Thursday March 19th

Church Family,
Our church, and specifically behind the pulpit of our church, is absolutely my favorite place to be. There are many (maybe most) weeks when my daily mantra is “if I can just make it to Sunday, everything will be OK”. This week, in the midst of all the chaos around us, was no different…

We are truly living in interesting times. Not since the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918 has the church in America been asked to modify or stop church gatherings in the name of public health. That year 50,000 cases were reported across South Carolina alone, resulting in 14,250 deaths… many just days after diagnosis.

For the better part of three months at the end of 1918, the majority of SC churches shuttered their doors, associations across the state did not meet, and even the annual meeting was postponed until the outbreak had subsided. For our part, Baptist churches across this state saw this disruption as a duty necessary to help stop the spread of this deadly virus. (More recently, we did cancel a Sunday morning service 4 years ago when a state of emergency was declared in South Carolina because of severe weather and flooding.)

So we are not living in unprecedented times; our predecessors did face a very similar occurrence just over 100 years ago. Yet, I dare say that none of us were here to experience that, so this has caught us (especially me) off guard. We meet often to discuss church safety and good practices, but we have never met to discuss how to handle a pandemic. These times will surely shape and direct future conversations for years to come.

There is no handbook on how to pastor during a pandemic … except one. The Holy Bible has everything we need to handle whatever we face in this life, as well as the one to come. So, in times like these, we turn to the Word:

7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment. – 2 Timothy 1:7

Because we know the Lord, we do not need to fear, we do not panic, and we do not participate in languuage and activities that further society’s decline into utter chaos. Because we know the Lord, we can live without the spirit of fear, knowing the He is always watching over us. His power inside of us gives us strength… strength to keep going even when things look bleak. His love for us and in us gives us love…. love that we can then share with those who are hurting. His gift of sound judgement gives us direction… direction to follow and lead with so that His people will continue to love and lead well even if all else falls apart.

In the spirit of sound judgement, I have met with the deacons and we have made some decisions to help safeguard our church family and our community from this virus of pandemic preportions:

Effective Thursday, March 19th, the following statement is in effect until further notice:

• All activities for Sunday, March 22nd & Wednesday, March 25th have been cancelled.
• this includes ALL classes, worship services, meetings, and any use of the church building and/or J.A.M. House.

*The deacons and I are expected to meet again (by telephone) on Monday of next week, as well as any other days needed, to discuss the remainder of March, but for now, this statement is limited to the dates listed above.

** We will have a livestream service this Sunday (March 22nd) morning at 11am, this service will be available on our church Facebook page as well as on our website (www.firstbethany.org) via a FB plug-in on the bottom left portion of the main page.

As always, the deacons and I are available to you by phone, text, social media message, or email – 24 hours a day. If you have a need, please do not hesitate to call upon us. I cannot express this enough: The Church Is Not Closed – because the church has never been the building, but the people inside of it.

18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it – Matthew 16:18

This is an amazing opportunity for us, especially fathers and husbands, to step up and lead our families, our neighborhoods, and our communities well. Let us not waste this opportunity that we have in front of us to show a lost and dying world who Jesus Christ is and the difference He makes in our lives! I am praying for you all, please pray for me as well.

I will see you all soon – May God bless you and keep you safe in these times of trouble,

Rev. John H. Alexander, Jr. – signed

Mr. Clifton E. White, Chairman of Deacons – endorsed

Church family,

God is doing so many great things among us at First Bethany that I didn’t think that a simple social media post would do it justice. I hope that you will be as excited about the things that I share here as I am. Make sure you read all the way to the bottom to hear about the new things going on next school year!

We are currently in the middle of Vacation Bible School. It has been a phenomenal week thus far. I can’t say enough about the theme, the materials, the visual tools, as well as the volunteers that have given of their time this week… So many blessings to thank the Lord for! There is one more night left, please come and join us!

Normally, we would change gears immediately after VBS to our summer schedule. This year, we will maintain our normal schedule for two weeks, culminating in a special Wednesday night session for parents on June 19th. If you have a student that attends classes here at First Bethany on Wednesdays, please try to attend.

Then the following week, we will begin our One Church Wednesdays at the J.A.M. House

For the remainder of the summer, we will meet at the J.A.M. House each week. The schedule will be as follows:

6pm- gather for (Free) Light Dinner

6:30pm -Kids Devotion

6:45pm – Kids Recreation & Adult Bible Study

7:30pm – Dismissal

It’s going to be great fun and a great time to learn more about Jesus. Please join us!

In July, we have two special events that will happen on the same day in the same location, just at 2 different times. Please consider volunteering and attending these events….

We will celebrate the end of summer with a special church outing. We would love for everyone to attend. Students will be free, adults will be just $10. Sign up information will be available soon.

Somewhere in there, I would also like to do another Lake Baptismal Service, we will see where the Lord leads us…

I am very excited about our lineup for the Fall. You should here all about it at the June 19th Fall Preview For Parents, but I will give you a brief update on each:

We are well on our way to renovation on the Nursery… Soon you should be seeing some progress. Our prayer is that our Mission Friends will have a new space to learn in prior to starting back on August 7th.

This next school year, our RAs and GAs will combine to form a unified Children In Action group. They will share the lesson time before splitting up into smaller groups for Recreation and Crafts.

Our Youth Group, led my our Family Ministry Leader Patrick Griswold, will into a study called The Jesus Studies. The Jesus Studies is designed to cut through the confusion, teaching students a Christ-centered look at the major issues they deal with in their daily lives. I am very excited about this study!

Finally, I will be leading our adults through a Bible Study called Worldview… where we look at various wolrdviews of people both home and abroad and learn how to reach them.

In the midst of all these activities, we pray that we would continue to progress along the path that the Lord has set us on. We pray that we will KNOW God’s Word more faithfully and that people would come to KNOW Jesus as Lord and Savior. We pray that we would GROW in our walk with Christ while GROWing closer to one another. And we pray that we will listen to the Lord and GO; to make disciples and to baptize and teach as He commanded us to.

I will be praying for you, please pray for me, as we travel this path together.

I love you all,

Pastor John

Today means different things to different people, and people celebrate today in many different ways. I celebrate something different today, all the while realizing that I am unworthy to do so.

28 years ago today, I walked in to a Halloween alternative event at Laurel Baptist Church in Greenwood expecting something totally different, but I walked away with a relationship with Jesus Christ. It was the start of something beautiful.

I do things almost every day to prove my unworthiness, but He was faithful that night and has been faithful ever since and always will be faithful – because that is who He is.

Romans 5:8 HCSB
But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!

So my encouragement to you today, even if (especially if) you feel unworthy, look to the cross. Yes, especially on this day when our thoughts might tend to bend toward things dark and sinister, Jesus can take that darkness and emptiness that you feel inside you and fill you with His light. What a special day this could be!

And to our churches, there is no need to “demonize” this one day, the enemy prowls around every day looking to devour us. Teach the importance of standing firm every day, not just one.

And keep doing your Fall Festivals. ..even if it might seem like they are unfruitful, there might just be a guy like me in the crowd somewhere needing to hear about Jesus. In fact, I am pretty sure there will be more than one.

Thanks be to God that even though we are unworthy, He is love. ..the greatest personification of the word ever. ..Father, please forgive me for forgetting that sometimes.

Happy Reformation Day…
Happy anniversary (to me)…
Happy ___________ (whatever you want to call it)…

Psalm 118:24 – This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.

By the time that most of you read this, we will have had the amazing opportunity to celebrate Easter – Ressurection Day together.

I want to take a moment and thank you for your faithfulness to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering this year. It is a privilege and an honor to help support North American missionaries as they take the Gospel to places where it is needed most, including right here and now.

If you have been with us in our services for the last few weeks, then you have seen the videos, and you know just how much this offering means to OUR missionaries. If you have missed any of these videos, please click the link below:

AAEO Testimonies

The truth is, missions isn’t what we do, it is the heart of who we are.

The heartbeat of our churches, big and small, is a heart for Christ who calls us to be missional… we MUST be passionate about reaching the lost for Christ !!!! The moment we lose that is the moment that the enemy starts to gain ground… placing our friends, our family, our communities, and our churches in his crosshairs.

Living in this reality, how will we respond?

14 How, then, can they call on Him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. 16 But not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message? 17 So faith comes from what is heard,and what is heard comes through the message about Christ. – Romans 10: 14-17

If you are looking for more opportunities to support and be involved in missions (and I know you are), the month of April is ripe with opportunity. Please take a moment to consider these:

Wednesday, April 4th – Missions Classes, Bible Study, #3Circles Training

Not just on April 4th, but every Wednesday this month, we have classes for everyone. Missions classes for the children. Evangelism (#3Circles) training for our teenagers, and Bible for our adults. There is something for everyone. And all these things prepare us to Go and tell the world about Jesus. Let’s be missional on Wednesday nights !!!!!

Sunday, April 8th – Forrest View Worship Service

Have you ever wished that there was a “built-in” way that you could #ServeMcCormick and the surrounding area without having to plan it yourself? An activity where you could just show up and be you? I have good news for you… there is. Please join us as we serve the residents of Forrest View Manor alongside of our friends from the Chapel In The Pines on April 8th (followed by missions meetings and food!)

Tuesday, April 10th – E.B.A. Men’s Ministry Supper @ Parksville

Men… come out and hear about what the Lord is doing in our association and how you can be part of it.

Saturday, April 14th – Children’s Ministry Day

Join our children as they go to distribute items collected for homeless veterans to the Kinard House in Greenwood. Our children are leading the way in missions !!!!

Thursday, April 19th – E.B.A. WMU Spring Meeting @ Red Oak Grove

Women … join with other WMU groups from our association and hear about what the Lord is doing through WMU!

Saturday, April 21st – Disaster Relief Training @ Mt. Airy Baptist (Easley)

Would you like to be trained to respond in times of need? Here is your next opportunity. Please see Wendy Gable for more information.

Sunday, April 29th – 5th Sunday Community Service with Chad Hartis @ Berea Baptist

Come and hear from the 2017 Mission Dartmouth mission team and from church planter Chad Hartis. Chad is the pastor of our church plant partner, South Coast Church, in Dartmouth Mass.

There are 5.9 million people living in the city of Boston, but the overwhelming majority are either practicing Catholics or those who claim no religious beliefs. There’s only one SBC church for every 39,257 people. The need for gospel-centered churches is very real in New England !!!

A little further south is the city of Dartmouth, Massachusetts; a city that Barna once named “the least biblically minded city in the nation”.  There, North Carolina natives and church planters Chad & Jodi Hartis have planted their family and their church to reach those who are far from God.

Come and hear from Chad as he shares his heart for this underserved region of our country.

Don’t miss out on these amazing opportunities to grow and walk closer with the Lord as He leads you in missions !!!!

I love you all,

Pastor John

I probably should hold off writing this until tomorrow… Or at least stop before submission and save the final draft for later, but I can’t sleep, my heart is heavy, so here goes….. If any of the 3 ( or so 😉 of you who actually read this blog feel offended, I am sorry… It is not my intent.

I had an argument with my 10 year old this morning before school. She wasn’t as enthusiastic about getting to school on time as I thought she should be… We both kind of handled it badly. I left the house to go to work and didn’t get too far down the road before I turned around. I couldn’t let her go to school being mad at me…. I had to say that I was sorry.

That would be the right thing to do on any morning. But, you see, this morning I could not stop thinking about what happened just a few days ago in Parkland, Florida. And I couldn’t stop thinking that IF ( God forbid ) something was to happen at my daughter’s school today, what would be last thing we said to each other.

It’s a terrible thing to think about. But I couldn’t stop. So I had to make sure she knew that I loved her.

It’s a terrible thing to think about because, right now, there are 17+ families and and entire community thinking about the last things they said to their students before they went to school last Wednesday.

My heart is heavy for those families… My heart breaks for them. I pray everyday for them, that somehow in the midst of all this, they feel God’s presence holding them close.

I keep this picture in my phone to remind me to pray

And that is the proper thing to do .. Pray. For these families, for their comfort, for their peace…. Pray. For this school… Pray. For this world… Pray. Pray that parents would once again value the Word of God and bring their children to church. Pray that the distractions that keep us from focusing on the Lord’s instructions would decrease so that our understanding of the Lord would increase. Pray that we (as the church) might play role in the revival of this nation.

Those are all proper responses

And then there have been the improper ones.

Of course, in a time like this, there is going to be some focus on reducing gun violence. There are going to be those who call for stricter laws and more thorough inspection of procedures. Of course there are going to be those who let their emotions surpass what they would normally think, say or do. It is a trying time. In many ways, a little introspection on how we feel about these issues is warranted.

(And I am neither proposing or opposing the implementation of tighter restrictions here)

Those are not the people that bother me. Those are not the ones who have caused my heart to break. Those are not the ones that are keeping me up tonight.

I am more concerned with the ones who are supposed to know what the following words mean, yet have seem to forgotten them here lately:

Do not be hasty to speak, and do not be impulsive to make a speech before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. – Eccl. 5:2

What we need is less divisive conversation and more praying. We need those who know the Lord to worry more about the Gospel and loving others than their own desires and opinions.

Here is the thing:

There is nothing more important than the Gospel.

Let’s make sure that when we are expressing our opinion on non-Gospel related issues, that we do not let our speech (or text) prevent us from sharing ultimate TRUTH with someone down the road.

Let’s pray.

And let’s be who we are called to be.

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It’s no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. – Matthew 5:13

I love you all , all three of you 😉

Keep fighting the good fight.

Pastor John

How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? … – Romans 10:14a

The summer of 2006 was approaching and I was weighing plans for the family in my mind; trying to decide how to spend the few precious days of vacation time that I had earned from work. Those vacation days were (and still are) very precious to me and I wanted to make sure that I used them well. Never mind that I was also running a business on the side at the time… we were busy for sure!

It was already hard to decide what to do and where to go.; and then something remarkable happened. One Sunday, our pastor (we had just started attending our “home” church in late 2004) mentioned that our church was going to take a trip that summer to a small town in Mississippi to help a church rebuild from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

In that moment, I began to consider something that I had never thought of before.

I had never been on a mission trip, but what if God was calling our family to sacrifice our summer vacation to join Him in helping those in need? What if His summer plans for us included something much more than sand, water, amusements parks, bad hotels, and the like? What if He was sending us on a mission and this was His invitation?

“If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” — C.T. Studd

It was not long after that that our family was sitting in a living room pondering this option… my wife was on board, the kids soon followed… and the Alexanders decided that the beach could wait! It was not an easy decision, not back then, and we may still find ourselves wrestling from time to time with some of the same questions. But I can tell you that this trip changed my life and the life of our family

We ended up spending a very hot, very humid week in Pascagoula, a town that I had only ever heard mentioned in an old song about a squirrel and a church. It was one of the most physically demanding yet spiritually nourishing weeks of my life. I thank God that He invited us, and that we listened.

“The mark of a great church is not its seating capacity, but its sending capacity.” – Mike Stachura

I have come to not only value the opportunity to “go” on mission, but also to desire it greatly. There has not been a summer since 2005 that I have not been somewhere with some church on mission. I say that not to attempt place myself under your esteem, but only to mention that my vacation days from work have NOT really increased that much since then. And pastoring a church is much busier than running a business.

My point is clear and it is one of challenge: What is God calling you to sacrifice so that you can join Him on mission?

Not everyone can go, not every time… but we should all be “on mission”!

In order to help you, as my church family, I want to detail a couple of upcoming opportunities for you to prayerfully consider… I would love for you to join me in one of these efforts:

1) Prayer – it is the single most important thing that you can do for missions. Pray for the mission teams’ safety, health, and (most importantly) effectiveness for the Gospel!

2) One Day – On Tuesday November 7, South Carolina Baptists will be on mission, serving the city of Columbia, SC in the name of Jesus. Volunteers will join local churches and ministries to support the work being done in their communities. I have more details…. Please see me to sign up.

3) Mission Dartmouth (a.k.a. The EBA Boston Area Mission Trip) – On Dec 1st – 4th, the churches of the EBA will travel for an extended weekend to Dartmouth, Mass to assist our church planting partners (SouthCoast Church) with ministry. The really cool thing is that most of the cost for this trip is being covered by a grant; so your part is actually quite low. And even that should not discourage you from signing up. I will be leading this trip and would love for you to join me. This is your invitation! Sign up ends on October 31st.

In all this, please know that I love and appreciate every one of you. Whether you can participate in one or all three of these items that does not change. Yet, I would love to see you and your family be blessed by such an effort in the same way we were (and are). Please be in prayer over these opportunities.

I love you all,

Pastor John

On Friday, September 1st, the President of the United States declared that this Sunday (Sep 3rd) would be a national day of prayer in honor of Texans and others affected by Hurricane Harvey.

“From the beginning of our nation, Americans have joined together in prayer during times of great need to ask for God’s blessing and God’s guidance. When we look across Texas and Louisiana, we see the American spirit of service embodied by countless men and women…. We invite all Americans to join us as we continue to pray for those who have lost family members and friends, and for those who are suffering from this great crisis.” – President Trump

The President made this declaration while meeting with leaders from the North American Mission Board (NAMB), the Red Cross, and the Salvation Army. Despite any political differences that we may hold, I think we can all agree that this is an appropriate response to a great crisis that we are facing in our country. But not everyone agrees.

The thing is, anytime we state a position as a leader, there will always be those that make it their mission to be critical. It happens to our president, it has happened to all of our past presidents at one time or another … it even happens within the church.

I have heard some say that we, as Southern Baptists, are only helping disaster victims so that we can share the gospel with the people affected. While it is true that our primary mission is to share the love of Jesus with those whom we are serving… and that we strive to demonstrate that in speech and in deed … it isn’t the only reason we do so.

“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ – Matthew 25:40

2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ. – Galatians 6:2

10 “What should we do then?” the crowd asked. 11 John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” – Luke 3:10-11

We serve others because it is the right thing to so…. Because God has asked us to… He expects us to… He wants to bless us through the process. And if the only criticism that we receive is that we are helping so that we can share the Gospel… then so be it. I will take that criticism all day long!

So what are we doing to help… I am glad you asked:

1. We are being patient – the Send Relief chapter of NAMB has asked us to be patient while they set up locations and projects for Disaster Relief teams. We will do so.
2. We are praying – we will pray consistently for those who are in need.
3. We are giving – the most immediate way to give is to text SENDRELIEF to 41444. Our youth group is collecting funds on Wednesday nights. There will also be future opportunities to give in other ways.
4. We will go – there will be multiple opportunities to go. Start praying now that you may be able to go when the time comes.

I love you all – Pastor John