Exciting Changes at Franconia

Dear friends,

I wanted to make you aware of several exciting developments that have occurred at Franconia over the last few months.

First of all the culmination of a year's worth of work came in the form of a new constitution for our church. The process of drafting this important document was far more important than I realized at the outset. I came to realize that a church constitution is much more than some sort perfunctory legal document. It is the place where we, the members of Franconia Baptist Church, put down in writing how we interpret the Bible regarding the purpose of our church, the way that we choose to govern ourselves, and what what we believe the foundational doctrines for our church are.

Good Christians disagree regarding some of these conclusions. So it is very important to put down in writing what we believe the Bible says about these important matters. If you would like to find out more you can read our new constitution at www.franconiabaptist.org/constitution.

The other major change was the election of a group of men to serve as fellow elders (pastors) at Franconia. Some of these men will be on the staff at the church and others will do this ministry while working for other companies and organizations. We praise God that He has been so kind to deliver such a group of godly men, qualified according to the Scriptures (1 Tim. 3; Titus 1) who desire to serve the Lord by serving Franconia. You can read more about them at www.franconiabaptist.org/elders.

Many of you have been praying for our church as we underwent these changes. I want to personally thank you for your support. May God continue the good work that He has engaged in at our church.

In Christ,
Aaron

Does God use natural disasters to get our attention?

If you're not in the Washington DC area then you might not perceive the timeliness of this question. In the last two weeks our area has been hit with an earthquake and a hurricane. Thankfully neither were as devastating as they could have been, although many did lose property and even some sadly lost their lives.

All of this caused me to reflect on the power of God in a Facebook post last week. "An earthquake and a hurricane in the same week, could God be trying to get our attention?" When I posted the question I didn't think that it would be particularly controversial, but I was wrong.

So then, does God use natural disasters to get our attention? I think the simple answer is that He certainly can.

In Job chapter 1 we read about the way that God allows Satan to test the faith of Job by taking away just about everything that he loved in this world. To do so Satan used a wind to knock over one of his children's houses killing all of his children (Job 1:18-19). He also used an incredible lightning storm (fire from sky) to kill Job's livestock (Job 1:16). The text makes it absolutely clear that these were not freak occurrences, but that they were done with God's permission.

Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed by fire and brimstone (Gen 19:24) which while supernatural would have appeared to the people as a natural disaster. The death of Jesus is punctuated with an earthquake which captured the attention of the centurion who proclaimed "Truly this was the Son of God!" (Matt 27:54). Another earthquake occurred when the stone was rolled away at the moment of Jesus' resurrection (Matt 28:2). And the earth will quake and the lightning will flash when the wrath of God is poured out on the wickedness of this world (Rev 8:5).

Should every natural disaster be interpreted as a direct attempt of God to get our attention? Not in the way that some people assume a connection between specific natural disasters with specific sinful peoples. That requires a special knowledge of the mind of God that we do not possess.

However every natural disaster is at the very least a reminder that the world that we live in is broken and longing for restoration. Romans 8:19-21 "For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God."

So yes, God does use natural disasters to get our attention. Sometimes He does so very specifically and other times more generally, but they should always remind us of the brokenness of this world and our need for ultimate restoration.

- Aaron

Service Cancelled

Dear friends,

The national weather service alert regarding flooding in our area is scheduled to continue until 8AM. Officials are still asking people to stay off the roads at this point. So at this point we will go ahead and cancel our service as well.

I ask for your prayers for the many people who are without prayer and for those families who have already suffered loss due to the storm. If you need anything please let me know so that someone from the church can help.

In Christ,
Aaron

Sunday Worsip Services

Dear brothers and sisters,

We are actively watching the details of Hurricane Irene as it passes through our area. At this point we are planning to have our regularly scheduled 11:00AM worship service tomorrow morning. The evangelism training scheduled for 9:45AM will be rescheduled for Sunday, Sept 4th. There will be no 9:45AM discipleship classes.

If it begins to look like the storm will still be highly active at 11:00AM we will cancel service as well.

If we do have services and you feel uncomfortable leaving your house, please stay home and pray for those who have already and will continue to be affected by this storm.

In Christ,
Aaron

A busy summer and it's not even over...

I wanted to take a couple of minutes this morning to tell you about the million+ things that have happened at Franconia these past four weeks. This will be the the abbreviated version.

- Mexico 2011 - "Partnering for the Gospel" This year was the first short-term missions trip since I started here in 2008. Little by little the missions ministry has been growing and I thank God for the passionate people that now make up our missions team. The Mexico trip was a join effort between Franconia and Franconia Korean Baptist churches. Over the course of a week we played soccer and shared the Gospel with a bunch of boys at the Hogar Francisco orphanage, moved the Puebla Bible Seminary (PBS) library to a new location, built PBS a basketball/soccer court, made many new friends with a couple of churches in Puebla, and deepened our friendship with Kevin and Andrea Bult (CAM Missionaries to Mexico)

- VBS 2011 - "Big Apple Adventure" There was no time breath. As soon as we got home from Mexico it was time to start Vacation Bible School. This year we tried an evening version which allowed more of our church members to participate. By God's grace we saw double the kids from last year and connected with a couple of families who are now regulars at Franconia. Please pray that the seeds of the Gospel that were planted among all the great songs and crafts will grow in the hearts of these precious children.

- Summer Projects -
The folks at Franconia are excited about investing in the building and grounds that God has given us for His ministry in Alexandria. This summer we have cleaned out a number of the preschool rooms that accumulated a lot of "stuff" over the years. Several of those rooms have been repainted and three have been re-purposed for the ever growing Childrens Minsitry at Franconia. The big project was moving our playground so that it now sits on the church side of the parking lot, making it much safer to get to. At the same time I think we did a good job of freshening it up.

There's a lot more to say, but that's probably enough for now. If you'd like to see more pictures of these things check out the Franconia Baptist Church - Facebook Group

- Aaron

Reflections on Phoenix

First of all let me say thank you to the members of Franconia Baptist who allowed me to take the better part of a week to represent our church along with Bruce, Andrea, Kevin, and Shantell at this year's SBC convention in Phoenix, AZ.

This was my second SBC convention and the second time that Franconia was represented in recent memory. Going to a convention has its high points and low points. Every family has at least one crazy uncle and we're no exception, but on balance I came away for the second year in a row encouraged by many of the developing trends.

This year the theme of both the annual meeting and the pastors' conference was most definitely missions, which was highly appropriate considering the weight of last year's Great Commission Resurgence efforts.

Rather than give you a blow by blow I'll just share a few highlights that stuck out to me. First of all, Bryant Wright proved to be completely deserving of his current and future role as president of the convention. Pastor Wright lead the convention with dignity, sincerity, and a deep sense of spiritual seriousness.

The pastors' conference was blessed to have a number of talented preachers, but the most significant sermon was delivered by Pastor John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church who focused on the first imperative of the Lord's prayer "hallowed be thy name". In doing so Piper made a passionate appeal that we must be about the business of "hallowing God's name". In other words are whole lives must be completed devoted to the glory of God.

Both the International Missions Board (IMB) and the North American Missions Board (NAMB) were represented by their new presidents. Both gave compelling reports about the needed changes within these venerable organizations. Our prayers will go up for Drs. Eliff and Ezell as they seek to guide and direct these critical components of the denomination into the future. The FBC Missions Committee is prayerfully considering how we can take an even stronger role in partnering with both the IMB and NAMB.

Going to the SBC convention takes a week out of the busy schedule of those who attend and it costs a bit of money as well, but given its role in setting the course of the denomination it is time and money well spent. I'll be looking forward to seeing how the themes discussed in Phoenix are playing out by the time we all meet next year in New Orleans.

Restoration Church DC - For the sake of the Gospel

As always we want to invite you to join us at Franconia tomorrow morning to worship our sovereign Lord. Tomorrow we will have the special blessing of hearing Nathan Knight from Restoration Church DC preach to us from Nehemiah 10:28 - 13.

We're looking forward to having Nathan join us not only to hear him faithfully preach the Word, but also because this will be the formal beginning of our new relationship with Restoration Church DC (http://www.restorationchurchdc.org). In the Spring of 2009 God brought Nathan Knight and Joey Craft to northwest DC to plant a church preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the teaching of God's Word.

This will be Franconia's first opportunity to support a church plant in recent memory. We're looking forward to a long and fruitful relationship with our friends at Restoration Church.

- Aaron