THANKS! SEE YOU SUNDAY!

Richard Hostetler, thank you! Richard is a member of the West-Ark family. He lives in Sallisaw, Oklahoma. For years, he was a minister. Last week I took my annual trip to Harding Graduate School to audit an in-depth study of 1 and 2 Corinthians. Those taking the course attended sessions all day each day for a week. The elders invited Richard to speak Sunday morning. I was delighted to listen as Richard focused us on Jesus and his blood.

Sunday will be a special day in this congregation's spiritual growth and development. We will conduct a ministry fair. The ministry fair has two objectives.

The ministry fair's first objective: the elders want each member (men and women, from teens to retired) to complete a Membership Involvement Form. Parents of young children are asked to partially fill out a form for each child (to give us their child's full name and date of birth). The form requests some biographical information and some interest information. The forms are now available. They are on a table on the north side of the foyer.

The information gathered from the forms will be used in three ways. First, the information will be entered into our database. Curtis Jackson, with input from others, designed and installed a new database system for our church office. The biographical and service information will be entered into our database to help us function and serve better as a congregation. Second, the deacons will receive the service information. They will provide leadership for specified ministry areas. Recently we appointed many new deacons. The deacons will coordinate the ministries. They plan to move our ministries to higher levels of service. Third, the elders want to involve every possible member in serving God. For our own salvation, they want us to worship and serve.

The ministry fair's second objective: the ministry fair is a serious effort to educate us about the ministries at West-Ark. Most ministries will have an attended display table illustrating and describing their work. First, you will have opportunity to see the work of many ministry areas. Second, you will be encouraged to be involved in a ministry that interests you. The elders want us all to worship. The elders want us all to serve.

"What can I do?" Attend Sunday. Worship and learn. Fill out a form. Be involved.

Sunday's schedule is different. Adult classes (not children's classes) will meet from 9:30 to 10:00 a.m. They will dismiss at 10 a.m. to allow adults to visit the display tables. Worship begins at 10:30 a.m. A fellowship meal will be served after worship. Curtis McDonald and his crew will prepare the meal. Please bring desserts. At 1:00 p.m. we will have our quarterly family meeting. The meeting will focus on serving. It will close with a devotional. Then we will have additional time to look at the ministry displays. We will not have a Sunday evening assembly.

Help God's family here grow to a new level of spiritual maturity and service Sunday!

David Chadwell

West-Ark Church of Christ, Fort Smith, AR
Bulletin Article, 29 July 2001

 Link to next article

 Link to other Writings of David Chadwell