Newsletters

December 2, 2009 Volume 2 – Issue 46

A Thank You from our Pastors:

Dear Church Family,

Drew and I wanted to write a thank you letter for your generous gift to us for “Pastor Appreciation

Month.” It was a very pleasant and humbling surprise. We were both stunned by it and grateful.

Drew and I are privileged to be serving at New Covenant Baptist Church. It seems odd to get paid for

doing something that you would pay to do. We love fellowshipping with you; we love preparing our

lessons and sermons; it is our delight to gather with you on Sundays. It is our privilege to go before the

Lord and pray for you. These are things that we would do anyway, that we receive a salary for it

boggles our minds.

Drew and I simply want to say thank you. Thank you for your support, thank you for your confidence

in us, and thank you for your friendship. Please continue to pray for us so that we will be good

stewards. We strive to be good stewards over our finances, over our responsibilities to the church, and

our responsibilities to help get the message of the gospel out to our world. We love you, church. Thank

you for your generosity.

Yours in Christ,

Brad and Drew

Announcements:

• Children’s Christmas Musical Practice – Parents of 3 year olds to 6th graders, please make sure that

your children are at church, tonight, Wednesday, December 2 and next week December 9. Our

Christmas musical is very soon and we really need all the kids there to go over songs and parts. We

are having a dress rehearsal Wednesday, December 9 at 5:30pm

• Men’s Christmas Fellowship – Tuesday, December 8 at 6:30pm at Allen’s Bledsoe’s house. Please

bring a $10 MAN gift to exchange.

• Women’s Christmas Fellowship – Thursday, December 10 at 6pm at Amber Knight’s house. Bring

$10 and finger foods to share. The ladies will be hand painting ceramic Christmas ornaments.

• Christmas Cards – As a service project, the older girls will be making Christmas boxes for each

family in our church. They are asking that instead of mailing out Christmas cards this year, we

bring them to the church and the older girls will sort them. The money that is saved on stamps, they

are asking that you donate it to Missions. See Regina Gregg or Denise Bledsoe with questions.

• Marriage Retreat – Sign up for the Marriage Retreat Today! Shocco Springs on Feb. 26-27. Checkin

will be that Friday at 4:00, and we will finish up on Saturday at around 3-4pm. We will have

dinner, breakfast, and lunch prepared for us there. The cost is $155 if you register before the end of

the year. Sign up online or at the church.

• Nancy Guthrie Conference – January 29-30 in Decatur. Cost $20 and includes snacks Friday night

and breakfast and lunch on Saturday.

• Ladies True Woman Conference – March 25 – 27 in Chattanooga. Speaking will be Nancy LeighDeMoss, Mary Kassian, Dannah Gresh, and others. Worship leaders are Keith and Kristyn Getty.

The price is $129 plus hotel accommodations. Let Lisa Spence or Amy Williams know if you are

interested. Here’s a link: http://www.truewoman.com/?id=760

• Track Ministry – If you would like to help with the Track Ministry, please see Ron Champion.

Youth Announcements:

• Tonight, Student Night will be at the Champion's house. We will meet there at the normal time,6:00. Their address is 408 Linwood Ave. Here is a link to the address on Map Quest. The easiest

way to get there is to go down S Broad like you are heading to Bro. Brad's house and turn left on

Linwood (the opposite direction from Bro. Brad's subdivision). If you have any trouble finding it,

just call Drew on his cell phone (256-744-0770).

• Saturday, December 19th, we are going to go caroling (we will hand out tracks and info about our

church) and watch a Christmas movie. I will need parents to come to help as well as to bring

snacks.

Prayer Requests:

• Pray for the Seckel’s grandson, Ethan, who has been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

• Pray for Gloria Childress’ brother, James Pierce, who is in kidney failure and not doing well.

• Pray for Penny Roney, Steve Hellums’ sister. She has a tumor on her pituitary gland.

• Pray for Jeff and Suzanne Davis as Suzanne is pregnant and considered high risk and is having

some major health issues.

• Pray for Denise Bledsoe’s mother, Shirley McLendon, who is in congestive heart failure. Please

pray for Denise as she is trying to help her mother as much as possible.

• Pray for Ruth Thompson, Wanda Parker’s mother. Pray for her husband, Dalton, as he cares for

her.

• Pray for those with cancer: Linda Duran.

M.U.D. Ministries:

Please begin praying for those who are going to Nicaragua in February. These include Jimmy Barnard,

Matt Colvin, Jennifer Dixon, Charlie Fields, Todd Gregg, Lisa Spence, and Amy Williams.

M.U.D. is raising money to buy land and build houses in Nicaragua to build houses for orphans. If you

would like to donate money, please contact Eric Hixon at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Upcoming Schedule

Sunday, November 29 –Sunday Night Service

Sunday, December 9 – Family Meeting

Sunday, December 13 – Children’s Christmas Musical

Sunday, December 20 – Regular Sunday Night Service

Wednesday, December 23 – No Wednesday Night Events

Thursday, December 24 – Christmas Eve Service

Sunday, December 27 – No Sunday Night Service

Sunday, January 3 – Regular Sunday Night Service

Sunday, January 10 – 1 year Celebration Service

Volunteers for this week:

Sunday Morning:

1’s and 2’s – Lisa Spence and Chris Knight

3’s and 4’s – Justin and Ashley Quarles

Food - Lisa Spence – Sweet

Denise Bledsoe - Sweet

Last Sunday Stats – November 28, 2009:

Attendance: Worship Service - 65

Offering: General – 2,000.00

Birthdays: Nov. 29-Dec. 12

Tuesday, December 1 – Ethan Pratt/Ethan Williams

Friday, December 4 – Brad Williams

Friday, December 11 –Ashley Ham/Benjamin Spence

New Covenant Baptist Church – www.DiscoverNewCovenant.com

104 W. Alabama Avenue, Suite A - Albertville, AL 35950

256-849-2454

Sunday:

9:30am – Sunday School

10:30am - Worship Service

6:00pm – Community Groups

Wednesday:

6:00pm - Children’s Activities

6:00pm – Student Activities

6:00pm – Adult Bible Study

Pastor – Brad Williams Family Pastor – Drew Dixon

Our mission and passion at New Covenant Baptist Church is to glorify God by becoming a community that

fosters the love of God with all of the heart, soul, mind and strength, and by learning to love one another as Christ

Jesus has loved us. The answer to every heart's need and the satisfaction of all our longing is found in Jesus Christ

our Lord, who is Himself the very image of Almighty God. We exist to adore Him, and to spread the knowledge

of His greatness to the ends of the earth.

November 18, 2009 Volume 2 – Issue 45

A Word from our Family Pastor:

The Danger of Living on Sand Mountain

21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my

Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast outdemons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?'

23 And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you;

depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' (Matthew 7:21-23)

Despite what you have heard, it is not easy to follow Christ in Albertville, AL. Sure, there are tons of

churches here and thousands of people who claim to be Christians and even attend church, but it is not

easy to follow Christ here. No doubt it would be difficult to live as a Christian in Salt Lake City where

the vast majority of people are Mormons or Seattle or Maine where the vast majority of people are

secular. However, I think we face a danger just as great and just as grievous as the false gospel of

Mormonism or secularism—we here in the Bible-belt face the false gospel of religion or

“churchianity” as some call it.

We are surrounded by churches, para-church ministries, Christian radio, prayer at football games,

revivals services, ministry conferences, Bible studies, and on and on. Living in such a churchsaturated

culture, there is a great danger to attach ourselves to these things such that our hope is in our

connection to a church, a connection to a Bible study, or a connection to any other religious activity we

participate in rather than our connection to the Lord Jesus Christ by grace alone through faith alone.

The opportunities to plug into religion in Marshall County are bountiful, but how many are genuinely

plugging into a single-minded passionate pursuit of the Lord Jesus Christ? I don’t know the answer to

that, but I fear that many more are plugging into religion. It is this fear that drove me back to the

Bible-belt. I grew up in Amarillo, TX which is very much a part of the Bible belt and I lived there

until I went to seminary after graduating college. I lived in Louisville, KY, a city that in my estimation

is not part of the Bible-belt. Living there was interesting and challenging. The last two years that I

lived there, I lived downtown near the University of Louisville—I could share many stories of how I

tried to preach the gospel to very secular-driven people on the campus of U of L and how difficult it

was and yet how much joy it brought me, but it seems the Lord has brought me back into the Bible-belt

and yet the challenges seem equally great.

I fear that much like these people that Jesus speaks of in Matthew 7:21-23, that many in Marshall

County will say on the day of the Lord, “did we not go to church and did we not pray at our football

games and before meals and did we not attend revivals and prayer breakfasts and did we not join a

church and attend on occasion and did we not go to Bible studies and give to missions?” and the Lord

will say, “depart from me I never knew you.” Let me be clear, the above list of activities are all good

things and I wouldn’t condemn anyone for participating in them, but anyone, including myself who

puts their hope in their connection to these things is in big trouble.

The connection that we must put our hope in is our connection to Christ who suffered “once for sins,

the righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). And this connection to

Christ inevitably and powerfully changes us. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has

passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is the community the Lord has

called our church to, not just a connection to religion but a relationship with Christ that transforms us

and invites us to a community that fosters real, biblical, Christ-like transformation.

New Covenant Baptist Church is the most wonderful church I have ever been a part of. I am

continually reminded of how blessed I am to work with the wonderful people here, but it is my prayer

for our church that we fight the temptation to put our hope in our good works, our church membership,

or our religious activities. It is my prayer that we would progressively grow into a community of

believers whose hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ where we are learning to be transparent about sin,

engaging in ministry in our workplaces, and fostering relationships that point people to Christ and not

religion. Will you pray with me?

Announcements:

• Nursery – We need volunteers to keep nursery on Sunday night, January 3. See Regina if you

would like to volunteer.

• Missions Money - We are tying to help people raise money to go to Nicaragua. If you want to help,

please place it on the Offering Basket and designate it to missions.

• Christmas Cards – As a service project, the older girls will be making Christmas boxes for each

family in our church. They are asking that instead of mailing out Christmas cards this year, we

bring them to the church and the older girls will sort them. The money that is saved on stamps, they

are asking that you donate it to Missions. See Regina Gregg or Denise Bledsoe with questions.

• Marriage Retreat – Go ahead and mark your calendars! We are planning a marriage retreat that will

be held at Shocco Springs on Feb. 26-27. Check-in will be that Friday at 4:00, and we will finish

up on Saturday at around 3-4pm. We will have dinner, breakfast, and lunch prepared for us there.

Our folks will be doing most of the teaching, but we hope to include some others from the

community. The cost is $155 if you register before the end of the year. Sign up online or at the

church.

• Nancy Guthrie Conference – January 29-30 in Decatur. Cost $20 and includes snacks Friday night

and breakfast and lunch on Saturday.

• Ladies True Woman Conference – March 25 – 27 in Chattanooga. Speaking will be Nancy LeighDeMoss, Mary Kassian, Dannah Gresh, and others. Worship leaders are Keith and Kristyn Getty.

The price is $129 plus hotel accommodations. Let Lisa Spence or Amy Williams know if you are

interested. Here’s a link: http://www.truewoman.com/?id=760

• Track Ministry – If you would like to help with the Track Ministry, please see Ron Champion.

Youth Announcements:

• Nacho Nacho Night: This Saturday, November 21 at our church building from 6:30pm to 9:30pm.

We will be watching Nacho Libre on the projector and making/eating nachos. Adults are welcome

to join us as well. We will also play some rock band before if you would like to come a little early.

• Wednesday, December 2, Student Bible Study will be held at the Champion's House.

Prayer Requests:

• Pray for the Seckel’s grandson, Ethan, who has been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

• Pray for Gloria Childress’ brother, James Pierce, who is in kidney failure and not doing well.

• Pray for Penny Roney, Steve Hellums’ sister. She has a tumor on her pituitary gland.

• Pray for Jeff and Suzanne Davis as Suzanne is pregnant and considered high risk and is having

some major health issues.

• Pray for Denise Bledsoe’s mother, Shirley McLendon, who is in congestive heart failure. Please

pray for Denise as she is trying to help her mother as much as possible.

• Pray for Ruth Thompson, Wanda Parker’s mother. Pray for her husband, Dalton, as he cares for

her.

• Pray for those with cancer: Linda Duran.

M.U.D. Ministries:

Please begin praying for those who are going to Nicaragua in February. These include Jimmy Barnard,

Matt Colvin, Jennifer Dixon, Charlie Fields, Todd Gregg, Lisa Spence, and Amy Williams.

M.U.D. is raising money to buy land and build houses in Nicaragua to build houses for orphans. If you

would like to donate money, please contact Eric Hixon at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Upcoming Schedule

Sunday, November 22 – Regular Sunday Night Services

Wednesday, November 25 – No Wednesday Night Events

Sunday, November 29 – No Sunday Night Service

Sunday, December 6 – Family Meeting

Sunday, December 13 – Children’s Christmas Musical

Sunday, December 20 – Regular Sunday Night Service

Wednesday, December 23 – No Wednesday Night Events

Thursday, December 24 – Christmas Eve Service

Sunday, December 27 – No Sunday Night Service

Sunday, January 3 – Regular Sunday Night Service

Sunday, January 10 – 1 year Celebration Service

Volunteers for this week:

Sunday Morning:

1’s and 2’s – Jim Parker/Gloria Childress

3’s and 4’s – Todd Gregg/Allison Pratt

Sunday Night: Jennifer Dixon

Food - Patty Knight – Salty

Amy Williams - Sweet

Last Sunday Stats – November 8, 2009:

Attendance: Worship Service - 65

Offering: General – 2,933.00

Birthdays: Nov. 22-28:

Tuesday, November 24 – Justin Quarles

Saturday, November 28 – Taylor Gregg

New Covenant Baptist Church – www.DiscoverNewCovenant.com

104 W. Alabama Avenue, Suite A - Albertville, AL 35950

256-849-2454

Sunday:

9:30am – Sunday School

10:30am - Worship Service

6:00pm – Community Groups

Wednesday:

6:00pm - Children’s Activities

6:00pm – Student Activities

6:00pm – Adult Bible Study

Pastor – Brad Williams Family Pastor – Drew Dixon

Our mission and passion at New Covenant Baptist Church is to glorify God by becoming a community that

fosters the love of God with all of the heart, soul, mind and strength, and by learning to love one another as Christ

Jesus has loved us. The answer to every heart's need and the satisfaction of all our longing is found in Jesus Christ

our Lord, who is Himself the very image of Almighty God. We exist to adore Him, and to spread the knowledge

of His greatness to the ends of the earth.

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Our mission and passion at New Covenant Baptist Church is to glorify God by becoming a community that  fosters the love of God
with all of the heart, soul, mind and strength, and by learning to love one another as Christ Jesus has loved us.
The answer to every heart's need and the satisfaction of all our longing is found in Jesus Christ our Lord, who is Himself, the very image of Almighty God. We exist to adore Him, and to spread the knowledge of His greatness to the ends of the earth.