Houston Herald

February 2021
A publication of
Houston Baptist Association
Reaching Our World For Christ
From Your Associational Mission Strategist
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid: do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”  Joshua 1:9

As we have begun the new year, I cannot help but to claim the promise from scripture that God is with us wherever we go. Joshua 1:9 is one of my favorite verses of scripture as it tells us that we can be strong and courageous as Christians because God will always be with us. In this new year we continue to see the effects that COVID-19 is still having on peoples lives as well as churches. We also see the division that is happening in our nation and the new administration is making decisions that dishonor God and is causing chaos in our nation. Here are a few things I want to remind us of:

a. God is in control! We serve a sovereign God, and we need to trust Him!
b. Scripture tells us that God has a plan, and His plan is to use us to carry out the mission of proclaiming the Gospel.
c. The Holy Spirit empowers us to live the Christian life and to lead others to Christ! We do not do it on our own and we must always follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our lives!

I believe if we all remember those three things and claim Joshua 1:9 as God’s promise to us, we will do great things for God despite the issues we will deal with in this new year. Let us commit to praying for each other and encouraging each other as we build the Kingdom of God!

I am extremely excited about what God has in store for us this year! We are moving forward and making plans for working together in missions and evangelism. I can tell you that we are formulating a plan to have summer camps this summer at Camp Houston. All our camps will be Day Camps as this will help us to do our activities and still be safe to prevent issues with the COVID virus. We will have dates set soon and they will be published in the March newsletter. We are also making plans to go back to Pittsburgh to work with Faithbridge Community Church in July. I will be putting more information out regarding this mission endeavor next month. The Evangelism team is also planning on having an Evangelistic rally in August. The date is still to be determined and we will publish that as soon as we can. 

We are continuing to pray and seek God in other things we can do to help strengthen our churches and provide resources and opportunities for missions and evangelistic opportunities. Let me encourage each of you to pray as well! Pray that God will give us understanding as individuals and churches to continue our mission God has called us to and that we will not allow the distractions of the world to keep us from the mandate God has given to us.

I love each of our Pastors and churches and I am here to support you in your ministry! My prayer is that we will see a great Revival take place in our churches and that it will spread across this State! May we continue to seek God with all our heart and see what He will do in and through our lives!

Bro. Gary
Church
News


Bakerfield Baptist Church is open Thursdays from 6:00 PM-7:00 PM for anyone who would like to stop in for prayer.

Please pray for

■Asssociational Missionary Gary Leutzinger
■Church planters Drew and Shannon Cunningham, Santa Cruz Area, California
■Pregnancy Care Center
■Lost and unchurched people
■Revival in HBA churches
■Unity in our churches and unity among our churches
■Churches without pastors
■TV ministries of Cordele First, and Pinecrest churches 
■Our schools, teachers and students
■Raymond Gibbs
■All the events and activities mentioned in this newsletter


Church positions available

Dooling Baptist Church is seeking a part-time or Bi-vocational pastor. Please contact Donald Peterman at 478-433-6846, 478-952-2963 or call the HBC at 229-273-4127.

Please contact the HBC at 229-273-4127 if you would like to feature an available church position in the monthly newsletter.

Executive Committee Meeting
Monday, February 22
@ 7:00 PM
HOUSTON BAPTIST CENTER
Opportunities
coming up

Houston Baptist Association events are printed in bold. HBC is an abbreviation for Houston Baptist Center.

Tuesdays Men’s Prayer Breakfast, 8:00 am, Denny's

February 1, 2017 - February 27, 2017 “True Love Waits” Emphasis Month

February 7  Church Planting, Evangelism, and Missions Sunday

February 8–14 Focus on WMU

February13 Children’s Missions Day

February14 Racial Reconciliation Sunday

February 17 Ministers Meeting, 10:30 AM, Ebenezer Church.

February 18 Pastor's Day at the Capitol

February 22 Executive Committee Meeting, 7:00 PM, HBC
If you would like your church news or events featured in the Houston Herald please send it to secretary@houstonbaptist.org
What to do with all those old Sunday School books? 

Don’t throw them away–bring them to HBC

Bring your old SS literature to Houston Baptist Center. Chad Harris will take it to a Edwin L. Hodges Ministries collection site to send overseas. ELHM is a Christian literature ministry that collects donated Bibles, books, magazines, tapes, and tracts from American Christians and ships them to Bible schools, churches, missionaries, and ministries overseas. ELHM is a non-denominational, nonprofit, evangelical ministry.
Partner with Lifetouch to create a no cost, updateable directory for your leadership, staff and families and start 2018 with new tools to help your church stay connected.
Be a Church Host or Volunteer in times of disaster!