Vision Newsletter MAR 2015 Newsletter Color Print.pub

SAREPTAVision
SAREPTA BAPTIST ASSOCIATION
4010 Jefferson Road
Athens, GA 30607
706.549.5872
www.sareptamissions.org
Strategically Aligned to Reach • Equip • Proclaim • Teach • Assimilate
Return Service Requested
MARCH 2015
The Spring Senior
Adult Luncheon
Beech Haven
Baptist Church
March 2015 events
Sun
Mon
1
Tue
Wed
2
3
Thu
4
15
22
29
9
11:30 am
Ministers’ Conf.
Q&A Forum
Fri
5
Sat
6
International
Friends
9:30am
11:30 am
Ministers’ Conf.
Lunch & Learn
8
Athens, GA
10
11
Sarepta
Executive
Committee Mtg.
7pm
16
11:30 am
Ministers’ Conf.
Prayer Triads
17
23
11:30 am
Ministers’ Conf.
Rudy Camp
Pastor, Comer BC
24
30
31
7:00 pm
Minister’ Conf.
James Dumas
Pastor
Mont. Heights BC
12
7
VBS Clinic
Watkinsville FBC
7:30am7:30am-12:30pm
13
14
20
21
NO International
Friends Mtg.
SPRING BREAK
UGA
18
19
International
Friends
9:30am
25
26
27
28
International
Friends
9:30am
SAREPTA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
Tuesday, Mar. 10 • 7 pm • at Sarepta
~Bring a covered dish~
R.S.V.P. your church
at 706.549.5872
Thursday, April 2 • 12 Noon
With Speaker/Entertainer Chuck Nation
From Gainesville, GA, Chuck is a member of the
Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame and has
performed across the U.S. and in 17 countries.
Chuck recently completed his second musical tour
of Ireland in 2014 covering sixteen cities, and will
debut in New York City at Carnegie Hall on
May 22, 2015 performing “The High Lonesome
Mass” with composer/conductor, Dr. Tim Sharp.
A Line From Lex - Director of Missions - Sarepta
Page 2
Serve Athens --- March 28
Churches are always looking for ways to “get
outside their walls” to make an impact in their
community. Make plans to SERVE with ASMWA
(Athens School of Ministry and Worship Arts) on
Saturday, March 28th, as we support local service
organizations through work projects. Last year a
number of our Sarepta Churches joined hands
with other evangelical churches in this area to
make a powerful impact in the name of Jesus.
Living Hope Church on Lexington Road in Athens
will be hosting the volunteer breakfast and the
Red Cross Blood Drive.
Volunteers are needed for event set-up, on and offsite projects, and event clean-up. For more
information, go to this link: www.asmwa.org/Serve Interested in leading a volunteer
team? Contact Alexa Schulman ([email protected]) for a project. I hope you will
make plans to be a part of this effort to show the love of Jesus to the people of Athens. You don’t
have to be a church in Athens to participate.
Budget Crunch and Personnel Adjustments
Both our Finance Committee and Personnel Committee met in order to address the current budget
shortfall. With previous budget tightness, the ministry portion of our budget had been reduced to
approximately 2% of our overall budget. In 2014, we had the largest drop off in our receipts since
2010 at 7.5%. We were forced to take a long hard look at the two primary areas that make up
our budget: personnel and property. As a result, the two previously mentioned committees
jointly recommend that we merge the Administrative Assistant position and the Financial
Secretary position and reduce the workload from 30 hours a week to 24 hours a week. This will
mean that we will be unable to retain Luanne Byrd who has served our association for the past
four years. Emily Fleming, our Financial Secretary, will take over the additional duties of the
Administrative Assistant. I deeply appreciate the job Luanne has done with raising the quality of
our publications of both the Vision and our weekly e-news. She has provided us with excellent
brochures for our various ministries across the board. She has done a great job on our website
and has assisted numerous other churches in Sarepta with their websites to improve them. There
should be no shortage of opportunities for her with the skills she has shown us here at Sarepta. I
deeply appreciate Emily’s willingness to enlarge her responsibilities here in the office. Emily has
served Sarepta for more than a decade and always does an excellent job with our finances. The
both of us will have to pick up various areas of responsibilities previously held by Luanne. We will
certainly miss Luanne and the job she did for us over the past few years. I wish nothing but the
best for her as she explores other options vocationally.
Between now and our September Executive Committee, our Finance Committee and our
Properties Committee will be exploring possible recommendations that need to be presented to
our association as it relates to the property.
The financial challenges are not unique to Sarepta. In a recent meeting of Associational
Missionaries, I discovered that most of the men I spoke with were dealing with the same kind of
shortfalls with a few exceptions. The Cooperative Program receipts, which funds the ministry of
the GBC, had a shortfall of between 5% and 6% last year, according to information shared with
me by a GBC staff person.
For those of you are currently supporting us at the same levels you have in the past or are giving
more, I thank you for that support. For those who have had to reduce your giving to Sarepta, I
would ask, if possible, to reconsider your reduction and return to the level of giving of previous
years. For the dozen or so churches that do not give anything, I would ask you to consider
supporting the work of Sarepta.
S arepta V ision is a news publication of the Sarepta Baptist Association • www.sareptamissions.org
Association News and Events
Page 5
International
Friends
students
volunteering
at The
Northeast
Georgia Food
Bank
with Director,
Amy Wheeler
We all like to be needed, to be appreciated, to be an integral part of a team. We enjoy the inside jokes,
the sense of purpose, and the feeling of camaraderie. Many of our students at International Friends
lack that sense of community when they come to Athens. Their language skills may hold them back or
their cultural differences make them not quite “fit” into the community.
At International Friends, we want to reflect a very personal God, a God who draws people to himself,
a God that gives people a purpose, and a community. In addition to the English classes, we have
started a partnership with the Northeast Georgia Food Bank. They are welcoming groups of our
students as volunteers. We pack groceries for needy public school kids, sort donated groceries, or
whatever needs to be done. Our students love the experience of being contributing members of the
Athens community. They work hard, crack jokes in sometimes broken English, and are using their
language skills outside the classroom. It is a great chance to get to know them in another setting, a
setting where there is not the division of teachers and students, a setting where we are all members
of the same community, working together. Jesus gathered people in close to minister to them, then
recruited them to work beside him…a model we can follow.
ENGLISH AS A SECOND
LANGUAGE (ESL)
WORKSHOP
DATES:
Friday, May 15 - 6–10:00pm
Saturday, May 16 - 9am – 5pm
Sunday, May 17 - 1– 4pm
(Must attend all 14 ½ hours of
instruction for North American
Mission Board certification)
LOCATION:
Northeast Church
2001 Cherry Drive
Braselton, GA 30517
COST:
$35.00 (Includes Workshop
Manual, snacks and lunch on
both Saturday and Sunday)
TO REGISTER CALL OR EMAIL:
Kathy Duke at 706.654.3205
[email protected]
.com
REGISTRATION DEADLINE:
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Association News and Events
Page 4
SAREPTA BAPTIST ASSOCIATION
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
Tuesday, March 10, 2015 • 7pm • at Sarepta
Location:
4010 Jefferson Road
Athens, GA 30607
706.549.5872
2015 VBS CLINIC • Watkinsville FBC
1610 Simonton Bridge Road, Watkinsville, GA
Base Level Conferences:
THIS SATURDAY
MARCH 7
7:30am-12:30pm
Includes Spanish
Conferences
Register online at
www.sareptamissions.org
Call 1.800.746.4422 ext. 286
with questions
Younger Preschool Leaders, Older
Preschool Leaders, Middle Children
Leaders, Older children Leaders
Adult and Youth Leaders, Mission
Leaders, Music and Worship Leaders,
Craft Leaders, VBS Directors, Pastor,
Staff and Association Missionaries
Spanish Conferences:
Preschool Leaders, Pastors
and VBS Directors and
Children Leaders
Registration/Cost:
Late/At The Door Registration:
$25 Per Person
*PLEASE REMEMBER TO PURCHASE your 2015 VBS materials through the LifeWay store
in Athens. A portion of the proceeds from the sale benefits Sarepta and provides funds
for Sarepta to purchase resources and provide programs to aid Association churches.
The following VBS curriculum may be purchased through the Athens store:
Sarepta 2015 January Financial Report
Organization
Academy Baptist Church
Apple Valley Baptist Church
Arnoldsville Baptist Church
Athens First Baptist Church
Athens Korean Church
Athens Vietnamese Mission Church
Attica Baptist Church
Beaverdam Baptist Church
Beech Haven Baptist Church
Berea Baptist Church
Bethany Baptist Church
Blacks Creek Baptist Church
Cabin Creek Baptist Church
Calvary Bible Church
Carlton Baptist Church
Cave Springs Baptist Church
Center Baptist Church
Central Baptist Church
Cleveland Road Baptist Church
Clouds Creek Baptist Church
Colbert Baptist Church
Collier Baptist Church
Comer Baptist Church
Commerce First Baptist Church
Compass Community Church
Corinth Baptist Church
Crawford Baptist Church
Danielsville Baptist Church
East Athens Baptist Church
Edwards Chapel Baptist Church
Forest Heights Baptist Church
Friendship Baptist Church
Glade Baptist Church
Glory Baptist Church
Grace Fellowship
Green Acres Baptist Church
Grove Level Baptist Church
Hudson River Baptist Church
Hull Baptist Church
Iglesia Bautista Emanuel de Athens
Ila Baptist Church
Jefferson First Baptist Church
Johnson Drive Baptist Church
Legacy Baptist Church Inc.
Lexington Baptist Church
Living Word Baptist Church
Madison Street Baptist Church
Maysville Baptist Church
Meadow Baptist Church
Milledge Avenue Baptist Church
Millstone Baptist Church
Montgomery Heights Baptist Church
Moon's Grove Baptist Church
MTD
January
YTD
2015
100.00
85.00
0.00
0.00
344.00
0.00
256.36
100.00
1,549.09
90.00
300.00
372.49
0.00
350.00
50.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
335.40
180.96
1,386.47
204.88
516.71
757.62
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
169.00
138.92
0.00
311.32
112.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
250.00
231.38
596.86
42.12
0.00
0.00
238.38
360.33
500.00
218.24
993.99
1,600.00
0.00
0.00
12.00
0.00
200.00
100.00
85.00
0.00
0.00
344.00
0.00
256.36
100.00
1,549.09
90.00
300.00
372.49
0.00
350.00
50.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
335.40
180.96
1,386.47
204.88
516.71
757.62
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
169.00
138.92
0.00
311.32
112.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
250.00
231.38
596.86
42.12
0.00
0.00
238.38
360.33
500.00
218.24
993.99
1,600.00
0.00
0.00
12.00
0.00
200.00
Organization
Mount Olive Baptist Church
New Harmony Baptist Church
New Hope Baptist Church
Nicholson Baptist Church
Normaltown Community Church
Oconee Baptist Church
Oconee Heights Baptist Church
Pendergrass Baptist Church
Pleasant Grove Baptist Church
Prince Avenue Baptist Church
Prince Ave Hispanic Bapt. Mission
Providence Baptist Church
Riverside Baptist Church
Rogers Baptist Church
Salem Baptist Church
Sandy Creek Baptist Church
Sandy Cross Baptist Church
Stevens Grove Baptist Church
Union Baptist Church
Vesta Baptist Church
Victory Baptist Church
Watkinsville First Baptist Church
Winterville First Baptist Church
Total:
Page 3
MTD
January
YTD
2015
253.05
75.00
0.00
0.00
621.33
0.00
369.50
0.00
200.00
1,386.91
0.00
137.11
260.91
143.65
333.33
200.00
600.00
161.00
750.00
239.00
50.00
500.00
1,838.42
21,072.73
253.05
75.00
0.00
0.00
621.33
0.00
369.50
0.00
200.00
1,386.91
0.00
137.11
260.91
143.65
333.33
200.00
600.00
161.00
750.00
239.00
50.00
500.00
1,838.42
21,072.73
SAREPTA BAPTIST ASSOCIATION
Financial Summary
Balance January 2015
1,658.03
Prior Year Deficit
(7,682.77)
(6,024.74)
January Budget
18,211.61
January Budget Receipts
20,223.88
January Budget Expenses
18,565.85
Budget Year-to-Date
18,211.61
Budget Receipts Year-to-Date
20,223.88
Budget Expenses Year-to-Date
18,565.85
Annual Budget
218,539.34
Designated Funds
Mission Development Fund
International Friends
Disaster Relief
Children's Camp
56,253.94
214.63
4,272.63
124.65
Lindsay House
953.49
Ministers Assistance Fund
103.09
Balance in Designated Funds
Thank you for your continued support of the Sarepta Baptist Association.
61,922.43