March Madness??? HA!

We have been bombarded by CBS and the NCAA with the phrase March Madness over the past couple of weeks with the NCAA basketball tournament. Yes, if you have been paying attention to the tournament it has been madness, but I want to suggest to you that April Madness is about to hit First Baptist Church of Grandview! Let me share with you what this month holds!

This coming Sunday is Easter Sunday! We will be celebrating Resurrection Sunday with our community Sonrise Service at Meinen Lake at 7:00am. Then we will have our 8:30 service followed by a brunch and Easter Egg hunt and the 11:00 service. I love Easter Sunday for obvious reasons but I also enjoy seeing the children hunt eggs and the adults enjoy some good fellowship time together during the brunch. Make plans to be a part of Easter Sunday. Let’s pack the house!

Then on April 10th and 11th we will be having our community wide GO Rally. I laid out this challenge at the community Thanksgiving service and it has become a reality. On Saturday night at the Methodist gym we will have a huge youth event with the band Loen leading worship and Jon Randles speaking at 7:00 pm. Then on Sunday evening at the Zebra Football Stadium we will have a community wide event with our praise band leading and Jon Randles speaking. The event will be focused on sharing the Gospel with lost people. I continue to challenge you to pray and invite your lost friends and family members to this event. There will also be entertainment for the children up to the fourth grade that night at the Grandview City Park, so bring your kids and let them have a good time! Be praying for this event!!

On April 18th we will be having a “pounding” for Ryan and Melissa Hurt. Ryan and Melissa are putting the finishing touches on a new home and are very excited about moving in. Ryan has been leading our Contemporary Worship service for over two years now and I believe this will be an awesome way for us to show them how much we love and appreciate them. You may wonder what a pounding is. We ask that you bring house warming gifts. It can be sugar, flour, paper towels, cleaning supplies, or anything that will help them as they move into their new home. If you want to simply give them a card with some money in it, that is fine too. Whatever you would like to do, I know will be received well! The pounding will be from 4-6 pm on Sunday afternoon!

We finish off the month of April with the celebration of all celebrations! FBC Grandview turns 150 years old this year!! We have invited back all the former pastors and staff members we could find to come and lead us in worship this weekend. The weekend will begin on Saturday evening with a covered dish meal at 5:00pm and with worship to follow at 6:00pm. Ron Lyles, Eric Holleyman and Bobie Miller will be here to lead us in worship that evening. On Sunday morning we will be led in worship by Martin Knox and Phyllis Gandy at 8:30am and will have a brunch and fellowship time to follow. At 11:00am Stephen Hatfield and our praise band will be leading worship. R & K Café will cater a meal following the late service in the Fellowship Hall! I cannot express to you what a big deal this weekend is for the life of our church. I find myself imagining the number of lives that have been touched and changed over the 150 years this church family has existed, and we will celebrate what God has done and His faithfulness! Again I hope you will be a part of this special time!

Do you see what I mean about “Madness?!” But it is madness in a great way! The month of April I pray is one that we look back on for years and remember great memories of seeing new brothers and sisters in Christ as well as catching up and loving on people we see either every day or have not seen in a long time! Pray for a great month and don’t miss out on any of it!

Putting my seatbelt on!