Winn’s Messenger
Published for Members and Friends of Winn’s Baptist Church
12320 Winn’s Church Road, Glen Allen, VA 23059
Phone: (804) 798.5512 ● Fax: (804) 752.2401 ●
Web: www.winnsbc.org
October 2015
Dear Church Family and Friends,
As we transition from Summer to Fall, it is a good time to look back at one, and forward
to the other. We had a very productive summer! Usually, we point out the successes of
the "extra" activities, such as Vacation Bible School and summer camps. Well, they
were great, and definitely made a positive impact. What is really exciting to me
however, is how productive the "normal" endeavors of the church were over the
summer! Many churches like to do their Vacation Bible School early, to "get it over
with". Then the church goes semi-comatose until school starts back up. Not at
Winn's!!! We go like crazy during the summer. I've always figured that if we could
work and pray hard, and maintain our attendance levels while so many folks are cycling
in and out on vacation, that we could have an amazing time in the fall when many of
our people are sliding back in to home plate. Well, we did just that! Our attendance for
the summer was the same as the winter! That means that visitors were making up for
members who were absent. That is a great sign that the church is healthy and God is
hearing our prayers for revival.
As we move into a season of church life that is laden with potential, let us each resolve
in our hearts to do what we can to usher it in, and refuse to be used to quench it. Our
future is filled with great challenges, and amazing opportunities. It is my prayer, that
we not only resist letting the culture dim our light, as we shine in a darkening world,
but that God will help us to shine brighter than ever! Thanks to each of you who
worked to make it a very productive summer; let's all jump in as part of a historic
season in our church's life as we move ahead!
Marching to Zion,
Pastor Jeff
Come one, come
all
1st Annual Operation Christmas
Child
5K Run/Walk
Saturday, October 3rd, 2015
Winn’s Baptist Church
8:00am
Our OCC Team has worked hard
planning for this special event! It’s going to be a morning
full of Fun, Fellowship and Fitness for EVERYONE who
comes out to participate!!
You can walk! You can run! You can do both!
If you haven’t registered, you have until Sunday,
September 27th
to do so!
Let’s make this a SUCCESSFUL day for our Lord,
Operation Christmas Child and Community!
Tickets will be handed out the day of our 5K to win some
really GREAT
door prizes for those who have registered.
YOU don’t want to MISS OUT on this SPECIAL day!!
A seven-week, Biblically based class teaching how to leave a lasting legacy for future generations.
Discover the keys to generational wealth and true generosity.
Starting Wednesday, October 7, 2015 at 6:30pm
A limited number of discounted class kits are available. Please sign up at the Welcome Center or see
John Madison (jmadison.cpa@gmail.com) for details.
_____________________________________________________________________
NEW – WINN’S FOOD MINISTRY STARTING FALL 2015
As we face an ever changing economic climate, the needs of those
around us will likely change in drastic ways. Hunger will surely be
one of the many areas to help address. This fall, we will be gearing
up to better serve the community we live in with a new Winn’s
Food Ministry. I am so excited and humbled to be leading this
venture and cannot wait to see how God will bless what we do.
Starting in October and continuing on a monthly basis, we will be
collecting various food items that will be used to ensure that we
are not only feeding those in our community, but encouraging
them to find healthy alternatives. Be on the lookout for
information and food needs in your bulletin. If you have any
suggestions or would be interested in serving on this ministry,
please feel free to reach out to me directly at
Melissahmartin.boys@gmail.com or via phone at (804) 798-5303.
This time last year I was writing my first newsletter as AWANA Commander. I was feeling nervous,
excited, intimidated, unworthy and the list goes on. I had a long list of what could go wrong, how I
would not be able to live up to Commander responsibilities, why I should NOT be doing this at all.
But then God stepped in. He showed me grace week after week. I was my worst critic but God had
different plans. The kids kept coming back. They started coming to find me when they arrived. Some
even talked with me in the halls on Sunday.
So here I am a year later, our first night of AWANA was a success. There were many familiar faces
and several new faces as well. I am in awe at the number of volunteers who have returned to do God’s
work for yet another year.
God is doing a great and mighty work here at Winn’s. Our Wednesday night AWANA club is just a
small thing but it’s a mighty thing. The next generation is coming week after week and working
diligently to hide God’s word in each of their hearts.
Now comes the part where I put out a plea to the members of Winn’s. Our club is in desperate need of
more volunteers. I would especially like to ask our men to consider coming on Wednesday nights.
We have several strong, Godly men who come week after week. But that list is small. If your children
are here, if your wife is here, if you don’t really know who is here, come join us one night. It’s loud, it’s
chaotic, but it’s exciting. If I can do it, the one who had a long list of why I couldn’t and shouldn’t, any
of you men can do it.
With all of that being said, thank you to each volunteer and to Winn’s for allowing me a new year to
serve where God needs me. This is year number two for me but it’s year number 15 for Winn’s. It’s
not too late to come join us. Bring your kids, bring your friends kids, and bring yourself.
Serving Him,
Commander
Bruce
10/3 OCC 1st Annual 5k Walk/Run Begins at 8am
10/4 Lord’s Supper-evening service
10/7 Legacy Journey Begins 6:30pm
10/10 Women’s Prayer Brunch 9-11am @ the home of Laura Cooper
10/11 New Members Inquiry Class 12:15pm
10/13 Elmont Good News Club begins
10/16 Gospel Concert 7pm
10/18 Quarterly Business Meeting
10/20 OCC Chick-fil-A Spirit Night 5pm
10/27 Young @ Heart Luncheon begins 11am
10/28 No Wednesday Activities- SET APART WILL MEET
10/31 Fall Festival 6-8pm
FALL FESTIVAL – OCT. 31ST
WE NEED YOUR HELP TO:
Run Games
Greeting and Register Visitors
Set-up
Clean-up and More
Please sign up at the “Welcome Center”.
CANDY, CANDY, CANDY.
WHAT IS FALL FESTIVAL WITHOUT CANDY!
PLEASE HELP BY DONATING INDIVIDUALY WRAPPED
CANDY.
DONATIONS MAY BE PLACED IN THE “CANDY TUB”
LOCATED IN THE FOYER
____________________________________________________________________________
Elmont Good News Club
Begins Tuesday, October 13th 2:30-3:45
If you know a student at Elmont, please invite them to
join our Good News Club.
Registration form can be found at the “Welcome Center”.
Please keep our Good News Club in prayer.
If you would like to be a part of the Good News Club,
please contact Dana Osborne, 804-347-5229.
Good Morning Church, Family, & Friends:
We have much to be thankful for in life: God’s love and grace, family, friends, fellowship with a local
body of Believers, political freedoms (at the moment), and many other things as well. I feel that we
need to actively tell God how much we appreciate Him and all that He has done for us. He is the sole
source of Blessings in our lives:
(James 1:17) “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and
comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or
shadow of turning.”
That being said – I want us all to make a conscious effort to give God the credit and glory that He
deserves. People (including myself) usually talk to God more during trying times instead of the good
times. Let’s change that – let us be known as a people who are thankful and obedient, and let it show.
Good attitudes and a thankful heart as well as good testimony are noticed by others and these have
the effect of causeing others to want to follow suit.
(Hebrews 10:24) “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love
and good works,”
There are some things I want to share with you that I am thankful for:
1. September 16th, was the Fall Kick Off for our Youth Group with 43 in attendance! Praise God! The
cool thing is we have around 15 more that should come regularly. So 60 in Youth Group – We’ll take
it. I have the unique opportunity to challenge your students’ hearts to follow Jesus in a meaningful
way. I want their witness to be tangible as well as verbal. Pray with us and for us that we will see a
deepening of our students’ faith and love for Christ and for reaching the lost while also developing an
insatiable hunger for the Word of God
2. On a personal note – I wanted to share with you a commitment I made to myself recently. It came
as a result of praying for revival for our church and our country. I have been praying and seeing some
indicators that God is ready to move among us, but some things still needs to be handled before He
will open the floodgates of revival. I starting asking, “What is being done that shouldn’t be or
omitted that should be done that is hindering revival?” Although I didn’t get a clear answer, I
felt like stuff in my life needs to change. One thing I have known for a while that I could do but haven’t
is to get up before everyone else in my family, pray and read The Word of God before the distractions
of the day take their toll. I started getting up a little after 6 am each day a couple of weeks ago to do
my devotions and have had the greatest time doing so! The funny thing is – I AM NOT A MORNING
PERSON! But that excuse had to be kicked right out the door – can you believe it – I actually look
forward to getting up around 6 am and love it? Yes, I feel slightly more tired but not very much, and I
am having to go to bed around 10 in order to get enough sleep, but all in all – I feel great and more
accomplished. My attitude has been more cheerful and my patience has been greater with my
children. Most of all I have been digging into God’s Word and learning from a student’s perspective. I
am in the Bible all the time for various lesson/sermon preparations – but that wasn’t cutting it. Now I
am doing it just for fun and personal enrichment and there’s nothing better! When God calls you to
follow Him – He wants all of you and He deserves your best. Give Him His share first – before you
start your day. You will be so glad you did!
Let me tell you what I am doing. I get up, get ready, eat breakfast, get my Bible and read for about 15
to 20 minutes, I am currently in 1 Samuel – and it’s such a blessing. Then I pray, take the kids to
school and finish my prayer time on the way back.
Start with small steps and work your way up. You aren’t necessarily more holy for going a longer time,
but when you start reading God’s Word like that – it gets addicting. It is very relevant and you start
wanting to spend more and more time doing it. The cool thing about doing that before everybody gets
up is – you are prepared for your day spiritually and you aren’t taking away time from being with
family.
Here are some things to consider doing yourself when you start doing a daily quiet time:
 Start in the Gospel of John and do 1 chapter a day. It should take you 5 minutes or so even if
you read slowly.
 Buy a notebook to write things down that really stick out to you and also keep another small
notebook for prayer requests. You can write down a short list of things to pray for and date
them as well as the date they are answered.
3. Another thing I changed as a result of self-examination recently is intentional family time. We
started this right as school started back and my kids love it! I got to thinking about just how much
time I get to see my kids and what we usually do with that time and it really bugged me. I realized
that when I started adding up the hours that are left after I get home from work which
is after the kids are already home from school, until before bed time, I started to mourn
just what little time I had with my precious little ones. That’s why I decided to take control of
what time we do have and made an easy to follow plan to make the most of our time together. We
have theme nights like Sunday is church, Monday is Trail Life & American Heritage Girls, Tuesday is
board game night, Wednesday is Youth/AWANA, Thursday is make something together night, and
Friday is family night – pizza, movie, stay up later, Saturday is go out and do something as a family
during the day. These things combined with getting homework done after watching 1 TV show to
unwind in the afternoon has really revolutionized our time together. Kids love schedules when
they know fun stuff happens regularly – they really look forward to it! And it aids in assuring
that we have quality family time on a regular basis.
4. All the visitors we have been having lately here at Winn’s…We have been praying for revival.
Remember to get out of your routine and make contact. You may be the one that gets them involved
and makes them feel a part of the Winn ‘s family.
5. Summer camp returns to Liberty University…dates are: July 5th – 9th (Tuesday – Saturday) Student
Life Camp begins a session at Liberty for the first time! More details to come. Start saving up for camp
now though.
That’s a lot of stuff right there to be thankful for. I had more but I didn’t want to hog all the ink and
paper in the Newsletter.  Hopefully some of these things spoke to you and as a result you will
endeavor to examine yourself and see what you can do to better serve the Lord and your family. Love
you all…
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Doug
Winn’s Baptist Church
12320 Winn’s Church Road
Glen Allen, VA 23059
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