2024 Mission and Ministry Budget

Let’s start with blessings: God is good; His people at James Island Baptist are generous; our church has no debt; we are fully staffed with gifted and talented leaders; the Word of God is taught; outward focus to the community and world is a priority; and to God be the glory. In addition to the mission support in our budget, in 2023 you have given an additional $92,000 to local and global mission causes. That is above our budgeted mission and ministry line items. Really, that is not nearly all that you do, but it is enough to get us started shouting AMEN! Take a moment and think what you would add to this blessing list. Thank you for your generous giving and your generous living.

Each year our Budget and Finance Team gathers budget requests from all of our ministry and mission teams. Along with the staff, they review these requests with prayerful and expectant hearts. I cannot remember a mission request ever being turned down. There were many times when our team found a better way to provide and fund a mission or ministry request. Your Budget and Finance Team works with the belief that if God is leading us to a mission or ministry, HE will provide the means. That has been a blessed combination.

Copies of the 2024 Mission and Ministry Budget are available at all the entrance doors to the Worship Center. The names of the Budget and Finance Team are included in the brochure. Please feel free to ask them any questions you might have about the budgeting process. The Church Family will vote on the Church Budget on Sunday, December 31.

This Budget represents our church family’s efforts to carry out the purposes of God: to bring people into God’s family; build them up to be more like Jesus; involve them in ministries to the church and community; to lead them to be outward focused in their life, the life of their family, their Connection Group and Church; and to worship Him with how we live our lives and as we gather weekly.

To God by the glory,

Pastor Tom

THE BEST DAY EVER

This year’s Advent theme is going to be “The Best Day Ever”. It would be hard to argue with the concept…the day Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, up to that point that was the best day ever! Maybe we could say the resurrection was the best day ever…but certainly before the resurrection, the birth of God’s Son would be considered “The Best Day Ever”.

A reminder about why we celebrate Advent. The word “advent” comes from the Latin word meaning “coming”. Advent refers to the four Sundays before Christmas. It is the period of preparation for the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It also refers to His second coming. We decided a while back to celebrate advent as a part of our church calendar for a few reasons. One, we wanted to provide help to those looking to break free of the incredible pull toward a secular and commercialization of Christmas. It was a Christian Holiday/Holy day long before it was a secular or commercial holiday. Second, we wanted to build a worship theme around “The Best Day Ever”, the birth of our Savior, Jesus. The theme of Advent changes from year to year. The purpose stated in the song says it well: Oh Come Let Us Adore Him. So we seek to Honor God, exalt our Lord Jesus and to lead our Church family to never forget the true meaning of Christmas.

Third, we have married Advent to Missions. Let’s remember those who are underserved or in need. We have 4 mission partners that we join hands to support. We love our friends at Lowcountry Orphan Relief. True religion, as James says includes loving the orphans. They are in desperate need of size 5t and 5 children’s clothes. Any type: shirts, pants, pajama’s, etc. We also love our partners at Lowcountry Pregnancy Center. We help provide new moms who chose life with diapers and wipes. All you have to do is look at the price of diapers and you will know what blessing that will be! We also use the Advent season as a time to show some love to James Island Outreach. We are the “jelly” church. We were asked years ago to make sure they always have jelly. You do such a great job; they have asked if we could add pancake syrup to the list! Of course we can. Last, but not least, we support our International Mission partners at the International Mission Board. We will receive offerings for the next six weeks to help support over 3,500 full time missionaries serving around the world. This is usually my first gift I give during the Advent season. I am honored to be able to give.

So, why Advent? How about worship, focus on the meaning of Christmas, building generosity, and a full all out effort to support our mission partners. Thank you for being so generous. The stage will begin to be transformed with gifts of love starting this Sunday!

Pastor Tom

WOW AND DOUBLE WOW!

We knew the Taste of James Island Baptist event would be good. We didn’t know it would be that good, over the top good, borderline on great! Our thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make this such a wonderful event. We will have a very brief video of the event this Sunday as a part of our Thanksgiving Celebration. And…we will present the gifts to the three whose names were drawn. You may remember we were giving away a $200 Halls Chophouse certificate, two Yeti Lunch Boxes and a night out with Kyle and Melissa at the Charleston Crab House! Well done JIBC, very well done!

DON’T LOOK NOW, BUT ADVENT IS COMING

I know, I know, it is hard to believe that Christmas is less that 6 weeks away. We celebrate the Advent, the coming, of Christ. The Christ-birth stories are among my favorite in the Bible. We are already beginning to plan for this year’s Advent theme: “Best Day Ever”.

JIBC does something a little different for our Advent Celebration. We join together the worship of Jesus focusing on his first coming/advent and our commitment to missions. For the four weeks of Advent, we ask our church family and friends to consider giving gifts that support our Mission and Ministry Partners here and around the world. Here are the four gifts ahead of time. Let us know if you find really good deals anywhere. We will pass it along. Here is the list, in no particular order. You can buy any of these and bring them any week of Advent. We are not collecting items for a particular Sunday. You may bring them and set them on the stage. Our Elves will display them in a beautiful order.

There are FOUR ADVENT GIFTS we would like you to consider as a part of your Christmas giving list. FIRST, we will, of course, be bringing jelly and pancake syrup for our local mission partner, James Island Outreach. SECOND, you know those little babies at Lowcountry Pregnancy need diapers and wipes; any size, any kind. THIRD, we were told by Lowcountry Orphan Relief that they desperately needed children’s clothes size 5T or regular size 5. LAST, but not least, we will be receiving an offering to support International Missions through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. One hundred percent of this offering goes to support 3,521 full time International missionaries. For as long as I can remember, the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is our first gift that Janie and I give every year.

DON’T SKIP THANKSGIVING

I love me some Christmas season but I never want to forget about Thanksgiving. This Sunday, we begin a two part series on Thanksgiving. We will celebrate with the Lord’s Supper at the 9:00 and the 11:00 services.

See you Sunday, good Lord willing!

Pastor Tom

GOOD TIMES, GOOD FOOD AND GOOD FRIENDS!

This Sunday, November 12, is the Sunday of our Taste of James Island Baptist. I read a couple of quotes I really liked: Dinner is better when we eat together; the secret ingredient is always love; everything has been seasoned with love; good food and good friends make the perfect combination!

All of these are exactly what I have been thinking about The Taste of James Island. We are so excited thinking about this fun fellowship time.

So, if all things work together for our good, here is what we are anticipating. Ron Corry and his set up team will be at JIBC at 8:00 Sunday morning. Set up time will be from 8:00 until 9:45. Connection Groups will begin at 10:00. Then our combined worship services will be at 11:00. (We will not have a 9:00 service this Sunday. We will start back with the 9:00 service the following Sunday, November 19.) During this Sunday’s Worship, we will have an early dismissal time for all those who need to go outside to put the final touches on their booth.

Ron Corry’s set up team will be putting up tables and chairs and will be available to assist anyone who needs them. JIBC will provide tables, some chairs, paper products (bowls and utensils), drinks and ice. The different Connection Groups and Ministry Teams will provide the food seasoned with love. BY THE WAY…there is not a way to run electricity out to your tent. Some will use chafing dishes to keep food hot and ice chest to keep food cold. We have plenty of ice. Think “tail gating”. Decorate, be creative, let’s have some fun.

Let me go out on a limb here. My hope for this festive and fun event is to introduce our church family and friends to our different Connection Groups and Ministry Teams. I would love for us to have 200 people visiting every booth, tasting wonderful food and meeting wonderful people. Every booth will be sprinkled and seasoned with love. Good times, good food and good friends…let’s make it happen.

See you Sunday, good Lord willing,

Pastor Tom

ON BOARD AND READY TO GO

Our new Associate Pastor, Kyle Hooss, has his first Sunday and first day at the office at JIBC under his belt! Kyle was at JIBC Sunday morning bright and early eager to start meeting our church family and friends. He already had the opportunity to share the Gospel with a church guest! Melissa and the babies will join us soon. We can’t wait for everyone to meet them all.

Just a reminder, Kyle is coming on board as our Pastor of Connection Groups (leading our small group ministry) and Administration. He will help with the day to day operations of our missions and ministries. I am so excited to have him here with our church family. You will be seeing a lot of him real soon!


A PERSONAL WORD

If I might share a personal word in relationship to Kyle coming on board at JIBC? I think a few people were thinking that since Kyle has come on board that meant I was retiring. The answer is no. Kyle is coming as our much needed Pastor of Connection Groups/Small Groups. Janie and I do not have any plans on the table for retiring…yet. We know that day is coming but we do not think it is soon. As I have said so often, our church family and leadership have taken great care of us over the years. So, we are ready and able to retire as far as finances are concerned. We are thankful to God and to JIBC for that. That being said, we have not heard any word from our Lord about retiring. We love our church family; love what God is doing here; love our staff; love being on James Island and in Charleston. Our retirement, whenever that might be, is not connected to Kyle’s coming. I celebrate his arrival at JIBC and the arrival of his sweet little family. I look forward to years of service with him and with you all.


NOW NUMBER NEXT

We have the 2023 Fall Festival behind us. Now, we turn our attention to the Taste of James Island Baptist Mission and Ministry Celebration. On Sunday, November 12, we will have over 20 of our ministries and mission teams serving up love and their best food dishes. WE WILL NOT HAVE A 9:00 SERVICE THAT DAY. ALL THE 9:00 FAMILY WILL PLEASE JOIN US AT 11:00 FOR A UNITED FAMILY WORSHIP EXPERIENCE. And then join us for great food and fellowship. Meet many of our team leaders and their teams and find out what they do. Who knows…it may be exactly what you are looking for.

See you Sunday, good Lord willing, as we continue going through the Book of Mark.

Love you all,

Pastor Tom