FBCJacksonville Blog

Dear VBS Teachers and Volunteers,

Thank you so very much for pouring your lives into the lives of our preschoolers and children this last week in Vacation Bible School.  It has been amazing to watch the Lord work in the hearts of His people as servants across the age groups came together to serve snow cones, cookies and lemonade, help with recreation, arts and crafts, missions, and most importantly share the love of Jesus Christ with all those the Lord allowed to be in our church this last week.  So many of you took vacation time to be a part of this great outreach to children and their families….and all of you ministered to so many in so many ways.  Thank you for your ministry….thank you for your love….thank you for planting seeds of faith in the lives of children….thank you for making a difference in the Kingdom.  To God be the Glory great things He has done!

Shelly Taylor and Shelly Norman

As you can see from week to week, the construction in the Main Auditorium is progressing rapidly. The pews are now completely restored on the ground floor, and work has begun in the balcony. That work should be completed by mid-August. You may have noticed that the new pews are a bit firm. This is because the material has not “relaxed” yet. With just a little bit of use, you will notice the seats begin to sit more comfortably. A very noticeable improvement associated with the pew work has been the striping and refinishing of the vinyl tile floors. Our own janitorial crew has been doing this work in coordination with the pew installers. A BIG THANKS to them for their extra work… at no extra expense to FBC!

The construction of the classrooms is also proceeding on schedule. The walls have been framed and partially drywalled. Inside the classes, electrical and air-conditioning work is on-going. We hope to be able to remove the plastic dust partitions from the classroom areas this week or next, after the auditorium side of the new walls are painted. Also happening this week, scaffolding will begin to be erected in the choir loft in order to start the remodeling of the wall behind the choir and surrounding the baptistery. This phase of the work will begin to have some impact on the Music Ministry. Throughout the Summer months they will be adapting the music ensembles that lead us in worship each week, as construction dilemmas may dictate. Please remember them in your prayers!

Finally, thanks to you, our church members who have been so accommodating and understanding of the “mess” that is always a part of construction. You have displayed a sweet Christ-like spirit…Praise the Lord!

Grace to you…

Rev. John Blount, Executive Pator of Business Administration

ALIVE, our new Saturday night series, started June 12 and was an oasis from a blazing hot start to summer…physically and spiritually. More than 60 people attended, ranging from teens, to families with children, through “50-somethings”. Opening and closing with worship music from the No Limits Band, ALIVE is a 12-week series called “Quiet Chaos”; something we all experience in life. Jim Smyrl is taking a look at 12 people in the bible and showing how the love of God worked in their lives to deal with their own “Chaos”.

A new feature to the teaching time is a” text-your-questions” line, allowing everyone to text questions that arise from the teaching. This interactive feature is provided to engage people and encourages them to take part in a deeper conversation at the end of the service. The idea is to improve the connection between preacher and congregation and gives people a more comfortable and accessible forum to ask serious questions, get practical answers and clarify how biblical truth integrates into their own living and thinking. After the message and more praise and worship music, Jim returns to the stage to answer the questions submitted.
ALIVE will continue through the summer every Saturday night from 6-7:30 in the College & Career building, with light refreshments, congregational worship, great biblical insights and making much of Jesus. It’s a perfect forum for Christ followers and non-believers as well.

We recently made some significant upgrades to our streaming video workflow that mark the beginning of some exciting changes for how we share the Gospel online. We wanted to share a few key elements of these upgrades and how they enhance the ministry outreach of our website.

First, we now exclusively stream Flash video, which gives us a unified streaming platform to provide a consistent, high-quality experience for our viewers. Previously, our audience was split between two different formats, Flash and Windows Media. However, the evolution of Flash streaming video technologies in the last few years and the near ubiquitous distribution of the Flash Player plug-in made this an obvious choice for us moving forward.

Also, we now offer high-definition video online. We have been producing all our media content in HD since 2006, and this gives us another opportunity to distribute that content. This is particularly exciting because HD video is fairly new online, and we hope to provide viewers with an experience that is as comfortable and natural as watching TV. The web is inundated with quality video content, ranging from network television programs and popular movies to how-to videos, news, and more. By providing high-quality, high-definition video, we’re better able to communicate with a culture that is increasingly savvy and saturated in media content.

Lastly, we now offer live streaming and video archives on the iPhone. Mobile devices have become the fastest-growing medium for consuming multimedia content, and the iPhone is still the most popular smartphone on the market. We’ve already seen a great response to this feature, and we hope our audience will continue to grow.

Overall, these steps help us further our ministry of sharing the Gospel on the “three screens” in our society today – the television, the computer, and now mobile devices. We are continually finding new and exciting ways that technology can help us better reach people where they are, and show them how they can know God’s love and grow in a relationship with Him.

If you have questions for feedback, please contact:  Gina Ford, Executive Director of Communications ginaf@fbcjax.com Jeff Stoll, Media Pastor jeffs@fbcjax.com.

If you would like to order any of the books on this list, call 904. 366.1311 or email.

Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne

The Comanche Indians stood on the Southwest plains of the United States as the single greatest military force in that part of the world for decades.  Like the Spartans of old the Comanche trained their sons to do one thing, be warriors.  Sam Gwynne also tells us the fascinating story of Cynthia Parker, part of the pioneering family massacred by the Comanche.  At nine years of age they took her and she became known as the “White Squaw.”  She became the mother of the most feared Comanche leader Quanah.

FDR’s Funeral Train by Robert Klara

Sixty-five years ago the longest tenured president in America’s history died in Warm Springs Georgia.    His death marked the Greatest Generation like nothing else.  His body was placed on a train for a three day journey to New York City.  On that funeral train was every important official from Washington D.C.  including the new president Harry Truman and his read more »

The Combined Middle School and High School Choirs and Orchestras of First Baptist Jacksonville were invited to lead worship at this year’s annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. The combined group is made up of almost 300 6th-12th grade students. This is a tremendous honor for our Student Music Ministry as they are one of the few non-adult groups to ever be invited to participate in a Southern Baptist Convention. The group performed selections by themselves and led worship throughout the Wednesday morning session on June 9.

To connect to Pastor Mac Brunson’s message from the Southern Baptist Convention 2010, please click on the image above.

The orchestra began the morning with an arrangement of the song “Everlasting God.” The choirs and orchestras then performed “End of the Beginning” with soloist, Bradley Stephenson, and a high school drama who acted out the words of the song. The next selection was “You are Holy” featuring Ian Love singing the solo, Emily Davis reciting Scripture, and a dance team. They concluded their first performance block with “Revelation Song” along with soloist, Katie Brantley, and Scripture Reader, Evan Brown. Later in the morning, Jonathan Welch and the group led the convention in singing “My Savior Lives” and “How Great is Our God.” Before Dr. Brunson preached the convention sermon, Charles Darus and the group led the convention in singing “Made Me Glad” and “It Is Well With My Soul.” The group’s final selection was “Psalm 24.” All 300 students then got to sit in a reserved section in front of our Pastor, with their Bibles, to listen to the sermon.

Our groups went down to Orlando on Tuesday, June 15, after a final rehearsal at the church in the Playhouse Theatre. Once they arrived in Orlando, they spent some time at the Mall at Millenia. Our Middle School Choir and Orchestra spent the night at the Central Florida Christian School which is a ministry of the First Baptist Church of Central Florida. The minister responsible for coordinating the group’s stay said he had been a frequent participant of the FBC JAX Pastors Conference. He said he wanted to do everything he could for our group of Middle Schoolers because FBC JAX had been so hospitable to him throughout his years of attending the Pastors Conference. Our High School Choir and Orchestra was hosted by the Aloma Baptist Church of Winter Park. Their pastor, Anthony George, grew up at our church. The church not only hosted the high school , but also fed all 300 students the next morning before they performed at the convention. After spending the morning at the convention, the students stopped by Downtown Disney before returning home on Wednesday night, July 16.

Our Middle School Orchestra is directed by Ryan Vickery. The Middle School Choir is directed by Associate Minister of Music Charles Darus. Jim Daniel is the director of the High School Orchestra. The High School Choir is directed by Associate Director of Music Jonathan Welch.

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Pictures courtesy of the Florida Baptist Witness.

Preschool Summer Play Day on Tuesday, June 22 was a great day of fun for our preschoolers to spend at church learning about how God took care of Moses.  Each child enjoyed arts and crafts, Bible learning centers, hands-on activities, and of course….snow cones!  The children were thrilled to slide down the water slides, play in the sprinklers, paint murals outdoors, dig in the sand and experiment with lots of bubbles!

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If you have not registered for the next Preschool Summer Play Day, there is still time. Join us on Tuesday, August 3 from 9:00AM until 2:00PM for more water fun! This program is designed for infants through the completion of Kindergarten. Click here to register now.