Exciting Things Happening At StoneBridge

So far, So God! I believe Mark Batterson said that one time. So far, January has proven to be fruitful. God continues to bless us with people who are excited about following Jesus. The first Sunday in January, I preached a message on The Biblical Basis of Baptism. I felt like it was one of the best messages I had done in a long time. After the message, a young mother requested to be baptized. I was pumped! We had two baptisms the entire 2006 year.

Then, Russell called me to tell me that two (possibly three) college students wants to be baptized. Thank you, Lord. I have been so burdened about this need. I believe it is important for people who have professed Christ to make a public profession of their faith, by entering the waters of baptism. We have set a goal this year as a church to see 75 people saved and 24 baptized. Now, before I get hate mail (just kidding), I would love to see 75 people saved (if not more) and 75 people baptized, but the reality of this is not likely because each year we host a Sports Camp where several kids accept Christ. Most of these kids are either churched or have no church background. So, following up with these unchurched kids has not been productive even though we try to follow up with every person who accepts Christ as Savior.

The assimilation process of seeing people move from unchurched, saved, baptized, and a fully developing follower of Jesus Christ is difficult, and the reason I think it is difficult is because we make it difficult. We do not plan for growth. We do not remind people of what they are supposed to do. If we want to see people assimilated in our churches we must constantly remind people of what a disciple looks like. We must remind our people about the mission of the local church. It is to reach people, make more and better disciples who in turn will reach people and make more and better disciples.

What Do You Want To Hear?

I asked our people today to write down three personal goals, three spiritual goals and at the bottom of the communication card to write down some topics of interest for 2007. Here is what our people would like to hear from their pastors.

• Evangelism (8 people)


• Doctrine (6 people)


• Spiritual Disciplines (6 people)


• Prophecy (5 people)


• People of the Bible (4 people)


• Church Planting (3 people)


• Giving (3 people)


• Marriage/Relationships (3 people)


• Leadership (2 people)


• Servant hood (2 people)


• Breaking Free (1 person)


• Creation (1 person)


• Fellowship (1 person)


• Joy (1 person)


• Life of Christ (1 person)


• Meditation (1 person)


• Ministry Questions (1 person)


• Misc. Topics (1 person)


• Parables (1 person)


• Parenting (1 person)


• Spiritual Gifts (1 person)


• Trials of Life (1 person)

Exciting Things For 2007

This week I have been working on personal goals, church goals, and my sermon series for the up-coming year. I am excited!

I have encouraged Russell and David to write some personal and church goals for 2007, as well. I am looking forward to seeing God bring our thoughts together as we strive to reach this city for Christ.

Morgantown continues to be an exciting city to live in. Since 2003, we have seen exponential growth. We have been placed here "for such a time as this."

Our Vision verse for StoneBridge has been 1 Thessalonians 1:8, "For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing."

It is our desire that StoneBridge Baptist Church sounds out the Word of the Lord not only in Morgantown, and the I-79 Corridor, but also in every place where people need to hear the Word of God.

One of the things I would like to see accomplished in 2007 is our Small Groups Ministry to multiply from 5 to 8. To accomplish this goal we will need more leaders to emerge and more people to open their homes to host these groups. I have the utmost confidence in our people, in God, and our vision to accomplish this goal. It is one thing to have dreams, it is another to see your dreams come to fruition.