NON-PROFIT

ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #116 ROLLA, MO

1608 N Oak St Rolla MO 65401-2342 573-364-1266 www.rolla-firstassembly.org [email protected] DECEMBER 2012

Chuck Whitmire
Lead Pastor
[email protected]

Spotlight on . . .

MAKING EVERY CHRISTIAN A MISSIONARY

Chaz & Linda Loughridge

Chaz has been employed at Archer -Elgin for ten years as a project designer. He enjoys hunting, wood-working & spending time together as a family. Linda has been employed at Meramec Regional Planning Commission for nineteen years as manager of the accounting department. Linda enjoys reading, fishing and watching the kids play sports or perform. Our family is blessed to a part of the First Assembly of God family. Linda Loughridge

Ray Cook
Associate Pastor
[email protected]

Dalton Avery
Youth Pastor
[email protected]

~ Weekly Schedule ~
Sunday Morning Worship Contemporary: 9:15 am Traditional: 10:45 am Christian Development 9:15 & 10:45 Sunday Evening Service - 6:00 pm CAFE College Group at Open House Everdeep for Youth Bible Studies Men: Tuesdays 6:30 am Wednesday Evening - 7:00 pm Ladies: Thursdays 9:30 am Prayer Service Youth Girls: Thursdays 7 am at Panera Childrens Ministry Classes The Forge Youth Church
Nursery provided for Sunday morning & Wednesday evening services

Brian Feller
Childrens Pastor
[email protected]

Prayer Meetings Sunday: 9:00-9:15 am MondayFriday: 7:00-8:30 am Tuesday: 12:00-1:00 Second Fridays Monthly: 8pm-3am Saturday: 6:00 pm

Sam Parker
KCA/TSC Director
[email protected]

We were married thirteen years last June and are blessed with three beautiful children. Our oldest son Dustin is stationed in the Army at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is married to Sarah & together they have a daughter named Aida Shaeour first grandchild. Our middle son Levi is fast approaching thirteen and loves to play baseball and go hunting with his dad. Our youngest and only daughter Savana is eight years old and loves to sing, dance and play basketball.

Additional Staff
Cora Parsons
Office Manager [email protected]

Mark Berry
Custodian

Both our childrens and adult choir will present Christmas performances this year. The children, led by Jennifer Pratt, have been practicing every week to pre-

pare for two evening performances, December 1 and 2 at 6pm. Their musical is set during the very first Christmas Eve
Christmas continued on page 2

~ Office Hours ~
Monday-Friday 8-12 and 1-5

Pansy Bingham
Business Administrator [email protected]

Inside:

This month:

Coming Up:

Abby Swearingen
Media Assistant [email protected]

Angel Tree Boys Ministry Fire Bibles Holiday Schedule

Living Christmas Tree Childrens Choir Xtreme Winter Conference

Week of Prayer October Baby Annual Business Meeting

Happy Holidays to everyone! As we have watched the seasons change outside, we have been making some changes here on the inside. Over the last three years, we have started to move our Royal Rangers in a new direction. We are calling it simply Boys Ministries. We are leaving behind a camping-focused ministry to pursue a ministry of discipleship and training for our boys that prepares them to be active members of the church body someday. Jeremy Haberman has spearheaded this change over 3 years with our 5th7th grade boys by rewriting their curriculum with a Biblical focus. In their class, they study the whole New Testament line upon line, learn how to use a concordance, and spend time in prayer for one another. We have seen such great success with the quality of young men coming from the program that this year we have taken the next step and are implementing these same strategies with our 3rd - 4th grade class. They also are studying the Bible, with a focus on the prophets and poetry of the Old Testament, learning how to use their Bible by way of sword drills, and are spending time learning to pray for each other. Our hopes are that by next year we will have our K-2nd graders on a similar track, learning the im-

portant stories of the Old Testament history books, a focus on scripture memorization and learning the basics of how to pray. We are incredibly excited about this new chapter in our boys lives, and if you are as well and want to get involved, contact myself or any one of our leaders in Boys Ministries and lets see the lives of our boys changed eternally! Pastor Brian
Christmas continued on page 2

Sunday

Monday

december
Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday 4 Set up Living Christmas Tree 8am 5 6 Service in the Roberts Family Life Center Royal Rangers, Girls Ministries, The Forge Youth All Nations Christian Fellowship 13 Board meeting 6:00 am 7

Saturday 1 On call this weekend: Pastor Chuck 341-8086 Christmas Parade Childrens Christmas program 6pm

2 Missions Sunday 3 Set up Living Christmas Tree 8am Childrens Christmas program 6pm 9 Communion Fire Bibles 10 Take down Living Christmas Tree

8 On call this weekend: Pastor Ray 578-7609

Amazing Moms party 9-12 Women of the Word Brunch Living Christmas Tree 6 pm

ever when Super Nova and Grandiosa, the heads of Galaxy Productions, announce that this is the night our Holy Savior will be born. They launch a "star search" to determine which star is worthy of lighting the sky above the manger. After dramatic twists and turns, we all learn we can be the brightest and the best through God's love and light. Betty May is again leading the adult choir. They will present Light Looked Down three times; December 7 at 7pm, December 8 at 6pm, and December 9 at 6pm. Jesus: the Peace that looked down on our war, the Love that looked down on our hatred, the Light that looked down on our darkness. Veteran arranger Marty Parks combines this powerful Christmas message with exciting songs and carols of the season, including such new favorites as "Christ Child" and "Light Looked Down".

Living Christmas Tree 7 pm 14

11

12

15 On call this weekend: Pastor Dalton 202-4208 Operation Christmas Smile 2pm

Living Christmas Tree 6 pm 16 Building Fund Baptism Sunday Home Fellowship Group 17 18

Royal Rangers, Girls Ministries, The Forge Youth Church 19

All Nations Christian Fellowship 20 21 22 On call this weekend: Pastor Brian 426-6235

Missions Commit- Mens Breakfast 6:30 am tee meeting Royal Rangers, Girls Ministries, The Forge Youth Church 24 Church office closed Christmas eve service 6 pm 25 Merry Christmas! Church office closed No evening service 26 All Nations Christian Fellowship 27 28

23 Communion Combined service 10 am No evening service

29 On call this weekend: Pastor Brian 426-6235

30

31

January 1 Church office closed

New Years Eve service 6 pm Youth lock-in 7pm

Calendar updates at www.rolla-firstassembly.org/aboutus/calendar

Holiday Events
Coming January 7-12, we at First Assembly are having a week of prayer for our nation. If ever our nation needed prayer, it is now. For those of you excited about intercession, this is your opportunity. If you are a little nervous about praying, then I would like to share some things that might make it easier. Pray Specifically: We are providing prayer boards in the front of the church to give you specific things to pray for our nation. Prayer requests on prayer cards are also helpful in knowing specific ways to pray for those in our church body. Pray with focus: Come to the church to pray at a specific time. This helps eliminate distractions from home and focus on prayer. This also helps you to go above and beyond the normal prayer time you may already do at home. Pray with others: Each day there will be a corporate prayer time offered to pray with others. I have found many times that praying with others makes it easier to pray. Prayers volley back and forth from one to the other, and build the faith of others as the Holy Spirit leads each person in prayer. It can be awesome. If you dont feel comfortable praying out loud, you can also just listen and agree with others. Flexible time: The church will be open from 7am-7pm each day, giving you flexibility in your schedule to come when it works for you to pray. If you dont know how to pray then I suggest praying in the Spirit and praying Scriptures such as Ephesians 3:16-21; Psalm. 27; Psalm 91; Isaiah 53; 2 Chronicles 7:14; Lords Prayer, etc. Worship: Many times when it is hard to pray, I start singing and worshiping the Lord. When we praise Him and thank Him for who He is and what He is doing, it helps us to connect with His Spirit and then He leads us in ways to pray. Elizabeth Smith

December 1 & 2 6:00 pm

Childrens Christmas Program

December 7 7:00 pm December 8 & 9 6:00 p.m.

Fire Bible is the name for the international language editions of the *Full Life Study Bible, one of the few Pentecostal study Bibles in existence. Often referred to as a one-book Pentecostal library, this study Bible contains 77 theme articles, a concordance, 45 maps and charts, introductions to each book of the Bible, and Pentecostal study notes. The Full Life Study Bible was started in the early 1980s as an individual missionary project by the late missionary Don Stamps (1938-1991). While serving in Brazil, he recognized a great need among pastors and lay workers for a study Bible written from a Pentecostal perspective. Soon after the completion of the Pentecostal notes, Don went to be with the Lord following a struggle with cancer. A short time later, Assemblies of God World Missions leaders saw the worldwide potential for this Pentecostal study Bible and asked Life Publishers to begin producing it in the major languages of the world. Today, pastors and lay workers in Burma, China, India, Indonesia, Madagascar, Russia and many other countries have access to this study Bible in their language. This month, we will hear more about how we can help the Assemblies of God Bible Alliance provide the Fire Bible for persecuted believers who are risking everything for the gospel. For more information about the Fire Bible and the Assemblies of God Bible Alliance, visit www.biblealliance.org.

The Living Christmas Tree

December 8 9:00 am

Amazing Moms party

December 11:00 am

Women of the Word brunch

December 9 Bring Angel Tree gifts December 15 2:00-6:00

Operation Christmas Smile

December 23 10:00 am

Combined service
(no evening service) December 24 6:00 pm Church office closed

Christmas Eve service

December 26 10:00 am

No evening service
December 31 6:00 pm

New Years Eve service

How do you know the Bible is true?

Answer: Jesus acknowledged the Old Testament (his Bible) as true history.
Havent you read, He [Jesus] replied, that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female? (Matthew 19:4). He believed that Adam and Eve were real! Jesus also believed that Noah and Lot were real people. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. (Luke 17:26) It was the same in the days of Lot . . . But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. (Luke 17: 28, 29) Note that He not only believed that these people were real, but that the events described in the Old Testament really happened. He referred to Abraham as a real person (John 8:39b). He also spoke of the blood of Abel (Luke 11:51), Lots wife (Luke 17:32), Moses and the bread from heaven (John 6:30-33), the Queen of the South and Solomon (Matthew 12:42), and Jonah and the men of Nineveh (Matthew 12:39-41). Jesus specifically referenced Moses (Luke 24:27), Isaiah (John 12:38-40) and Daniel (Matthew 24:15) as writers of Old Testament books. He also stated that, the Scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35b). There are those today who would relegate the Old Testament people and stories to simply myths. Jesus didnt. The Eternal Son of God, our Savior and Lord, believed the Old Testament was true, the accurate Word of God from the beginning. Shouldnt we believe the same? Reference: What Jesus Believed, Biology 101 by Wes Olson Beverly Flori
As a church, we have committed to planting churches where we arein homes, workplaces, or public venues in response to 1 Corinthians 9:22.

One of the things I am so grateful for this year is the opportunity to meet the women of Mount Grace Teen Challenge during our missions trip to Winnfield, Louisiana this year. Those of us who have been there know how precious these young women are and what an important ministry Teen Challenge is. I

Bob Roach Bible Study held at s the St. James Caring Center. https://www.facebook.com/rolla.firstassembly

Christmas can be a difficult time for some children, especially children whose families are in crisis. The Angel Tree program seeks to minister to a specific group of these children: those who have a parent who is in jail or prison. These children are missing the love, support and presence of a parent, and often, they are in more difficult financial situations, as a result. Angel Tree, a ministry of Prison Fellowship, offers us the opportunity to minister an extra bit of love to children of prisoners. Tags on the Angel Tree will list a childs name, gender, and age, and a category of gift suggested by the incarcerated parent. It also often includes a short personal message from the parent to the child. Please consider ministering to a child by choosing a tag and buying a present for the child, in the name of the missing parent. Items purchased should be returned to the church by December 9. Elaine Harrison

cannot imagine a more important work than that of healing and restoring lives through the love of Christ. We would like to bless these young women this holiday season by sending a care package to them for Christmas. Please consider purchasing any of the items listed below and dropping them by the church office or giving them to me at church. Feel free to include a note of encouragement. We plan to send the package by Monday, December 10 so please have your items there by that date. Many blessings to you and yours during this Christmas season. Kathi Garner Suggested Items to Donate NIV study Bibles Workbooks for the Beth Moore Bible study David Seeking After a Heart Like His Inspirational Christian books or devotionals Christmas DVDs (Its a Wonderful Life, White Christmas, etc.) Christian worship CDs CD player

It is almost time to put up the Living Christmas Tree! If you can help transfer the tree from storage to the church, please meet here on Sunday, December 2 at 3:00 pm. We will be assembling the tree on December 3, 4, and 5 beginning at 8:00 am each day, and could use help there also. Please contact Pastor Chuck at [email protected] for more information.