February 2025 Newsletter Article

Local Outreach Ministry

Happy February FBC Oak Grove Faith Family! I hope and pray that you are doing
well and persevering through these cold temperatures. The first month of 2025 is already behind us and I am so excited about the opportunities that lay before us. One of the most important things for the future of our church will be our Local Outreach Ministry. We must remember that God didn’t save us to “sit us” He saved us to “send us.” And He has called and sent First Baptist Church Oak Grove to be the salt and light in and around our town. I want to share with you for just a minute about my vision for local outreach, as well as two ways we will continually strive to reach out to the people in our community.

My vision for Local Outreach comes from two passages of Scripture. One of those is found in Matthew 5:13-16 where Scripture says, “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” The other verse is found in Matthew 20:27-28 where Scripture says, “Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

These verses remind us of a couple things. One, we are here to serve and meet the needs of our community. We are not to expect our community to serve us and meet our needs. So, one measuring stick for our Local Outreach is this, “does this outreach serve, or meet a need in our community.” Two, our Local Outreaches are to do things (works) that cause people to glorify our Father in heaven. It’s imperative to remember that we aren’t saved “by works,” but we most certainly are saved “to works.” So, another measuring stick for our Local Outreach is this, “Will doing this shine light in our community and cause people to ask questions about Jesus, want to know more about Jesus or cause people to glorify Jesus.”

There are many ways we will do local outreach in the future, but I want to highlight two of those ways. One is we will have what we call “Saturate Days.” Saturate Days will be certain days throughout the year that we designate “Outreach Days.” The vision behind these days is to simply SATURATE our
community with our presence and the love of Jesus. We will prayer walk neighborhoods, hand out gift cards, deliver meals, serve in our local nursing home and many other types of ministry/service projects. Another important way we will strive to reach out to our community will be what we call “Bring1 Sunday’s.” These will be Sunday where we encourage all members to invite 1 person to church. These Sunday’s we will be planned with visitors in mind, and will be a great opportunity for people to visit and see what FBC Oak
Grove is all about. There will be many ways we live out this vision, and it’s an honor to serve Jesus and our community with you.

For His Kingdom,
Pastor Nick