Today is Wednesday, November 27^th, 1013. It is the 331^st day of the year! There are only 34 days left in this year and only 28 days left until Christmas!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day!

Today is Bryson Wilson’s Birthday!

Devotional Thought…

Matthew 19:13-15 ¹³ “Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, ¹⁴ but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” ¹⁵ And he laid his hands on them and went away.”

The combination of Thanksgiving Day being tomorrow and Bryson’s birthday being today has me thinking about how blessed we are to have so many families with children faithfully attending and serving God in our Church!

I have been telling you that over the past six or so years the average age of our Church members has dropped dramatically. I actually ran all of the numbers a couple of weeks ago and it is even better than I thought!

The average age of members in the typical “evangelical” Church in North America is 61. The average age of the 151 members who attend our Church is just about 39.8! That is just a little more than 21 years younger per attending member than the typical Church.

Children are lots of work; and, we thank God for sending these families to the Church and we are thankful for the many members who work hard to minister to them. We are thankful for everyone who ministers to anyone, of course, but we are thankful indeed to have a house full of kids running and yelling and bumping into us every week!

Our dear people have given up classrooms, taken turns in the Nursery and Children’s Church, taught SS Classes, and invested lots and lots of money in our Ministries to Children. Thanks to these sacrificial workers we now have more people here during AWANA on Wednesdays than we do for worship on a typical Sunday Morning!

Right now, we are in the process of transforming our original sanctuary into a “Children’s Ministry Center” that will help us accommodate and reach more and more and more children and their families!

A GREAT CHURCH is a multi-generational Church! If we are truly reaching out to our communities, we will have people of all ages represented among our people. WE HAVE THEM, AND WE THANK GOD FOR THEM!

I am thankful for everyone who is part of the First Baptist Family! From the most senior to the youngest; we NEED everyone and we are thankful for every person the LORD has called to be part of our Church family!

On this Thanksgiving Eve, our prayer to God is simply this… “Dear God, Let the Children come!”

Amen!