Frank and to the Point

As we prepare to welcome Paul Clark as Interim Minister of Music, I want you to know how blessed we are to have someone of his caliber leading us in worship in the coming months. Paul’s family includes his wife Ebbie and three children: Ben and his wife Kelly living in Spring Hill, FBC members Adam and his wife Heather, and Elizabeth who is a junior at Union University.

A native of Jackson, Tennessee, Paul is a graduate of Union University and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. When he’s not planning and leading worship, Paul enjoys watching football, basketball, and baseball, and anything his children are involved in. He also enjoys playing tennis, travel, and family outings.

Paul currently serves as the Worship & Music Specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Convention where he is the Musical Director/Conductor for both the Tennessee Men’s Chorale and the Tennessee Ladies Chorus. His work as a consultant and conference leader brings focus to the dynamics of biblical corporate worship and enhancing the church’s unique expressions in worship.

Paul is an experienced worship leader and brings over 25 years of church staff experience with him. In short, I think he’s just what we need as we look forward to a new chapter of faithful worship and service at First Baptist Nashville. I know you will join me in extending a sincere and supportive welcome to Paul Clark. And even though I’ve said it recently, remember this would be a great time to join the Sanctuary Choir!

Blessings!

Children’s Trunk or Treat

October 31

5:30 – 7:30 P.M.

Dinner will be served in Fellowship Hall, from 4:30-6:30 P.M. We will have activities outside in Parking Lot D (the gated lot behind the church) from 5:30 - 7:30 P.M. There will be games, candy, inflatables, costumes, and much more! Bring a friend, and come enjoy an evening of fun and fellowship, and still have time to visit your neighborhood.

Candy donations are needed. Please bring any donations of individually wrapped candy to one of the collection bins in the foyer, next to Connie Hartzell’s office, or at the main entrance. We will be collecting candy through October 28.

Share Jesus Without Fear in Nashville

Bill Fay, teacher and author of the well-known Share Jesus Without Fear seminar, will lead evangelism training Saturday, October 27, for Nashville area church leaders and laypersons. Sessions will be held in the Nashville Union Rescue Mission chapel. The program begins at 11:15 A.M. with lunch, followed by two training sessions of an hour and 15 minutes each. In the first session, you will learn all you need to know about how to share your faith simply, relationally, and effectively without an argument. For those who want more in-depth training, plan to stay for the second session. Both the training sessions and lunch are free.

Jim Shull, chair of the Building Bridges evangelism training team, recalls: “Bill did an abbreviated event like this in our fellowship hall during the 2005 Crossover Nashville event prior to the SBC, and it was excellent. This is an outstanding opportunity!”

Fay’s heartfelt desire is clear—to help people everywhere understand and communicate the saving news of Jesus Christ; and God has used him in significant ways. To learn more about Bill Fay and his ministry of equipping Christ followers to spread the good news, visit www.sharejesuswithoutfear.com.

Join us at this event to help build bridges to the Nashville community and beyond. Contact Lori Towns at lori.towns@firstbaptistnashville.org or 664-6001 to indicate your plans to attend by October 23.

Are You A Veteran?

We are looking for our FBC veterans of any branch of the service. If you are a veteran, please take a moment to check the following list to see if your name is listed. If not, please contact Susie Roberson at 309-8451 or barryroberson@comcast.net to add your name and branch of service to our list.

Cliff Abel
Milton Austin
Larry Benton
Jack Benz
Bower Broaddus
Bob Boyd
Jim Burkes
Joe Carter
Marshall Carter
Llew Chapman
Glynn A. Clark
L.D. Collier
Ray Conner
Bob Coombs
Tom Crow
Lynn Davis
Harold Dyer
Morris Early
Jimmy Edwards
Tom Ervin
Bob Foust
Delores Foust
Thomas Gray
Dewey Hamrick
A.D. Hancock
Jim Harrell
Tom Harris
Jewel Harper
Jimmy Hester
Sam Honeycutt
Richard Huffman
Bill Latham
Bill Leach
Fowler Lowe
Jim Lowry
Ford Mayes
Headly McMains
Phil Mikesell
Howard Murphy
John Oldham
Drew Rankin
Barry Roberson
Henry Scudder
Jim Shull
Warren Slinkard
Wilborn Strode
Jim Tate
Bob Turner
Fred Turner
Gene Turner
Tom Walton
David Wells
Bob Whaley
Richard Winstead
Bud Woodby
Jesse Wright

Give A Shoebox

It’s that time again! Time to start collecting items for your Operation Christmas Child shoebox gift. First Baptist Nashville’s collection Sunday is November 11—just one month away! This program, sponsored by Samaritan’s Purse, brings God’s love to children in desperate situations in this country and around the world through gift-filled shoeboxes. Operation Christmas Child provides an opportunity for people of all ages to be involved in a simple, hands-on mission project while focusing on the true meaning of Christmas—Jesus Christ, God’s greatest gift. Fill your box with small toys, school sup-plies, and other little gifts. Pick up a brochure in the foyer or in Connie Hartzell’s office to find out how to pack a box or visit www.firstbaptistnashville.org.

Good News Celebrates 70th Anniversary

In 1937, Dr. W. F. Powell asked Maxey Jarman to start a class for young businessmen. The class was started with Maxey Jarman as teacher and Frank Cole as first president. It met in a small upper room, later moving to the north corridor of the auditorium, the dining room, and then to the newly built Jarman Chapel. By 1952 the class had grown to 240 members with an average attendance of 120.

Teachers over the years after Mr. Jarman have been Dr. C Eldon Wright, Dr. James Brakefield, Dr. Roy Chamblee, and Vern Powers, the present teacher. Boaz Houser and Ben Garrett were charter members and are still active members!

Upcoming Service Opportunities

There are three events in October that offer us the chance to serve our community. One or more is surely for you!

Oktoberfest in Germantown

Our Building Bridges ministry teams are sponsoring a booth Saturday, October 13, for the annual Nashville Oktoberfest celebration in north Nashville. We need people to staff the booth (4 at a time from 8 to 4). A 5k run begins at 8. This area is one of our closest communities to downtown--a very eclectic neighborhood. They need to know we are their neighbors. Contact Tom Hearon or Rus Roach for details.

Habitat House Dedication

Hundreds of us assisted Hanna Abebe with the construction of her new home in September. She is one of 15 families who will receive the key to their home in dedication services Sunday afternoon, October 21. Festivities are from 1 - 2:30. A neighborhood celebration occurs from 2 - 4. Lunch is available 11:30 - 12:30. Contact John Ross to reserve a spot (664-6000).

Medical Mission Messiah

We are returning to The Church Of The Messiah for a medical outreach to the Sudekum and Napier Housing areas. Doctors, nurses, counselors, and specialists of all kinds are needed. We also need a number of other helpers to assist the medical personnel. The clinic will run Thursday to Saturday, October 25 - 27, from 8 to 4 every day. If you can help for at least a half day on any of those days, please contact Rus Roach or Michael Vaughan. Childcare workers will also be needed.

A neighborhood canvass will be held on the three Saturdays prior to the clinic (Oct 6, 13, 20) from 9 - 12. The Church is located at 88 Lafayette Street--the corner of Charles Davis and Lafayette just east of downtown.

First Baptist is a congregation of meeting needs in Nashville and around the world. You can help make our community a better place in October - a month of service for FBC!

Rus Roach: Catalyst, Mentor, Friend

Who is most likely the only person in our church crazy enough to approach Carrie Underwood in a crowded airport and ask her if she is a high school friend of his daughter...and then ask for her autograph even after she had let him know he had insulted her? Rus has a gift for creating or finding humor in almost any situation. Who of us hasn't laughed at his crazy antics, his unpredictable stories, and the good-natured fun he is likely to poke at anyone. Rus' unflappable nature and his remarkable sense of humor are two of the things I have come to value and appreciate most during our 20-year friendship.

More than that, however, I owe a debt of gratitude to this zany friend of mine. With the exception of my wife, Rus has been a long-term catalyst, mentor, and friend more than any other person in our church. When he enlisted me for a mission trip to Kenya in 1990, I had no idea that God was using him to bring me to a major turning point in my life. As Rus mentored me through that experience, God engendered a zeal for missions in my heart and continued using Rus to guide, encourage, and mentor the decidedly missions-oriented direction my life has taken since then.

I admire and respect Rus not only for his impact on my life, but also for the way His own ministry is defined by his heart for the lost, hurting, and disenfranchised, beginning in the shadow of our church and extending literally around the world. Rus is the one who ministers daily to those who come to us needing the very basics of life. Through his individual effort and by working with the Missions Committee and other groups, Rus brings into being and gives impetus in some degree to virtually every mission trip and project of our church.

Thank you, Rus, for the way you so often have worked unseen and unacknowledged to make
"as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you" a reality in our lives.

Wednesday Evening Discipleship Classes

Becoming a Contagious Christian by Bill Hybels
Open Bible Study
Taught by Tim Morrison
6:00 – 7:15 P.M.
Room 150

Does the word “evangelism” strike fear in your heart? If the thought of sharing your faith with a total stranger makes your heart race and your palms sweat, this study on relational evangelism is the class for you! Come discover how you can develop a contagious Christianity that will lead others to faith in Christ. The cost for each book will be $10.00

He Speaks to Me: Preparing to Hear from God by Priscilla Shirer
Women only
Led by Susan Smith
6:00 – 7:15 P.M.
Room 220

God desires to speak to believers personally. He wants us to hear His voice, understand Him, and obey. Yet some people believe that God only speaks to some believers—only those who have reached some mystical level of spiritual prowess that the rest of us could never reach. In this study prepare to hear from God and to take steps of obedience and faith to be correctly positioned to hear Him. The cost for each book will be $11.00

Oatmeal for Jesus

Our daughters Anne Grace and Allie often sing Casting Crowns' lyrics, "If we are the body, why aren't his arms reaching? Why aren't his hands healing?" Good questions! This summer FBC's Family Mission Trip helped our family do a little reaching and healing--and gave us the chance to "be the body."

Anne Grace has been on many mission trips with the youth and we've helped with various mission projects around town, but our whole family had never done a project together like the one in East Tennessee. Nine FBC families hosted a cookout and worship service for campers in a national park, invited children in low-income apartments to a backyard Bible Club, organized a clothes closet and food pantry, played ping-pong, cooked, ate, laughed, and watched a new bonding take place among children and parents.

A few weeks before we left, Jason and Elizabeth Rogers, trip organizers, determined with the folks at Hale Community Ministries in Elizabethton that one of the ways our church could help would be to bring instant oatmeal for the food pan-try. We didn't have much time to collect but lots of people got behind the Oatmeal Ministry and we ended up with 1,760 packets! Up to that point it may have been hard for the children to understand the nebulous "mission" part of the trip, but with boxes stacked up so high--and later when we met the children living in poverty who likely would eat it--we could really see what we were doing.

Like many, Allie, who is 10, got behind the effort, spending her allowance on several boxes. On the way back from the store, wishing she could've bought more, she laughed "What if Kroger just would give us more oatmeal to take?" That night Allie wrote a letter, and the next day when we took it in, I saw something I'd never seen before. Allie walked up to the counter, spoke up and told the manager what she wanted and why. Her mission had overcome her fear. Soon we had a free $10 gift card, which she spent on eight boxes of oatmeal. Allie was so proud, walking out of that store with her treasure--and the day she unloaded her oatmeal in Elizabethton, I believe I caught a glimpse of Jesus in that food pantry.

Craft Your Christmas

Craft Your Christmas! Registration will be on Sundays, October 14 and 21, in the foyer after worship. Fees must be paid at registration. These classes are great sharing times with family members. If you bring an unchurched friend with you (only you and class instructor will know) we’ll give you a discount on your fee! More information available here »

2008 Deacon Nominees

Deacon Election will be held Sunday, October 21. If you will not be present, you may pick up an absentee ballot in the Pastor’s Office on Sunday, October 14, or Wednesday, October 17.

Jack Benz
Nancy Brock
Denise Bronaugh
Mark Brown
Bob Bunn
Tom Clark
Steve Finch
Jeff Gossage
Ric Herrera
James Kennon
Rick Mathis
Rusty McIntire
Andrea Overby
Philip Owens
Jason Rogers
Richard Roselle
Marlan Seward
Jason Shull
Diane Skelton
Hugh Sloan

Anniversary Reception for Frank & Rus

Anniversary Reception for FOR FRANK LEWIS (10 YEARS) AND RUS ROACH (20 YEARS)

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4

3:30 – 5 P.M.

FELLOWSHIP HALL

Bring a note for each, expressing appreciation or sharing a favorite memory from their years of ministry

Global Missions Banquet

Save the date! December 1 at 5:30 P.M.

Global Missions Banquet with Jerry and Bobbye Rankin, President of the International Mission Board and missionaries from around the world!

Minister of Music Listening Sessions

Your opinion counts! We are providing opportunities in the weeks ahead for church members to offer input and ask questions about the Minister of Music Search Process. Plan to attend the following session:

Sunday, October 14, at 5:30 P.M. in the Chapel

Members of the Nominating and Personnel Committees will be present in each session. Meetings are also being planned with Chapel and Sanctuary Choirs. Additional listening sessions will be scheduled for early 2008 once the Minister of Music Search Committee has been elected.