You all know we provide coffee on Sunday mornings at our coffee bar near the kitchen. This is a taste of hospitality that we want to continue to provide to our church family and guests. However, it is also something that costs us over $7,000 per year to clean coffee/cream/sugar combo stains from the carpet, and it’s gotten so bad that we most recently had to use an even more expensive cleaning method to remove the stains.

I was made aware of a really great solution that a church in Maryland has tried…and it’s so great that it’s coming here starting this month. It’s our official Blue Ridge coffee mug with our church logo, a secure lid and a wide bottom that doesn’t tip over.

So heads up all you coffee drinkers because here’s the new plan to use these mugs:

• Each family will receive two mugs for free…to start!! Single adults will receive one free mug. Parents can decide if they want to purchase mugs for their children for coffee, tea or hot chocolate.
• Everyone will use these mugs on Sundays. No other cups will be available. Water bottles will be allowed.
• Everyone will write their name on their mug. Permanent markers will be provided.
• First-time visitors will receive a free mug as a gift with their welcome folders.
• If you forget to bring your mug on Sunday, you may purchase another one for $3.00 or you may take one from the Mugs Only Lost & Found tub in the kitchen.
• If you leave it here, it will be rinsed out, waiting for you to pick it up in the Mugs Only Lost & Found tub
• Until we all get into the habit, we will have people stationed at the doors and coffee bar to graciously remind you that no other containers (except water bottles) are allowed in the auditorium or classrooms.
• You may use your own coffee mug but only if it has a very secure lid. Regular travel coffee mugs, even with lids, can easily be tipped over, so using the church mug is preferred. And you won’t be as cool as the rest of us who have our “official” church mugs.

Benefits

• Big cost savings on carpet cleaning and wear and tear as well.
• Big cost savings on disposable cups and lids, since they will no longer be provided.
• Eco-friendly since it will significantly lessen our weekly trash load
• Provides a gift to our visitors, and hopefully serves as a reminder to return here when they see our imprinted mug in their cupboard.

Special Note – If you have a personal interest in hospitality or even just want to see excellent coffee service provided, we are looking for someone to take on this “ministry of care” to our church family. For starters, this of course would entail making the coffee each Sunday, as well as creating a warm and inviting area for fellowship. Many, many thanks to our faithful deacons who have provided this ministry for us for so long, but we all think it would be great to have a person or couple or family who have an interest or vision for this. If you’re the one, please contact me anytime (debbie@brbible.org).

Image credit: Paul / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Children’s Choir Musical, Saturday, May 5th, 6:30 p.m.

Voluntary donations will be accepted to benefit the Blue Ridge supported ministry of Romania Reborn, providing hope, help, and homes for children.

Church Calendar – You have two choices on the calendar tab on your Community Builder (CB) home page. “My Calendar” has all activities for the groups you are already in, i.e. church congregation, a LIFE group, etc. “Church Calendar” shows all activities related to church ministries or church sponsored activities. Anytime you want to know information on all church activities, you can go to CB > Church Calendar and find out. For example, if you can’t find your bulletin, but know there was an announcement about a new Bible study, go to the Church Calendar, click on the event, and then on “more details”. If your teen told you there was an activity but he can’t remember what time it starts, go to the Church Calendar. If you want to schedule an activity, first go to the Church Calendar to see what’s happening on the day and time you want. If it looks available, you can email me through CB to make the final reservation request. Or if you are a leader of a CB group, you can set up the event and request to reserve a room yourself and I will receive your request to confirm its availability.

Online Giving – Many thanks to those who have chosen to give regularly and consistently by signing on to the online giving feature of CB. Everyone is encouraged to check it out and give it a try. It’s very easy to set up and our server has maintained the highest security measures followed by banks and other financial institutions. Two other benefits: The convenience of not having to remember to bring your checkbook to church is great, and most importantly honoring the Lord by giving regularly from your “first fruits” instead of remembering after the money has gone elsewhere.

Smart Phone Access – You can access CB from your smart phone or other wireless devices. Then that address, phone number or email of someone in the congregation is always available to you, even when I’m not in the church office to answer your plea for help.

Read Part I of here to learn how to update your profile, look up birthdays, and set your privacy settings.

by Brittany Paist

“It’s not a method of evangelism—we stole it from Jesus!”

Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort, co-hosts of the Way of the Master evangelism course, say that the eight-session program will teach believers how to bypass the intellect (the place of argument) and instead speak to the conscience (the place of the knowledge of right and wrong)—the way Jesus did. In the five weeks since Blue Ridge’s college and career LIFE group, called “Refuge,” has started the course, we have begun to develop a greater concern for the lost, overcome our fears about sharing the gospel, and have learned questions to ask a person that speak directly to the conscience.

From my perspective, one of the most life-changing truths I’ve learned in this course is the importance of preparing someone’s heart before sharing the good news of what Jesus did for him or her. Who wouldn’t find it offensive to be told they need a Savior if they don’t yet understand their guilt before God? Realizing what a crucial point this is has revolutionized my thinking—especially when I’m interacting with an unbeliever and have an opportunity to speak truth.

Another really helpful facet of the course are the step-by-step homework assignments that are gradually coaxing me from thinking about how I should be interacting to starting to interact deliberately with those who are lost. As a group, we’ve shared on Friday nights how making a point to say hi to strangers and handing out “icebreaker” tracts has helped prepare us to deliberately transition conversations to the spiritual and to start asking questions that speak to the conscience.

To be honest, it’s kind of addicting to talk to folks about their standing before God! And I’m not saying that because it’s the right thing to say—this is a completely new thought for me. Yet each time that I have handed out a tract, or been deliberate about transitioning a conversation to the spiritual, or role-played with someone at Refuge, I have become more and more excited and expectant about talking with those who don’t know Jesus. Obedience is in the small things, and it’s amazing how gracious our God is. Even though I feel those things are teeny-tiny steps, it’s clear from the stories shared at Refuge that God blesses even small steps and uses them to connect us with our God-given calling as His ambassadors!

If you would like to investigate or take the Way of the Master evangelism course, contact the Local Missions team at localmissions@brbible.org, or Christopher or Marion Esposito (mespo@me.com), or watch for announcements on the next opportunity to take the class!

 *****

Interested in having access to biblical tracts that present the gospel in an effective manner?

Check out the new Local Missions board which is stocked with multiple varieties of tracts and is located on the display wall by the Nursery!

Convicted about your need to devote more time to praying for unbelievers?

Come join in on the first Tuesday of the month as we pray for hearts to turn to God. We’ll meet for the first time on Tuesday, April 3 at Blue Ridge, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Friday April 6, 2012 at 7pm.

Map and Directions

Now that many more people are venturing into Community Builder, there are a few things that would be helpful to clarify:

1. Community Builder does not equal Website – These are not the same. They are linked together in a few ways, but are not the same. At brbible.org (the church website) you can go to the bottom of the home page and conveniently login to CB without having to remember the web address for CB. CB is used for accessing information on our church families or individuals and communicating with our LIFE and other groups, and to view the church events calendar. The church website is for the public to learn more about us and view the public events calendar, to read articles of interest, and to download the Sunday sermons. Those are just a few differences between Community Builder (brbible.ccbchurch.com) and brbible.org, but using both will keep you informed about all that is Blue Ridge.

2. Update Profiles – It is very important to keep your profile updated so that accurate and complete information is always available. Easy access to information is a key element for the success of Community Builder. Therefore, as you choose your own privacy settings, please keep in mind two things: 1) CB is a secure area open to just those who are members or regular attenders of Blue Ridge. Access is not available to the public. Even as we add new people who visit here they are made “limited access users” for an extended time and are unable to see our personal information. 2) The more you block out on your personal profile or the profiles of your family, the less “connected” you will be with our church family. For example, if someone in your LIFE group wants to have you over for dinner but you have blocked out your email and phone numbers to everyone, someone else who allowed access may get that dinner instead of you.

3. Privacy settings and communication settings – Both are offered to everyone in CB. In privacy you may select various parts of your profile and choose who can see that information. For example, you may let the church staff and leadership see all of your information, OR just friends and group members. Or you may choose to hide your address but give everyone access to your email and phone number. There is a detailed explanation of each level of privacy at “update privacy” on the right side of your profile page.

Communication settings are available for you to decide which types of communication you want to receive through CB, such as emails or weekly group activities, and they primarily work in and around the groups in which you are a participant. The leaders of those groups may send you communications related to those groups, so be careful how much and where you choose to stop communication.

4. Birthdays – Some of you may have noticed that your birth year is 1911. In our previous database, it was customary to not require adults to provide their birth year, only their birth month and day. In our old system, we recorded the birth year of those adults as 3000, but that didn’t work in CB, so we had to choose a year that had already occurred. Considering the Blue Ridge age range, we figured no one had 1911. Please, please put in your correct birth year. In your privacy setting, you can choose to only have church leadership see that, and we promise we won’t tell. But it is very helpful to the staff to be able to search for age groupings for a number of ministry needs. That search would not be accurate if a lot of our adults are still listed as 101 years old!

Read Part II to learn about the Calendar, Online Giving, and browsing CB with your smart phone.

Abu Saad quickly became a zealous witness for his Savior, joining a Gospel team on a missionary trip to Sudan in 1990. After that initial trip, he spent several years distributing tracts, tapes, and Bibles door-to-door with evangelism teams in a number of different countries, seeing many Arabic-speaking people come to Christ as a result of his outreach. These experiences convinced him that the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa need a ministry that has the stated goal of reaching every home and tent with the Gospel and discipling new believers (with extensive follow-up, church-planting, and leadership development) in conjunction with the efforts of indigenous churches.

In preparation for the leadership of such a ministry, which he subsequently founded, Abu Saad obtained his Masters Degree in Christian Leadership while his wife earned a Masters in Law and Professional Christian Counseling. (She has since started a PhD program in the area of Professional Christian Counseling, with the goal of eventually opening a law/counseling office that would grow into a full-time counseling center.)

This dynamic couple’s ministry now mobilizes Christian Arabs to reach marginalized Arabs in a number of ways – from providing Bedouins with veterinary services for their camels and other livestock to providing adult literacy classes for gypsies; from hosting block parties for slum children (who receive backpacks full of school supplies, and whose parents frequently invite their Christian benefactors into their homes afterwards) to distributing food, clothing, and Bibles in war-torn localities. The ministry also reaches out to the obscure Druse people and to Arabs in prison. True Christians everywhere recognize that the Gospel is the only answer to the terror and hatred often found in the Arab world.

We are blessed to have Abu Saad join us in early March: Smryna Ministries (a Blue Ridge supported organization) will host a special evening event for him at 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 10, and he’ll speak briefly in Blue Ridge’s morning services on Sunday, March 11. Please watch the bulletin and emails for announcements about these events as well as his further speaking opportunities at the Men’s Breakfast, at LIFE Groups the week of March 5-9, and more. Prepare to be blessed and to be a blessing as you discover ways God might use YOU to pray for and support His work in the Arab-speaking world.

Speaker: Tedd Tripp

March 30-31, 2012 at Blue Ridge Bible Church

Dr. Tedd Tripp draws on over 30 years of experience as a pastor, counselor, school administrator, and father in giving his valuable help to parents. Shepherding a Child’s Heart is about how to speak to the heart of your child. The things your child does and says flow from the heart. Luke 6:45 puts it this way, “…out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” (NIV) Designed for parents with children of any age, this seminar provides perspectives and procedures for shepherding your child’s heart into the paths of life. Purchase his book here: Shepherding a Child’s Heart. Continue reading for complete details.

Plan to make this small investment in your family!

The cost is $20/$25 for single/couple before March 4

$30/$35 after March 4

See below for additional details and conference schedule.

NOTE: Childcare program is now full. There is still plenty of space in the seminar for adults. Updated: March 6, 2012

Space is limited, so register soon! Please note this conference is for adults only but we have prepared a terrific childcare program (0-12).

For those in need of childcare, we are offering a terrific program for children (ages birth to 12 years). Registrations for childcare must be done by March 15. Cost is $10 for one child, $20 for two and $25 for three or more. Your kids will enjoy our “Under the Sea” theme for the weekend, featuring a showing of the family film “Dolphin Tale” as well as sea-themed snacks, games, and fun activities. Friday night is movie night. Kids can come in their pajamas and enjoy “Dolphin Tale,” an inspiring true story of a dolphin named Winter who receives a second chance at life. Saturday morning the fun continues with plenty of games, activities, and Bible lessons that will captivate your little seafarer! Note: Childcare full at this time. Updated: March 6, 2012

Register online here.

Pastor Tedd Tripp’s Biographical Information

Tedd Tripp is the senior pastor of Grace Fellowship Church, Hazleton, Pennsylvania. He was married to Margy in 1968. They have three adult children and nine grandchildren. Tedd is a graduate of Geneva College, B.A. in History, Philadelphia Theological Seminary, M. Div., and Westminster Theological Seminary, D. Min. with an emphasis in Pastoral Counseling. Tedd is the author of the popular child-rearing book, Shepherding a Child’s Heart.

Tedd has been an elder in Grace Fellowship Church since 1976 and pastor of the church since 1983. Before seminary Tedd worked as a contractor and in industry.

Tedd and Margy founded Immanuel Christian School in 1979 where Tedd has served as a teacher and administrator. Tedd and Margy still serve on the board of ICS. From 1985-1997 Tedd served as a counselor in the Lehigh Valley office of the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation. Since 1994, Tedd has maintained an extensive ministry as a conference speaker and presenter of Shepherding a Child’s Heart Seminars. His books and video and audio materials are used throughout the world.

Schedule and Session Summaries

Friday Evening

6:30- 7:00 Registration

7:00- 8:00 Getting to the Heart of Behavior

The major theme of Shepherding a Child’s Heart is that the heart directs behavior. In this session Dr. Tripp presents an overview of several passages that teach that the heart is the wellspring of life. Since behavior is heart driven (Luke 6:45), it cannot be understood or addressed biblically in isolation from the heart. What a child says and does is a reflection of the abundance of his heart. This session explores some of the common ways that we try to address behavior without shepherding the heart, helping parents gain skill at working back from behavior to the heart unmasking heart issues for their children.

8:15- 9:15 Helping our Kids See the Glory of God

Shaping influences of childhood are the events and circumstances in a child’s developmental years that prove to be catalysts for the person he becomes. Shaping influences, however, are only half the story. Children are worshippers so they interact with the shaping influences of life out of the Godward orientation of their hearts. Since they are worshippers children either worship God or idols. They filter the experiences of life through a religious grid. Since their Godward orientation will determine the ways they respond to the shaping influences of life, one of the primary tasks of the parent is to help their children see the glories of God. They are made to be dazzled and awed by God. The parent’s calling is to help them see the glories and excellencies of the one for who they have been made. Psalm 145 describes parenting as “one generation commending the works of God to another.”

Saturday morning

8:30- 9:00 Breakfast: coffee, tea and light breakfast

9:00- 10:00 Early Childhood: Helping our Children Live Joyfully Under Authority

These early days are wonderful for helping children understand that they are designed to live under authority. Kind and gracious authority is a blessing for children since they lack wisdom, maturity and life experience. Our task is helping them see that God, who is good and kind, has designed them to function as people under authority. God has promised wonderful blessing for children who learn to honor and obey Mom and Dad.

10:15- 11:15 Childhood: Helping Children Understand How to Identify Attitudes of Heart

There are many issues that arise in shepherding our children that cannot be reduced to living under authority. The Bible teaches that the heart has strayed long before the behavior strays. We must help our children understand the heart attitudes that are behind common behavior problems. Focus on the heart keeps before us the need for the transformation that grace brings. This session will present a paradigm for getting from behavior to heart attitudes and helping children understand ways that their straying hearts show how profoundly they need the forgiveness, grace and empowerment of the gospel.

11:25 – 12:30 p.m. Teenagers: Helping Young People Embrace the Gospel as their own Living Faith

This is the time to pass the baton of faith from one generation to the next. There are foundational issues in Proverbs 1: the fear of the Lord, remembering your parent’s words and disassociation from the wicked. The parent accomplishes the tasks of this developmental stage through rich biblical communication. We will discover that the finest art of communication is to understand the other person, in this case our teen.

Since it launched in December, we have now used Community Builder (CB) to invite and register women for the January retreat, which also conveniently included paying for registrations by credit card online. It was used to sign up people for the March for Life. Our LIFE group leaders are using it to communicate with their groups and to manage their rosters. Our deacons are scheduling worship service security teams. The Belize summer missions team is tracking their preparations to go this summer. Many thanks to those of you who are building the community and finding new uses for it. This is a “continuing education” project so watch for future demonstrations, or you can always contact me with questions or instructional needs.

One especially handy tool for everyone is the online giving. We offered that in the past through our previous software, but this one is even easier to set up and manage. It’s convenient, consistent, secure and deliberate, allowing you to give “cheerfully” rather than sitting in the worship service and realizing you forgot your checkbook…ooops again. So if you have not considered giving this way before, take a moment and check it out. Login, click on “give” and follow the prompts. Or you can go to your profile and click on “give” or “financial.” If you have any questions, just contact me any time.

Another use for CB is matching up people with special interests…or matching those who have a freezer to give away with those who are looking for one…or matching those who need some work done around their house with skilled people in our church family. We have started a group called “Bulletin Board for Needs” which you can request to join and then communicate with others in that group. We have also created “Workforce Ministries Lunch Group.” This is the ministry which holds monthly lunches for business people who want to integrate their faith with their workplace. You can request to join that group and William Kirkwood will send you updates and invitations. If you have a special interest and want to know if there are others in our church family with the same interest, contact me and we can set up a group for you. To see the current groups available, go to Groups > discover a new group > search, and the entire group list pops up.

Check out Blue Ridge Community Builder today!