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

WHY NOT?

I was thinking about this the other day: Could we work hard for a “High Attendance” Sunday? Sunday, October 29 will be our new Associate Pastor’s first Sunday as our new Associate Pastor! Why not welcome him with a full house, a high attendance at the 9:00 and the 11:00 Worship Services? Why not?

Kyle, Melissa, River and Ember will be moving in on Johns Island on Monday, October 23. The staff will take a day off to go and help them move in. Kyle’s first day at work will be Monday, October 30th . We will welcome Kyle to his first staff meeting as a staff member. His first Sunday with us will be Sunday, October 29th. Wouldn’t it be great if our JIBC family and friends made a real effort to welcome Kyle with a full house? Why not? We could do that. We are already planning a baptism on that Sunday. Let’s add a strong attendance at both services. Come on out and meet Kyle. By the way, meeting Melissa and the girls may come a little later. New born twins are twice the blessing…and twice the…oh, let’s just stay with twice the blessing! We will certainly look forward to seeing them all. Please mark your calendar and make sure you can be present to welcome Kyle.

ONE MORE SUNDAY

We have one more Sunday before the biggest outreach event of the year, our Fall Festival. We always host this party on October 31. We will expect to have the usual 1,000 people showing up for a great time. This Sunday, October 29th , we will have the signup sheets in the worship center. We still need about 25 more people to volunteer.

YOU JUST CANNOT MISS IT

The Taste of James Island Baptist Church will be held on Sunday, November 12 right after the 11:00 worship service. Please note that for that Sunday, we will NOT have a 9:00 service. We will combine as a family at 11:00 and have a great day of partying! Every Connection Group and every ministry team is invited to set up a table and a booth. Our goal is to get around 200 people to visit each booth. This would be a great time to promote what your team does and to possible recruit new members or at least create awareness. By the way, if you have a moment would you call or text the office and let us know what you are planning to serve at your booth. I personally would be thrilled if we ended up with 13 mac-n-cheese dishes! But maybe some people do not have the same addiction as I have! You can call the church at 843.762.0244.

There is a whole lot of blessing going on. Come on and join us!

Pastor Tom

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem

“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May those who love you be secure.

May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.”

Psalm 122:6-7

Here is a simple explanation of a very complex situation. Israel is at war with Hamas. Israel is defending itself from a major attack from the terrorist group known as Hamas. Hamas is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist militant group. They rule the land known as the Gaza Strip. They are sworn enemies of Israel and want Israel destroyed and Hamas wants to replace Israel with an Islamic State. Right now, we can pray for the peace of Jerusalem. I was hoping and praying this war would be quick and to the point. At this point it does not seem to be the case. So we pray for peace.

FALL FESTIVAL

Now, back at home. We have two really fun and BIG events coming up. First is the Fall Festival. We never know for sure, but we estimate that we will have around 1,000 people on our campus on Tuesday, October 31. We go head to head with Halloween and offer a positive, family oriented, church based festival. We do need a large number of volunteers. You can put together a team of 4 and that way know for sure you will only serve 1 ½ hours and then you can go enjoy the fun. There are all levels of opportunities to serve: registration, set up, clean up, fun games, serving free hotdogs and drinks, Safety Team, etc. Signup sheets are right in front of the office. I love the comment from one of our members who came for the first time last year. She said “I had no idea the fall festival was this big or this good!” Oh yeah!

NEXT: THE TASTE OF JAMES ISLAND BAPTIST

Please put this one on your calendar: Sunday, November 12, right after the 11:00 worship service. (BTW, we will not have a 9:00 service that day) We are asking every Mission and Ministry Group to host a table and serve some of their favorite deliciousness. You will meet Connection Group Leaders and Mission and Ministry Team Leaders and get a chance to learn about their mission and ministry. You will taste some outstanding food. And we are working on giving away 3 prizes that you will absolutely, positively want to win. All you have to do to win is go by and meet the host of each table and get Taste of JIBC card signed. As soon as we have these three best prizes ever, we will let you know. Whoohoo. This could be the best time in a long time.

See you Sunday as we continue going through the Gospel of Mark.

Pastor Tom