FBCJacksonville Blog

Dear Church,

In 2 Chronicles 29, good king Hezekiah restores the worship of Israel.  The chapter describes all the work and reforms necessary to bring the nation back to the point of the worship of God.

There was a great deal of cleaning and set-up required. People were stationed at certain locations and assigned various tasks and duties.  The music and instruments were prepared as the people planned the time of worship.

The day finally arrived. Second Chronicles 29:28-29 states the following:

While the whole assembly worshiped, the singers also sang and the trumpets sounded; all this continued until the burnt offering was finished. . . . So they sang praises with joy, and bowed down and worshiped.

What an experience that must have been! It was an incredible day of worship. Second Chronicles 29:36 says that

. . . all the people rejoiced over what God had prepared for the people, because the thing came about suddenly.

Pastors’ Conference 2012 has come and gone. The people rejoiced over what God had prepared and it all came about so suddenly.

What a great conference.  Every year someone says, “This was the best one yet.”  However, this year I have to agree with them.  It was so evident that the Holy Spirit was not only in the process of preparation, but He rested over the conference like the great cloud of fire that rested over the Hebrews in the wilderness.  It seemed as if the Lord stayed right here in our presence until the final note was struck, the final parting was made, and the last light was turned out.

I can’t begin to adequately thank you for all your hard work, labor, and especially your prayers.  Every year the greatest aspect of the conference is what our people do for pastors.  The people’s ministry is the greatest ministry of the conference.  Pastors are amazed, moved, stirred, and encouraged by our people and how they minister.  Every smile means something. Every word connects. Every deed is watched and God uses it all to heal, help, and hurry on His process in a pastor’s life.

Thank you for your willingness to work hard and display a wonderful attitude.  Now we, like Hezekiah and the people, can rejoice over what God has done.

Because of Him,

Pastor

Rebecca Pippert, author and speaker, tells the fascinating story of attending two very different events. One event was a graduate-level psychology class at Harvard University. Pippert stated that in the class the students were extraordinarily open and candid about their problems:

It wasn’t uncommon to hear them say, “I’m angry,” “I’m afraid,” “I’m jealous” . . . Their admission of their problems was the opposite of denial . . . their openness about their problems was matched only by their uncertainty about where to find resources to overcome them. Having confessed, for example, their inability to forgive someone who had hurt them, [they had no idea how to] resolve the problem by forgiving and being kind and generous instead of petty and vindictive.

The other event that Pippert attended was the total opposite of what she had experienced in the graduate-level psychology class. In fact, it happened to be a Bible study group at Cambridge University. Pippert states that the contrast was striking:

No one spoke openly about his or her problems. There was a lot of talk about God’s answers and promises, but very little about the participants and the problems they faced. The closest thing to an admission [of sin or a personal problem] was a reference to someone who was “struggling and needs prayer.”

Listen to what Pippert said about these two groups:

The first group [the psychology class] seemed to have all the problems and no answers; the second group [the Bible study] had all the answers and no problems. 1

We as ministers often come across that way. We have all the answers and no problems. The truth is we have struggles just like everyone else, but we have gotten caught up in the game of pretending that we do not. After all, we are supposed to know God better than anyone.

For the next few days I encourage you to be real and let your defenses down. We are not going to talk about you or your struggles or point you out as a failure. Our deepest desire is to minister to you. If you have come encouraged, then find someone and encourage them. If you have come looking for solutions to specific issues, I think we can help you. If you have come weary, worn, and a little beat up, then avail yourself of a church and staff and speakers whose sole desire is to be Christ to you. While we don’t have all the answers, we know Who the answer is. Allow us to be a brother in a time of need.

Mac Brunson, Pastor
First Baptist Church Jacksonville

By now all of you have heard that Ms. Guinell went home to be with the Lord, Monday morning, December 19th.  It is interesting to me that within the week the famous atheist Christopher Hitchens died, along with Kim Jong II, and Guinell Freeman.  There was an atheist, a man worshipped as a god , and a woman who served the living Lord.

Ms. Guinell was just that to us, she was Guinell.  We all knew her, loved her, and respected her greatly.  However I don’t know if we all realize just how influential she was and how monumental her work has been.  In the days to come she will be listed as one of the greatest Sunday School strategists in Southern Baptist life.

Her name will not appear behind the greats like Harry Piland, Andy Anderson, Ron Lewis, Bill Taylor – her name will head the list.  In the 1980’s she ran the largest Sunday School in the entire SBC, and trained two generations for kingdom work.

She finished Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1954, and was interviewed by Dr. Lindsey, Sr. for the education position at FBC JAX.  She has known only this church since coming here where she served for 40 years.

I loved Guinell and miss her already.  However deep down inside I know she is in the presence of the Lord she loved and served so well.

I met Ms. Guinell officially when she served on the pulpit committee.  She became an immediate friend, confidant, and encourager.  She always had something positive to say, something encouraging, and the sweetest smile that said to me “go get ‘um.”  Some of her last words to me were scripture, personal testimony, words of joy, and a final “now God called you here.”  I loved Guinell and miss her already.  However deep down inside I know she is in the presence of the Lord she loved and served so well.

It is not hard to imagine the scene in heaven.  Her beaming face, her infectious laughter, her attention focused solely on the Lord – all the while directing something and somebody!

Funeral Arrangements
Visitation will be from 9:00-11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, December 27, in the Ruth Lindsay Auditorium.  The funeral will follow at 11:00 a.m. Dr. Mac Brunson will officiate.

Mac Brunson
Senior Pastor

In 1913, the federal government held a fiftieth anniversary reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg.  It was held at Gettysburg and thousands of men who had survived that horrible battle and war were camped all over the battlefield once again, but now these men were in their seventies, eighties, and nineties.  The climax was a reenactment of the Pickets Charge up Cemetery Ridge.  All the old Union soldiers gathered up on Cemetery Ridge, and the old Confederate soldiers gathered in the woods along Seminary Ridge.  When they commenced the charge, they say that it was not rifles and bayonets that they were carrying but walking canes and crutches.

It was a great reunion, but on the last night as they all gathered at a restaurant to eat, a Yankee on one side of the table got into a Rebel on the other side of the table.  Harsh words were passed and the two old soldiers grabbed their forks and one was nearly fatally wounded in the fight that erupted.  Having survived one of the bloodiest battles in history, having made it through the bloodiest war America has ever fought, they came down to being nearly killed with a fork.[1]

In the Christian walk it amazes me how well we handle the big issues.  The overwhelming majority of Christians handle well faithfulness physically to their mate; it is the lustful thoughts that give us the big problem.  The overwhelming majority of Christians do not rob banks, or snatch purses, or shoplift desirable items.  However, we really struggle over stealing work hours from the employer, justifying expense account purchases, and even giving less than our best to our mates and family.

It is the small sin that does you in.  Things like procrastination, apathy, half-truths.  Years ago, I read a story about some beached whales.  Scientists were puzzled over why these whales were beaching themselves.  It was discovered that these huge creatures were chasing minnows and simply beached themselves in the process and died.  It’s the little things that get you in your walk with Christ.  It’s the little things that eventually lead to the big things that seem to sink you.

In a recent study of the great ship the RMS Titanic, scientists discovered the real reason for the unsinkable ship’s demise.  When they found the Titanic resting about 2.5 miles down on the bottom floor of the North Atlantic Ocean, they discovered that it was not a huge slice in the side of the ship that caused the Titanic to sink.  No, it was that the seams of the ship had popped apart opening the ship to the sea.  In a study made of the small rivets, it was discovered that they had been cast with a high residual of slag still in the iron.  Slag left in iron causes iron to become brittle at extreme temperatures.  When the great ship hit that iceberg, it was not that a hole was cut into the side of the ship, but that thousands of little rivets cracked under pressure.  Christian, it is the small things that get us.  Solomon says, “Catch the foxes, the little foxes that are spoiling the vineyard,” (Song of Solomon 2:15).  It is the small sin that does you in.

In 1857, Charles Hadden Spurgeon was capturing the English-speaking world by storm.  He had to move his congregation from the New Park Street Chapel to the Music Hall in the Royal Surry Gardens where he preached to more than 10,000 people every week.  You would think that this tremendous success would be all a young preacher would need to cheer his heart but on October 4, 1857 Spurgeon, preaching from Isaiah 41:14, said this:

John Henry Jowett  pastored the famous Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York. After G. Campbell Morgan died, Jowett went to pastor Westminster Chapel in London.  This pastor of great churches once wrote a friend and said:

John Knox the great Scottish Reformer prayed:

Adoniram Judson, America’s first missionary, having lost several children and then his wife while serving on the mission field, withdrew from ministry and people altogether.  He sat for days beside an open grave and just grieved.  He wrote:

David, we are told, “waxed faint.”  Paul stated that he had a thorn in the flesh, that he had been in labor and hardship, that he had seen many sleepless nights.  He also spoke of the daily pressure of the concern for the churches that weighed on him.  Then think about Moses and Elijah, the two men who met with the Lord Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration.  They were the same two men who had asked for God to let them die.

There was Jeremiah who cursed the day he was born, and there was Jonah who asked for God to take his life.  Then there was Job, who no doubt suffered to a greater degree than anyone else in the word of God except for Jesus Christ.

It is not unusual for the people of God to suffer through periods of suffering, hardship, even depression.  It is unusual if they don’t.  Job said in 3:26:

What Job was saying was, “I have no peace, and no rest.  All I have are problems and heartaches and despair.” Now maybe that is where you find yourself.  Or perhaps someone you know is in that place right now and you hurt for them.  Realize that even the most mature believers can become discouraged.  Take heart Christian, God preserved the record of Job’s grief so that through the encouragement of Scripture we might have hope.  Stay plugged into the book.  Stay plugged into prayer.  Stay plugged into Sunday School, and fellowship.  The tendency will be to disconnect from all three, and in so doing you will become obsessed with the “whys” of life.  As a Christian you and I do not live by the “whys,” of life, but we trust in the “Who.”

Dear Staff and Church,

This was my fifth Pastors’ Conference as pastor of FBC JAX.  This year seemed to have more “firsts” than any of the others.  This is the first year of a “new generation” coming to the Conference.  At least one-third of those attending were here for the first time.  They were younger – a lot younger than any of the other years I have experienced.  I was stunned at how many “twenty-somethings” we had.  If we are going to have influence on anyone, the twenty-somethings are a good place to start.

It was the first for a number of our speakers.  In Baptist life we brought together two sides that have been quite antagonistic to one another.  However I think we had, as one of our ladies said to me, the sweetest spirit at this Pastors’ Conference.  Maybe God has used us to help bridge some gaps that have existed between brothers in Christ.

It was the first of the conferences where I sensed a broader hurt than I have ever detected before.  So many men shared how this past year was the most difficult year of ministry for them and how this conference made such a difference in their lives.

I believe we did more ministry this year than we have in the previous five put together.  All we had to do was just be there, listen, pray with them and it seemed to ease their burden and lift their load.  It is amazing how little expressions of love, care, and compassion can help another person.

You all did an outstanding job of “being the church” for a lot of weary pastors and their wives. I think this year the Pastors’ Conference has taken a new direction.  There seems to me to be a fresh wind blowing through our church and through the conference.  These past few weeks the presence of the Lord has seemed more real in my own personal life and in the services.  It could be the concentration of God’s people being daily in the word and in prayer for one another.

I want to thank you for months of hard work that often gets tedious, for going to meetings that often seem senseless, for working on projects that sometimes seem endless.  I want to thank you for being faithful to the Lord’s work.   Thanks to all the maintenance staff that helped set up, breakdown, clean up and kept us looking good.  Thank you to the kitchen crew who cooked up a storm.  Thank you to all of those who worked behind the scenes doing all kinds of necessary things that get overlooked.  Our people deserve our thanks for just being the wonderful people they are.  What a group of ushers we have!  Media, thank you for the tremendous job of pulling all of this off.  The choir and orchestra simply showed out – oh, how we love them!  I realize someone was overlooked by me but not by our Lord.

One pastor shared with me last night, “My church will be better for this because God has done something in my life here.” That is a testimony of a church that pulls together to do one thing once a year – love on God’s servants.

The First Baptist Church of Jacksonville was established in July 1838, the third church in the new town. In 1892, First Baptist settled at its present location in the heart of Downtown. The Great Fire of 1901 destroyed the original structure, but in February 1903, the cornerstone was laid for a new building, which still stands at Church and Hogan streets. First Baptist’s campus has grown to encompass nine square blocks Downtown with a congregation of more than 30,000 members who meet in the church’s 10,000-seat auditorium. It’s one of the largest churches in America.On Feb. 19, 2006, Dr. Mac Brunson was unanimously elected as First Baptist’s 23rd pastor. He moved his family here from Dallas and has since led the growth and development of the church and its place in the community.

Daily Record Staff Writer Max Marbut sat down with Brunson recently to discuss where the church is today and where it’s going.

by Max Marbut
Staff Writer

When and how did you receive your calling to the ministry?
It was my freshman year in college, on a Thanksgiving weekend, that I surrendered to the ministry. I was home that weekend and I was dating the girl that I am now married to. I remember very clearly, for two years, without saying anything to anybody, I’d really wrestled with God’s call in my life to ministry. I remember sitting down that Sunday night before church and just sharing with her that I felt like this was what God was calling me to do. I felt like we were getting very serious, and I said, I want to tell you this, in case you, you know, you say, the very last thing I want to do is to be married to a pastor. But I think I’m going to go down tonight, and just surrender to the call of ministry on my life. So it was then, I remember it very distinctly. It was not a quick decision, it was something I had wrestled with for two years.

What did your parents do?
My dad owned a furniture company, and I’m the only boy.

Where was this?
In Greenwood, S.C. I’d grown up in the furniture business. It was a family business and I’d worked there since I was 12 years of age. It was kind of understood that the family business was going to be mine, that it would be turned over to me. But my dad is a very committed Christian, and was far more elated that God had called me into ministry than that I would take on the family business. So eventually he just sold it and retired.

When you first arrived in Jacksonville, you were very excited about being here. Has that changed since then?
Well, if I was excited then, I’m even more so now. This April will be five years since I was called, or since I came here to pastor. I just love the church. This has become home, and this church has become my family.

Is Jacksonville more home to you than Dallas was?
Yes. I think so. Now, I loved the folks there. I loved Dallas, loved the city, all of that, but this is more home to us, and the church here is more family to us. God’s done a great work in our lives and I’d hope that the church would say that the Lord’s done a great work in the church. We just love Jacksonville. It’s one of the most wonderful places on the earth, to me.

I think the city really doesn’t have a clue of the potential here. All of us want to live in Mayberry. You want your hometown to be Mayberry. So we want that, and we’re afraid that progress is going to make it into something other than Mayberry. But there’s such potential here. It’s a great Southern city. It has resources that are phenomenal. And I just don’t think it’s scratched the surface of what the city could do.

The U.S. Census figures are starting to come out, so talk about the church community and its growth and diversity.
It’s been phenomenal. Let me give you just one area, and that’s the area of the Vietnamese congregation. We have just sent off a young man and his family to seminary. Vietnamese, immigrated here to Jacksonville in his early teens, came to know the Lord through the Vietnamese ministry of this church. We educated him at The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville. He got his bachelor’s degree, finished at the top of his class and now we’ve sent him off to seminary. That ministry has grown. During Pastors’ Conference here, they also host the Vietnamese Pastors’ Conference, and Vietnamese pastors from across America come here and meet and attend our Pastors’ Conference, and have breakout sessions that specifically deal with Vietnamese congregations. God’s just really put his hand on that ministry here.

What about other nationalities in the church?
We have a Burmese church here. We have a very good Hispanic church that’s growing. We have a Chinese church, I think Korea. We have one that represents the African tribes. Some of them come from Sierra Leone, some from Nigeria, some have come from various African nations. We also have a Russian-speaking congregation. We have a wide variety. Plus in our congregation, of course we have African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians that are all part of our congregation.

How’s the First Baptist Academy doing?
It is phenomenal. This is its second year. It opened its first year with 270 students, and last year, it went from pre-K through 12th grade. We cut that back because we understood in one year, we need a separate high school. We came to see that you need to put high schoolers in one place and all the others in another. The numbers did not go down that much, we’re still over 200 in school, and the amazing thing is we opened that thing up and it’s been in the black, and it’s been there from Day One. It normally will take you 3-5 years to get a new school up and into the black. We’ve been in the black since Day One.

The church communities have obviously supported it.
We’ve got young people coming here from everywhere. From every direction. So it’s going really well. I’m really thankful for that.

Talk about technology and social media and how that has changed the church and how churches interact with the community.
We were HDTV (high-definition television) before the television stations were. We have to hire 12-year-olds now to run everything. None of the rest of us know how to run it. We have to get 12 and 13 and 14-year-olds. They seem to know more technology than the rest of us. We have a media staff here that is second to none. In fact, this past summer our media group won an Emmy for a commercial that it did for the local market.

What about social media? Do you tweet?
I do. I swore up and down that I never would, but then I did. Now, I have not gone on Facebook, and don’t think I will. But I do tweet out little things God’s put in my heart, principles that the Lord shows me in Scripture. I don’t talk about ‘I’m here eating tonight,’ or ‘I’m there doing this.’ I don’t want it to be about me, I want it more to be about something the Lord has put on my heart to say.

We have a whole new area of our ministry here that’s called FBC-TV, where you can get on and you can get any archived sermon, you can get streaming audio and video. Eventually we’re going to put on manuscripts, so you’ll be able to download manuscripts of the message. You can get video, you can get audio, you’ll be able to get manuscripts, you can get the whole series of things that I’ve done. Of course you get the live service.

We’re getting thousands of hits a day on these things, from around the world. It’s not just local folks, it’s people literally around the world that get on and follow us.

What does that bring to the church?
I don’t know. It’s a good question. We look at it as a ministry. We can get the Word out there, in somebody’s hand, in somebody’s ear, in somebody’s heart, that’s what we’re responsible for. And we feel like we’re doing that. We’re committed to teaching the verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book.

We have a huge audience out there. There was a guy who wrote out of some place in Italy, and said, ‘You are my church.’ Somebody in Cambodia wrote and said, ‘We listen to you regularly.’ There is a military post, I won’t say where it is, where they’re downloading my messages on iPods and they’re giving them to the soldiers as they’re out running every day. While they’re out running, they have the option of listening to a sermon. It’s humbling.

What thrills me is that they’re out there and they’re hungry for it. That that’s what they want. That’s what I want to do.

How has the economy affected the congregation?
Well, we’ve got a lot of folks that have lost jobs. We have a good number of folks that have had to move away to find employment. But I want to tell you an incredible story. Giving, of course, is down. It’s down for everybody, everywhere. But you know, this church has taken in over $1 million in the last two weeks. We’re renovating the auditorium, and people have given almost half a million dollars to the renovation, and half a million dollars to the budget. We’re doing more by way of missions, and giving to missions, and doing hands-on missions around the world, than we have ever done before. Even in the middle of financial downturn.

We’ve heard some incredible stories of folks that have committed to tithe and how God has provided and taken care of their needs. I’m not saying that people have gotten Cadillacs and Mercedes, but how God helps them meet the power bill and helps them meet the rent and God provides all the way for all our needs.

What’s in the future?
We’ve opened a south campus. It meets out at the high school at Ponte Vedra and we’re averaging about 300 attendance out there. It’s First Baptist South. We have a small staff out there and 40 to 50 percent of the people who come on Sunday are visitors. We’re seeing real growth in the teenagers out there. We started out with six, and we’re averaging over 30 now. It’s pretty neat what God’s doing out that way. So we’ll look to open another campus, probably in another year or so.

Is there a minister out there?
No, I go out there and preach, and then I get in the car and drive back downtown and get here about the time for me to preach here.

It’s almost like you’re riding a circuit.
About like a circuit rider. When we open the next campus, and we don’t know which direction, whether it will be west or north, when we open that, what we’re going to do then is probably ‘video in.’ I’ll be one place and we’ll video in to the other place. We’re still working on how that will work.

You can’t be two places at once.
I’ve worked hard on it, but I still can’t do it.

What have you been doing for fun? Have you been on any vacations?
Well, we’ll be taking a group to Israel at the end of February or in March. This year I took a group to Europe. But only a small part of my group was able to get in at that time, because of the volcano.

Have you developed any new hobbies since you came to Jacksonville?
No. I’ve always loved to fish, but I never get to fish. And I have played nine holes of golf twice in the 4 1/2 years I’ve been here. So no, not with a congregation this size and a staff this size. When I have any time off, I feel like I need to be with my family. Studying is my hobby, I guess.

Are you thinking about retirement at all?
It’ll be a little while. Like everybody else, I lost most of my retirement when the market fell. My wife says I’ll be able to retire when I’m 103.

Do you think you’d want to live and work anywhere but in the South?
No. I don’t. I am Southern-born, and Southern-bred, and when I die, I’ll be Southern-dead. Cornbread and collards. This is home.

mmarbut@baileypub.com | 356-2466 

For months now we have watched the subtle changes taking place around us Sunday by Sunday.  In just a few weeks, our Senior Adults will be moving into new classrooms.  Over the years, they have watched others get new rooms, facilities, equipment, while they have given faithfully to support the ministry that made that possible.  Now our precious senior members are going to be on the receiving end and it is a joy to see that happen.

We have been able to pay for all of the renovations that have been done up to this point and for that, we give thanks to the Lord and rejoice.  Now comes the time to do the final one-third of the work and payment will be due.  We need one million dollars to complete the work which should be finished by late December – just in time for the New Year.

This coming Sunday, we will take a special offering to finish the renovations in the auditorium.  I am asking that you be in prayer daily about this, and hope that you plan to be a part of meeting this need.  I am confident in our Lord that He who began a good work, will be faithful to complete.  All of us have an opportunity to be a part of what God is doing at First Baptist Jacksonville.

Paul writes to the Corinthians and states that “Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” The word used here is one that speaks of predetermination.  In other words, God does not want us to give carelessly or casually but with great thought and planning.

At the same time Paul says that giving should never be done remorsefully, with regret or reluctance.  He states, “God loves a cheerful giver.” Let me quote a rather well-known theologian at this point:

God loves the world in a general sense (John 3:16), but He has a deeper, more wonderful love for His own (John 13:1; 1 John 4:16), and a special love for each one of His who gives cheerfully. – John MacArthur

I am calling us, as a church, to be in prayer over these next few days about what God would have each one of us to do – and then for us to do it cheerfully.

I look forward to seeing you this Sunday with God’s word in one hand, and an envelope in the other.

Pastor Mac Brunson

If you need an envelope on Sunday, please see one of the ushers and they can provide that for you. You may also give using our online form, and notate “Special Auditorium Renovations” as the fund.

Pastor & Debbie will lead a group on a tour of the Holy Land February 27-March 11, 2011. This will be an incredible experience you will never forget!

See the hillsides where Jesus delivered the Beatitudes; sail on the Sea of Galilee where Jesus taught and walked; sit on the slopes of Mount Hermon where Jesus was transfigured and enjoy the beauty of the Holy Land. On this journey, you will travel to Jerusalem and see the city that God said He placed in the midst of the nations.  It was the city that David took and where Solomon built one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the temple of God.  Just outside the walls of this city, our Lord was crucified and resurrected.  Then if you choose, you can travel to Rome, known as the eternal city.  These two cities, of all the cities in the earth, stood opposite one another during the days of our Lord’s earthly ministry.  It was the city where Paul and Peter were executed; where Caesar ruled; and the city Nero burned and rebuilt.

“Nothing in your Christian walk will have a greater impact on your life than a trip to the Holy Land.  Journey with us to Israel as we follow the steps of our Lord and see how the stories in the Bible come to life.” – Debbie Brunson

If you are interested in this trip, please download a schedule & registration form.

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.