This Sunday, January 3, we will welcome some good friends and new members, Scott & Marti Owen! What a wonderful way to ring in the new year. Indeed, we are so blessed to have these faithful servants of God as a part of our church family. As many of you know, Marti grew up at Prairie Flower and Scott is the Transitional Ministries Director with Baptist Church Planters (BCP). How wonderful to welcome Scott and Marti back to the prairie!

Now, bear in mind, these two are quite busy with their work with BCP, raising support and visiting churches all across the United States. So, we won’t see them as often as we would like, but when they’re here, we’ll rejoice and love them well…Below you’ll find their written testimonies of their salvation and baptism (the fundamental requirements for our church membership)…

Scott Owen: I was exposed to church through some friends from school. They attempted to lead me to Christ on their own during our 7^th grade year. But I struggled to comprehend the whole concept of a relationship with Christ, as I continued my quest to change habits and look like my new friends. They eventually invited me to summer camp where I fully understood the need for a Savior and the importance of a personal relationship with Christ. From that point on, I have not had a doubt regarding my eternal destiny. I was baptized the following winter and joined Faith Baptist Church of Fort Dodge. I grew spiritually while attending a Christian school my last year of high school. I then attended Bible College to learn more on how to serve Jesus. The local church has been my source of instruction, fellowship and focus of ministry.

Marti Owen: As a young child, I was blessed to be immersed in the truths of what God did for me. I was taught those truths in a Christian home and church family, Prairie Flower Baptist Church. Around the age of 7, I cried out to God realizing my desperate need of the Savior and thanked God for His mercy and saving grace to rescue me from my sin. I was baptized shortly thereafter. God eventually used Bible College to spark a hunger to pursue and serve Him. I’m eternally grateful for His continuing work of conforming me into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29).

“Fear not, for I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.” As 2020 comes to a close, I think it’s important for us to look back and consider. How many times have we been fearful and stressed about the events taking place? How many times did we wonder if the world would ever calm down? How often did we wonder how the future of the country would be? Would we lose our health, wealth, freedom, or loved ones due to the unfolding events? In fact maybe that fear was indeed justified and you lost one or more of those things. 

In this world, fear is an ever present reality. We fear because of the numerous things that could happen to us or someone we love. We must fear because this world is dangerous. It is dangerous because of sin. Both our personal sin, and the sin of those around us. We are told in Scripture that the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom. Unholy beings must fear a Holy being. We fear because not only is He holy, but He is powerful and will rightly judge us for our sin. 

When the angels showed up to the shepherds, they had good reason to fear. Both for their physical safety, as well as their spiritual safety. They were a part of the rebellion against this angel army’s king, God himself. When a king’s army shows up, all rebels should rightly be afraid. Yet this King’s emissaries, instead offer peace terms.  “Fear not, for I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.” This peace is bought by the giving of God himself on our behalf. I hope this season is indeed a season of peace for you and your family. But never forget that the ultimate peace offered by the angels to the shepherds and by extension to us, was bought by the blood of Jesus. If you reject God’s peace terms, then you will indeed face the wrath of God when he returns a second time to bring judgment and to claim his own. My prayer is that you truly will have eternal peace with the perfect gift, Jesus Christ.

In just eight days, Christmas will be here. As we get ready to celebrate the birth of our Lord, many of us simply focus on the triumphant nature of Christ’s birth. But did you know that the birth of Jesus was also terrifying in nature? Check out the video below, and be sure to join us in-person or online this Sunday (12-20-20) as we focus on the dual realities of our Savior’s birth – its’ triumphant and terrifying nature…

Nick Swarthout is a good friend of mine, a fellow veteran turned pastor, and was the best man at my wedding, and he penned the following great article on the importance of prayer and passion as it relates to our evangelism fervor…Read, enjoy, and if you want more great content like the one below, please follow Nick at http://www.reachteachlead.com.

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“If God decided to save every lost person you prayed for this week, how many lost people would end up getting saved?”

I don’t remember the first time I heard that question, but it’s a question I know I’ll never forget.

If the eternal fate of a select group of non-Christians was ever totally dependent on my prayerful concern for their soul, I’d be more than embarrassed about my prayer efforts for those far from God. I’d be appalled. And to be quite honest, I still don’t pray for those far from God as much as I think I should.

It’s a sad reality that we often get so consumed with the world around us that we forget that we’re all headed to an eternal destination one day. Yet, to be fair, I DO care about reaching lost people. I have witnessed and wept and prayed and shared and witnessed some more. I really like to think that I’m passionate about reaching people for Jesus.

But then there are the more typical days…days of busyness and worry over little things. Little things like how will we ever get from here to there and who’s going to think what about the way we did that? You know, those more self-absorbed days where we run around acting like God needs our help to get things done, or better yet, we’ll just show God how things ought to be done.

This sounds silly, I know. But truth be told, I think it may be a more honest assessment of our internal condition for more people like you and me than either of us would like to admit.

Thinking through all this has helped me though. It’s helped me track down what I believe is the root cause of complacency among many Christians today. We certainly don’t lack knowledge, and we really don’t even lack concern for those who are far from God. If we could just push a button to save everyone from hell, we would. I think the real issue lies in our human propensity toward distraction due to an internal lack of holy passion.

You see, passion for anything is the fuel to getting things done. With it, soldiers move into enemy territory to rescue hostages, firefighters run into burning buildings to save stranded children, doctors risk their lives to save people exposed to unknown viruses and police officers lay their lives on the line to serve and protect perfect strangers. Yes, and passion can even make an innocent man carry an instrument of torture to certain death to save the very people who spit in His face.

Without passion though, people chosen by God to carry His message of love to a dying world, people just like you and me, will let countless lives pass from this life into eternity without ever telling them about Jesus Christ. This isn’t meant to be a guilt trip. It’s just the reality for so many who claim to be following the Jesus of the Bible.

With enough distraction, well meaning Christians doing well meaning things for less meaningful purposes can totally neglect the true meaning of why they’re here in the first place. We don’t share Jesus because we don’t have passion.

But here’s hope…

Despite our reluctance to pass on the message entrusted to us, I am also convinced that the same God who saved us can give us the PASSION we need to go after others like eternity is at stake. I am also convinced that all we need to do is ask…

Our Annual Election of Officers is slotted to take place on Sunday, December 20. All members are strongly encouraged to be at church on this Sunday for this quick, but important vote. Below is the official ballot for this year’s election…

Deacon (Choose 3) = Will Luers, Willie Van Der Molen, Eldon Yoder

Clerk (Choose 1) = Lisa Van Der Molen

Treasurer (Choose 1) = Steve Bohn

Financial Secretary (Choose 1) = Zach Shepherd

Sunday School Superintendent (Choose 1) = Brian Wilson

Please Note: In this year’s election, no one is running against each other. The ballot simply reflects who will be serving next year. Thus, the vote is a formality that will serve to merely confirm these nominees in their individual roles.