up the body and evangelizing the lost because when you glorify

God and praise the worthiness of Christ This does build up the body and it does send a witness

To the world, doesn't it? And so so these are not as we look at each of these three on the triangle if you will

They're not Disconnected they really do have connections the second one to build up the body

Is something that I think that has been the primary emphasis of Sunnyside Harry Boyson was known for being a teaching pastor

He is quoted as once said that if he had to do it all over again, he would not put pews in the auditorium

He would put desks so people could get out their paper and pencil and take notes and we're going to go to class

Every and he was also known for not Not bothering with anything such as a clock

So a Very heavy emphasis on Expositional teaching and preaching which means that it's important to take the scriptures as they are written

And and let the but the scriptures by the Holy Spirit set the agenda of what we're going to talk about So for instance my sermon today, there's stuff in my sermon in my text

I wish I would never have to preach about but it's there and God's in charge and Christ has a message for us

So we're going to look at that. So in that sense, I think brother Boyston followed that and he preached and he taught

Expositionally through books of the Bible. It was through that kind of expositional teaching that led him in conviction to change the polity of Sunnyside Baptist Church from the traditional

Baptist model to an elder led model that we have today That's one example of how things change when the scriptures are taught and preached in that way

So there's been a heavy emphasis on on teaching I'm building up the body and Evangelizing the lost our church has a very rich history in Supporting missionaries and going on mission trips

Though that has not been something that we've done a whole lot lately in terms of sponsoring folks to go on mission trips

But it's something that is is there and it's in the it's in the tradition of things We still have folks doing mission work if you know

CHA Has part of that DNA still they go on mission trips every single year multiple mission trips to various parts of the world

Every year and that's something that Sunnyside and CHA share as far as part of their emphasis historically

Our church budget is traditionally around 15 to 20 percent missions

And we give money to missionaries one of our missionaries Are members here of our church can any of our

Church members tell us which one of our missionaries and members here trivia time

The Wilcox, that's right Jonathan Rachel Wilcox our members here. We sent them out and we we do not fund all of their needs, but we do give

Significantly more to them than we do the other missionaries because they are From us and and we sent them out they're missionaries with It's no longer new tribes.

It's ethnos 360 and they're in the UK and they do mission work in South America as well as in the

UK and so we have a history of supporting missionaries and going on mission trips and That's something that I think that will continue

Evangelize in the loft locally as something that we've had a question mark for some time as our neighborhood has changed

To about 80 % Hispanic. How do we reach them? Well, we have the ESL class Adam and Kimberly Collins help out with that every

Wednesday night It is up and down. Sometimes there's a lot sometimes there's not sometimes we have surprising people that come to The ESL class and But it's it's an opportunity

Danny Roten is a an elder of Sherwood Baptist Church And he when he's healthy and when his wife's healthy, he is here to help try to with ESL class and he's also done what he could to help start a

Hispanic mission in our facilities He's also the Hispanic chaplain for the prison out in say

El Reno And he does a lot of different work like that and he's he has decades of experience of being a missionary in Mexico he and Janet do so We've done we've tried to help out in that way.

I try to reach out in that way We also have some counseling services to meet in our facilities upstairs about four of our classrooms is used by above all counseling services to help

Hispanic families the lead counselor there's names Jose Solis and Jose his favorite saying is now

I'm saying Which do you know what I'm saying? Now I'm saying And he's a great guy.

He's got his master's from SNHU Southern Nazarene University and counseling He's a

I think he's a very young Christian, but he's doing his best excited about the gospel and those kinds of things, but he's trying to help

Hispanic families Deal With the pressures and the after -effects of trying to accomplish the

American dream right, so you have a background of lack and of poverty and you're supposed to be living big because you're in America and there's a whole lot of debt and stress and conflict in Hispanic families because of the pressures of Kind of a culture clash in suddenly family, which was primary sometimes gets turned to the back so that you know money now is the primary and there's lots of tension with that and lots of Family crises in the

Hispanic community. So Jose is involved with that We're praying for more and more opportunities to be involved in our local neighborhood

I was just in a meeting on Friday With a young man named

Jared and looking forward to future collaboration with folks who are

Very much engaged in the Neighborhood communities and what's called the block? Which is everything between 40 and 240 and 35 and 44 in the block

And they're very engaged and I think we're going to get engaged too as well We're trying to do what we can to invest in the facilities here

Convinced convinced that we're here for a reason we got to keep these facilities up we're going to be we're going to use them for good for gospel good and that's something that Christ Community Church Jared works with and the gospel project that they do every summer for two months is just kind of a mission trip to the block and It's something that maybe we're going to be partnering with With them so we've got great things on the horizon

With this threefold purpose of glorifying God building up the body evangelizing the lost A lot of times we begin to think about That threefold purpose in terms of ministries

Particular programs or what exactly are we doing but more than anything comes down to people

It comes down to people It's not necessarily about What programs are we offering to accomplish the threefold purpose, but Who are the people in this church?

How are they engaging in this threefold purpose you see and that's really where the focus needs to be and so for instance

We've got folks that evangelize the lost regularly with no program surrounding them

Okay Programs aren't bad if we can organize ourselves in some way to be of help then we can we should

But it's primarily about people and what are they doing? There are people who worship

God and glorify God and praise the name of Christ Whether they're here on the schedule

They're at home about to eat lunch by themselves Because they're a widow, you know

There are it's about who we are in Christ more than what we're doing

In the name of the church, so I think that's where our focus needs to be that we do have different ministries.

I Should probably get a list of those For next week. I think I'll get a list of all the different ministries.

I've got a running tab as some of them Go up and some of them are eclipsed by other things and it's kind of a little bit of a of a flux sometimes with these different types of ministries, but we'll

Talk about some of that next week I think we'll also talk about next week.

We'll talk about our statement of faith It'll give you an opportunity to look over the statement of faith of Sunnyside Baptist Church It's in this two -page handout that everyone got it's on page 13 of 24

You'll see that at the bottom and that will give you a chance to read over it for yourself maybe you'd like to look up some of the scripture passages associated with the the confessional statements and We can talk about that more next week and I think we've gotten through several

Several parts item number three you'll see there on your membership class outline item number three

Talks about tithes and offerings and mission support And The elders we just put together a new budget for 2018 and I'm planning on setting a churchwide

Meeting where we can talk about everything near the end of January So that everybody can be on the same page elders talking with the congregation back and forth and that kind of thing.

So You'll see kind of where we we put the tithes and offerings what we use it for And again a lot of it goes to missionary support and a lot of it goes to facility improvement like these lights that we put in were fairly expensive, but we replaced lights that were 60 years old or so probably about you know, 50 something years old 55 on In the wiring you try to unscrew a bulb and the wiring was

Was breaking because it was so fragile and and brittle we had to rewire everything

And put in new lights and that's fairly expensive but we want to still be in the auditorium and use it for good things and we had

Remodeling the kitchen that was it's pretty expensive to do There was special offerings given for it and But the kitchen is probably the second most used room in the facility outside of the auditorium

So as far as whole church things and we had it have a we have in the past a fairly robust meal ministry where we gather together

Wednesday nights and have meals together and a funeral meal ministry

For for the families of those who have passed on I was doing a men's ministry almost every

Tuesday morning. I was making breakfast out of the kitchen for men's discipleship and it just So many different things and we were having folks come from the

ESL class early to the meal ministry And we had folks coming in from the counseling upstairs down to the meal on Wednesday nights

And we were just filling up that whole fellowship hall and we just wore that kitchen out So we need to remodel if we're gonna keep on using it those kinds of things and so we've had to spend a lot of money

Keep the mission houses going but they have been a blessing to many many folks So those are the kinds of things that we have to spend money on But they're being used for ministry

And it's helpful When you begin to look at the budget Why this why this?

And we need to talk about that so we can connect the dots and say this is why This is why this is important.

And this is you know, this is the this is the end goal So I don't stop on the outline for there and we'll come back to some of the things we couldn't get to But do we have any questions before we close?

Yes, Meg. What is the time on on the kitchen?

That's a great question. I Don't know There was as with all things construction it takes longer than you want and cost more than you want

And so we've made a lot of progress As you can kind of see when you walk through but I'm thinking maybe within the next two months, it'll be done stocked

Clean ready to use so I'm hoping that that's the case. I'm hoping that's the case All right.

Thank you for bearing with my chipmunk speed speech trying to get through the

Material here, but there's a lot to cover Let's go ahead and close the word of prayer father. I thank you for the time.

You've given us I pray that you would help us as we think about this information to More greatly appreciate the blessings that you have given to us here at Sunnyside Baptist Church, and I pray that we would all consider carefully and And be refreshed and renewed in our commitment to to Christ through Membership in the local church and pray these things for Christ's sake.