"So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." Romans 5:8 (NIV) I like how The Message states that same verse. "Since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be." Welcome to our "excellently formed and marvelously functioning" Adult Bible Fellowship (ABF)!

I am tickled to get to be your tour guide and walk you through just a bit of how our fellowship meets the needs of our members, reaches outside our church walls, encourages loving friendships and accountability between our fellow believers, offers spiritual growth opportunities, and of course focuses on Worshiping our Lord through Jesus His beloved Son and our Savior!! 

THE WHEEL

The Hub

Our ABF is set up like a wheel with five spokes being connected by one hub, our fearless leader, Rich Ruff. Rich does an excellent job directing our class and keeping us focused and working together. He encourages us to bring our individual gifts and talents to the game with the strategy being to let God's glory be the prize that we all strive for!! 

Spoke #1 

I'm honored to introduce you to our discipleship champion (Sunday School Teacher for those of you that just can't get used to the new lingo like me!). Robert Duffer has an incredible knowledge of God's Word and an amazing ability to relate it to our everyday lives. He makes history exciting and Biblical challenges applicable! His teaching style incorporates scripture reading, study guides to follow along, class discussions, and anything that adds a visual or a tangible element to the lessons. He works very hard and is truly an incredible blessing to us all!! 

Spoke #2 

I'm pleased to introduce our worship champion Kent Hoffpauir to you. Kent encourages us to worship together and pray for one another. We open our ABF class each Sunday morning by joining in a worship song or listening to his inspirational renditions that open our hearts to praise God without all the trappings of the week. Kent also sends prayer requests and praises out during the week and keeps track of the answered prayers to share with us as encouragement to keep praying! He also periodically plans worship events just for the sake of praising our Lord for who He is, like for the four weeks of Advent when we met for dinner and some wonderful praise and worship leading up to Christmas! 

Spoke #3 

I have the privilege of introducing two wonderful people that lead us as mission champions, Terry Ballard and Don Cox. There is no limit to the outreach that happens in our class. As the great commission commands us, Terry and Don organize activities that touch those that don't know about Jesus right here at home to those in the far corners of the globe and everywhere in between. We are involved in small ways and large ways from making salvation bracelets to be used by our own Sara Grimm in Tiawan to building and cleaning in Kansas City at Forrest Avenue Women's and Children's shelter. We partner with the community of McCord's Bend in many areas from hosting Vacation Bible School to Christmas events, to our upcoming Spring Fling with a giant EVERYTHING IS FREE garage sale and carnival event. These are just the tip of the ice berg. Check out our calendar for this months activities! 

Spoke #4 

I'm very excited to introduce you to our ministry champion, Sherry Marcum. Sherry is our link to developing small groups for study, accountability, encouragement, and deeper relationships within the body. She is developing new evening Bible studies beginning in March. Check the calendar for dates and times. She recruits and trains our care group leaders to make sure that no one falls through the cracks!! And She is the one that produces our wonderful bi-monthly news letter. Sherry's dedication shines through as you will see as you become plugged into our class! 

Spoke #5

I'm Sheila Pacacha and it's my pleasure to get to be your fellowship champion. It's through a very full calendar of events and activities that our class is building relationships within our class and with our new friends from outside our church walls. As we develop these friendships God is using us to be the eyes to see new opportunities, the hands to gather the lost, the hurting, and of course those that are spiritually strong as well and the heart to love them to Jesus! 

RETREAT RECAP 

It's Time to Stop Talking About Jesus and Act Like Him!
As people checked into our singles retreat some were laughing, some were stressed, and a couple people came with tears in their eyes. What did the single adults that attended need? EVERYTHING! How would a short weekend away provide all that? The Holy Spirit would meet every person uniquely and individually where they were. And to watch that was a privilege and completely awe inspiring! 

Some heart felt thoughts about the retreat
To everyone who had anything to do with the Second Baptist Singles retreat

It's Time to Stop Talking about Jesus and Act Like Him...

I had no idea what to expect with a theme like that! 

I have so many thanks on my heart that I need to express. First of all I would like to thank Second Baptist for providing the resources that allowed this event to happen. Lives were touched by God's Spirit in so many ways. We came from other area churches and even a few from out of the area. The unselfishness of Second Baptist and its singles ministry allowed so many of us to be Blessed when we really needed it!!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! 

Next I would like to thank all of the guest speakers and breakout session leaders. You shared from your heart and told of the great things God has done in and through your lives. The emotions ranged from despair and heart break to hope and truly exciting enthusiasm. You were so inspiring!!!!!! 

And to the band... WOW!!!! You ministered to us so completely The gift of your music set the tone for everything that happened through the entire weekend. God moved in me in ways I have never before experienced. I became so excited each time we came into that room to meet the Lord through your leading of the praise and worship time. 

To the staff at Stonecroft. So many of you are doing what you do as a ministry and I thank you for your commitment and dedication. You truly have an incredible opportunity to be involved in something that can reach many. And you serve for the most part in the background without recognition for what you do..... Thanks!!!! 

What awesome friends I have!!!!! This opportunity to spend an entire weekend with so many special friends was just what I needed. God must have known exactly where and how to reach me!!! Isn't that cool? Having such a beautiful setting and being in God's sweet presence was the icing on the cake!!!! Please know that my life has been truly enriched by having each and every one of you in my life. Thank you for your friendships. 

I have seen God do so many awesome things in the past... it makes me excited about the future! This retreat helped me to refresh and refocus. My hope is that all of you came away with similar experiences. 

Greg Gaisford 

One thing that really struck me at the retreat, during the prayer circle on Saturday night as we listened to people from James River and Stonebridge speak, was that we were seeing Brother John's vision for our church developing right before our eyes.

When our pastor became impassioned for missions several years ago, he spoke eloquently about individuals actively participating in missions in our city, our state, our country, and our world. As our singles groups across the city join together with a single purpose, an exponential spiritual power from God is unleashed as his people gather for his glory. It was awesome to know God was dwelling in our midst and we were all changed in His Presence.

Just a thought,
Kristen

Duffer Group Contact Information

We want to hear from you!! Please contact Monica Senter at Second Baptist 417.887.3111, Sheila, Rich, or Robert with any questions or comments. 

Better yet just come join us this Sunday at 11:00 am in room #220, it's easy to find: take the stairs in the atrium, go through the gathering room (don't forget to grab some wonderful pastry and coffee or hot tea!) and walk right out the back door into our classroom!! We'll be watching for you!