How do we serve one another and our community?
Morning Star Baptist Church is a congregation of people whom God has brought together. We do not have unanimity, but we do have unity. We are learning to love one another as Christ loves, and He commands us to serve one another.
We also feel compelled to help our "neighbors," who could be anyone in need, as God gives us opportunity to help.
There are many ways to get involved in the church's ministries. People may have particular gifts or affinities for certain kinds of work, and there is always plenty of work to go around. There are teams that rotate weekly or monthly to clean the building, to provide breakfast, and to staff the nursery. There is a financial stewardship committee that meets to track and report expenditures and plan budget needs. We have people who paint walls, fix vehicles, counsel newlyweds, run audiovisual equipment, host or teach Bible studies, bake pies, lead a choir, build furniture, play piano, drive tractors, stock the books and sermon library, plan dinners, sweep floors, wash dishes, teach English as a second language, make coffee, arrange flowers, and interpret for the deaf.
Our children (pre-K through 7th grade) participate in the Kids 4 Truth clubs program on Wednesday evenings (learn more here). For the sake of families with small children, we provide nursery care for every service. Children ages 3-7 are dismissed to a children's service on Sunday mornings. On Sunday evenings, the children participate in a special catechism lesson and remain with the rest of the church family for the evening service.
For individuals or families seeking counseling and a chance to learn and grow in the Christian faith, there are Bible studies, accountability groups, and discipleship meetings going on all throughout the week, depending on people's schedules.
In addition to the small group and one-on-one meetings, there are two biweekly studies—the ladies Bible study and the singles fellowship group. We have a weekly program broadcast on Radio 91/WGSL (8:00am Sundays) with sermons from Pastor Bixby. And, about once a year, he teaches a theology class for anyone interested in attending.
In December of 2004, when tsunamis devastated southeast Asia, killing over 150,000 people, our congregation was struck with a fresh realization of God's sovereign power and providence over natural disasters. As people who know the Lord Who appoints calamities, we wanted to respond rightly and with compassion. We pooled our resources to help send a local pastor on a relief mission to Sri Lanka. In August and September 2005, when hurricanes struck Louisiana and surrounding states on the Gulf Coast, we wanted to do more.
Our church's leadership saw the need to mobilize relief efforts, and within a few weeks, Global Grace Missions was formed as a missions arm through which Morning Star could minister to suffering people, not just locally but on a wider scale as God provides the wherewithal to do so. Jeremy and Anouk Scott became our on-site representatives in the hurricane-affected areas for five months—living in an RV on a KOA campground with evacuees, packing and distributing over 600 boxes of food and supplies, planning dinners and programs, conducting Bible studies, counseling, allocating resources, working wherever and however they could, and organizing work teams from churches all over the USA.
Since the beginning of Global Grace, Morning Star has sent many work teams of men and women to help, and we are still committed to send teams in the future. It is our hope to maintain Global Grace as a venue for mobilizing emergency relief and missions efforts as crises arise. To learn more about Global Grace Missions, please visit the website (globalgracemissions.org) or the Global Grace weblog.
c o n t a c t | info@wordcentered.org, 815.520.3697
m e e t u p | discipleship, counseling, fellowship
r e s o u r c e s | downloads and links
m a p s | driving directions
l e a r n | beliefs and ministry philosophy
This site is best viewed with the Mozilla Firefox browser.
Please contact the designer with any questions or technical issues.
Hosting by BigBlueHat.