The Woodmont Word

E-Newsletter

A Family of Faith on Mission

July 2016

Fourth of July

Written by Steve Patterson on June 18, 2012.

F reedom came with a price, the price of Christ blood shed on the Cross.

Our Lord and Savior saved us all from our sins.

Unrighteous we may be, but the grace us God set us free.

Rely on God, He will show our paths.

The truth is in God's Word, the Bible, His Holy Book.

Helping one another along the way.

Obedient to what God wants us to do.

Father, Creator, God is He.

Jesus died for our sins.

United one day, we believers will be in Heaven.

Love one another as Christ loved us.

You are a special creation made from God, our Heavenly Father.

Meet Angela Riddle. She is Woodmont's new Receptionist / Music Secretary. Angela is married to J.E. Riddle. She has one daughter, Caitlin, age 16. Caitlin is currently home schooled. Angela just moved back to the Florence area after living in Boaz for the past 19 years. Angela grew up in the church as a preachers daughter. Her dad, John Powell, has pastored churches in the Florence area for many years. Angela is currently a member of Underwood Baptist Church where she teaches Pre-K Sunday School. Her and her family enjoy time together camping. She is also a 1 year Breast Cancer Survivor.

Please join us in welcoming Angela to the Woodmont family!

Thompson's Text

I came across this post recently from Katie LaPierre and thought it both insightful and convicting.

10 Ways To Be A Miserable Church Member

Forget that your pastor is a sinner. Yep. Dwell on the fact that he is not perfect as often as possible and make sure to meditate on all his faults.
Forget that the entire leadership is made up of sinners. While you are thinking about all your pastor's weaknesses be sure to look for all the weaknesses in all the leadership. Criticize their every decision and talk to others, but don't ever go to them with your concerns.
Forget that your brothers and sisters in Christ are all sinners. This is a really important one. Go to church expecting everyone to be perfect. Get really upset when someone doesn't notice you or someone offends you. Then leave the church and tell people you don't go to church because it's filled with hypocrites.
Forget you are a sinner. Like numbers one through three instruct, focus on everyone else's faults, but do your best to forget about anything you do wrong. And since you're perfect nobody should ever wrong you. Expect the most out of everyone except yourself and get really angry when people don't live up to your standards.
Don't be involved, but then complain that you don't know anybody, and make sure to point out how your church is filled with cliques.This one is SURE to make you miserable! Make sure you are involved in the least amount of activities and events, but then make complaints like, "Nobody ever says hi to me" or "Nobody knows me."Consistently whine about all the cliques in your church and how impossible it is to get to know anyone.
Get upset every Sunday about the music. Church bodies all over the world are divided over music; you can easily use this area to make yourself miserable. Make sure you criticize every song the music leader chooses and make fun of him if he makes a mistake. Bemoan how hard it is for you to listen to the hymns (if you don't like hymns) and whine about how lame the contemporary songs are if you don't like those. Be sure to do this with the leadership constantly. Forget about the fact that there is only one instance recorded of Jesus singing (and even then it was only one song), but make sure the music in your church is one of THE most important issues.
Don't ever invite people over to your house. Then be sure to get really upset that no one ever invites you over.
Wait around for the leadership to do everything, and complain about all of your ideas that aren't followed immediately. Come up with things your church SHOULD be doing, but don't do it yourself and get really angry when your pastor says, "That sounds like a great idea! Why don't you go ahead and head up that ministry?" Never offer to help serve in the areas you see there is a need.
Only come to Sunday morning service and then get mad because you and your family aren't "growing." Be sure to get angry that your church body (the pastor in particular) is not meeting your family's spiritual needs when you only come to one service a week (maybe less) and are not looking for other ways to grow.
Forget that the local church body is about Jesus and not you. This is THE MOST IMPORTANT AND VITAL WAY TO BE MISERABLE in your local church body. Forget that the church is for Christ and His honor, glory and purposes and make it for your honor, glory and purposes! Make church all about you!

Under His grace,

Steve

Reese's Pieces

One activity that drives and dominates my every summer is the Soul Desire tour. Although I nearly pull out what precious little hair I have during the months of planning and preparation for it, tour time itself is a glorious reward. I never fail to be supremely blessed and inspired by these young people who come up through the ranks each year: their maturity, their work ethic, their dedication, their personalities, and their love for Jesus.

Take for example this year's group. They worked hard and sang beautifully, but what struck me most is that they never whined when circumstances became uncomfortable. On the Saturday and Sunday of the tour, uncomfortable, bordering on unbearable, was the order of the day.

First, they sang two concerts at an outlet mall in Pearl, MS. Now, normally our mall concerts are cool, comfy, relaxed, and fun. But this year's mall concerts were outdoors, on a large, concrete pad upon which eggs could be fried up in no time. The sun was relentless, and there were zero-point-zero shade trees. I don't know what the temperature was exactly (I was afraid to check), but the humidity was surely record-breaking, and the heat index had to be about 120 degrees. (God doesn't mind a little hyperbole now and then, right?) It didn't take long for us all-even the girls-to be thoroughly drenched with perspiration, and there weren't enough water bottles in the state of Mississippi to keep all thirteen of us hydrated.

But I watched those friends of mine stand there with sweet smiles on their faces and sing their hearts out, even though most shoppers, desperate to get into an air-conditioned store, didn't take the time to stop and give our group their undivided attention. That could have been disheartening. But Soul Desire kids are always troupers of the highest degree (pun intended) and the very same can be said about the amazing adults who serve alongside them on tour.

Did I mention that, after the concerts and after roughly an hour of dismantling our sound system and lugging all the equipment back to our bus, we were not headed to the hotel pool to recuperate? No, we packed up, boarded the bus (whose interior was-I'm just speculating-about 500 degrees by this time) and headed for FBC-Flora, where SD would present two full concerts the next day (the first of which would start at 8 a.m.) to unload and set up our sound equipment all over again. And once again, they did so happily and without complaint.

By no means, do I think Soul Desire holds the corner of the market on suffering for Jesus. That's not why I'm writing this. But I wanted to share with you, church family, because these details are not insignificant. The first day of the tour, I read to them from Philippians, chapter 2, and encouraged them to have the mind of Christ. They did! Sunday night, at the conclusion of their homecoming concert, Bro. Tom remarked that we are fortunate to have these students as ambassadors of Woodmont Baptist Church. We are! We really, truly are.

And the weary souls of those overheated patrons of the Outlet Mall last Saturday, who passed quickly by on their way to a more frigid climate, were confronted with lyrics like these:

"You are healing for every sickness, You are power in every weakness; You are mighty, holy, faithful, You are Love."

"God I need You more than words can say. Right here in this moment You know my heart, You know my need, You know every part of me..."

"Let go, my soul, and trust in Him. The waves and wind still know His name."

"I am completely surrendering, finally giving You everything. Lord, complete me, 'cause I'm Yours completely."

"There will be a day with no more tears, no more pain, and no more fears; There will be a day when the burdens of this place will be no more. We'll see Jesus face to face."

I pray those shoppers had ears to hear, and that the seeds sown by Soul Desire might be watered by another, so a harvest-great or small-would spring forth in due time.

Kevin

Student Ministry

Woodmont is sending a large team to Costa Rica on July 19-25. We have 27 people going and 13 are youth. Please be in continued prayer for us. Pastor Jose and his wife Gaby are the missionaries with whom we will be ministering in July. Part of their ministry involves a pregnancy center where the young mothers who chose not to have an abortion come for prenatal and parenting classes. Over 30 moms are coming every week with their babies. They are in need of the following items. Bring the items to the breezeway and place in the container labeled Costa Rica Missions. If you would rather donate money to the program we will purchase the supplies, just place in offering and mark it for "Costa Rica Mission Supplies."

Items Needed for upcoming mission trip to Costa Rica

Baby Wipes (unscented)
Diapers (all sizes)
Similac Advanced Infant Formula with Iron, Stage 1 (birth-12 months)
Shoes for babies
Shoes for older kids, especially tennis shoes and sandals
Rain Jackets for babies and children
Diaper Bags
Sippy Cups (any cups for first years)
Infant, baby and children cloths

Please help with these items. We would like to take over 1000 pounds of supplies with us to Costa Rica. Pastor Jose will be preaching the evening of August 14, 2016 and his wife Gaby will be singing.

July:

2 - return from M-FUGE
19-26 - Costa Rica Mission Trip
July 31- Back to School Bash (TBD)

Jarod

Singles Ministry

Downtown Soup Kitchen

July 30

The Singles Ministry will be providing, preparing, and serving a noon meal at the soup kitchen. If you would like to help, please contact Belinda Green.

Back to School Bash at Cherry Hill

August 3^rd 500 p.m.-7:30 p.m.

Woodmont Singles, Youth, and Children's Ministries will partner to sponsor this event. We will be collecting some school supplies to give to the grade school kids:

Notebook paper (wide ruled)
Pencils- Ticonderoga #2 pencils
Crayola crayons- 24 count
Composition books (not spiral )

If you would like to donate items, there will be a collection container in the breezeway.

Belinda

Children's Ministry

I can not begin to thank the many volunteers we had the week of Vacation Bible School. It was an amazing week. Everyone worked together so well. They were always lifting up the name of Jesus. If you have not heard your child say the Bible verse, just ask them. It was great to see how many of our children learned the scripture the first day.

The day we had the salvation story I sat in on Bible to talk to any child about their trusting Jesus. While I was talking and praying with a young lady I could feel my phone vibrating. It had to wait because I had two more to talk to. So, after Bible I saw I had a voice mail. It goes like this, "This is Officer Jones, do not disregard this message you are under investigation with the IRS." You know the old scam. I always knew the IRS was the devil, didn't you? Well he didn't win because three children asked Jesus into their heart during that time. Praise God!

Our offering this year went to help the Hodges family. It was a pleasure to have Lauren sit in the balcony as we announced the winners for the week. The boys have not won probably in ten years, but they did this year. I think it was fitting for Cooper to have the boys be ahead this year. The boys collected $764.53 to the girls of $463.66 with a total of $1,228.19 for the week. I showed a picture I took of Cooper from last years VBS. It was so him, always making a face or smiling. We love you Hodges family and pray this money will help you in ways only God can explain.

Denise

55 and Older Join Us For These Upcoming Events...

Game Day is Thursday, July 7. Bring a "Finger Food" and join others in a nice cool room to play games on a hot afternoon. Enjoy the lazy days of summer. We meet at 12:30 at East Campus and stop playing games around 4 p.m. Don't miss the fun!!

Our Monthly Luncheon is Thursday, July 21, at 11:30 a.m. Chad Hess will share about his first year of teaching and coaching at Shoals Christian School. We also will get to hear about all the adventures of Stone Hess! Our meal will be a picnic type lunch and the cost will be $5 per person. Sign up in the Breezeway for your reservation.

Watch the bulletin for details about the Mystery Trip on Thursday, August 11.

Frances Moore