September 13th, 2023
by Dr. Jonathan Richerson
by Dr. Jonathan Richerson
September 13, 2023
Announcements:
NEW EMAIL SYSTEM – Our new website, app, email and giving systems are all LIVE. To contact the church office, you will need to use WHBC@westhavenbaptist.com. Staff emails are first name followed by @westhavenbaptist.com. You will be hearing more about the changes to our giving system in the days to come. To update our website and create an app we have use the new companies giving platform. The look on line or your phone will not change, however, if you have setup or would like to setup reoccurring giving you will have to reenter your information in our new system. Our Stewardship Committee will be making a report on this at the business meeting this week. We will continue both systems for the next few weeks for the crossover. Thank you for your feedback and help in setting up all the new areas. Very soon we will be able to create ministry chatrooms, communication features and take advantage of the full messaging system. This is an exciting time and we are very thankful for your support!
Wednesday at West Haven – Midweek Ministry – Reaching the halfway point of the week is a transitional time for us all. It can mean you are only halfway through the week, or it can mean you are halfway to the weekend! We like to look at it in the positive, we are one day closer to being together on Sunday! To help us reach our goal, midweek recharge on Wednesday evening seeks to give you the spiritual support to make sure there is enough left in the tank at the end of the week. We know your life is filled with all kinds of activities and stresses, but we feel that time together on Wednesday allows us to center, focus and regroup for the days to come. Children are invited to join Mr. Joel and his crew of faithful volunteers in our Children’s department as they continue in a series from Truewaykids.com. These exciting lessons will take learners through the problem of sin and gradually move toward the solution provided by Jesus. This 12-week series begins with the story of Adam and Eve and concludes with an invitation to attend the Great Banquet by accepting Jesus as Savior. This is a great time to explore the Salvation story with your young student. Our youth program with Mr. Chris will examine the origin of many of the worship songs we sing each Sunday. Learn about the writers, the Biblical meaning and theological application of worship! If you are interested in joining our Youth Worship Team be sure to join in the fun tonight at 6 PM in the Student Center. Adults meet in the main building for at time of prayer and Bible study. John Fox will lead us in worship. Adults are in the series What We Believe. We are studying how God introduces Himself in the Scriptures! Tonight, we will look at the role of the Holy Spirit. See how the Old and New Testaments work together, delivering God’s plan for redemption. The WHBC Café opens at 5:45 tonight, so stop by for a quick snack before going off to your designated area! God is doing a great work on our campus! Come see what it is all about!
New West Haven Café – Thank you for your support of the New WHBC Café! The Café is open at 8:30AM on Sunday for coffee, tea and refreshments. On Wednesday, the Café opens at 5:45 PM for a snack and refreshments to help parents with children. If you would like to volunteer to help us in serving, setup or cleanup, please check in at the Welcome Center.
This Sunday At West Haven – Donut Sunday! It’s the third Sunday of the month and that means you are invited to show up for Sunday School a little early for a special fellowship time at the WHBC Café! This is your chance to meet some of the new people that has joined with us over the past month. Doors open at 8:30AM and Sunday School begins at 8:45AM. Worship for everyone begins at 10AM. We have one of the best blends of traditional and contemporary worship that will take you back to the hymns of your childhood and lift your spirit with the worship songs you hear on the radio. Sunday worship at West Haven is a great way to invite the Lord’s presence into your life by expressing your thankfulness in prayer and inspirational singing. Join your heart and voice, along with others, as we praise the Lord together. Children are invited to join us at the beginning of worship before joining other boys and girls their age in Children’s Church. Here, they will participate in a specially designed, age graded, worship time! Our praise team will continue to lead the congregation in worship, followed by Pastor Jonathan’s message for the week. Invite someone to come with you and be sure to stop by the Welcome Center for more information on all that is going on! Business Meeting after services.
New WEBSITE AND APP – We are excited to rollout our new WHBC website and app! www.westhavenbaptist.com will take you to our expanding online site. You can learn more about our church, view each ministry department and review previous services. Our new app can be downloaded from the Apple or Google store. We have all of the features from our app, with the addition of a Bible feature, group chats and connections while you are on the go. We are in the early stages, and a several areas are still under construction. In the days to come we will be moving to a new online giving platform and ministry connection portals. To help with this, we are asking you to sign up as a new user on the app (top right on your device). Once we have your information, we can allow you access to many of these new features. Thank you for your help in using this new technology that will help us get the word out about what God is doing and bring us closer together during the week! A big thank you to Pastor Rodney Duckett for his help!
Stand Firm Men’s Bible Study - Meeting this Monday in the main building at 11AM, WHBC Café for a time for Bible study, fellowship and fun at midday! Bring your lunch and a Bible!
Ice Cream Social – It’s Back! Our annual end of summer fellowship returns on September 20 at 6PM! If you would like to make your special signature recipe, sign up at the Welcome Center. We hope to see some exotic flavors, so surprise us with your favorite to share!! Join the fun as we get ready for a new season at West Haven!!
Worship Team Party - The WHBC Worship team will be meeting on Saturday, September 23. See Chris for details.
The King is Coming! See Moses’ tent/tabernacle. Event is free but it is best to sign up for a particular time slot for a guided tour Saturday, September 30, at the Wilson County Expo Center. Volunteers are needed. Information at Welcome Center.
Giving Opportunities: You can mail your check to the church at 5860 Lebanon Road, Lebanon, TN 37087 or visit our website www.westhavenbaptist.com and click on the blue “Give Online” tab. We also have Text to Tithe! Text to Tithe phone # is 615-551-5737! Let us know if you have any questions!
New Testaments for distribution through the Friends of Gideons are available: 5 for $10 or $175 will purchase a case of 100.
Outreach and contact system. Please be sure to add West Haven Baptist Church to your cell phone address book. Our number appears in your caller ID as 615-547-7729. If you have not received a message from us and would like to be added please let us know!
Church announcements – If you or your group would like to make an announcement for the church bulletin or newsletter please email us at whbc@westhavenbaptist.com
Please show your support of Kare 4 Kids ministry by making a donation to help feed kids in Africa. $5 will feed one child for a month. Please see www.churchmissionsnetwork.org for more information. Empty soda cans can be dropped at the Yellow House to show support of Miracle Power, ministry to Africa. If you have large metal items you may deliver these directly to the collection bin at Immanuel Baptist!
Volunteers This Week (September 17)
Door Greeters– Mark Thorne & Scott Jasper
Bulletins – Randell Pence
Welcome Center – Hettie Lee Richerson
Café – Joyce Best
Children’s Workers – Mary Webb Nolan & Carol Bohrman
Children’s Church – Spring Ash, Tuesday Henson
Video Camera – Nathan Dedman
* If you would like to take a turn serving in one of these positions please sign up at the Welcome Center.
Birthdays:
September 13-19, 2023
Ellie Mosley – 15
*If we missed your birthday, please ask for a directory information form this Sunday or reply to this email.
Midweek Challenge
We have been blessed in our church, over the past few years, to see an increase in young families partnering with us in ministry. These young families are moving into our community and many of them are having children for the first time. Few things are more frightening than being a new parent and having to prepare for a new reality. Nineteen years ago, my wife and I couldn’t believe that the hospital just let us up and leave with our new daughter. In fact, they insisted that we vacate the room we had been using the previous two days. As we sat in the parking lot all alone with our new daughter in the backseat, we looked at each other and said, “what do we do now?”
Every parent feels that pressure. The thought of “what if I mess them up” is top of mind. The reality is that you eventually figure it out. We are not the first generation to worry about these types of things, but we are becoming the first generation to outsource many of the responsibilities that only a parent should perform. Because of this, popular culture has become the guide and an entire generation of parental neglect is beginning to take a toll on our society. No more evident than in the Church, where Christian parents are not passing along the Christian values, as was once done for them in the past.
In his new book, Raising Spiritual Champions, Christian researcher George Barna, reports that uncommitted Christians are causing a "catastrophic decline in biblical worldview in America" because they are not being intentional in raising their children with biblical values. Barna reports that Christian parents often feel “ill-equipped” and begin “outsourcing their responsibilities.” In a summary, Barna states that, “parents often shared doubts about their own parenting ability, even expressing that although they are doing the best they can, they don't feel that they are very good parents. But because they love their children and want them to have the best experiences and outcomes, parents look to find people who they believe can do the job in various dimensions of their child's lives."
https://www.amazon.com/Raising-Spiritual-Champions-Nurturing-Childs/dp/1957616474
Barna, a long-time trusted source of hard truths, says that “parents have ‘stepped back’ and allowed worldview development to come from others. Our worldview is the decision-making filter that informs every decision we make — intellectual, moral, emotional, and spiritual. To have a biblical worldview "is to think like Jesus, so that you can act like Jesus."
To support his conclusions the book reports: 2 percent of parents with children under the age of 13 said they had a biblical worldview. 94 percent said they had a “hodge-podge mixture” of worldviews. 8 percent of parents of preteens said they had a biblical worldview. 1 percent of preteens in America have a biblical worldview
"Most parents, even born-again parents, do not really think the spiritual component of their child's life is a big deal — at least not as big a deal as doing well in school, sports, or relationships. And even if they are focused on building their child's biblical worldview, very few parents today — only 2 percent — possess a biblical worldview," Barna said. "They can't give what they don't have — and this creates a gaping spiritual vacuum as today's parents are raising their children."
If you attend church regularly or work with young people you have seen some of the things Barna’s research is talking about and has proved to be true. In an attempt to not allow their children to miss out on anything in life, parents are prioritizing cultural views over Biblical views at the most pivotal age. The result is a growing generation of young adults that have no foundation for handling hardships. Parents who set no cultural boundaries, have limited expectations of public behavior, and overlook the moral failures of the influencers their children are surrounded by, have become the number one contributor to their children’s future demise. Without even realizing it, by allowing the world to raise their children, the parent has led the child to become everything they had hoped to avoid.
If it works, why break it? For generations, our parents practiced a “drug” problem. They “drug” us to church, they “drug” us to interact with the public with defined expectations. They were not perfect, and neither are we, but most of us above 40 turned out okay. If we turned out alright, why change what worked? Pray for the young parents in your life and pray for those who are struggling with children. Don’t judge, just help. Walk beside them like someone did for you when you were struggling. No one has to go it alone, and no one does it perfectly. Find a way to reassure a young parent that might be struggling today.
Listen, my child, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. Proverbs 1:8
Serving the Savior,
Bro. Jonathan
Announcements:
NEW EMAIL SYSTEM – Our new website, app, email and giving systems are all LIVE. To contact the church office, you will need to use WHBC@westhavenbaptist.com. Staff emails are first name followed by @westhavenbaptist.com. You will be hearing more about the changes to our giving system in the days to come. To update our website and create an app we have use the new companies giving platform. The look on line or your phone will not change, however, if you have setup or would like to setup reoccurring giving you will have to reenter your information in our new system. Our Stewardship Committee will be making a report on this at the business meeting this week. We will continue both systems for the next few weeks for the crossover. Thank you for your feedback and help in setting up all the new areas. Very soon we will be able to create ministry chatrooms, communication features and take advantage of the full messaging system. This is an exciting time and we are very thankful for your support!
Wednesday at West Haven – Midweek Ministry – Reaching the halfway point of the week is a transitional time for us all. It can mean you are only halfway through the week, or it can mean you are halfway to the weekend! We like to look at it in the positive, we are one day closer to being together on Sunday! To help us reach our goal, midweek recharge on Wednesday evening seeks to give you the spiritual support to make sure there is enough left in the tank at the end of the week. We know your life is filled with all kinds of activities and stresses, but we feel that time together on Wednesday allows us to center, focus and regroup for the days to come. Children are invited to join Mr. Joel and his crew of faithful volunteers in our Children’s department as they continue in a series from Truewaykids.com. These exciting lessons will take learners through the problem of sin and gradually move toward the solution provided by Jesus. This 12-week series begins with the story of Adam and Eve and concludes with an invitation to attend the Great Banquet by accepting Jesus as Savior. This is a great time to explore the Salvation story with your young student. Our youth program with Mr. Chris will examine the origin of many of the worship songs we sing each Sunday. Learn about the writers, the Biblical meaning and theological application of worship! If you are interested in joining our Youth Worship Team be sure to join in the fun tonight at 6 PM in the Student Center. Adults meet in the main building for at time of prayer and Bible study. John Fox will lead us in worship. Adults are in the series What We Believe. We are studying how God introduces Himself in the Scriptures! Tonight, we will look at the role of the Holy Spirit. See how the Old and New Testaments work together, delivering God’s plan for redemption. The WHBC Café opens at 5:45 tonight, so stop by for a quick snack before going off to your designated area! God is doing a great work on our campus! Come see what it is all about!
New West Haven Café – Thank you for your support of the New WHBC Café! The Café is open at 8:30AM on Sunday for coffee, tea and refreshments. On Wednesday, the Café opens at 5:45 PM for a snack and refreshments to help parents with children. If you would like to volunteer to help us in serving, setup or cleanup, please check in at the Welcome Center.
This Sunday At West Haven – Donut Sunday! It’s the third Sunday of the month and that means you are invited to show up for Sunday School a little early for a special fellowship time at the WHBC Café! This is your chance to meet some of the new people that has joined with us over the past month. Doors open at 8:30AM and Sunday School begins at 8:45AM. Worship for everyone begins at 10AM. We have one of the best blends of traditional and contemporary worship that will take you back to the hymns of your childhood and lift your spirit with the worship songs you hear on the radio. Sunday worship at West Haven is a great way to invite the Lord’s presence into your life by expressing your thankfulness in prayer and inspirational singing. Join your heart and voice, along with others, as we praise the Lord together. Children are invited to join us at the beginning of worship before joining other boys and girls their age in Children’s Church. Here, they will participate in a specially designed, age graded, worship time! Our praise team will continue to lead the congregation in worship, followed by Pastor Jonathan’s message for the week. Invite someone to come with you and be sure to stop by the Welcome Center for more information on all that is going on! Business Meeting after services.
New WEBSITE AND APP – We are excited to rollout our new WHBC website and app! www.westhavenbaptist.com will take you to our expanding online site. You can learn more about our church, view each ministry department and review previous services. Our new app can be downloaded from the Apple or Google store. We have all of the features from our app, with the addition of a Bible feature, group chats and connections while you are on the go. We are in the early stages, and a several areas are still under construction. In the days to come we will be moving to a new online giving platform and ministry connection portals. To help with this, we are asking you to sign up as a new user on the app (top right on your device). Once we have your information, we can allow you access to many of these new features. Thank you for your help in using this new technology that will help us get the word out about what God is doing and bring us closer together during the week! A big thank you to Pastor Rodney Duckett for his help!
Stand Firm Men’s Bible Study - Meeting this Monday in the main building at 11AM, WHBC Café for a time for Bible study, fellowship and fun at midday! Bring your lunch and a Bible!
Ice Cream Social – It’s Back! Our annual end of summer fellowship returns on September 20 at 6PM! If you would like to make your special signature recipe, sign up at the Welcome Center. We hope to see some exotic flavors, so surprise us with your favorite to share!! Join the fun as we get ready for a new season at West Haven!!
Worship Team Party - The WHBC Worship team will be meeting on Saturday, September 23. See Chris for details.
The King is Coming! See Moses’ tent/tabernacle. Event is free but it is best to sign up for a particular time slot for a guided tour Saturday, September 30, at the Wilson County Expo Center. Volunteers are needed. Information at Welcome Center.
Giving Opportunities: You can mail your check to the church at 5860 Lebanon Road, Lebanon, TN 37087 or visit our website www.westhavenbaptist.com and click on the blue “Give Online” tab. We also have Text to Tithe! Text to Tithe phone # is 615-551-5737! Let us know if you have any questions!
New Testaments for distribution through the Friends of Gideons are available: 5 for $10 or $175 will purchase a case of 100.
Outreach and contact system. Please be sure to add West Haven Baptist Church to your cell phone address book. Our number appears in your caller ID as 615-547-7729. If you have not received a message from us and would like to be added please let us know!
Church announcements – If you or your group would like to make an announcement for the church bulletin or newsletter please email us at whbc@westhavenbaptist.com
Please show your support of Kare 4 Kids ministry by making a donation to help feed kids in Africa. $5 will feed one child for a month. Please see www.churchmissionsnetwork.org for more information. Empty soda cans can be dropped at the Yellow House to show support of Miracle Power, ministry to Africa. If you have large metal items you may deliver these directly to the collection bin at Immanuel Baptist!
Volunteers This Week (September 17)
Door Greeters– Mark Thorne & Scott Jasper
Bulletins – Randell Pence
Welcome Center – Hettie Lee Richerson
Café – Joyce Best
Children’s Workers – Mary Webb Nolan & Carol Bohrman
Children’s Church – Spring Ash, Tuesday Henson
Video Camera – Nathan Dedman
* If you would like to take a turn serving in one of these positions please sign up at the Welcome Center.
Birthdays:
September 13-19, 2023
Ellie Mosley – 15
*If we missed your birthday, please ask for a directory information form this Sunday or reply to this email.
Midweek Challenge
We have been blessed in our church, over the past few years, to see an increase in young families partnering with us in ministry. These young families are moving into our community and many of them are having children for the first time. Few things are more frightening than being a new parent and having to prepare for a new reality. Nineteen years ago, my wife and I couldn’t believe that the hospital just let us up and leave with our new daughter. In fact, they insisted that we vacate the room we had been using the previous two days. As we sat in the parking lot all alone with our new daughter in the backseat, we looked at each other and said, “what do we do now?”
Every parent feels that pressure. The thought of “what if I mess them up” is top of mind. The reality is that you eventually figure it out. We are not the first generation to worry about these types of things, but we are becoming the first generation to outsource many of the responsibilities that only a parent should perform. Because of this, popular culture has become the guide and an entire generation of parental neglect is beginning to take a toll on our society. No more evident than in the Church, where Christian parents are not passing along the Christian values, as was once done for them in the past.
In his new book, Raising Spiritual Champions, Christian researcher George Barna, reports that uncommitted Christians are causing a "catastrophic decline in biblical worldview in America" because they are not being intentional in raising their children with biblical values. Barna reports that Christian parents often feel “ill-equipped” and begin “outsourcing their responsibilities.” In a summary, Barna states that, “parents often shared doubts about their own parenting ability, even expressing that although they are doing the best they can, they don't feel that they are very good parents. But because they love their children and want them to have the best experiences and outcomes, parents look to find people who they believe can do the job in various dimensions of their child's lives."
https://www.amazon.com/Raising-Spiritual-Champions-Nurturing-Childs/dp/1957616474
Barna, a long-time trusted source of hard truths, says that “parents have ‘stepped back’ and allowed worldview development to come from others. Our worldview is the decision-making filter that informs every decision we make — intellectual, moral, emotional, and spiritual. To have a biblical worldview "is to think like Jesus, so that you can act like Jesus."
To support his conclusions the book reports: 2 percent of parents with children under the age of 13 said they had a biblical worldview. 94 percent said they had a “hodge-podge mixture” of worldviews. 8 percent of parents of preteens said they had a biblical worldview. 1 percent of preteens in America have a biblical worldview
"Most parents, even born-again parents, do not really think the spiritual component of their child's life is a big deal — at least not as big a deal as doing well in school, sports, or relationships. And even if they are focused on building their child's biblical worldview, very few parents today — only 2 percent — possess a biblical worldview," Barna said. "They can't give what they don't have — and this creates a gaping spiritual vacuum as today's parents are raising their children."
If you attend church regularly or work with young people you have seen some of the things Barna’s research is talking about and has proved to be true. In an attempt to not allow their children to miss out on anything in life, parents are prioritizing cultural views over Biblical views at the most pivotal age. The result is a growing generation of young adults that have no foundation for handling hardships. Parents who set no cultural boundaries, have limited expectations of public behavior, and overlook the moral failures of the influencers their children are surrounded by, have become the number one contributor to their children’s future demise. Without even realizing it, by allowing the world to raise their children, the parent has led the child to become everything they had hoped to avoid.
If it works, why break it? For generations, our parents practiced a “drug” problem. They “drug” us to church, they “drug” us to interact with the public with defined expectations. They were not perfect, and neither are we, but most of us above 40 turned out okay. If we turned out alright, why change what worked? Pray for the young parents in your life and pray for those who are struggling with children. Don’t judge, just help. Walk beside them like someone did for you when you were struggling. No one has to go it alone, and no one does it perfectly. Find a way to reassure a young parent that might be struggling today.
Listen, my child, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. Proverbs 1:8
Serving the Savior,
Bro. Jonathan
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