FBC Gallatin,
As some of you probably saw, I recently posted a video on Facebook regarding exciting updates in the life of our church. I plan on doing this sporadically from time to time to draw more attention to important things going on at FBC. Of course, one such update is the news that pastor Wood Marshall is now on sabbatical and you can now listen to the audio of our June meaningful members meeting where we learned about sabbaticals and voted to bless Wood and Ashley with some time away from ministry responsibilities. Let’s be praying for them this month that God would bless, encourage, and refresh them in their time away during the month of August.
We also just finished up a great long week of VBS at the end of July where we had our highest number of students in attendance since I have been here! The leaders all did such a great job in various roles from setting up the wonderful decorations, to preparing fun snacks, to teaching bible study lessons, and corralling the kiddos during recreation in the weeklong high heat temperatures! I want to thank all of you for your great work, and we can all just continue to pray for fruit coming from all the good work we did together teaching and sharing biblical truth to all in attendance.
And with a whole month on the topic of Ephesians 6 and spiritual warfare at VBS and also during our monthlong sermon series, I hope we are all applying the truths we learned to be ready to take up the whole armor of God and stand! I know that we don’t naturally think about the unseen battle, and the spiritual war going on, but hopefully we have been aligning our thinking to what God has revealed on the topic and aware of the enemy and his vile devices to cause us to stumble. I also hope we have all grown in our gratitude to God for providing us the sure gospel armor that is not dependent on our goodness, but God’s grace and protection! And that we would remember not only to stand in armor, but to advance in armor as well with the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God! And as I’m writing this, we still have one more sermon at the beginning of August to see that the armor really is God given because right after reminding us of the Christian’s armor, Paul turns and calls believers to pray in armor which reveals our desperate dependence on God to work and protect and care for his people! So stand, advance, and pray in armor Church!
Also, we have a couple of great opportunities to practice meaningful membership the rest of the month, not to mention of course our weekly worship gatherings that we have covenanted together in agreement to regularly do as members, but also our next morning meaningful members meeting will be next Sunday (8/13) after church. We also have a great opportunity to meet and fellowship with each other at our annual summer picnic at Lake Viking as we eat good food together and enjoy a great lake view and have fun swimming in the lake or the pool, playing wiffle ball, and even hearing the band “Servants of the Most High” play some good music for us as well! Please feel free to invite friends or family in the community even if they are not members of our church as this will be a great time to visit and connect with all who might want to join us!
And I am reminded as I prepare for this final sermon on spiritual warfare that if Paul regularly asked for his fellow believers to pray for him in his ministry, that I also need to be regularly asking for your prayer as well! I would appreciate your prayers as I continue to study the Word to both preach it publicly and counsel it individually in the life of our church. It is a great responsibility to proclaim God’s truth and I don’t take it lightly, and I also know how powerful it can be in both saving unbelievers, and sanctifying believers to grow and mature in their Christian life. Will you please pray that God might move through the preaching and teaching of His Word to change lives here at FBC? We all need the change and growth that only God can give through his Word! Thank you for praying! I am praying for you too!
Sincerely,
Pastor Daniel Pelichowski