During the month of August we will still be having two Sunday morning services at 9:00am and 10:45am with Coffee Cove between the morning services. Enjoy the relaxed schedule and the time with your families.

Trent Smith, a former Music Pastor at Saylorville, will be doing a concert on June 27th at 6:00pm. It will last until approximately 7:30pm and will be held in the main auditorium. We have an outdoor celebration service scheduled that day so there will be no other evening activities. The concert is free and open to anyone. We will be taking up a free will offering at the end of the service and Trent will have CDs available. Check out the video below for a preview.

There will be a going away party on June 5th from 3pm-5pm at the church. Check out the Facebook Event for more details.

Paul told Titus to “adorn the gospel of God our Savior in all things”. I want to take a moment to praise the Lord for all of the adornment to the Gospel that was going on here last Easter Sunday. At the risk of not naming some of you, I want to thank Stu Mauseth and his “crew” who fed some 900 an Easter breakfast with the help of the Young’s, Buby’s, Cody Robertson, Ed Burke and the Swartzendruber’s. Also to our fabulous greeters and ushers, our special choir and the worship team that led us to exalt our Risen Savior. A big thanks to Doug Porter and our technology team for all their work before, during and after the services. Without the help of our nursery and Children’s Church workers we could not have had the order that we had in our services. Of course these sacrificial servants should be thanked every week but a big shout out to you for all your work on Easter. And what would we do without Dick Ober who, along with Bob Dvorak, Dave Shetterly, Greg Stewart and Kermit McElvain brought order to our parking lot by shuttling folks back and forth as needed. I know that I’m probably missing 25 other people so please don’t be hurt if I failed to mention your name. I am grateful to you – to all of you for “your work and the love that you have showed for His sake.”

Pastor Pat Nemmers

Lisa Pedersen, our Office Manager and Children’s Director, will also be heading to California (strangely on the same flight sitting right behind pastor) to visit Amalie Parmerlee’s family with Amalie. She will be gone all this week and Judy Thorson will be covering the office for her.

Also, Hannah De Cleene, student at FBBC and Daughter of our Evangelism Pastor, Chuck De Cleene, flew out this morning to Spain where she will be teaching for the next two months. Please be in prayer for her safety and ministry that she has during this time away. If you’d like to keep up with her while she is in Spain, here is a link to her blog that she will be writing on regularly www.hannahdecleene.blogspot.com.

I think not.

To acknowledge that God is sovereign over all things is thoroughly Biblical and greatly comforting for the believer in Christ. God’s sovereignty however was never meant to be a cover-up for cause and effects. There are causes and effects-in life, in politics, in nations, etc. (Psalm 9:17; Gal. 6:7-8) To ignore these things is intellectually silly.

Where we go wrong is when we judge whether or not one person, one nation, or one group of people deserve judgment more than we do. In Luke 13 Jesus responded to those who thought a group of Galatians who had died a hideous death had it coming by saying, “Do you think these Galatians were worse sinners than all the other Galatians, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” He then referred to another tragedy of a tower that fell down killing 18 people. Again the prevailing belief was that somehow or another, they had it coming. To this Jesus repeated himself; “No, I tell you; that unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”

God’s earthly graces are indiscriminate, but his judgments are very discriminate. As to His graces; “For He makes His sun rise on the evil, and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matt. 5:45 But note that our same God promised that in the day His Son reigns, if the Egyptian people do not honor Him, they will get no rain!.” Zech 14:18

Whenever great tragedy occurs on this earth there are a number of theological and practical truths for the follower of Christ to keep in mind.
1. God is soveriegn. Rom. 8:28, Eph. 1:11, Ps. 115, Daniel 4:35. This simply means that regardless whether or not we understand the reasons behind any tragedy, we can be sure God has them and furthermore, He is in complete control.
2. The pervasiveness of sin. Rom. 8:21-23 “The whole creation has been groaning…” The sin that we introduced into this world is the reason this world groans. And it groans through floods, hurricanes, famines and earthquakes to name a few.
3. The justice of God. Ps. 9:17 “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all nations that forget God.” While we must not put ourselves in the place of judgment, we must acknowledge that God does judge nations in time.
4. The promises of prophecy. Matt. 24:4-8 The promises Jesus himself gave as the time of His return drew near included “famines and earthquakes in various places.” In other words these times should point our hearts heavenward as we look to the return of our Savior!
5. The doctrine of responsibility. Matt. 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifty your Father who is in heaven.” We were created for good works-Eph 2:10, and are commanded to do good works. Titus 2:7, Titus 2:14, Titus 3:1, Titus 3:8, Titus 3:14. Followers of Christ have often and rightly been accused of being distant from such tragedies as the one in Haiti. But yet Paul reminds us in Titus that when we demonstrate good works we “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” Titus 3:10 I am thankful that SBC has learned to respond to these kinds of tragedies. We sent men to tsunami ridden India and to New Orleans after Katrina. We will certainly be open to what the Lord has us to do in Haiti.

In Christ,
Pastor Pat

The situation there is still in a state of panic. Governments from around the world are already responding and food supplies and water are getting there but the distribution of those supplies is still being organized. On top of that there is rubble everywhere. It is a dangerous place to be right now. The purpose of this email is three-fold. One, pray for the people of Haiti and the believers on the ground there. Secondly, be patient as we are investigating both the timing and the way in which we might help. Be warned, this is also a time where evil men will rise up in an effort to scam you of your monies. Lastly and speaking of money, no doubt many of you would like to give sooner than later toward this cause in Haiti. Therefore this Sunday night we will take up a special offering to that end. Perhaps by then we can share what ministry or agency we will funnel those monies through in our effort to make sure it gets directly to the people of Haiti.

My guess is that some of you are wondering what all this means from God’s perspective. I will be sending out a Behind the Scenes later on today in regards to that question.

In Christ,
Pastor Pat

The new series is titled “Jesus Messiah” and starts this Sunday, December 6th. Here is a preview of the upcoming series: