CHURCH ANNIVERSARY COMING UP: SUNDAY, JULY 15

Our church family will be celebrating another anniversary in July. Traditionally, the anniversary has been celebrated on the second Sunday of July. We had such a great turn out last year that we wanted to stay with the successful game plan. Our church Fellowship Hall is really too small to seat 300 people. So, we rented the Edisto Shelter at the James Island County Park. It will seat 300 inside, plus about 10 picnic tables under the oak trees. We will do a cookout providing all the hamburgers, hotdogs and all the fixin’s. You are welcomed to bring a dessert if you would like. If someone happened to bring a macaroni and cheese, they would need to see me so I could take special care of it! Oh, back to the desserts. It would help if you could pre-slice your dessert since we will not be at the JIBC Kitchen with all our serving wares. Believe me, anyway you bring a great dessert will be fine. Plan to dress for the park on that Sunday. We will leave right after worship. By the way, we are planning to celebrate with Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

So, a few things that will be different at this year’s picnic. We will fix our plates outside the shelter under the tents and then proceed inside for seating. That way we increase the number of seats in the air conditioned inside! We have some great prizes to be drawn but you do have to be present to win. Marie Smith has been working on the door prizes and she always comes up with great prizes. Rumor has it there are two $75 gift certificates to the View Salon! So far I think she has seven adult prizes and three for children. We plan to have live music featuring our talented musicians. Sounds like it is going to be a great day at the park.

This past week was a great example of why I so love JIBC. We had a great Vacation Bible School with volunteers that were high energy and highly committed to serving children. We collected over 100 jars of jelly and gave over $1,200 for James Island Outreach. What a great way to say welcome to the new Director at JIO, Scott Graule. We want him to know JIBC is on board with the mission. By the way, I can’t wait for you to hear some of the new changes in the outreach ministries. The VBS children also collected and made dozens of hygiene kits for the homeless.

We also had a Life Celebration/Funeral service for our dear friend Jenny Greenhalgh. Our praise band played three different times Sunday and all three brought Him glory. Our Kitchen Krew fed over 100 people. Our security team and prayer teams did their job and I want to thank them for a job well done. Thank you for all you do as a church family to make His love known. You were able to show, perhaps over 100 people, what a good and beautiful God looks like. I am honored to be your pastor.

See you Sunday, good Lord willing,

Pastor Tom

Celebrate Recovery

Next Sunday should be a very interesting and meaningful Celebrate Recovery.
You may have heard that one of our dear friends, a sister in Christ, Jenny Greenhalgh passed away last week. It does not seem like it, but Jenny came to us four years ago. Jenny came to our church family through the Charleston Center and through our Transition House ministry. Like so many, she battled with her addiction. She truly loved the Lord and her JIBC family. She was an easy person to love and always so very interesting. In personality types, she was a true Golden Retriever! I believe her life was blessed by her time and connection with the JIBC family. I know we were blessed by her.

So, here is the little twist in her Life Celebration—Funeral. We will actually have two services for Jenny. Both of them will be on Sunday, June 24. The first one will be at 4:30 here at JIBC. It will be the more traditional funeral. Of course everyone is welcome to attend this with Jenny’s family and friends. The second service will be a part of our regularly scheduled Celebrate Recovery Service. We will kind of wrap the remembrance and celebration of her life around the parts of Celebrate Recovery. This was the planned service from the beginning. Plans had to change a little so we opted to serve the family with an early service. Of course, family and friends are welcome to stay for the tribute during Celebrate Recovery as well. I believe both services will be beautiful in their own way!

You know, perhaps from your own life or from the news, addiction in America is far too common. It is easy to curse the darkness of evil. Thank you for being a church family that lights a candle and takes on the tough issues of life. The Gospel of Christ is the power to change. May we forever be committed to being a recovery station for broken people.

See you Sunday, Good Lord willing,

Pastor Tom

It’s About To Get Real Up In Here!

By the time you read this we will be less than one week away from Vacation Bible School: Game ON! Our VBS leadership team has done an outstanding job in recruiting leaders and workers. I believe they are ready for a great year of Bible Study, Worship and Fun. Please keep this year’s VBS in your prayers. Pray for precious souls to come to know Jesus Christ; for disciples to be grown even more; for workers to stay energized; and for safety for all involved. Game On!

Today, 21 Youth and 6 Adults went to summer camp. I am blessed with mixed emotions. First, my Grandson, Noah is going to youth camp. I am excited about that. Second, my grandson, Noah is going to camp. I can’t believe Janie is old enough to have a grandchild going to camp. Mixed emotions. In all seriousness, I want to thank our JIBC family for so generously supporting sending children and youth to camp. It really does make a difference. Join me in praying for their safety as they travel to Ridgecrest, North Carolina and back. Praying for a mighty movement of God among them all.

Monday, July 16 is the projected start date for the Fellowship Hall renovations. If we do everything that is planned you are going to be amazed. Make sure you go by to see it one more time before July 16. Once the plans are finalized and approved, we will start letting the proverbial cat out of the bag concerning the renovation plans. For those who are new to the church family, we recently completed a church wide discipleship ministry called “Daring Faith: Renovating Hears and Buildings”. It was a wonderful success. If you would like to participate, it is not too late. We have asked our church family to pray about three ways to give. First, would you consider making a sacrificial one time gift. As much as possible, we are trying to pay as we go so we do not have to borrow money. Second, some will give on a monthly basis, working it into your regular budget as God blessed. Third, some have committed to giving additional gifts that they don’t currently have. Now that is Daring Faith. Trusting that God will provide is the key no matter how you give or how much you give.

The next renovations on our list are the new entrance on the Plymouth Avenue side of the church and the installation of an elevator! Wow, has that ever been a long time coming. As stated above, then we will start the Fellowship Hall renovations on July 16. HEADS UP…that will be a very messy process. It will most likely impact Rose Haselden’s Class and Fred Roark’s class. When it is time to begin these projects, we will have times of prayer and dedication. Keep looking for information coming your way.

See you Sunday, good Lord willing,

Pastor Tom

VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL…NOT YOUR DADDY’S VBS!

Vacation Bible School is almost an institution for many southern communities. It has been a way of life and a part of life for many of us throughout the years. Our parents attended VBS, we attended, our kids attended and now our grandkids attend. Here are some interesting things about VBS you might enjoy reading.

Mrs. Walter Aylette Hawes gets credit for starting what we know call Vacation Bible School. In 1898 she rented a beer hall in the Eastside of New York to conduct an “Everyday Bible School”. Her goal was to get kids off the streets. Her pastor convinced her to move the school to the church campus. She tried but found out the kids were not coming so she went back to the beer hall!

In 1922 Southern Baptists more formally adopted this idea and it became known as Vacation Bible School. It began as a 4 week Bible School…oh my. In 1924 VBS had grown so much it moved from under the Sunday School Division and became its own division in the Southern Baptist Convention.

It is one of the most strategic outreach tools using age appropriate evangelism messages and methods. Each year in the Southern Baptist Convention, 25% of all baptisms come from decisions made during Vacation Bible School. Each year, there are over 2.7 million people enrolled in VBS and 10% of those enrolled in VBS are unchurched. This makes for a wonderful opportunity to share the Gospel. Every year almost 79,000 precious souls come to know Jesus as Savior by the mission and ministry of Vacation Bible School. My guess is Mrs. Hawes would love the development of what she started back in 1898 in that local beer hall.

This years VBS theme is GAME ON!. The motto is “Gear Up! Get Ready! Game On!” We will have 4 great Bible studies, great worship and lots of fun. VBS will start Monday evening, June 18 and will conclude with family night on Friday, June 22. If you have not been to a VBS in a while…check it out one night. We have all our classes and teams filled, but you can always come as a spectator…or a last minute volunteer. Pray for this years VBS. Pray that boys and girls will open their hearts and lives to the work of God’s Holy Spirit. Pray that they will be reached before they have to be rescued.

Game on!

Pastor Tom