Basic Weekly Schedule Sunday Worship Classic Service 9:00 am Celebration Service 10:30 am Connect Groups 9:00 & 10:30 am Wednesday Nights Dinner 4:30-6:00 pm Prayer/Bible Study 6:00 pm TV Schedule Cable Channel 10 Thursday: 9:30 pm, Friday: Noon Sunday: 8:00 am, Monday: Noon Sunrise Sunday School Sunday: 7:30 am & 10:00 am

PASTORAL STAFF John S. McCallum II, Senior Pastor john@firsthotsprings.com Lee Barnett, Music/Worship Pastor lee@firsthotsprings.com Danny Bryson, Education/Outreach Pastor danny@firsthotsprings.com Colby Gunselman, Youth Pastor colby@firsthotsprings.com Tyler Lee, Associate Worship Pastor tyler@firsthotsprings.com Heather Murphy, Children’s Pastor heather@firsthotsprings.com Bill Newton, Generations Pastor bill@firsthotsprings.com Mike Pounders, Executive Pastor mike@firsthotsprings.com Margarito Ramirez, Hispanic Pastor magoram@sbcglobal.net Kyle Stevens, Missionary Pastor kyle@firsthotsprings.com Wallace Yamauchi, Fitness/Recreation Pastor wallace@firsthotsprings.com

Email us at: info@firsthotsprings.com

Volume 35, Issue 12, March 25, 2020

Thur Mar 26 Joshua 11-12; Mark 14:32-52 Jane Yahoda Brandon Jones Tina Stewart Steve Glisson Patti Heckmann Stephen Turner Jeremy Dobbs Twyla Evans Ken Edens Sophia Hedrick Fri Mar 27 Joshua 13-15; Mark 14:53-72 Becky Olaru Jen Williams Steve Marshall Phyllis Vaughn Pam Warren Mike Byers James McKeever Whitney Argueta Chad Roberts Karoline Dunn James Davis Cynthia Bailey Sat Mar 28 Joshua 16-18; Mark 15:1-15 David Rose Bryan Swearingen Tia Terry Sam Spraggins Cindy Kilpatrick Gerald Mauldin Sun Mar 29 Joshua 19-20; Mark 15:16-39 Mary Ellen Thompson Carrie Holmes Evan Eastwood Marcia Smith Kyleigh Taylor

Tues Sun Mar 29 cont. Marcus Leonard Terri Wells Gabe Cundall Mon Mar 30 Joshua 21-22; Mark 15:40-47 Greg Waters Randy Jackson Tera Wagoner Colt Hamner Carol Lynch Colson Jackson Harper Borland Tue Mar 31 Joshua 23-24; Mark 16 Laura Cavanaugh Glenn Smitherman Steve Boston Stephanie Smith Chloe Sheets Judy Gerren Lindsey Mills Angel Sutton Teresa Newsom Wed Apr 1 Judges 1-3; Luke 1:1-25 Lauren Boston Steve Harbour Mary Callahan Thur Apr 2 Judges 4-5; Luke 1:26-38 Deborah Logan Becky Morris Drew Martin Jimmy Burton Mickey Wood Witt Miller

Fri Apr 3 Judges 6; Luke 1:39-56 Chuck Jarrell Andrew Freeman Zac Abernathy Travis Brann Lauren Warren Sat Apr 4 Judges 7-8; Luke 1:57-80. Gerald Wells Valerie Wimsett Alejandra Lara-Villegas Sheldon Shinn Cindy Woolery Gracen Blount Garritt Mason Gabe Moore Cora Petersen Sun Apr 5 Judges 9; Luke 2:1-20 Luke Mangan Vivien Mardis Rebekah Warren Mon Apr 6 Judges 10-12; Luke 2:21-40 M.E. Foster Andrew Haight Dot Wilkerson Patty Robinson Shaquetta Austin Tue Apr 7 Judges 13-15; Luke 2:41-52 Jean Pitts Rick Cherry Allen Black Jordan Dobbs Conner Freeman Sharon Dollar Mark Richardson

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH 2350 Central Avenue Hot Springs, AR 71901 Ph. (501) 624-3345/Fax (501) 624-2804 Weekday Preschool (501) 624-7083

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Nonprofit Organization U.S. POSTAGE

PAID Hot Springs, AR Permit No. 192 THE MESSENGER

Invite Everyone, Invest In People, Impact Eternity

How are you doing? Between our staff and our Con-nect Group leaders we are trying to make contact with all of you. I hope you are following CDC guide-

lines and doing the social distancing. It’s trying, I know. The better we do at that now, the less time we’ll have to do it. But social distancing doesn’t mean you can’t call a friend. Please do. And if you can get out in your yard, do that and get some fresh air. This is also a time to develop spiritual disciplines. Find a Bible reading plan or make one up. For example: pray through the gospels listening for a word from God for you. In the discipling plan Kyle has developed for the church, we’re using the HEAR method of engaging the Scripture. H – highlight a verse or two out of the passage you’re reading. E – explain: what does it mean (use study Bible notes to help understand context). A – apply: what is God telling you to do in the text. R – respond: could be a prayer asking God to help that Scripture come alive in you. This is also a time to engage your family. Play some games together. Take a walk together. Sit around and tell stories. Do a project together. Right now, it looks like we will be online only for worship through April 5 (Palm Sunday). We are not ready to make a call on Easter just yet. Please pray for wis-dom as we make that decision. You need to know how proud I am of your church staff—the ministers and the support staff. They are going the extra mile in a variety of ways. Send them an email of encouragement. Email addresses are easy. It’s the staff member’s first name @firsthotsprings.com. I’ve instructed the staff to spend less time at the office this week. It’s not wise for us to be altogether for very long. There is much we can do from our homes. You can still reach us, of course. Just another reminder about online giving or the US Post Office to continue to give tithes and offerings. I wish I could say our expenses go down in a time like this. They don’t. Please be faithful. If you’ve lost your job for now, we understand. Thank you for your generosity. We continue our study in the Lord’s Prayer this Sunday. We’ll be thinking about the clause, “Your kingdom come.” What is Jesus teaching us to pray in that phrase? We’ll explore that Sunday. See you on some screen this Sunday. I love you and am proud of you. We will get through this. Your Pastor, John

WATCHING ONLINE: March 22, 2020 2,935

These numbers indicate the number of devices checking in. They may represent one person or a whole family or group.

Service Teams will be listed again, as soon as we resume onsite services.

Ministry Fund (3-22-20) Weekly Receipts $61,413 Online Giving $15,788

Total Given $77,201 GCF (Great Commission Fund) Weekly Receipts: (3-22-20) $989

If you prefer to give your tithes and offerings on-line, go to our websi te, firsthotsprings.com, and follow the giving prompts. Please make sure the office has your current email ad-dress.

BUDGET REPORT Education / Outreach Ministry

Creative Ways to have Connect Groups Zoom! Gary Beckwith pioneered doing his Connect Group on Zoom Sunday. Businesses use this online, video meeting format. He

led a time of prayer requests and then a brief lesson on Sunday. I encourage you to try it with your group. You can download the free version of Zoom. You can have a group time of up to 40 minutes and up to 99 people. For a good tutorial, go to YouTube and type in “how to use zoom for teaching.” Then you can use the email list for your group to invite them to join in. You could do it at your regu-lar time or piggy-back off one of the worship times, or another time to avoid too much screen time.

Party Line Conference Call! Using Uber Conference.com. Create an account. Email or contact your members in other

ways. Let them know the day and time of your call. Give them the number assigned to call and the code for them to use. Let me know if you have questions.

Make a video and email it! Teachers, you could video yourself and send it to your group to watch.

Please Contact Your People We want to encourage your Connect Groups to reach out to everyone, members and prospects in your group during these days of opportunity. We need to stay in touch on a weekly basis! And if you discover ministry needs, please serve! I know many of you have email lists. However, please check on each other in a very personal way by calling. We sent class roles to all Adult Connect Group Leaders via email. You can use your care group leaders or fellowship or dinner groups. If your group is not organized, now ’s a good time to do that and initiate getting coordinators for care groups of 4 or 5 individuals or couples. I’ll send leaders info about creating care groups. Please let me know of any good stories of your experience. Here is a sample conversation when you call: 1. Hi _____________ this is ____________ from your Connect Group at First Baptist Church. 2. We're just calling all our people to check on you all during this Coronavirus situation. 3. How are you all doing? 4. Do you need anyone to pick up medicine or a few items at the store? 5. Anything else we can do to help? 6. Just to make sure you know, we are not having worship or any other activities at church until we re-evaluate at the end of the month. But, we are live streaming our worship services at firsthotsprings.live. And you can check regular updates at firsthotsprings.com/update. 7. Anything we can pray for you about? 8. We look forward to seeing you back at church when we start meeting again in person. Thanks for your time.

Connect Group Team Meetings

Postponed until further notice!

Pastors Calling Non-Connect Group Attenders

Our Connect Groups are calling their members and prospects. But, we were concerned about those not attending Con-nect Groups. So, just thought you would want to know. Our pastors have divided up a 53-page list of people who haven’t attended a Connect Group in the past 6 months. These might be church members, not affiliated with a group or chronic absentees. The people have seemed to really appreciate the personal call and concern.

Our Sewing / Knitting Groups Pitch In

We have three groups of ladies who are sewing personal protective masks at the request of CHI St. Vincent’s Hospital. Thank you, Ladies! And we donated masks and gloves from our missions supplies to a local hospital.

FBC Meals on Wheels Delivered

Keith Baker, our church cook is preparing special meals for those who were Homebound before the Coronavirus. We also are delivering meals to some who are ill or recovering from medical issues. If you are a senior adult and want to get on the list to help deliver meals. Please call the church office. Thanks to all who have been serving with this effort! Love, Danny

Fitness & Recreation Ministry (All sign ups/resources are available at the Fitness/Recreation Ministry HQ.)

Church family, as hard as these days are, no doubt God is working in and through these troubling days. Be en-couraged friends. He has been faithful in our past. He will prove Himself faithful again!

Until we all fall down, Wallace

“This is the storm, this is the storm,

The storm before the calm. This is the pain, the pain before the balm.

This is the cold, the cold, It's the cold before the warm.

These are the tears, the tears before the song. This is the dark,

Sometimes all I see is this darkness. Well, can't you feel the darkness? This is the dark before the dawn.”

Chorus from the song The Dark Before the Dawn by Andrew Petersen

* * * *

The FLC is TEMPORARILY closed as we continue to weather this COVID-19 storm. For the latest fitness minis-try information, please visit fbcrecreation.com or FBC Fitness on Facebook. You can also join our Face-book group, FBC Fitness Stronger Than Yesterday for online live workouts and tips to stay healthy.