Welcome 2024! We hope you had a wonderful time celebrating the birth of our Savior and are being intentional with your year so far! From our last newsletter, time has flown by! We’ve been seeing double: two church families, two Christmas programs, two Christmas celebrations with family, two New Year’s Eves, and more! Check out the photo collages below to view some of the highlights of what we’ve been up to. 

How are you doing with your resolutions? Perhaps you made plans to grow in your faith by putting into practice the habits of grace, being more generous, or being bolder in proclaiming Christ. Calvin’s resolution is to begin consistent morning devotions with his new devotional book from his Sunday School teachers. Whatever your resolution, our encouragement to you is to remain on task! And, if you mess up or falter, repent and continue on! Steady, consistent growth is the goal – not perfection! Calvin has already missed a day, but Kristen and I have encouraged him to stick with it. Starting your day with the Lord is the BEST way to start your day.

We are currently working out a number of plans and would love our partners to join us in praying for steadfastness and wisdom. Here are a few of them:

• Over the next few weeks, we (the steering committee and church leaders) will be finalizing our transition plan from Constantia Center Baptist Church. January 30 is the end of our six month extension in serving there. God has been faithful to the church family as they continue to be obedient to His word and prayerfully search for their next pastor. We need wisdom to finalize the transition plan, share it with the church family, and then implement the plan. Once the church family votes on the plan, we will share the timeline and details with our partners.
• The pastors and deacons of Faith Baptist Tabernacle are working out the details of our 100 year plan: beginning a pastoral residency. Our desire is to be develop and equip men who are pursuing full-time pastoral ministry. We are turning our October vision meeting into a detailed plan. If you remember our timeline, Steve will complete his two-year role of being Associate Pastor on July 31. Pray for wisdom and unity for the church leaders as they develop the plan and share it with the church family.
• In light of our timeline, we prayerfully desire to be 100% financially supported by August 1, 2024. This is where we need your help: if you know of churches or families that would be interested in learning more about our revitalization ministry, please connect them with us! We would love to meet with them, share our burden for the churches of New York, and see if they would be interested in partnering with us in this mighty harvest!
• If our timeline is on target, we will begin serving in our next revitalization church in fall of 2024. Baptist Church Planters’ leaders are already in the beginning stages of helping churches in Central New York. God will provide clarity in the months ahead as to our next opportunity to serve.

Thank you for your prayers! As you can see, 2024 will have a lot of transitions – sweet goodbyes and new hellos. An added prayer request is for comfort and trust in all the Lord has for us. We are grateful that He is strong in our weakness and that His grace is sufficient for all our needs!

Praises

• Join us in praising God for our 43 partnering families.
• Praise God for our seven partnering churches – Constantia Center Baptist Church, Cornerstone Baptist Church, Faith Baptist Church, Faith Baptist Tabernacle, Faith Bible Church, Smyrna Baptist Church, and West Smyrna Baptist Church.
• Praise God for five churches considering partnership with us – Fosterburg Baptist Church in Bethalto, IL, Walnut Street Baptist Church in Avis, PA, First Baptist Church in Earlville, NY, The Christian Church of Rural Grove in Sprakers, NY, and Central Baptist in Binghamton, NY.
• Praise God for providing a new truck.
• Praise God for safe travels in December.
• Praise God that Steve has been asked to officiate a wedding in August by a young man he has been discipling at FBT.

Prayer Requests

• Wynn Family
  • Pray for our family as we homeschool.
  • Pray for us to have wisdom and strength as we seek the Lord’s leading in ministry at Constantia Center Baptist Church, Faith Baptist Tabernacle, and more.
  • Pray for new families and churches to join our ministry team in partnership.
  • Pray for us as we prepare for transitions in ministry.
• Constantia Center Baptist Church
  • Pray for wisdom and trust in the Lord as they search for their next pastor.
  • Pray for the steering committee and church leaders to have wisdom as we finalize the transition plans.
  • Pray for the annual meeting that will be this Sunday, January 14.
  • Pray for the members to be bold in proclaiming Christ and for their faith in Christ to produce good works.
  • Pray for our small groups and Sunday School classes to grow spiritually and numerically. Steve, along with two of his deacons, will be teaching an adult Sunday School class on outreach.
  • Pray for Steve’s new sermon series, “Lessons from Corinth.”
• Faith Baptist Tabernacle
  • Pray for wisdom as our church leaders develop the 100-year plan pastoral residency.
  • Pray for Kristen and the group of women at FBT going through the Grove Study.
  • Pray for the small groups, discipleship groups, and children’s ministries, and that more families will participate in them.
  • Pray for J. and Steve as they partner together to minister at FBT.
  • Pray for the leadership and members of the church as they seek to boldly proclaim Christ and live out the “one another” commands.

• January 14: CCBC – Lessons from Corinth sermon series & Annual Business Meeting
• January 21: FBT
• January 28: Present ministry at First Baptist, Earlville
• February 4: CCBC
• February 11: FBT Teen Snow Camp Retreat
• February 16-17: NorthEast Fellowship Men’s Adventure
• February 18: CCBC
• February 24: CCBC Child Abuse Prevention Training Class
• February 25: CCBC
• March 3: CCBC
• March 10: Present ministry at Christian Church of Rural Grove
• March 17: Present ministry at Central Baptist, Binghamton
• March 24: FBT
• March 31: CCBC – Easter Sunday
• August 10: FBT Wedding – Ryan & Sarah