VOLUME
35 · NUMBER 3 · MARCH
2008
| BY BERNICE GUDGEL | ||
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We will have three services in the Chapel on Good Friday. At 12:00pm Pastor Dave and a music team will lead us in a simple, more traditional time of worship and communion as we remember what Christ did for us on the cross. At 5:30 and 7:00pm our Drama Team and Chapel Praise Team will lead us through a powerful time of worship and communion as we focus on the grace that God has given us through Christ’s death on the cross. Nursery and childcare through age five will be available for all three services.
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Easter – Sunday, March 23
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Good Friday Services - Friday, March 21 
| BY PASTOR JIM GRUBB | ||
We are pleased to announce the establishment of the Bethany Bible Church Foundation as a companion to our church for doing God’s work locally and globally. The BBC Foundation has two primary purposes: 1. Support mission activity by helping the church body to live and work its faith in local and global opportunities beyond our regular Missions Partners. 2. Encourage church planting and development as well as expansion of existing ministries outside our campus. These would be specially identified projects that are not part of the normal Bethany Budget. Bethany Bible Church has a history, participated in by many of our current members, that includes helping start eight new Bible churches and supporting many newly commissioned missionaries during that period. It is upon this legacy that we wish to build, for it represents our dedication to pursuing The Great Commission.
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We can accept any of the following: NEED MORE INFORMATION?
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| BY DAVID MERDICK | ||
Your technical team, who serve you week after week, year after year, have a passion for what we do. There are few things about which we share a passion. One of these is God, and another is our families. We love ministering to the congregation of Bethany each and every week. We are a volunteer intensive crew, volunteering our time each week to assist in providing a worshipful experience for you. Most Sunday mornings we’re on campus around 5:00am (yes, that’s early!), readying everything for the two groups to which we minister, whether in the congregation or on the platform. We’re determined to have things ready, so the Word of God will be experienced in sight and sound by those come. We set things up, test them, and trouble shoot any problems. We strive to have things ready before you arrive. And above all, we do not want to be a distraction from the message that’s being communicated. Most of us are familiar with the countdown start of the Fox television show, 24. We hear the clock tick loudly while we nervously wonder whether or not Jack Bauer and his Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) team will be able to thwart the latest threat to America’s security. Sure, it’s a dramatic device, but it works. It creates anxiety in us because we know that Jack and friends are always up against the clock. Tick….Tick….Tick….Tick…. Most of us are unfamiliar with the frantic countdown that takes place every week in churches all across America. No one hears the clock. Few understand the pressure. Fewer still understand how incredibly important success in the tech ministry is to the church being able to successfully accomplish its mission. Make no mistake about it. The high-pressure, time-constrained mission of the tech team in churches everywhere represents one of the most difficult, and yet unappreciated part of our services. And yet, it is every bit as important, and eternally more so, than anything Jack
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Bauer and CTU encounter each week (or hour…it is after all “24”). Without the skill and commitment of the tech team, the spoken word of the message, and the emotion – stirring power of the music, would go unheard. The visual image that connects the dots would go unseen. Teaching experts tell us that the more senses we involve in the learning process, the more we retain…the more we internalize. And isn’t that the point of Sunday worship services? The tech team is responsible for making sure that all of these various components are somehow integrated into a seamless whole. Why? So that the church can have the slickest – looking production? No. So that the believer and seeker can both connect in multiple and powerful ways with the Savior of the world. The world has an active enemy. He is more cunning and more dangerous than any terrorist cell group in the world. His nuclear bombs and deadly viruses against humanity are accomplished by keeping people away from Jesus Christ. And if he can’t keep people away from church, then at least keep them from hearing it in a way that will resonate with their soul. The pressure on Sunday morning to accomplish the life – saving and life – changing mission of the church falls squarely on the shoulders of the unsung heroes of the faith. The stakes are critically high. Tick….Tick….Tick….Tick…. I can hear Jack Bauer proclaiming, “We are running out of time!” The tech team can feel (if not hear) the very same words emanating from the platform. “We are running out of time!” But week after week, with the patience of Job, and the persistence of a bulldog, these tech heroes work out a way to bring the wonder of God’s love and the power of His Word to people who are desperate for it. To all of you who make this happen, those of us whose lives depend on it, we offer a resounding and heartfelt thanks. Your Technical Director, Article reprinted with permission of Church Production Magazine.
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