May 26 – June 1, 2010 Volume 3 – Issue 17
A word from our Family Pastor:
How Can We Enhance Our Worship?
How can we make our corporate worship services better? How can I get more out of it? How could
we tweak our services such that people are better served by them?
Those are worthwhile questions—questions that just about every church asks of itself at one point or
another. To really make our worship services better we need to have some idea of why we meet everySunday and we need to have some understanding of what worship is. This is in large part, the reason
why we are teaching on worship in Sunday School—because these questions are vital to our health as
individual believers and as a local church.
I plan to teach extensively on why we meet together to worship in the very near future, but let me justsay this to begin with—the local church is like the air of the New Testament and every book of the
New Testament is breathing it. There isn’t always a lot of explicit instruction about the local church in
the NT because for its authors, the centrality of the local church is an implicit given—they sing its
praises implicitly from Matthew to Revelation. In short, the point of our meeting together is toencourage one another to seek Christ—we gather together to treasure Christ together.
What then is worship? I argued last week that the best definition of worship, though not
comprehensive, is, “an engagement with [God] on the terms that he proposes and in the way that he
alone makes possible” (David Peterson, Engaging with God, 20). Simply put worship is seeking Godin the way that he has determined for us to seek Him and by the only means that we can seek him. The
only means by which we may engage with God is the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ by which
sinners like us are reconciled to God by faith in Christ. If worship is an engaging with God, then the
most important consideration we should make in entering into worship is our vision of God.
Certainly there are numerous aesthetic changes we could make to our worship services—songs we
could sing, instruments we could use, “tactics” we could employ to evoke emotional responses to our
preaching and singing, but would those things really enhance our worship? I would argue that thosethings would actually detract from worship unless they are setting our thoughts on God and expanding
our vision of Him.
We worship in order that we might know Him. Because we care so deeply about God, we ought to careabout the aesthetics of our services—namely that they do not distract people from seeking God but
rather encourage people to love God with all their heart, soul, and mind.
Does that mean that we should discourage emotional expression in our worship services? No not at
all—if we are truly expanding our vision of God in the way that we worship both privately and
corporately—then deep emotions will naturally follow—but they will be response to God rather than
an attempt to impress Him or other people and consequently in the process of doing so we will truly
encourage one another.
Announcements:
• Men’s Softball – Men’s Softball signups will be starting soon. Please see Robert Sims if you wouldlike to play.
• Deacon/Titus 2 Meeting – This Wednesday night, May 26, after services.
• VBS – Mark your calendars! VBS is June 14 – 18. See Regina if you want to help.
• Nicaragua Trip - If you are interested in going to Nicaragua, August 14-21, please see Bro. Brad orBro. Drew ASAP.
Women’s Announcements:
Summer Book Club: We are so excited about our summer book club! Here's how it will work: we will
read one book a month for June, July and August. At the end of each month we will meet and talk
about what we liked and didn't like and what we learned, if anything. Dates will be announced in the
coming weeks. If you are interested in having the book club meet in your home one of those months,
please let Amy or Lisa know! Here are our book club selections:
June: My Hands Came Away Red by Lisa McKay
July: Contentment by Lydia Brownback
August: Feminine Appeal by Carolyn Mahaney
You can purchase the books yourself via amazon or some other bookseller (they should be available at
most bookstores) or even borrow them if you know someone who has them already.
Praise/Prayer Requests:
• Please pray for Rebekah Hogsed, Janice Gray’s granddaughter, who gave birth to a baby girlyesterday named Tenley Lauren Hogsed. She was five weeks early and 5 lbs. 15 oz., 19 inches
long. Tenley was born with underdeveloped lungs but is making progress. As I understand
Rebekah was having some medical issues that caused the baby to be delivered early. Pray for
Rebekah, her husband Drew and Tenley. Also pray for Janice Gray’s daughter Donice and Tony
Snow and also for Drew’s family.
• Pray for Susan Crane who has breast cancer.
• Pray for Daniel, Ernie and Bernice Seckel’s grandson who was in a car accident. Pray for him as heis still recovering.
• Pray for the Pastor Edwin of the Primera Iglesia Bautista Church in Albertville. He has a bloodinfection.
• Pray for the Hixon’s as they have been approved to adopt a baby from China. His name is JosiahNolen Junhay Hixon. There is still some paperwork and such to finish, but the main hurdles have
been cleared. Pray for baby Josiah and the Hixons. Josiah has a few physical challenges that he will
have to overcome, so pray for him!
• Pray for Phyllis Patterson and her family. She has stomach cancer and it has already spread to mostof the stomach cavity.
• Pray for Penny Roney, Steve Hellums’ sister. Penny has a Craniopharyngioma. That's a benigntumor that affects the pituitary gland causing hormone imbalance and headaches. It can also put
pressure on the optic nerve, causing vision problems. The good news is that it isn't cancerous. The
bad news is that she may have to deal with the affects of the tumor for life. Please pray for the
doctors that the Lord will lead them to the best treatment.
• Pray for the Seckel’s grandson, Ethan, who has been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.
• Pray for Gloria Childress’ brother, James Pierce, who is in kidney failure and not doing well.
• Pray for Denise Bledsoe’s mother, Shirley McLendon, who is in congestive heart failure. Pleasepray for Denise as she is trying to help her mother as much as possible.
• Pray for Ruth Thompson, Wanda Parker’s mother. Pray for her husband, Dalton, as he cares forher.
Missions:
M.U.D. Ministries:
If you are interested in supporting M.U.D. Ministries, please contact Eric Hixon at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
The Teague Family: Chris, Emily, Eden, Canaan, Bethany and Nile -
If you would like to get in touch with the Teague’s, you can contact them at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
They are working United World Missions. The website is www.unitedworldmission.org.
Volunteers for this week:
Sunday Morning:
1’s and 2’s – Randy Spence/Steve Hellums
3’s and 4’s – Todd Gregg/Nathan Spence
Food:
Sweet – Sims
Salty – Gregg
Birthdays:
Thursday, May 27 – Marsha Garrison; Hannah Pratt
Last Sunday Stats – March 28, 2010:
Attendance: Worship Service - 73
Offering: General - 2681.00
New Covenant Baptist Church – www.DiscoverNewCovenant.com
104 W. Alabama Avenue, Suite A - Albertville, AL 35950
256-849-2454
Sunday:
9:30am – Sunday School
10:30am - Worship Service
6:00pm – Community Groups
Wednesday:
11:30am – Men’s Bible Study
6:00pm - Children’s Activities
6:00pm – Student Activities
6:00pm – Adult Bible Study
Pastor – Brad Williams Family Pastor – Drew Dixon
Our mission and passion at New Covenant Baptist Church is to glorify God by becoming a community that
fosters the love of God with all of the heart, soul, mind and strength, and by learning to love one another as Christ
Jesus has loved us. The answer to every heart's need and the satisfaction of all our longing is found in Jesus Christ
our Lord, who is Himself the very image of Almighty God. We exist to adore Him, and to spread the knowledge
of His greatness to the ends of the earth.
